A palm was a funny thing, so many creases and lines and each meant something different. Each hand was different, no two a like. There was so much information trapped within the lines of a palm. Astrid sat staring at her own palm, wondering what it could tell her different today. She ran her finger along her lifeline and smiled only slightly to the soft touch. She paused for a moment thinking of touch, she closed her eyes and remembered Ringo. It had felt like so long since she had thought of him, and even longer since she spoke to him. Perhaps she ought to write him soon? Would he want her to or had it been to long, and now he wished to forget her. Astrid let her hand drop to her lap depressed by the sudden thought of someone wanting to forget her. “Time to move on.”

Astrid for once felt a pang of regret. Perhaps if she had spoke with him more he wouldn’t have moved, he might have felt some reason to stay. How wonderful it would have felt for some boy, no some man, to stay behind for her. That would be love. Could it have been love? Astrid couldn’t even tell you within her pictures. Stupid ability had been what came between them, she hide away when she should have been going to him.

She reached for her bag and opened it, she pulled out her sketchbook searching for that picture she last drew of him. The vision that told her he was gone. He had not even made to say goodbye until she showed up on his doorstep. Astrid had been so sure he had left even as she sat on his stoop. At least she got to say goodbye in the end, the vision had come in handy after all. It was the first time she had ever really interrupted it right, so she supposed that was a step in the right direction. Astrid stared down at the picture, only moving her hand to catch the tears in her palm and push it away in an attempt to hide the evidence. No, Astrid was not crying she could not succumb to that, she had to be stronger.

These holidays had been so good; she saw so much of her family and friends. She had to dwell on those thoughts, and the success of the mixer. Astrid was becoming a face of SAWS again; she had to be stronger as she thought she was prepared.

Thank Merlin the waitress came back and put a cherry soda in front of her. The bubbling soda water was tinted red with the flavouring; she watched it as it bubbled with carbonation. “Thanks,” she said meekly. She took a sip from the straw and flipped to a new picture. Perhaps it was time she started interrupting these images.

Outfit

Christmas had come and gone and in it’s wake Sophie needed a break from her family. There was a point when there was just too much “together” in the family house and she needed room to breathe. She loved being home with her mom and dad, loved staying up late talking to Elias and listening to him play… but everyone had their breaking point and on this chilly damp December day Soph was trying not to reach hers with a preemptive strike. Cheri and Ruby were spending time with friends respectively, her father and Elias were getting ready for a show the next night, and her mother was back at work. For the first part of the day she’d lounged around in her room, writing letters and thank you notes, but then her mind had started to wander back to the SAWS mixture and she just wasn’t in the mood to think about Fauna and Devlin. Even if she hadn’t actually done anything wrong she still felt guilty.

So that was why she was going for a late lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. She needed to get out of her own headspace. Wandering through Diagon was good for that, looking at the shops and all that. There was always some vendor that caught her eye and she did have a bundle of Christmas cash [the joys of having many relatives that had no idea what to give you. Money was better than she and Cheri having identical sweaters]. She thought for a moment about fetching Ramona for her lunch break but decided that there was probably a lot of work buzzing around the Werewolf Liaison office. Holidays seemed to hit the less fortunate even harder this year. Despite the work of groups like SAWS tolerance for others seemed to go right out the window anymore. It made Sophie sad - but also kind of proud that she was at least aware of these things. People didn’t think she was capable because she was so silly most of the time. Showed how little they really knew her at all.

Tugging on the sleeves of her coat she let herself into the L.C. and immediately her eye was drawn to the back of a familiar blonde head. She felt her lips twitch with a smile. This was good fortune! Running into Astrid was always a treat. Outside of SAWS they didn’t get to spend a lot of time together unless they happened to be with Professor Cuthbert talking about…their gifts. It was strangely comforting for Sophie to know someone else also struggled with their ability. Great Gran Mary Margret made it seem so easy, so comfortable with what she could do -as if she’d never doubted herself a day in he life. Sophie knew that Astrid struggled and that sometimes the things she saw frightened her as much as they did Soph herself. Without hesitation she approached the other girl, sucking on her bottom lip as she plopped down in front of her, “The Eternal Activist taking a momentary break from saving the world”?

