Aboli had had a nightmare.

It was early in the morning, much earlier than she normally was up, but she needed to catch Noah as he headed down to breakfast. She arrived at the Fat Lady with her eyebrows furrowed and her fingers rubbing her temples.

It was just a dream...it was just a dream....it was just a dream...

It was hard to repeat this mantra when she put so much stock in dreams. When her mother...could do what she do with dreams. She was almost choking through sobs, she was so upset. However, she had gotten that out of the way as she had rushed to get dressed, careful not to wake up any of her dormmates, especially not Fiona. She didn't want to talk to Fiona. She wanted to talk to Noah.

It only made her heart sink at how much she missed Josh. Ugh. Ugh.

Quinn was out and about pretty early this morning to catch his Gryffindor friend as well. He and Atlas had gotten into a routine of meeting up with each other and going to breakfast together most mornings (though sometimes he went on a run with Eden, but... not lately). Eden sometimes tagged along, but not today (and, again, not lately—Quinn was a bit on the outs with her. Or, more accurately, she was on the outs with him).

Today he had gotten up a wee bit earlier than he needed to—and he tended to most days he was to wait outside the Gryffindor common room. He would always get a bit overexcited to see Atlas in the mornings, and he would wake up early and couldn't get back to sleep. But it wasn't, like, in a weird way or anything. He was just.... really excited to see his friend. He wouldn't tell Atlas, though. It might seem weird. Which it was not.

Not weird, very friendly. Nothing more than friendly.

Anyway.

As Quinn approached the portrait, he saw an older girl standing outside of it. He stopped a bit away and watched her; she seemed to be really upset about something, didn't she? Quinn recognized her from some of the classes—she was a Slytherin, right? What was she doing outside the Gryffindor common room this early in the morning?

Quinn supposed the same question could be asked of him, so he wasn't one to judge.

Well, he couldn't very well just stand here watching her like a creep—she would notice eventually—so he starting walking again, more cautiously. "Um, excuse me... are you alright..?" he called out quietly.

With an unusual bright skip in his step, Noah exited the Common Room and heard a question filled with... concern? He froze and almost continued on his way, not wishing to eavesdrop on the conversation but his gut told him to stay put. What if something bad had happened during the night? He wouldn’t put it past Rosier and his clan of crazies. He looked to his right and found a first year and then....

His jaw dropped. He was surprised to find Aboli up here and SO EARLY IN THE MORNING. She looked upset. Very upset. Internal panic set in followed by worry. Something was.... something was up. He could just feel it when he looked at her. What was worrying her... well he wasn’t entirely sure.

Worry made him frown. Concern filled every fiber in his being. She.... what had happened? Sidling up to the younger boy, Noah gave him a small smile before looking at Aboli. “Sickle for your thoughts?”

Aboli normally would notice someone getting closer. Or two persons coming into her presence. But she was too upset to sense any nearby presence, so when the younger Ravenclaw spoke up, Aboli turned to look at him SHARPLY. She sucked in her emotions, blinking a lot and swallow before answering. "I'm all right. I had a...bad dream, and I was waiting here for a friend." No need to fill him in on the graphic details of the dream. "Why is a little Ravenclaw all the way up here...and so early, anyway?" Her bossy older FORMER PREFECT SIDE was about to riiiiiise up. "Hopefully for nothing dangerous or rabble-rousing," she gave him a STERN look.

Heh.

He was sweet for asking about her, though.

But soon, another person had joined their party of two. The man in question! The boyfriend! The subject of her nightmare! But...she decided to joke with them both. "And WHY should I tell YOU any of my thoughts, hmm?! You're interrupting us," she said quickly before taking the Ravenclaw's arm and walking in the other direction, past the Fat Lady. "Mind your OWN business, Noah Nam!" She gave him a wink so he'd know she was joking.

Quinn jumped at bit as the girl turned to him—she seemed mad for a moment—but he relaxed as she started speaking. "O-oh, well—" he started his explanation, but then the one he learned was named Noah Nam had come out from the common room.

And then he was being whisked away by the Slytherin girl—he didn't really realize what was going on for a moment, but the wink let him know this was some sort of fun that was being had. He fell in step with her, and then started whispering—enough so that the girl could hear what he was saying, but not Noah. They were pretending to be keeping something from him, right? "As I was saying, I came to meet with a friend, too—we get breakfast together. But I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep, so I just came to wait. Anyway, when I have bad dreams, my Gram tells me to imagine whatever made your dream so bad floating out of your ears and into the sky. Since dreams are all in your head, y'know?"