6 June, '95 — Padmore Park
Summer Triangle Viewing Party

It was like dreaming, really, except with eyes wide open. All the pretty patterns in the stars might have never made sense to her without someone to point them out. Astronomy always seemed like nonsense in books, and in class. What did finding a particular star matter to anyone down here on the ground anyway?

The urchin had a glimpse of them now, looming larger than the little pinpricks against the night sky. Larger than life, too, when assuming the roles their constellations had in the evening's stories. Starring roles, naturally, like any player would aspire to. Charley did, too, when there wasn't something smaller holding her back. Something more down to earth, the sort she'd rather care less about than her stomach or feet did. With her legs crossed in the grass, she feasted with her eyes at the sky, and it might have just been enough to keep her full for a day.

Just not tonight.

She saw the woman coming near, long enough to get up onto her elbows and grab the cap from behind her. Beyond its brim and the roofs of Hogsmeade, Charley didn't have much reason to look farther up most days. And most nights it was enough to have a warm bed and cold food. Having a minute to look up at something else had been nice for a while, but the urchin knew that was over before the woman even opened her mouth.

"Don't hafta say it to me, Professor. I s'pose I'll be off now, too." Charley couldn't see anyone else who had overstayed the night's stargazing session, or she might think the woman had more to say about it. Not that she thought Professor Lyra had much good to say in her direction anyhow, not with the grades she'd managed in the woman's class. On the nights she managed to stay awake, that is.

Her cot by the flower shop's hearth was plenty suited for dreaming, anyhow.

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Themis Lyra

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It surprised her how much she missed teaching in the summer. The first weeks after the term, she was usually glad for the silence in the castle, but so much had changed since last summer. She did her best to ignore the list of ways she felt different as she moved around the park. She could still hear the bustle of the work crews as they dismantled the evening's exhibits. She wandered the area along the shore in the darkness, her eyes trained on the stars. She knew them well and took comfort in the stars that never failed her.

She contemplated turning back when she encountered a girl in the grass. In the darkness of the viewing area, Themis wasn't certain if the face was familiar or not. She didn't seem familiar, but the girl at least had sat through her lecture tonight. "I am not throwing you out. The park is not mine to control. I am sure you have someone who is wondering where you are so late." Themis didn't scold, especially not for star gazing, but she was a mother.

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   Charley Goode

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Lou made magic!

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Having her cap in hand kept on familiar thing in Charley's grip. It was odd enough to find professors outside of Hogwarts, teaching like the world was their classroom too. That sort of thing didn't excite her all that much, she liked to steer clear of them most often, in fact. On most nights, the young flower girl could hardly get away from the shop anyway, making tonight already special enough to while away a few minutes staring up at the stars afterwards.

Staring at the professor dim form didn't seem as familiar to the urchin. Not just for the years since she had been in the woman's class, either. Most anyone in Hogsmeade would just as soon see Charley off as hold a real conversation with her. Professor Lyra wasn't doing either of those yet, but her words were coming dangerously close to choosing a side.

"No candles burnin' in windows for me," she offered with a shrug, unsure how visible that would be in the darkness, and not really minding if it went unseen. She donned her cap again anyway, just in case the night's educator changed her mind about kicking her out, sitting it firmly on the ginger hairs not plaited into the shabby braid behind her. "I get by jes fine."

Charley kept her seat for now, like she was daring the professor's whims to change. And maybe she was, grown-ups liked to talk about giving choices and opportunities to her sort, just so long as urchins like her stayed where she was supposed to be. It was just as well that Mrs. Mann nor Crouch ever really waited up for her, Charley would have liked to disappoint them least of all those in Hogsmeade.

Their words meant something to her. The weight of the woman's words could easily twinkle off like starlight before she could blink.

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That was not an answer that calmed the mother in her. "Lumos minima," she raised her palm, and a soft light glowed. She got a better look at the child before her. She was small, but easily old enough for Hogwarts. She had a passing familiarity, but Themis knew she wasn't a current student. Who was this girl running about in pants in the dark? She led with her curiosity, didn't want the girl shutting down her questions.

"I am sorry, but I cannot walk away and leave you here by yourself. I am sure there is nothing to worry about, but it would not be wise." Themis didn't bother explaining herself further to the child, but this was not open to negotiation. She couldn't leave a child alone in the park near midnight. Themis could hear her son's voice in her head, teasing her for being such a mother, but it wasn't the sort of thing she'd ever been able to escape. As a girl, her friends just called it "bossy" or "being Themis." She never cared what it was called, as long as all were clear she would be responsible for the good of the group.

Not wishing to appear threatening, Themis lowered herself to the grass, sitting a few paces away from the girl. "Tell me, do you enjoy Astronomy? I teach it. It was my favorite class in school." Themis offered, hoping to coax a bit more information out of this little mystery. "Are you in school?"

