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Sonora was up at her usual early hour, dressed and outside for her usual morning walk. She expressed gratitude for the support of her friends, her family, her professors, and for sleep, for magic, for still having the mandrake leaf in her mouth. She went over the day’s to-do list, briefly consulting her commonplace notebook for what spells she needed more work in. As she neared the water’s edge she started singing, turning the chill morning air to gentle notes.

This far from the castle and early in the morning, Sona was unafraid of being heard by anyone but her own bird, flying overhead. But she still sang rather quietly, and then trailed off partway through-- partially because of the annoying mandrake leaf, partially because she didn’t really feel like the yearning lyrics of the song. She felt like...she didn’t really feel like doing that whole thing this morning. It was fine. she would get the practice in later that day, and she’d feel okay once she got back and got to work anyways. Sona focused her thoughts for the new day, and watched her step as she walked.

She was walking along the lakeshore when Skyfire, armed with better vision in the darkenss before dawn, called a greeting. ”Good morning!” Sona called before she was really close enough to see who it was. But Skyfire swooped down and landed on the person’s shoulder, cluing Sona in that it could only be a handful of people. Sure enough, a few steps closer, she identified Aeryn with a cheerful smile. ”Ah, good morning Aeryn,” she greeted again. ”Up for the sunrise?”

Skyfire called proudly, puffing himself up when Aeryn called him pretty. He was pretty, wasn’t it? He turned expectantly to Sonora, who only smiled at their interaction. In response, Sky fluffed his feathers and turned away, making a show of letting Aeryn pet him.

Sona stood next to Aeryn and watched her skip stones. She nodded at Aeryn commenting that the dungeons were getting stuffy. ”August says the same thing sometimes. I can’t imagine a common room you can’t see sky from.” Sona replied positively. The lake was beautiful and she didn’t fear the depths like her cousin did, but she still couldn’t imagine spending the last six years cooped in a bedroom with beneath the waves.

”I’m usually up this early,” she said with a smile. ”Kam and I usually walk in the mornings, yeah. But we’ve missed each other the last few days just because we don’t always wake up at the same time.” Kam...well, Kam seemed much better. Recently he had been...uncharacteristically energetic occasionally, but he seemed at least to be doing better than the second half of last year, for which she was very glad for. It was nice to have her morning study buddy to talk to.

Sonora picked up a stone herself and mimicked Aeryn’s gesture, tossing the stone in with a thunk. But she wouldn’t be deterred and picked up another stone, watching Aeryn move as they continued talking. ”You’re welcome to walk with us if you’re up this early, you know! Fresh air is great for waking up, not just for getting away from the dungeon!” she added, teasing just a bit about her friend’s affection for coffee.

”You.. don’t like the cold, right?” Sona replied when Aeryn explained the Slytherin Common Room wasn’t much fun. ”Dark, cold dungeons...that’s the part of cursebreaking I’m least looking forward to too.” Sonora personally didn’t seem to mind the cold as much as most people, but she definitely hated feeling trapped or helpless, and dungeons definitely didn’t sound like they helped with that. Well, maybe! She had really enjoyed exploring Hogwarts’ dungeons over the last six years.

Sona glanced over with narrowed eyes when Aeryn brought up Kam falling off a roof. She definitely considered the grumpy Slytherin one of her closer friends, but Sona also hadn’t forgotten some of the things Aeryn had said to Kam a few years ago, and definitely hadn’t appreciated those. She relaxed a little though when she realized Aeryn was just trying to be funny.

”I’m hoping...I’m hoping that it’s because he’s just not as stressed over exams and doing better since... well, since I broke up with him,” she murmured, trailing out for a moment and turning the stone around in her hand. Even when she said it, Sonora wasn’t so sure Kam’s new mood was due just to acceptance. But she wasn’t sure what else she could do and as long as Kam was happy and doing well, then everything was okay right? Sona would have liked to say she knew Kam well enough to tell, but she didn’t feel like she had the best track record with that.

