I obv. don't own anything written here…Please give me feedback, this is my first go at something like this and it will make me write more!
I don't really know what I thought would be glamorous about taking a train from London to Edinburgh. I leaned my head slightly on the railing of the window. We hit a bump and my head smacked against the metal.
"Damn it!" I hissed. I rubbed my head. I looked over to the other side of the compartment. My traveling companion, Cerah, was asleep, sprawled out on the bench across from mine. I groaned and took out the letter again. The letter was inscribed to me from my Great Aunt Beryl. She had left me her estate and all of her possessions for some bizarre reason…I mean; I had never met the woman in my 18 years of existence, so why she felt the need to leave me all this crap in her will is beyond me. The train began to slow down and came to a halt. I jerked forward as my overnight bag fell on top of Cerah. She grunted and sat up, shaking her head. She gave me a scathing look. I shrugged and stood up, Scooping up my duffel bag and opening the sliding door. I heard her rustling behind me. I turned to tell her to pick up my purse. When I felt the hard knock of someone's shoulder hit my face.
"Damn…wha-?" I hissed again. The guy whirled around. He had a sneering, unapologetic look on his face, his platinum blonde hair falling into green eyes.
"Do you want to knock into my face a little harder?" I snarled. The eyes held some amusement in them.
"I'm sorry…it was a complete accident," He said, tipping the fedora he was wearing at me. I narrowed my eyes.
"Yeah…I bet," I grumbled. Pushing my way past him, towards the front of the train. I stepped off onto the rickety platform. I looked around, There were four buildings and all of them looked dodgy. I stood to the side and waited for Cerah to get off the train. She got off and raised an eyebrow when she saw me.
"You practically gallivanted off that train, Lily," she said, putting her suitcase down.
"Some asshole shoulder smacked me in the face," I said, zipping up my hoodie. "Which makes it 10 am and I've been hit twice in the head." I adjusted my bag and looked around. There were no cars and no people in sight. We were the only two to get off the train at this stop. Cerah looked at me skeptically.
"I thought this was a big city?" she said. I shook my head.
"The main city is 20 miles that way," I said pointing. "Her house is a country estate. I just thought that maybe there'd be a taxi or…something…anything," I looked over at her. She gave a small smile and put her long brown wavy hair up in a ponytail.
"I guess we better start walking, then?" she said, starting off down the dirt road. I groaned and began to follow her.
About 20 minutes down the way, a cart passed us, stopping to let us on. As I hopped into the back, helping Cerah up, and putting our bags on top of the slightly damp hay, I passed the driver, a small old man, the letter head with the address on it.
"Do you happen to know where this is?" I asked. He nodded. I took that as my cue to sit in the back. I sat down on the edge of the cart next to Cerah, our legs dangling off the end, leaning my head on her shoulder.
"Well, this is exciting," I said, musing. She laughed and we began the ascent up one of the hills. It began to lightly sprinkle. I began to giggle again.
"This is absolutely hilarious," Cerah said. As we crested the hill, I turned and stared at the house on top of it.
"Oh my God…" I said. Cerah turned and stared also. The house was the size of three of the houses in my neighborhood back home. Baroque style, you could tell by the cream colored paneling on the windows. I pursed my lips.
"Thanks!" I called out to the driver. He stopped and Cerah and I jumped out. We began to lug our stuff up the drive and towards the main house when Cerah slipped on a patch of mud. I turned to see if she was okay when I felt something like a bowling ball hit me in the face. I knocked me so hard I fell over, into the muddy grass.
"Ugh…What the – I mean, honestly!" I screamed. I looked down at my jeans and hoodie. They were covered in mud. I groaned and Cerah laughed.
"What the hell was that?" She asked. She walked over; her jeans covered in mud also and picked up the leather covered ball. She shrugged.
"It's heavy." She said. I nodded.
"How did someone possibly throw it that far?" I looked around, no one was in sight. I gave her my best what-the-hell-is-going-on face. She snorted and laughed and picked her bag back up.
"Let's get you inside before something or someone else comes along and smack you in the face." She said, trudging back up the hill. I nodded. So true. It was 10 am and I'd already been smacked three times.
I still had the ball on my hands, when we reached the front door. I banged on the wood.
"So someone's supposed to be here?" Cerah asked. I nodded.
"There's supposed to be a caretaker here." I mumbled, moving to look into one of the paned windows. Cerah took over the banging of the door. I put down my hood and put my head against the window.
"Anyone?" Cerah hollered. I shook my head.
"Nope," I said.
"Can I help you?" came a voice from behind. Cerah jumped I let out a small girly scream. Cerah looked at me with a smile on her face and I stared at the woman in front of us. Her hair was tightly pulled back from her face, her features severe. I'd place her at about 53- 55. She was wearing an emerald green skirt suit, with riding boots on. Even with all of the mud she looked impeccably clean.
