Chapter five: Once Upon a Time: An Ancient Tale
"She's hot," said Ron staring at the newspaper. Jeanette handed the dessert to Mrs. Weasley.
"You have to keep it cold," Jeanette said. Mrs. Weasley nodded and put it in the refrigerator.
"No, she's hot." A dark-haired boy said, pointing to the picture in the newspaper.
"Harry, Hermione," Mrs. Weasley said briskly, "I'd like you to meet Jeanette Davis." A frizzy brown-haired girl Jeanette hadn't seen put down her dusty book and got up from the kitchen table.
"Bonjour. Comment ça va?" She said sweetly with a very strong accent. Ron blushed in the background. They shook hands.
" Ça va. Tu a parle francais?" Jeanette asked. (translation: Fine. Do you speak French?)
"On peu. Je l'ai appris à l'école." (A little. I learned at school.)
"Moi aussi." (Me too.)
"Oh." Hermione said. She went to her back to her book, coolly.
"Hello, I'm Harry Potter." Jeanette smiled. She glanced at the scar. Until then, she thought scars were somewhat shameful. Something you'd like to hide, but his scar wasn't ugly at all. However, it embarrassed him all the same. He blushed.
"I can hide that for you, if you want." She said.
"Thanks, but no thanks." He replied.
"Hey Jeanette, aren't these people from your school?" Ron asked. Jeanette went over to look. It was the article she had been reading a few days ago.
"Oh. I know them."
"You do?" Ron said incredulously. "Hermione, you come and take a look too. It's your long lost family."
"I don't read the Prophet. It's all rubbish, you know."
"Hermione," Ron growled. Grumpily, Hermione put down her book and looked.
"So what were they like?"
"Don't be silly Ron. She wouldn't know them." Hermione chided.
"Why wouldn't I?" Jeanette demanded.
"It's a big school." Hermione said. Jeanette stared at her.
"She thinks that you would be in different groups." Ron said, helpfully. Though, he wasn't helping at all. Jeanette blushed. They thought she was stupid or something.
"You shouldn't quit school." Hermione said sternly. Jeanette's temper was stoked. Not only was Hermione an arrogant brat, but she was a showoff too. If she knew of the conversation between Ron and her, then she must of known that Jeanette spoke English. Ron might have forgotten to tell her that Jeanette wasn't French, but still...
"What I do with my life is none of your concern." Jeanette said, coolly.
"I think it was very irresponsible and immature to drop out. Even if you're not good at school, you should still stick with it." Hermione shot back, hotly.
"I'm smarter than you any day, Miss Granger." Jeanette snapped.
"Prove it." Jeanette took out her hand and transfigured an apple to a mouse. Hermione squealed and moved away, bumping into Ron. Jeanette changed it back.
"That's not fair. I can't use magic." Hermione pointed out. Jeanette just smiled. "What are the ingredients of a shrinking potion?" Hermione demanded.
"Chopped daisy roots, skinned shrivelfig, sliced caterpillar, one rat spleen, dash of leech juice. Polyjuice potion?"
"Lacewing flies stewed 21 days, leeches, powdered bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed picked at full moon, boomslang skin, a bit of who you want to turn into." Hermione rattled off. "The other names of aconite?"
"Wolfsbane and monkshood. When was the War of Roses?" Jeanette asked coyly. On and on they went, history, potions, magical theory, and everything else Harry and Ron had memorized for their O.W.L.S, but had long forgotten. Pretty soon, the whole family was watching Jeanette and Hermione's yelling match, swiveling their heads to look at each of the girls as they answered the question and made up another.
"They're like bloody encyclopedias." Fred muttered.
"Fred." Said Mrs. Weasley disapprovingly. Ron decided to help.
"Hey, hey I have a question." Ron shook Hermione and she shot him a death glare. "What is the record for the fastest snitch capture during a game?" He grinned proudly, at last he could show he too knew stuff.
Jeanette wrinkled her forehead and looked up. Hermione sighed. "Why do you have to ask such stupid questions, Ron, really? We're having an intelligent conver--"
"Threeandahalfseconds." Jeanette blurted.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Three and a half seconds Roger.no. Roderick Plumpton. 1921. Tushill Tornadoes against Caerphilly Cataplults." She said rapidly.
"WOOOW." The men said. Jeanette smiled prettily at Hermione. She let out a shriek and left the table. Jeanette had only known that because Jonathan was absolutely nuts about Quidditch. He always talked to it about Taylor at the sessions.
"Bill, Charlie would you move the tables outside". Grudgingly, the family split into different directions.
Someone grabbed her arm and dragged into an empty bedroom and locked the door.
"What?!" She turned and Moody was standing in front of her, glowering. "You can see me, can't you?" she squeaked. She stared at the eye and it stared back.
"For a person who's trying to keep a low profile, you're doing a really bang up job."
"It's not my fault that Miss Granger is such demeaning, arrogant brat." Moody continued to glare and she shrank from his gaze. "Well, you wouldn't like it either if people treated you like an idiot. I won silver at the school debate and if that girl thinks she can one-up me."
"Considering the situation I'd be happy my head was still on my shoulders." She pouted.
"I don't like being a ninny. I don't like pretending to be a vain, shallow bubble head."
"And you're not?" Moody asked, dryly. Jeanette blushed.
"How's the illusion?" She touched her necklace and looked into the mirror.
"Good considering your age." Jeanette frowned.
"So it's horrible."
"No."
"If it's not good. It's horrible." She said matter-a-factly.
"How did you ever get elected onto your school government with that attitude?" Taking his wand out, Moody prodded her necklace. Jeanette's nose sharpened ever so slightly and her eyes set themselves a little wider apart.
"Don't you think I look like Diana Lustella? My hair's a little too dark. I hate my hair color." Jeanette said, running her fingers through the streaky locks. "I wish it was back to normal."
"Not even goblins will be able to see you now." Moody said.
"Wonderful. Oh, can I have some of your skin?"
"Why?"
"To make something that decreases the appearance of scars. I'm in the beauty business now. I never thought that I would be using hours and hours of studying to make nail polish that matches the color of an outfit. So, will you donate to my cause?"
"No." Moody said flatly.
"Your loss." Jeanette sighed and walked out the door, rejoining the family. They were about to have lunch. Everyone had been given a pitcher, a bowl, or something to carry. Jeanette was not excluded. She was handed a pitcher of lemonade and sent outside.
