Carry You (Alyra)

[Deleted]

April 20, 2025

Chrissy, a crown of chrysanthemums now sitting atop her head, continued through the greenhouse with a lighter step than usual. How was it, she wondered, that she had been fortunate enough to cross paths with someone else who understood that the world was more dark and complicated than most people ever cared to acknowledge? There was someone else out there who understood the memories that she couldn't articulate. Maybe Summer didn't speak in essays, but there was something about the older girl that had made Chrissy feel like she wasn't the only one who had to fight off what ran through her head.

She didn't even know if she would get the opportunity to see Summer again, she realized as she entered the area of the festival where the vendor booths were, but how big could the United Kingdom really be? And then, as if on cue, she saw someone else at one of the stalls.

It was Sunday, Chrissy remembered; maybe Alyra wasn't too busy with work and had decided to come to the festival for a while. She hadn't expected to see her there, but it wasn't as though Alyra wasn't legally her guardian and hadn't signed off on the very permission slip that had allowed her to visit the festival.

"Lee!" Chrissy called, beaming. Just in case, she quickened her pace so that she wouldn't miss her.

@alyra

[Deleted]

Lee was off work all day, well, she was out of the office at least. She was still technically working but this type of work was a little more enjoyable. She didn’t expect that anything would go wrong at the flower festival, but after the last time that Hogsmead hosted a festival, she didn’t want to risk anything. So she was there, walking around, and actually getting to enjoy herself a bit. She wondered if she’d run into Mazie or Chrissy today, since they had given them both permission to go to the village, but she hadn’t told them that she was coming. She didn’t know whether either of them would be there either. So a smile crawled onto her face when she heard her name being called from the familiar voice. Chrissy! She turned around and waved excitedly to the young girl, opening her arms as she got closer to wrap the girl into a hug. “Chrissy! How are you? Look at your crown!” Lee giggled.

@chrissy

[Deleted]

April 20, 2025

Alyra turned around when she called out her name, and she waved at her before opening her arms for a hug. If it were anyone else, Chrissy would have been hesitant, but she wasted no time in reaching the redhead so that she could hug her back.

"Chrissy! How are you? Look at your crown!"

"You like it? I made it," Chrissy smiled as she hugged Lee. She would have made one for her, too, if she had known that she was going to be coming to the festival, though even the one that she was wearing had taken a while to be completed because of her conversation with Summer while making it. "There's a booth over there," she gestured, before making sure that her crown was still firmly on her head after the hug. "And, um, I think I made a friend, too?"

@alyra

[Deleted]

Lee has such a hard time looking down at the girl in her arms and seeing her as anything but the small child that she had carried out of a raid in her arms. But Chrissy was a young woman now and that was incredibly weird. She was getting more and more confident in herself by the day and more and more comfortable taking her place within the world. Lee couldn’t help but feel a little bit of pride about that. Chrissy said that she made the crown herself and that there was a booth at the festival. Lee nodded. She had passed by it a few times but hadn’t paid much attention to who was there. “don’t tell me you’re just now making friends.” Lee teased a little bit but she hoped it wasn’t really the case since they had already been there for months now. “a kid from school.” she asked.

@chrissy

[Deleted]

April 20, 2025

“Don’t tell me you’re just now making friends,” Lee commented teasingly. “A kid from school?”

She had met some new people since arriving at Hogwarts, obviously; she had met lots of people beyond the people with whom she had attended Ilvermorny. It wasn’t as though people had been terrible overall, but friends? She could count them on one hand, including Mazie. She didn’t want to worry Lee by mentioning that part of it, though.

Chrissy shook her head. “No, here,” she emphasized, “at the festival. While I was making my crown.” She knew that that probably wasn’t a good enough explanation, so she elaborated. “Her name’s Summer, and she’s…” She lowered her voice to a whisper, although the manner with which she spoke was still excited. “She’s… like me, Lee.”