"Yeah," I said walking forward. I held out my hand. She shook it lightly. "This is my aunt's house and I'm here to uh…inherit, it?" I said. I didn't really know the nice way to say it. She gave a nod and pulled out a gold skeleton key.
"Are you the caretaker?" I asked as she opened the door. She shook her head.
"Most certainly not. You may call me Minerva, I was a friend of your aunts."
"Oh," I said. I gave Cerah a skeptical look and we followed the woman inside. The house smelled musty and slightly of Tudor roses.
"There has been a mix up," she said, climbing the stairs.
"Oh-kay," I said, following her, "I'm sorry? Is it our fault?" I asked, blanching at Cerah. She shrugged and raised her eyebrows at Minerva.
"It is not your fault, per say, however it does have to do with your arrival. While your aunt did leave you her estate and everything in it, she also promised our organization the use of her isolated estate for this summer." I stopped climbing the steps.
"I'm sorry…16 hours of traveling has my brains a bit muddled…what exactly are you saying?" She turned and gave the smallest of smiles that I knew was sardonic because the smile never touched her eyes.
"Let's meet in the upstairs parlor… then we can sort this all out." I looked over at Cerah my eyes wide. She nodded and we continued climbing the stairs.
When we reached the top of the stairs, she flung open both doors to one of the miscellaneous rooms on this end of the hall. Inside, sat a young woman dressed in London punk style with bouncy, curly purple hair. Leaning on a book case next to her was a shabbily dressed scholarly looking man, with sandy colored hair, that fell slightly over glasses. They gave brief, professional smiles as we walked in, and set down our stuff.
"Remus, Tonks…I'd like to introduce you to Beryl's niece, Ms. Stratford and her companion…"
"Oh, um, Hart…Cerah Hart," Minerva nodded. She gestured to the couple.
"This is Remus Lupin and Tonks." She said. They each respectively bowed their heads. I nodded and gave a half – wave. Minerva motioned to a small couch adjacent to where Lupin and Tonks were sitting and both Cerah and I slowly sat down.
"Why're you carrying around a bludger?" Tonks asked. I frowned.
"I'm sorry? A what?" I looked at my stuff. Tonks pointed at the ball.
"A blud-"
"That will be enough, Nymphadora." I looked at Minerva, who was severely glaring at Tonks.
"Am I missing something?" I asked. Lupin spoke for the first time.
"It's a…uh…term we use," he said.
"Slang?" Cerah continued. He nodded and smiled.
"Yes. Slang." He said, looking away, as if to mull that thought over later. I was frowning again.
"Right," I said "You said something earlier about using this house for your…uh…organization's head quarters?"
Minerva nodded. "I understand that you and your friend are visiting form the States and so we do not want to interrupt your holiday, if you will just allow us use of the east wing rooms to have people stay in, occasional use of the kitchen and the grounds."
I shrugged. "Yeah, I don't care. You know? No worries." Minerva smiled and nodded.
"Very good, then. If you don't mind stating it out loud." She said, standing up form behind the desk. I looked around inquisitively.
"State what out loud?"
"That you allow us to use your house as a headquarters."
"Oh…okay…I, Lily Stratford allow, you…to uh, use this house as your…headquarters" I said. It felt awkward just saying it. Minerva nodded and walked towards the door. She opened it and a middle aged man walked in and picked up our bags.
"I can take that…" Cerah started but he had already started walking down the hall with them. She bit her lip to stop form laughing and we followed him down the hall. As we walked out of the parlor I turned to Minerva.
"What exactly does your organization do?" I asked. I saw something pass over her face, before she smoothed her jacket and gave one of those false smiles.
"We're more of a coalition for…uh…" she looked over at Lupin and Tonks.
"Wildlife rights." Tonks finished. I nodded.
"Right." I said. Looking them over. I followed Cerah into the rooms we would be sharing, that were joined together by small drawing room. They were lovely, and over the fireplace in my room was a painting of three men, their historical garb dating the painting to the late 1700s. I retired to my room, decorated in soft pinks, to wear off some of the jet lag. I swore that as I went to sleep the three men were arguing about the French revolution, but that was probably just the trans – continental time change.
When I got up, my jet lag had passed, but now I was filled with a deep setting hunger. I got up slowly and tip toed my way down the hall, stairs and towards where I thought the kitchen would be. I really did not want to run into any more strangers today. I found a set of two huge doors and pushed them open, the door creaking loudly, echoing through the halls. I cringed and saw that this was the dining room. I went to the other side and found a set of doors and hushed talking. I leaned against the door to see if I could hear anything important. The talking stopped. I hear silence for a bit. Assumingly, whoever they were had left, which meant I was safe to go inside. I opened the door a small bit. And met the faces of three people who looked to be my own age. I gave a weak half smile. They nodded and I walked to the fridge keeping my eyes everywhere but on them. I opened it up to find lots of materials but nothing processed.
