Draco could not understand his father's erratic mood swings that day. They were impossible. He'd be screaming at the servants, screaming at his mother, screaming at him to go and find Celeste, and then in the same breath he'd tell anyone who would listen that Celeste was not to set foot in his house ever again. It was almost as bad as when Celeste had been here, with the exception that now Mr. Malfoy was yelling at everybody else, instead of at his daughter.
"I have a headache," he complained to himself as he slouched in a chair, watching his father run a rut in the floor.
"Never would have.... Ungrateful little..." Mr. Malfoy muttered under his breath, seething. He was always seething at something, even when there was nothing to seethe about. In the core of him, so it seemed, there was an endless pit of rage, waiting to be set off at a moment's notice. It even got to the point that it was said that Lucius Malfoy had no fuse. He simply exploded on a regular basis. This 'new' daughter of his didn't help this condition much.
Draco bored of watching his father pace, as it made him dizzy, and his headache was getting worse by the moment. Leaning back in his chair, a thought hit him. Why didn't he try and use his telepathic link with Celeste? That might help.
*Celeste?* he asked timidly.
Nothing. There was no sound of her voice, and the woodsy feeling that he got when Celeste spoke through her mind was not there. Instead, there was an odd resistance, like he was trying to pry a top off of a jar. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get past the barrier.
When he next opened his eyes, he felt oddly damp. Wiping his hand against his forehead, he started when he saw three little beads of moisture on his forefinger. He had been concentrating so hard on the linking that he started to sweat with the effort. Getting up, he went to change, leaving his father wearing a trench in the rug.
# # #
Celeste sighed with exhaustion. For the last half-hour, she had been battling with her brother, so she wouldn't have to deal with his presence. It was very hard, like she was holding forty corks underwater at the same time, and she was now to the point of crumpling on the ground.
It was now around nine in the morning, and she had been walking for about three hours. Between fighting a mental presence, and walking, not to mention that she hadn't eaten yet, she felt like she was going to die at any moment.
It was odd, being without Sunsmear and Nightshade, and Celeste didn't like the feeling. She felt bad about leaving them behind, but felt it nessasary, or she wouldn't be able to blend in with the muggles very well. She had already gotten some strange stares from other early-risers about her staff. Thinking about it made her grip the stick of wood tighter. The dragons she might be able to live without for a few hours and she could get along without talking to Draco, but there was no way she was going to leave her staff behind.
Finally, Celeste knew when she could walk no more. All right, that's it. You're sitting down right now, Celeste Diana. RIGHT NOW, her brain ordered her. Her legs furthered the message by burning painfully. Resentful at the shape she was in, she fell down on a sidewalk bench.
"Happy now?" she muttered to herself, not caring if anyone happened to overhear. She sat there for about five minutes, until there was a sound behind her.
"Right, Carl! You can't beat me!" came the playful squeak of a female voice. Turning around, Celeste saw that she was facing away from a muggle high school. Wondering why she hadn't noticed it before, she averted her attention to the figures on it.
Beyond a fence that was made of loopy wire twists, and around ten feet tall, there was a field. A large, green one, that had two large metal goals on each side of it, and there were three kids running rampant through the grass and kicking a ball around.
Football, thought Celeste fondly, sitting up and leaning on her staff. How long's it been since I've played that? (Note: She means soccer. Football=Soccer in England, if you didn't know...)
One of the foster homes that Celeste stayed at (before the Kormic's), was with a family named the Tranni's. The Tranni family was obsessed with sports and football in general, and that's when Celeste developed a love for the sport. She had left the Tranni residence when she turned nine, and she was sorry to leave. When she became a witch, she discovered Quidditch. Quidditch was okay, but...it wasn't football.
Celeste watched the three kids kick around the football, until there was another voice behind her, this one of different specie then the children playing football.
--Football, football, football!-- came the screech from behind her. --Funfunfun!--
Celeste whirled around so fast that she nearly upset her staff. In fact, the thing that was speaking to her was actually sitting on the staff.
A gigantic black bird was sitting on the top of it, its powerful talons grasping the crystal on top of the staff, black beady eyes looking at her curiously with its head cocked off to the side. It was obviously a crow.
--Err, yes. Funfunfun,-- Celeste replied back nervously. The crow was so surprised to her Celeste speak back to it, that it actually fell off of the crystal, and toppled unceremoniously to the ground. Celeste gasped and reached over to pick up the bird.
It grappled her forearm nervously. --You speak speak speak? You no feather flyer flyer flyer. How you speak so so so?-- it asked.
Celeste giggled at the way it repeated the last word of every sentence. It reminded her something of the goose in Charlotte's Web.
--I was born with it, I guess. How do you know about football?-- she asked.
The crow shifted its weight from claw to claw. --Me no spend life with fingers over head head head. Ground walkers play on green every other sleep rises rises rises.--
It took a bit for Celeste to decipher that, but she assumed that the crow overheard about football from humans and these people played here every so often.
Celeste looked up, and saw a large metal sign that loomed over part of the fence. It read:
FOR SCHOOL USE ONLY. NO TRESSPASSING.
From looking at that sign, and at the ten-foot fence that spanned as far as the eye could see, almost, this school meant business. But looking at again at the children playing inside the field, they didn't seem to be school affiliated.
--You have name name name?-- the crow asked, interrupting Celeste's thoughts.
--Celeste,-- Celeste remarked offhandedly. --Yours?--
--Renegade Renegade Renegade,-- the crow said proudly. --They call me Rene Rene Rene.--
--Umm,-- Celeste replied, only half listening. --You wouldn't happen to know how they get in there, would you?-- she asked, pointing to the children, who were still running around on the field.
--Tree tree tree,-- Rene said, nodding toward a tree with low hanging branches, which extended over the tall fence.