Aeryn brought up stressing over not being able to tell the twins apart, which was understandable-- Sona herself had only gotten them mixed up once, but that one time stuck out very prominently in her head. Then Aeryn said it wasn’t just the twins, but people in general that she mixed up. It reminded Sona of her young friend Lee who forgot people’s names often. It wasn’t the same thing exactly, but maybe the same tactic of greeting people by name would help around Aeryn? She made a mental note of it for later. ”They’re--I usually--it’s okay, in any case. Everyone mixes people up.”

She sighed and threw her stone again, but so weakly it basically just rolled down the stony shore. ”That was no good. We’re trying that again,” she laughed, and hopped towards the shore for a brief moment to fetch that same stone. When she got back, Sona asked casually,”What else is stressing you out? It can’t just be our friends.”

Sona looked over sympathetically when Aeryn said it was the dark and not the cold that got to her more. Maybe it was talking about stressful things, or because she had been reading about dementors last night, but dark and spooky had Sona thinking about boggarts and dark creatures. ”I...my boggart is darkness and spooky words. So I can appreciate the discomfort,” she said gently, nodding in comaraderie. The sky was getting lighter, even if the sun wasn’t visible yet, Sona felt like it was telling her to stop thinking of negative things like dumb boggarts. ”Just don’t forget there’s light at the end of that darkness. And just because we can’t see the sun yet doesn’t mean it’s not getting brighter!

On that notes though, Sona was happy to talk about cursebreaking more. ”Oh definitely! I figure if I find a site where I have to deal with it, I’ll learn to deal. But if not, there’s plenty of cursebreaking work just with the safe disenchantment and disposal of dark or simply misenchanted artefacts.” She smiled happily at cursebreaking dreams for a moment. She’d grown up hearing about adventures from her grandparents, and couldn’t wait for her own.

Sona threw another stone which sailed out and hit the water with a plonk. “You know, my dad’s been trying to teach me how to skip stones since some of the first times we went camping together. Most things I’ll slowly get better at, but skipping stones of all small things, just hasn’t happened.” Her smile turned self-deprecating for a moment. Maybe darkness would always be uncomfortable. Maybe she wouldn’t learn to deal. Or maybe even if she did, it would be too late. Sona pushed the thought aside and drew her wand. With a carefully imagined spell, she sent a stone flying with a pointed ”Waddiwassi!” The stone flew out, bounced off the surface of the lake once then sunk beneath the water. ”I’ll take it, she laughed before tucking her wand back and returning to skipping stones by hand.

When the topic turned to school and stress, Sonora pondered the comment about this year being more stressful than last year. ”Is it? I guess the class material is harder, but it’s all fascinating. It’s the nice kind of stress I think. I guess I’m okay with animagus things because I spent the last three years reading up and asking questions so now it’s just this--stupid leaf -- wait--there, sorry.” She paused when the mandrake leaf shifted out of place and moved it quickly back, wiping her finger on a handkerchief she kept specifically for mandrake problems. ”Is apparition stressful?

“Like...everyone’s the same? Like...everyone’s a twin of each other?” Sure she wasn’t the best at keeping people straight and she sometimes forgot people, but with a bit of effort even she could mostly recognize individuals apart at school. Aeryn was making it sound like something different. Sona stared at Aeryn’s glasses for a long minute. ”I’m assuming you mean even with your glasses on? Have you talked to a doctor about it? Or a healer? Maybe it’s a curse or something.” she certainly hadn’t heard of a curse that made it hard to tell people apart, but then again she hadn’t heard of a non-magical condition like that either. The only thing that came to mind was polyjuice potion, but not everyone was taking polyjuice potion all the time!

“So, post-graduation plans, and whether or not Vinny wants to be part of them.” Sona nodded, counting two fingers. ”Everything I’ve seen says that Vinny loves you very much and would definitely want to stay with you.” she said. She paused. Sona hadn’t really wanted to do this whole thing today and break thoughts and feelings down and think things through carefully and all that. But the moment Aeryn replied with such a serious comment, Sona slipped into that mindset anyways -- anyways, it was always easier working with other people than it was with her own feelings. ”But I don’t want to just dismiss your feelings. Why don’t you feel like you’re good enough for him? ”

"I'm terrified that you guys are all going to realize what a terrible person I am and leave."

