Normally, Sofia liked Health class. It seemed to be an amalgam of what she had picked up about general mundane health in Dunwiddee - though more refined, more scholarly, more regular; and first aid, mostly focusing on the magical side, though not without nonmagical elements.
Normally, Sofia enjoyed talking with her classmates. In particular, she and Steven, the star of the class, enjoyed either talking about things to read or how to do the day's lesson, though he wasn't the best at explaining. He put such energy into the class, and it radiated to those around him.
Normally, Sofia even enjoyed the occasional tittering about how cute Professor Wrynn was with the other girls, not to mention with Steven.
Normally, Sofia wasn't trying to push down feelings of inadequacy and all that came with it. She was better than a bit part and all of the work but none of the rewards of an understudy. Even… just a secondary speaking role would have been nice. Of course, that could still be the case. It probably was, right? Yeah! The fact that it was in not the second section, but the third, and in the smallest print probably didn't mean much. It wasn't as if they'd give the village girl a part to keep her mouth shut, but make sure she wouldn't do much on stage. Rationalize it as 'oh, well, you'll have a lot to do, learning the lead, so we don't want to burden you with anything else too large." She'd definitely never heard such rationalizations before.
"'Sup, Sof? You okay? You seem a little distracted," Steven said, poking her shoulder to get her attention.
Sofia jumped at the touch. "I, uh, yeah! I'm fine, just…daydreaming is all!" Technically not a lie. Sofia tried to refocus on her work.
There was a small break between her classes, then, and she decided to get a snack from the cafe. The refectories were still open for lunch, if only barely, but she needed something to convince herself that she was fine, she was great, that she should stop being down about something so silly.
The next class didn't go any better for Sofia, even with the pastry. Her mind was still wandering, worrying, and she was focusing on forcing that down, smiling if she could, pretending to pay attention. This resulted in her not paying any attention whatsoever. She found herself doodling in the margins of her books or note paper, though not as she did when bored - she wasn't very good at art, but she tried to draw cute things, especially cute animals. Granted, her definition of 'cute' included 'everything that wasn't actively trying to eat her, and some things that were,' but that was beside the point. Today's doodles, though, were more abstract. Deeply lined, scribbly circles from where she just moved the pencil around without paying much attention to it, either. When she noticed, she stopped, and almost aggressively added ears and eyes and whiskers to make them cats, or maybe birds, or whatever.
Sofia decided to skip her last class of the day, it's not like she'd learn much in this state, anyhow. And when she came in tomorrow claim a - stomach bug would be too easy to disprove. Headache should work.
Sofia felt a slight tingling on her chest and nearly doubled over in pain as a headache hit her like… like something physically hit her, she didn't know, it was too painful to think right now.
"Fine! Fine," she whispered perhaps a bit loudly to her Amulet. "I'll go to class. Ow, what the f-fffish." Yes, perfect recovery. Seriously, though, she'd prefer to use odd curses than ones seen as uncultured. ...Hey, maybe animal inserts could be her thing, though, like Cedric used various pantheons of gods, and Greylock used figures of Silmarillion lore, though they also had the secondary elements - (usually) edible plant bits or undergarments. Sofia had no idea what hers might be.
This wasn't helping the headache go away. "I'm going." Still painful, so Sofia stood straight, turned around, and went to class.
The pain persisted until her rump touched the seat, at which point it entirely disappeared. Sofia rolled her eyes and sighed.
Irritation at the Amulet didn't help her mood, or her attention span. She wasn't sure what the point of being here was, but at least she wasn't ill.
Finally, though, she was able to go back to her dorm and just unwind. She thought briefly about starting on her homework, but that wouldn't go any better, not with her primary concern, frivolous and illogical as it was, being her poor mood. At this point it wasn't even as much about the casting, though that certainly still stung. No, she was upset that she was upset, and it was stupid, and silly, and a pointless vicious circle.
She sat on her bed and huffed, then looked back towards her bookbag. Well. She wasn't going to study, or do homework, and she had some time before they were due. But maybe she could manage to feel better before she got to sleep tonight, reading the idle thoughts of a certain someone.