Celeste nodded. --Thanks.--
Rene hopped up onto her shoulder. --Rene go with Celeste Celeste Celeste. Celeste might fall fall fall,-- the crow said in a motherly voice.
Celeste snorted slightly. "I don't think that there would be much you could do if I fell out of a tree," she muttered, but started towards the tree, with Rene on her shoulder.
# # #
Elizabeth Drosh was having quite an enjoyable morning. It was like religion. Every Sunday morning, while others were attending Mass or synagogue, she and her two brothers, Carl and Matthew, would sneak onto the high school football field and play. It wasn't really sneaking on anymore, really. Despite the large sign and the foreboding fence, nobody cared if three kids played on the greens, as long as they weren't vandalizing anything.
As Elizabeth was two years older than Matthew was and three years over Carl, she was on her own team, as usual. They never kept score, or really used the goals. Elizabeth was perfectly happy to run circles around her brothers and deke them out.
"'Can't touch this, Matt!" she taunted her brother as she ran up to him, teased by letting the ball roll in front of her by a few feet, and then quickly pulling it back when he came to try and snatch it away.
"Stop showing off, Dizzy!" Matt wailed as the ball was pulled away from him yet again. 'Dizzy' was the favorite nickname of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth flashed him a sauntry smile, and then moved around Carl, who just giggled with delight as he watched his sister dribbled the ball down the field, from foot to foot, back and forth. Left, right, left, right, left, right, it flew, as Elizabeth sprinted down towards one of the goals.
She wound up to kick the ball into one of the nets, but the ball had a dreadful spin on it, and it bounced off of her foot, flying in the wrong direction.
"Fizzlesticks!" she cried, watching the football fly away. It landed in the tree that they climbed in to gain entrance to the field.
Snap! Snap snap snap!
Elizabeth winced at the sound of breaking twigs. She hoped that the branches weren't damaged too badly, or they'd have to scale the gargantuan fence.
Suddenly, there was a loud shriek, and a large black bird soared out of the foliage. It encircled their heads, not unlike a hawk circling its prey. Nervous, Carl and Matt edged closer to Elizabeth.
"I-It's not going to eat us, is it, Dizzy?" asked Carl. Elizabeth shook her head.
"No. Crows don't eat humans, you know that, silly."
Carl was about to ask another question, when Matt pointed to the tree again.
"Look!" he cried.
Elizabeth did look. What she saw was another girl, looking about her own age, jumping out of the tree.
She had long, white-blond hair that was braided in a tight plait, with non-descript blue jeans and a black shirt. In her right hand was an odd looking stick. In her left was the football that had been kicked into the tree. The crow landed on the stick, and cawed at the air. Elizabeth wrinkled her nose, racking her brain to recognize this strange girl. She didn't think that she lived around here.
Celeste, meanwhile, was regarding the three people in front of her with her icy stare. The two boys looked back at her with fearful green eyes, and the younger one was sucking his thumb nervously. Celeste's main attention, however, was focused on the girl.
She was wearing a red jersey with the name 'BYFA.' British Youth Football Association' emblazed on the upper left chest. She was also wearing shiny red football shorts, red socks that undoubtedly concealed a pair of shinpads, and old leather cleats that were caked with mud from use. Her black hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, and light brown eyes looked at her suspiciously. Her face was dotted with freckles, and she was incredibly tan.
She has 'sporty' written all over her face, Celeste thought.
"Is this yours?" Celeste asked, holding out the well-loved football, Elizabeth nodded and took if from her.
"Is that, that thing your pet?" asked Elizabeth, nodding to Renegade.
Celeste shrugged. "In a matter of speaking, yes." Renegade squawked at the indignity of being labeled a pet, and Celeste giggled.
"Name?" asked Elizabeth bluntly. "I haven't seen you around here before."
Celeste broke into a grin that was so wide, that Elizabeth was afraid that she would split her face. Celeste was pleased to hear someone being rude for once. It was refreshing after being trained in manners for the last three weeks.
"Celeste. If it means anything, this is Renegade," Celeste said, motioning to the crow.
"I'm Elizabeth, and this is Matt and Carl. Do you live around here? I haven't seen you."
"I don't live here. I'm in for a week to visit my cousins," Celeste lied.
"I see." Elizabeth dropped the ball and started bouncing it off of her foot repeatedly, and then kicked it to Celeste, who caught it.
"You play football?" asked Elizabeth. Celeste grinned, and threw the ball back.
"Do I ever!" she said, winking.
The next hour consisted of tearing up the football green to try and steal the ball from other players. Celeste couldn't match Elizabeth's ability to ball handle, but she wasn't half bad either. When Celeste knew that Elizabeth had her beat, she liked to stop and watch the red white and black blur that was Elizabeth sprint down the field and rocket the ball into the back of the net. It was a fun game to play.
"I'm spent," Elizabeth finally said, keeling over. Celeste smiled. She had been 'spent' for the last fifteen minutes, but had been too proud to admit it.
"I'll see you later, then I guess," Celeste said, picking up her staff and dusting it off. Renegade landed on her shoulder.
Elizabeth frowned. "You busy today Celeste?"
"Err, I guess not," Celeste said. She really wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do after this.
"D'you think your cousin, or whatever, will mind if you come over for lunch?"
Celeste smirked, and crossed her arms. "What if I'm a mad serial killer that is waiting for my chance to chop you up into little bits? Do you think it's wise to invite me over for lunch?" she asked.
Elizabeth, much to the protests of Carl and Matt, smirked right back. "I could outrun you any day."
Celeste grinned. She liked this girl. "Probably. All right then, where do you live?"
# # #
Synthia drummed her fingers on the floor of the cave as her nervous subjects whimpered on about how they couldn't find the whereabouts of Celeste. In reality, Synthia was just keeping the angry look on her face to see her minions cower. She wasn't angry. She was to exhausted to be angry.
