I'm Sure I'll Be Alright

[arianna]

Arianna stood just outside Professor Raynor's office, clutching a note in her hand. She hadn't been back very long. Just a day. But Raynor wanted to talk to her it seemed. Arianna supposed it had to do with her 'condition' and also supposed Mungo's had sent along a letter about it. Maybe the woman thought it was too soon for the girl to come back? Arianna was a bit worried that would be the reasoning for this meeting. Her mum and dad had thought the same thing, too. They only went along with the Healers because, well, they trusted the Healers to know what they were doing and the Healers had said the best way for Arianna to get her problems recognizing people was to be around people she knew and to practice remembering and recalling their names. It had taken her forever to get her family and Nic straight and now they wanted her to face a whole school of people. In a way, Arianna was glad to be back, but at the same time, she was scared.

Taking a deep breath, Arianna sidled up to the door and knocked twice before gently pushing it open and peering inside. She didn't usually spend a lot of time in any professor's office. Any problems she might have with homework were usually taken care of after or before class and she rarely got caught doing anything she shouldn't, so she wasn't very comfortable just letting herself in, like Drew did.

"Um....hello?" she looked around for the woman of the office, biting her lip as she did so. Her long green cloak, the same one she had worn on her return the night before, fell over her eyes. She pushed it back with one hand, showing that same tired expression she had worn for the last month. "I.....can I come in?"

[Tamis Raynor]

Even though her residency had officially changed, Raynor could not bring herself to fully abandon the small, cluttered, and cramped office on the second floor that she had spent six years of her life occupying. Taking up permanent quarters in the Head Person's office still burned at Raynor's pride knowing that it had been vacated by a woman that had pulled the wool over all of their eyes. It was also so... large. While the Headmistress had been born to glamor, she had not been raised in it. She felt more at home in small confined spaces; which is why she had always ignored her large Manor for a small flat in London. And, as long as Defense Against the Dark Arts was still off the curriculum and therefore a Professor didn't need this office...

Two hesitant knocks on the door roused Raynor from her thoughts. "Um... hello?"

She poked her head out from the mini-closet she had been standing in, which contained the tanks and other assorted objects she used for instruction.

It was Arianna, or at least she thought it was. The cloak the girl was wearing concealed much of her facial features. Something tugged at Raynor's heartstrings, but she ignored the pressure as she considered the Ravenclaw. The talk with the Healer's about the young woman's return had been long and tedious. Maladies of the mind were fragile things. She had told them that she knew this, and would see to it that Ari was not faced with more than she could handle at once.

Now, face to face with her.... Raynor shoved her thoughts and concerns aside and stepped out of the closet with a broad and welcoming smile.

"Miss Kailas," she prided herself on not slipping to "Marlow" or "Shriver" as she often did, using her family's name. "There you are, right on time. Yes, of course, you most certainly can." She welcomed, waving the seventh year into the room nearly overcrowded with Dark Detectors (collecting them was a hobby of the Professor).

"Please, sit down. Would you like a cup of tea?"

[arianna]

Arianna took a step into the room and glanced around, taking a moment to push her hood back, fully exposing her face. She looked much as she had that morning when she had run into Drew and Vanessa on the first floor: tired, cheeks sunk in, pale, and haunted, for lack of a better word. This, too, would take some time to fade away and the girl's healthy features return. Arianna had more than her appearance to worry about though.

"Yes...please," Arianna replied to the offer of tea. She loved tea. When most of her classmates were drinking coffee, she went for the lonely kettle of boiled leaves. It could be simply because that was what she was used to drinking. Arianna could never get herself used to the taste of coffee.

"I'm looking for Professor Raynor," she explained to the woman in the closet. The voice sounded familiar. The name sounded familiar. Arianna knew Raynor was, or at least had been, the head of her house. She just couldn't seem to connect that both Raynor and the woman in the closet were one and the same. Even so, she attempted a guess at it. "Are....are you her?" she asked uncertainly. Unlike with her classmates, she didn't feel worried that the woman would take offense to this.

