A Retreat to the Skies Closed

Mia sprinted up the steps, nervous. She knew she wasn't allowed up here past hours, but Micheal said that he snuck up here all the time, and Micheal was too stupid to really plan anything, so she thought it was fine.

She smiled as she practically flew past the assortment of paintings on the walls. They were mostly snoozing, as one would expect them to be, but one was partially awake, and looking around nervously. Mia resolved to be a bit more quiet, and slowed her run to a tip toe, making sure to creep silently past the meanest painting, the one of Minerva McGonogall.

Safely past the hallway, Mia climbed up the narrow staircase at a regular pace, not worried about anyone spotting her here. Most people were asleep at this time, and the only person that should have been up here was the astronomy teacher, and Mia could worm her way out of that one. Cosmo Fios was kind hearted, and had a soft spot for her, as he respected her parents.

Mia slowed her pace as she reached the top, tired. She had practically sprinted up here from the basement, where the Slytherin Commons were located. She couldn't stand one more second of that stupid game they forced her to play, so she slipped out, saying that she was going to "powder her nose." Mia was pretty sure that that meant pee, but in a lady like way.

She pushed open the door at last, her robes immaculate even though she had been running. It squeaked a bit, and Mia looked around, trying to see if someone was in the room. Someone was. A girl, about her age, was standing there in Ravenclaw robes. Mia couldn't see her face, just her beautiful sleek hair that cascaded past her shoulders.

Debating whether to leave, the girl obviously had not heard her enter, Mia decided to stay, and pushed the door open wider.

"Hello. I'm Mia Alexander. May I ask what you're doing up here?"

"Hello, I'm Mia Alexander. May I ask what you're doing up here?" Teagan heard the voice, but didn't really register the implications until she slowly turned around. A girl stood near the door, looking a little nervous but still tall and sure. Teagan stared blankly for half a second, forgetting that her hair was whipping around her face and her eyes were still streaming. Teagan brushed her cloak along her face.

"Sorry, I um... I just came up here to look at the stars." She tried to muster a smile as she glanced once more at the constellations and clouds. Orion's Belt glinted back at her. It had been awhile since she'd noticed it. Teagan yearned for those family trips out to the country, where they had all lain in the grass and pointed out the different stars they'd connected to make shapes. Her father loved astronomy-maybe they were all lying there right now, thoughts of her briefly passing through their heads.

Teagan had never missed someone so much in her whole life, aside from her mother on her school's annual Mother's Day celebration. Teagan remembered sitting in the hallway, writing about the latest gossip between first graders in her recently-established handwriting, not really taking it in. Everyone else was allowed a mother, why wasn't she?

Teagan realized she'd gone silent again.

"I suppose I could ask you the same question: why are you here, Mia Alexander?" She inquired, curious. Teagan was vaguely aware it was after hours-she'd been up here for quite a long time-she was surprised Finch hadn't come to check on this part of the castle. That man had eyes like an old cat who was in a house full of birds he couldn't catch.

Mia flinched. She was avoiding the question, as Mia would have done. Was going to do. Stepping closer, Mia tried to register who the girl was. She seemed vaguely familiar, dark hair streaming down her back and her skin gleaming in pale moonlight.

Gathering her courage, Mia stepped even closer, and gathered herself. Suddenly, she recognized the girl. She was a Rivera. Her father was a well known in the muggle world as a very important political figure. He hadn't caused that much of a scandal, slipping out, and was still welcome in the wizarding world. Mia had read up on him, and studied his tactics, as he was very a influential wizard.

Smiling at having recognized the girl, Mia stepped closer to her, now standing about a foot away. She stuck out her hand, asking the girl to shake it.

"Same thing as you. People can be dreadful."

Mia's eyes twinkled in the dark, and she looked the girl up and down. She now noticed the wet, glistening cheeks of the girl, and she suddenly became uncomfortable. What was wrong with her? Mia wasn't good at comforting other people, at least not as good as Scott, her cousin. But she had to try.

Brushing her hair out of her face, Mia looked at the girl. It was refreshing not to have to look up to her-they were both about 4' 9"- and Mia's faced changed in to a more sympathetic version, and she touched the girl's shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

Mia's eyes shone in the dark, and she smiled, comfortingly, at the girl.

It was interesting how your blood line followed you everywhere. Tegan saw the hint of recognition in the blonde girl's face (no, not blonde: auburn), the silent understanding: a Rivera. Tegan looked too much like her father to go unnoticed. If anyone knew Matthew Rivera, they knew what all of his children looked like, too. The green eyes, brown, messy hair, and the bodyframes too skinny to protect against the cold.

The girl took a step closer. Though the sky was dark, Tegan could see her robes now. A Slytherin. Tegan had heard stories about the sixth years-the Ravenclaws all talked about them as if they were on their way to become murderer's fresh out of school. She didn't know if that was true, and she hoped against hope that the girl wouldn't mock her. For now, she seemed nice enough.

