Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl. Holly Jolly Christmas Two
DISCLAIMER: I neither own nor created the Daria cartoon series. Nor did I create the Harry Potter books and movies. I do admit to playing in the fields of JK Rowling's imagination, but I'm only a trespasser; she still owns the rights.
Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl*Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl*Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl
Daria did not sleep that well that night. The Warings' Floo connection bothered her. It wasn't that she objected to Floos in principle: the Floo was a handy way to get from here to there in a hurry, but the security issue made her nervous. How easy would it be for bad guys to hack the system so that they could get into your house? What sort of security measures did you need to put into it to keep it safe, to only allow people you want to come through and exclude people you didn't? That was something she'd have to talk about with Mr. and Mrs. Waring. Eventually, she fell asleep and didn't wake for hours.
When Daria awoke, she heard the sound of the wind blowing against the house and the splatter of raindrops hitting the roof and windows. She saw that it was morning twilight and, since this was winter and she was much further north than Texas, that meant it was much later. She looked over to Anahita's bed and saw that her covers were rumpled and turned aside. Anahita had already risen. Time to get out of bed, Morgendorffer, she said to herself.
She pushed the covers to one side. The bedroom was chilly. She reproached herself for not anticipating that; this wasn't Hogwarts after all. Her feet touched the floor and she felt even more chilly. OK, Morgendorffer, bedroom slippers are useful after all.
She put her suitcase on the bed and extracted her toiletry bag. She looked ruefully at the Warings' glow-globes. I am so going to have to learn the charms for turning them on and off, she told herself. Bathrobe on, waist tied, slippers on her feet, and toiletry bag in hand, Daria set off for the upstairs bathroom.
The bathroom had candles in place as well as two more of those glow-globes. Daria's heart rose for a moment: maybe I could get some light in here, then sank again when she realized that she hadn't packed any matches. She stripped and showered in the dark. At least the Warings still had hot water, she told herself.
After drying herself off, then brushing her teeth, Daria set about combing her hair. She'd almost finished when she was interrupted by someone rapping on the door and saying "Open up!"
OK, who was it, she asked herself. It didn't sound like Anahita, Jessica, or Mrs. Waring. She opened the door and saw a younger girl with Anahita's hair but with different features glaring at her.
"Annie, hurry up! it's my turn at the bathroom," the girl said. She threw Daria a glare, did a double-take, then said "Oh, you must be Annie's friend from America."
"Yeah," said Daria. "You must be Dana. I'm Daria. Give me a chance to comb my hair some more and I'll be right out." Daria ran the comb through her hair a couple more times, then exited the bathroom.
It took her a longer to get dressed. There was more light outside, but Anahita's bedroom was still dark. Daria reproached herself again for not learning the charms for illuminating the glow-globes. Eventually she dug out enough civvies to cover herself. She noted that she didn't have all that much cold-weather clothing and that a couple of her selections were a little tight.
Hair combed, shoes laced, sweater on, Daria finally opened the bedroom door and descended the staircase. She hoped that the Warings were still eating breakfast. She wandered towards the dining room: the lights were off and the table was bare. Still, the kitchen must still be nearby. She heard voices coming from an adjacent room and saw light under the door frame and guessed that the breakfast room must be on the other side.
Daria knocked on the door and entered the next room. Just as she suspected, it was the breakfast room and kitchen.
"Good morning," said Anahita. "You're finally up! I thought that you were going to sleep through the whole day."
"I'm not really a morning person," said Daria.
She looked around the breakfast table. Mr. Waring was nowhere in sight.
"Just us girls this morning," said Mrs. Waring. "Mordred flooed away for business. How did you sleep?"
"Pretty well," said Daria, lying about her worrying about the Floos.
"We're still one short," said Anahita. "You still have to meet Dana."
"I just met her," said Daria.
"Where?" said Anahita.
"Upstairs," said Daria. "She started knocking on the door while I was drying my hair."
"Soft or loud knocking?" said Anahita.
"Loud knocking," said Daria. "It made me feel right at home."
"Is Jessica still here?"
"I believe she's upstairs packing," said Mrs. Waring. "She'll be spending Christmas with her family. She'll probably be downstairs in a bit."
"I feel like an idiot for asking this," said Daria, "but what is an au pair girl?"
