.third.quarter.

[lumenrelegandus]

[a scream. The figure on the bed thrashes over-but this is not the bed the sleeping body knows; he falls right out of it. A wrenching thud as he hits the floor. A groan of awakening.

Then the groggy, embarrassed, woebegone voice. Even hushed, not nearly as ragged as it will be later:]

Sorry, I'm sorry…

[A hand reaching up from the floor. It

Comments

:-D! I'm sorry if the bulk of it ends up having to be paused and backtagged...

[lumenrelegandus]

[normally he would, in the next bed over; to lean over and punch his arm to wake him up, or pin him down if he was threatening to wake the rest of the dorm, or drone on with ridiculous half-imagined anecdotes-or once or twice trade verbal scars-afterward to help him back to sleep. The Sirius no one else, only James if even, ever got to see.]

Yes… he's around somewhere.

Yes, I got hurt, but they're healing.

[until the next round.

It was strange how getting hurt or being disabled or bereaved usually meant you had to console everyone else about it. A walking reminder of fragility or mortality; so either you went with it fully, which by default could become hostile; or became a walking reassurance. Ambassador from the land of abnormal. It's okay, it isn't so bad, don't worry about it, don't feel guilty or helpless or upset. My bad for being covered in scars and unsettling you; so my role too to reassure you about it.

But Remus did it very well. Warmly. And for a child really didn't mind.]

I'm okay. Really. I'm going to find my friends, or they'll find me. I'm sure this will all be sorted out very soon.

S'ALL GOOD :D

[theunscarred]

[He's intimately familiar with that reassuring tone--it's the kind his brother uses when he's had a bad dream, or when there's the rare desert storm and thunder sounds in the distance.

It's almost inherently comforting, but in this situation he seems to almost shrink a little, with the look of someone who knows something the other wouldn't want to hear.]

...Um. If you haven't found them yet, I don't think you're gonna.

[HE FEELS SO BAD TELLING YOU THAT ;; So quick change in tone ahoy:]

But! I've been here 'fore and you don't gotta stay long. Just a few days and then you go home like you never left!

S'ALL GOOD :D

[lumenrelegandus]

Well… that's good, then!

[he's looking at you very curiously, trying to reconcile what he perceives as the contradictions in what you've said, but he doesn't want to overstress a little kid. Looks younger than a first-year. It's Remus's job to look out for kids, not look to them to reassure him.]

If you've been here before, you know your way around? You could show me around?

[another McGonagall lesson. The best way to encourage someone is to let them take charge with you.]

<3

[theunscarred]

[He looks thoughtful for a moment.]

Uuuuumm. I dunno if I remember all of it. Anatoly's really big! But there are a couple'a places I remember! [Like Mei's place, the market, and the directions tot he clinic that Shirley gave him.]

<3 ^_^ !

[lumenrelegandus]

A 'couple'a places' is more than I know. Will you show me?