Someone had constructed a huge tent-like structure to protect them from the heat. There were plates and plates of sandwiches and several plates of lemonade, ice tea, and water. There were fifteen chairs for the Weasley family of nine, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Moody, Fleur, Jeanette, Harry, and Hermione. The niffler and Puffskein stayed under the table to beg for scraps. Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, tried to stalk the Puffskein more than once, but Jeanette sent it away with a well placed kick.
Jeanette talked to Ginny. She mostly listened as Ginny babbled on and on about Hogwarts, her family, her friends, her difficult boyfriend, and etc. After helping Mrs. Weasley clear the table, Ginny and Jeanette retreated to her bedroom to talk. All the adults seemed to have disappeared and the trio went to Ron's room.
Jeanette looked through Ginny's pile of magazines and they discussed them. They talked about clothes, boys, and other mundane things. It was the sort of thing that a girl could discuss with any other girl and learn nothing from her personality.
Ginny laughed suddenly, "It was funny what you did to Hermione."
"I thought you were her friend." Jeanette replied. Ginny looked shocked. "Sorry, tact was never my forte."
"Neither was school?" Ginny evaded the subject guilefully. Jeanette flushed to her roots, how she wanted to scream at them that she was a straight A student and better than them. Raised in an extremely competitive world, to Jeanette everything was image. If you couldn't wow with looks or with sports, knock them dead with grades. It was a very bad habit, her mother informed her, but that never stopped her mother from calling all her classmates at report card time. At Salem, she was known for her grades and her community service. A real trump card for colleges, the counselors said. Here people were labeling her the "village idiot" or so it felt. Jeanette was naturally not pretty or sporty, and well smartness was all she had and her self-esteem was that she liked to flaunt it except she couldn't.
"Didn't like my teachers. So Hermy isn't one of your best buds, huh?"
"Oh, she's alright. Just a bit uppity at times. You put her in her place."
"I'm as much as a showoff as she is." Jeanette said honestly, lying lazily on her back on the pink bed. She sat up suddenly and brightly mused, "She would be very pretty with some slight altercations."
"You're very pretty." Ginny complimented.
"Really?" She rolled over and stared at Ginny. "You're not to shabby, yourself." She had big, pretty brown eyes, almost hazel. She was only a bit shorter than Jeanette and plumper. Jeanette frowned, slightly jealous, Ginny still had plenty of growing to do while Jeanette was pretty much stuck at her present height. Ginny had slight shoulders. A simple champagne frock would make her fair skin seem even more milky and would probably accent her smoky eyes nicely. Her hair, Jeanette winced internally, was large, flaming mass of untamed curls, but it wasn't something a generous amount of straightening lotion and blow drying wouldn't mollify.
Grabbing her drawstring bag, she grinned. She had thought a full makeup session might occur and she was prepared. Let the experiments begin. Poor Ginny. Poor poor Ginny.
A scant half an hour before dinner, Jeanette added the final touches. It had taken three layers of straightening spells, but now for a few hours Ginny had straight waist length hair with enough wave in the bangs to frame her heart shaped face. She was pretty and with the wavy charm falling out of her own hair, Jeanette was not. She ignored it soggy look, after working on Ginny she was too tired.
She wandered down the stairs after Ginny to help Mrs. Weasley set up dinner. The boys were playing Quidditch except Percy who was having a conversation with Hermione and Bill and Fleur who were probably off doing some of the things boyfriends and girlfriends do. Therefore it was Ginny and Jeanette who lugged bowls of salad, plates of ham, platters of sliced baguettes and cheese, and other goodies to the tables. The final piece was Jeanette's wonderful dessert, which Jeanette considered the most beautiful thing in the world (if you spent two and half hours slaving over it, you'd love it too.) It was still carefully entombed in a frosty glass jar so it wouldn't melt.
"Incoming," shouted Fred. Jeanette looked up from admiring her dessert and saw the bludger hurtling towards her and her precious dessert. Her wand was in her hand and she threw a reflector charm in a fraction of a second. It flew backward and knocked Fred off his broom.
Naturally, everyone flocked to Fred to see if he was okay. He was flat on his back still clutching the squirming bludger.
"Why couldn't you just duck like a normal person," he groaned and let Charlie take the bludger and lock it into a box.
"I warned you of the dire consequences of getting close to my dessert." She replied tartly.
"We're going to eat it anyway, what's the big deal if it's bumped up a little?" Just then, Mrs. Weasley bustled over.
"Fred! Fred! Are you alright?"
"Yeah, Mum." He got up. "Just surprised that's all." He went over to help Charlie attend to the bonfire. Charlie had told the family how in the wilds of Romania, he and his partner, a Greek fellow, had cooked over a campfire while tracking dragons. Mrs. Weasley had racks and racks of shish kabobs that Charlie was expertly roasting.
Jeanette wasn't sure how Mrs. Weasley ever got to eat, because she was constantly piling food on other people's plates namely Mr. Lupin, Harry Potter, Jeanette, and the twins. Charlie seemed to eating more than he was roasting and the adults were all crowded at one end of the table talking about politics. They seemed to have a grand time contradicting and talking to each other. When Jeanette's parents had conversations about politics or economy, they usually turned to full out yelling matches which ended with each one huffily going to one corner of the house.
The Weasley boys just dug in and had little time to talk. After all the food was gone, there was Mrs Weasley's homemade ice cream and then it was Jeanette's dessert. Mrs. Weasley unveiled it and gasped. The frosted glass had hid it well. It looked like a small tree in a dish of dirt . It was about a foot high covered with green leaves and the branches were jammed with fruits or fruit slices.
"It's really too pretty to eat." Mrs. Weasley commented. Jeanette had a feeling she doubted the thing was edible. Fred plucked a strawberry, dipped it into the dirt (it was really chocolate dipping sauce with powdered chocolate on top), and popped it in his mouth. George selected a slice of peach and copied Fred. Then the rest of the Weasley brothers joined in. There was just enough for everyone to get a slice of fruit except Moody who declined for safety reasons. Fred got another piece.
"That's it?" Ron muttered, his lips smeared with chocolate. As if to answer him, the leaves of the tree turned red and yellow and nuts formed on the branches of the tree before plopping down into the chocolate dirt. The leaves followed until the tree was bare. The wriggling nuts burrowed themselves into the dirt. Then the dirt separated into little squares, each having a leave on top. Ron was the one who grabbed the first piece and with all a hungry teenage boy's zeal, jammed it into his mouth.