Sofia fished the journal out of her bag and opened it to her bookmark, settling in to read.
The first page she looked at had a poem. There weren't any editorial markings on it, so Sofia looked down to the bottom of the page, and sure enough there was a note of the author. Some guy called Tennyson. She looked back up to read the poem, and laughed as the recognized the first line. "With blackest moss the flower pots were thickly crusted, one and all," she whispered to herself. Hopefully low enough that others couldn't hear it, this time, but she found it hard to just not say anything at all. So low volume would have to do.
Sofia put her finger to her chin as she tried to place it, giving a small gasp when she did. "Pygmalion, that's it! Or… at least one version I remember. I wonder if… Nah, probably not."
After that was a small wall of text in uneven lines.
Why must Cordelia do this? She has plenty of her own things, why must she insist on taking mine? Of course, I know the answer, but it's so infuriating. Father always takes her side, of course he does. Mummy tries to be supportive of me, but doesn't see much particular fault in Cordelia either, and requires solid proof of guilt to do anything punitive, regardless. Today, she used an unlocking spell for the first time. I don't know what she took, but that's rather worse than not. She might not have taken anything, but I doubt that very much.
Even my own room is no longer sacred. I'll have to hide the Elixir, or perhaps just keep it on me at all times, not to mention this book.
By the time Sofia realized she was reading a diary entry, it was too late to go back, to un-read, to not know. She wasn't entirely sure why this felt like an invasion of privacy, but the rest of the book didn't. On that note, though, she looked down at her chest, the spot where her amulet hung under layers of clothing.
The Amulet remained inert.
Well, all right. So she didn't need to feel guilty after all. So she was free to wonder about this. Cedric had a… was that a sister? Could be a cousin, though probably not, unless there were some special circumstances. And even then, it sounded like the dynamic was that of a sister, regardless of blood. Sofia supposed she shouldn't have been surprised that she didn't know of this sister, as Cedric wasn't the chattiest fellow on topics he didn't especially like, and definiteively tight-lipped on those he specifically disliked. Still.
On the other hand, there was also this mysterious Elixir mentioned. Potions and alchemy were his field, right? Then again, if he was hiding it from his sister, it made sense he'd perhaps hide it from her, too, at least for a while? If it was even still relevant. None of the entries were dated, after all, so it could have been as simple as an experiment he'd been doing at the time.
After that, there was a small paper stuck between the pages. It was labeled 'Elixir of Manliness,' and had a neatly written list of ingredients on one side, and directions on the other.
Sofia rolled her eyes and grinned. "Ah, fragile masculinity." Sofia wondered if this was that same Elixir as before. Probably not, she had no basis for that any more than she would have if he'd mentioned… a necklace, perhaps an amulet, and then history on a notable one. ...Perhaps that wasn't the best example. Still, it was likely coincidence.
Behind the paper was another tea recipe: specifically, 'Masculini-tea'. She laughed again. Wasn't that a bit excessive? ...On second thought, no. While the next several pages were filled with different versions of the same tea, with ingredients lined through and (mostly illegible) notes in the margins, the one thing that stayed consistent was that the first ingredient in the list was the Elixir. Heh, combining alchemy and tea. What a cute idea. ...Though, apparently the balance of Masculini-tea, as evidenced by the apparent failures of brewing which the numerous pages of it implied...was rather fragile. ...All right, that joke wouldn't make sense to anyone but her, but it was still satisfying enough to make her chuckle.
The dedication to getting the tea to taste right or whatever was also rather sweet. Sofia wondered if it would be literally sweet? She couldn't remember if he took sugar in his tea when she saw him drink it, which admittedly wasn't often. There was the night she acciden- no. No, reframe that. The night she went on a date with him. Which was the relevant bit here, anyway, when she went to eat with him. Did he drink his tea sweet like a dessert or bitter like medicine? ...She'd have to ask.
