Marianne flops onto the sofa in front of the TV and pulls her knees up to her chest as she cries softly to a background of children's bbc. Last night her mum had her helping to cook and prepare dinner, which they all ate at the table. However, her father had to start first, and they finished when he did. Because she didn't clear her plate in time, while also maintaining decorum and manners, she didn't get any dessert. But she wasn't allowed to leave the table until dessert was had.
After dinner, she had to help not only clear the table and set it for breakfast, but also clean the kitchen and stove until there was no sign it had ever been used, including cleaning the floor with a bucket and hand brush. Then it had been time for bed.
At school she'd gone to the library at lunch time to do her homework and look up the things she had trouble with the day before. After lunch the girls in her class were calling her a swot, teachers pet, and other new names on top of the ones they came up with yesterday.
Morgana steps out of the mist and finds Marianne there, with drying tear streaks down her face, and her knees up against her chest. Sitting down on the sofa, she just pulls Marianne into her side and holds her for a bit. When Marianne puts her feet down, Morgana holds out two expensive looking journals.
"I was able to buy these for you, but you need to use a special ink. So I also bought you a self-inking, self-sharpening quill."
"Thank you, I love you."
"I love you too. Now, if you want to practice your navigation through the Other you should write your name inside one and put it in your bag. I'll put the other one on your dresser later. I'm sorry I wasn't here when you got home, I was held up submitting some paperwork at the local government offices."
Marianne smiles wanly, "It's ok, it gave me time to cry."
"You shouldn't need to cry, as adults we are supposed to protect you, and only expose you to as much of the harsh realities of life as you're ready for. Tonight I want you to send me a message when you get to Harry's 'secret garden'. Can you do that for me?"
Marianne nods, "I think so."
"Well, get your name written down and let's get you to the gate."
Obediently, Marianne writes her name in one of the diaries. Her unfamiliarity with a quill giving the writing a chicken scratch quality. With that done she follows Morgana out to the gate and confidently steps into the mist as it appears.
As soon as she's gone, Morgana looks around for one of the, now, omnipresent fae. Spotting a sprite she moves lightning fast, and catches it before it can flee.
"Hello sprite, do you know me?"
The sprite nods franticly, "Good, I want you to go and find the sylphs and pixies that played with Harry and Marianne. Tell them this, 'The Morrigan is looking for a friend and companion for her sons companion'."
The sprite nods again, "Repeat it back to me."
The light the sprite is emitting dims noticeably at that instruction, as it finds it hard to remember words. Dutifully it repeats the message back, 10 times, before Morgana is happy it will remember enough to pass it along. Pulling the honey jar out of the kitchen, she takes the lid off and allows the sprite to take a drop onto its hands.
"When you come back with some sylphs or pixies that want to be a friend and companion, you can have another drop."
This time the sprite nods happily and, when Morgana opens her hand, darts off through the gate eager to earn it's drop of honey.
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Harry steps through the gate into the courtyard at home, following him comes Daphne. A moment after they appear Morgana walks out of the kitchen door.
"Harry, I thought I didn't give permission for Daph to be trained."
Harry nods, "You did, however I found out today that she is a warrior that has never been allowed to put down their shield or unholster their sword. That she is trained in combat of the mind doesn't change that fact."
"I see, and what are you hoping to achieve with this?"
"To teach her to navigate the Other so that there is always somewhere she can retreat to and set down her weapons."
Much to Daphne's surprise, Morgana next turns to her and places a fist in her hand over her breastbone, "My apologies warrior, if I was aware of your status I would have been more forgiving of your manner."
Some of her bewilderment must have shown on her face, as Morgana continues, "While Harry gets you a token, to show that you are his student, I will try to explain."
Somewhat alarmed, Harry disappears into mist, meanwhile Morgana leads Daphne into the house, "Tea?"
Caught off guard, Daphne replies by reflex, "Yes please. Where's the fireplace?"