"There's eggs and pork on the stove,"
I whirled around a little too fast. "I'm sorry?" The red headed guy was pointing his fork at the oven. I turned around again. Gr-eat. I don't eat meat. I pursed my lips and went to the cabinet.
"Did you hear him?" The girl asked. I nodded.
"Yeah. Thanks. I just don't eat meat," I said shrugging. I found a bag of bread and went into the fridge for butter. Not my idea of a feast but it was obviously all I was going to get. There was no other seating than that at the table so I sat down.
"You're the Yank?" the read head boy asked. It caught me off my guard but I nodded.
"Yeah, I'm Lily," I said with a little wave. I began to butter my toast when I looked up. They were all staring at me, as soon as my eyes met theirs they turned and looked away. I laughed a bit and shook my head.
"So…" I started, rolling words around in my head trying to think of appropriate small talk. "What do you guys do for fun around here?" They looked at each other, and shrugged.
"We work a lot," was all the girl said. I slowly nodded, a bewildered look on my face.
"Uh, we have to be going," she continued, hitting the red headed boy. I didn't even catch their names.
"Oh, um…right. To work." He said. I raised an eyebrow and the dark haired boy caught it as they walked out. He smiled out of the corner of his mouth and shrugged, closing the door behind him. I guess they thought I was a dumb ass, and I wouldn't figure it out. Everyone in this house was walking on eggshells and I was going to figure out why.
When I finally talked Cerah into going on a horseback ride with me, a light drizzle had started. I wrapped myself up in my pea coat and mounted my horse in the barn. I looked over to see Cerah staring at the horse the handler was holding on to.
"Honey, you put your foot in the stirrup and swing your other leg over…" I said trying not to condescend. She glared at me and slipped her foot in, awkwardly standing there.
"Oh-kay, now steady on the reins and swing your other leg over," I said impatiently. She did so, and with a huff ended up on the horse.
"Don't be afraid, the horse will smell your fear," I said. She looked over.
"I'm NOT afraid!!!" she snapped. I sighed and heeled the horse, starting out at a walk and moving into a light trot, making sure Cerah was following me, I moved into a canter, laughing as small drops of chilled water slapped me in the face. I guided my horse into a gallop and leaned in, because I couldn't see. I slowed my horse down after a few minutes to see how far behind Cerah must be on the bare moors. I turned and she wasn't anywhere. I guessed I had gone farther than I had originally thought. As I began to go back the way I came I saw a huge flash of green light, and a wind so hard blasted through the trees, knocking me off my horse. As I fell to the ground, I felt darkness surround me, so much I barely felt the thud of wet earth as my body hit the ground.
I felt fuzzy all over. I also realized that it hurt to breathe and I couldn't move any part of my body. Shock then hit me. I thought I was paralyzed, and cried out a bit. It was then that I could wiggle my hands and feet.
"That's enough of that," A man's voice came through my head softly. I then caught on that my head was cradled by him, and began to be able to move my legs. With this congnescence, shooting pain ran through my arm. I groaned.
"Your arm?" he drawled. He sounded much clearer. I nodded as much as I could. I figured I could maybe open my eyes now. I slowly opened them, and looked up. It was the guy from the train! I tried to sit up quickly, and realized I couldn't.
"Great." He said sardonically. He went into his jacket and pulled out a small vial.
"Drink this," he said, putting it up to my lips. I began to protest, but when the metal smelling liquid touched my tongue, I was shrouded by darkness once more.
When I woke up, the man, Lupin was standing over me. I sat up, my arm no longer hurting.
"Lily, are you alright?" Cerah asked holding on to both of our horses. I narrowed my eyes and slowly stood up, clutching onto Lupin's arm.
"Yeah…grand, Cerah…thanks," I frowned and looked around at the empty, drizzly moors. "Where's the other man?" I asked.
Both Lupin and Cerah stared blankly at me.
"The guy? With the blonde hair? He fixed my arm?" I continued. I laughed, musing to myself. "I guess I was hallucinating, I probably have a concussion or something…"
Lupin nodded slowly, "We should probably get back to the house soon, Ms. Stratford."
I shrugged, other than achy I felt fine. I swung up behind Cerah on her horse and Remus took mine.
Night had fallen and Cerah and I were sitting in the drawing room. Cerah was painting her nails and I was flipping through the latest Vogue.
"Why are you so accident prone?" Cerah asked, smiling mischievously. I rolled my eyes and sat up from the couch. My hair was soaking wet and I began to run a comb through it.
"It's a gift, really…" I paused as Cerah laughed to herself. "Cerah? There's something weird going on here."
She looked up and rolled her eyes. "No, Lils I think you just want something weird to be going here."
I stood up and began to pace the circular room, "Cerah. I'm very serious. Tomorrow we're going exploring."
She laughed and nodded. "Fine. Maybe you can fall down a flight of stairs."