"Just shut up," Synthia groaned. Craggle and Snare did as they were told. "Has it ever occurred to you half-wits that she might not be living at the house she was at before? Maybe she has a summer house."
Snare and Craggle still said nothing. It was best not to interrupt when Synthia was musing.
Synthia rolled her head around on her neck. She desperately needed a back massage, but there was no way she wanted one from either one of her king-sized sleezeballs that called themselves her servants.
A relevation hit Synthia like a slap in the face. Her blue-green eyes bulged in her head, and she leapt off of the floor.
"Snare. Didn't you say that you accidentally picked up the wrong kid at Hogwarts? What if she's related to the kid?"
Craggle looked at her tiredly. "What are the posssibliltiesss of that?"
Synthia glared at him. "How many people have white-blonde hair and pale skin? Do the math, dunderhead. It would be different if she had brown hair, or something."
"Sssso, you want usss to find out who this kid issss?" Craggle asked, sounding tired.
"Yes. And I have an easy way to do it, too," Synthia said, ignoring his bland remark. Walking over into a corner, she rustled around in a bag, until she produced a very water-stained, torn, practically ruined leather book. She tossed it to Snare.
"That's a Hogwarts yearbook. Look around until you find the girl," she ordered. Muttering something, she took her snapped wand and pointed it at the thin book. The book started to stretch and grow before Snare and Craggle's eyes, until it was about as thick as a dictionary.
"We have to look through all of thissss?" Snare asked disdainfully.
Synthia nodded. "It would have been easier if you could have ambushed her earlier. But now you have to go in the back door. Happy searching." With that, Synthia left.
"Asss if it wasss our fault that ssshe left," Craggle snorted, flipping open the thick book to the first page.
# # #
Ever since they had gotten up, Sunsmear and Nightshade had been incredibly discontent with everything and everybody. They had already knocked over three porcelain statues, shredded the velvet curtains in the dining room, and had burnt nearly half of Mrs. Malfoy's wardrobe beyond wear. They were angry and resentful about being left behind, and were not afraid to let the world know about their predicament.
I know the feeling, Draco thought. The least that she could have done was left a note, or something, telling the dragons that she was okay. I knew she didn't like it here, but...
He sighed. This had been nothing but a disaster since it began. Now it had snowballed into a gigantic, flesh-eating monster that was tugging at everybody's nerves. Not that the Malfoy house had ever exactly been a model family to begin with, but now it was fifteen times worse. Mr. Malfoy was becoming something of a schizophrenic, Mrs. Malfoy was brusque and edgy, Celeste had been uptight and snappish, and Draco himself was feeling the brunt of all of this stress that was constantly on his family.
And now Celeste's gone, and everything has fallen apart at the seams. This hasn't worked out very well, has it?
Draco smiled ironically at his aloof thoughts. He was beginning to wish that Celeste had never come into his life. No sister, no family problems. Maybe it all would have been better if Celeste was still living with the Kormics, or still thinking that she was a muggle. It would have been best if Draco had never heard the name Celeste Malfoy, and went on being the only child of Lucius and Abigail Malfoy. Ignorance was bliss at times. This was one of those times.
Then came the guilt. Draco didn't feel guilt often, and he hated it when he felt it. No matter how much he didn't like the fact the Celeste caused family rifts, nobody who was a witch deserved to live out their lives as a dirty muggle.
I'll try communication one more time. Then maybe I can work something out with Mother, Father, and the other family that Celeste liked so much, so Celeste can leave. It'll be easiest, on everybody.
*Celeste, for the last time, answer me. For the last God forsaken time, ANSWER ME!* he screamed into his skull. The sound bounced around a few times, and was gone. Now all there was to do was wait for the response.
# # #
Celeste had been walking with her newfound friends to their house. They lived about a mile away from the school, but nobody really minded the walk.
That was when she got an immense pressure on her skull, which meant that Draco was trying to communicate with her. The pressure was harder than normal, which startled Celeste. She fought back with all of her inner strength she had. Her head began to feel like it was wedged between two concrete slabs. Something had to give. Something had to.
There was a snapping sound inside of her brain. Celeste stopped dead in her tracks. Elizabeth, Carl and Matt stopped to stare. Even Renegade examined her with curious black eyes. Celeste didn't care, however.
To see if everything was okay, she tried to communicate with Draco.
*...............* was all she could do.
Celeste panicked inside. The link between Draco and herself had been snapped, and all that was left was static and fuzz. For the first time in a long time, she felt alone. Even with three people - four if you counted Renegade - with her, she felt alone.
"Is something wrong?" asked Carl, looking at her oddly.
Yes, something is wrong! Celeste thought. Something has just snapped in my brain, I'm disconnected from my brother, I don't know where I am, and I'm totally reliant on almost total strangers! And you ask if something's wrong?!
Celeste didn't say that, though. She gave a weak smile and shook her head.
"No. Nothing's wrong. Nothing at all."
# # #
"I think we've found it," Snare said, plopping the book in front of Synthia.
"I'm listening," was the response Synthia gave him.
"She's either the ssssisssster of Draco Malfoy from Sssslytherin, or Ssssamuel McNulty from Ravenclaw," Craggle said, showing her two pictures of boys with white-blonde hair.
"I haven't seen either of these boys before. You two are the ones that kidnapped the wrong person, not I."
"Well," Snare mused, "ssshe looksss more like McNulty, but the persssson we took looksss more like Malfoy."
"Why don't you try and find the girl, then? You'll see her last name," Synthia suggested obviously.
"Why didn't we do that in the firssst place?" asked Snare. Synthia shrugged.
"She's probably not in there. She's only been there for half a year."
"I didn't ssssee anybody that looked like her in there, and we looked through the entire thing."
