“Oy! Mija, sometime today would be nice”!

Ramona Flickwick’s voice broke into her youngest daughter’s thoughts from the other side of Sophie’s bedroom door. It was almost time to head to the train station and once again the tiny Gryffindor was holding everyone up. Sitting in her window looking out over the back pasture, absent mindedly stroking Gunner’s ears, she was trying to quell the knots in her stomach. She always hated leaving for school, she had since her first year. Logically she knew in a few hours she would be laughing on the train with her friends and back in the groove of things before she had time to miss her windowseat or her dogs. The feeling in her stomach though, the dread of leaving, the feeling empty and sad was somehow worse this time. It might have been because of the disaster the break had been, or maybe because she knew her mother would ask about Fauna and Sophie would have nothing to say, Sophie just could not deal with the thought of walking to that door and down the stairs.

She squished her body into the tightest shape she could manage as her grandmother came into the room. Her look was all knowing as she took a seat on the foot of Sophie’s bed and scooped up the Westie that followed her everywhere. Apparently there had been a change in protocol and they were sending in the big guns rather than building up to this inevitable moment. One yell from her mother to come downstairs and they had sent Nan in. Obviously they were more anxious to get going than Sophie had originally thought. She found herself wishing, not for the first time mind you, that she could pack her Nan away with her. Life would be so much easier if she had a pocket sized version of the older woman.

“Alright Love, It’s been requested you get your little behind down those stairs. However I would like a moment of your time”.

Sophie unwound herself from the window and moved to the spot her grandmother was patting on the bed. She rested her forehead against Nan’s shoulder and scratched Daphne’ behind the ears. Sophie knew what questions where coming without much thought. Magda Flickwick had a sixth sense about most things - but her youngest granddaughter in particular. While they were both close to the entire family their closeness was on another level, born of a shared gift that was sometimes a curse. She knew without asking that Sophie’s dreams had been troubled - and Sophie knew she knew. It was all very circular when Soph tried to explain it to anyone else, but it made a deep kind of sense in her brain. When other people pressed her about her ability she felt resentful, but when she talked to her grandmother everything just flowed.

”Remember, the cards are not your enemy, chuisle mo chroi. They know all, they see all, and they tell all. You’ll never be without a guide”.

Sophie had heard this mantra a million times before. She did not trust it yet, but slowly she would get her feet under it. She just had to have faith - that was the hard part. When you were in the mucked up middle and not sleeping properly it was hard to see any way up or out. There was something soothing though, about the way Nan’s voice rolled the words around. It made Sophie a little less afraid, a little more ready to step out into the hallway and venture down the stairs. There were few people in her life that could subdue her hyperactive chatter. Sophie talked a mile a minute because she had to fill any and all potential silences. Today though she simply nodded at the familiar words, kissed her grandmother goodbye and slowly exited from the safety of her room to her waiting family downstairs.