"Nougat," he sighed dreamily. In about a minute, the chocolates were gone too. Moody again declined. Jeanette glared at Moody. She considered it a personal insult that he wasn't eating even though everyone else was obviously enjoying it. If everyone was turning into frogs, she might cut him some slack. Everyone watched the tree expectantly. Snow seemed to appear on the branches, clustering before forming balls that hung on the branches like Christmas ornaments. Sap (Caramel) seemed to ooze out of the tree onto the balls, forming little designs. Jeanette continued to stare fixedly at Moody.
He was the first to take one of the balls (they were the size of golf balls) and popped the entire thing into his mouth. (A very difficult thing to do.) He ate it indifferently and raised his eyebrows as if saying, "There I did it!" Harry picked another and fit the whole thing into his mouth. A very strange expression graced his face. It was like he was trying to spit out something but couldn't and swallowed right before Mrs. Weasley could grab him for a Heimlich maneuver.
"It's ice cream." He choked out, shivering. He cast a look at Moody. How in the world had he been able to stuff a golf sized scoop of ice cream with white chocolate coating down his throat without suffering brain freeze? The ice cream spheres disappeared quickly and green leaves once again began to sprout on the tree. Nothing seemed edible.
"The leaves are mints," Jeanette informed and soon the tree was leafless. George who had seen Jeanette making it and had helped cutting the fruit, broke off a small branch and popped it into his mouth. The bark was milk chocolate, the cork was dripping caramel, and the pith was dark chocolate. With a tinge of sadness, she watched everyone tear her precious tree to pieces.
"So where'd you buy it?" asked none other than the snooty, evil, wicked Hermione. I made it you nitwit!!! Jeanette opened her mouth for an insulting retort, her temper flaring up at once, but Fred beat her to it.
"She made it." The faces around the table looked doubtful. "Honestly, I watched you do it. You melted down my entire secret cache Honeydukes chocolate," he put on a mournful face. "My chocolate."
"I didn't know it was yours. I just found it under the loose floorboard."
"Well, we all have very important business to tend to." Said Mr. Weasley rather regretfully. He got up from the table. Everyone except Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ginny filed into the house.
"Should we help, Mrs. Weasley." Asked Jeanette, where were the others going.
"No, go play with Ginny." Mrs. Weasley shooed them away with one hand.
"Where did everyone go?" Jeanette asked Ginny.
"Order of the Phoenix meeting."
"And that is?" Jeanette frowned, she felt rather left out. She felt she should belong in such a meeting since it seemed to involve her.
"Some boring grown up stuff." Said Ginny in a disinterested manner. She was lying.
"Really?" Jeanette asked. She was feeling slightly rebellious. "Want to see a magic trick?"
"Fred and George have shown me plenty." Ginny said.
"Oh, but have they ever shown you a Muggle trick?"
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Of course."
"Oh, come on. Stop being such a spoil sport and humor me." Jeanette pouted, already making her way to the dying embers of the bonfire.
"Alright," Ginny sighed, "but don't expect me to act surprised."
"I guarantee you that it will be amazing." Jeanette promised. Bending down, she picked up an glowing piece of charcoal with her bare hands. "Here, hold me hand so you know I'm not using magic." Ginny took the wand and slipped it into her pocket. Jeanette walked a few paces before settling down into a bed of yellowing grass. "Sit Indian style across from me. That's it. Now watch." Jeanette grinned. She loved doing this.
Using the ember she drew a line between herself and Ginny. Instantly, the grass caught on fire and red foot high flames shot up before going down again. Ginny gasped. The grass began to issue a thin sheet of smoke.
"I'm going to tell you my favorite story." Jeanette chirped happily.
"Once upon a time, when the earth had barely cooled there was the goddess of the sky and the god of the sea." Figures began to appear in the smoke. "And obviously, they fell deeply and absolutely in love with each other." The figures embraced. "Reasons were number one, because they genuinely liked each other and number two, like any adolescents they did it just because Mom and Pop had said no." Two figures emerged in the edge of the screen, their ghostly faces frowning. "Well, guess what. Air head, the sky goddess, was already engaged to the jock-like wind god." Another figure appeared built like a Beater.
"Of course, Windy didn't like the competition of Salty and vice versa." The other figures disappeared except two which began to move round and round on the smoke screen as if they were in a boxing match. "So like the testosterone driven idiots they were, the two gods decided to fight it out over their lovely lady." A volcano formed behind the two boys and erupted, emitting a thick cloud of blackish smoke. "Just before they were going to seriously beat the pulp out of each other and consequently destroy the earth, Pop (the sun god) and Mom (the earth) decided that there should be a contest."
"Windy, being an pea brain as aforementioned, decided that the test was to destroy a mountain. Smart move, loser. But as hard as Windy could blow he hardly made a dent." A face blew curlicues of pale smoke at the now quiet volcano. The cheeks of the face darkened and finally he swooned. "However, when Salty tried, he succeeded. It's called erosion. Also Salty had the seasons on his side and you know what happens when water freezes in small cracks. The water expands and rock becomes rubble." Another smoky figure held up a trophy and did a ridiculous victory dance. "So then, Salty and Airhead were married even though Mom and Pop didn't approve." Two figures smooched each other while in the background another two figures looked at them disapprovingly. Their cartoon-like faces etched with deep frowns.
They had five children.all at once. And guess what? Airhead didn't even get stretch marks. Anyway, the saying goes that children with mixed parentage are neither fish nor fowl. So it was to every one's surprise when the kids turned out to be two fish, two fowl, and one equine. "Five baby animals appeared.
"The oldest was a unicorn, heir of the stars. Since she was the oldest, she got this attitude that her younger siblings weren't good enough for her. Arrogant prat." There was a figure of a slender girl with a star shaped birthmark on her forehead." The next two were boy twins: a sea serpent and a griffin." Twin boys stood next to each other, grinning. " The last two were also girl twins: a siren and a phoenix. "The two girls primped themselves. "Now the story could have ended happily ever after, but things like these never work out. You see, gods are very much like ancient celebrities. Too much power, too much beauty, and it goes straight to their heads. Well, there was a nasty divorce and the kids were just shuffled along." Two houses appeared and a figure appeared in front of each house. They seemed to have a kicking match with a duffel bag, before the bag split open and revealed five animals.
"Meanwhile, Windy, was a vengeful fellow." A figure rubbed his hands. "He was as vengeful as stupid, and as smart as his name. So he teamed up with the goddess of chaos and they rose Cain. Now Chaos was smart and she used Windy and he never even knew it. Remember, he's a genius."