"Doesn't it say if they have sisters?"
"I don't know, Ssssynthia. I can't read print that sssmall."
Synthia glared at Snare and grabbed the book from his fingers. She mumbled through the small print and her eyes widened.
"It has to be Malfoy. McNulty has three brothers. I think that the girl was in Slytherin, anyhow."
"Sssso, you want to find out where the Malfoyssss live?" asked Craggle sadly. Synthia nodded.
"Yes."
Snare, who really didn't want to go out again, thought fast.
"Don't you think that thisssss ssssearch might go a little....easssier if we knew where we were looking?" he asked.
Synthia stiffened slightly. "Excuse me?" she asked.
"Sssshe might not be at the Malfoy house. Sssshe might be....at the ssstore. It might be better if we knew exactly where we should go," Snare fumbled.
Synthia opened her mouth, but didn't say anything.
"You have a point. All right, leave me, and I'll figure something out," she snapped, gathering her too-large robes in her fists and walking down into the depths of the cave.
Craggle looked at Snare. "That," he said sincerely, "was probably the fasssstest thinking that you've ever done."
Snare glared at him. "Thanksss," he said sourly. "I didn't expect it to work sssso well, though."
"Are you complaining?"
"No."
Craggle slung a reptilian arm around Snare's shoulders.
"Then let'ssss make the bessst of it, and ssssee what there issss to eat."
# # #
Mapleton was a generic suburb. Parks, libraries and the occasional elementary school were scattered throughout the neat streets of prefab houses.
After being led through several mazes of roads, they ended up at the doorstep of a green house with an even darker green door and shutters. In a vain attempt to add color, there were tulips and carnations in a flowerbed, but the bed was unkempt and trampled several times, so it seemed. Various toys were scattered over the lawn, and on the way up the walk to the house, Celeste had to kick away several bits of sidewalk chalk, matchbox cars and beachballs to clear a path.
Elizabeth put a hand on the tarnished brass knob to the green door, and turned around, throwing a sideways glance at Celeste.
"I'm warning you, it's a zoo," she said wanly. Celeste giggled, and Elizabeth threw open the door.
The first thing that greeted Celeste when she stepped over the threshold was a blast of air conditioning and noise that seemed to hum through the house like some sort of odd current.
Following Elizabeth's lead by kicking off her shoes, she looked around. She was in the kitchen, and it looked like a warzone.
The sink was piled three feet high with dishes; soggy cereal was plastered to the insides of plastic bowls like lumpy paste. A milk carton lay on its side, a puddle of white milk dowsing most of the floor. The rest of the tile looked like it had been wiped with a muddy mop, and little green toy soldiers were scattered about, most of them with their heads chewed off. The table was covered with last week's newspapers and unread magazines.
Celeste covered her mouth and giggled with horror. Elizabeth giggled right along with her. Matt and Carl plopped on the floor and began playing with the chewed-up plastic soldiers. Celeste didn't say anything more until there was a voice.
"Who 'dat, Dizzy?" asked a young-sounding squeak.
Celeste whirled around to see a small girl, looking no older than four peering at her nervously. Shiny black hair was done up in pigtails, and tied with pink ribbons, and large green eyes blinked behind an adorable pair of glasses. In her right hand she held a yellow blanket, and she had the first two fingers of her left hand in her mouth.
"This is Celeste. Celeste, this is Suzy," Elizabeth explained shortly.
"'Ello, C'les'e," Suzy said shyly before waddling off to go play toy soldiers with her brothers. Celeste watched her go.
"How many siblings do you have, anyhow?" she asked. Elizabeth stifled a giggle.
"Too many. Lets go in the living room."
Celeste followed Elizabeth into another room. This one had brown berber carpeting that looked like it had been run into the ground by a steamroller. A worn brown couch, straight out of the seventies lay against the wall, and green velvet high-backed chairs sat across from the couch. A southwestern-style rug was pinned up against one side of the white wall, and stringy lace curtains were limply thrown over cheap curtain rods. The entire effect was so clashed and gaudy looking that it was wonderful.
Three boys were sitting in front of a television set, playing Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo, while an adult read a magazine.
"Those aren't all your siblings, are they?" Celeste whispered, horrified. Elizabeth just grinned again and shook her head.
"No. The one in the middle with the black hair is my brother, Kevin. The other two are his friends, Stacey and Marvin. That's my dad, Ken Drosh."
Speaking for the first time since the football field, Renegade huffed. --It's too loud here for my taste taste taste.--
The three boys and the adult looked up at once.
"Wow," Stacey gawked. "Is that crow yours?" he asked Celeste.
"Err, yeah..."
Before anyone could do anything else, Renegade flew out the window, squawking back to Celeste.
--I'll stay out here here here,--
Celeste giggled. "She'll be back. Hello everybody. I'm Celeste."
Elizabeth sidled up to her. "I met her at the football field today. She's eating lunch with us," she stated, before dragging Celeste off.
"Too many people in there. Let's go to my room."
Celeste staggered along behind. "Suzy, Carl, Matt and Kevin? Please say that that's all," Celeste begged.
Elizabeth opened her mouth to answer, but she was cut off by a loud squeaking noise, like a badly tuned instrument, and that was followed by the arguments of two voices.
"Sadly, no. The owner of that...err.... lovely clarinet is my older sister, Lindsay. The other voice trying to teach her to play is my mother, Caralella Drosh. That's my whole family, to everybody's relief."
Celeste grinned and Elizabeth stopped before a white door, decorated with various bumper stickers with obscene sayings on them. Elizabeth sighed and picked at the corner of one.
"I just got my own room last year. I'm warning you though, it's very small," Elizabeth said sadly.
