Among Letters and Loneliness Closed

@Alina Rosier
Hope you don’t mind Sapphire’s presence.

THE EARLY MORNING HOURS WERE WHEN SAPPHIRE FELT MOST ALIVE. Or perhaps not morning, since people considered morning to be when the normal people were awake. Rather, she thrived late at night.

Still, it was refreshing to be able to walk around this early. Most people weren’t around, so she had her solitude and they could continue with their mundane (not that much fell into that category at Hogwarts) lives.

She had specific places she did like to visit, even if it wasn’t for their practical uses - the ballroom, the rehearsal room, and… the owlery. Which was where she was heading in that moment. The sky was still pale, almost appearing frosted over. That was how it would normally appear on fall or winter mornings, as opposed to the far richer colours of summer and sometimes spring. It was one of the most beautiful sights she had seen in a while.

Held in her hands, open in front of her, was a book. A muggle book, one which she had felt interest in for quite a while but had never acted on that curiosity. Perhaps it was not an intelligent choice for her to have been reading while walking up the stairs, but she had been doing it for years. Perhaps not the up the stairs part, but the reading while walking part.

Very unintelligent was the choice indeed, however, seeing as she tripped on a step and crashed into the stone, getting a formidable cut on her arm, which she had used to block her fall. On the way down, she had yelled a curse - something she had a bad habit of doing. "S**t!" She pushed herself back up, sitting on the step and holding onto the limb. She examined it, hand coming away to reveal dark red liquid. Ah, she thought. Well, no matter. With as much cool-headed-ness as someone with such an injury could possibly have, she took off her sweater - which was black, so thankfully it wouldn't bleed through - and wrapped it around the wound. She winced slightly at the contact, but she was mostly undeterred. She would get it checked out at the infirmary later.

She got back up, this time folding her book under her arm instead of reading - that had ended in disaster before, after all. Instead, she chose to calmly walk up and into the Owlery. And lo and behold, there was another person in there! She looked a bit younger, with honey-brownish (she didn't have a more apt description, in that moment) hair. The girl looked terribly sad, though for what reason, Sapphire had no idea. She felt a strange sort of empathy, for the girl though, since she was clearly hurting and sadly, the pale-haired female knew how that felt. It was really a terrible feeling.

She supposed she would help her. Even if she'd heard the violent curse-word that had echoed from her mouth only moments ago. "Hello," she said, trying to keep her voice level. She was most calm when it was morning, but that didn't mean her anxiety wouldn't suddenly rear up and hit her in the face. "Are you alright? You seem to be hurting - well, not physically, but mentally. I don't mean to pry, of course, but I wanted to see if, perhaps, I could help you out." She paused, hesitating. "Er, I'm Sapphire, by the way. I don't believe I've met you before."

Interacting with @Alina Rosier

SAPPHIRE NODDED, ACKNOWLEDGING THE OTHER GIRL'S NAME. She stood quite still, shifting her grip on her book. "Hm, I'm fine. It's not that bad - my main goal was to keep my book safe."

She was a little surprised by Alina's offer to help, but not adverse to it. She waited until the explanation finished, also becoming mildly intrigued by it. "It doesn't necessarily strike me as weird - in fact, it's probably smart at this school. And if you wouldn't mind - I should better take care of this, since my sweater is likely going to get caught on the wound if I leave it on for long." She also thought that the comment on lemon drops was a bit amusing. She gave a light smile.

The smile faded back to a neutral expression as she heard the explanation of what the other girl was doing. "That can't be a good feeling," she said. To her ears, that sounded a bit insensitive. "I sort of understand, though." She didn't give away much more than that, not thinking it to be the right time. "Were you close to your father?" she asked. She hadn't really been close to her parents - not that she could, but that was against the point. Still, she could connect a bit. She hadn't been able to speak to her parents, which made it feel as if a chunk of her life was missing. She'd never gotten to form those bonds.

Interacting with @Alina Rosier

SAPPH FOUND HERSELF ABLE TO RELATE A LITTLE MORE. But at the same time, the situation was quite different from her own. She didn't know her father at all, yet this girl had. Or perhaps not known him, per se, but she had met him. "That doesn't seem very nice..." she murmured. She supposed that statement could be taken more than one way, but she didn't dwell much on it.

"Huh? Oh, I find it calming up here. It feels sort of free," the pale-haired girl said in response to the first question. She fell silent, letting Alina speak. "I would like a bit of help - I can normally manage with bandages, but they sometimes give me trouble," she said. It occurred to her, for a second, that she could have just used Ferula but at this point, it seemed a tad unnecessary. She did already have bandages, anyway.

The other girl seemed to know what she was doing, even if she wasn't the most experienced. Maybe it was a hobby? A talent she'd picked up? It intrigued Sapph. "Thank you, Alina. You're quite good at that. If you don't mind me asking, how or why did you learn that?" she asked. She fretted a little about whether she was overstepping any boundaries or not.

Interacting with @Alina Rosier

The pale-haired girl gave a wry laugh. "That doesn't sound too good," she said. The other girl seemed to drift off a little bit. Sapph wondered what she was thinking about. It was probably nothing she could understand, but that didn't stop her curiosity.

She listened to the other girl talk about healing. That seemed interesting. What was her goal in life? She didn't know if she had one. She had always just gone along with whatever came her way. She had no direction. She pulled herself out of her thoughts, nodding. "I think you could manage that," she said. "I wish I had that good an idea of what I wanted to do," she said. Her expression twisted into a sort of strained smile. "The closest I've got to a goal would be writing, but that won't always work out," she said.

There she went, doubting herself again. It wasn't as if she had any way to stop it, but she didn't need to dump her own problems on someone else. Especially someone she barely knew. That was an unnecessary burden. "How long have you wanted to be a healer?" she asked? It wasn't changing the subject, since it was already technically the subject they were on. Her little comment had just been a little... detour. Nothing important.