With a few drinks in her to relax, despite the early hour, Amelia finds herself enjoying the diversion that 10 pin bowling has brought to her day. The company is odd to say the least, with so much talk about which sword is better than another, or what style of shield you should use. The game itself was fairly lacklustre, and it's a sentiment that the others on her team seemed to share. As they were far more interested in chatting and socialising than getting better scores.
By the end of the evening, Harry has come 3rd out of 6 teams and, surprisingly, the last 3 aren't all the students from Hogwarts. Reluctantly, Amelia finds herself agreeing to come back next month with the students. She's not sure if it was the alcohol, or just Mrs McIlvaine being the right sort of homely persuasive.
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A few days later, Harry spends an hour holding a tearful Marianne as she cries about the changes that have happened at home. At some point during this, he manages to remind her that she knows his private name. He also extracts a promise that she'll practice sending him messages using only the name. The two of them start meeting up once a week after this.
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Towards the end of September, flying lessons started on the same day as their Astronomy lessons. The Hufflepuff prefects let them know that this is done deliberately so that their magical reserves are slightly more depleted than normal, allowing them to get a few hours sleep before the lesson. Learning to fly with the Ravenclaw first years is a peaceful experience, that has only 1 minor mishap when Neville loses control of his broom. However, Madam Hooch is able to catch him with a charm that prevents any injury from the fall. Once she's coaxed Neville back on the broom, she's seen to mutter about how much easier it is to watch for accidents than with the Gryffindor/Slytherin class.
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Daphne progresses to navigating to known locations instead of just a location that has a strong emotional meaning to her. What she doesn't tell Harry is that she's discovered how to hold herself back from leaving the Other, allowing herself to observe what's happening.
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Marianne looks up and down the street at the carved pumpkins, plastic or real, sitting in their neighbours windows and front gardens. Her own home has none of these. With glance back at Morgana in her car, she reluctantly trudges to the front door of her parents house. It's certainly not home anymore after the last couple of months. Her eyes widen in horror as her father opens the door.
"In!"
Marianne looks back to see if she can run, but Morgana obviously didn't see her father, and has already driven off. Each step heavier than the last, she slowly walks into the house. As soon as she clears the front door, it slams behind her and her father grabs her by the back of the neck. Shaun then takes her bag from her shoulder and marches her into the front room, where her mother is standing next to the fireplace.
"Sit!"
Nervously, Marianne sits on the indicated sofa, "I received a report from your school this morning. Do you know what it says?" Marianne shakes her head mutely, "It says that your homework is not satisfactory, and that you spend every break in the library doing your homework instead of socialising."
"Yes, but I…"
"I have not finished speaking, so you will be silent until I finish. It says that your homework is not satisfactory, and that you spend every break in the library doing your homework instead of socialising. Your mother and I have discussed it and you will no longer be allowed to visit the Danann's. They are obviously not giving you enough time or encouragement to do your homework on time. Instead, you will come straight home and do your homework under your mothers supervision. Do you understand me?"
Marianne snaps and surges to her feet, "You can't do that! You are the reason that I can't get my homework done. You and your stupid need for everything to be perfect in the stupid kitchen. You and your insistence that we can't eat until you have already started. You that insists on us not being allowed to even have our own breakfast until you have not only had yours, but also that we have cleaned up after you. You have already taken my bowling away, I won't let you take away my second mother too."
CRACK! Marianne sprawls across the floor as her father backhands her around the face, "Look what you made me do. Do you think I wanted to do that?"
Woosily Marianne gets to her feet and screams at her father "I Hate you, I hate both of you!" As she does, all of the bulbs in the house burst and she grabs her bag and runs to her room.
Calmly Shaun turns to the now terrified Kate, who hasn't moved from her place by the fireplace, "My daughter is a witch. Did you know this?" Jaw clenched, Kate franticly shakes her head in the negative, "Clean this up and then get the car ready."
As Kate drops to her hands and knees to start picking shards of glass out of the carpet, Shaun walks over to the house phone and dials a number, "Vicar? It's Kincaid from church. Not good I'm afraid, my daughter revealed she's a witch. I was informing her that because I got a letter from the school about her homework, she couldn't visit the Danann's anymore. I agree, if they were any sort of Christians I probably wouldn't have needed to. I need you to open the basement again. Yes, though I never thought my daughter would be one of the people we needed to question. My wife is just cleaning up the floor before one of us gets glass in their feet, I'm about to search my daughters room. I'll bring any artifacts I find with us."
