Aight everyone, this is the last chapter I'll be posting for today as promised. Hard to believe that soon I'll have to post a birthday chapter. Any suggestions as to what the birthday girl should get from her friends?
The same drill follows. I do not own any characters unless you don't recognize them - in that case those are mine. Please leave a review or drop me a PM, lemme know what ya'll think!
~MJB~
Chapter 5 - The Past
June 30th, 1992 - 1 day before Meissa's 12th birthday (Tuesday)
Location: Nigri Sanctuarium
Chapter One: Forming the Bond
Creating a bond with a familiar requires a connection that exists between wizard/witch and the familiar in question. The bond serves to enhance this connection.
Meissa frowns at the text and looks at the kitten lying on her school book. "This seems all elaborate," she remarks, skipping a few paragraphs to the diagram. She squints at the image before she sighs in annoyance. "Why do they make these so small," she mutters as she places a hand over the diagram.
Just a little bit of magic…
She lifts her hand from the page, with the copy of the rune contained between her fingers, and flicks her fingers out in front of her. The runes floating in front of her needed only a bit of readjustment to ensure that she could see every bit of detail in clarity.
Satisfied with the size of the diagram she returns to her reading that lays out the steps needed to form the bond. Step one has already been completed when she found her familiar in the shop. The next step is to spend time with the familiar to strengthen the connection prior to forming the bond.
She looks at her familiar. "Sounds like we're going to be spending a lot of time together," she comments to the sleepy kitten, getting only a soft meow in response. She turns her attention to the diagram she took the effort to enlarge, noting a few familiar runes but not recognizing the layout in general.
One rune she saw meant 'communicate' and another meant 'life'.
"Remmy," she calls for her personal house elf.
A crack, which startled her sleepy familiar, announced Remmy's presence long before her voice did. "Mistress Meissa called?"
"Yes," she turns towards her house elf, ready to request she make a copy of the diagram when she spies a sheet of parchment in the house elf's hand. Already suspecting that Remmy has predicted her order she holds a hand out for the parchment.
A quick glance at the parchment in her hand revealed that yes, Remmy did predict her order. Used to the house elf's tendency to do things on her behalf she simply accepts it as part of Remmy. With a fond smile she tugs the house elf's ear gently before sending her off with a thanks.
Done with her studies for the day she decides a trip down to her godfather's study would be nice. Before she leaves the room she picks her familiar up, placing the kitten in one of her robe's pocket.
"Probably shouldn't make a habit of traveling in my robes," she comments to the kitten, getting a long meow in response. "You might fit now but what will happen when you're fully grown?" She gets a slightly shorter response before her familiar peers out of her pocket as she walks down the stairs.
She smirks and pets the kitten's head before she pauses outside her godfather's study, peering into the room. It doesn't take her long to locate her godfather, sitting behind his desk as he studies a thick tome she knows to be about all the known potion ingredients and their effects in potions.
It is the same tome she had to read from after she blew up her godfather's lab trying to create a potion that would get rid of all common ailments. Meissa knows better now but she cannot help but remember that belief she had back then. The innocence she had and lost since then.
"Meissa I can see you," Severus' voice washes over her.
She leans against the door sill, smiling broadly at her godfather. "Are we still going to Oxford street?" she asks.
"Yes." She watches as her godfather starts to put away his things. He places his copy of the text in its place on the shelf behind his desk before shuffling his notes into a neat pile and locks them away in the top drawer of his desk. The locking charm clicking into place once the drawer has been shut. She knows not to bother trying to unlock it.
Her vow would keep her from using the second wand without supervision. While she can get away with using magic she prefers to minimize the chances of getting caught. So long she doesn't use her magic outside the wards on the Black Estates the risks are slim. Except, she has no doubt that the Ministry will do its best to find a reason to conduct raids on the estates. It's just fortunate that the wards on the estates only recognize the will of the Lord and Lady of the Black Estates. She's still unsure who the wards are obeying since the death of her great-grandfather. Her main theory is that the wards have reverted to default, protecting the Black estates but nothing more than that.
Meissa hasn't tried to practice at any of the other estates besides Nigri Sanctuarium. Since arriving at Nigri Sanctuarium she hasn't been out other than the trip to Diagon Alley. Usually she would have been visiting Draco and her aunt at the Malfoy Manor but she hasn't been there since the Yule break.
Since she been off on her own since the summer break started she has nothing to do except finish her summer homework and write letters. In between doing her homework and writing letters she has been making trips to the room on the top floor, mostly to look at the tomes and bottles. The ones that is instantly accessible to her all have labels that revealed to her that they are for meant for special occasions. There's one she saw for her 12th birthday and she's unsure if she really wants to view it on her birthday.
When she's not studying spells she's trying her best to do wandless magic. Sometimes it works but it's fairly rare for that to happen. For the most part her attempts at doing spells without her wand has been fairly awful. She's strong at doing spells well above her year when armed with a wand - as noted by Daphne on more than one occasions - but she can barely perform a first year's spell without one. Not unless there's a strong outburst of an emotion behind the attempt.
