Thank you to everyone that left reviews and have followed and favorited since the last update. Welcome to the story! Your readership has had me going to this story first to try and write the next few chapters beyond what I have written in order to maintain a weekly update for you guys. I almost have enough to last until graduation, when my schedule really opens up.
Rowena woke with a start, just in time to see several items crash to the floor. She rubbed her eyes, memories of raspy voices and amber eyes already fading. She glanced around at the mayhem she had accidentally caused. A small cry of alarm and dismay left her lips as she caught sight of the little carousel music box that she had kept from infancy. The unicorn had broken off its pedestal and the crystal hippogriff was chipped. She resisted the urge to fix it herself, knowing that she wasn't supposed to use magic outside school. And with her magic the way it was, she might end up making it explode.
The same rule didn't apply to accidental magic, though, as she glanced around the disaster her nightmares caused again. It looks like a poltergeist lives here, she thought, picking up a few of the things that had drifted around while she slept.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the little blue bubble of light. She had learned several years ago that she should keep acting like she didn't see it and it would stay longer.
Vague memories from childhood proved that it showed up quite frequently. She had to remind herself every so often that the nightmares weren't caused by the little blue bubble, but it generally appeared soon after.
"Is there something you need?" Rowena asked, still watching it without really watching it. "I know I didn't make you, and there's no such thing as fairy godmothers. Not that I think you're a fairy."
The bubble bobbed up and down, same as it always did shortly before it disappeared. Wouldn't make much of a difference now…
The girl turned to face the ball of light. "I wish I knew why you keep following me around. And why do you always show up after I have a nightmare?"
The little light hovered for a moment before disappearing through her wall.
Oh well. No more answers than usual.
Rowena realized that she was still holding on to the carousel toy. Setting it down carefully on her nightstand, she dressed in dark blue robes with green and silver trim. Then she grabbed the music box and went downstairs.
Her mother, Portia Kyndltry, was standing in front of the hall mirror trying to arrange the strands of blue streaked hair that had drifted loose from the conservative bun. Her black hair always looked more striking with the blue streaks spiraling through her hairdos.
"Mum?"
"What is it, Rowena? I was just about to leave for work."
"I was just wondering if you could fix this for me." She held up the carousel.
"Can't you do it yourself? I know you know how to use a repair spell."
"But the restrictions…I'm not allowed to use magic outside school—not until I'm seventeen."
Portia looked down at her daughter. "Those restrictions are really so muggles don't realize we have magic. You don't have to worry about that here." She sighed. "Alright, I'll fix it. But they really don't go after anyone using little spells like this…"
Portia tapped the music box with her wand and the unicorn stood back on its place and the hippogriff was whole.
"Thank you."
"Rowena, it's okay to break a couple of rules; you're not going to go to Azkaban for a repair charm or a hair spell. Speaking of which…" Portia tapped the girl's head with her wand and muttered a spell under her breath. Rowena's hair twisted and gathered together into a crown of small black roses. "Belladonna wouldn't have hesitated to use magic at your age."
"Well things were different then, and I'm not Bella."
"Of course not. Now I really have to go. Ask Willow if you need anything else. And don't forget—Belladonna is going to come by later and take you to get your school things."
Rowena watched as her mother disapparated with a crack. "Bye, mum," she whispered to the empty hall.
She took the newly repaired carousel toy upstairs to her room where she found Willow the house elf tidying the mess in her room. Rowena closed the merry-go-round of magical beasts in a drawer before turning to Willow.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what's going on. And it's not fair that you have to keep cleaning up my disasters."
Willow took the girl's hand in her thin leathery fingers. "It's not your fault," she squeaked. "Your magic is different from Missy Belladonna's." The little house elf looked around before leaning in closer again. "Your magic is like a house elf's or like a dragon's. It's special."
"I wish it wasn't special. If I was normal, spells would actually work for me."
Belladonna Kyndltry arrived in the ancestral house with a flourish, appearing in the library not two meters from where Rowena was reading.
"How did I know you'd be here?"
"Because I'm always in here," Rowena mumbled, slipping the green leather bookmark into the book she had been pouring over for more than an hour.