"An au pair is someone who works part-time and helps mind the children and helps with the housework in exchange for her own room and an allowance," said Mrs. Waring. "Don't you have au pairs in Texas?"
"Maybe elsewhere but not in Highland," said Daria. "Highland's more of a shirt-sleeve town than anything else."
"Shirt-sleeve?" said Mrs. Waring.
"Working class," said Daria.
Anthea absorbed this bit of information about the American girl's home town and resolved to talk about it later.
"Did you always live in Highland?" said Mrs. Waring.
"No," said Daria. "I was born in Austin, Texas. My parents moved to Highland in 1982 after my younger sister Quinn was born. I don't remember Austin very well."
"What were your parents doing in Austin?" asked Mrs. Waring.
"The first several years before I was born, my mother was attending law school at the University of Texas at Austin and my Dad was supporting her," said Daria. "After she graduated and a trip to Britain, my Mom studied and passed the Bar exam, then stayed there a couple of years doing legal work. We moved to Highland later."
And I would bet galleons that you were conceived here in Britain, even if you were born in Texas, Mrs. Waring thought. "Your Mum told me that you have another sister," she said.
"Yes, Veronica," said Daria. "Ronnie was born about five and half years ago. Unlike me and Quinn, Ronnie was born in Highland."
Mrs. Waring's plan to talk about what Mr. Morgendorffer did for a living was interrupted when Dana came downstairs for breakfast.
"Good morning, Mum! Good morning, Annie!" said Dana.
"Good morning, Dana!" said Mrs. Waring. "Did you sleep well?"
"Pretty well," said Dana. "I thought you would be back sooner."
"The train was slightly late and Daria wanted to call her mother before we flooed here," said Mrs. Waring.
Dana looked puzzled for a moment, then said "Oh, a telephone! I didn't know they had any at King's Cross station."
"They had some pay telephones near the main entrance," said Daria. "I used one of those."
"Daria called her mother at work," said Mrs. Waring. "It was remarkable, really. I hadn't thought about Muggles being able to make telephone calls across the ocean."
"It must have been late," said Dana.
"Actually, it was only mid-afternoon in Texas," said Mrs. Waring. "Their clocks are earlier over there."
"Oh," said Dana.
"So what are we doing today, Mum?" said Anahita.
"Well, since it's coming down in buckets, I think I'll hold off showing Daria the greenhouses until some other time," said Mrs. Waring. "I think we'll bake for tomorrow instead." Daria remembered that the next day was Winter Solstice.
Something about baking the day before the Solstice bothered Daria. She voiced it.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Waring, but isn't there a risk of the goodies going stale between now and then?" she said.
"Not really," said Mrs. Waring. "You girls are still learning the magical basics. There are certain household charms to prevent that."
"Oh," said Daria. Interesting to know, she thought. Those charms could be useful. She wondered when she'd be up to learning them. Probably not for a while.
Mrs. Waring then asked Anahita and Daria about Hogwarts and their teachers. Daria knew that Mr. and Mrs. Waring were younger than her parents; they'd been born while they'd been in High School. Still, Daria learned more about what Hogwarts had been like back when the elder Warings were in school. She knew that Professor McGonagall had been teaching then, but she hadn't known that Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick had also been there at the time. Hagrid had been groundskeeper, although Filch didn't become part of the staff until shortly after the end of the Wizarding War. Daria also learned that the Defense Against the Dark Arts post was already cycling teachers through at the rate of one or two a year.
Daria then decided to screw up her nerve and ask about the Wizarding War. The Warings had to have been at Hogwarts back then.
"We'd started school during the Wizarding War, but it ended before either of use had to face our OWLS," said Mrs. Waring. "Those were dark times. We weren't directly involved in it, but I can't tell you what a relief that was when we learned that the Dark Lord had been vanquished!"
Breakfast ended shortly after Jessica came downstairs with a suitcase. She'd be spending her Christmas with her family near Warwick. Jessica and the Warings said goodbye to each other, Mrs. Waring adding her greetings to Jessica's family.
The dishes cleared away, Mrs. Waring and the girls set to making the pies and cakes for the Solstice feast. Mrs. Waring was not one for using store-bought crusts—she'd make everything from scratch.
