If anyone formerly in the dungeons had been paying any attention at all, they'd have noticed the hooded figure heading hastily down the hallways and toward the nearest exit. The face underneath the hood couldn't be seen, and that was just how the person underneath it wanted it to be.

The figure disappeared out the exit and walked just as quickly toward the courtyard. He or she, whoever it was to anybody watching, came to a stop at a bench. Good, there was no one else around. The person curled up on the bench, buried his or her head in her knees and just remained there...

...perfectly still.

Hecate was going to the grounds, making her way to... well... yeah... the grounds. She passed a dark ball on a bench... in a very familiar cloak.

She was going to go about her own business but the curiosity was too much... "Sier-Errr Miss Greingoth? Is that you?" She asked.

Sierra heard a leaf crunch on the ground and knew someone was growing closer. She tried to remain as still as a statue. Maybe they wouldn't see her, or maybe they'd just go away. ...and then the person spoke, and Sierra's eyes flashed open beneath the security of her knees and her cloak.

Wait--it was her mother?!

She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but either way, it was way better than being confronted by another student. Besides, she knew she'd be telling her mother soon anyway, so why not now? She just hated that she was crying when it happened.

Was this her underneath this cloak? "No," she firmly said, but she had that 'in the midst of crying' sound to her voice.

It was Sierra...

Sigh...

She sat by the girl and said "Well, whoever you are..." she looked around. "What's wrong, why are you out here and covered in Sierra's robes?"

The little ball of human underneath the robes shifted until the head of the person was resting on Lafay's shoulder. It stayed there for a moment until finally...

...Sierra looked up.

Her face was red and splotchy, and her eyes were watered with tears. A few trickled down her face. "I...couldn't...I...crying...everybody see," she said, her words a jumbled mess. She shook her head, indicating the words wouldn't come right now, and she buried her head back in her knees.

She just needed a few minutes. That's all.

She got a handkerchief out of her pocket and handed it to the girl. "Stop with the whimpering. And the crying... you know how I despise that." She waited for Sierra to gain her composure back.

Sierra accepted the handkerchief and did her best to dry her eyes. "Well, in all due respect," she said, still drying her eyes and face, "I did come outside to get away from everybody. I mean, I'm glad you're here, but...I did try to cry where nobody would see me." She finished drying her tears and, without thinking, plopped the handkerchief back in her mom's hands.

She took a deep breath. She could do this.

She reached into the pockets of her robes and pulled out a piece of folded parchment. Handing it over, she said, "Just...don't read it out loud," she said. She couldn't bare to hear it again. She looked like she might cry again and added, "I was just...coming back from class, and...Nox..." That was her owl. She trailed off and said nothing else for now.

Hecate read the parchment and then handed it back to her. "You are better off Sierra..." She said to the child. "Believe me, you are. He was not right for you... you need someone to challenge you, like your father does for me."

"Oh, right, Mom," she said, absentmindedly accepting the letter, "because it's just so easy to pick up the pieces of a broken heart, throw them back together, and chalk this all up to needing a bigger challenge." She refolded the letter and carefully tucked it back into her pocket. She had no idea why she was taking such great care of it when she should really rip it to a billion tiny shreds and toss it in the bin.

"I was good enough for him when he was here at Hogwarts, but since he's graduated and I'm just a seventh year, he suddenly abandons everything we've been through," she said. She could fill the tears coming on again, and before long, she'd choked out another sob. "Mama, I loved him, and he...he...he..." She released an audible sob, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. "He broke my heart."

"Well then..." She said looking down at Sierra, "I can't have him break your heart. Who does he think he is?! I'll just owl my contacts in Knockturn Alley... and we'll have him..." she looked around and then, with a very serious face, said "taken care of."

Simple as that.

Sierra suddenly stopped crying and looked at her mother as if the woman had suddenly grown five heads and nine arms. "You're going to--...?!" Sierra trailed off then took her own look around. When it didn't look like anyody was listening in, she continued.