Elizabeth pushed it open, and Celeste nearly fell over. To say that Elizabeth's room was small would be an understatement. There was a bed stuffed in a corner, a dresser and a nightstand with a radio on it, and that was all the furniture. There wasn't room for anything else. The space from the bed to the door was probably three feet at the most. Celeste remembered her gargantuan room at Malfoy Manor and felt bad.
Elizabeth flopped on her bed, making it shake. "This used to be the linen closet, and I am not kidding. Enough of my complaining, though, what do you want to do? It's going to be another hour until lunch."
Celeste stood awkwardly in the doorframe until she took the step that was necessary and fell onto the bed and its white comforter.
"I have no idea. What do you want to do?"
Elizabeth stared at her for a couple of moments, as if contemplating something. "Blue," she finally said.
Celeste raised her head up. "Excuse me?" she asked.
"Your color would be blue. You should wear more blue," she said, a malicious grin spreading on her face.
"Uh-huh," Celeste said, beginning to get nervous.
"I have the best idea," Elizabeth said.
"Now I'm really scared," Celeste replied.
"Beauty parlor! Oh my God, we have to play that," Elizabeth demanded, groping under her bed and pulling out a small makeup case.
"Umm, I don't do makeup," Celeste said, eyeing the eyeshadow as if it would come out of its case and give her the bubonic plague.
"Come on, Celeste! You would look so good in blue makeup. You'd get some color into that skin of yours! Please?" Elizabeth wheedled.
Celeste gave a suffering sigh before replying. "Fine. I get to wash it off right after, though," she said sternly. Elizabeth gave her a look of injured innocence before throwing out a tube of lipstick.
# # #
Lunch at Malfoy Manor that day was not fun. Both of Draco's parents were unusually irked, and ate in stony silence. Draco tried his best to squash as low in his chair as humanly possible, and tried not to say anything to set either of his parents off.
There was a roar, a sound of scampering far off in the mansion, and then the splintery sound of something smashing to the ground in billions of pieces. Wincing, Draco turned to his parents, waiting for the acidic remark that was sure to come from one of them any second now.
They remained silent.
Draco wasn't sure if this was any better than an explosion of temper. It probably would have been better for Mr. Malfoy to leap up and go storming off angrily, or it would have made Draco more comfortable, at least. This angry silence was pressing into him like sharp knives.
"Lovely weather today," Mr. Malfoy remarked coolly, eyes ablaze with silver fire.
Now Draco was terrified. His father never talked this calmly. Something was terribly wrong, and he had a very good guess what it was.
"Yes, lovely indeed," Mrs. Malfoy said back, just as toneless. Draco didn't like all of this nonchalant small talk. He wished that lunch were over. The second hand on the grandfather clock seemed to tick so slowly!
Abruptly, Mr. Malfoy flung his napkin into his plate and stalked off. Mrs. Malfoy got up and primly walked out the other exit to the room. Draco sat there; staring at the empty table and the servants that came to take the plates away. The static that was in his brain hummed loudly, as if complaining. Finally, Draco got up and followed the suit of his parents by abandoning the dining room.
# # #
"Here," Synthia snapped shortly, throwing a roll of parchment at Craggle, who picked it up and examined it.
It was a map of the entire London area and it's suburbs. On it, hundreds of thousands of little black dots roamed. Oddly, four of them were green.
"What is this?" asked Snare.
"What does it look like?" Synthia sneered.
"A map," Snare dumbly answered.
"Now I know he has half a brain," Synthia mumbled to herself while rolling her eyes back in her head.
"I mean, how do you work it?" Snare asked, trying to be more specific. Synthia sighed and pointed to the mass of black dots.
"The black dots are the people that live and work in the area. The green dots are the Malfoy family. There are four of them."
It was true. Amid the seemingly millions of millions of black dots, there were four little green dots floating around. Three of them were clustered in one spot, while the other was a city away.
"Which one is the girl?" Craggle asked. Synthia squinted at the piece of ravaged parchment.
"That one," she said, pointing to the lone green dot. "See the little gold forcefield around it? She must be at a friend's house. Is that explained clearly enough for you two blithering idiots, or do I have to write out detailed instructions for you to follow?" Synthia asked in a high, sugary voice like she was talking to a group of two-year-olds.
"We've got it, Sssssynthia," Craggle muttered viciously, while eyeing his mistress and testing how sharp his daggers were.
"Good. Be off with you," Synthia ordered.
With a muttering of magical words and a loud pop, Snare and Craggle were gone.
# # #
"Celeste, you look so good," Elizabeth proclaimed while sweeping rouge over Celeste's pointy cheeks.
"I bet," Celeste mumbled. She didn't like makeup at all. It was too itchy, but Elizabeth forbade her to scratch it even a little.
"Stop being so fussy," Elizabeth ordered, backing up and surveying Celeste with a critical eye. "You're missing something.....I know!"
Elizabeth did some more rummaging through her makeup case, and came out with a little vial of what looked like blue mascara.
"Hair mascara. My friends wear this stuff all the time. I can't, though. My hair's too black," she explained, twisting off the top and grabbing a small fragment of Celeste's hair.
As she drug the small mascara brush through Celeste's thick hair, Celeste reached up and scratched one of her cheeks. She hoped that Elizabeth was almost done.
"Done!" Elizabeth proclaimed, pulling away. "Oh, Celeste, you do look pretty. You really really do," she sighed dreamily.
"Can I just take a look at myself now?" Celeste asked grumpily. Elizabeth had not allowed her to even take one little peek at herself while she had been working.
Elizabeth handed her a small mirror, and Celeste looked into it. She stared at the girl that looked back.
Slivery-blue eyeshadow was swept over her eyelids lightly, making her sapphire eyes appear that much bluer against her pallid skin. Pink blush settled at her cheekbones, and delicate carnation-colored lipstick had been smeared over her nearly white lips. Black mascara over her eyelashes made them appear thick and full, and Celeste batted them playfully at herself, giggling at the stupid look it gave. The streak of blue in her white hair stood out beautifully, and Elizabeth braided it back into her plait.
