Chapter 21 - All Work and No Play
July 6th, 1992 (Monday)
Location: Granger's House - Heathgate, Hampstead
After getting the center array all set up, she finds it a little bit easier to relax, her shoulders dropping slightly in relief. Her magic feels like it's dancing beneath her skin as she cradles the last symbol to her chest. In hindsight she realizes that doing this now instead of waiting until Daphne and Hermione has found and marked the last of the four corners. Now she's in a situation where she has to disguise the fact that she can use magic while at the same time set up a ward.
Fun.
She leaves the cellar as she cradles the symbol to her chest, pausing long enough to grab her jacket and pull it on - shoving her wand into the inside pocket. The symbol, despite being made purely of magic, doesn't burn or chill her skin as she holds it. If anything it feels like she's holding nothing - simply moving a finger is all she needs to do in order to confirm.
Meissa just barely closed the door behind her when she hears her name being called - prompting her to turn towards the sound. Near by the fencing, standing next to the tree marking the furthest point away from the house. It's an old tree, with what appears to be a swing set tied to one of its branches, stands as a testament against time. It actually makes her wonder how many generations of Grangers did the tree witness throughout time.
One of the Grangers in question is currently waving at her, wordlessly beckoning her to join her. Daphne, at this time, is nowhere to be seen. Judging from the size of the tree's trunk it wouldn't be too far fetched to believe that the blonde Slytherin may be on the other side of the tree.
It's still unclear to her what kind of tree it is. An Oak tree perhaps?
She files away the question and jogs over to the pair, the symbol gradually growing warmer the closer she got to the tree.
"Wow," she proclaims once she's closer to Hermione. "How old is she?" she touches the rough surface of the trunk, the symbol flowing from her hand into the tree. She can sense something changing in the property of the tree - as if the magic of the ward has changed something fundamental about it.
"I don't know," Hermione hummed in response, "I think mum said it's been here since the day grandma bought the house in the 1800s?"
"Wow," Meissa mutters. Nearly two hundred years old if not older. There's something special about that in her opinion. It's probably not as old as the many other trees can be. "So how did you find her?" she asks, idly tracing the pattern that the rune circle will have to take.
"It wasn't too hard," Daphne pipes up, walking around the trunk to join them. "They have something like the Point Me spell," she adds, her eyes widening just a smidge as she says this. "It does begs the question though: did the Point Me spell come first or the compass?"
"Mm… we'd have to research when either one was invented," Hermione remarks with a gleam in her eyes.
"Yay," the blonde mutters sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"Oi," Hermione pokes Daphne in retaliation, instantly getting a flinch from the other girl.
"So that makes four," Meissa mutters, ignoring them as the Gryffindor capitalized on Daphne's reaction and pokes another spot.
Daphne twist away from Hermione, putting Meissa between them, gripping the raven haired girl's shoulders to hold her in place. Meissa's gaze bounce between the two of them, from Daphne's grumpy expression to Hermione's innocent look.
"You are absolutely ridiculous," she declares at them, getting indignant huffs from the pair.
"Excuse you!" Daphne exclaims, releasing her grasp on the raven haired girl's shoulders.
Meissa uses this chance to slip away, laughing.
She can come back later to etch the runes but she can say, at the very least, that she can feel the beginning of the wards forming. The power of the nexus providing the basis of the wards. The runes she will later on draw will reinforce the boundaries of the wards but it seems like everything is proceeding well enough.
"Do you want to go do something else?" she suggests, turning to face them as they follow her.
"What about the runes?"
"It's not that important right now," she waves off as Hermione wraps her sweater tighter around herself.
"Well, we could go to the library," Hermione suggests, brushing back a strand of her hair. "I'll have to give my parents a call just to make sure they don't get too worried."
"There is not anything else to do?" Daphne questions doubtfully. "We all but lived in the library at Hogwarts - it'd be nice to get away from books."
"She does have a point," Meissa remarks. "Books are awesome but you should relax."
"I wasn't the only one practically living in the library," the Gryffindor huffs at her.
"Shh - we don't talk about that." This got a half laugh from the blonde that was promptly ignored by Meissa. "What else is there to do?"
"Mm… the park?"
The Slytherins exchange glances before unanimously agreeing to give the park a try. With that decided Hermione ran in to give her parents' practice a quick call - ultimately leaving a message for the secretary to deliver once one of them is free.
Daphne brush up against the slightly taller girl - touching but keeping it light enough to prevent a freak out. It was the most she feels comfortable to do with the revelation they've had the day before.