"Magical Beasts and the Magic They Use? What are you reading that for? You're not allowed to take Care of Magical Creatures until next year. And the book for that course is The Monster Book of Monsters. You can borrow mine for that; it doesn't bite as much anymore."
"It's just—just something Willow said. Something about my magic being kind of like hers. Or like a dragon's."
"That might explain some things. Have you asked Mum?"
Rowena turned away, wishing her hair was down so she could hide behind her curls.
"You still haven't told Mum and Dad about your magic yet, have you? Maybe they can help."
"And maybe they'll think I'm a squib, or a freak, or a disgrace. Mum already gives me these looks as if I'm too delicate to do anything for myself. As soon as I tell her that my magic doesn't work right, I'll be spending half the year at St. Mungo's."
"And ignoring the problem will make it go away?"
"Yes! No; I don't know! I keep hoping that the teachers will figure out what's wrong with me and fix it. I'm just lucky they haven't sent Daddy an owl yet."
"Maybe we can look around for something at Diagon Alley that might help. It's just you and me today. Do you have your list? And your key?"
Rowena pulled the chain out from under her robes and waved the little gold key in front of her face. From a pocket, she produced the Hogwarts supply letter and Belladonna took it from her.
"Ooh, that's a new one," the older girl remarked as she looked over the list. "Professor Binns hasn't changed the textbooks in thirty years. At least that's what Mum says. Maybe there's a new professor, though I can't see Binns giving up the job."
"Can we get going before the shops are closed?"
Belladonna pocketed the list and took Rowena's hand. "Brace yourself."
Rowena had been through a lot of side-along apparations, but it always left her sick to her stomach when they arrived. When her feet landed on the cobblestones of Diagon Alley, she wobbled a bit and grabbed her sister's arm to steady her.
"First stop, the family vault in Gringotts," the older Kyndltry girl remarked with a bit too much cheeriness for Rowena's taste.
They made quite the pair. Belladonna, the social butterfly, was waving at all the people she knew even slightly, while Rowena was trying desperately to disappear into her sister's side.
"Ah, the young Kyndltry girls, welcome." A friendly goblin stepped up beside Rowena and led the girls to a desk. "How can I help you today?"
"Hi, Bogrok. We need to visit the family vault for a bit."
"Certainly. Do you have your keys?"
Rowena took half a step away from her sister and took the chain from around her neck. "Here. I want to visit my part of the vault."
"Same here." Belladonna detached her own key from a charm bracelet on her wrist. At her younger sister's questioning look, she whispered, "Don't worry; the bracelet is enchanted with an anti-theft charm. If someone tries to take it without my permission, it will burn them, and leave an identifying mark that lasts at least a week."
"Everything appears to be in order," Bogrok said, climbing down from his desk. "I'll take you down there myself."
The Kyndltry vault was one of the first ones built, and it remained one of the most heavily guarded places in the bank. She smiled and waved at the dragon, though it ducked away from the clankers that Bogruk held. Or like a dragon's… Suddenly she didn't feel very good about the dragon being chained down there to protect the vaults.
The inside of the vault was unique as most of the older vaults went. There was the main part, which housed the communal wealth and heirlooms of the Kyndltry family, but then there were small rooms off the main vault for various members of the family. Rowena's had been magically embossed with a silver letter "R", and Belladonna's beside it had a "B". The goblin opened the younger girl's first and she took a couple handfuls of galleons, sickles, and knuts, depositing them into her purse. Then she stood to the side as the goblin attended to her sister.
They had accumulated so much in the vault, it was surprising that they held onto it all. Rowena walked deeper than she had ever gone before, feeling the pull of something she couldn't describe leading her through the towers of treasure. She found the back of the vault, something that she hadn't been sure actually existed. The thing that was calling to her stood on a small pedestal away from everything else.
It must be the first thing that was put in the vault, she mused, gazing at the carved wood of the staff. Beside it, there was a book so old that she was afraid it would deteriorate if she touched it.
Rowena…Take the staff…Take the grimoire…Take up the Kyddle line…
The young Slytherin glanced around. "Okay, strange voices in my head telling me to take a couple artifacts from the family vault, no one around… If this isn't a recipe for disaster and dark magic, I don't know what is. Besides, the family hasn't gone by Kyddle for years."