"It feels yucky," Celeste finally said, running her tongue over her lips, wincing at the bland taste of the lipstick. "But," she admitted, "it is pretty."
Elizabeth clapped her hands together. "You look like a hand-painted doll! You should wear makeup more often. It suits your face well."
Celeste was about to reply, but was interrupted.
"LUNCH!" came the echoing call of Mrs. Drosh. Elizabeth nodded.
"Come on. You can take off the lipstick after lunch," Elizabeth ordered, grabbing Celeste's arm. Celeste grabbed her staff and followed as Elizabeth drug her out of the room.
# # #
"I think that thisss iss it," Snare said while carefully pouring over the map that he held up to his nose.
"What are we ssssupposed to do? Do we kill her, or do we bring her back to Ssssynthia?" Craggle asked, scratching his head.
"I don't know. Better play it ssssafe and bring her back," Snare sighed. Craggle nodded.
"Ssssafe is best. Do you think that it'ssss thissss housssse?" he asked, pointing to a green house with dark green shutters, and toys scattered all about.
"It hassss to be. Look, we're the red dotsssss," Snare said, pointing out their location on the map.
It was true. Two red dots were hesitating at the walkway to a house with eight dots in it. One of the dots was green with a goldish aura around it.
Craggle shrugged and walked up to the house.
# # #
Lunch consisted of a large pot of Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup, and fresh baked biscuits. As it was nearing one in the afternoon, Celeste thought that she had tasted nothing better in her life.
Lunch was not a quiet affair, as it was at the Malfoy residence. With seven other people at the table (Stacey and Marvin had gone home), it was quite loud and messy. Nobody asked for anything, everybody just lunged over the table and grabbed whatever they wanted. In the first five minutes, Suzy's milk had been upset twice, a food fight had erupted between Kevin, Carl and Matt, and since Lindsay had brought her clarinet to the table, that had been dropped and broken into pieces three times.
Over all of the turmoil, Celeste grinned. If she could construct a perfect family, this would be it. In a house that was too small that you bumped into each other constantly, you always had somebody to argue with, or talk to, and they cooked soup by the potful. Celeste was finding this enjoyable after three weeks in the eerily silent Malfoy Manor.
"I'm so sorry," Elizabeth sighed, after Celeste got hit in the nose by a half-eaten biscuit. Celeste smiled and threw it back at Carl, who grinned and ducked as the bread whizzed past his ear.
"It's okay!" Celeste laughed. "It's all going to be okay!" Elizabeth stared at her, but then decided that it was nothing, and dropped the questions that came to her mind.
About ten minutes later, when things had quieted down a bit, the smiling Mrs. Drosh turned to Celeste.
"So, Honey, I don't believe that we've been introduced yet."
Celeste looked around at the table of black-haired people and blushed. With her incredibly light hair, she stuck out like a sore thumb.
"I'm Celeste, Mrs. Drosh," she said timidly. Mrs. Drosh laughed and shook out her hair.
"Call me Cara, sweetcheeks. Everybody does. Well, Celeste, welcome to my mess of a house."
"It's not messy. It's well lived in," Celeste said pertly.
Cara smiled. "A charmer! I think we've got ourselves a winner here, Ken," she said, jogging her husband's arm. Celeste decided that she liked Cara Drosh.
"Where di' you get dat stick at, C'les'e?" asked Suzy, speaking over her fingers she was sucking on.
Celeste looked at her staff, and tried to come up with a plausible fib.
"My cousin bought it for me when he was off in Australia," she said smoothly. She was surprised at how well she could lie. It was a dirty trait, but useful in a pinch.
"I see," Mr. Drosh said. "It's a very lovely piece of wood. Is it a walking stick?"
"Yes," Celeste replied promptly. Suddenly, there was a very hot feeling at the back of her neck, as if somebody had taken a candle and held it to her flesh.
"Ouch!" Celeste cried, clapping a hand to the back of her head. Everybody looked over at Celeste, concerned. That was, everybody except for Suzy, who seemed preoccupied by something else.
"Is something the matter?" Mrs. Drosh asked Celeste, who was massaging the back of her head.
"No, I'm fine.... What are you doing, Suzy?" Celeste asked, trying to change the subject.
Suzy had refilled her small bowl with soup to the point where it was slopping over the sides. Getting down from her tall chair, she grabbed the bowl and looked up at Celeste.
"No-thing, C'les'e. I'm-a jus' gonna give dem dwagons sum zoop," Suzy replied in her baby talk.
The others looked at each other in amusement.
"Little Suzy has quite an imagination.... I say, is something wrong, Celeste?" asked Matt.
The color in Celeste's face had drained so fast that Elizabeth actually looked down to see if blood had puddled at her feet. She was breathing raggedly, and it looked that the icy hands of terror had claimed Celeste in their frigid grip.
Whirling around, Celeste saw Suzy offering her soup bowl to two oversized lizards. They were looking down at the figure incredulously, and the one on the right - Craggle - grabbed the bowl, sniffed its contents, and downed the entire thing in one gulp.
"Yur gonna ge' a tummyache doin' dat. Da' food ain' goin' anywares," Suzy scolded, sounding not unlike a miniscule version of her own mother.
Celeste turned to look at the rest of the Drosh family, and they were staring wide-eyed at the two reptiles. Celeste grimaced and turned to the spectacle in front of her.
"Ssssstupid little girl. Don't tell me how to eat!" Craggle snarled before kicking her rudely out of the way.
Mrs. Drosh gasped and ran over to where Suzy sat, the wind knocked out of her.
