"I wouldn't want to bother her." Sisse admitted, flushing at the realization that she couldn't just escape Alvin Mr. Bixby's presence. She thought she did a fine job masking her emotions in general, but her flushed cheeks would be her undoing. "Besides, being the head girl means I can slip onto the grounds much more easily." There were some perks to the position after all.

Pepper turned out to be a girl a few years older than Sisse who bounded into the room, blond hair (blond certainly wasn't what Sisse had expected) braided in to two pigtails. She looked cheerful enough with a smattering of freckles and pock marks on her face and brown eyes. Mrs. Potts thanked the girl, pressed Sisse to be careful and to not be a stranger, gave Alvin one more (stern, it should be noted) look and then left them to the task at hand.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

There went that plan. A walk to the gates it was. Alvin collected his discarded drawing supplies and let the ladies lead the way through the front of the shop; the much safer exit, obviously. He'd have to come back and take care of the back stairs for Mrs. Potts after he saw Miss Thompsett and Miss Pepper back to their respective spots.

Without missing Mrs. Potts' stern glance, Alvin held the door on the way out and turned toward the end of High Street that would lead back to the school. It wouldn't take too long and he supposed a silence would be natural, given their company. It felt anything but and Alvin loved a comfortable silence; if only this was it. "Is it sore? I think you're supposed to keep it elevated, near your heart." He was sure Mrs. Potts had done an exemplary job wrapping it, but if she was right and it was fractured somehow, it had to be painful. Alvin had seen enough quidditch injuries over his lifetime thanks to his siblings to at least know some basics, even if he had never done anything similar himself.

Flexing the fingers on his bad hand, Alvin shoved both hands deep in his pockets against the cold January air. Gloves were uncomfortable for him on his burned hand and so he just had to suck it up. He hunkered down into his scarf and let Miss Thompsett set the pace. Every once in a while he'd toss a look over his shoulder at Miss Pepper who was happily bouncing along taking in the sights.

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"Thank you." Sisse murmured as Alvin held the door open for her. She lifted her skirts in her good hand and took the slippery stair much more carefully this time.

The walk down High Street was painfully awkward. For once she didn't know what to say to sooth over the rough edges of conversation. Her mind felt jumbled, her emotions tangled, and her wrist throbbing painfully. It was a combination that did not lend itself to easy conversation. She smiled and waved at some of the younger students in greeting as she passed them, but for the most part kept to herself.

"Oh.' She followed his instructions and held her wrist toward her heart under her cloak. "I haven't much experience with injuries." Sisse admitted quietly as she watched the street in front of them. There was always someone else to take care of them after all and Sisse had never really been one for blood or the such nor the desire to become a healer and as such conjure her own queasiness.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

This was a strain of conversation he could run with. Alvin latched onto it, watching as she carefully readjusted her hand. "Hard to avoid in my household growing up." Before Sloane and Sawyer it had just been a hoard of rambunctious boys tearing their way through the garden and even after Sloane had gotten old enough, not much had changed. "Pretty sure Harrison was the only one not to break something at some point." It had happened more often than was probably normal. Harry was also the most responsible of them sometimes.

"I think Sloane was only six the first time she broke hers." Falling from a broom, as expected. Sloane was a comfortable subject, even if he knew it was hard for the both of them. Telling fond stories of her childhood was getting easier and easier. "After that it seemed like she was always injuring something." A frequent flier of the hospital wing, according to his mother who always got the letters detailing the visits from the nurse. Alvin had managed to escape anything too serious, a twisted ankle here and there, until the fire of course. Nothing on Wally counted at the moment; he'd faced a dragon and survived.

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"I can image." Sisse murmured remembering the stories Sloane had told her. Indeed she remembered plenty of Sloane's injuries herself. When they had been younger Sloane had always had such a wild energy, an energy that Sisse had chased and followed like a star to a sun. Knowing Sloane, and knowing how much trouble her own brothers had gotten into, she could easily picture the youthful Bixbys and their misadventures.

"She mentioned that, when she convinced me to take flying club." And yet how Sisse had found the arguement convincing now baffled her as she had indeed taken flying club as if she too were interested in one day being on the house team. Her broom and her had had distinctly agreed on that matter as it had rarely allowed her to fly straight, let alone upright.

"She did." Sisse found herself agreeing. "I felt like I was always going to the hospital wing with her." Especially after Sisse had been made prefect. But that had been in the before and this was in the now. A world so completely different from the life she had lived in those first early years at Hogwarts. "I'm sure she had your mother worried sick over all those visits." Which of course, Sisse realized as the words escaped into the cold air between them, was likely not at all what she ought to have said. It would remind Alvin of his mother's current grief, of Sloane's ultimate injury.