She was about to turn away when a ghost appeared.
"Wait." He yelled, his voice horribly distorted. "I can't be on this side of the veil long."
Rowena stopped, staring at the grey apparition. It wasn't that she hadn't seen ghosts before—the wizarding world was full of them. But she hadn't seen anyone directly connected to her or to her family. She backed up and ran into the staff. Luckily, she managed to catch it before it hit the floor.
"Rowena, I know this is strange. My name is Darius, and I need you to take the staff and the book. Learn to use your magic well." His voice was fading out and getting harder to hear. "—cher—at—lin—oon—"
The Kyndltry girl was still holding the staff after the ghost disappeared and, for the first time in a while, it felt right.
"Rowena? Where did you wander off to?" Belladonna's voice echoed through the vault, and Rowena guiltily shoved the ancient spell book into her bag.
But the staff was harder to hide. She was just about to put it back when it started twisting around her wrist. It shrank until she could hide it in the sleeves of her robes, but by then, it didn't look like a staff. It had turned into a bracelet of polished wood with a large amber stone, which had been the crown of the staff, as the focal point.
"Rowena!" Belladonna grabbed her arm. "Where were you?"
"I was just looking around."
"We need to go; we don't have time to sight-see in the vault."
Belladonna practically dragged her out of the vault and past the dragon, who actually raised its head to look at her, a kind of recognition gleaming in its eyes. But Rowena didn't have time to process it and was on street level before she could say anything.
"So, where to first? Madame Malkin's? Broomstix?"
"Flourish and Blotts?"
"No. If we go to a bookstore first, I won't be able to find you until dinnertime. How about you go Madame Malkin's while I get your textbooks, and we'll meet up at Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor?"
"Okay, but I still want to go to Obscurus Books, and you said we could look around."
It seemed her sister didn't trust her to get to the magical tailor shop on her own. The older girl escorted her right to the door.
Half an hour later, Rowena left with the package containing her new uniforms clutched to her chest and found her sister waiting at the ice cream parlor. After a small snack, promising Mr. Fortescue that they wouldn't spoil their appetite for dinner, Belladonna submitted to a visit to Obscurus Books.
The air just inside the shop was thick with the smell of old books and the knowledge they contained. Rowena was sure Belladonna could see the change in her, the excitement that crackled in her veins.
"We're not staying here any longer than an hour. I will use a Body-Bind hex if I have to."
Rowena barely nodded before disappearing into the tall shelves. She always got this electric thrill when she was around old books. There were times that she was sure the Sorting Hat would have placed her in Ravenclaw if she hadn't been so insistent about being in Slytherin like the rest of her family. Not that there was anything wrong with Ravenclaw; some of her best friends were Ravenclaws…
She swung around the end of a bookshelf and ran right into someone, knocking both of them on the floor.
"I'm sorry!" She sprang to her feet and held out her hand to the old man. He had long white hair and wore light blue robes. On his shoulder, there hung a small leather satchel. "Are you okay? Let me help you up."
"I'm fine, thank you for asking." The man turned to her. He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen.
The man had stopped moving and was just staring at her—studying her, almost—a look of shock and surprise frozen on his face. Then the man seemed to realize that he was staring and looked down. He took her hand and she helped the surprisingly light old man to his feet.
"I'm sorry," Rowena apologized again. "I just really like old books, and sometimes I get over-excited. You're not hurt, are you?"
"Just my pride," the man smiled. "Go ahead, I wouldn't want to keep you from the books. They are, I'm sure, far more interesting than I am."
Rowena blushed and walked down the aisle, being more careful about noticing other customers.
He seemed nice, she thought, if a little odd. I wouldn't mind seeing him again…
She turned back to talk to the man, but he was gone, probably going about his own shopping.
"Rowena? Only forty-five more minutes and we are definitely leaving. Don't get caught up in a book in some dark corner where I can't find you."
Maybe she'd see him again before she left. Her fingers brushed the spines of ancient tomes and she breathed in the knowledge of a thousand years, trying to distill it into the little time she had left.
Until next week, dear friends, I wish you good days and lots of lovely fanfiction. Feel free to leave reviews; I love reading them!
