⌚ ☕ ⌛ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
★ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
Selena played with Raeleus until Hagrid had finished feeding the Hippogriffs. When the meat was gone, the young colts mother called for him, a resounding, commanding sound. The young Hippogriff gave her one final nuzzle before trotting over to his mother. The magnificent adult stared at her, and Selena again bowed before the beast. The female hesitated a moment, then returned the bow, rose and turned, using her wing to guide her son away, the two of them eventually taking flight after the rest of the herd, toward their hidden home deeper in the woods. Selena beaming, turned to Hagrid. Her morning thus far had been lovely. Just then her stomach growled. "Have yeh not eaten yet?" exclaimed Hagrid, "Why we best get you fed!" The girl raised one hand in the air, elbow bent, palm toward Hagrid. "Now, Hagrid, I brought breakfast with me. The elves are always kind to early risers." The girl smiled. "Don't worry, I left this early to see Firenze for some early morning Divination studies." Hagrid wasn't having any of it. "Oh no you don't, all students 'ere at Hogwarts eat a proper breakfast every mornin'. That includes you. Now come along. If you won't go wait for the meal in the great hall, come an' have breakfast with me, yeh hear?"
The girl, giving in, nodded, smiling, and followed the large man back to his hut. He brought her inside, and sat her down, and she ate what Milly had given her while Hagrid set about making breakfast for the two of them. When he was done, he plopped the plate in front of her heaping with eggs, sausage and slightly burnt toast. "Well, go on, eat up. I'll admit its not nearly as grand as what you'd get o'er in the Great 'all, but its there in its own quantity, so dig in." The girl, laughing gently to herself, picked up the over sized fork and began to eat. Just when she thought she was done, and could leave, Hagrid offered her tea. "Thank you Hagrid, but I really should be going. I need to get some meditation done, and then I have to practice reading natural signs for a while, and then its off to History of Magic, then back this way again for more tutoring. And before you say anything, yes I will sit down two more times and eat a proper meal each time before the day is over." She smiled, getting up and collecting her bag. "Thank you very much Hagrid, and I'll see you later." With that, the young girl let herself out the door and rushed down the steps toward the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid watching her go and shaking his head. "You be careful now, yeh hear?" He called after her. "Yes Hagrid!"
Finally, Selena made it back into the trees, and ran to the clearing her mother had once told her about where Thestrals gathered. Selena loved to watch the magnificent beasts as they moved through their lives. She always found them so intriguing, yet close. Yes, she could see them. Sadly, she had watched her Grandfather on her mother's side die. It was in a hospital bed at St. Mungo's, quietly, his granddaughter humming a gentle tune and holding his hand. That was in her second year. She tossed an apple she had grabbed at Hagrids to one of the graceful beasts, then sat down, her bag close beside her, removed her shoes and folded her legs into the half-lotus position. She closed her eyes and began to focus her breathing. Slowly, the life in the forest she had disturbed when she ran through resumed, and the sounds of the Forest surrounded her, filling her ears, giving her a sense of calm, just as the sound of the wind through the Ravenclaw tower did when she went to sleep. The girl focused on breathing - in for seven counts, hold for seven counts, out for seven counts, hold for seven counts, repeat. At one point, she felt lips nibbling her hair, and opened her eyes to see a unicorn. She smiled gently and returned to her breathing, her mind clearing of everything as she meditated. She felt the beast lay down at her back and curl around her, and she was grateful for the warmth it provided. The girl stayed there for a long time before she began to resort every image that had flowed into her head the day before, and all the new ones that flowed in every second.
Both Firenze and Professor Trelawney had found her description of the constant images strange, both saying that they had never experienced that before themselves. The professor, not knowing how to deal with it, had always dismissed it, and tried to make her focus on an object, always making her look for a sign to interpret, or some other such thing. One day, Selena became so fed up, she walked out of her private lesson halfway through, and ran to the Forbidden Forest. As a child, her mother had told her stories of the creatures there, so from her very first year Selena had made a habit of entering the Forest when she didn't have classes and exploring it. The day she ran into it, sobbing from the pain and sleepless nights the constant images caused her, and the ignorance of her teacher, Firenze met her. In the clearing where she was sitting now, in fact. He told her he had had a premonition of her coming, and therefore met her. She did not question him, but instead confided in him all her troubles. He began to teach her simple ways of meditation, and slowly but surely, her focus improved. When her marks in all her classes improved significantly, the Headmaster called her to their office and asked how she had improved. Selena had simply smiled and said. 'I can focus now. The pictures don't distract me all the time anymore, so I can simply do the work or listen to the teacher or read the assigned pages without zoning out. And I can sleep. Do you have any idea how glorious it is to have a dreamless sleep?' The Headmaster shook their head. 'Let me tell, you, its wonderful, simply wonderful!' The Headmaster, taken a back by her words, asked her if Professor Trelawney had been the one to help her achieve this. The girl shook her head. When the Headmaster asked who, the girl smiled. 'Firenze did. He's a wonderful teacher, and figured out how to help me manage the flow of images.' The Headmaster, hearing this, made arrangements for her next year at Hogwarts. Firenze would tutor her, not Professor Trelawney, for which the girl was eternally grateful.
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
⌚ ☕ ⌛ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
★