Originally Posted by Felixir

It was a good job the ferret had sort of woken him up out of his earlier reverie, otherwise the clap on the shoulder from Dakest would have made him jump about a foot in the air. But no, it was fine, even though Toby hadn't heard him coming over he simply looked around to see who was there, one hand still petting Soph's patronus.

Take it easy. Words... he had been told a bazillion times before, though in a very different context, and words that were easier said than done.

He was quiet for a moment, eyes searching Dakest's face. Talk later? Toby had his misgivings, but... it was worth a shot. He liked visiting professors anyway, and while he was there he could insist properly about how there were no real Dark wizards. And maybe talk patronuses. Maybe.

"Okay, sir," he finally said, with a nod. "... Thank you."

Dakest just... seemed real nice? Patient. Toby liked that.



Back to the patronus then, except now Soph was here too. He started to nod at what she was saying, and opened his mouth to speak, but then abruptly stopped nodding when it... perched up on his head. Um. Ferret. Pls.

"I like her," he said, and quite genuinely too. But it was making him think of how nice it would be to have a companion like that, who'd always be there as long as you could conjure one. Like a permanent pet. That's what it was like. It was like everyone was getting a pet, but Toby wasn't allowed one. Which wasn't even true, it was more like he wasn't allowing himself to even ask for one, but that wasn't how it worked in his own, irrational mind. "... But yes. I'll say hi to her later. I just... I think I'm gonna go..." he waved his hand vaguely off in a random direction, the rest of his sentence unfinished. Gonna go do what? Practice alone? No. Maybe just... go. "You could go help Zander out, though. I bet he'd appreciate that."

If that came across as mean or bitter, that wasn't Toby's intention at all. It was a genuine suggestion; he'd seen Zander's expression earlier, when he'd looked up to see who cast the ferret, and was willing to be anything he was having trouble with the lesson as well, so... y'know. Toby was only really focusing on patronus feels, after all.

He waited until she'd called the patronus off, which actually made him feel sadder, like when the otter had given him a wide berth earlier. Toby loved animals, even in this form, and it broke his heart to turn his back on them, or see them do the same to him. But still he smiled at Soph, and get the patronus a goodbye 'pet', then turned and wandered off.

... off to the very edge of the room, where he promptly sat back down and watched everyone else at work. He was technically still ~thinking~, though he'd already decided on two memories that would have worked. One, easy, the day he was officially adopted, though sometimes that memory was still tinged with fear of things. He'd not even have considered that if Dakest hadn't mentioned the whole 'don't let it get shaken up by fear', 'cause that only happened when things got really bad. But now he was thinking about it anyway. And then there was Curtis, his little brother. Not even a particular memory, just Curtis. Thinking of him. But... oh Merlin, he missed him, he wanted to be home and with him, and that made him so sad. And now every happy memory he had was turning sad, and he was trying to take it easy but it was hurting his head and making his eyes sting and none of it felt very fun at all.

Toby put his wand away, now back to playing with that darn thread on his sleeve while he waited out the rest of the activity.