"Mom, we can't just have him done away with," she said, whispering as if she was surrounded by a crowd. "Can't you just, I don't know--set him on fake fire instead?" She sighed. She had it bad for the boy. She didn't even want to see him get hurt.

She pulled the letter back out her pocket and silently reread it. "Mom, he signed it 'Stay safe.' We were together for a year, and that's how he ends it?" she remarked. She blinked as another tear trickled down. "Are my eyes red?" If they were, she wasn't going back inside anytime soon.

"If setting him on fire would make you happy... that could be arranged." She smirked. "I could always just tell your father... It would be funny to see him get picked up by a team of Aurors and threaten Azkaban..." She nudged her with her shoulder as she smiled a bit wider.

Of course they wouldn't do these things to the boy... but sometimes it made people feel better to think about it.

"He is a very stupid boy to let you get away... just as your father was when we were young. But if he hadn't, he would have never had you... so I would never go back and change that. If it is meant to be, he'll come back to you... for now... be angry with him, but don't be sad. He didn't die. Soon you'll be thankful to him... you won't feel guilty when someone who catches your eye, asks you out for tea..." And that better be all they ask her out for... or yeah... setting young boys on fire was going to be a more reaccurring happening.

She looked at the girl's eyes and waved her wand clearing them. "Not anymore."

Sierra actually smiled upon hearing that first comment. "Thanks," she said, the smile reaching her eyes. "I needed that." She looked at her mother and returned the smirk that only a mother and daughter could share. "Now that I'd like to see," she half-joked. "You know what's really bad? Hearing all this, I'm actually feeling sorry for him." She hated that she'd care if something happened to him.

Then the conversation finally turned to what Sierra had been looking for all along--her mother's wisdom and love. Sierra looked at her mom with wide, observant eyes as she listened and nodded along. "I'm sorry Daddy left you when you were younger, but you know, you're right about one thing. You and I were meant to be mom and daughter, but you didn't want kids when I would have been born to you," she pointed out. "So Daddy had to leave you for a while, but when he came back, he brought you me."

Then the talk turned to Kennedy again, but this time, Sierra felt a little stronger talking about him. "Maybe I'll go pro, and I'll meet someone on the road," she said. "Or...in the air." She smiled. "Whatever you call it when you travel with your team." It seemed strange to think about a time when she wouldn't always be at home with her mom and dad, but hopefully home would always be home, and nobody wanted to stay on the road all the time.

"I love you, Mom," she said.

She smiled listening to the girl talk. She nodded when she spoke about her time apart from Alexander and put a hand on her shoulder patting it. "As do I," She said and snuggled her close. "But now... no more tears. None. Understood? Go get your bat and go practice on the pitch or something... get Montmorency to help you."

Sierra snuggled into her mother's embrace and let the source of comfort melt away her heartache. "I understand. No more tears," she said, agreeing to their little deal. "Montmorency?" she asked, and she smiled a certain shifty little smile just then. "He's kind of hot, you know. Kind of. I haven't decided how strongly I feel about that statement just yet."

...but she'd suddenly realized that about her captain when she'd talked to him at the feast. Hmm.

Knowing their meeting was coming to an end, for now, Sierra wanted to squeeze in just one more thought. "Oh, and Mom? I just wanted you to know how lucky this school is to have somebody like you here," she said with a smile. "I don't know how often you hear that...or if you hear it at all, but I just thought you should know."

"The Slytherin captain does seem to have some sort of... charm." Bad Boy... Talented... captain... it was true. Little girls looked for their fathers in boys. "But, I was simply suggesting using the best player on the team to practice."

She nodded. "Thank you for saying it, but I don't need you to. I know my worth, and so do you. Let's leave it at that."

Sierra nodded. "Yeah, but...I wonder why it took me so long to notice it. I've been on the team for years with him," she said. She thought about this for a minute then added, "He has a girlfriend, though." Sigh. Now it seemed like everybody had somebody. Everybody but her. "So, yeah, I guess I'll just practice with the best--...hey! I'm supposed to be the one you call the best player!"