"Is this your first time in a non-magical dwelling?" Daphne nods, "Open fireplaces haven't been used for cooking in nearly 200 years. Even permanently lit stoves, that we call an aga, are rare. Instead we use gas or electricity for providing the heat needed. To make your tea, I'm going to use an electric kettle."
Daphne watches as she pulls a rope out of the back of a jug and fills it up from the sink. After putting the rope back in, Morgana presses a button on the 'kettle'.
"I'm sorry, but that looks nothing like a kettle."
Morgana smiles before she reaches up on tiptoe and takes a more familiar style of kettle from on top of the cupboards, "Perhaps you are more familiar with this style?"
Daphne nods, "That's the sort that the house elves use at home."
"I'd ask what house elves are, but I suspect that is a conversation for another time. Now, what sort of tea would you like?"
Daphne is about to answer 'milky' when Morgana opens the cupboard to reveal boxes of different styles of tea, "Um, I have no idea what any of those are. So can I just have milky?"
"So Tetley then." Morgana then pulls out a blue box and takes out a small round bag full of tea leaves. Opening another cupboard she takes out a mug and drops the bag in to the mug. She does the same for her own tea, though she picks a different brand of tea.
"Erm, don't you need a teapot?"
"Thank Danu, no. I only use a pot for brewing if I'm making a lot of tea. I'm seriously considering maintaining a presence in the mortal world no matter what Harry decides when his doom arrives. We didn't have tea last time I lived in the mortal world, you see."
Daphne just nods somewhat out of her depth, she is saved from more confusing talk by the 'kettle' clicking. As Morgana pours the water in the mugs, she asks, "What about straining out the tea leaves?"
Morgana pushes over her mug, "That's what the bag is for. When Harry was younger I was curious about how they came up with that idea. The most commonly accepted story is that an American by the name of Thomas Sullivan invented them accidentally at the turn of this century. He used to send out samples in small silk bags, some of his customers assumed that the bags were supposed to be used the same way as infusers, and put them straight in the water. Milk?"
"Er, yes please?"
Morgana then performs the first bit of recognisable magic Daphne's seen her do as a cabinet door opens on the other side of the kitchen and a glass bottle of milk floats out, followed by a see-through container with lemon slices.
"Help yourself. Anyway, when he sent out the orders they were in boxes rather than the individual bags, and his customers complained about it. Once he made it a standard feature, his customers complained that the mesh was too fine, so he changed it to gauze. Thus, the modern teabag was invented. You might want to take yours out now."
Daphne looks down with a start and sees a teaspoon sitting on a saucer nearby. Taking the teabag out, she picks up the bottle of milk before commenting, "It's cold!"
Morgana hums, "I presume you use magic to preserve your food. The mundane can't do that, so they've used science to invent ways around that. Hence the fridge and below it, freezer." As Daphne shakes her head in disbelief, Morgana continues, "Don't be so surprised that there are amazing things here, the same is true the other way around. However, because in both cultures those amazing things are used for mundanity, we quickly forget just how amazing they are."
Tea made, Daphne follows Morgana into the living room, "Take a seat. You have probably guessed that I am older than I appear. I was first around when the romans first tried to invade Ireland. It wasn't until nearly the year 400 that the Christians first arrived on our shores. Despite what you'll read in the history books, when we didn't accept their missionaries, they sent soldiers. This was when we first saw warriors that were forced to be ready for battle for months at a time. Typically, these were fathers who were guarding their children to prevent them from being kidnapped. When we were able to move them into larger communities, they'd often remain on guard even though there were others standing watch. If they ever recovered, it took months of safety for it to happen. It's funny, it was the merchants that finally killed off my people rather than the missionaries and soldiers. As, increasingly they spoke of their false god, and the far easier path to the afterlife. I was one of the few who didn't give my people the tainted apples that allowed many of my families peoples to escape into the Other."
