A Bruising Encounter ((Finn))

[Aurora Chan]

"Harmony!" Aurora called brightly across the Common Room, attracting some attention from onlookers, turning their heads to see who was shouting so loudly; when they saw who it was, they smiled and returned to what they were doing. It was common occurence for Aurora to flounce around the Common Room cheerily, yelling hellos to friends and trying to be helpful to all people; all Hufflepuffs were used to it by now, save perhaps for some of the first years, who found Aurora's presence somewhat startling until she approached them and formally introduced herself with a beam and a laugh. "Harmony," Aurora repeated as she rounded on her younger cousin coming into the Common Room. "Billy was looking for you before. Something to do with homework. I was told to pass the message on. I wanted to tell you before I forgot - you know what I'm like! My memory's shot." Grinning, Aurora peered curiously at the books Harmony had her in her hand. "Just had Potions? Ouch. How was it? Was Snape nasty to you again?" Professor Snape had always hated Harmony - Aurora too, in fact. She had once wondered if the man just despised all Chans, but he could hold no grudge over Ariane, and the same went for Leo. Then Aurora had concluded that Snape just hated Hufflepuff Chans. At least she dropped Potions at the end of her fifth year; she thoroughly sympathised with Harmony's situation right now. "Don't worry," Aurora comforted her best friend's sister as she lamented. "At least you can drop it once this year's out. Look forward to doing the subjects you like doing, hm?"

Once Harmony had finished talking to Aurora, she returned to her dorm, claiming to want a bit of a rest and then to find Billy. Aurora watched her leave with some concern, mostly over the Rex issues that the younger girl refused to speak about to anyone, but forced herself to let it go. She couldn't always protect Harmony - she wasn't her sister. Aurora tried, but there was only so much she could do. Sighing softly, she turned around as Harmony's back disappeared, only to bump right into someone else. The impact caused Aurora to fall backwards and land on the floor with a loud 'ow', the other person joining her with parchment littered across the floor. "Oh damnit, I'm so sorry!" Aurora cried with a grimace, rubbing the arm she'd fallen on. She looked up and recognised the boy lying opposite her, and felt even worse. "Finn! Look, I'm so sorry, are you hurt? I really should look where I'm going, shouldn't I?" With a nervous laugh Aurora crawled over to Finn and stared intently at him. "No injuries? I'd hate to think I'd broken your arm or something. God, I'm such an idiot. Here, let me help you with this stuff..." She began grabbing Finn's parchment and shuffled them together as neatly as possible. "Homework?" she asked, studying one sheet before cramming it with the rest, smiling at Finn despite the little accident between them. "You look a bit tired. Long day?"

Patting Finn friendlily on the arm, Aurora handed him the collected parchment papers and smiled again. She had known Finn for a while now; she was sure he wouldn't hold it against her that she'd gone and knocked into him head first. Aurora began to chuckle softly at the weird position they were in - lying on the floor in the middle of the Common Room, people around them watching the commotion. "We're fine," she called to them with an amused laugh. "Just me being me." The onlookers turned around again and she sent another reassuring smile at Finn. "Sorry again," she tried to apologise once more, still feeling guilty. "I was just watching Harmony go and I wasn't looking... But anyway, conducting a conversation in the middle of the Common Room floor probably isn't the safest or best place, or even the most private." Aurora watched as Finn stood up and shook her head wryly. "Man, you're tall from down here. You boys never stop growing. You dwarf girls like me. C'mon, help me up!" She giggled jokily and extended a hand out to Finn, waving it pleadingly. "Please?"

[Finn Miles H7]

It had been the most god-awful day for Finn. He had failed a Potions exam, arrived just a few minutes late to be able to get lunch, and found out that Raina would be going home from Hogawrts for a few weeks because she had managed to catch some sort of contagious sickness that required treatment at St Mungo's. What else could go wrong? Normally, he was pretty easy-going, accepting trouble as it came, but today seemed to be dishing him more than he could handle. It seemed as though everyone had their breaking point, and Finn had managed to reach his.

