Jabe Shan loved the rain. She loved how dark clouds would form and the way it sounded as it closed in on the earth. The rain blanketed the world in something that appeared almost new and fresh. Something she WASN'T quite so fond of though, was the mail. Mail was a symbol of news, and most of the time the only news Jabe would receive was bad news. Fortunately, and unfortunately for her, she had both today.
At first she thought that the tapping on her window was the first few pieces of hail forming, but as it turned out, that wasn't the case. Jabe's dark eyes whipped from the book she was reading on her messy bed to a dark, rain stained window. A large and war torn barn owl was there, clutching a letter in its claws, like a bearer of bad news. Jabe groaned as she saw it. Her untidy black hair swished to and fro as she got up to open the window.
"Always comes in the morning." she grunted angrily as she tugged open the window. "Why can't it come at a more convenient time, like night?"
The owl came twittering in, flapping its silly self about like all owls usually do. It quickly dropped its letter into Jabe's lap, so it could find a place to rest.
"Alright, who's this from?" she mumbled as she flipped the envelope over to view the return address. An all-too familiar scrawl in green ink lay upon it. "No way..." she continued to stare at the envelope."I can't believe they found me." she croaked. Jabe slowly ripped it open. Two pieces of parchment fell into her lap. One a letter, the other a list.
The note read:
Dear Miss Shan,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins September 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31st.
Most of the staff has been alerted of your special circumstances, and has taken necessary precautions against it.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall Deputy Headmistress
And the list read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
UNIFORM (we trust that you have kept your old one)
COURSE BOOKS
All students should have a copy of the following:
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5 by Miranda Goshawk
Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard
(We expect you to have the previous grade's books)
OTHER EQUIPMENT
1 wand 1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials 1 telescope
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad
On the back read a list of all the other books from years 1-4, which, due to her expansive library located in her basement, Jabe owned. Most of them anyway.
'How on earth do they expect me to get there if I haven't got my Apparating license? They'd better send someone 'Jabe glanced at the letter again. 'We await your owl by no later than July 31'. She checked her calendar. Today was the 13th. There was still plenty of time to pick up her things. However, right now she needed to write back to Professor McGonagall. Jabe got off her blue-green bed and walked over to her desk.
Dear Prof. McGonagall,
Fine, I'll go to Hogwarts again. Problem is, I haven't got my Apparating license you nutters. That ever cross your minds? So I can't travel to Diagon Alley, let alone Hogwarts, as you may have guessed. And I don't like Floo Powder, so don't tell me to use that. Would it be okay if you could send someone to bring me there? It would also be lovely if you could arrange a much closer place for me to stay, considering I live in Canada at the moment (you know how my kind have to move a lot. I think you know anyway)
Please and thank you,
Jabe Shan
"There, Jabe mumbled, her tongue between her teeth as she signed her signature."Hey you," she called over to the resting owl. "C'mere so I can give you this letter." she quickly tied the said letter onto the owl's leg and set him off. Jabe sat down slowly onto her bed, and allowed herself to breathe again. She had most definitely not been expecting to be going to Hogwarts again, this being her third time. And of course, she had never randomly transferred there before. The second time was merely for educational purposes. This, she had no clue.
Figuring there was no use in worrying over the new matters, she decided it would be best to contact her authorities before she skipped off randomly to revisit her education and not dropping them a note on why she would only be able to take weekend jobs now. Then again, they might already know of her circumstances, considering how much they always knew that was going on in the world.
Then she wondered how the hell she was supposed to come in contact with her higher ups. After all, whenever they needed her to get rid of another crazy, they just came to her. Poof, out of nowhere really. One of the guys could apparate; his name was William or something like that... Not that learning their names actually mattered. They just gave her information about her next kill, nothing more. They were unimportant really. But for now she needed to get in contact with them. The only question was: how?
There were a few options. One was to send them an owl, and hope that they weren't too far away so that the owl wouldn't die on the way there. Another was to get over her fear and buy some Floo Powder. The last was to wait around for them to give her a new job, but this was a rather unstable plan because there was no pattern to when she was given them. It was just whenever some new guy went insane from too much blood consumption, and then they would send her in to get rid of the nutter. And these guys didn't quite come by the dozen.
Speaking of blood consumption however, Jabe suddenly realized that she was quite hungry. It would have been ideal for her to go out immediately to grab a bite to eat (literally), however the sun was still up. And Jabe definitely did not enjoy the sun; it hurt like hell itself if it hit her skin. If she ever wanted to go out in the sunlight, she had to wear this annoyingly large black cloak that killed the light from hitting her incredibly pale skin, but in exchange she would have to suffer from extreme heat underneath the damn thing. Jabe hated being an impaired vampire. Of course, it was all Frenzy's fault, stupid, stupid Frenzy who turned her in the first place and then embedded the rest of his Godforsaken essence inside of Jabe, causing her vampiric self to almost die.
Wait a minute.
Frenzy was the key.