As the kitchen door closes with a bang, Morgana shakes her head and brings herself back to the present, "Sorry about that, I sometimes get lost in my memories."
Harry walks in holding a leather thong, from the thong hangs a small pendant of a crudely fashioned golden serpent winding around a silver sword, "Daphne, this is for you. I'm sorry it's not very good, but I didn't have time to heat up a forge, so it's just shaped with a hammer. I wanted to mount them on a shield, but that would have needed heat. If I had more time, the details on the snake and sword would also be better."
Daphne shakes her head, "No, it's fine. You can't have been gone for more than 20 minutes."
"If you accept this I want you to be very careful of it, and preferably never take it off unless you're returning it to me." Harry glances at his mother, who nods before he continues, "This is made from materials that are part of my domain. As such, it's like permanent freely given blood, and I can't stress how important it is that nobody ever gets hold of your own freely given blood."
Daphne frowns, "The only people that use it are the goblins for their keys."
Morgana shakes her head, "Blood quills use it too, they just extract it magically. It's why I've not registered the house as a magical dwelling. Your freely given blood can be used to bind you to curses, geas, track you, summon you, and even kill you. Your magical contracts are all a form of written geas. However, blood can only ever be used once. This is the same thing, but it can be used over and over again. We can track them, but an unscrupulous mage could bind us to allow them to keep that token. Harry is giving this to you for two reasons, one it's a symbol of trust and that he has taken you on as a student. The second is that it will allow him to easily find you if you get lost during your training. Normally we wouldn't inform you of the latter until you'd already mastered the first step of Celtic magic. However, as the quick way involves putting you in the Other and you navigating your way out of it by instinct. Not telling you would likely damage the trust you need in your teacher. For reference, the safe way involves learning to hold your focus on one thing first, and then you move onto the quick way."
Daphne hesitates as Harry holds the pendent out to her. Her every experience in life saying that Harry is been foolish by giving her something so valuable when he's only known her for a couple of days. Reaching her hand up, she stops a few inches away from the pendant, "Are you sure?"
Harry nods, "I wouldn't be offering if I wasn't. Remember what I said about trust?"
Daphne shakes her head, "No, sorry."
"It's ok, you were rather stressed at the time. The only way to earn trust is to give it. This is one such example."
Taking the pendant, Daphne inspects it, "What would happen if someone melted this down?"
Harry looks at his mother, who answers, "It would become normal gold and silver, as the process would remove the magic from it."
Daphne nods, "Keep the special ones like this then, crude and unfinished. Maybe also give away nonspecial ones that are made with more care and attention to detail. If it's something you're known for giving away as gifts to your friends, then when your heritage comes out they will want the better ones."
Harry shrugs, "I hadn't thought that far ahead, I just wanted to give you more than a lump of rock. The key to the first skill you need to learn is desire. You have to want to get to wherever you're going. It's not like moving around in the mortal world where you can be distracted by the things around you, and still reach your destination. As you develop this skill, that will become intent. By which I mean it will take less of your focus to maintain, and you can start to do other things. In our culture we would teach this by making a game of it and dropping them into Other at around the age of 4. Because children naturally want and desire they build up this skill without thinking about it.
"If you were a child, we would then teach you to cloak your presence in the mist of the Other. My mother and I are almost constantly using this to keep our magic hidden. This is the most basic use. As you get better at it, you can use it to conceal yourself, and then things about you. Such as my scar. My mother is far more skilled than I am, as things she's hidden can't just be seen through by knowing they're there. In my spare time I'm further extending that skill to form the mist into illusions, but I have a long way to go before I'm any good at that. Probably for the same reason I'm having trouble with Transfiguration.
"The other branch, which is the next thing we'll be teaching you, is to step into the Other yourself. Do you have any questions?"
Daphne nods, "Just one, why are you telling me so much?"
