Garreth wasn't sure what had startled him the most; Azura's sudden outburst, or the loud hooing and wing-flapping that it had caused from the massive horde of owls behind the counter. It took him a second for his flustered brain to piece together that he wasn't being mauled by some kind of owl monster, but had in fact been hugged by one of his best friends. Could he call her that? They hadn't spoken all that much, but she was really lovely, and they had fun. Besides, relatively speaking, the only other student at Hogwarts with whom he had interacted more was probably Rachel. If that didn't make Azura a 'Best Friend', what did?

"Oh, hey! Azura!" he smiled, once his farting brain figured out that that was the appropriate response. "I've missed you too! I'm sorry I haven't left the dorm very much these last couple weeks. I've been working on-" he stopped himself and paused for a moment. Maybe he shouldn't tell her. Maybe she'd laugh at him or something. "Erm, nevermind." he cleared his throat with an awkward nod. "But you, what have you been up to?" he asked, eager to know what his friend had been doing while he was busy working on... well, nevermind.

Of course there was no way for Garreth to know about any of the stuff that had been going on with Azura lately, but despite her bright smile, her eyes looked tired. Of course, he remembered what they looked like when she was happy. With eyes like hers, how could he forget? And whatever she was feeling, or had been feeling lately, it wasn't happiness. "Everything alright?" he asked, a little quieter.