Chapter 21: Swamped
December quickly turned into January, and with the change, it got considerably colder. Lynne had to keep the fire blazing all day and night just to keep everyone in the house from freezing to death. She remained at home with the girls while John went to work each morning and returned late each evening. His tardiness, he had claimed, was due to everyone taking vacation to spend time with loved ones.
Mercy had holed herself up in her room at the conclusion of Christmas in order to get ahead in her studying for her O.W.L. exams. She had to be forced out of her room for meals, which struck Trinity as odd.
Artemis returned three days after Christmas with a reply for Molly, at which time she was allowed again to use Vance to write to whomever she was sending letters to. Trinity tethered the falcon in her room, and was grateful when John brought her a bag of dead mice to feed Artemis while it was still too cold for the falcon to hunt.
Two days before they were due back to Hogwarts, Trinity sat in her room, reading the book on Aboriginal magic John had gotten her. She was so absorbed in the book that she did not notice when Melunise jumped on the bed, meowing. It took for Melunise to nudge her in the forehead to look up from her book and pay attention to the kitten.
"Hn? What's wrong, Mel?" She blinked as she reached out to scratch behind Melunise's ears. She was rewarded with loud purring. "I just fed you."
Melunise let out a long meow. She pawed at Trinity's hand, and meowed again.
"You want to play?" Trinity looked around the room, searching hopelessly for something that Melunise could play with. She found a string, which she dangled in front of Melunise. She was pleased that Melunise seemed to be enjoying herself, swatting at the string and pouncing for it.
A knock rapped on the door. "Trinity, dinner's ready!" Lynne called before moving down the hall toward Mercy's room.
Trinity sighed heavily. She put the string up, away from where she thought that Melunise could get to it. The last thing she wanted was to come up after dinner to find that Melunise had strangled herself with a piece of string. She patted the kitten atop her head before padding to her door and down the hall to the stairs.
Dinner that night was relatively quiet. John came home just as everyone was finished eating. He smiled grimly at the family as he took his seat at the head of the table. He thanked his wife when she brought him a bowl of hot soup.
"How was work, dad?" Mercy asked.
"Busy," sighed John. "We're still catching up on paperwork that was left over Christmas."
"Couldn't you use magic to solve that problem?" Trinity asked, recalling how some of the professors at Hogwarts would enchant a quill to write stuff down while they were otherwise busy.
"Magic doesn't solve everything, I'm afraid," answered John. "If it did, we would have never been in half the messes we've been in."
To say that she was confused was an understatement for Trinity. She nodded though, agreeing with John simply because she knew nothing contradictory to what he was saying.
That night, she stayed up late; taking the extra time to finish the essay Professor Fara had set over the holiday. She was relieved that Melunise had fallen asleep on her lap, and was no longer demanding attention. Every so often, Trinity took a moment to scratch behind her kitten's ears.
The following morning came too soon for Trinity, who had not gotten to sleep until well past three in the morning. She groaned as Melunise batted at her face and meowed with demands for food. It was several minutes before she opened her eyes, and minutes after that before she climbed out of bed. She padded over to Melunise's food dish, nearly tripping over the kitten twice. She petted Melunise while the kitten ate.
A knock on her door roused her attention from Melunise. "Who is it?"
"May I come in?" It was Mercy.
Trinity got to her feet and pulled the door open, struggling to keep Melunise away from her feet. "What's up?"
"I can't study anymore," admitted Mercy, obviously flustered by the fact.
"You've honestly been studying all this time?" Trinity asked.
"What else would I be doing?" Mercy replied rhetorically.
"I dunno…sleeping?" Trinity stepped aside to allow Mercy access to her room. She watched as Mercy walked over to her bed and sat down. She followed the older girl and sat next to her.
"And you're in Ravenclaw," sighed Mercy in a hopeless tone. She shook her head.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Trinity demanded quickly. Her eyes were narrowed at her friend.
"Nothing, nothing," replied Mercy with a grin. She scratched behind Melunise's ears when the kitten leapt into her lap. "How's that essay for Transfiguration coming along?"
"It's—nearly done," answered Trinity hesitantly.
"No one 'as ever lied to me before; you won't be the first." Mercy gazed deep into Trinity's eyes, making the girl shudder away involuntarily.
"I'll get it done," grunted Trinity. "I still need a good conclusion."
"Mind if I take a look at it?"