Harry smiles, "Give me the most honest answer you can. If I just dropped you in the Other and told you that if you didn't get out yourself you'd be lost forever, what would it have done to the teacher student relationship?"
Daphne frowns, "I'd probably assume that you were trying to kill me or get rid of me, and would keep our relationship at arm's length from that point."
"Exactly, with other people we can explain why we didn't explain that we wouldn't let them get lost, and while they might be upset, they'd see the success as something they did, and it would be easier for them to do it again. In your case, the value of you knowing in advance that we're not going to let you get lost is worth the fact you will be approaching the task with that knowledge. So making it harder for that first time."
"Ok, when do I start?"
"Now, you've got half an hour to get back to the dorm before I come and find you."
"What?" By the time she's finished her exclamation, she's in the mist holding the pendant, "Arsehole! Merlin, how did I talk myself into this."
Harry leads the way out to the courtyard to the doorway, where he starts to form a doorway to the Hufflepuff dorm. While he's concentrating, Morgana says, "Marianne's not doing well."
Harry starts, and the mist that was starting to form dissipates. Morgana gently clips him around the back of the head, "Concentrate. Her father has got her learning her role as a woman in the household. Also, the children at school are already making fun of her because she's fitter, stronger, and working harder than they are, even after 2 days."
"Gnngh, are, you, sure, they're, not, just, establishing, hierarchy?"
"Either way, she can't deal with the issues at school with what's going on at home. By the time the home situation is sorted out, it may be too late at school."
"She's usually really bubbly and friendly, what's going on?"
"She and her mother are being treated like renaissance servants in a manor house. So she doesn't have time to get enough sleep, and do her practice, and her homework, and make friends at school. Her first day, she was upset and tired from having to get up at 6. Today, she didn't have time to do her homework at home, and she has to do her practice in the other. You're doing well, you had an image of your dorm room for a second there. I've taught her how to message through stone and name just in case, and I've given her a magical journal that's linked to one in her room."
"This is hard."
"I know, but you're doing it faster than you did at the beginning of August. You might be ready to start doing this without the doorway as an end point by Christmas, Easter at the latest."
"When was the last time you had to think about your destination when just travelling the Other?"
"Gee, thanks mum, making me try to remember stuff when I'm already having trouble holding onto the image of my dorm, and form the gate. Um, a bit after we started teaching Jimmy."
"Exactly, this is more challenging, but uses the same skills and knowledge. So in order to succeed at this, you're having to make the previous stuff as natural as walking. Now what were you saying about transfiguration?"
"I was the only one in the class that wasn't able to change their matchstick at all. I tried, I really did, however I can't picture the transition from one thing to another."
Morgana nods, "It's probably the same problem you have with illusions, I'll see if Titania is willing to give you some individual instruction."
Harry turns around and stares at his mother, the mist vanishing from the doorway, "Mum! You know what her idea of instruction is!"
"Doorway, you've got 10 minutes."
Harry spins round again, "Shit!"
"Don't swear, do. And yes, I am very much aware that she is a sink or sink slower type of teacher. However, you learnt Celtic magic the same way, so why not Fae magic?"
Harry refuses to answer that, and instead concentrates on forming a gate in 10 minutes instead of the almost 30 he had when he started.
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Daphne stands in the mist for a few minutes trying to think of where she wants to go. Depressingly, she can't think of anywhere at all. Shrugging she calls up an image of the dorm in Hogwarts and tries to walk towards it. Frustratingly, it doesn't seem to be doing anything. After walking for nearly 10 minutes, she realises that Harry said that desire was the key, and it would eventually form into intent. Briefly she swears about him before starting to lower her Occlumency for the second time today. As she does, she starts to shake again, but this time there's nobody around to distract her from the thoughts and feelings she's been burying. Slowly, she realises that she wants a hug, the sort that Tracy's mum used to give her when things had been too hard at home. Ahead of her, through the mist, she catches a glimpse of the Davis sitting room, and Mrs Davis sitting in her favourite chair doing some darning while reading a book. Uncaringly, she drops the mug and pendant and runs towards Mrs Davis, who looks up startled.