"The first order of business was to strip the kiddies of their godliness and kick them out of high heaven. Windy scattered them across the earth and the gods didn't really care that much." Multiple figures appeared in the smoke oblivious to another figures shoving the five children of the edge of a cliff. "Air head being really involved with herself, Salty was still hurting from estrangement (he destroyed a mountain for nothing), and the grandparents never liked the marriage anyway, looked on indifferently. Unexpectedly, Air Head started liking Windy, because he was a bad boy. Figures. And Windy promptly forgot all about taking over the world." Two figures embraced.
"Chaos was pissed and launched a direct attack on the gods." A womanly figure stomped her foot and a group of figures fell over like pins. "Low and behold, that's how the Russian Steppes came to be. Utterly, inhospitable. Now for some really weird and unexplainable reason, magic is somehow tied into memory so the kids were perfectly oblivious to the dysfunctional family reunion. Though they were remotely curious why all these natural disasters started happening."
"They mingled with humans, had kids, grew old, and died. Chaos, who was a lot more intelligent than Windy, knew that you couldn't brawl. You might destroy the Earth and that wouldn't be fun, would it? So they used humans instead, like chess except messier." There was the image of a giant chessboard with farmers and woodcutters on it, looking around confused. The woodcutter began to chase the farmer on the little squares with his little ax and the farmer behead the wood man with his scythe.
"Now when you strip a god or goddess of his or her powers, you can't exactly take every single ounce of magic out of them without killing them. Chaos wanted to torment the kids by making them suffer without magic. Her plan backfired miserably, because if you never knew you were a god then you couldn't really miss it."
"Now the gods being horribly selfish and competitive wanted awfully to win the human game over chaos, except they couldn't directly influence humans. They sort of just put people together and set them up to do certain things and then sit back and watch. The gods wanted so desperately to win and to prove how good they were that they did something not very nice. Now gods for all their glory aren't very bright. There's like a zillion of them and one of chaos. Go figure. But occasionally, they had a good idea. Use demi- gods as bishops and knights." The five children are now in oversized armor and attacking each other with little wisps of smoke.
"You see the kids's descendents had been living ignorantly and somewhat happily among mortals and the gods just ruined it by giving back some of their powers. Power without control or knowledge is not a good thing."
"The kids couldn't cause earthquakes or anything, but they were damaging. Fire manipulation was the phoenix's forte and she was countered by the siren (water) or the serpent (ice.) The griffin as before mentioned could see truth and therefore create falsehood and wind. The unicorn was. usually too mellow to do much. Secretly, I think she was just lazy. She had the mundane gifts like foretelling things, reading people's minds, healing, walking into people's dreams and drive them crazy. Real boring stuff. As I said before. They didn't really know their place in the big circle of life so half the time they were buck wild abusing their powers and the other time, they were too conservative." There was a picture of each animal and a small smoky demonstration.
"Soon they were hindering less than helping. The idea was that gods couldn't directly influence people. They couldn't walk among them (not that they wanted to) and meddle in wars (which they did anyway behind the scenes,) but no one ever said half-gods had to keep a safe distance.
"Of course, the gods wouldn't demean themselves to talking with half-gods. It's called godly pride. So for a hundred thousand years, in this gigantic chess game the half gods were merely tools for the gods to use. How, they got them to do stuff, I'll never know. However, eventually Chaos argued that it slanted the playing field and the half gods should be fair game." The chessboard slanted and all the little farmers, woodmen, knights, and demi-gods fell off. "The gods had this ego problem and were confident that their half gods would stay loyal (never mind that they never actually knew that they were being used in the first place) and agreed."
"Chaos won them over (with money) and before you know it, here comes the Black Plague. The good guys (well sorta of good) lost that generation. For the last thousand years of so, the half gods have been the rope in tug of war. You see, whoever controls the half gods wins the battle and the war won't end until the world ends. Now sometimes, there are truces to allow the human population to rebuild and during those times, the demi-gods remain dormant." Chaos and Pop shook hands. "But now the truce is over and Chaos has summoned her new knight, the Dark Lord and surely the old gods will summons the five once again." Jeanette waved her hand and the smoke dissipated.
"But what about the first time--" Ginny interuppted.
"When the Dark Lord rose, somehow the five weren't reborn. They were not needed, because there were adequate human resources like courage, wisdom, and unity. Now he returns and perhaps the five have already returned too. Perhaps they are wandering among us, lost and confused. Perhaps He-Who- Must-Not-Be-Named will get to them before your precious Dumbledore. Perhaps all is lost and the world is ending, perhaps all is to be won and Darkness will never rise again. This is the final battle."
"How do you know?"
"I don't. But we've had anything this big before, when evil was so powerful and good was so broken. It's bound to happen, why not right now?"
"Who's on Voldemort's side," Ginny asked eagerly.
"Someone will be. Even though we're siblings, we were never close. Always competing, always angry, and eons of bitterness as we lay dormant between lives. Not since the first time have we united."
"We?" Jeanette flushed.
"Sorry, got a little too caught up in it all."
"Is it true?"
"Everything except the Dark Lord part. I made it up to make it sound more fun."
"Five demi-gods actually exist." Jeanette nodded sagely. "So how do you tell them apart from people?"
"Oh," Jeanette said knowledgeably, "You can always tell the difference between a demi-god and a mortal. First of all, they look different.physically they're perfect though the color scheme usually reflects the animal which can sort of weird. However, they can hide that with illusions especially the griffin. He is the kingpin of the disguise. But there is one thing that they can't hide at all. They can't cry tears like we do, though I guess they feel just like us. They cry gems." Jeanette played with her ember and finally crushed it in her fist. She opened her palm and a line of gems were in her hand.
"Pearls for the phoenix," the first gem was bluish- gray pearl.
"Beryl for the siren," the second was an aquamarine.
"Diamonds for the unicorn," the third was a lovely diamond. She closed her fist.
"And though it's nearly impossible to get them to do it," She opened her hand, revealing a sapphire and a pearly stone. "Corundum for the serpent and moonstones for the griffin." She closed her hand again and opened it revealing the hot red ash of the crushed ember. Under the darkening sky, the dust glowed crimson. "Their blood glitters in the moonlight. But I wouldn't recommend carrying a needle around and poking every gorgeous person in sight at night." She finished dryly. She dusted herself off nonchalantly and got up. "Look the boys are playing Quidditch." She said.
"You want to?"
"Nah, scared of heights."
"We'll fly low." And with that, Ginny grabbed Jeanette's wrist and dragged her toward the broom closet.