That dedication did beg the question, though: why bother to make a tea of it? While it was creative, it seemed unnecessary, especially given how most potions were taken directly out of the bottle. And what even was it for? Was he trying to grow a beard, or get super strength, or… What else did she associate with masculinity? A distaste for shopping and 'girly drinks'? ...Which were often bright and sugary, so maybe Sofia had her answer on the tea. Silly as this all seemed, it actually was fun to ponder.
She heaved a contented sigh, finally feeling better. Not entirely, the casting still stung, but she wasn't in the slump she had been earlier, cheered up by Cedric, if by proxy.
...She maybe could work on homework now, but maybe he'd be up for sneaking out? She put the book in the drawer of her bedstand, locked it, and looked at the clock there. Oh, there was actually still plenty of time to go out officially, sneaking not required. She put on her robe - as opposed to Greylock's, maybe she'd use that while sneaking...out… No, that would look even worse, wouldn't it? Maybe she should just take it back to him, though? Yeah, she'd do that. Oh but first she needed to put away the diary, and straighten her things, ooh this ribbon was cute and Cedric's color she could put that in her hair, and then...
Sofia didn't end up taking Greylock's robe, though that was out of forgetfulness rather than devious intent. She did, admittedly, feel like she'd forgotten something, but it wasn't until the next morning she realized what it was.
She skipped out of the dorm, then, singing to herself a little ditty she remembered from the village that seemed fitting, "I'm off to see the wizard…"
Early evening light streaked through the windows of their room as Cedric told Greylock the story. "So, of course I - I was trying to stop it. Minimize damage, at the least. Reverso, Disappearo, Reducto. Mostly Disappearo, of course. It's tricky to make stick but given it does the most by far of the easily performed counterspells…" He shrugged, and Greylock nodded for him to continue. "As you can imagine, little-miss-thorny was nowhere to be found by the time anyone showed up to clean up what now appeared to be 'my' mess, even though it wasn't." Cedric huffed in irritation.
Greylock, for some gods-awful reason, smiled. Cedric was about to say something, but Greylock managed first. "Well, at least you made her disappear-o, hmm?"
Cedric felt the color drain from his face. "I- I what? Oh Merlin's Mushroom, I, I…" He gulped. "Does th-that.. Would that make me a murderer? I don't suppose she'd, she'd be truly dead but-"
Greylock cut him off. "Cedric, calm down! It was a joke. Though apparently a bad one. Disappearo can't do that, not unless she herself was a spell. And, on the off chance that that were the case, it would probably take something rather stronger than disappearo to dispell her. You're not a murderer, Cedric. No one's dead, or even disappeared. Hiding, maybe, at worst."
Cedric glanced over at the small cauldron on his desk. For today. Then he faced Greylock again. "Yes, well, in summary, I… I did my best, but as it happens, my 'best' is slightly worse than everyone else's 'average'." He huffed a sigh.
"Don't think like that, that's not the case at all," Greylock said. "You were stressed, and surprised." And still a little shocked by the old name, Cedric added mentally, but made no outward indication. "Anyone in your situation would have trouble."
WIth a snort, Cedric said, "Yes, well, Miss Universe seemed to have no trouble cleaning up my mess. With an actual broom in tow, too. One of mine. Add insult to injury, see if I care!" He avoided looking at Greylock as he pouted. This was an immature way to deal with this, but he didn't really know how else to react.
Greylock's voice was calm, perhaps a little patronizing. "Cedric, that's because she's a professor. She has so many years of experience on you, not to mention she wasn't being personally attacked, verbally or physically." Definitely patronizing. ...Definitely not. Oh, blast his overthinking.
After a few moments of silence, Cedric admitted, "I… do suppose you're right."
"Of course I am!" Greylock said with a grin. "Still, I can't believe her. How childish. So this is revenge for the spaghetti ordeal, you said?"
Cedric nodded. "She mentioned something about it, in… in between the name-calling."
Greylock made a noise deep in his throat. "That too? Ugh. Are we sure she's actually your Year? I think she might have been placed wrong, she doesn't act her age at all."