@alyra

[Deleted]

Chrissy explained that she had met the girl here while making her flower crown and then said that she was like her. Lee raised her eyebrows wondering what exactly Mazie meant by that. “she’s like you? How?” Lee asked. She had an idea what Chrissy was talking about. The girl was probably also an orphan. But Lee didn’t like to use that word. She didn’t like to think about it, especially not in Chrissy’s case. She was such a sweet girl and it was hard to think about how cruel the world had been to her.

@chrissy

[Deleted]

April 20, 2025

“She’s like you? How?”

Chrissy let out a frustrated sigh at the sight of Lee’s raised eyebrows and shook her head. “She’s… kind of a Legilimens,” she explained, her voice still low. “And she… She saw my memories, Lee. My mom and me when I was little… I don’t know how much.” That was the truth. She really didn’t know how far into her memories Summer had been able to go or what she had found in there. “But she knows about… the other stuff.” She paused. “I, um, don’t know what happened to her. She doesn’t really… She’s kind of hard to understand.” It had taken her a moment to understand the way in which Summer spoke, and a lot of their conversation had been based on her reading between the lines of the few words that the older girl actually spoke. “But she knows what it’s like.”

@alyra

[Deleted]

Chrissy continued to explain what she meant and Lee nodded slowly, she couldn’t help but feel a wave of skepticism wash over her. Chrissy had said this wasn’t someone who she knew from school, this was a random adult who she had met here at the festival who had looked at her memories and Lee wasn’t entirely sure that she, as her guardian, was comfortable with that. “Chrissy you have to be careful with that. I’m sure she was a very nice girl. And I’m glad you were able to talk to her. But you shouldn’t really let strangers in like that…” she didn’t want to make the girl upset, but she also didn’t want her to accidentally walk into a bad situation.

@chrissy

[Deleted]

April 20, 2025

Chrissy listened as Alyra scolded her, telling her that she had to be careful and giving her the whole talk about how she shouldn't be talking to strangers. The girl's face only fell as she continued to listen to what Lee had to tell her. Didn't she know that already? Wasn't that the kind of thing that kids got drilled into their heads from the time that they were capable of speaking? Hadn't she spent years avoiding everyone? Yeah, thought Chrissy, not talking to strangers had really saved her before. She hadn't even said a word to the people who had abducted her before they'd done that. It wasn't as though they'd asked her to help them find their lost cat or anything.

Lee didn't understand. She didn't understand what it was like! She didn't know what Summer knew; she hadn't even seen into her memories the way that Summer had. Chrissy could feel the tears welling up in her eyes. Who did Lee think she was to tell her that she couldn't talk to strangers if she wanted to? Her mom? She couldn't go a full day at Hogwarts without having something in her mind decide that it was going to rear its ugly head again, and that was without mentioning the Boggart that she had come across in Hogsmeade. She had actually made a friend, and Alyra couldn't be happy for her for two seconds?

"What's she gonna do?" Chrissy retorted, snapping at Lee. "Kidnap me?"

@alyra

[Deleted]

Lee sighed. She hadn’t meant to illicit this reaction from Chrissy. She didn’t want to lecture her and make her feel bad about making a new friend, but she couldn’t say that the idea of her dear little Chrissy talking to an adult who she then let see her memories and let inside of her head, didn’t make her uncomfortable. She didn’t want to tell Chrissy what to do. She wasn’t her parent, she knew she was kind of filling the role right now, but she certainly wasn’t a mother. “you just can’t be too careful…” Lee attempted to explain. “I’m so glad you’re making friends but with all the escaped convicts and all the political turmoil right now, I just want to be sure that you’re being safe...” she was so not prepared for this whole teenager thing.

@chrissy

[Deleted]

April 20, 2025

Lee sighed, and Chrissy began to realize what she had just said. She hadn't meant to get angry with her over it; she just didn't think that it was fair that Lee was jumping to conclusions about Summer without having met her. It wasn't fair.

"You just can't be too careful…" Lee urged her. Chrissy knew; she was careful—more careful than most people were about even little things. But Summer wasn't dangerous. She was different, maybe, but not dangerous. "I'm so glad you're making friends," Lee added, "but with all the escaped convicts and all the political turmoil right now, I just want to be sure that you’re being safe."

