Parker had only just returned. He had made the walk from Hogsmeade to the castle directly to the Headmistresses' quickly in order to announce his return, then it was to his room to drop off his things and out of the castle once again. Walking out onto the grounds, walking along the wall to the greenhouses, he realized just how suffocating it felt in there. Just how trapped and dark it felt. He knew it was all in his head, that there were plenty of good that happened there too, so he needed to just get through it and not let it get to him like it so recently had.

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath through his nose. His chest and shoulders feeling lighter than they had in a long time. Stress and anxiety had caused some dramatic weight loss in him before, and he was looking much more healthy now, his skin didn't look so pale and his hair didn't look so dark. He stopped and looked into one of the greenhouses, leaning his side against the wall and his forehead against glass. He looked in beyond the blurry glass, only seeing shapes within. The Headmistress would be sending his colleague back to Mungo's, he's have to thank him, he'd have to go back to work. The whole time he worried for his students and his friends. He hoped they had not thought he just abandoned them...again. Especially Pyxis. He had told the headmistress that if anyone asked, he had an emergency to attend to back home and he would be back when he could. It..wasn't exactly a lie. Him getting away was nearly an emergency, and he wouldn't have forgiven himself if he had forced himself to stay and ended up hurting a friend or himself.

Thinking about it, Tess was right. He did just need to get away. He felt the huge difference in himself, and had hope that he could make things right now, continue to try to move on as he had been the past months, and make things right between him and Pyxis especially. He remembered their last argument, but she was too important to him to just let go like that again. It didn't work, he knew that, so he needed to make things up with her. He had to tools to be able to better do that now too, so he had a feeling things would work out. It was strange, the feeling of optimism. He wasn't sure he had ever felt truly optimistic like this. Even with the continuing chaos with Beauxbatons having moved in, an impending war, a deathly ill student, and impending traumatic flashbacks he knew he would be bound to have, he really did feel optimistic...he really did feel good. He had this feeling he could actually deal with it this time now that he spent the time properly learning how. He just had to make it through the first term of his fourth year here and he would be out. If he just kept his head straight, that time would fly by...

He heard light footsteps near by and leaned off from the wall of the greenhouse. Hearing them approach, he took a step back, wanting to have a little bit more time to himself before bombarded with questions and more than likely: hostility. He took another step back, around the corner of the greenhouse, and hit his head hard on one of the window that was swung open upwards. He hissed in pain, stooping down and clutching that back of his head. If he was just a little bit shorter he'd had gone right under. Damn his height- he thought as the approaching person hurried up around the corner upon hearing him.

Tess had gone through enough this year. Alec had now become a teacher and despite the fact that she would he happy about it, it just made her all the more miserable. Victoria and him were toxic for her, and it showed through her paleness.

Alec would ramble about her best friend's negative qualities, and she would be forced to listen and bite her tongue through the whole process. Yes, she was wrong, yes she needed to leave him alone, yes he had 'moved' on. Worst of all the owls sent by him; she appreciated the messages, but it was stressing her out.

Then there was Victoria; her best friend was dealing with a lot and she now had to deal with her moping and crying. She really felt bad considering her brother was the cause of it, but she still had this sting for her sibling; Victoria had made her choice and for a moment she chose Bronn. It was a mistake but she kept that to herself.Then there was Chale; that infuriating man she wanted to rip to shreds. He gave her hard hours, and yet was never there.
And when he was there, he would pick and pick like if she was some experiment. She was so tired, emotionally and physically that she'd just sleep during her breaks.

Currently she had visited Alec, who needed help moving in for the new school year. He looked a lot better, and that made her feel better. She no longer had to smother him with comfort until he yelled at her to stop, or drink alongside him (she had a low tolerance compared to him) nor feed him enormous amount of greasy food. Now he just asked her for a cup of tea and for both of them to talk.

She had said she would be going to work, but she found herself in the Herbology Greenhouses. When she had gone to school here, she knew this place like the back of her hand. Surprisingly enough, she had the patience for Herbology. Autumn had brought had so many colors and she found herself calming down. She opened the door and walked in, smiling as she looked around at the plants that were still green. She was caressing the petals softly and jumped once she heard a slam. She walked around the greenhouse and was surprised to find herself in front of the baffon who had obviously gotten hurt. Her lip twitched slightly and she bit back a smile seeing him.

"Aren't you graceful" she murmured amused.

Having felt so tranquil and alone, the other person's presence caught him off guard, startling him more then it should have. He really should know by know that there was no such thing as a spot in Hogwarts you could be entirely alone. That's all he needed once in a while though, the constant bustle of his life in the way that Hogwart's life was, was simply too much for him at times. At least in the ER one could go days without there being a major crises, but when it happen, it happened terribly. While he didn't exactly want that for the school, he wished for some down time occasionally, and he had tried talking about it with the headmistress before he left, but he was more worried about leaving than his return, so he'd have to resolve it soon.

But anyway, having been startled back, his his his head against the open window, reeling around and clutching his head tightly. He groaned, righting himself as he heard a voice, knowing he'd been seen, but looking and seeing who it was, he smiled brightly. A sort of smile, she might not have ever seen save once or twice before. Concentrating on the pulsing pain on his head, he dulled the pain a bit and lowered his hands, tugging lightly at the collar of his shit.

"Tess-" he said, a far more toned down smile still on his face. He didn't know if she knew about his little 'break', but considering his lack of any contact with her the past months or so might have tipped her off about it. Of all the people he could have come across at the moment, he was definitely happy that it was Tess. He wanted to say a thanks of some sort for her advice a while back because, of course, she was right; and he had a feeling she'd want to know what too. But he was sort of at a lost for words, strange considering the considerable time he spent thinking about how things could possibly go this day and what he would say.

Tess was glad it was him; the bastard had disappeared from the radar and she had thought about how he was doing since their last conversation. She couldn't help but grin as he actually called her by her name, that was weird to hear, but he looked happy. Much happier than months ago, and he looked less sickly, that made her glad. Whatever he was doing he looked a lot happier.She shook her head at him just being so clumsy. Honestly he reminded her of a clumsy giraffe, being so tall and seemingly graceful.

"Long time no see stranger" she said smirking. "Looking good, what's been new?"

She was genuinely curious as to what was going on with him. Something was different; she realized this as she visited Victoria and Alec during the summer and never saw him in the halls, the library or the dinner tables. She didn't think much of it then. But now, something was up, and whatever it was, it was definitely a positive for him.

"Cat got your tongue?" She added with a grin.