The only reason why he hadn't woken up inside of Jabe was because of the potion she always had to take which suppressed his conscience. Having him up and spewing annoying nonsense all the time was not something she particularly enjoyed, and there was also the annoying factor of if her being emotionally compromised, he could suppress her own conscience for a short time and take over her body. If she just waited around for those vampires to bring along her next suppressant (which was very soon) then she'd just tell them to pass along the message. Easy as breathing, really.
Jabe wandered downstairs to take a look at her calendar which held a few important dates; if she ever remembered to add them that is. Once in the kitchen, she took a quick look at the calendar and checked when her next suppressant would be delivered. Just three days thankfully, so Jabe wouldn't have to worry for too long at least. Her internal clock told her that the sun should be setting in about 15 minutes, so Jabe went to change into something more comfortable for feeding. Something that wasn't blood-stained would be most appropriate.
After changing into a black hoodie and jeans- definitely proper Muggle attire- Jabe waited the last few minutes as the sun slowly died away, taking its security it provided with itself, and set out to feed.
A few days later, the small group of deliverers arrived at Jabe's door around 10 pm. She opened the door to a group of solemn-faced vampires, their black eyes lifeless as usual. Jabe had always secretly hoped that she wouldn't look like any of the older vampires as she went throughout her years. They looked so bored of life; they'd probably be doing themselves in any day.
"Hey guys," she had learned not to smile much in their presence, as all of them were over 900 years old and had no time for jokes anymore. "You got my stuff?"
The oldest, about 956 years old yet looking only looking about 30 or so, nodded. "May we come in?" the saying about vampires only being allowed into buildings if they're invited was pure myth, they just always seemed to ask the same silly question, even though they came at least twice a month with her suppressants, not even counting when they brought her a new mission.
"Of course," Jabe moved out of way and allowed them in. As she closed the door, she began to speak. "Erm, guys?" They all turned to look, cold eyes scrutinizing her. "I'm going to be leaving here for awhile you see-"
"We've already been informed," one interrupted, his eyes showed no sign of irritation, though his voice dripped with annoyance. "Please follow through with regular procedure now."
God, they were already pissed at her. That must be a record.
Jabe gave a resounding sighed, and unhappily submitted to needle, trying not to think about the intense pain that would follow.
Jabe spent another 20-some days spending her free time going through all of her things, digging out her old school trunk, and packing, unpacking, and re-packing for Hogwarts.
On the 29th day, an owl arrived once again, at Jabe's bedroom window. "Oh good," Jabe put down the books she had been sorting for her fifty-somthieth re-packing. "Professor McGonagall must have gotten back to me."
The letter read:
Dear Miss Shan,
We will oblige to your requests. Auror Alastor Moody will come on July 29th at 10:00 PM to apparate you to your new lodgings.
Signed,
Minerva McGonagall Deputy Headmistress
"Shit, that's tonight." Jabe grumbled. She checked the time. 12:03 AM it flashed. "Bah, I've got time,"
She sat down and began to sort through the books again, but could feel herself getting more and more antsy by the moment.
This was pathetic. Jabe didn't even want to go back to Hogwarts anyway. She had been living a perfectly fine life before this whole "Ooo, come to back to school-Love Hogwarts" business happened.
She would not give in to excitement.
Jabe continued with the books.
"Fuck it," she got up and ran downstairs grabbed her trunk and threw all of the books in. Running around at a completely inhuman speed (but then again, she wasn't really human now, was she?) Jabe began going through all of her belongings, deciding on what to keep and what to leave. Unfortunately, over the years of her life (99 to be exact) quite a few things had piled up everything and well, Jabe seriously hated cleaning.
So she had about 20 different things fall on top of her as she grabbed everything she needed.
"GAH! DAMMIT!" She shrieked as the third unstopped and festering potion fell on top of her, causing her skin to explode in warts. "Why the hell do I even have half of this crap?"
She stuck her hands in one of her pant legs to grasp her wand and fix the sudden nuisance on her skin, but found it empty. "Ohhhh, dammit!"
Jabe ran back into her room and threw her collected things down into her trunk and began tearing her room apart looking for her wand as the disgusting warts slowly began to grow bigger.
"Fuck, fuck, fu- YES!" Jabe triumphantly pulled the dark wand out of a mouldy piece of pie. She rubbed off the goo on it and then tapped her skin, sighing in relief as the warts disappeared from her skin. 'I should really keep better track of this, it's actually pretty useful.' Jabe told herself.
The rest of the time went without incident. Jabe however was unfortunately missing her potions scales and couldn't rip off the Slytherin badge from her robes without harming the fabric. Thinking to herself that she could just get it fixed at some robe place in Diagon Alley, she heard a large crack outside her window, which practically scared the shit out of her. Leaping to the window, Jabe stuck her head out to see who the hell had just blown up a firecracker. But with no firecracker in sight, Jabe's gaze was instead drawn to the strange figure below her apartment window.
Alastor Moody had arrived.