"Daphne? Whatever are you doing here? Never mind that come sit." Mrs Davis changes her line of enquiry when she sees the tears streaking down the cheeks of the girl with a heart of ice. As the girl collapses in her lap, she waves off her husband as he starts to stand up from the other side of the room. A moment later, her eyes widen as a boy in Hufflepuff robes appears in the same place Daphne did. Incongruously he's holding a muggle mug and a pendant in his hands. Her husband surges out of his chair when he sees her eyes widen, and has grabbed his wand off of the side table remarkably quickly. The boy just raises his hands calmly.
Daphne, on the other hand, looks up and her sadness flashes to anger as she gets up and stalks over before slapping Harry, "Did you know I'd have to do this?! Did you know I'd have to lower my Occlumency shields to get this to work?"
Harry shakes his head emphatically, "I had no idea, and I'm sorry. If I'd known, I'd have made sure you were able to lower them safely before we did this."
Mrs Davis calls softly, "Daphne, what did you mean by lower your Occlumency shields?"
Daphne spins around and the sheer vulnerability on her face has Mrs Davis up and out her chair before she's even aware she's moved. She swiftly crosses the space between them and pulls her into another hug.
Mr Davis glances back at his wife then back to the boy, "Who are you young man, and how did you get into our house?"
"Harry Danann sir, and my family are the last practitioners of Celtic magic. Daphne was undergoing her first practice, and she made it here. We are 20 minutes late for curfew though."
Daphne sniffs, "Why didn't you get me earlier?"
My mother has a thing she says, "Never interrupt a student when they're succeeding. That's what you were doing when I came to get you, so I waited. You also dropped these."
Daphne sniffs again, "I suppose… No. Just thank you."
"Daphne," Mrs Davis starts gently, "why were you keeping your shields up?"
"It was the only way to stop the attacks."
"Henry, I told you he was teaching her wrong."
Henry looks back at his wife, "I know dear, and I had a word with him about it. But it's a family matter, so that's all I could do, you know that."
"I know, I don't like it, but I know."
Henry smiles at her, "That's why I'm always thankful I married a Hufflepuff. Now I think you should leave Mr Danann, we'll get Daphne back to the school."
"I can't do that sir, she's my student, and my responsibility." Harry grins cheekily, "Besides, the rules say that we're not allows to use the Floo without a professor supervising us, and we're not allowed to go to Hogsmeade without supervision either."
Henry shakes his head, "Hufflepuffs, and everyone says that Slytherins are the ones you need to be careful of."
"All I did is ask what the student rules are."
"Slytherins just wouldn't care, they'd just avoid being caught. Gryffindors would break the rules and then own it for school standing. Ravenclaws were usually to interested in their studies to bother even attempting to break the rules. But only Hufflepuffs would ask for the rules so that they wouldn't break them. Thus leading to situations like this."
His wife giggles, "Come on, you enjoyed that aspect of a Hufflepuffs nature when we were dating."
"I did indeed Doris, very much so."
Daphne hiccoughs, and smiles slightly, so Doris picks up a tissue and wipes her tears from her face, "Make sure she gets back to school safely young man. And you, no putting your shields back up until you've had some sleep. You need to process your emotions, not bury them."
Daphne nods, "Yes Mrs Davis."
"Now, go on, get back to school the two of you."
"Please don't tell father that I came here."
Doris smiles, "Don't worry, he won't hear it from us."
Harry holds out the hand with the pendant, and Daphne takes the pendant and turns her back to Doris while holding over her shoulder, "Mrs Davis, would you mind tying this on for me please?"
Smiling Doris does so, making sure that it's long enough to be hidden under robes and clothing. With a smile back to the Davis', Daphne takes Harry's hand and they disappear in a swirl of mist.