They didn't work the entire day through. They did break for lunch. Daria was amused to learn that Mrs. Waring not only had a pantry, but she also had something like a refrigerator. Its appearance was more like old ice-boxes she'd seen at the county historical museum back in Highland, but it worked more like a fridge. It didn't require ice.
They resumed their work after lunch. Pie- and pastry-making made Daria think about potions with Professor Snape. It was far more relaxing, although she found that baking was far more relaxing since she didn't have to follow complicated directions or worry about Professor Snape calling her out if she deviated so much as a fraction from the directions he'd written on the blackboard.
They could chat, too: a risky thing with potions. Daria revealed that her mother was usually too busy to do the cooking and that her Dad was usually the one who made dinner, which could often be hit or miss. It also made her think of some of the happier memories she had in Highland. She and Jessie and Cindy had helped Mrs. Wise and Mrs. Markham bake cookies. She wondered where the Wises and the Markhams were and how they were doing.
Finally, the pies and cakes were ready to go in the oven. Now they'd have to wait until they were ready. Mrs. Waring used the time productively: she and the girls set to cleaning up the kitchen. They wouldn't have that long; they'd be starting the evening meal before too long.
Their cleaning was interrupted by a call from the Floo: Mrs. Waring stepped out into the living room and returned a few minutes later with a couple of guests: an older woman that Daria guessed was her Aunt Amy's age and a girl that Daria recognized as an older housemate from Hogwarts.
"Hello, Merry Christmas!" said the older woman.
"And here is Anahita back from Hogwarts!" she exclaimed. "How was your first fall term?"
"I enjoyed it very much," Anahita replied. "I learned a lot. It's nice to do magic without worrying about upsetting the Ministry."
"And little Dana, how are you?" said the older woman.
"I'm fine, thanks," said Dana. Daria recognized the expression on Dana's face. The younger sister didn't like being called little.
"It looks like you're planning to celebrate the holidays at home, Anthea," said the older woman.
"That we are," said Mrs. Waring. "Family and a house guest. And you?"
"We're leaving the country on holiday and we're handing off gifts before we port-key away!" said the older woman.
"So where are you off to?" said Mrs. Warring.
"We're off to Varadero," said the older woman, who Daria guessed was Vanessa's mother. "We've got access to a port-key and we'll be off the day after tomorrow. Much warmer and much more pleasant than another holiday here."
Nice, thought Daria. She wondered what it would be like to visit a Caribbean beach during the winter—or any beach, for that matter. Her parents didn't travel that much.
"I see you have a guest," said Vanessa. "How are you doing, Texas?"
"Good," Daria replied. Things would be better if she could get at a phone and call her parents, she thought.
"Texas?" said the older woman.
"Texas Morgendorffer is an American, Mum," said Vanessa. Daria tilted her at her.
"Well, maybe I can pick your brains, then," said Mrs. Crow. "What do you know about Varadero, Miss Morgendorffer?"
"I'm sorry, but I don't know where Varadero is," said Daria.
"Varadero is in Cuba," said Mrs. Crow. "Surely you or someone in your family has been there."
"My Mom's family lived in Cuba during the late 1950's and my Aunt Amy was born there," said Daria. "That was before the Muggle US government and the Muggle Cuban government had a falling-out and we haven't been back there since. Anything I could get from my grandmother would be fifty years out of date."
"Interesting," said Mrs. Crow. "What was your family doing in Cuba at the time?"
"My grandfather was working for the US government," Daria replied. "The State Department."
"I see," Mrs. Crow replied, who probably didn't see. She looked at her wrist watch and frowned. "Well, it was nice to see you before the Christmas holidays, but we have other gifts to deliver. Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas to you!" Mrs. Waring replied, echoed by Dana and Anahita.
"I didn't know that your Mum's Da worked for the American Muggle government," said Anahita.
"Well, he did," Daria replied. "He died back in 1973. I suspect any connections my family has are pretty rusty these days."
Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl*Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl*Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl
Author's notes:
This is a period piece, set using JK Rowling's timeline. This particular chapter is set in December 1990. George HW Bush was still the US President, and the US State Department's travel restrictions for most US citizens wishing to visit Cuba were in place.
This AU Daria's eyesight is better than her canon counterpart's. She still needs eyeglasses, but she can navigate walking around rooms and walking up and down stairways without them.