"She's hot," said Ron staring at the newspaper. Jeanette handed the dessert to Mrs. Weasley.
"You have to keep it cold," Jeanette said. Mrs. Weasley nodded and put it in the refrigerator.
"No, she's hot." A dark-haired boy said, pointing to the picture in the newspaper.
"Harry, Hermione," Mrs. Weasley said briskly, "I'd like you to meet Jeanette Davis." A frizzy brown-haired girl Jeanette hadn't seen put down her dusty book and got up from the kitchen table.
"Bonjour. Comment ça va?" She said sweetly with a very strong accent. Ron blushed in the background. They shook hands.
" Ça va. Tu a parle francais?" Jeanette asked. (translation: Fine. Do you speak French?)
"On peu. Je l'ai appris à l'école." (A little. I learned at school.)
"Moi aussi." (Me too.)
"Oh." Hermione said. She went to her back to her book, coolly.
"Hello, I'm Harry Potter." Jeanette smiled. She glanced at the scar. Until then, she thought scars were somewhat shameful. Something you'd like to hide, but his scar wasn't ugly at all. However, it embarrassed him all the same. He blushed.
"I can hide that for you, if you want." She said.
"Thanks, but no thanks." He replied.
"Hey Jeanette, aren't these people from your school?" Ron asked. Jeanette went over to look. It was the article she had been reading a few days ago.
"Oh. I know them."
"You do?" Ron said incredulously. "Hermione, you come and take a look too. It's your long lost family."
"I don't read the Prophet. It's all rubbish, you know."
"Hermione," Ron growled. Grumpily, Hermione put down her book and looked.
"So what were they like?"
"Don't be silly Ron. She wouldn't know them." Hermione chided.
"Why wouldn't I?" Jeanette demanded.
"It's a big school." Hermione said. Jeanette stared at her.
"She thinks that you would be in different groups." Ron said, helpfully. Though, he wasn't helping at all. Jeanette blushed. They thought she was stupid or something.
"You shouldn't quit school." Hermione said sternly. Jeanette's temper was stoked. Not only was Hermione an arrogant brat, but she was a showoff too. If she knew of the conversation between Ron and her, then she must of known that Jeanette spoke English. Ron might have forgotten to tell her that Jeanette wasn't French, but still...
"What I do with my life is none of your concern." Jeanette said, coolly.
"I think it was very irresponsible and immature to drop out. Even if you're not good at school, you should still stick with it." Hermione shot back, hotly.
"I'm smarter than you any day, Miss Granger." Jeanette snapped.
"Prove it." Jeanette took out her hand and transfigured an apple to a mouse. Hermione squealed and moved away, bumping into Ron. Jeanette changed it back.
"That's not fair. I can't use magic." Hermione pointed out. Jeanette just smiled. "What are the ingredients of a shrinking potion?" Hermione demanded.
"Chopped daisy roots, skinned shrivelfig, sliced caterpillar, one rat spleen, dash of leech juice. Polyjuice potion?"
"Lacewing flies stewed 21 days, leeches, powdered bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed picked at full moon, boomslang skin, a bit of who you want to turn into." Hermione rattled off. "The other names of aconite?"
"Wolfsbane and monkshood. When was the War of Roses?" Jeanette asked coyly. On and on they went, history, potions, magical theory, and everything else Harry and Ron had memorized for their O.W.L.S, but had long forgotten. Pretty soon, the whole family was watching Jeanette and Hermione's yelling match, swiveling their heads to look at each of the girls as they answered the question and made up another.
"They're like bloody encyclopedias." Fred muttered.
"Fred." Said Mrs. Weasley disapprovingly. Ron decided to help.
"Hey, hey I have a question." Ron shook Hermione and she shot him a death glare. "What is the record for the fastest snitch capture during a game?" He grinned proudly, at last he could show he too knew stuff.
Jeanette wrinkled her forehead and looked up. Hermione sighed. "Why do you have to ask such stupid questions, Ron, really? We're having an intelligent conver--"
"Threeandahalfseconds." Jeanette blurted.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Three and a half seconds Roger.no. Roderick Plumpton. 1921. Tushill Tornadoes against Caerphilly Cataplults." She said rapidly.
"WOOOW." The men said. Jeanette smiled prettily at Hermione. She let out a shriek and left the table. Jeanette had only known that because Jonathan was absolutely nuts about Quidditch. He always talked to it about Taylor at the sessions.
"Bill, Charlie would you move the tables outside". Grudgingly, the family split into different directions.
Someone grabbed her arm and dragged into an empty bedroom and locked the door.
"What?!" She turned and Moody was standing in front of her, glowering. "You can see me, can't you?" she squeaked. She stared at the eye and it stared back.
"For a person who's trying to keep a low profile, you're doing a really bang up job."
"It's not my fault that Miss Granger is such demeaning, arrogant brat." Moody continued to glare and she shrank from his gaze. "Well, you wouldn't like it either if people treated you like an idiot. I won silver at the school debate and if that girl thinks she can one-up me."
"Considering the situation I'd be happy my head was still on my shoulders." She pouted.
"I don't like being a ninny. I don't like pretending to be a vain, shallow bubble head."
"And you're not?" Moody asked, dryly. Jeanette blushed.
"How's the illusion?" She touched her necklace and looked into the mirror.
"Good considering your age." Jeanette frowned.
"So it's horrible."
"No."
"If it's not good. It's horrible." She said matter-a-factly.
"How did you ever get elected onto your school government with that attitude?" Taking his wand out, Moody prodded her necklace. Jeanette's nose sharpened ever so slightly and her eyes set themselves a little wider apart.
"Don't you think I look like Diana Lustella? My hair's a little too dark. I hate my hair color." Jeanette said, running her fingers through the streaky locks. "I wish it was back to normal."
"Not even goblins will be able to see you now." Moody said.
"Wonderful. Oh, can I have some of your skin?"
"Why?"
"To make something that decreases the appearance of scars. I'm in the beauty business now. I never thought that I would be using hours and hours of studying to make nail polish that matches the color of an outfit. So, will you donate to my cause?"
"No." Moody said flatly.
"Your loss." Jeanette sighed and walked out the door, rejoining the family. They were about to have lunch. Everyone had been given a pitcher, a bowl, or something to carry. Jeanette was not excluded. She was handed a pitcher of lemonade and sent outside.