[Tamis Raynor]

It was difficult to talk to a girl she had known for six years and have her look at you like you were a complete stranger. It was harder still when you had to treat her in the same regard, as, for all intensive purposes, she was. Raynor had known Arianna would not have any memories of her. But even so, the reality of what the girl had gone through -- and what she had lost -- had not struck the Headmistress as reality now, when she was forced to confront the results.

It did not take prior healer's experience to know that the Ravenclaw was still unwell. She looked almost as bad as some of the inmates at Azkaban. The woman did not comment however, and instead gave a nod and began to fiddle around in the cabinets, pulling out a kettle and a jar of tea leaves.

"I am she, indeed." The Professor replied, magically adding water and setting the pot upon an elevated flame in the air. Usually she would levitate it above the surface of her desk. But with the way it was overflowing with papers, she risked setting it on fire if she did that.

"Have you settled into the school all right?"

[arianna]

Arianna settled back into a chair with a content smile. She had guessed right. And on the first try, too. Never mind there had been no one else to mix up with the professor and it didn't take a genius to guess the woman scuffling about the office was the very one who had called Arianna down to meet with her. It still felt good to get a name right after the many wrong ones she had gotten today alone.

"I...suppose it depends on your definition of the word...miss....ma'am....Ma'am," Arianna inwardly cringed at the formal way she spoke to Raynor. Ma'am just didn't sound right. But not being sure who the woman was, it was best to be proper about things now and loosen up later. Good impressions were...well...good. "My bed is as comfortable as ever, but...I dunno...I don't remember everything feeling so....tense.....I'm not so sure everyone's particularly happy to see me back."

Of course, it made a bit of sense why people, especially those who hardly knew her, would find it uneasy to be around her. Perhaps her presence reminded them too much of what the Deva could do. Or maybe they just didn't know how to react around her and found it easier just to avoid the situation altogether. It did bother her a bit, but Arianna didn't mind all that much. It seemed a good trade to having everyone crowd around and ask questions she didn't want to answer for just anyone.

[Tamis Raynor]

"Professor." She kindly corrected the girl, trying not to wince at the slang use of "Madam".

The proper form of the word would have been bad enough. Hitting thirty had been bad enough for Raynor, being near her middle thirties did not help either. She was well on her way to getting on. It really wasn't old, but it felt like it. Having it from a student... especially from one of the Ravenclaws she knew on a more personal level, if not the most personally.. But this really wasn't that Ravenclaw, was it?

But, regardless, she frowned. Physical comfort had not been what she was concerned with, though it was soothing that Ari had that at least. But mentally? She needed a safe, welcoming environment to ease back into her normal life, if she wasn't getting for it.

Mentally, the Headmistress retreated for a moment. Just another soul on her conscious. She wanted Fiona back so she could go back to being the haring Deputy. Arianna Shriver. Felicity Hjort. Celina Jedynak... and the handful of students she had alienated during the kidnap. War was never easy. It was usually the innocents that suffered the most from it. Tamis did not think she could ever forgive Shaw, not after all of this.

"I am sure that is not true, Ari." She disregarded the formalities, they were just a hindrance here. "Though I'm sure it may seem that way. I'm very glad to have you back."

She broke of there. How did you reassure someone with very little, even no memory at all?

[arianna]

"Professor," Arianna repeated, her face turning slightly red from her mistake. Though maybe not so much a mistake as....well, she wasn't sure what to call it. All she knew was that it was weird to know that she knew, at least at one time, who this woman was. She was supposed to know Raynor. After all, even before the Deva attack, Arianna wouldn't have been able to remember when Raynor hadn't been their Head of House. Now....she had that familiar feeling about her, but Arianna just couldn't determine which of her own memories involved Raynor or someone else.

Sitting back, Arianna half smiled at Raynor's statement. She used to be good at reading people, but lately she wasn't so sure she was reading them right. Maybe they were all just frustrated about their friend's condition and didn't know how to react when she forgot who they were. Arianna hoped that was all it was and not what she kept thinking it was.

"Really?" Arianna wasn't sure why it made her feel so good to hear the new Headmistress say that she was glad the girl was back. It caused her to break into a smile, though. Maybe the biggest one anyone had received since her return. Some might have come close, but this one...much bigger.