What's wrong? The girl had asked, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. It was such a simple gesture, yet it meant more than this girl could possibly know. Tegan hadn't felt it in so long-she hadn't needed it. The touch of another girl who understood. People can be dreadful. No truer words had ever been spoken.

"Nothing is really... wrong." Tegan told her, smiling again. Her eyes had finally stopped bleeding emotion for everyone to see, and Tegan couldn't be more grateful to whatever had stopped them. Sheer force of will, maybe. "I suppose I'm just overwhelmed. New school, new friends, new books. It's... different."

Different was the only word Tegan could think of to describe her feeling. She tried so hard to speak with other people, make them feel welcome, be friendly. She wondered if the real person needing comfort was herself. Just because she plastered a big smile over her face everywhere she went, and talked to outcasts and popular kids alike as if they were all the most delightful people in the world didn't mean she could mean every single world. That was her downfall, she supposed. Teagan was a real person with too few people. She spoke with them as an imitation of herself, because all she wanted to be was someone other than herself.

"Nothing is really... wrong. I suppose I'm just overwhelmed. New school, new friends, new books. It's... different."

The girl looked down and Mia saw a glimmer of something in her eyes. She seemed lonely in a way, and just plain sad. Mia knew how that felt. Coming to a new school was not easy, especially if you were from a prestigious pure-blood family. People wither looked up to you or looked down on you, whispering about you as you walked by. All you had to do was keep your head up and pretend that you didn't see them, that they didn't bother you.

Mia took her arm off of the girl and sighed. She wasn't one for comforting others, like Scott or Alexandra. As silly as they were, they had something. Empathy. Thats what they had. All she had was sympathy. Though she had some empathy for the girl. She had been in her shoes, all alone, when she first entered the magnificent castle, but she had found casual friends. People that she could say hi to in the hallways, but not hang out with. Or even study with.

Opening her mouth to talk, Mia quickly debated between comforting the girl or actually telling her what she thought. She decided on the latter. She didn't want to continue to clamp her mouth shut when she was around people. Plus, she could always avoid the girl, and her family, after they were done talking. She wasn't going to revolutionize Mia's life.

"Different. Not the same as another or each other; unlike in nature, form, or quality. Life at Hogwarts is different, yes, but not worth crying over. So what's truly wrong?"

The poor girl seemed at a loss on how to comfort her as she pulled her hand away. Teagan knew what that was like: her capacity for putting herself in other's shoes had reached its peak long ago. Her step-mother had taught her many things, but she was too late to drill the importance of others' feelings into her.

Teagan tried to fix her composure, to make the girl feel a lot less awkward around her. Crying was no use anyway, not when she had homework to get done and a certain Filch to avoid and a perfectly good container for sadness stored in her useless heart, to be accessed as late as she could manage. Friends weren't made when you cried our eyes out the very first hour you knew them. Friends were made as acquaintances first, then they could be let in, maybe. Teagan started to dry her eyes.

"Different. Not the same as another or each other; unlike in nature, form, or quality." The girl recited. Teagan wondered if that was a definition she'd memorized. "Life at Hogwarts is different, yes, but not worth crying over. So what's truly wrong?"

What was truly wrong? A dangerous question coming from someone she'd never met. But the answer came spilling out of her, as if she had not control over her own words. Every detail painted on a blank canvas, for this stranger to see clearly.

"My mother she... she passed away, when I was only a baby. Two months old, actually; pretty young to lose a mother. I think it was something terrible, because my father would never talk about it. Maybe it was a wizard's disease or something like that. She had magic, just like my father, and I heard she was the most beautiful woman to ever walk the earth." Teagan smiled at the thought of the stories her father used to tell her about Jennifer Rivera. She looked like you, you know. Matthew would tell her. The nose, and the shape of your eyes. They're so much like her. And then he would drift off into his own memories, and Teagan would know it was time for her to go to bed.

"Her favorite class was Potions, she said so in a journal she used to keep." Teagan had snooped through them late one night, after her father had gone to sleep. She'd even stolen some to keep in her desk, to have when she needed them. "From what I've learned while I'm here I... she must have been absolutely brilliant.

"I don't usually think about her. Lillian, my step-mother, is wonderful and I believe she's a perfectly good substitute. But.. I saw her name her name in a book. Something about a formula - too complicated for a First Year like me to ever understand." Tegan tried to stop the tear that threatened to leak out of her eye. "And I guess it's the first time she ever felt real. All this time she was some perfect goddess my father spoke about, our little secret. To see that she was smart, and had learned the things that I'm learning now." Teagan sniffled, regretting telling the girl so much. Teagan didn't know if she was the blackmailing type(though she assumed she wasn't, one never could take too many precautions), and maybe she was a gossiper: even worse. Teagan mentally facepalmed herself mentally. This was what happened when you revealed way too much, much too soon.