"Suzy! Suzy, baby, are you all right?" her mother asked frantically. Suzy nodded yes, she was more surprised than anything.
"Ba' mon'ters! Didn' you learn any mannors?" little Suzy said, shaking her fist.
Elizabeth was on her feet. "Pick on someone your own size!" she cried.
Snare pulled out a short dagger and advanced slowly on Elizabeth. "Someone like you?" the reptile asked.
Elizabeth backed up until she hit the table. Groping behind her, her hand hit the half-full pot of soup, and her hand closed around the rim.
"YARRRR!" Snare cried, as Elizabeth flung hot soup into his face. Craggle ran up, covering for Snare as he wiped salty soup out of his eyes.
Thwomp.
Craggle reared back, clutching a soft spot that he now sported on the top of his skull, courtesy of Lindsay's clarinet.
"Gyaaah!" came Snare's battle call as he charged at Lindsay, forgetting momentarily about Celeste.
Thwomp.
The sound of Celeste's staff connecting with the top of Snare's cranium sounded like a cleaver whacking into a side of meat.
Snare grabbed the long braid at the back of Celeste's head and gave it a vicious yank. Celeste screamed and fell to the ground.
"Forget the fight!" he snarled to the very dizzy figure of Craggle. "We can leave now," he yelled, giving Celeste a vicious kick.
Celeste gasped with pain and curled around her injured side. Just when Elizabeth was about to hurl the soup pan at Snare's head, when there was a sudden shattering noise and a loud screech.
Renegade had broken through the window in the front room, and was now singing at an earsplitting trill.
Rene zinged between where Snare had a firm grip on Celeste's hair, and Celeste's braid snapped in two. Snare found himself looking at a braided lock of hair that wasn't attached to a scalp.
The crow screeched its loudest, making everybody wince and Snare and Craggle scream with agony.
"Celeste, Celeste you're bleeding!" cried Mrs. Drosh.
Celeste scrambled to her feet, and had both her hands pressed to where Snare had kicked her. Removing her hands, she stared at the crimson overcoat they now had. Indeed, she was bleeding.
Craggle snarled a word, making a rather large green fireball come hurtling towards Celeste. Carl had his jaw dropped in awe.
"Wicked," he whispered as Celeste reached behind her. Her hand connected with a glass, and she hurled it at the fireball.
The plastic glass melted into a shapeless blob, taking the green fire down with it. Celeste started to panic. There was no way she was going to be able to fend these two things again. She had been lucky the first time.
"Renegade!" she croaked hoarsely. The black bird flew over to her and landed on her shoulder.
---Yes yes yes?--
Celeste didn't say anything. Instead, she used her magic to press an image of Malfoy Manor, Draco, Nightshade and Sunsmear into Renegade's brain.
--Bring them here!-- Celeste called as Renegade flew out the broken window. --Godspeed. You'll need it,-- she added quietly.
Elizabeth threw a plate at Snare. It missed by a long shot and shattered on the wall.
"Celeste, you've got some stuff to explain," she said breathlessly. Despite the situation, Celeste cracked a grim smile.
She hoped that Renegade would return soon.
# # #
Draco was lazing about in his room, completely blind to what was going on with Celeste. He was very surprised when a gigantic black crow flew in through his open window and landed on his bed.
"Huh? What do you want? Shoo!" Draco cried, waving his hands at the bird. Strangely, though, the bird only hopped impatiently from foot to foot.
"Gaaaaaaaak! Gaaaaaak!" the crow screamed at him, as if trying to get him to understand.
"What?" asked Draco helplessly.
The bird, tired of speaking to him, seemingly, closed its eyes and settled on the bed. Draco was just about to speak to it again, when his eyelids fluttered shut, and yellow flashed.
Five miles away, stop at a muggle high school. Left three blocks, right two blocks. You'll see a green house with dark green shutters. Bring the dragons, and Draco!
It had been Celeste. Draco's heart rate increased as he stared at the bird.
"You know where Celeste is?" he asked calmly, though he felt very stupid talking to a crow.
The crow flapped its wings and bounced up and down ecstatically. Draco swallowed.
"I'll take that as a yes. Where are those two bumbling dragons?" he asked. As if on cue, Sunsmear and Nightshade bounded in the room, knocking Draco flat. They growled and snapped at the crow, which answered them in peeps and squawks.
Finally, as if agreement, Sunsmear grabbed Draco by his robes and flung him on Nightshade's back. Before Draco could react to this, Nightshade leapt out the window nimbly, and started pumping her wings. After hovering for several seconds, Nightshade found a breeze that suited her and was off, following the crow.
Draco was now positively sure that he didn't like riding on animals. He didn't care for animals much in the first place, but the Hippogriff escapade and this wasn't helping him much. There was nothing to hold on to, and the back of the dragon was very slick. He almost fell off three times. Not to mention the fact that he felt like an idiot, flying on the back of a dragon.
Hey! It's something Potter hasn't done yet! I've ridden a dragon, and Potter hasn't. It's about bloody time something happened to me that Potter hasn't done, or done better, he thought happily to himself as Nightshade jostled and bumped him around.
# # #
Celeste ducked behind a high-backed green chair as Snare hurled a knife at her. It got lodged in the chair. She sprang up and sprinted away. Suzy sat in the hallway, crying because she had been pushed down by Craggle, and had scraped both of her knees to the point of bleeding. Cursing, Celeste scooped the wailing girl up and ducked into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.
"I 'urt my 'nee!" Suzy sobbed. Celeste winced as she put a hand to her side, which was still bleeding.
"I hurt my side. Here," Celeste said, grabbing a box of band-aids and gently smoothing them onto Suzy's scrapes. "Please don't cry, Suzy."
Suzy stopped crying, but her lip trembled, and her body shook.
