She hadn't expected to have ever known such a grade, but when the owl arrived with her mid-terms from Professor Storm Sophia stood in the hall absolutely blown down. How could this be? They made a mistake. This was Rowena's grade! It couldn't be hers! How could it be?? She couldn't breathe. She had tried so hard. So hard that her fingers hurt after the grade, and after her nearly perfect marks she couldn't show her family this! Her father would kill her, her mother would be disappointed too, or worse...pity her. No. This could not be, and it wasn't so. She refused to believe it, and quickly stuffed the letter under whatever surface she could find so that she could sink down into her bedding and sob.

A horrid nightmare she would wake up from, and when the storm passed it would all just be a dream...wouldn't it?

Dinner was close, and when she gathered herself enough to stop the heaving she realized that pressure on her back wasn't her own failure but in fact her little kitten friend who was looking at her with rather worried large eyes.

"Not now," She hissed and pushed the little fuzz ball off her, to only have the kitten come back up to knead her arm, and though the desire to swat at the kitten again filled her; the softness of the whiskers and the sweet sounds of her purring made Sophia feel better....a little.

Aisling had thought she'd heard crying. She usually tended to take paths through the house that led her past her daughters' rooms, and a few months of them being gone had hardly changed that habit.

One quick knock on the door before opening it. Sophia was inside, curled up on her bed with her kitten. "Sophia?" It was hard to walk over, to sit calmly on the bed rather than rushing. "Is something wrong"?" The answer to that seemed rather self-evident.

She turned her head, looking down at her darling daughter with a worried smile. "I missed you so."

She didn't have words. The world was crashing down over one bad grade, and granted it wasn't horrible--but it wasn't perfect. Her hair was a mess, matted to her cheeks in places that were stained with her tears. Her eyes were puffy and swollen, and filled to the brim with heartache.

"No," She whispered, and couldn't stand it. She couldn't stand to be this way and launched herself into her mother's arms. It didn't matter how big she got, it always felt great to be there on her lap. "No it's not. I want you to write him." She wrapped her arms around her mother's neck and buried her face in her neck to sob. The kitten was rather confused, and rather pathetic looking on the bed without Sophia now.

"I want you and Father to write him, and have him fired."

Aisling just held her daughter for a bit; brushing at her hair, and letting Sophia cry. "All will be well. I promise." She wrapped her arms a little tighter.

The kitten strolled over and curled up next to them after a minute.

Oh, but how Aisling had missed them. It was such a relief to have them home, to share in the smiles and laughter and even the tears. She wished that she could keep them there forever. That wound of being pulled away so early, so sharply, wasn't something that seemed as if it would ever truly heal.

"You want us to write whom, darling?" She sounded so concerned, as she stroked Sophia's hair again. "What has happened?"

With a heavy sigh, Sophia knew she couldn't avoid the poor grade any longer. She moved from her mother's lap, rubbed at her cheeks and went over to where she hid the paper. Turning to face her mother she sighed heavily and extended the marking for her to read. Of course she couldn't meet her eyes, and simply clenched her jaw in preparation of the disappointment.

Aisling might not have been so hard to take as it would have been her father, but perhaps this way she could prepare for what was to come.

"I tried so hard, I just...don't understand."

It hurt to see how upset Sophia was by that one small slip of paper, and yet there was a certain relief in how it was that, and nothing worse. This was something that could be addressed, dealt with.

"Oh, Sophia. I know you did." Aisling extended her hand so that her fingers brushed at her daughter's chin, trying to push her eyes upward. "You're doing so much better than I did when I started school." That had been such a difficult time, and it had taken her years to adjust to this new world. "I'll make sure you have extra help this next term."

Her voice broke a little, at the last. "Do come here. I missed you so." No matter what walls she might construct around her emotions, they were still there. Locked away at times but never forgotten.

"No, it's not right. I did everything right. I worked so hard. I lost sleep. I lost my diary." She curled back to her mother's lap, totally unashamed to be there. She put her wet cheek on her shoulder and wrapped her arms around Aisling's neck. It wouldn't matter how old she got, the simple fact of being this close to the woman who bore her would forever be a comfort. From the way she smelled, the soaps she used, the soft nature of her skin, and the heartbeat that for nine months while being carried inside her--somewhere in the back of her mind she remembered.


"I don't want to tell Father. Will you talk to him?"

"You need your sleep, dear." Aisling wrapped her arms around Sophia again. She could feel her daughter's kitten curled up next to her, purring softly. "And of course I will speak to your father."

She brushed a bit of hair back behind Sophia's ear. "Professor Storm spoke quite highly of you, you know. Promise me you'll speak to him when you return to school." There was a proud warmth to her voice, and she hugged Sophia tighter. "And I will write to him as well. It is only your first midterm, there is plenty of time."