He rushed into the Hufflepuff common room, thoughts of sleeping away his afternoon filled his mind. If he was sleeping, nothing else could go wrong, he figured. Plus, he was pretty tired since he had woke up early that morning to try to get some extra revising in before their exam. Needless to say, it hadn't helped him very much. With his parchment and other books carelessly tucked in his bag and under his arm, Finn was quite a mess as he hurried to escape to his bedroom. Almost as though someone knew he was trying to avoid having anything else go wrong, Finn felt himself collide with another body.

"Bloody hell," he cursed, failing to apply any sort of verbal filter that he might normally apply. Sure, Finn cursed, but he didn't try to make a habit of it; most of all, when he wasn't around those he knew well. As he began to gather his scattered stuff, he was interrupted by a flurry of apologies and queries of his well-being. "Yeah... I'm, um, fine." Finn saw that it was Aurora Chan who had collided with him. Well, perhaps he had collided with her, but it didn't matter at that point since they were both on the ground in a rather sorry looking state.

"Yeah, homework, and yeah, a long day." For some reason, Finn was being a bit short with Aurora. Maybe it was because he had been having a bad day, but Finn knew that it wasn't an excuse to be rude. "I'm sorry too," he said finally. "It takes two to Tango, right?" A bit of the normal Finn started to seep through as he flashed a small smile. Aurora helped him to finish gathering his stuff and then Finn lifted himself to his feet while she offered explanation to those who had started to stare their way. She proceeded to offer another explanation for her recklessness, but Finn just shook his head and allowed himself to find some sort of humor in the terribleness of his day. "No, don't worry. Really. It's not the worst thing that's happened to me today." Finn took Aurora's hand that she held out for him and helped her up.

"So, are you always this energetic?" he asked, smiling at Aurora's bubbly personality. He never really noticed it before, but she seemed like quite a happy person. Not that he thought she was unhappy before, but he never really noticed how her face seemed to just highlight her happiness. "I mean... gosh, that probably sounded so rude. Sorry."

[Aurora Chan]

Aurora noted Finn's bemused and somewhat irritated expression with growing regret of her clumsiness. "Right," she agreed lightly with a humoured smile. That was the Finn she knew, right? The sweet, friendly kid in the year below her. "I'm still sorry," Aurora repeated apologetically. "I don't want to add to your troubles..." She surveyed Finn's expression with care, hoping to extract a reason for his apparently short behaviour, but her observation was cut short when he complied in offering a hand to help her up. Aurora grabbed it gratefully. "Thanks." She smiled and patted her clothes down, feeling a little self-conscious now. Aurora didn't know Finn extremely well, but she didn't think he was normally this subdued; not that she thought he'd taken offence to her crashing into him, but his tense expression and tone of voice was enough to tell her she hadn't helped to brighten his day.

Aurora's worries lessened a little when Finn questioned her boundless energy. She smiled knowingly, albeit somewhat sadly too. Yes, she was energetic, but it was only limitless on the outside; on the inside she felt like she needed someone to wake her up from the self-doubts. As of yet, she had never found someone who could assuage her every fear - and she never expected to find such a person. Aurora was an odd mix of contradictions: she was hopeful yet realistic; happy but sad. The version her friends saw was nearly always the positive one, the light shades of her: her yin. Her yang was hidden away... too scared to be seen; too afraid of rejection. Aurora continued to smile fondly at Finn, knowing he had not purposefully tried to evoke her melancholy thoughts. Her smile widened at his apology and she shook her head. "No, don't apologise, it's fine. I don't find it rude. You should know by now that I don't take offence easily, Finn."

Aurora's reassuring smile faded a little as she continued to observe Finn's expressions, her thoughts returning to assessing him rather than herself. She really got the vibe that Finn wasn't content right now, and her natural instinct to mother and protect and help leapt out of her without her knowing. She didn't want to pry, though, so she tried to keep her tone casual and light. "Are you okay, by the way? It's just... you seem a bit... I don't know, out of it - down. Is everything all right?" Aurora patted Finn gently on the arm with a small smile. "I'm here to talk to if you need someone. I know you have Bryan, but well, he's so... happy." She laughed. "Well, just like me, I suppose," she mused quietly, looking away in thought.