"That wasn't… quite…" Cedric gulped, trying to mentally regroup, to steel himself, to make himself say it. ...Did he actually want to say this, anyway?
Greylock tilted his head at Cedric. "Wasn't what now?"
A deep breath, and Cedric found his courage. "She… said… old names. 'Lizard the Wizard,' and 'Lizzy', in particular."
Greylock's eyes and mouth opened wide for a moment, before his eyes hardened and stared at something nonspecific over Cedric's shoulder, mouth setting itself into a thin line. And then even that passed, and Greylock's hand was on Cedric's arm, his eyes neither wide nor squinting but the brows above knitted into a worried - compassionate - something expression, looking into his eyes.
Cedric blinked and looked away as Greylock said, "Don't listen to her. She is the actual worst. And likely to get a faceful of magic next time I see her, how dare she?"
Greylock stood up and walked a few paces from Cedric. His fists clenched and his stance in general seemed to stiffen - or coil, perhaps. Not literally, but as in winding a clock, or a snake, pressing down a spring. Potential energy.
And then it unwound. "How dare," escaped Greylock, but it was less volatile than before. A deep breath in, then out.
It was nice to know he wasn't taking this as a joke, at least. Where and when it - well, Cedric could think of a good number of times it would also have counted, such as last winter or that one conjuring competition, among others - but this would have been so much worse.
"So," Cedric said, "do you think, within your philosophy of the world, that Sascha could come back from this?" That was pointlessly harsh, but after the memory of that joke, apparently Cedric just couldn't resist.
Greylock turned around to look at him, eyes blinking and mouth slightly open. It moved, and Cedric assumed he was looking for the words to say, but failing to find them. Served him right, though; it was a stupid philosophy.
"Maybe," Greylock started, and Cedric rolled his eyes and turned away. "Perhaps, if she chose to reconcile in the first place… With years of hard work, she could change. It does happen. Not that it could happen soon. And of course, nothing would be quite the same. You can reconcile with someone, and still be wary. Forgive, yes, but don't forget."
A knock at the door interrupted Cedric's train of thought, his piecing together the wording of whatever his retort would be. The general feeling of the retort itself, minus the general 'no that's dumb,' was even gone.
Greylock got the door, given he was already standing, and found Sofia standing there. Well, better than anyone else it could have been. By far, actually. "Hi guys!" she said, though her face and voice fell quickly after the initial greeting. "Uh, is this a bad time?"
Cedric bit his lip as he considered. Greylock looked back at him, waiting for an answer. He weighed his emotions, and found it was really nice to see Sofia: someone who wasn't everything he was but better, someone who loved him and wanted him without pushing their - well, she didn't have a pithy saying, but she actually did tend to push her rosy worldview on him. Still, it wasn't forced so much as a side effect of being around her, unlike some people.
"Come in, Sofia," Cedric said, finally, and Greylock stepped away from the door to let her in.
She didn't move. "I had actually come to see if you had wanted to do something tonight. If you want me here I can stay, but I didn't have anything specific to say…"
"Cedric had a - rather bad day," Greylock said. Understatement isn't like him, heh, Cedric mentally responded, before Greylock continued, "Now isn't an especially good time for much; as for the latter, I believe Cedric already answered that?"
Both he and Sofia looked to Cedric, who nodded silently.
"All right," Sofia said, and went to sit in Cedric's desk chair, turning it to face him on the bed. "I don't know how I can help, but I'm willing to try?" Then she looked to the side and sniffed a small laugh. "I suppose this is an ill omen for illicit night escapades in the future, isn't it."
Cedric shrugged. "Not- not tonight, Grey is, ah, qu-quite right about that." Why was he stuttering now? Ugh. "Perhaps, though, a-at... a later date? It, well, it was sort of exciting last time, I suppose. Though, though perhaps we should obtain a map for our marauding about before then."