Chrissy took in a deep breath and nodded. "I know, Lee. And it's not like she's old, anyway," she explained with a sigh, if that was what Lee was so concerned about. "It's not like she's thirty or something. She's, like, Mazie's age. And her brother went to Hogwarts." Hopefully, that would help her to understand that Summer wasn't some creep or a prisoner who had escaped from Azkaban.

@alyra

[Deleted]

Chrissy insisted that she knew to be careful and that her friend was like Mazies age. Lee raised her eyebrows a little bit. If she was mazies age then she would still be a Hogwarts student. Mazie was only 16. But she decided not to say it out loud. Enough was enough. Lee didn’t want to make her mad. “okay. You’re right. I’ll trust you to make your own judgements. I’m sorry.” Lee meant it too. She wanted Chrissy to be independent and grow on her own, but she couldn’t help but worry. “I just worry about you. I can’t help it.” she wasn’t sure if that was something that Chrissy had really experienced before. Lee felt odd about it herself. “I just want you to be safe.”

@chrissy

[Deleted]

April 20, 2025

Upon hearing that Summer wasn't some creepy adult and was, instead, a teenage girl only a few years older than Chrissy herself was, Alyra seemed to relax some. "Okay," she conceded, which Chrissy was happy to hear her say. "You’re right. I’ll trust you to make your own judgements. I’m sorry."

Chrissy knew that Lee had her reasons for being overprotective of her, but she appreciated knowing that her guardian wasn't so against her new friend anymore. She listened to the rest of Lee's apology in silence.

"I just worry about you. I can’t help it."

While Chrissy had always known that Lee cared for her more than her job had ever required for her to and that she had gone above and beyond to help her, it was strange for her to hear anyone admit that they worried about her. Her parents had worried about her; she wasn't sure what they would have thought if they had somehow known what had happened to her the night that they died. MACUSA didn't really "worry" about her, though. Why did the government need to worry about her as an individual? They didn't, and so they hadn't.

"I just want you to be safe."

Looking at Lee as she said that, Chrissy nodded, slightly choked up. She spoke quietly, trying to hold back tears. "I-I'm sorry I got mad at you. I just…"

@alyra

[Deleted]

Well Lee had done it now. It was obvious that Chrissy was holding back tears and Lee felt like the biggest jerk that ever lived. “no I didn’t mean to upset you.” she insisted, moving quickly to wrap her arms around the small girl. Lee couldn’t say that she was much of a hugger, but right now she was feeling oddly maternal. “let’s forget about this and go get a shaved ice or something.” bribes probably weren’t a part of good parenting. But who cared really? It was the best that Lee could currently think of. “or maybe we can go back and you can make me a flower crown.” Lee couldn’t see herself in one, but she’d do it for Chrissy. She had such a soft spot for that girl.

@chrissy
(You can end it)

[Deleted]

Lee told her that she hadn’t meant to upset her, and Chrissy understood. It was all sort of one big misunderstanding, she thought. Summer wasn’t some predator, and Lee wasn’t trying to be so authoritative as to keep her from having friends. Lee moved to hug her after she had explained her perspective, and Chrissy hugged her in return and wiped her tears with the back of her hand after pulling away.

“Let’s forget about this and go get a shaved ice or something,” Lee suggested, which sounded like a good idea to Chrissy, too. She nodded, trying to compose herself again. “Or maybe we can go back and you can make me a flower crown.”

That sounded like a good idea to Chrissy, too, although she was fine with whatever Lee wanted to do. She thought that Lee would look nice in a flower crown, especially one that complemented her red hair. Maybe she could even try her hand at a more complex flower crown, like one of the ones that Summer had made at the stand. That would be impressive.

“Okay,” Chrissy agreed with a smile, hoping that she sounded more normal and less upset. “Let’s go make a flower crown. And then shaved ice?”

@alyra
Fin.