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Marianne flops on her bed, "Oh Sunny, why is Dad like that?"
Sunny appears beside her, "I don't know, it's like he wants you to be isolated and alone for some reason."
"You're right, I'm going to run away, then call childline." Determinedly she starts shoving everything that she values into the expanded space of her bag. Once her room looks like a tornado hit it, she takes out her journal and starts to write in it.
While she's doing so, the door to her room bursts open and her father hits her around the head with a padded bat before she can do anything. Looking around at the state of the room, Shaun shakes his head. His daughter has obviously dealt with any of the demonic paraphernalia that she uses to contract the demons she's trucking with. Spying the leather thong around her neck, he reaches down and snaps it off her, heedless of the fact it will leave a bruise. When he sees the stone and the raven he sinks to the bed, it's worse, she's dealing with Fae demons. A natural worn stone to see through their illusions, and the symbol of the raven for their great queen. That means she's been learning from the Danann's. That explains her anger at being told she wouldn't see them again. Morgana will be no easy target, she is a pillar of the community. Not that he'd expect any less from someone that deals with such unsavoury beings. Not for the first time does he wish that his families notes and equipment were kept closer to hand rather than under the church.
Weakly he stands and lifts his daughter from the bed. As he does so, his eyes widen as he sees her journal and quill under her body. Dumping her back on the bed, he lifts the journal and starts to flick through it. This is worse than he could imagine, she's been twisting everything they've been teaching her out of context. He then carefully inspecting the quill, checking it writes, and then looking for the ink source, he comes to the realisation that this is probably what she uses to communicate with the demonic queen, why else would she have a raven around her neck. That means that she knows everything that has been written with that quill. His face turns ashen as he glances back at the journal and the large ink spot from where she was writing when he knocked her unconscious.
Snapping the quill, he shoves it and the journal into her bag before putting it over his shoulder as he heaves Marianne over his shoulder. Hurrying downstairs, he calls to Kate, "Kate, get the car ready, she may have already contacted her patron for help!"
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Marianne wakes up painfully, as she opens her eyes there is only blackness and she becomes aware of the weight on her head, and the taste of iron in her mouth. Panicking, she thrashes around and stops just as quickly as sharp spikes jab into her back, thighs, and arms. Her hands also feel as though they're painfully held in place, with her fingers spread.
Sunny's voice makes her jump, "You're awake, I'm so glad. I didn't know what to do when they brought you to the church. I did my best to stop them, but they just started hurting you when I did."
"Mmmph!" Marianne tries to talk, but discovers that her mouth is being wedged closed by whatever is around her head. Instead she starts to cry.
"Don't cry, please don't cry. I tried to contact The Morrigan, but they've taken your tokens, so I couldn't, and I don't want to leave you as I don't know what they'll do if I do. If you can contact them, you're in the basement of a building with a cross over the entrance."
Marianne's eyes wide, the church! She can contact… She needs to contact Harry, "Yvor! Yvor!" It's no good, she can't speak.
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"Yvor! Yvor!" Harry's head comes up as he hears Marianne's panicked voice call his name, but nothing else. Around him, the Halloween feast is in full swing, and the headmaster is wearing a neon green robe with fluorescent orange pumpkins dancing around it. Looking at Daphne he touches his chest where she has her token, "I just need to go, I'll be back in a moment."
As he's standing up, the doors to the Great Hall burst open, and Professor Quirrell stumbles through, eyes wild in fear, "Troll! There's a troll in the dungeons, I thought you should know."
As Quirrell collapses to the floor in a faint, the Headmaster stands and lets off a cannon blast, "Prefects, gather your students and guide them back to the common rooms, the feast will continue there. Teachers, pair up, we need to find the troll!"
Helplessly Harry goes along with his house mates, "Ephis!" he hisses.
At the use of her name, Ephis flies over from where she was begging honey from the Gryffindors, "Harry?"
"Marianne's in trouble and I can't disappear. Find my mum and let her know."
Ephis disappears into the mist as Harry is lead to the Hufflepuff common room, where the prefects do a head count and then keep a watchful eye on the exits while the feast continues.