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   Charley Goode

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Lou made magic!

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Charley was only really annoyed that the light dimmed her view of the stars, leaving her focus entirely on the professor. She was a spirit in the dark, all aglow against the night sky. Just for a moment, the urchin could remember what it was like, really like, at Hogwarts. Back before it had been easier to hate it than give herself a chance to regret the truly magical place that had left her behind.

"S'pose you'll be waitin' here for a while, then, if yer 'spectin' my folk'll be by to collect me." Charley didn't mind the woman taking a seat next to her, and now in the light she could see enough to pick out some of the taller, thicker grasses from the ground. Plucking them with her fingers, they set about lining them up until she had the right pair among the rest. It was easier than trying to answer the thousand questions that dribbled forth from the professor's mouth, one that Charley had actually enjoyed listening to during the actual program. Then, they hadn't been the same words she'd heard, and been asked, a thousand times already.

"Sometimes...and nope." Her curt response wasn't trying to be rude, really. The urchin just really wanted the professor to past the point where she was just a sob story. As soon as the woman could understand that Charley wasn't about to crumple into tears at the very mention of the school or parents who had abandoned her, she might be able to figure out the game.

There was always a game.

The makeshift whistle came up to her mouth and she tested it, softly. Being nighttime, though still pretty far from any homes, Charley thought better of piercing the dark with a shrill whistle. Maybe she could summon the Park Ghost, Barnabas, or something from out of the water. The idea put a grin on her face, and she took a second to sit all the way up, still coming half a head below the professor seated next to her. She was a tall one, for sure.

"Jes a working girl now, figured you came by 'cause of my face or summat. Used to be one of 'em in yer class up at the castle when I went, uhh..." Charley had to think with her fingers for a second, and flicked the whistle away to float back to the dark ground beyond their circle of light. Sometimes it was just good to know she could still make a grass whistle, had nothing to do with the tenderheart sitting in her skirts on the grass. She counted on her fingers, coming out to three somehow, and even the urchin was surprised by that. "a while back."

The grin reappeared for a moment to cut in on that sour turn of events, "Reckon I en't quite the same now, eyes wide open an' all."

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Themis didn't react to the girl's attempted deflection. Alright, either this girl was breaking curfew or, tragically, she could be telling the truth. Themis opted to test the theory, knowing that a lie would break the girl before it had Themis giving up and apparating home. Even if she wasn't a professor, she was a mother. It would take much more than a child's posturing to get her to leave.

She was quickly gathering the opinion that the child was not, in fact, joking as the deep of the night darkened, lights going out in the village around them. The young girl made a whistle of the grass and Themis hid her smile in the darkness. She was fond of doing the same, as a girl.

She was silent for a while, simply listening to the sounds of the darkness, as she listened to the younger child. Themis considered her next words; considered them carefully, before saying. "Learning, growing, changes all of us. I am sure you have changed very much since you were in my class." She looked at the girl, really looked and tried to imagine her shrinking in her robes and eyes darting about the classroom. The image almost matched a memory. "You were sorted into Gryffindor, I believe. Miss?"

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   Charley Goode

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Lou made magic!

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Professor Lyra was like her stories, only coming to life when she talked. The rest of the time, the woman sat all stony faced. Maybe it was why she liked the mythical stories in the first place, they were just like her. Not that Charley minded, really, tougher crowds had stared her down before. And she could win over the professor just the same, too.

"Charley," she answered, finally enough of interest to the starry-eyed woman to be asked her name. Nobody bothered to get hers much of the time, but sure would get on fast to boxing ears if the urchin got theirs wrong. Lyra's was easy enough with the stories she told tonight, her name was right in them, and Charley partly wondered if she'd picked it herself.

If Charley had to pick a name now, it sure wouldn't be Goode.

"Right, 'cause of the hair." Charley's lips twisted to the side, making the freckles on that side of her nose into one big smudge. "Has to be, nobody with a bleedin' mane ever gets anywhere but Gryffindor." The day she had been sorted at Hogwarts, Charley had known nothing about all the houses and their special little quirks. Sometimes she could swear she learned more after leaving Hogwarts than she'd ever learned at the school. And whenever the ginger-haired, freckled urchin had run into others of her sort, they always wound up being in Gryffindor somehow.

"Got yer scrappy and hard-knock sorts in Slytherin, of all houses, but mind the hat, red'll never get far from the lion's den!" Waggling a mocking finger at some unseen foe, the original Gryffindor maybe, Charley laughed at her own amusement. She glanced at the woman to take stock of her audience, just in case there was a smile on that stony facade yet. The urchin could sit here 'til sunup with the odd minder if she really wanted that, but it didn't mean she wasn't going to amuse herself in the meantime.

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   Themis Lyra

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