Eden had skipped dinner in favor of enjoying some much needed quiet time. Totally not because she was anxious and had no friends.

She sat wrapped in a comfy, scourgify-d blanket at one of the study tables, what remained of her snack/dinner - sninner? dink? - of beef jerky and black tea before her. She'd meant to send out letters inquiring about internship or odd job opportunities over school holidays, but had ended up just daydreaming. Green lawns, steam curling over hot coffee on a balcony, coming home to eat dinner and make sure all of her ducks were in order. Red hair times infinity, sunscreen bills out the wazoo. Usually she quashed these thoughts, saved them for when she was on the brink of sleep and wanted nice dreams. At fifteen, she needed to be focused on her career. She shifted in her seat, looking down at the stack of newsprint she'd ignored for an hour.

Dinner would probably be over soon, but maybe nobody would bother her? There were only a handful of people she actually wanted to see. Friends she wanted to see if she still had.

Ash was passing through the common room on her way to the dorms(she was a little tired and wanted to go to bed early) when she spotted a familiar figure sitting at one of the tables. "Eden?" Up until recently, she had figured her friend was dead or missing somehow, what with never writing and all(for the record, that was upsetting). It had been a while. And she still worried that things wouldn't be the same, or Eden wouldn't like her, or she wouldn't like Eden, or... or something. Maybe Eden would randomly disappear again. Who knew, really. But Ash wouldn't avoid a friend. She found a blanket for herself and sat down at Eden's table. "Is that enough for you to eat?" Ash could still get her food, even if she didn't want to eat in the great hall.

"I was just going to bed, getting my potions and books and everything, but then I saw you so then I didn't." She shrugged. "I figured I'd say hi." Seeing as they were friends(If they weren't, she certainly hadn't been owled about it), and that's kind of what friends did. Besides making sure everyone had food. Really, was that enough? It looked more like a snack than a proper meal.

OOOF. Internal oof. Maybe a little showing on her face oof. Ashley was going to be the hardest to face, she knew it, because Eden really kind of had been out of order to not owl. And here she was being nice. She looked taller and...calmer? Though she hadn't really not been calm before...they'd all just been pushed to their limits. If Eden or Ashley could read thoughts, they'd find a lot of their worries were the same.

Eden couldn't read thoughts, and Ashley couldn't either as far as Eden knew, so the redhead had to open her mouth and actually communicate, which was very lame. "Ash!" There was a warmth in her that only came when she spoke to good friends and her brother.

Food? Who cared about food? "Yeah, it's plenty. I eat a lot in the morning," she waved off her friend's concerns. "I'm...glad you stopped to say hi. I missed you." Ash might have something to say about that last bit, and if she did, well...Eden would deserve it. Deep breath. "I'msorryIdidn'twrite."

Ash relaxed a little. Which was pretty much relaxing a lot, relative to Ash. She was almost never relaxed. Happy sometimes. But not totally 'relaxed'. Unless she was with Theodore or a very specific set of people. This was not a relaxing situation in the slightest, in fact it was confusing and stressful. But she relaxed a little. Which was good. It was good.

As long as Eden had enough to eat, Ash wasn't too worried about whatever it was she had been eating and why she wasn't down for dinner. She was worried about lots of things all the time. She had to let go of the minor things.

"I missed you too." That was something she had been worried about, sort of worried sick because of that and other stuff. But it wasn't necessary to point that out- it would just sound passive aggressive and make Eden feel bad. Which wasn't quite what Ash was going for. "It's okay. Nobody's mad." She pulled her blanket tighter around herself. "Where have you been?" Eden had missed a lot. And had she chosen to not write by choice, or for another reason? (Ash thought it was because she'd died, but that was quite obviously incorrect). She hoped Eden had fun, or at least stayed out of trouble while she'd been away. (Ash could be remarkably optimistic when she wasn't expecting the worst.)

Ash...wasn't angry? Eden pulled her own blanket tighter. She wanted for a moment to grab the older girl and pull her into a hug. This was extremely out of character for Eden and she immediately fought that particular desire away.

Eden cracked a smile, placed both palms on the table, and looked into Ash's eyes. "This is going to sound mad."

It'd sounded mad to Eden and Elijah, but the timing couldn't have been more convenient. At first she'd worried her mum would try to put a stop to it - but upon Tracy's release it had been obvious her mum basically considered her grown, now. The woman had cried over missing so much of Eden's life, but after that they hadn't known what to do with one another. Eden wasn't what her mother expected.

"I was at this lady's house in Manhattan."

Ashley smiled despite herself. She couldn't help it, you know. Eden was back, and here, and... Ashley was so happy and relieved about it. She couldn't even be mad(or disappointed, yet).

...knowing that most of the things Eden said sounded mad, Ash wasn't sure what to expect. SO she was surprised by the answer. A lady's house in Manhattan? That didn't sound too wild. Which made her pay more attention than she would have. "Safely, right?" And who was the lady? Not that Ashley was interested in prying. She was just a little apprehensive about something 'mad' involving some lady, Eden vanishing off the face of the Earth, and Manhattan.

"Yeah, I was fine. So you know how I, uhm," Eden did not look ashamed as she searched for words. "You know how during the summers I sort of get in trouble sometimes?" She preferred 'conducting research' and 'making friends', but potato tomato or whatever.

"Well, summer after third year I was supposed to spend July camping in Ecuador on this Potions scholarship program, but right before I went I got into some...trouble...back home and wasn't allowed to go." Eden needed to stop this from getting long winded. "But it was a really good opportunity and important for making connections for my career, so...I went anyway. I had some money saved from doing nails so bought a plane ticket and I already had a muggle passport, so I just flew, you know? I left a note. I was there for not a week when I got my first howler. From Elijah! He figured out how to send a HOWLER! I was actually proud of him. But he also got actual adult wizards involved and showed up via floo to ream me out in person the next day. Anyway, my teacher there managed to calm things down enough so I didn't go home. The kicker is that she liked me a lot more after that? It turns out she works for a small private school in New York and she offered to discount my rate to next to nothing and "keep me out of trouble", which essentially meant giving me a job in her Potions lab. I might have had to chemically convince Elijah into agreeing on that one? Which cost the rest of my money at the time, but whatever. I stayed in her spare bedroom. I came back to sit my O.W.Ls. "

That was... a small understatement. Worthy of an eyebrow raise. "I do know." Ash listened to the rest of the the story without comment until the end(she wished Eden would stop trying to give her brother a heart attack though). She absolutely didn't want to know what 'chemically convincing' meant, by the way. Eden would be smart to not let her think about it. "So you're getting a head start on your career in potions? That's great! What have you done so far?" She smiled slightly. "Guess I need to start writing books and essays. Can't let you get too far ahead of me."(that was a joke.)

She stretched out in her chair. "Are you focused on any OWLs besides potions? Charms are always useful. And herbology could be relevant." Maybe CoMC, if Eden was taking that.

"You've missed so much stuff happening! Well, I suppose you could have read my letters. But I didn't write the whole time because dead people didn't read. So much stuff happened. That's just how this place is." Ash took her OWLs... she got tattoos... her friend died... she cast spells at a board member... they had much catching up to do someday.