The sound of a voice she knew well enough caused her attention to snap from her pictures, but not flip the pages shut. After all if there was anyone able to see these pictures it would be the girl who made herself known to Astrid two seconds ago. Sophie was similar to Astrid in that they both had a gift, one that the chose not to share with many people if any at all. Astrid was okay with her seeing her sketchbook, she kept it hidden from so many it was relatively relaxing to not have to fear hiding the sketches in the notebook.

“Do you ever really take a break from saving the world Sophie?” Astrid laughed warmly. Astrid of course took time off from saving the world, she was a full time student and that often got in the way of being a full-time activist. Granted as soon as Astrid was out of Hogwarts, which was a lot sooner than she wished to think about, she was probably going to go into full-time activist mode. Her parents were 100 percent supportive of her causes.

Astrid finally flipped her notebook closed and placed it on the table in one fluid movement. “Sit Sophie, order a drink.” She figured why not take advantage of this company. The chance to take to Sophie without the air of SAWS and their gift hanging over their head was rather nice. Sure talking about SAWS and their gift was important but sometimes it was nice just to sit and chat.

“Have a good holiday?” She didn’t want to just assume that Sophie celebrated Christmas and get herself in an awkward spot.

Sophie had a lot of older friends, it came by nature of having older siblings but also because Sophie was a people person. She didn’t care much about age, it was just a number, she cared about connections. She and Astrid shared a special connection too. For Sophie that was comforting. Her “gift” if one could call it that, was not something she felt many people could understand. Unless you had lived with the terribly burden of knowing the trick sounded like a right gag didn’t it? You could predict anything, from the weather to whether or not you’d pass your History of Magic final. It was impossible for her to make even her siblings understand the depth of alienation this sometimes brought to her life. Cherise for example felt she had been cheated because her Astrological sign was one of the most common for seers. Sometimes Sophie got so mad she wanted to spit out she was damn lucky she wasn’t a Squib. The family member that linked them by blood was only the second Wizard in the family, Sophie’s mother was the first. She loved her cousin she really did, but there was so much more to deal with than Sophie wanted to carry with her for the rest of her life.

She laughed a little as she waved down a waitress, shaking her head at Astrid, “Well some of us do, Striddy. I know it makes me an utterly hopeless activist but sometimes a girl just needs to let her hair down and dance”. Of course the last dance Sophie had been to was kind of a disaster with a capital D. Everyone wanted to know what was wrong with her, fussing over her, the fact was she had a wounded heart. She didn’t know if it was broken, she thought maybe she still smiled and laughed too much for it to be broken, but it had been banged up. It didn’t help that Fauna was inherently loveable and now she had all of these boys making googly eyes at her. On more than one night since it all happened she had spent time in front of her mirror, inspecting every inch of her body wondering what she should do differently. Each time she dismissed this foolishness and decided she didn’t need to change anything. If people were going to love her they were going to love the her she actually was and not the one other people wanted her to be. It was a confusing train of thought.

“It was alright. Lots of family time, and Gabby’s staying with us till after New Year. It’s funny but I probably miss my pets more than home really when we’re away,” it wasn’t that she didn’t miss her mum and dad, she did, completely and utterly but they had a habit of showing up in Hogsmeade. And she was with Cherise every day in class, and she saw Ruby all the time so except for Johnny she wasn’t really away from anyone all that much except the puppies. She kind of wanted a Pygmy Puff to have at school, something soft and cute to cuddle with, “What about you? I didn’t get a chance to tell you at the Mixer, but Ruby said your speech was absolutely brilliant. I was late so I missed almost everything,” she made a small face and looked down. Well that was only a little lie. She really had to quit doing that. Taking a sip of her pumpkin juice she pursed her lips to one side, “What about you? Any plans for New Year?”

“True, sometimes a girl does just need to let her hair down.” Astrid felt like she needed it a bit more often than not lately. For some reason since she became of age the visions got stronger and harsher, the headaches were honestly getting to her. There was only so much anti-pain potion one could ingest daily without getting to sick. Astrid was mental sick of the stuff and she was sure her body was not far behind. Her parents were attempting to find some other suitable fix for the situation, but it was proving harder than anticipated. Her mother thought she might have discovered a suitable herb, but so far it was proving to be too toxic in high dosages. All Astrid could do was muddle through and only hope. She felt her activism was taking a hit because of it, and it deeply bothered her.