"What happ'ned? I'm scared," she whispered. The plaintively in the little girl's voice almost made Celeste want to cry along with her.
"It's okay. I'm sorry," Celeste sighed, picking Suzy up and giving her a hug. The warmth in the fat little body made Celeste feel better.
It was at that moment that the door started to rattle, and a knife protruded through the wooden door. Suzy gasped and buried her eyes in Celeste's shoulder.
Cursing because her left arm was full with Suzy, Celeste looked around for a weapon. There was nothing pointy or sharp she could use, but there was a jar of mouthwash in the cupboard.
The door smashed open, and Craggle stood there. Celeste tore the top off of the mouthwash and threw it at Craggle.
The container bounced off of the soft spot he had gotten earlier, and it made his stall just long enough so Celeste could slip by and bolt to the kitchen again, where the rest of the family and Snare was.
Lindsay and Snare were having something of a poorly choreographed sword fight. Meaning that Lindsay was bonking Snare over the head with her clarinet, and Snare was trying to run Lindsay through with his sword.
Mr. Drosh came up from behind Snare and whacked him over the head with a golf club. That was it for Snare. He fell to the floor, bloodied and unconscious.
The window to the kitchen smashed open again. Everybody whirled around, to find a male clone of Celeste, the crow from earlier, and two more dragons. The boy leapt off one of the dragons, and pointed a stick of wood at Craggle.
"EXPELLIARMUS!!" he cried, and there was a flash of scarlet light.
Craggle, who had been standing behind Celeste with a blade, was knocked into the wall. Nightshade and Sunsmear scampered after him, and bit into Craggle's skin, and charred his clothes. Finally, Celeste stood up.
"Nuuuuugaah!" she cried, making the staff glow yellow. She was too upset to think of any specific spell, but it wasn't needed. As the staff connected with Craggle's neck, yellow fire blazed, and in an instant, Snare and Craggle had disappeared.
Celeste stood there, with her staff in the 'kill' position for a few minutes before turning to the bewildered Drosh family, Draco, Sunsmear, Nightshade and Renegade. There was an uncomfortable silence.
"Umm, thanks....for....lunch," Celeste drawled out.
There was more silence.
"You're a witch, aren't you?" Mrs. Drosh asked in a brusque manner.
"Well..... yes," Celeste replied, not so sure about what to say. "How do you know about them?"
"My brother was one," she said dreamily, as if staring off into the distance of space and time. "My maiden name was Bones. Caralella Bones."
"Bones?" asked Draco, speaking for the first time. "Wasn't that family killed by Voldemort?"
Mrs. Drosh glared at him from a pair of overbright eyes. "Yes. My brother's family was...killed. I won't do anything drastic, if you just fix my house. It's in shambles!"
Celeste sighed. "All right." She tapped her staff against the wall, and shut her eyes. In her mind, every little nook and cranny of the house was displayed to her, in vibrant shades of yellow.
Celeste gritted her teeth and wormed her magic into the foundation of the house. Cracks in the framework were sealed over, fragments of glass were put back in windows, and soup was placed back in the pot.
Opening her eyes, Celeste found herself looking at a puddle of water on the floor. A drop of sweat rolled off her nose and dripped into the puddle.
It's sweat, Celeste thought idly as she tried to peel her sweat-soaked clothes away from her body for a moment. When she let it go, it fell back to her body with a squelching sound.
"You got alotta 'splaining to do!" Suzy said, shaking her fist at her mother. Mrs. Drosh sighed.
"I know, dears. Celeste, you should probably be getting back now. It's late," she said heavily.
Elizabeth looked Celeste over oddly, and stared as Renegade settled on her shoulder.
"I knew you were hiding something. Well, here's my address, and telephone number. Call me, write me a letter, or do whatever you wizarding folk do to contact other people when you get back to your cousin's house."
Celeste took the slip of paper and nodded. "I will. Have fun listening to your mother. I learned I was a witch about a year ago. It's a twisted tale."
Elizabeth gave her something of a lopsided grin, before walking over to her mother in the other room.
Draco looked at her. "Why is your hair so short?"
Celeste felt the ends of her hair. It stopped at her earlobes. "It got sheared off by Renegade - this crow. I suppose that when I was fixing the house, I fixed myself as well," she explained, noting that she was not bleeding, although there was a long scar down her side where she had been kicked.
"Shall we go, then? Mother and Father will not be happy with you, you know," he sighed, as he straddled Nightshade.
Celeste sighed unhappily as she clambered onto Sunsmear. "I didn't expect them to be happy.
The two dragons took off, with Renegade flying inbetween. "Just be forewarned," Draco cautioned as they rose in the direction of the setting sun.
# # #
Synthia slammed her fists against the cauldron, sloshing the spell that was inside around violently.
She shot an irked look over at Snare and Craggle, who were still out cold on the hard rock floor of the cave. They had been utterly and completely overwhelmed.
"If you want something done right, you'll have to do it yourself," Synthia snarled to herself under her breath.
Gathering her robes in her left fist, she stormed off into the darkest depths of the cave to plot.
# # #
Tonight I'll sing my songs again,
I'll play the game, and pretend.
But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity,
Like emptiness in harmony, I need someone to comfort me.
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home, where my thought's escaping,
Home, where my music's playing,
Home, where my love lies waiting,
Silently for me...
# # #
Writer's Note: Okay, that was long, a little too fast moving and a bit confusing, but it'll all work out in the end....I hope. If not, I can always rewrite it, but I don't think I'll be doing that anytime soon...Well, please review! (Even though that's the end of the song, the story still has one more part to it.....I'll figure something out. ^_^)
~Moxie ^_^
Disclaimer: Actually, most of the stuff in this part is mine, but whatever is in the Harry Potter books belongs to J.K. Rowling, and everything else is mine, excluding the song, of course....