Someone had constructed a huge tent-like structure to protect them from the heat. There were plates and plates of sandwiches and several plates of lemonade, ice tea, and water. There were fifteen chairs for the Weasley family of nine, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Moody, Fleur, Jeanette, Harry, and Hermione. The niffler and Puffskein stayed under the table to beg for scraps. Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, tried to stalk the Puffskein more than once, but Jeanette sent it away with a well placed kick.
Jeanette talked to Ginny. She mostly listened as Ginny babbled on and on about Hogwarts, her family, her friends, her difficult boyfriend, and etc. After helping Mrs. Weasley clear the table, Ginny and Jeanette retreated to her bedroom to talk. All the adults seemed to have disappeared and the trio went to Ron's room.
Jeanette looked through Ginny's pile of magazines and they discussed them. They talked about clothes, boys, and other mundane things. It was the sort of thing that a girl could discuss with any other girl and learn nothing from her personality.
Ginny laughed suddenly, "It was funny what you did to Hermione."
"I thought you were her friend." Jeanette replied. Ginny looked shocked. "Sorry, tact was never my forte."
"Neither was school?" Ginny evaded the subject guilefully. Jeanette flushed to her roots, how she wanted to scream at them that she was a straight A student and better than them. Raised in an extremely competitive world, to Jeanette everything was image. If you couldn't wow with looks or with sports, knock them dead with grades. It was a very bad habit, her mother informed her, but that never stopped her mother from calling all her classmates at report card time. At Salem, she was known for her grades and her community service. A real trump card for colleges, the counselors said. Here people were labeling her the "village idiot" or so it felt. Jeanette was naturally not pretty or sporty, and well smartness was all she had and her self-esteem was that she liked to flaunt it except she couldn't.
"Didn't like my teachers. So Hermy isn't one of your best buds, huh?"
"Oh, she's alright. Just a bit uppity at times. You put her in her place."
"I'm as much as a showoff as she is." Jeanette said honestly, lying lazily on her back on the pink bed. She sat up suddenly and brightly mused, "She would be very pretty with some slight altercations."
"You're very pretty." Ginny complimented.
"Really?" She rolled over and stared at Ginny. "You're not to shabby, yourself." She had big, pretty brown eyes, almost hazel. She was only a bit shorter than Jeanette and plumper. Jeanette frowned, slightly jealous, Ginny still had plenty of growing to do while Jeanette was pretty much stuck at her present height. Ginny had slight shoulders. A simple champagne frock would make her fair skin seem even more milky and would probably accent her smoky eyes nicely. Her hair, Jeanette winced internally, was large, flaming mass of untamed curls, but it wasn't something a generous amount of straightening lotion and blow drying wouldn't mollify.
Grabbing her drawstring bag, she grinned. She had thought a full makeup session might occur and she was prepared. Let the experiments begin. Poor Ginny. Poor poor Ginny.
A scant half an hour before dinner, Jeanette added the final touches. It had taken three layers of straightening spells, but now for a few hours Ginny had straight waist length hair with enough wave in the bangs to frame her heart shaped face. She was pretty and with the wavy charm falling out of her own hair, Jeanette was not. She ignored it soggy look, after working on Ginny she was too tired.
She wandered down the stairs after Ginny to help Mrs. Weasley set up dinner. The boys were playing Quidditch except Percy who was having a conversation with Hermione and Bill and Fleur who were probably off doing some of the things boyfriends and girlfriends do. Therefore it was Ginny and Jeanette who lugged bowls of salad, plates of ham, platters of sliced baguettes and cheese, and other goodies to the tables. The final piece was Jeanette's wonderful dessert, which Jeanette considered the most beautiful thing in the world (if you spent two and half hours slaving over it, you'd love it too.) It was still carefully entombed in a frosty glass jar so it wouldn't melt.
"Incoming," shouted Fred. Jeanette looked up from admiring her dessert and saw the bludger hurtling towards her and her precious dessert. Her wand was in her hand and she threw a reflector charm in a fraction of a second. It flew backward and knocked Fred off his broom.
Naturally, everyone flocked to Fred to see if he was okay. He was flat on his back still clutching the squirming bludger.
"Why couldn't you just duck like a normal person," he groaned and let Charlie take the bludger and lock it into a box.
"I warned you of the dire consequences of getting close to my dessert." She replied tartly.
"We're going to eat it anyway, what's the big deal if it's bumped up a little?" Just then, Mrs. Weasley bustled over.
"Fred! Fred! Are you alright?"
"Yeah, Mum." He got up. "Just surprised that's all." He went over to help Charlie attend to the bonfire. Charlie had told the family how in the wilds of Romania, he and his partner, a Greek fellow, had cooked over a campfire while tracking dragons. Mrs. Weasley had racks and racks of shish kabobs that Charlie was expertly roasting.
Jeanette wasn't sure how Mrs. Weasley ever got to eat, because she was constantly piling food on other people's plates namely Mr. Lupin, Harry Potter, Jeanette, and the twins. Charlie seemed to eating more than he was roasting and the adults were all crowded at one end of the table talking about politics. They seemed to have a grand time contradicting and talking to each other. When Jeanette's parents had conversations about politics or economy, they usually turned to full out yelling matches which ended with each one huffily going to one corner of the house.
The Weasley boys just dug in and had little time to talk. After all the food was gone, there was Mrs Weasley's homemade ice cream and then it was Jeanette's dessert. Mrs. Weasley unveiled it and gasped. The frosted glass had hid it well. It looked like a small tree in a dish of dirt . It was about a foot high covered with green leaves and the branches were jammed with fruits or fruit slices.
"It's really too pretty to eat." Mrs. Weasley commented. Jeanette had a feeling she doubted the thing was edible. Fred plucked a strawberry, dipped it into the dirt (it was really chocolate dipping sauce with powdered chocolate on top), and popped it in his mouth. George selected a slice of peach and copied Fred. Then the rest of the Weasley brothers joined in. There was just enough for everyone to get a slice of fruit except Moody who declined for safety reasons. Fred got another piece.
"That's it?" Ron muttered, his lips smeared with chocolate. As if to answer him, the leaves of the tree turned red and yellow and nuts formed on the branches of the tree before plopping down into the chocolate dirt. The leaves followed until the tree was bare. The wriggling nuts burrowed themselves into the dirt. Then the dirt separated into little squares, each having a leave on top. Ron was the one who grabbed the first piece and with all a hungry teenage boy's zeal, jammed it into his mouth.