Quickly she backtracked, "I mean, my own mother would have had my head if I'd visited the nurse nearly as frequently." Well that certainly wasn't going to help this situation. "My brothers were bad enough. Henry has a penchant for finding trouble and so he was often getting hurt." She continued on trying to remedy her mistake. "I remember one time, well I'm sure I wouldn't want to bore you." She stopped, waving off the words and story and feeling like an utter fool altogether.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

Nodding along, Alvin realized he was relieved that somebody had been there for Sloane at school at the time. She'd had always wanted to be so independent, but she was still the baby after all. He smiled slowly, glad this was coming a little more naturally after everything that had happened this afternoon. He knew it was a bit of a show for Miss Pepper behind them, but Alvin was thankful for the feigned amiability at the moment.

"I'm glad to know she had somebody looking out for her at school." Alvin had graduated before she'd even started and though he'd known Harry had done his best to keep an eye on her, their overlap hadn't been that long either. Sloane had never been very good about listening to Wally in the long run, so at that point he'd done the best he could too. Still, that close-knit little group of friends Sloane had amassed was far more appropriate to keep her in line. Having Calla and Lester since childhood helped too.

As she dismissed the opportunity to tell a story about her brother, Alvin found himself frowning. He had told plenty about his family and he wanted to hear about hers. "I'd like to hear it," he prompted gently, raising an eyebrow at her as he dared to look her way.

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Sisse glanced up and realized that Alvin was looking at her and his words seemed...genuine. She swallowed and glanced back up at the street, grateful that they were in the more deserted parts of the street. "Oh, well. There was this one time when Henry started at Hogwarts and he managed to get stuck on a carriage wheel. His school robes were tangled so far into the spokes that the house matron had to cut him free. And while he was stuck he was kicked by a thestral right in the chest. And it was entirely because he was trying to play a prank on another student." Sisse shook her head slightly, lips turning up at last into a small smile. "Matthew, my older brother, was furious because mother wrote him the day after she received the nurse's letter and berated him for not watching over Henry enough. Naturally it was Matthew whom Henry was trying to play the prank on." Matthew, of course, had been so perfectly Matthew in declaring that Sisse ought to look after Henry more closely, but such were the consequences of her mother's letter when it came to Matthew.

"I can't even begin to tell you the amount of times he managed to backfire his wand. I swear his wand and him are in a constant battle. I will never understand how that particular match was made, given as it came from Ollivander's. But he seems content with it." And now she was rambling. Sisse took a breathe and stopped her words. Giving Alvin a chance to change the topic or reply or lapse into silence again. Anything to keep her from seeming more foolish in his eyes. Because ladies certainly didn't ramble like this.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom

Relieved that Miss Thompsett continued on with the story, Alvin nodded, winced and chuckled where appropriate. It was a good space filler to get them to the edge of town. "Sounds like quite the debacle." He summarized as he adjusted his drawing supplies to the other shoulder. He looked back over his shoulder at Miss Pepper and noted she was quite taken with their new surroundings.

It struck him that Miss Thompsett was also the only sister among boys, which made him think of Sloane again and then their friendship made a little more sense. They had always seemed so opposite, Sloane one of the boys in her pants and on a broom, Miss Thompsett every the young lady, more formal and polite. It was a good balance, he supposed.

The gate for the school came into view and Alvin sighed silently. This afternoon had gone any way but expected and now he had a lot of things to think through. "I hope the nurse can patch you up quickly without any problems." He offered by way of goodbye, noting that Miss Pepper had already turned and started back toward town. He planned to go back to the florist and take care of the icy steps for Mrs. Potts before going home. "I'll ah, see you around then." He scratched the back of his head with his band hand idly, unsure of what else to say.

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Alvin seemed to appreciate the story, not minding that she had rambled on. But it also had gotten them to the castle gates.

"Thank you Mr. Bixby." Sisse murmured, finding it hard to look at him now that they had stopped moving. "I apologize for taking up so much of your afternoon." Because truly she had to be an absolute nuisance at this point. She gave him a quick curtsey and tried to slip into the castle without looking like she was trying to escape because she couldn't look at him without thinking of kissing him and that reminded her of Christmas Eve and how very very foolish she was.

  

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Thank you Bee <3 Your magic has made Sisse bloom