moon cycles and raven feathers [r. lupin]

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may 31st, 1976

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"I can't believe you're actually leaving me cath, i mean what would eleven year old you think of this? i bet she wouldn't leave me!"
"eleven year old me wouldn't have had a reason to leave in the first place delia."

cath, for the millionth time, had tried to explain to her best friend, cordelia hatch, that she would in fact be leaving over the summer to live with her father in london, no matter how much she protested. fresh off his divorce, he had just got a new job and cath was more than eager to get a new start away from her parents messy relationship, her overbearing mother, her reputation at ilvermorny and everything else. cordelia (or just 'delia' as she was more commonly known.) had fought her friends impending move with all the night she could muster, she was shorter than most of the girls her age and occupied a smaller frame but that didn't stop her from being the most bull headed and tenacious girls cath had ever met.

this particular conversation was going down in the middle of a native american magic exam. both of the bickering teenage girls happened to excel in the subject and had already finished their finals. delia was attempting to quickly scratch a response down on their note passing parchment before professor philpot caught her, but she was too slow.
"ladies..." philpot's scratchy voice called out as she made her way to the back of the room. delia and cath made eye contact.
click
"this-"
clack
"if you hadn't been so slow-"
click
"if you weren't leaving-"
clack
"if you weren't such a raging-"
click
"ladies, do pray tell why my exam isn't interesting enough for you?"
the class laughed before professor philpot shot them a nasty look and told them to resume their work.
"we're done professor" responded cath
"we don't even have our exams out anymore, we weren't cheating!" chimed in delia, who looked up at her teacher with the biggest puppy dog eyes she could muster.
as the girls attempted to defend their actions their professor picked up their notes parchment, presumably assuming she would find something obscene written but when she read it she just sighed and turned to delia,
"do refrain from passing notes during future exams miss. hatch" and with that she walked away.

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the two girls sat in uncomfortable silence for the rest of the exam, stealing long glances of each other and making attempts to argue without opening their mouths, but as soon as class let out they were out the door and again bickering about cath's suddenly planned move.
"i just don't understand it, why do you want to leave? you're gonna miss everyyyyyything cath!!" she said dragging out the 'y' in 'everything' dramatically.
"you're gonna miss ilvermorny, and the coven, and the goddamn webster ceremony! i mean come on cath, that's literally your family's ceremony!!"
delia stopped in her tracks and turned to face cath "plus, most important of all, you're gonna miss me!" she said, again flashing her big baby blues in manor that screamed 'don't test me, i will cry.'.
cath sighed at friend's antics, not wanting to continue the conversation.
"i have to go dels, it's like emotionally important to me, like i have to get out of here or i'm going to hang myself-" she paused "-and NOT mary webster style"
"besides, i'll still visit, and we can write each other. you can't tell me that you wouldn't get out of this soulsuck if you didn't have the chance." she paused quickly to gesture to tge students walking around her before speaking again, "plus, you always said you wanted a pen pal."
delia threw her arms up in the air dramatically, clearly exasperated by her friends refusal to what she asked.
"pen pals cath, and best friends who leave each other, are two very different things. you. know. that." she punctuated each one of her words by thrusting her pointer finger into cath's chest.
"this is the worst thing that's ever happened to me, honestly! this is actually insufferable!"

cath roller her eyes before walking off, calling out to her friend who was still stood stationary in the middle of a now almost empty hallway.
"if this is the worst thing that's ever happened to you then you obviously wouldn't understand why i'm leaving. i mean merlin dels you're so dramatic, maybe i'm leaving to get away from you."
"hey!! totally not funny catherine!!"

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when cordelia had finally caught back up to cath in their common room, who was now relaxed on a couch in front of the fire place combing through the pages of some no-maj book, she sighed.
"i'm not going to be able to talk you out of this, am i? if there's something i can say i'll say it, just tell me what it is."
cath looked up from her book and gave her friend a sad smile,
"absolutely nothing. are you just now realizing that?"
"no cath, i'm not dumb. it's not dumb to not want the girl you've spent the past 8 years with to ditch you. i'm not just now realizing it i'm just now-" she looked for the right word for a minute before finally stumbling on it.
"i'm just now accepting it."

cath managed to squeak out a soft 'sorry' before the two girls began sit in silence, both knowing that they couldn't say anything to change the others mind on the subject, finally, delia spoke:
"you know changing schools isn't freedom cath, freedom doesn't involve neckties and collared shirts." she said with a sad smile, cath chuckled at her blonde friends final attempt to get her to stay put in salem, "collared shirts are free enough for me delia, at this point they have to be."

and she really hoped that she was going to be right about that.