"Nougat," he sighed dreamily. In about a minute, the chocolates were gone too. Moody again declined. Jeanette glared at Moody. She considered it a personal insult that he wasn't eating even though everyone else was obviously enjoying it. If everyone was turning into frogs, she might cut him some slack. Everyone watched the tree expectantly. Snow seemed to appear on the branches, clustering before forming balls that hung on the branches like Christmas ornaments. Sap (Caramel) seemed to ooze out of the tree onto the balls, forming little designs. Jeanette continued to stare fixedly at Moody.
He was the first to take one of the balls (they were the size of golf balls) and popped the entire thing into his mouth. (A very difficult thing to do.) He ate it indifferently and raised his eyebrows as if saying, "There I did it!" Harry picked another and fit the whole thing into his mouth. A very strange expression graced his face. It was like he was trying to spit out something but couldn't and swallowed right before Mrs. Weasley could grab him for a Heimlich maneuver.
"It's ice cream." He choked out, shivering. He cast a look at Moody. How in the world had he been able to stuff a golf sized scoop of ice cream with white chocolate coating down his throat without suffering brain freeze? The ice cream spheres disappeared quickly and green leaves once again began to sprout on the tree. Nothing seemed edible.
"The leaves are mints," Jeanette informed and soon the tree was leafless. George who had seen Jeanette making it and had helped cutting the fruit, broke off a small branch and popped it into his mouth. The bark was milk chocolate, the cork was dripping caramel, and the pith was dark chocolate. With a tinge of sadness, she watched everyone tear her precious tree to pieces.
"So where'd you buy it?" asked none other than the snooty, evil, wicked Hermione. I made it you nitwit!!! Jeanette opened her mouth for an insulting retort, her temper flaring up at once, but Fred beat her to it.
"She made it." The faces around the table looked doubtful. "Honestly, I watched you do it. You melted down my entire secret cache Honeydukes chocolate," he put on a mournful face. "My chocolate."
"I didn't know it was yours. I just found it under the loose floorboard."
"Well, we all have very important business to tend to." Said Mr. Weasley rather regretfully. He got up from the table. Everyone except Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ginny filed into the house.
"Should we help, Mrs. Weasley." Asked Jeanette, where were the others going.
"No, go play with Ginny." Mrs. Weasley shooed them away with one hand.
"Where did everyone go?" Jeanette asked Ginny.
"Order of the Phoenix meeting."
"And that is?" Jeanette frowned, she felt rather left out. She felt she should belong in such a meeting since it seemed to involve her.
"Some boring grown up stuff." Said Ginny in a disinterested manner. She was lying.
"Really?" Jeanette asked. She was feeling slightly rebellious. "Want to see a magic trick?"
"Fred and George have shown me plenty." Ginny said.
"Oh, but have they ever shown you a Muggle trick?"
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Of course."
"Oh, come on. Stop being such a spoil sport and humor me." Jeanette pouted, already making her way to the dying embers of the bonfire.
"Alright," Ginny sighed, "but don't expect me to act surprised."
"I guarantee you that it will be amazing." Jeanette promised. Bending down, she picked up an glowing piece of charcoal with her bare hands. "Here, hold me hand so you know I'm not using magic." Ginny took the wand and slipped it into her pocket. Jeanette walked a few paces before settling down into a bed of yellowing grass. "Sit Indian style across from me. That's it. Now watch." Jeanette grinned. She loved doing this.
Using the ember she drew a line between herself and Ginny. Instantly, the grass caught on fire and red foot high flames shot up before going down again. Ginny gasped. The grass began to issue a thin sheet of smoke.
"I'm going to tell you my favorite story." Jeanette chirped happily.
"Once upon a time, when the earth had barely cooled there was the goddess of the sky and the god of the sea." Figures began to appear in the smoke. "And obviously, they fell deeply and absolutely in love with each other." The figures embraced. "Reasons were number one, because they genuinely liked each other and number two, like any adolescents they did it just because Mom and Pop had said no." Two figures emerged in the edge of the screen, their ghostly faces frowning. "Well, guess what. Air head, the sky goddess, was already engaged to the jock-like wind god." Another figure appeared built like a Beater.
"Of course, Windy didn't like the competition of Salty and vice versa." The other figures disappeared except two which began to move round and round on the smoke screen as if they were in a boxing match. "So like the testosterone driven idiots they were, the two gods decided to fight it out over their lovely lady." A volcano formed behind the two boys and erupted, emitting a thick cloud of blackish smoke. "Just before they were going to seriously beat the pulp out of each other and consequently destroy the earth, Pop (the sun god) and Mom (the earth) decided that there should be a contest."
"Windy, being an pea brain as aforementioned, decided that the test was to destroy a mountain. Smart move, loser. But as hard as Windy could blow he hardly made a dent." A face blew curlicues of pale smoke at the now quiet volcano. The cheeks of the face darkened and finally he swooned. "However, when Salty tried, he succeeded. It's called erosion. Also Salty had the seasons on his side and you know what happens when water freezes in small cracks. The water expands and rock becomes rubble." Another smoky figure held up a trophy and did a ridiculous victory dance. "So then, Salty and Airhead were married even though Mom and Pop didn't approve." Two figures smooched each other while in the background another two figures looked at them disapprovingly. Their cartoon-like faces etched with deep frowns.
They had five children.all at once. And guess what? Airhead didn't even get stretch marks. Anyway, the saying goes that children with mixed parentage are neither fish nor fowl. So it was to every one's surprise when the kids turned out to be two fish, two fowl, and one equine. "Five baby animals appeared.
"The oldest was a unicorn, heir of the stars. Since she was the oldest, she got this attitude that her younger siblings weren't good enough for her. Arrogant prat." There was a figure of a slender girl with a star shaped birthmark on her forehead." The next two were boy twins: a sea serpent and a griffin." Twin boys stood next to each other, grinning. " The last two were also girl twins: a siren and a phoenix. "The two girls primped themselves. "Now the story could have ended happily ever after, but things like these never work out. You see, gods are very much like ancient celebrities. Too much power, too much beauty, and it goes straight to their heads. Well, there was a nasty divorce and the kids were just shuffled along." Two houses appeared and a figure appeared in front of each house. They seemed to have a kicking match with a duffel bag, before the bag split open and revealed five animals.
"Meanwhile, Windy, was a vengeful fellow." A figure rubbed his hands. "He was as vengeful as stupid, and as smart as his name. So he teamed up with the goddess of chaos and they rose Cain. Now Chaos was smart and she used Windy and he never even knew it. Remember, he's a genius."
