Outside Interference
Chapter 12
Cassandra slowly started to wake up. She was cuddling up with her youngest sister. Even with the special plushie, and the space-heater, she and her other two sisters regularly took turns to help keep Sally warm. Because she was a 'lamia', Sally got cold very easily. However, just before she opened her eyes, Cassandra remembered there was one very important rule.
Never look Sally directly in the eyes if she was frightened or angry.
Cassandra carefully opened one of her eyes, to see Sally's smiling face looking at her. "Morning Cass!' she said.
"Ohayou-gozaimasu, imouto," Cassandra replied.
"Cass?" Sally responded. "Wrong words."
"...oh...right..." replied Cassandra. "Good morning, little sister."
Sally was still learning how to speak, and the adults have been using English. Charlotte, Kuroko, and I knew how to speak Japanese from the moment we hatched, thought Cassandra. 'Genetic memory' was what the adults said.
However, she was still trying to figure out why she didn't need the special necklaces Charlotte and Kuroko wore to speak English. She was sure one of the adults would explain it once she was older.
Six little red eyes came into view. "Let's find an adult," said Kuroko. "I'm hungry, and so is Kuroko."
"Charlotte is over there, Kuroko," Cassandra replied. "Swapping clothes won't trick me."
"How do you always know?" Kuroko pouted. "We look exactly the same."
"Come on, Sally. Let's get up," said Cassandra. "Maybe we can get some eggs."
Sally's eyes lit up. "Eggs!" she exclaimed. "I like eggs!"
The four toddlers scuttled/slithered down the hallway, passing their younger brothers' bedroom. Two of the adults were inside it. The ones known as 'Mummy' and 'Amme' were feeding Leo and Azrael. "Good morning, little ones," said 'Amme'. "Are you hungry?"
"Yes we are," said Charlotte. "Where are Okaasan and Mama?"
"They're guarding the bad wizard," replied 'Mummy'. "Pinky?"
One of the funny half-size adults appeared, with a POP! "Yes, mistress Cassiopeia?"
"The little ones are hungry," 'Mummy' stated. "Could you prepare breakfast for them, please?"
With a loud POP! the four toddlers saw themselves in the kitchen. "What would the young Misses like to eat?"
"Eggs!" exclaimed Sally.
"Natto!" chorused Charlotte and Kuroko.
"Coco-pops," said Cassandra.
Charlotte and Kuroko each narrowed three pairs of eyes, and looked suspiciously at their older sister. "Are you sure you're our sister?" Kuroko asked.
"Also," Charlotte asked. "When did we get coco-pops?"
"Aunt Fern bought them," Cassandra replied. "They're in the fourth overhead cupboard."
"Excuse me young Misses," said Pinky. "Pinky doesn't know what 'natto' is."
"It comes from Ventris's homeland," said Aunt Fern from the kitchen door. "I'll show you how to prepare it."
The dryad fetched the ingredients from their locations in the kitchen, and the House-elves watched intently as she prepared the food. Once she was done, she faced her audience. "We'll have to show you how to prepare other Japanese food."
Five minutes into eating, Sally started to giggle. "I know how you tell our sisters apart."
"Shh!" Cassandra responded. "Don't tell them."
"Tell us! Tell us!" chorused Charlotte and Kuroko.
"It's a secret," Sally giggled.
The House-elves watched in mild amusement, as the four giggling one-year-olds started chasing each other around the 'residential' wing of the manor.
===/===
Fern could hear the toddlers having fun, as she entered the boys' room. Being a dryad, she felt a 'kinship' of sorts with Galadriel, and she could see the sadness on her face as the Elf stroked the cheek of her first-born.
"Azrael can sense your sadness little sister," whispered Fern. "When he's older, we'll be able to repair most of the damage from the mana-surge."
"I know, but he's never going to regain his sight without cybernetics," she replied. "Also, I'm the older sister." She pouted.
Fern laughed. "We'll be arguing over that until our kids are our age. Your world has shorter years than here, and mine has longer."
One of the House-elves walked in with some fresh diapers. "Aren't Lady Galadriel and Lady Fern sisters?"
"Not by blood," replied Fern. "Haven't you noticed? We're different species."
"Swishy was told Lord Hiroshi and Lady Mizuchi are twins, and they're different species," replied the House-elf.