The girl spilled her heart out, and Mia patted her on the shoulder. Mia had no idea what it was to loose someone, apart from almost loosing Rachel several times, though she had lost her grandfather some time ago. But that was different. He was sick and she got to say good bye. This girl never did.

Scrounging around in her robes, Mia pulled out her embroidered and monogrammed handkerchief that Scott used to tease her about. Its so formal, such an Alexander item He would tease, throwing his head back to laugh when she furrowed her tiny forehead. Being half-Veela, she got irritated easily, and when it came time, she would hurl verbal abuse at her relatives.

She pulled out the clean white handkerchief and handed it to the now dry eyed girl. Mia then sat down, at a loss for words. What did you say to a girl who had just poured her heart out to her? Especially about someone dying? At the thought of death, Mia's eyes started to well up. Rachel Mia looked up, trying not to cry. Rachel. She had forgot about her, or effectively blocked her from her mind.

This is no time to cry Mia! Pull it together. You are an Alexander.

Wiping her eyes, and effectively drying them, Mia patted the ground next to her, signaling for the girl to sit down. Standing was no fun, laying down was vulnerable, but sitting was perfect. She opened her moth, reading herself. She was going to comfort the girl, and as quick as possible.

"I'm so sorry. That must be hard. I-I know a bit, what it's like."

Before she could stop herself, Mia's greatest secret came tumbling out of her mouth.

"I have a muggle friend. Rachel. She-She was targeted. We don't know by who, but she was severaly injured. She's in St. Mungo's right now and-"

Mia paused trying to catch her breath. She wasn't crying, no, but was...something. For once in her life, Mia didn't have the word for this situation. She steadied herself and went on, hoping that she could trust this girl.

"We don't know who did it. They vanished, and left her barely hanging on. She's not going to make it, we all know that. Even me. But I have to keep trying. Trying to convince my family to fund her hospital bills for one more day."

Mia sighed and looked up at the girl.

"But at least she's still alive. I'm so sorry for your loss."

The handkerchief was soft, yet firm at the same time as she finished drying her tears. Teagan was afraid to get the beautiful item dirty, with it's carefully embroidered patterns and silky touch. She couldn't fathom where the girl had gotten her hands on such an item.

When Teagan looked up again, the girl looked on the verge of tears. Small tears, barely visible in her beautiful eyes. Only Veelas had eyes like that. Teagan had met a few in Diagon Alley her first week, and, next to everyone else, they shown likes stars. It was fitting, she supposed, that someone so celestial had greeted her at the top of the Astronomy Tower.

The tale the girl wove was a terrible one. Rachel, surely a good friend, sent to a wizarding hospital because of someone with magic. St. Mungo's. A muggle would only be admitted if they had been subjected to frightening or scarring magic. The girl was close to someone who was staying there? A friend in St. Mungo's, how dreadful.

A friend who's death this girl had accepted. Teagan could think of nothing worse.

"But at least she's still alive. I'm sorry for your loss." For Teagan's loss? The girl, who's best friend was passing away as they spoke, was apologizing for a death Teagan had never had to witness? To know someone so dear was losing their life... Teagan couldn't imagine the constant feeling of loss, everyday, realizing it was no use but still holding on.

Teagan could think of nothing else to do but fling her arms around the girl, squeezing her as if sending all of her pain away. "A mother whom I've never met is nothing to a friend. A girl who you've shared your life with... That's too much for one person to bear." And Teagan was crying again, but she didn't mind. This girl deserved all of the empathy she could muster, all of the stinging eyes. Rachel. She wondered how the girl thought of her friend without breaking inside.

The girl suddenly threw her arms around her, and Mia flinched, surprised. She wasn't much for this-for emotion, but she didn't push away. She didn't say "No Thank You", in the most polite but firm tone she could muster and walk away, going somewhere else to cry.

"A mother whom I've never met is nothing to a friend. A girl who you've shared your life with... That's too much for one person to bear."

The girl smiled at her, and tears streamed down her face. She looked even more striking up close, her geen eyes glittering in the dark, and Mia resisted the urge to wipe the tears away. Not only was she striking, but this girl had empathy. This girl had what she wanted in a person.

Mia decided in that moment to throw away all of her barriers, and just hug the girl back. They squeezed each other and Mia smiled, tears streaming down her face. Her striking eyes, her only truly Veela feature besides her skin, were engulfed in her tears, and Mia wept into this newfound girl's shoulder.

"We-we have to stay strong. Rivera-promise me that."

Mia lifted her face from the crook of the other girl's neck and put her face right in front of the girl's. She leaned in and touched the girl's nose with hers, their forehead's grazing. It was a gesture of peace, of camaraderie, of sympathy, and of failed empathy.