⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Making a promise had always been easy, what made it difficult was keeping it. Ryan knew Newt did a lot for her, yet he never mentioned them in front of her. It was those small gestures that showed her how kind he was. Writing at least once in a week to asking how she was doing, sending chocolates and candies with his letters and answering each question she asked him. After a while, he even began to send her pictures of his family and of course, his close friends, the famous fantastic beasts. Ryan enjoyed reading the notes he left on each picture.
There was one of his wife, Porpentina, with their pet Kneazles: Hoppy, Milly and Mauler, who Ryan could bet anything that was named by Newt, himself. Tina had a bright smile on her lips while Kneazles were surrounding her to fit in the picture and Newt wrote under it that how much Tina wanted to meet Ryan.
There was another picture of his sister-in-law, Queenie and his son, who added notes under Newt's letter to say she should visit them during Christmas break. At first, it was a bit bizarre to read those letters from strangers, but soon Ryan began to enjoy reading them and even waited a whole week to get another letter from the members of Scamander household.
It almost felt like they are family and maybe, part of her wished they really were.
Even if Ryan liked their pictures, her favourite was the creatures Newt introduced her each week. From Niffler to Erumpent, Mooncalf to Billywigs. Each creature was admirable and Ryan wondered how came Newt knew all of them.
While Newt sent letters to her, Ryan was sure to not forget to write a response. Her letters were not as bright as his, they contained mentions of her failed attempts to use magic, she was still grateful to know that he read each of them and even wrote things that would cheer her up.
Patience is the key.
He reminded her in each letter he sent. Ryan knew he was right, but she also had to admit that she was slowly losing her patience. The only progress she made was holding her wand without a hand tremble and Newt said it was a big step she took. Ryan did not find it enough though. Her peers were waiting for her to perform non-verbal magic, which was hard even for an adult wizard, whereas professors just hoped her to catch up with others. When other students managed to levitate books, she could not even raise her feather.
Ryan felt like a weak link in the chain.
Sleeping did not sound like an option that particular night as Ryan turned from one side to another, even waking Finn up, even if he was a rather heavy sleeper. She watched him frown at her, before gloomily closing his eyes to sleep again. Ryan held her breath until she was sure that he closed his eyes before she tried to select shadows in the darkness. She noticed the sleeping figures of her roommates and knew staying in the silent room would just drive her mad. She did not want to wake anyone else up and thus, she decided to head to the common room. Throwing her robes over her shoulder, she grabbed a random book from the stand beside her bed and tiptoed to escape from the plaguesome silent.
She found the comfort beside the fireplace, on one of the squashy armchairs. Lying her head on side of the armchair, Ryan opened the book to see it was her Charms textbook, which actually caused her to let out a silent groan. As if there was no escape for her, as if she did not know the pronunciation of Wingardium Leviosa better than any other spell, she had to choose Charms textbook among all other books she had.
"Not having much fun, are we?"
She sharply turned her head towards the stairs to see who was there, only to find Sirius Black curiously watching her. He was wearing scarlet coloured pyjamas, which once again showed how proud he was to be a Gryffindor. Not waiting for an invitation, Sirius strolled towards her and took his seat beside Ryan. Locking his grey eyes on the fireplace, he let the silence fell on them before turning his head to look at her.
"Doesn't it annoy you that you cannot speak?" He suddenly asked. Ryan, taken aback from the question, did not even bother herself for looking for a parchment, where she could write an answer, but Sirius did it for her anyway. He reached towards the desk, where some of their housemates left their books and parchments, and placed it with a quill in front of her, waiting for an answer. Ryan, on the other hand, hesitated for a second but still held the quill between her fingers and wrote down her answer.
Sometimes.
"Does it annoy you to hear others talk about you badly?" Sirius asked once again even before Ryan placed the quill down.
Usually.
"Do you want me to prank them?"
She tilted her head up to look at him, surprised by what he offered, but the way Sirius looked at her only proved how serious he was.
Do you want to?
Ryan was the one who asked a question this time. She carefully searched Sirius' face, with the light that fire offered them, thinking she would find hesitation behind his eyes. But there was only a tiny smirk on his lips.
"Well, I don't really need a reason to prank people," Sirius stated. "But would not like best of pranks to go down the drain."
He grinned, which actually made Ryan scoff silently. Two of them sat side by side for a while, just listening to the sound the fire made before Sirius decided to call it a night.
"Goodnight," he told her with a smile, as he actually enjoyed the quiet company of Ryan without her pet Bowtruckle around. He watched her smile too and turned to head towards the stairs, knowing well Ryan could not wish him a good night verbally. But as he took a step front, Sirius heard a whisper like voice say:
"Goodnight."
He turned to look at Ryan and narrowed his eyes wondering if he heard her right. There was no one around, which meant only she could talk. But that was also impossible. So, shaking his head, Sirius just decided to head back to his dorm.
"I really need a good sleep," he hummed to himself.