Sonora flinched. It sounded too close to the kind of thing her own boggart might say. You’re selfish. You’re boring. You’re unobservant. Sonora hated boggarts. It wasn’t just that they showed her terrible things, but they showed lies. Aeryn’s boggart rang eerily close to Vespera’s, and knowing that stupid lying boggarts had driven all three girls in their group into their own minds because they were afraid of losing each other--that was infuriating. Generally Sona didn’t like hatred as an emotion, but exterminating boggarts sounded almost noble at this point. She took a deep breath of the cold morning air. No, as much as she hated the dark creatures, destroying them didn’t solve the underlying insecurity. And no matter how many times they fought off that insecurity, she had learned that it lingered still, worming around the back of their heads for a moment they were the most vulnerable.So her words, while on the same note, weren’t quite what she told Vespera two years ago:

”It’s...it’s okay to feel...insecure and...lonely sometimes,” she murmured gently. ”But if it helps, I don’t think you’re a terrible person. You tell things as you see it, Aeryn, and that’s admirable sometimes. I’m not going to pretend I think you’ve always handled everything perfectly, but I think you’re honest, and you show that you care more than your words let on.” She paused. ”You, Ves and I should hang out more. We’re closer than we think.”

There was a bit of discussion about how to throw a rock, and while Sona was perfectly fine with Waddiwassi-ing the rest of the rocks in her life, she followed along and learned this skipping stones for the hundredth time in her life. Aeryn discussed her worries and the pressure on them a mere two years before graduation. She kind of understood that, but her parents had been very supportive on that front. She pondered for a moment before replying. ”I get that. I panicked about classes in third year, thinking I had to take every elective because anything might be useful. And now it feels like we have to have more than just classes together.” she hesitated a little, knowing Aeryn had specified life things..falling mad in love and pairing off. Sure, she knew she loved Jonah, but she still hadn’t said anything...at least not while he was awake. Not saying anything was hardly a good long-term plan...but she pushed the thoughts aside. Thank goodness she at least knew what she wanted to be doing for work. ”Um..I’m not sure if they’ll help, but my parents told me about what it was like for them out of school and that helped me? Neither of them really had an idea what they were doing at 16, and neither of them had dated by then, and it’s helped knowing that they were just as confused and scared as I am sometimes. It’s okay...it's okay not to know what you’re doing, or even if you change your mind along the way! And all these little adulting skills...we’ll learn them as we go, okay?”

Sona reached out and gave Aeryn’s hand a little squeeze. ”I think we’re all a little lost, especially about how to life. But we’re going to be okay. Things will work out. Even if we take the long way around...it’ll be okay. And you’ve got people who are always willing to listen. Vinny, Jonah, me… August’s no good at the relationship talk, but he loves talking about careers and schoolwork. We’re your friends, you know. That means you can talk to us, and we’ll build something together. ” She offered a reassuring smile. ”And we’re not running away.”

Sonora groaned at mention of the leaf, and giggled at Aeryn’s joke about Jonah having a giant nose. She pondered Aeryn’s description of this mysterious curse seriously for a moment before jotting a quick note in her manuscript book. ”Hm. Well, I’ll help keep an eye out for something like this, curse or otherwise.”

Sona listened quietly as Aeryn sorted out her thoughts. She pursed her lips a little, realizing this was tying back very much to what Aeryn had said earlier about feeling pressured over having her life figured out. She wondered how Aeryn had gotten this terrible image of herself. But she also knew, very clearly, that feelings were strange and thoughts could get very twisted up in their own heads. So she resisted her urge to just reassure her friend again. Listening now...all this talk about how wonderful Vinny was and how Aeryn thought of herself as...not….”It...It sounds like like you don’t think very much of yourself,” she started slowly. ”So first, So challenge! List ten things you’ve done that you’re proud of yourself for, no matter how big or small, about anything. Go!”