Kurumi took a deep breath, swallowed back any tears that might have been trying to force their way out, and rooooooooooooooooooolled onto her side when she heard Selina speak. FUDGESICLE! She hadn't been counting on her roommate being IN the room. Noting the mirror now, Kurumi blinked up at Selina.

Selina really need to stop calling her kiddo. Kiddos didn't have the sort of problems she was dealing with.

"I'm okay," she said with an overly enthusiastic shake of the head. "Blonde you say? We know that spell from Transfiguration last year that I can easily perform on you and see how things go if you want. Transfiguration being one of my better subjects and all. I really don't mind."

Ramble much. Hollingberry?

They both knew that Selina was a terrible liar, and Kurumi was no better. The two of them were just incapable of keeping secrets from one another.

As Selina patted down the sheets on Kurumi's bed while she suddenly stopped short as Kurumi went off on a rambling fit. It took a moment for Selina to adjust to how fast her friend was talking. Right then and there Selina knew that something was terribly wrong. Kurumi only rambled when she was uncomfortable or keeping secrets or both. The Gryffindor Captain rose her eyebrow at her friend and crossed her arms. She sent the look in her friend's direction that translated in best friend speak to cut-the-hippogriff-dung-what's-the-matter?

To prove to Kurumi that she would not be leaving her friend's side until she told her what was the matter, Selina crossed her legs Indian style up on Kurumi's bed and folded her hands in her lap. Her lips curled into a small smile to try and put her friend at ease before she added, "You know you can talk to me, right? About anything. I promise you that I won't judge you or anything you do." She rested her hand on top of her friend's hand in a maternal fashion, "You can tell me.."

Merlin, she hoped that Kurumi would. Her friend had been distraught over the past few weeks, since they had gotten back from holiday. However, every time Selina went to go and talk to Kurumi something came up where she needed to attend to the team or do something else school related. Her and Kurumi had not really spoken in private in a while. But she was here now... ready to listen.

Lily walked into the dorms after a hard day lessons and could not wait to just relax in her dorm with her friends. She threw her bag on the floor just bedside her bed and took out her books to complete her homework but she couldnt consentrate because her owl kept flying around the room annoying Hanna a girl who Lily had never properly talked to. Eventually her owl was back to normal in its cage so she could focus on getting her homework done so that she could go down to the great hall with her friends.

That look. Did Selina have to give her that look. Kurumi felt that there was no way she could keep what she was hiding...and not just because Selina had already seen in. Slowly, Kurumi sat up and hugged her pillow to her chest, scooting her legs in close to her body to form a ball. "Y-You already know...Selina," she said softly. Selina might not remember it right now, but she had mentioned it in a prediction last term. A prediction that Kurumi hadn't taken seriously.

Swallowing, Kurumi brought her eyes to meet Selina's now.

"She...is dying Selina....my mother is dying and there is nothing I can do about it..."

And Kurumi buried her face in her pillow to try and muffle the tears that were once again pouring down her face.

Her mother was dying? Oh Merlin, that was not what she had been expecting. How could Selina even go about handling this situation? The redhead knew how to handle this situation to some level because she had lost her sister, but loosing love ones was something that Selina could not make better. It was something deep and personal. How could she tell Kurumi who she loved like a sister that it would be alright, when she knew first hand that it would NEVER be alright. Nothing would ever be purely alright ever again. Something was broken now and that something would continue to break until, well, until her mother passed.

So when Kurumi buried her head into the pillow that she was just laying on Selina's mouth hung open in shock. Her own blue eyes started to sting with tears and her hands that were folded in her lap to prove earlier that she would not leave Kurumi's side extended so she could rub her friend's back.

What could she say to make the pain subside? Death was a touchy subject, especially for Selina. It was no easy task. Most people would lie to Kurumi and tell her that it was going to be okay, to eat something, move on with her life as if nothing was different. However, something was different. Only the naive pretended that up and coming death was a none issue. It was a huge issue.

Swallowing her own personal issues with the subject of death for Kurumi's sake, Selina whispered, "Oh Merlin, Kurumi..." she started continued to rub her friend's back and continued, "I'm not going to tell you that it will all be okay, it won't. But I want you to know that I'm here and I love you. It will be hard, but you will make it through this." That was a lie... Selina didn't know that for sure, but she had a feeling she would find out soon enough.

Kurumi just sat there feeling numb to the world and numb to Selina's words. Why hadn't she taken her best friend more seriously during Divination last term? Maybe if she had done so...she would have had more time finding a cure and then she might have had a fighting chance. As it was...time was only running out.

