Chapter 1: At Peace
Many ordinary people thought that Drwgg llarien was an odd place. Most of the inhabitants of the nearby village avoided the strange house. The children sometimes dared each other to go to the house, but none of them ever made it. Those who did get too close were usually turned around after forgetting where they were going.
Trinity Jones had only started living there with her best friend, Mercy Messenger and her family since June. She inhabited a medium sized bedroom next to Mercy's.
The twelve-year-old girl could not be much happier living with the Messengers. Having spent her life, up until the end of last summer in a muggle orphanage, unaware that she was a witch, she felt more at home living in Drwgg llarien. She enjoyed home cooked meals every night before going to her room to work on the homework her Hogwarts professors set her. During the days, she spent the majority of her time outside with Mercy, practicing for Quidditch. That was the downside of living with the Quidditch captain for her house team, but Trinity got stronger and more confident because of it.
Suffice to say, life was peaceful at Drwgg llarien. At least it was with the exception of the weekly Wizard's Chess match Mercy had insisted upon having ever since they returned from Hogwarts for the summer holiday.
"Bishop to E-9," said Trinity, who had just lost her last knight to Mercy's Queen.
Mercy arched her eyebrow skeptically. She still had most of her pieces, with the exception of a couple pawns and one of her knights. "Queen, take Bishop E-9." She looked up at Trinity with a smug look on her face.
"Rook, take Queen E-9," said Trinity. She grinned when Mercy's expression faltered.
"An' you just left your King defenseless," said Mercy triumphantly. "Bishop, take her King out; check mate."
"You baited me with your Queen!" Trinity gasped as her King was smashed to pieces.
"That is how the game is played," replied Mercy.
Trinity leapt over the game board and tackled Mercy. She had the older girl pinned for a bit before Mercy had her in an arm lock.
"Do you give up?" Mercy asked lazily. She twisted so that she was sitting on top of Trinity.
"Girls!" Lynne chided from the kitchen. She stood in the doorway with her fists planted firmly on her rounded hips in a no-nonsense manner. Her expression betrayed her bemusement. "Honestly, I was unaware Alex had returned home." She shook her head and returned to the kitchen.
Mercy got off of Trinity. She was still grinning smugly. The expression could have only come from someone who lived their entire life with sibblings. "I never thought you'd become such a sore loser."
"You've beaten me every game," sniffed Trinity defiantly.
"I'm really good at chess," said Mercy, shrugging.
"Do you ever lose?" Trinity blurted out.
"Nope, not really," said Mercy. "Want to go another round?"
"I'd rather not," said Trinity stiffly. She got to her feet and stretched. "Why did your mum think Alex had come home?"
"Alex an' I used to wrestle all the time as kids," answered Mercy. "It used to drive mum nuts when we'd fight. Eventually, she started making us go outside so she wouldn't 'ave to deal with us. I remember it got so bad at one point that mum refused to use magic to 'eal us."
"You guys actually hurt each other?"
"All the time, yeah." Mercy nodded, pretending to be serious. "It was always over stupid stuff like chores or who got to use the family owl to send letters."
Trinity was then really glad that Lynne had gotten her a falcon last Christmas. She could not imagine fighting with Mercy over something so trivial. She clambered to her feet. "I probably should get to work on that essay Professor Diederich assigned at the end of term." She left the living room in favor of her own bedroom and the solitude it offered.
She knelt down to scratch Melunise's ears when her cat ran to greet her. The tuxedo cat was not small anymore. She had grown to what Trinity hoped would be her full size, otherwise Melunise would have to stop sleeping on Trinity's chest at night.
Artemis screeched at her, and Trinity instinctually knew that her falcon was simply seeking her attention. She got back to her feet and went over to her dresser where Artemis was perched and stroked the bird's breast feathers. "Hungry, Artemis?" She held up her arm, wincing slightly as Artemis's talons gripped her. She walked over to her window, opened it, and sent Artemis off to hunt in the nearby fields. It was certainly easier, and cleaner than feeding Artemis a dead mouse like she had to do at Hogwarts.
She walked over to her desk and sat down. She immediately got to work on her Defense Against the Dark Arts essay on counter jinxes. When she could not think of anything more to write, she took out her wand to practice the movements of each spell she had learned the previous year. Most of them were second nature to her by now, but she felt that their usefulness had not deteriorated just because she was about to enter into her second year of school.
She leaned back in her chair and stared up at the ceiling. Her thoughts drifted to Kathryn, as they had often done that summer. Her mother was evil; there was no denying that. Still, she felt sad that she could never spend the time to get to know Kathryn as a daughter should know her mother. She silently cursed her heritage, thinking that it was a cruel twist of fate that her mother had been considered the foulest witch since the time of Voldemort.
Melunise leapt into her lap and meowed, distracting Trinity from her dark thoughts. She purred when Trinity stroked her fur and curled up in Trinity's lap.
"Trinity, mum said dinner's ready!" Mercy called from the hallway.
"I'll be right down," Trinity called back. She picked Melunise up, earning a disgruntled meow. She carried her cat down into the dining room before setting her down.
"Did you get anywhere on your essay?" Mercy asked as she walked into the dining room, holding a platter of freshly baked bread.
"Actually, I did," answered Trinity with a lopsided grin. "I might actually be able to finish it tonight after dinner."
"You shouldn't 'ave waited 'til tonigh' to work on it," chided Mercy.
"I'll get it done, Mercy," scoffed Trinity.
"Girls, quit bickering," said Lynne reproachfully. She came into the dining room with a large pot of bean and ham soup. "Now where's your father?" She looked to the front door while biting her bottom lip.
"I'm sure he's jus' running a couple minutes late from work, mum."
"He seemed to have thought that tonight would be a short one this morning," muttered Lynne.
The front door opened, and with it came the sound of two voices that made Trinity smile. Molly was with John. The middle Messenger daughter had moved out shortly after getting a job in Hogsmead as a brew mistress in one of the pubs. This fact made Trinity want to visit Hogsmead all the more, but she still had to wait until her third year.
"Ah, just in time," said John when he entered the dining room. "It smells lovely, dear." He pecked Lynne on the cheek with a kiss before taking his place at the head of the table.
"Well, it appears that it was a smart decision to cook a large dinner," said Lynne, looking to her middle daughter.
"Oh, sorry mum." Molly blushed a light shade of pink. "There was no time to send a message by the time dad caught me in London."
"What were you doing there?" Trinity asked curiously.
"A bit of grocery shopping. And I was looking for furniture to spruce up my flat."
"Lets eat then!" Lynne said, taking her seat across from John.
"Oh, Lynne, I got a promotion at the Ministry!" John's face lit up while he waited for his announcement to sink in.
"Really, John? That's lovely news!"
"I'll be the new head of the foreign relations office, which will mean more traveling, but a big bonus in my pay."
"I'm sure we can manage," said Lynne.
Dinner that night was filled with story telling, which was a common occurrence with the Messengers during dinnertime. Trinity listened to them while she ate her soup. That was also a common thing during dinner.
Lynne sent Mercy and Trinity to bed shortly after dinner, stating that she did not want them to get too used to staying up all night with the new term starting in just a few short weeks. Trinity did not go to sleep right away. She let Artemis back in the moment she got back into her room. She also had to feed Melunise, for fear of retribution throughout the night. She worked more on her essay before finally allowing herself to get any sleep.