Ever since she used blood magic to slow down the stone curse, her magic has responded to her oddly. After the first three days without her magic cooperating, her magic worked well enough for her to go back to her usual activities. Only her wandless magic seemed to be unresponsive, what little success she had before now has a tendency of backfiring on her in some way. On more than one occasions, when she's trying to do a simple levitation spell, her magic would either not cooperate or overpower the spell causing whatever to go flying into any direction without warning.
Remmy's has been a life saver on more than one occasion either by patching up her mistakes or sometimes stopping the wayward items before they make a new hole in the walls or ceiling. She's also been responsible for keeping her out of trouble with her godfather, muffling the sounds of her various attempts to do wandless magic. She usually tries to do wandless magic in the warded room on the second floor but sometimes she forgets about the wonky behavior of her magic and tries to a spell in her room.
"Meissa, go get changed," she hears her godfather says. She takes her familiar out of her robe's pocket, placing the kitten on one of the chairs before removing her robe. Underneath she is wearing a pair of casual trousers - nothing too complicated or fancy - and a solid dark blue long sleeve shirt. "Ah, already prepared," Severus observes.
"You did say we'd go shopping for appropriate clothes."
"Mm? Ah, right, visiting Ms. Granger. Remind me again when is the meet up."
She sighs softly to herself. She should have realized that he would have forgotten if he's been so absorbed with his potions. "We're supposed to meet the Grangers at Leaky Cauldron on Saturday."
She is looking at her godfather when she sees him tense, his shoulders and back locking up. She can't see his face but she can guess that there's a look of guilt. She's used to his tendencies to get lost in his research, it's been a thing since she was placed in his care. Her godmother has been responsible for making sure she didn't grow up to be socially awkward and knows the pureblood etiquettes. Uncle Severus, when he's not preoccupied with his research, has been great as a guardian.
"We did not spend much time together…"
"Uncle Sevy, it's fine. How is your research going along?" she asks, hoping to deflect his mind from his lack of attention. The kitten mewled at her, prompting Meissa to pick up the spotted familiar.
"Meissa…"
"Can we go, Uncle Sev?" she asks as Remmy popped into the room. Instantly taking Meissa's discarded robes before popping out of the room again.
"Yes." Meissa smiles at her godfather before she hands her familiar over to Remmy to take care of while she's out shopping. She gets a protesting mewl from the kitten before she reassures the little one. Once the kitten was calm, with promises of milk and cream from Remmy, she follows her godfather out of the manor.
Casually gripping the sleeve of his jacket she's given a minute to brace herself before he apparates them.
The familiar sensation of being squeezed through a tiny tube no bigger than the tip of a needle still shakes her up and makes her stomach throw a riot. Stumbling from Severus' side she grinds her palms into the bricks that mark the entrance into Diagon Alley. The sensations grounds her in the moment, distracting her from the way her stomach is revolting, threatening to empty its entire content onto the pavement.
"At some point," she hears her godfather start in his usual drawl, "you will get use to apparating."
She makes a face as she stares at the dirty pavement, slowly feeling her stomach settle down. "It's been five years, Uncle Sev," she slowly straightens up, brushing off her hands against her slacks. "I still feel iffy every time we apparate," she grumbles, straightening her shirt as she turns to look at her uncle.
She gives him a slight smile before she follows him out of Leaky Cauldron and onto Charing Cross Road. She's been to Oxford street once before, when she was younger, so she knew that on a good day it'd take no more than twenty minutes of walking to get to the shopping district. Meanwhile she could window shop with her godfather as they walked, discussing anything that was not obviously magical.
For her it meant discussing the various things she has learnt from Hermione about the muggle world, asking for clarifications on certain terms or for her godfather's perspective on a matter. Fully aware of his acidic attitude towards teaching she always has a hard time reconciling the uncle she grew up with and the professor she sees in the classroom.
"Uncle Sev… how did you become my godfather?"
She watches him, out of the corner of her eye, pause for a brief moment before he started moving again. As if he has to reboot his brain at the question.
"Your mum asked me, a few months before you were born, if I would take you in. In the event of something happening to her."
She looks at him as they pause at a light. "How did you meet her?"
"I met your mother after she has already left the school. The war started before I started and I spent a lot of my first years in Lucius' company. Through him I met your mother. She's…. she was already involved in the war," he starts in a faraway voice.
She nods slightly, acknowledging his words. She remembers them telling her everything, or the highlights, of what her mother has done in the war. She knows her mother wasn't a saint, she has no delusion about that.
"Your mother was my mentor for a long time. Her 'techniques' are… legendary among us. Nothing can hold her back once she gets started." She feels him looking at her for a moment as they walked. It only takes her seconds to substitute the right words in as her godfather tells her this. "In fact…. You're a lot like your mother. I would even say you inherited her talent."
"Yeah?"
"Of course," Severus remarks drily. "After all, you are her daughter."
She smiles slightly, taking a small comfort in this before she reminds herself of one thing.
She needs to prove to the world that she is not her mother.
No pressure or anything.