"Spinocerebellar ataxia...it's a is a progressive, degenerative, genetic disease characterized by slowly progressive incoordination and often associated with poor coordination of hands, speech, and eye movements. Frequently, atrophy of the cerebellum occurs, and different ataxias are known to affect different regions within the cerebellum. It results in unsteady and clumsy motion of the body due to a failure of the fine coordination of muscle movements, along with other symptoms. The symptoms of an ataxia vary with the specific type and with the individual patient. Generally, a person with ataxia retains full mental capacity but may progressively lose physical control....until..."

Kurumi had her legs hugged to her chest as she spoke, rocking back and forth slightly as she mumbled what she had memorized from a medical journal over the break. She must have read that passage a million times, trying to pick it a part and find SOMETHING that she could use to make things better. Only nothing came, and her mother's illness was turning out to be a rapid progression, not slow.

It wasn't fair.

What could she say? What could she do that would make loosing someone better? Selina already knew the answer to that question. There was nothing she could do that would make this better. Kurumi was going to suffer, hurt; she was going to be left broken and beaten and battered and all Selina could do was stand by and hold her friend's hand as her life collapsed in front of her very eyes. Life wasn't fair. Why did people die when others needed them so much? Why did conflict remain unresolved because disease was the master of ceremonies in everyone's life? Why was it that Selina's mother was going to see her daughter get married, have kids, live a full life, while Kurumi's mother was not even going to see her daughter graduate?

The answer was simple. Life was not fair. Selina knew that better than anyone. Why did babies, who knew nothing of the world but smiles and giggles, get ripped from the earth so early and others who killed and knew only of hatred lived? Life was not fair.

But sometimes, just sometimes, there was beauty in life. There were things that made Selina think that perhaps life was not so bad and that things could and would be better. They had to be...

Or else she never would have bumped into Adam on the first day she stepped into Diagon Alley. He never would have introduced her to Kurumi and they never would have been friends, best friends. Or else she never would have literally run into Gideon on the platform and she would have lived her life not knowing he existed. Or else she never would have found the courage to walk up and introduce herself to Violet Le Veela and Elektra Draven when she was eleven. Or else she never would have gotten the time she had with her little sister, as short as it was.

So yeah, life was unfair... but there was so much beauty in the seams of it all.

She wrapped her arm around Kurumi so the girl could continue to shake and do what she needed to do to make herself calm. Then she cooed softly, "I can't say anything that is going to make this better. I'm just gonna hold you and let you know that I'm here for you. When you are ready we can talk, okay? But until then I'm just going to hold you... and I won't leave your side. Not for five minutes, five hours, five days, five weeks... whatever it takes. Because that is what best friends do... okay?"

Kurumi nodded...and sort of snorted as she tried to catch her breath through the tears that instantly began falling down her cheeks after she had finished her piece. Selina hugs were always appreciated, but there were a set of arms that the Gryffindor wanted to be in now that she couldn't have - and she wasn't just thinking about her father. On top of all this, her other pillar had left school and Kurumi felt more vulnerable than ever. She was already rather fragile as it was, but everything now was just breaking her.

Her hands went to her necklace and she clutched it as if it were a lifeline. She still couldn't find the words to respond to Selina. So she didn't. She just let her best friend hold her until she was pretty sure she had no more tears left to cry.

Jezzabelle felt her feet drag her to the dorm so she could crash on her bed. As she finally reached her destination she pulled the hangings around her bed closed and rooted into her pocket for one of the letters. Her dads handwriting was a little hard to make out but she managed to and really all he had written was that he missed her and that he was busy and that he'd see her soon. Her mothers letter just said she was busy and didn't have time to write to her.

In those letters it gave the knowledge of who she would be living with and she wanted to thank Merlin that while her father may not be the best person, he was the caring one. She felt her body shake though and the tears to threaten to over spill onto her pillow. She hadn't told anyone about the issues at hand. In all honesty, she had never felt so alone as he did in this moment. She couldn't seem to keep friends so became a lone....lion. Rolling onto her side thank finally felt the first tear fall and all she could think was that it was going to be a long night.

Rose looked up from her bed and saw a girl walk in, looking rather upset. She frowned and got up and moved over to the bed, sitting beside her. 'Excuse me, ma'am? Are you alright?' she said quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder. She knew that look that was in this girl's eyes. It was the look she had adapted when her mum had died. She had a problem, but didn't want anyone to know. But she wasn't that good at hiding it. Rose was going to try to help anyway she could.

Alex had been busy researching down in the grounds most of the day and decided to head up to the dorms to see how everyone was doing and maybe to have a lil snooze before dinner.

The third year went over to her bed which she sat upon and pulled some parchment and a quill from her beside drawer. She had been planning to write to Ronnie for a while just to see how she was and what was happening at Rupert and Holli's. Alex had also been wondering how Holli was and if the baby had arrived yet.