Even with every moment with her daughter held close, she couldn't escape a bit of worry. Or sadness that they could not last forever.  "And I can put a charm on your diary, if you wish. So that you won't lose it again. I do promise I won't read it." She bent her head to gently kiss Sophia's hair.

"Oh I can't sleep, not when I hurt so bad." She huffed as she sat on the edge of her bed, "School is so much harder than I thought it would be, and Mother I do everything right. I'm often teased about it. I haven't made many friends, despite a few boys in my house, and I spend most of my time worrying about your or Father."

Sophia moved from her little spot only long enough to get her diary and handed it to her mother, but seemed rather lost in thought. There was something else that was bothering her, something she didn't want to explain just yet, and when she sat on the edge of the bed again she held her book to her chest,

"How did you know you loved Father?"

"It is our job to worry about you, dear, not the other way around." Aisling couldn't help but feel a little guilt at Sophia sleeping poorly, as if her own troubles had been passed down to her daughter. "And I wish it were easier for you. I remember how hard it was when I was there." She wrapped an arm around Sophia's shoulder and tousled her hair.

The question about Tarron, though, brought a bit of a smile, as the topic always did. "You would make me pick one, wouldn't you."

She bowed her head for a moment in thought. "It would have to be an afternoon where I was curled up in a chair listening to him droning on about some aspect of legal minutia I had no interest in. And yet I realized that I'd be glad to sit there forever, just to be with him. Nothing large or glorious, just conversations and smiles and games of chess that I played a bit too recklessly." There was a slight flush to her cheeks at the memories. "Don't tell your Father that I enjoy hearing about cauldron thickness, though. There are far more interesting topics."

"But I do worry, Mother. I worry because I'm not here to make sure it's alright. Or that you or Father are doing well." She ran her palm over her mother's soft cheek, and as always enjoyed the smooth silky feeling of her skin. She was always so warm, and smelled so good. It made Sophia move closer to her mother and just relax against her.

"No, never just one." She smiled against her mother's shoulder, "But you know I like hearing about it. And I took actually enjoy it when he talks about what I suppose everyone else would think isn't entertaining. I just like to hear him talk actually." She lifted her face to look at her mom, "It's when he is silent I'm afraid the most. This is why you will tell him won't you? About my grade?"

"We miss you of course. But your father and I are well. We've known each other a rather long time, after all." Aisling pulled her arm a little tighter about Sophia and leaned into her. "He even let me bake him a birthday cake, and you how much hates fuss over his birthday."

Somehow she suspected that Tarron hated it slightly less than he would admit to.

"And of course I'll speak to him. I said I would. Don't worry your pretty head overmuch about it." She hated to see Sophia upset for too long, no matter the cause. And this couldn't make her worry too much. "He does have a wonderful voice. You should ask him to read to you sometime. We have a few new books on law you might be able to convince him with."

When the topic came back to her grades Sophia slumped forward again. She just couldn't believe this! It had to be a mistake. It just had to. Maybe she should ask Father to send Professor Storm a howler to have it corrected, but she had been rather distracted there at the end. She was having fun planning for the Yule Ball, and should have been studying.

"I'll do better next term, and the rest of my grades were perfect. I didn't try as hard as I should have, I thought I had it." She frowned and slumped against her mother, but overall was ready to be over it. The tears were gone, at least until she spoke to her dad, but for now she was ready to just be free of it.

"I've really enjoyed school, Mother, I've made lots of friends. I can talk to other students my age about things that interest me. I am really close to a first year Slytherin girl, and have a whole bunch of first year boys that need me. Sometimes though I still wish I could go sneak in Rowena's bed. The nights get cold there, and very scary. I'm not used to the ghosts."

"I know that you will." It was good to see something calmer in Sophia's words, something of composure and moving forward. A reversal from earlier despair.

Even if Aisling rather hated to see this moment end, and so she held on a little tighter to her daughter's shoulder. "I'm glad to hear that. I'd rather hoped you'd enjoy school." Sophia was always the intellectual, the writer. Little strands of dark hair protruding out from behind a book.

"Friends are wonderful to have. I wish that I'd had more, in school. Is Mr. Trumble one of these boys, then?" She toyed with ends of Sophia's hair and closed her eyes. "Rowena misses you, too. But don't let the ghosts bother you too much, I think they enjoy seeming more frightening than they truly are."

"They really are not all that scary as much as they are unnerving. It reminds me of our own mortality and how short life really is," Sophia frowned as she ran her fingers back through her mother's hair, and gave a small nod when retracing her train of thought.

"Yes, Lucas is a friend. I have many, mostly boys. They let me boss them," She said so matter of fact, that she swore she heard her own father's voice in her own.

"Thank you," Sophia squeezed her mother, smiling into her shoulder and beyond pleased to have her, 'I don't know what I will do when you are gone from this world." Cleaning her face she got down from her bed, and took up her grades to face her father.

On second thought....

"Maybe butter him up a little?" She asked handing her mother the paper, "When you show him?"