They still don't have an answer as to what happened or why it happened. Meissa still has no recollections of being at the zoo. Has no idea of how carefree she had behaved - in hindsight maybe that carefree behavior should have been a clue. There's a lot of questions up in the air that has the blonde questioning many things.
Chief among them was the events in the last week of their semester.
The sheer desperation to get her wand back - deep gravel grating voice, open rage in usually friendly eyes - is only the tip of the iceberg in regards to the other's temper. She has never witnessed the outbursts herself but it always - in some way or form - in retaliation to a form of bullying.
It'd be a lie if she said that she doesn't know how Meissa's intense dislike of bullying started.
The lack of social awareness - Frére Jacques, frére Jacques, dormez-vous, dormez-vous? Sonnez les matines, sonnez les matines - and the… change in demeanor. There's no other way to put that into words - at least not yet. She wonders if keeping it to themselves was a good idea - wouldn't have informing one of the professors been a better idea at the time? Or at least send a letter to Professor Snape.
She feels torn into two opposing directions on this. Handling this seems like something they need to keep to themselves. While, involving an adult would probably be the better method of resolving the situation sooner.
"Hey." Daphne stumbles as a shoulder bumps into her, startling her out of her thoughts and back into the moment. She turns narrowed eyes to a sheepish looking Meissa. "Sorry."
The blonde lets a soft huff escape before she returns the bump in revenge.
"So…" she looks at the taller girl as she draws out the 'o', "what were you thinking about?"
"You."
"Uh…. Good?"
She covers her mouth to cover the smile forming on her lips. Meissa looks so baffled by this that she can't help the fondness bubbling in her.
"Ready!" Hermione bounces down the steps, tugging on a peacoat with her hair clipped back from her face.
"Wand?" the Slytherins ask in union. A blank look appears on Hermione face before she rolls her eyes.
"This again?"
"A witch shouldn't go anywhere without her wand," Meissa recites. Daphne wordlessly points at Meissa in agreement.
"You two are unbelievable," the Gryffindor huffs as she turns around, presumably to retrieve her wand from wherever she stashed it.
"When do you think we'll manage to get her into the habit of carrying her wand all the time?" Meissa wonders, wrapping her coat tighter around herself. She doesn't really feel cold - it'd be cliché to say that she doesn't get cold easily but it'd be close to the truth.
"I'd give it a year," Daphne remarks, idly rubbing her palms against one another.
"Six months."
The blonde Slytherin gives her a long look before a sly grin appeared on her face. "Winner gets a prize of their choice?"
"Of course."
Meissa snickers slightly before she carefully blanks her facial expression just as Hermione came bounding out with a peacoat already buttoned up, a set of keys jingling in her hand. She pauses long enough to do something with the door before she joins them.
"So where's the park?" Meissa asks, shoving her hands into her coat's pockets.
Hermione wordlessly points down one side of the road.
~MJB~
The park is fairly large, with kids running around huge play equipment and parents sitting off to the side chatting with one another. The equipment were decent sized for the younger kids, but for a few teenagers, they weren't so big.
"So, there's the slide, monkey bars…"
"How about we start with your favorite?" Daphne suggest as Meissa stares at their surroundings. Hermione and Daphne were keeping a concerned eye on the raven haired girl - the pair are concerned that the park has a potential to trigger an episode.
So far, Meissa seems to be content to watch the children running and climbing all over the play equipment.
Hermione went over to the playhouse, easily bounding up the steps with the others not that far behind her. Meissa pauses to peer through the dome - blinking at how things look distorted. A little girl, maybe eight years old with her hair in pig tails, stopped next to her.
"You're really pretty."
Meissa, not expecting the compliment, simply blinks at the girl before a small smile appeared on her face.
"Thank you. You're very pretty too."
"My name's Paige! What's your name?"
"Meissa."
"Me-s-ah?"
A slight laugh escaped Meissa's throat before she could stop it. "That's not quite it," she teases the pouting girl. "Want to try again?" she asks with a slight smile as Paige crosses her arms stubbornly at her.
"Mess-ah?"
"Almost there."
"Meissa!" they hear before Daphne joins her. "Oh, hi."
"Daph, this is Paige," Meissa introduces, "Paige, this is Daphne, one of my best friends."
"Wow… you're really pretty."
"She is," Meissa agrees in a sage like voice.
"Don't encourage her!"
"Why not?"
"Because - because I said so!"