"You're not responsible for everyone. You take responsibility for who you can handle, and they take on what they can handle, and - if you do it right, if you've got people taking care of you, it works."

Xan ponders this.

"Where'd you get all this rhetoric, anyway?"

"My dad, mostly. He's very big on, uh, generally being a decent person. Which is weird since he married my mum."

They make it to the dorm in good time, and Leo deposits Joey on his bed.

"...I think I might be done with the party," he says. "So I'm going to write some letters. You can go back out if you want?"

"Eh," Xan shrugs. "Rather hang out here with you."

Joey wakes up several hours later, following some very weird dreams, with a pounding headache.

He groans hoarsely. "Wh'appened?"

"You got absolutely wrecked on Cheering Concoction because apparently it interacts poorly with whatever skin potion Madame Felicity gave you. Drink this," he says, handing Joey the vial from last night.

He drinks it and gags. "Potions suck," he whines.

Then the stabbing in his head recedes. "Okay, potions are pretty cool actually," he admits reluctantly. "They just taste really nasty."

"Yeah, it turns out that for things to not taste awful they usually need sugar and sugar is extremely alchemically reactive. Soz."

Joey shakes his head. "- sorry if I worried you last night," he says hesitantly.

"You really will apologize for anything," Leo notes.

"Well, yeah - I don't want to make people upset!"

"Doesn't mean you have to apologize to me for accidentally poisoning yourself! Come on, let's get you a shower and some breakfast, you'll feel better."

Joey hops out of bed and follows dutifully.

Showering can be executed with a minimum of shenanigans, and they can get dressed and head out into the Common Room, where... Aaron is waiting for them.

     "You alright, Joey?" Aaron asks genially. "That was pretty scary last night."

"He's fine," Leo says offhandedly. "Or at least well enough to be guilty about scaring everybody."

     "Well that's no good," Aaron says, frowning.

"I don't like worrying people!" Joey protests. "That's not weird!"

     "Well, no, but people are allowed to worry about you, and it does us no good if you feel bad about it."

Joey looks extremely dubious.

"Anyway, we're off to breakfast," Leo interjects. "Want to come with?"

     "I'd love to," Aaron says. "It's early yet for a Saturday, but that doesn't mean I'm not hungry."

"Growing boy," Leo nods. "Perfectly understandable."

Off to the Great Hall they go. Fortunately it's about fifty feet away.

Joey collects some breakfast (what actually is a muesli? our scholars investigate). Aaron collects some breakfast, mostly sausages and coffee.

Leo gets fruit salad.

As soon as Joey sits down, a pair of slender bottles appear at his elbow. He startles, but manages not to knock them over. Then he examines them, and remembers about the potion regimen.

"Oh," he says. "Yay. Today's auxiliary potion appetizingly titled EYES."

     Aaron munches a sausage thoughtfully. "Yeah, Healers have a habit of just not naming custom potions. And I think Madame Felicity has a sense of humor."

Joey downs the potions and makes a face. "Well, that one tasted like wormwood. So that's nice."

"How d'you know what wormwood tastes like?"

"I was being poetic. Actually it mostly tasted like oversteeped tea."

"For the record: not what wormwood tastes like."

"I bow to your superior expertise."

Joey gets through about two bites of his muesli before an owl drops an overstuffed envelope on his head. He squeaks with surprise, then squeaks with delight and starts cutting the paper open with a butterknife.

     "Let me -" Aaron says. He points his wand precisely and incants "Diffindo!" and the envelope splits open.

"Thanks!" Joey pulls out a letter and starts reading.

It's from his family. Naturally. Who else would be sending him letters?

This one isn't a response to the letter he sent the first night; he bets they crossed each other in the air. Without his letter to respond to, there really isn't that much to say, on their end. What they've all done in the few days since he left. Little details about whichever brother had an adventure they want him to know about. They don't want him to miss out.

There's pictures too - and they move. Everybody's waving at him from a group shot, and there's one of them all splashing around in the lake, and there's a handful of test shots where a more or less blurry Ezra is grinning or making faces at the camera. Joey indulges in the urge to hug them, though it's mostly just hugging himself while holding them.

"From home?" Leo guesses.