Sofia's eyes twinkled in the increasingly necessary candlelight, and she smiled a smile that warmed Cedric's poor heart. "I don't know, Wormwood seemed to know his way about well enough. We could just use him as a guide again. ...I'm not sure how that works, him being you and all, but whatever."
Cedric shrugged his shoulders a bit, intending to be noncommittal, though he wasn't sure how he actually came off. "Probably something I do know, subconsciously, but can't recall on a whim?" he pondered. "Who knows. Familiars can be strange."
Greylock added, from the other side of the room, "Or it could be a simple matter of vantage, given he can fly." Oh. That it could. Not that Cedric was about to admit he hadn't managed to think of something so obvious.
Despite the slight awkwardness of that, the moments of silence that followed felt quite comfortable to Cedric, at least until broken by Greylock. "Well! I'll stop killing the conversation and leave you two lovebirds alone for a moment, I'm positively famished. Don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone~! ...And I'm not going to be that long. Just down to the refectory for a bite and back. I do need to study some time tonight. At any rate, toodle-oo!" Greylock's smile was wide, and there seemed to be a bounce in his step as he left. That seemed rather jaunty for what they'd just been discussing a few minutes ago, but then again, it was Greylock. He always bounced back rather quickly.
A little too late, Sofia said toward the door, "Congrats again on- oh, he's too far gone." Then she looked back to Cedric, and there was a moment of silence.
"So," said Cedric.
"So," Sofia replied.
Cedric looked at the door, then down at his feet, then up to Sofia, made and maintained eye contact for a moment. He looked away again, but patted the bed next to him.
The bed beside him sunk as she sat down, and he ended up leaning into her without wholly meaning to. Still, it was...nice. He leaned his head on hers, though it was a tad awkward - he wasn't quite tall enough to rest it on the top of hers, but wasn't nearly close enough to level that he could use her shoulder.
She snuggled up to him, asking, "Is this okay?" as she wrapped an arm around him, as she leaned her head on his shoulder instead, though he felt it was still a little awkward, as she scooted closer.
He kissed the top of her head lightly. He didn't know why, but it felt right to do that. Though was that really a kiss? There was the motion, presing mouth to surface, but not really the pucker of lips. Still. With that, he discovered her hair smelled like lavender and olive oil. Even when the color wasn't actually shown, she tended towards it, it seemed. Heh.
From below, Sofia said, "Do you want to talk about it? Your bad day."
Cedric rolled his eyes and grunted. "I just finished speaking with Grey about it as you came here. So-" A pause for a short breath, and he reconsidered his wording before continuing. "That's sweet, and I do appreciate it. Thank you. But I'd honestly prefer a distraction over even more dwelling."
He could feel Sofia nod. "All right. But before-" She paused, hesitated, seemed to switch gears. "I just want to say, I'm here for you. If it's really bad, please feel free to send me a note, I'll leave class. I want to be here for you, too. Like Greylock is."
That much might be a little difficult, all things considered. Still… "Sickeningly saccharine, as always," Cedric said, hoping she could hear the smile in his voice. "Duly noted. Now, I do believe we were on a different subject a moment ago?"
Sofia laughed, thankfully, and pulled back to look at Cedric. It was hard to keep eye contact, but at least it was only her, looking into his own, staring, cutting to the depth of him. "May I?" she said, and he nodded, whatever it was she wanted to do was all right, though he hoped-
It was, in fact, a kiss. He closed his eyes as her lips met his, appreciative of the comforting dark, and the sensations he could enjoy without distraction.
They leaned together, rearranging awkwardly at the edge of the bed, until Cedric broke away for a moment, scooting towards the middle, tugging Sofia with him. She smiled, chuckled lightly, and he re-initiated the kiss, this time leaning down over her, his body slightly off skew from hers. Better to be safe, was one of Cedric's few coherent, concrete thoughts.
It felt a little odd, when Cedric broke the kiss and asked Sofia, this time, "M-may I?" His hand, the one that wasn't supporting his weight on the bed, was hovering an inch over one of her breasts. Still fully clothed, of course, they hadn't touched buttons or snaps, given Cedric wasn't even sure this much was all right - hence the question.
