Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mad Eye Touz 
"....but....," Aspen picked up after his encouragement, "I...," ..... How to say what she was thinking? WHAT she was thinking was kind of horrible and SO unlike her. "It's like... I was SO worried about coming here and leaving West. I told Dad everyday after he told me I was coming here that West would need me. In hindsight, that's probably why he sent me here." Because Aspen was playing Mom to West, and had been for years.
"..turns out, West is fine without me, and I'm worried less here. I think that was Dad's plan and it's working, and I hate to say it, but West was out of sight, so he was out of mind."
But now he was coming to Hogwarts. He could be in Ravenclaw even - And that SHOULD make Aspen happy... He'd be back in her sights.
"That's a weird reaction to the good news my little brother is going to get the same chance I got to attend this great school." Yes. Yes it was. "See?"
Cornelius listened patiently as Aspen explained the history she had with her brother - that she tended to worry about him a lot before she had come to Hogwarts, and was convinced that her father had sent her here partly to get her to stop worrying about her younger brother. That made sense. He could easily see Aspen fretting over a younger sibling, it wasn't a stretch at all for the girl he had grown to know over the past few months. But she was having a weird reaction to the news.
He couldn't quite understand exactly what she was worried about, but he got some kind of sense from the way she was talking about it.
"It is a good thing," he reminded her softly, his gaze searching her own as he tried to pinpoint what exactly was wrong. Setting down his fork as he finished his food, he turned to her a bit more as he thought about it all.
"Are you afraid you're gonna start worrying about him again?" Cornelius asked softly, once more resting his arm across her knees and placing his chin on his forearm. He searched her green eyes with his own light brown ones, interest falling into his features.
He brought up his other hand to absentmindedly tuck her hair behind her ear as he always did, letting his thumb linger on her cheek for a moment as he examined her expression. Her earlier words were obviously true - she was his favorite. And even if he was unaware of how he looked, it must have been obvious to anyone that looked at him that he had some kind of soft spot for Aspen Odessa.