"The first order of business was to strip the kiddies of their godliness and kick them out of high heaven. Windy scattered them across the earth and the gods didn't really care that much." Multiple figures appeared in the smoke oblivious to another figures shoving the five children of the edge of a cliff. "Air head being really involved with herself, Salty was still hurting from estrangement (he destroyed a mountain for nothing), and the grandparents never liked the marriage anyway, looked on indifferently. Unexpectedly, Air Head started liking Windy, because he was a bad boy. Figures. And Windy promptly forgot all about taking over the world." Two figures embraced.
"Chaos was pissed and launched a direct attack on the gods." A womanly figure stomped her foot and a group of figures fell over like pins. "Low and behold, that's how the Russian Steppes came to be. Utterly, inhospitable. Now for some really weird and unexplainable reason, magic is somehow tied into memory so the kids were perfectly oblivious to the dysfunctional family reunion. Though they were remotely curious why all these natural disasters started happening."
"They mingled with humans, had kids, grew old, and died. Chaos, who was a lot more intelligent than Windy, knew that you couldn't brawl. You might destroy the Earth and that wouldn't be fun, would it? So they used humans instead, like chess except messier." There was the image of a giant chessboard with farmers and woodcutters on it, looking around confused. The woodcutter began to chase the farmer on the little squares with his little ax and the farmer behead the wood man with his scythe.
"Now when you strip a god or goddess of his or her powers, you can't exactly take every single ounce of magic out of them without killing them. Chaos wanted to torment the kids by making them suffer without magic. Her plan backfired miserably, because if you never knew you were a god then you couldn't really miss it."
"Now the gods being horribly selfish and competitive wanted awfully to win the human game over chaos, except they couldn't directly influence humans. They sort of just put people together and set them up to do certain things and then sit back and watch. The gods wanted so desperately to win and to prove how good they were that they did something not very nice. Now gods for all their glory aren't very bright. There's like a zillion of them and one of chaos. Go figure. But occasionally, they had a good idea. Use demi- gods as bishops and knights." The five children are now in oversized armor and attacking each other with little wisps of smoke.
"You see the kids's descendents had been living ignorantly and somewhat happily among mortals and the gods just ruined it by giving back some of their powers. Power without control or knowledge is not a good thing."
"The kids couldn't cause earthquakes or anything, but they were damaging. Fire manipulation was the phoenix's forte and she was countered by the siren (water) or the serpent (ice.) The griffin as before mentioned could see truth and therefore create falsehood and wind. The unicorn was. usually too mellow to do much. Secretly, I think she was just lazy. She had the mundane gifts like foretelling things, reading people's minds, healing, walking into people's dreams and drive them crazy. Real boring stuff. As I said before. They didn't really know their place in the big circle of life so half the time they were buck wild abusing their powers and the other time, they were too conservative." There was a picture of each animal and a small smoky demonstration.
"Soon they were hindering less than helping. The idea was that gods couldn't directly influence people. They couldn't walk among them (not that they wanted to) and meddle in wars (which they did anyway behind the scenes,) but no one ever said half-gods had to keep a safe distance.
"Of course, the gods wouldn't demean themselves to talking with half-gods. It's called godly pride. So for a hundred thousand years, in this gigantic chess game the half gods were merely tools for the gods to use. How, they got them to do stuff, I'll never know. However, eventually Chaos argued that it slanted the playing field and the half gods should be fair game." The chessboard slanted and all the little farmers, woodmen, knights, and demi-gods fell off. "The gods had this ego problem and were confident that their half gods would stay loyal (never mind that they never actually knew that they were being used in the first place) and agreed."
"Chaos won them over (with money) and before you know it, here comes the Black Plague. The good guys (well sorta of good) lost that generation. For the last thousand years of so, the half gods have been the rope in tug of war. You see, whoever controls the half gods wins the battle and the war won't end until the world ends. Now sometimes, there are truces to allow the human population to rebuild and during those times, the demi-gods remain dormant." Chaos and Pop shook hands. "But now the truce is over and Chaos has summoned her new knight, the Dark Lord and surely the old gods will summons the five once again." Jeanette waved her hand and the smoke dissipated.
"But what about the first time--" Ginny interuppted.
"When the Dark Lord rose, somehow the five weren't reborn. They were not needed, because there were adequate human resources like courage, wisdom, and unity. Now he returns and perhaps the five have already returned too. Perhaps they are wandering among us, lost and confused. Perhaps He-Who- Must-Not-Be-Named will get to them before your precious Dumbledore. Perhaps all is lost and the world is ending, perhaps all is to be won and Darkness will never rise again. This is the final battle."
"How do you know?"
"I don't. But we've had anything this big before, when evil was so powerful and good was so broken. It's bound to happen, why not right now?"
"Who's on Voldemort's side," Ginny asked eagerly.
"Someone will be. Even though we're siblings, we were never close. Always competing, always angry, and eons of bitterness as we lay dormant between lives. Not since the first time have we united."
"We?" Jeanette flushed.
"Sorry, got a little too caught up in it all."
"Is it true?"
"Everything except the Dark Lord part. I made it up to make it sound more fun."
"Five demi-gods actually exist." Jeanette nodded sagely. "So how do you tell them apart from people?"
"Oh," Jeanette said knowledgeably, "You can always tell the difference between a demi-god and a mortal. First of all, they look different.physically they're perfect though the color scheme usually reflects the animal which can sort of weird. However, they can hide that with illusions especially the griffin. He is the kingpin of the disguise. But there is one thing that they can't hide at all. They can't cry tears like we do, though I guess they feel just like us. They cry gems." Jeanette played with her ember and finally crushed it in her fist. She opened her palm and a line of gems were in her hand.
"Pearls for the phoenix," the first gem was bluish- gray pearl.
"Beryl for the siren," the second was an aquamarine.
"Diamonds for the unicorn," the third was a lovely diamond. She closed her fist.
"And though it's nearly impossible to get them to do it," She opened her hand, revealing a sapphire and a pearly stone. "Corundum for the serpent and moonstones for the griffin." She closed her hand again and opened it revealing the hot red ash of the crushed ember. Under the darkening sky, the dust glowed crimson. "Their blood glitters in the moonlight. But I wouldn't recommend carrying a needle around and poking every gorgeous person in sight at night." She finished dryly. She dusted herself off nonchalantly and got up. "Look the boys are playing Quidditch." She said.
"You want to?"
"Nah, scared of heights."
"We'll fly low." And with that, Ginny grabbed Jeanette's wrist and dragged her toward the broom closet.