She winked, though. She wasn't serious. Maybe. Maybe not. The topic shifted, though, and Sierra found herself nodding again. "Yeah, I know, so we'll just leave it unspoken for now," she said. "How's Ariadne?" Their mom got to go home a lot, but Sierra had been stuck at school since it opened.

"The best OTHER than you." She said rolling her eyes. "I'm just saying practice, and you've got yourself going to Puddifoots with him... Merlin..."

KIDS!

"Your sister is fine... she's at the ministry and your father gets to visit her a lot..." which was great for her.

"Relax," she said, grinning as she picked up on that eye roll. "I was only joking. Maybe Dylan is the best, I don't know. We're really good about playing as a team, though, so at the risk of sounding like a Hufflepuff, we're really all the best." She sort of raised her eyebrows at the Puddifoot comment. Suddenly, her mind was filled with a mental image of her and Dylan sitting at Puddifoots, calling each other Dylan and Sierra and talking about things other then Quidditch.

EEP!

Change of topic. "So do you get to see her a lot?" she asked. She and her mom hared something in common when it came to Ariadne, and that was that they needed a bit of time to get used to her being around. She wasn't sure if her mom had visited her newest daughter or not.

"I don't like when you praise yourself... it gives you a a sense of self confidence that facilitates failure." She said sternly.

... Did she get to see Ariadne a lot...

"Anytime I wish to see her, I can..." There. That was a good answer.

Sierra took note of that stern look. She thought the Slytherins were winners even without a win. A win just made things so much better. A lot better, really. "So how'd you look at it when you were my age?" she asked. "In Hogwarts, I mean." ...because both her mom and dad had been on the same team. "Aren't you supposed to believe you can win?" Or was that just a Hufflepuff kind of thing that had somehow become widespread?

Sierra heard her mother's answer in regards to seeing Ariadne as much as she wished, but she also saw right through it. They'd had that talk just before school started about how they both shared similar feelings when it came to Ariadne. What those feelings were would stay between them, though.

Sierra smiled and put an arm around her mom. "You're a good mom to her, you know. I know you weren't looking to have another child, but I'm really proud of how you're handling her. She's a lucky girl," she said. She smiled again. "I'm a lucky girl. You know, sometimes when Ariadne cries, I think she just wants her mom. She knows you love her."

"Well we did horrible my first year, I was good, your father superb, but Amoro- I mean Uncle Ian, was held back by our idiot captain. And the seeker was horrid. Then my second and third year on the team we had Gandana as seeker and he was alright. But he was better as a chaser as your father found out. He put Knott in the seeker position once he became captain and we became invincible, but none of us boasted about being winners. That would have surely jinxed us." she understood being positive, but cocky wasn't good.

"Thank you Sierra, now... Don't you have some bludgers to beat?" She asked changing the subject.

Sierra admired the way her mother remembered so many details about her time on the team. She could just tell how important it had been to both her mother and her father. She just nodded, though. "I know," she said, looking down at the ground and kicking at the dirt. "We really don't h ave reason to brag. We haven't had a winning season in at least two years." Since Evelyn left, she thought.

"Fair enough," she said. She smiled when she got the next hint. "Okay, okay, so it's time to go. I get it." She directed her smile to her mother. "Come get me sometime, though. Take me home for a weekend or something. I want to see Dad and Ariadne." She looked behind her, in front of her, and all around. Not seeing anybody, she hugged her mother long enough to let all the hurt from Kennedy's letter go away. "I love you, Mom."

Ronnie skipped down to the courtyard, carrying her sketchbook and a quill. She sat down on one of the benches, placing the sketchbook and pencil beside her. She then pulled her bright red hair into a ponytail and sighed, leaning forwards and peering at the fountain. "I guess I'll draw the fountain..." she muttered to herself, picking up her sketchbook and flipping it open to the first empty page. She then took her quill and began drawing the fountain.