“Speaking of activism Sophie I am thinking about a few other causes to move forward on, after all SAWS has kind of run off on its own.” She paused becoming rather concerned it was coming off as annoyed. “I think we need to do something for squibs, but I am not sure what or if there is even a fight to make.” Astrid shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of her cherry soda.

“Thanks! I had no idea what to say when I got up there, but at least something decent came out.” She smiled curling some blonde hair behind her ear. “Thanks for coming, late is better than never.” Astrid was still in awe of the turn out for the mixer. “The mixer was a good start for my holidays but I have enjoyed spending a lot of it with my family.” It always amused Astrid that she couldn’t speak about the fact part of her family was Neely. “But I am not doing anything for New Years are you?”

Sophie wondered sometimes what it must be like to be as driven and singularly focused as Astrid. Sophie fought for causes, she raised awareness but she was also still very much a fifteen year old girl. She felt if she were truly an activist she would not have let her feelings at the mixer get the better of her. Astrid certainly never seemed to have that problem. She hadn’t left the Ministry crying because one of her oldest friends was mad at her while one of her closest friends chose to stay behind and comfort her oldest friend. She felt small and unloved, and also desperate for reassurance. She wanted to make life better for everyone, but lately it seemed most of her thoughts were egocentric in nature. This made her disappointed in herself and she was sure, if Astrid knew, she would be disappointed in her too. Sophie really needed to get her head on straight and get back to what really mattered. Only it was hard to do when all she could think about was Devlin being mad at her and everyone blaming her for ruining their night.

Chewing the inside of her cheek she gave a small shrug, round face thoughtful, “Well… Mum said there had been a couple incidents at the Record shop - but I think that has more to do with um the muggle working there? She didn’t have time to tell me much, just that she would never cease to be amazed that Wizards could claim to be so  highly evolved and still hold such contempt for other humans.” she tapped her lip wondering why it was she had never given much thought to squibs before. Probably because she wasn’t really an activist. Activists thought of these kinds of things. She was such a horrible person. Though if she were ever going to become a better person she really had to stop thinking that about herself. She was much more charming when she was not being self loathing. It was a fact.

Pursing her lips to one side she decided that, though Astrid was older, it was time for a Sophie intervention. The blonde looked…sad, for lack of a better word. It seemed to Sophie all Astrid did was think about other people. Sure she had friends but they mostly seemed to be SAWS friends - and if there was one thing Sophie knew it was the importance of surrounding yourself with a diverse group of people. She held the holy trinity of friendship with Gabby, Fergie, and Maddie. Gabby was the one who she could be silly and get into trouble with, and always had her back. Fergie was her style diva and the best gay boyfriend a girl could ask for. And Maddie kept her pragmatic to a degree, her cynicism balancing Sophie’s someone naïve belief the world inherently wanted to be a good place. Playing with her bottom lip she narrowed her eyes a little and gave a curt nod, “If a pretty blonde girl does not have plans for New Year then said pretty blonde girl is expected to be in attendance of my bonfire bash. I’ll make good food and I’m told my brother makes nice eye candy”.

If Astrid knew how Sophie thought of her she probably would have put her straight, and tell her that as much as she seemed like the eternal activist it wasn’t all she was. She felt a pang of pain for Fauna and Sophie as the scene had exploded at the mixer. Astrid chose not to get involved as it wasn’t her place and another teenage set of hormones and opinions wouldn’t have been any help. Astrid had her own teenage problems and heartbreak to deal with, but she just chose keep that side to herself and not air her dirty laundry.

“Interesting,” Astrid mused a bit at the subject of the Record Shop. Astrid had made many stops at the place since return for the holidays, after all her new passion for music was making her a frequent customer. Astrid needed music, it was soothing in more ways than she had realized before. Some how certain music aided the strong headaches that came and went. “Maybe I will look into it and ask some questions the next time I am in there. One of my favourite places to go.” Now her interest had peeked, and she was going to have to ask around about any particular problems surrounding the staffing. Sadly the holidays were creeping to a close and with parents itching to spend more time with her she wondered if she could make the time.

Pretty blonde girl? She wasn’t pretty. “Uh…” she was a little stunned by the sudden invitation. Astrid hoped she didn’t come across as fishing for an invitation for that particular evening. “Of course I will come.” Astrid couldn’t decline an invitation like that after all, the darling girl had complimented her. “I am sure your brother does,” Astrid chuckled, “but that is not the reason I am coming.”