Katie’s walls were coming back up, and Alicia knew that she’d be getting nowhere by pushing further. She didn’t want to push her more, and though she wanted nothing more than for Katie to get well – with or without Potions – she wasn’t going to estrange her in the process. For now, she was satisfied that at least the seed of talking to her mother had been planted in her mind, and hopefully it would grow to something more. Not that Alicia was fooling herself into thinking that Katie’s mum would ever see her daughter as anything but her little girl, she wasn’t stupid after all, but maybe Katie would be able to prove that she was almost of age and able to be part of the decisions made about her.
“Since...” Alicia pretended to think, scrunching her face up as if in thought. “No, wait, you didn’t want to sleep before Wood’s pre-dawn practices either. Scoot over.” Gesturing with her hands she waved for Katie to move over to the other side of the bed to make room for Alicia to sit next to her. “D’you need some help wiiiith...” trailing off, she lifted the book just enough to see the topic of it, “Transfiguration?”