Baxter was feeling slightly better about things after talking to Tapendra. Puberty was just... something he had to deal with. It was just hard to have that on top of everything that was going on with his family. He was still worried that MacDuff would go back to his house and harass his family. He'd been reading the papers, and he knew that the man was still wreaking havoc on the magical world. Baxter was just hoping that now his dad was there to take care of his mom and sister that they would be safe.

But he was trying to distract himself from thinking about things. And, unbeknown to Baxter, his head of house was attempting to help him with that by entrusting him with a busy work task. The task being to check on Cyhirae and see how she was doing. He wasn't fishing, Baxter supposed, but he had been surprised when Tapendra suggested that he should chat with his childhood friend and make sure that she was doing alright. Baxter, always one to trust to adults, took the request at face value. He thought that maybe as Cyhirae was getting older she was less inclined to trust her father, or perhaps they were fighting- though Baxter couldn't imagine either situation. Not once did the third year stop to consider the fact that perhaps Tapendra was just giving him something to do- a way to distract himself from life by having to focus on someone other than himself.

It was Friday night and he was in the common room. He had been working on an essay for class when he saw the girl in question. Baxter smiled, tucking his parchment in his book, and headed toward her. "Hey, Cyhirae," he greeted with a smile. "Mind if I sit?" he asked, motioning toward an empty spot near her.

Cyhirae's History of Magic essay was just not going to happen tonight, apparently. Gliese was in a playful mood and had been begging for her attention since Cy had started her essay, batting at her sides and meowing loudly. After about fifteen minutes of alternating between ignoring Gliese and scolding her, Cyhirae gave up.

She climbed up to her dorm room and grabbed one of Gliese's small cat toys. With a flick of her wand, she sent the toy flying down the stairs, Gliese took off in hot pursuit. 'At least,' she supposed, 'I'll be getting some charms practice.' Cy settled down on one of the couches in the common room and teased the cat with the toy, keeping it just out of Gliese's reach.

"Hey, Cyhirae. Mind if I sit?"

Cyhirae looked up and smiled at Baxter. Gliese took advantage of her mistress' distraction to leap up on the couch and grab her toy. "Sure," she chirped. Cy pulled Gliese off of the couch and into her lap to make room for Baxter. The cat began purring, leaning into her scratching fingers and dropped her toy on the floor. "How have you been, Baxter?"

Baxter sat down next to Cyhirae, and sighed quietly when she asked how he had been. "Better since I'm back at Hogwarts," he told her. "Staying at home over break was pretty awkward. My dad is living with us until all this mess is resolved. It's really weird. He and my mom broke up years ago, and he's living with us and my step-dad. There is a lot of tension there because of that." Baxter shrugged. Things could be worse. At least his dad was protecting them, and it seemed that their relationship was finally... well... becoming a relationship.

"But that's all old news," he said with a shrug. "I'm back here so I'm trying not to worry about it. Barely any time left in the year before summer comes up. So I'd like to forget about it while I can." Especially since he had absolutely no clue how long it would take to capture the mad man. If he got home for the Summer and MacDuff was still running loose he'd never be able to relax.

Baxter looked at the cat that was playing with the toy. He had never understood the point in having a cat at Hogwarts when an owl was always so much more useful. "How about you?" Baxter asked. "How've you been lately? We haven't talked much since you started Hogwarts." They hadn't talked much since he'd started a few years ago, either. He still had spent some time with her family over summers when his mother or his father visited them. But when he'd started school, Baxter had just... felt almost like she was too young to be bothered with. She was still a child to him. But now that she was a first year- things were different. Or something like that.

"How about you?" Baxter asked. "How've you been lately? We haven't talked much since you started Hogwarts."

"No we haven't, not really since last September. I've been good. Herbology has been going much better now that Professor Bombay got fired, having Auntie Ish as the new teacher is a bonus. And even better Daddy's now our head of house." Cyhirae sounded positivly gleeful now that the grouch was gone.

Her maniac grin suddenly dimmed, "Daddy's acting weird though, he just brushes me off when I ask him but I know something's wrong." Cyhirae bit her lip. "I'm worried, and I hate that he's treating me like a baby and not even telling me anything."

Baxter was surprised to realize that she was right- it had been since last September. But he had a lot of work to do, and he supposed she did as well. Then again, the two did share a common room and were in the same house. A part of him felt a little bad for not paying more attention to his younger friend. He would never do that to his little sister if she were Cy's age- and he shouldn't have done it to Cy. "I guess you're right. That's awful of me, isn't it?" Baxter asked with an awkward smile. "I guess I'll have to do better next year to be a better friend, won't I?"

"Yeah. I liked Professor Bombay good enough, but after I heard rumors about why he was fired I'm glad he's gone. And I'm glad that your dad is head of house, too. Because having him around has helped me a lot." Especially since his own dad- up until the situation happened- had been mostly absent.

But it seemed like he wasn't the only one with father issues. "That's how parents are," he said to the younger girl. "My mom and step-dad never talk to me about their problems. They always think we're too immature to understand or they don't want us to worry. Parents think that they have to be perfect and strong. A lot of kids think that parents never have problems and are always going to be awesome- but that isn't realistic. I guess maybe your dad doesn't realize you think that way? Have you tried to talk to him about you being worried?" Baxter asked. "That's really all you can do."

Cyhirae frowned, "I haven't actually told him I'm worried. And it's not like he's actually telling me that he won't tell me anything he just seems...distracted I guess." It wouldn't do for Baxter to get the wrong idea about how her father was treating her right now. "Maybe spacey would be a better word."

She turned to him, her expression thoughtful, "Do you think it's just that he's busy with being head of house now? I know that he was going to lots of places on break." Cy glanced around the room, making sure that Eirene wasn't around before leaning in close to Baxter, "On the night of the full moon, he had Georgiana and I stay over at Uncle Ryan and Auntie Sonya's house and when we got back Sasha Schlagenweit and a big German Shepard were asleep on the couch."  That night had been annoying but mostly because Jason and Gigi had hogged the xbox playing Halo all night.

Baxter shrugged. "I don't pretend to understand adults. They're completely illogical half the time when they're interacting with their children or children and teenagers. They assume we're incapable of understanding or being mature just because of our ages. It's kind of ridiculous."

"I think you should just talk to him about it," Bax suggested. "Your dad is pretty understanding, and you're lucky to have him teaching here so that he's around when you need him. Maybe if you just let him know that you're not stupid and you know that something is going on he'll talk to you about it- even briefly." But what did Baxter know? He'd never had a healthy relationship with his own father. Not his biological one, anyway.

Baxter did arch an eyebrow when she told him that she had come home and Sasha had been on her couch. Though Baxter had never disliked Sasha or had any problems with him, he knew that the boy was surrounded by problems and drama. "I guess that would be a little weird and unexpected." Baxter couldn't even imagine it. He was glad his family didn't feel the need to intervene in the lives of other kids. Though he appreciated all that Tappy had done for him, and was glad that he had him as a mentor, Baxter had enough to worry about at home without adding extra kids to it.