By way of answer, Sofia leaned up to meet Cedric's lips, and hand. He didn't do much with the permission, a slight knead before moving on to further exploration of less taboo parts of her body, but it was nice to have.
Suddenly, the door resounded with a loud thud. At first, the two thought it was a knock, and pulled apart as quickly as they could - but no voice sounded, no key turned, no one seemed to be there. There was another thud, further away, and some voices from the hall.
"Oh, isn't it always something in this school. Barely a moment of peace and quiet anywhere."
Cedric found it hard to be annoyed; rather, he realized he was grateful for the reminder that it wasn't just him that made mistakes like this, and that such things weren't uncommon. Sascha would still probably tell tall tales, but… They wouldn't gain any more traction than anything else.
Not long after, Greylock made it back to their room, covered in rather sparkly red splotches, notably on his hands and one drip down his cheek by one eye.
Cedric stiffened, unable to say, to do, to help anything, while Sofia managed to speak for the both of them. "What happened, how badly are you hurt? Do we need-"
"I'm fine," Greylock cut her off, then licked one of his fingers. "Mm! Boysenberry, actually. It's just a large Slime made of jelly. Split into lots of little ones, and they like to jump, the little buggers. Mostly just swatted away. ...Though Sofia, you might want to leave through the window with a slow fall spell." He winked, added, "Whenever you do," and moved to his dresser, retrieving a washcloth, and starting to wipe off the mess.
It was dark, by now, though as the days were shortening it wasn't all that late, yet. Sofia decided to stay a while longer, slowly leaning more and more on Cedric - though he had no idea of whether this was a sign of affection or exhaustion on her part.
"Oh, I don't think you heard earlier, when you left," Sofia said at some point, "but congratulations again on the lead. You'll be a wonderful… Philian. Whoever that is." She laughed, and he did too.
"Sofia dear," Greylock said, "I'm sure you'll be wonderful too, as-"
"A probably non-speaking Frolicking Faun," Sofia cut in, "Which… seems a little silly, given my audition wasn't like yours, I didn't dance or gesticulate, I just read. But, oh well, I- I suppose I have to start somewhere."
"Or as Hala," Greylock finished his earlier statement. "Should anything happen to.. Diane, was it? I didn't recognize the leading lady's name, though that doesn't mean I wouldn't know her on sight, I suppose."
Sofia smiled. "Yeah. I guess there is that."
"Though should you remain in a minor part, there's still some silver lining to be had. You'll still have two more years to try for bigger roles, and there's less pressure this time around." Sofia nodded, clearly pleased with this line of thinking. Greylock placed a hand over his heart and waned dramatic. "Indeed, perhaps that is best! Allow the audience time to grow accustomed to your radiance, lest they be overwhelmed. Your grace and beauty on stage would be protected from prying eyes."
Wasn't… that kind of an oxymoron? If the stage did not inherently involve such eyes, Cedric suspected stage fright would be a far less common issue. … Also, was it just him, or did it seem Greylock had been complimenting her an awful lot lately? ..Ah, he was probably just being paranoid. It was Greylock, after all.
"Aside from eyes belonging to anyone you wish to practice with, of course, and possibly Cedric or other chosen spectators. Still! The joy of acting without the fear of failure."
A small breath of a laugh came from Sofia, and she said softly, "You do make it sound a lot better. Thanks, Greylock."
With that, conversation began to drift. There was a little speculation between the two of them on what the play could possibly be given the area of magical creatures involved in the casting, but tangents soon arose leading to things Cedric could get involved in as well. None of it was especially memorable, but in the moment it was so pleasant that all three of them seemed to lose track of time.
When they finally noticed, it was nearly curfew, and Sofia had to especially rush what with going out the window and around the building rather than straight through it. She and Cedric shared a quick kiss goodbye, to his delight, and he watched her out the window until she was out of sight.
He did hope she'd make it back to her room in time, though knowing her she'd find some way of making things work out in her favor, one way or another.