"Point taken," commented Galadriel. "By the way. Fern, you said 'our kids' a moment ago. Is it you, or Mizuchi? Also, how did you manage it without a Gene-loom?"
"Mizuchi," confirmed Fern. "I gave Professor McGonagall the relevant documents to give to the school's medic. As for 'how' we did it, being a plant gives me some advanta..." Her voice dropped to a barely audible whisper. "...oh no..."
The dryad dropped to her knees, tears coming from her eyes.
===/===
Mizuchi followed Professor Sprout into Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, while McGonagall was standing just behind and to the left of him.
"What is this all about, Albus?" Professor Sprout asked. "Has Mizuchi been given permission to repair that student's wand?"
"Unfortunately not, Pomona," replied McGonagall. "Albus called us here for something more serious."
Dumbledore placed a glass vial on the table. It was full of a white liquid, with small metallic-pink flecks floating in it.
Mizuchi's eyes went wide with shock. "W-where did you get that?"
"I was informed that after you dropped Mr Filch off at the infirmary this morning, you went to the kitchens and ate enough food to feed six people," informed Dumbledore. "That sort of behaviour is highly unusual, so I had the House-elves search your belongings."
"Albus!" McGonagall was shocked. "You conducted a search of a student's personal belongings, without them or their Head of House present?"
"Justifiably so, Minerva. The House-elves found several dozen of those vials in a number of hidden compartments in her luggage," Dumbledore continued. "I will not allow you to distribute illicit substances to the student body."
Sprout and McGonagall could see the girl had started shaking.
"What did you do with the rest of the vials?" Sprout asked.
"I destroyed them, of course," replied Dumbledore. "They had an unknown magical signature, and I wasn't going to risk the student body."
"Y-you destroyed them?..." Mizuchi dropped to her knees, tears streaming from her eyes.
"Minerva!" Sprout exclaimed. "Get Poppy! Albus, you fool!"
McGonagall was already running out of the office door. Mizuchi was already in a foetal-position, silently crying to herself.
"Albus!" admonished Sprout. "Just because you suspected Dark Magic was no excuse to just act unilaterally." She turned to the crying girl, and lowered her voice. "Mizuchi, dear, did you leave any extras with Nurse Pomfrey?"
There was a brief head shake. "...needed special storage...take a month to prepare..." came a barely-audible whisper.
Dumbledore watched in confusion as Sprout tried in vain to comfort the girl curled up on the floor. "Mizuchi needed to take one of those potions every six hours," there was an edge of anger in the Hufflepuff's voice. "She was pregnant, Albus! The potions were to stop her from miscarrying."
Hufflepuffs look after their own.
===/===
Sally stalked through the south wing of the mansion, hardly making a sound as she slithered between covered furniture, carefully lifting their edges and looking underneath. She could hear the quiet giggles from one of her older sisters, most likely Kuroko, from the chandelier above her head. It was breaking the 'rules' of the game to hide where the seeker couldn't physically access, which meant... she looked carefully ahead, and noticed the heat radiating from a web, strung between some covered benches. She could 'see' heat. The adults already knew about it. However, she took Cass's lead, and kept quiet about it. Just like how Charl and Kuroko haven't realised the markings on their 'spider-butts' are different.
Movement. Sally turned in fright, as a rat as long as her arm tried to jump at her face.
"Oh no!" chorused three voices from the region of the ceiling.
Bunch of cheaters, she thought angrily. It was that anger that saved her, as the lifeless corpse of the rat fell to the ground. The other rats in the swarm panicked, and ran straight into an assortment of webs that suddenly surrounded them.
Sally's older sisters lowered themselves down from the ceiling. "Pinky," Cass called out. "There's rats in here."
POP! POP! POP! Several House-elves materialised. "Oh dear! Are the young Misses okay?" Pinky asked.
One of the other House-elves screeched in fright. "Nobody move! Lumpy thinks there's a Basilisk in the room! This rat is petrified!"
The House-elves immediately went on alert, and tried to surround the four toddlers.
Charlotte prodded the petrified rat with one of her pedipalps. "So this is why Mama said not to look Sally in the eyes if she's angry."
"This is why Lady Fern asked Greenie to buy some Mandragora," said a female House-elf, as she whacked 'Lumpy' over the head. "Lumpy didn't listen when Lord Hiroshi took us on. Lady Renata and Miss Sally are part Basilisk."