Trinity heaved a heavy sigh before walking over to her desk and retrieved her essay, which she brought back to Mercy.
They spent the remainder of the day working, and reworking the essay until Lynne called them downstairs for dinner. Dinner that night was quiet and uneventful. Mrs. Potter dropped by to deliver a book she had borrowed from John, but she did not stay long.
"I need to make sure that James and Albus are ready to go back to school tomorrow," she said at John's insistence that she stay for a hot cup of tea.
"Girls, are you packed?" Lynne asked Mercy and Trinity.
"We still got time, mum!"
Trinity, however, blushed a deep crimson as Lynne reminded her of her cluttered room upstairs. She flinched away at Lynne's reproachful glance.
"What about Molly?" Mercy demanded suddenly.
"Her trunk is already in the foyer," answered Lynne as Mrs. Potter dodged out of the kitchen.
Trinity quietly excused herself to go upstairs. She rummaged through the room, chucking books and her Christmas presents into her trunk haphazardly. She was delighted at the idea of going back to Hogwarts, even though she was a bit devastated at having to leave Drwgg llarien so soon. Still, she enjoyed learning magic more than the comfort of Drwgg llarien, and she was anxious to continue her lessons. She smirked as she realized that it was probably this quality that placed her in Ravenclaw. Her thoughts soon turned to her blue and gold four-poster bed waiting for her in the dormitory, which she shared with Rose and Sorcha. The thought of returning to her friends was cause for her to hurry in her packing.
That night, Trinity found it hard to sleep. What little sleep she felt that she got was filled with dreams of exams, essays, and Quidditch.
Hogwarts was colder than it had been in years according to many of the older students upon their return the night before classes were set to resume. Even the fires were not putting out enough heat for everyone to get warm by.
Trinity sat by the window in the common room with her winter cloak bundled around her, shivering. She was trying to read over her Transfiguration essay for errors, but the cold took away from her concentration.
"You could sit by the fire, you know." Rose took a seat next to her, looking mildly anxious.
Trinity shook her head. "Wells is over there."
Rose looked back at the group of older students and rolled her eyes. "You're going to catch a cold if you stay here, shivering."
"If there's a spell to help me get warm, please tell me. But I'm not going over there with Wells sitting there. Mercy made me swear that I'd stay out of fights for the rest of the year."
"Like you did with Malfoy as we were getting off the train earlier?" Rose countered with arched eyebrows.
"That was different," sniffed Trinity defensively. She glowered at Rose.
"Uh huh."
Trinity grimaced. She had gotten into a heated confrontation with Scorpius on her way off the train when he knocked into Rose and called her "a filthy Weasley". Before Trinity knew what had happened, she had her wand pointed at Scorpius's narrow face. It had been Anthony and James who had stopped her from doing something stupid.
"He had it coming," growled Trinity defiantly.
"Trinity, he was trying to get a reaction out of me," said Rose breathlessly. "His family is the one that's a disgrace to wizards. Both my parents fought to help my uncle defeat Voldemort."
"And I'm assuming Scorpius's parents fought alongside Voldemort?"
"Well, his dad and grandparents did," answered Rose. "I don't know much about his mum." She shrugged. "I'm heading up to bed." She yawned and got up to leave the common room.
Trinity remained behind for a while; she was uncertain how long, but when she went up to bed, most of the students had deserted the common room. She collapsed in her bed, and soon after, Melunise crawled up next to her. The kitten purred throughout the night.
The first week back was packed with seemingly endless homework assignments for the first years in preparation of end of the year exams. Unlike her classmates, Trinity also had Quidditch practice, and Mercy was putting the team through grueling regiments every other night after dinner.
"Don't they realize that exams are months away?" Albus groaned the afternoon that Saturday as he followed Trinity, Rose, Sorcha, and Ian up to the library for a study session.
"There's probably still loads they've got to cover," replied Ian lightly.
"Or they just have a sick sense of humor."
"You want to pass your exams, don't you?" Rose asked.
"Of course I do!"
"Then quit your complaining."
Trinity tuned them out after that, preferring the solace of her own mind. Her thoughts were as far as they could be from the end of the year exams. Instead, she was trying to recall the sloth roll that Mercy had taught her in the last Quidditch practice.
A/N: I apologize for the delay, but I am now a university student, and that means LOTS more work to keep me occupied and away from such sights as this. I have every intention of seeing this one through, as well as my other stories for those of you who are fans of those as well.