Not lowering her wand until her Corsican Ram patronus came trotting back to her with a boastful shake of its mighty head. Shaking her head and snorting softly as its silvery form dissipated into the darkness of the forest, Valerie turned around and immediately knelt down in front of the boy while making sure her eyes were level with his as he cried. “Shh...it will not get you,” she cooed softly while reaching up with her free hand (the one not clutching her wand) to try and wipe his tears away with her thumb. He bore an infuriating resemblance to Ryan and it was tugging at her heart uncomfortably. Knotting it. Twisting it. Punishing it. Reminding her once again of things she had shut away to survive.

Was this task meant to play mindgames with them? Had she walked right into some elaborate Illusion Charm or even Environmental Illusion Charm that knew what to manifest in front of her. For the briefest of moments her adrenaline morphed into rage and disgust over this tournament using an innocent child like this. She still refused to believe that to be the case, but if this was one of her professors polyjuiced as the child it best be Professor Williams, Potions Master, and not anyone else for reasons she would not disclose in thoughts at present.

Present. She was back in it once again and listening to his cries while suppressing the voices of the past scratched and clawed at her consciousness. He probably had no concept of time out here in the woods so there was no sense in wasting her breath in asking. Besides, it was transparent in manner of his trembling and tone of his whimpers that it had been more than enough time to become overwhelmed by the effects of a dementor. The quick fix remedy for that was obvious, but it had never crossed her mind to carry a bar of it in her back pocket. Her owl eyes searched the surrounding area for anything useful (perhaps that thick stick over there could serve as a walking stick for the boy?) but nothing was feeling particularly inspiring.

As her hand tightened around her wand, Valerie internally sighed and raised it. The mind was an intricately powerful thing, capable of tricking constantly and playing with memories. Even reality. The reality right now was that her pockets were devoid of the very confection necessary to help alleviate the situation.

But she had her wand and it would serve a means of tricking this boy’s mind into thinking she did.

“I have something that will help,” she continued, pushing herself to force a smile on her porcelain features in the same way she had done that day for Ryan. She made an exaggerated display of reaching into her back pocket with her left hand, ensuring that she drew his attention there while her other lifted her wand above his head and began circling it there as she focused on a very specific image in her mind. “Sentio Somnium,” she breathed out as a pale purple string of light dripped from her wand, on to his head, and vanished. Giving the charm a moment or two to take effect, the sixth year removed her hand from her pocket and pulled out a Hershey’s chocolate bar along with it. “Here,” she said while tearing at and pushing this silver metallic wrapping down. “Have a bite. It will help you feel better. Then we will get you out of here.”