Chapter Three: The Very Secret Room
As it turned out, Professor Dumbledore had to speak with Hestia and Irene both. What it was about, he wouldn't divulge in his letter, but it must have been quite important seeing as how he had just invited himself for evening dinner.
Not even in the Hesperus Mansion were pleasurable visits made by Albus Dumbledore common, which was why Hestia was feeling rather apprehensive. The entire talking-over-dinner bit eased her mind only the slightest because, she reasoned, what he had to say certainly wasn't too bad that it couldn't be said over pickled soup.
It was just as Hestia and Irene stayed behind after supper to help Marmie and Biddy clean the empty pots and pans (which didn't take very long, considering one simple charm placed by Marmie could do the trick) when more about the Headmaster's visit began to unfold.
"----Before, when he came just a few weeks ago, it was in the middle of the night!" Hestia was saying as she watched her sister place a Freezing Charm on a container of leftover peas and stick it in the food cupboard. It was magically charmed to fit all sizes of foods and could accommodate them all at different temperatures.
She went on, "I mean to say that Albus always takes preliminary caution when he divulges information to anyone. What he confided to me in June must have been----"
Hestia was interrupted by Irene's interjection. "But he included me in his letter as well, Hestia. I know he's always had a soft spot for you, but there's not that much he would need to tell me unless it was important...although I was Head Girl in my year and you never were..."
Irene rumpled her golden curly hair. When she removed her hand, it fell back into its natural, gorgeous waves that cascaded to her shoulders. Hestia had always thought it a bit unfair that her older sister could be a complete wreck and still look beautiful. The sisters had both inherited their mother's curly hair, which Irene had then passed onto her three of her own children, but Irene's hair fell naturally into big, soft golden rings. Hestia's hair, on the other hand, was a lot darker---almost black---a lot curlier, and a lot wilder...though that did have something to do with the fact that she hadn't brushed it in days.
Irene sighed wearily and leaned against the counter, unaware of Hestia staring at her absent-mindedly. "I'm just worried...what if it has to do with John? What if something happened to him in the Caribbean? What if----"
Marmie stuck her wand into her bun and turned onto Irene, the cupboard doors closing magically behind her. "Irene, I honestly don't think that Dumbledore would tell ye tha' your husband's dyin' while piggin' on my homemade fudge!" she smiled kindly at her.
Irene relaxed a bit and smiled sadly back at the cook. Near her elbow a bright yellow towel was shining the last of the glass cup, nearly cracking it in its own haste to get every smudge. When Marmie moved away out of the kitchen, it fell to the counter, motionless once more.
Hestia crossed the kitchen and put an arm around her sister comfortingly.
"Cheer up, you. I am positive that nothing is wrong with John. He will come home in a month's time and you all will have the time of your life up in Aviemore, just as he had promised. I've never gone skiing before, but I'm sure it'll be great! You guys really need this vacation...you've earned it. And," she went on cheerfully, "You'll be able to see Jason, Vicky, and the kids! We haven't seen them since Christmas...I bet Geoffrey has grown taller..." Hestia said.
Irene leaned against her younger sister and placed her head on Hestia's shoulder. She was grateful for Hestia for purposely helping her take her mind off of John.
" He's five months older than them," she joined in. "And Isabel as well...oh that girl is so crazy! She was bouncing off the walls, do you remember? And then Tobias tried telling her that there was no Father Christmas!" Irene laughed.
"Aahh, yes...how could I forget? She said that she had proof he was real and ran back with a picture of Albus!" Hestia chuckled appreciatively.
Irene stopped laughing long enough to choke out, "Well, he did look a bit like him in that picture, I'm sure...to a seven-year-old girl, in any case. With those crimson robes on and standing next to a crippled deer Hagrid found in the Forest...Tobias was rolling on the floor laughing, and I certainly thought that he was going to say something awful to her. Ah, but then he got up, as cool as you please, and told her that it looked like St. Nick had finally decided to go on a diet! With a straight-face, too, I might add!"
Hestia and Irene strolled out of the kitchen and down the deserted hall. There were pictures covering the walls with Hesperus ancestors snoring loudly or having whispered conversations with the paintings opposite. The bright sun shone happily through the many windows, and one window landed on a red cushiony couch where three cats appeared to be sleeping lazily.
Hestia and Irene strolled out of the kitchen and down the deserted hall. There were pictures covering the walls with Hesperus ancestors snoring loudly or else having whispered conversations with the paintings opposite. The bright sun shone happily through the many windows, streams of light landing on a red cushiony couch where three Kneazles appeared to be sleeping lazily.
Hestia wandered over to the couch in the spacious front room, which was decorated in its usual cheerful colors. The sisters' great-uncle Haverington had been a stouthearted Gryffindor and furnished his mansion readily enough with crimson, brown, and gold colors. When he passed it down to Hestia, she could barely squeeze in more color in the second and third floors. She left the ground floor the same, though…it just seemed like home to her.
Irene sat down next to Hestia, scooping Typsy up and plopping him onto her lap. The yellowish-white Kneazle stretched his small limbs and snuggled sleepily, purring as she rubbed his stomach.
"Where did everyone run off to?" Irene asked.
"Well, I saw Old William mutter off outside to finish his pruning. He wanted to show Balfour something…oh, I don't know! Something to do with that hedge, he said….and the kids ran off somewhere…did you see them when they finished their lunch? They huddled together, whispering, and glancing at us every now and then…"
"And then the second you turn your back on them, they're gone, making you wonder 'What in the world are they up to?'" Irene finished for her, laughing, "I know, I know…I get that all the time. I seriously don't know who they get that from, Hestia! You know John and I were never like that! In our family always you were the schemer and the troublemaker. Jason always concentrated on his marks so that he could become an Auror and I was too busy trying to be perfect! And yet, my twins…ohh…and I know they didn't get it from their father, either!" She added.
Hestia reached over to stroke Gypsy on the armrest. "Yes, you told me during his childhood, John was constantly being dragged into one thing or another by his brother…I thought John seemed to be the quieter type. Has he always been like that?"
Irene frowned a bit, remembering back to the old days at Hogwarts…she and John had been prefects when Hestia first started, and both of them had been the pride and joy of their mothers. Irene had suspected that John's brother was jealous of him when John got the role of prefect, and then Head Boy. But it wasn't his brother or his mother John had the problem of the attention of----it was his father, who had always seemed to favor the other boy. John and his brother both worked for their father in one of his expensive lines of shops when they became old enough and though John tried everything to please his father, nothing worked.
Irene always suspected that this was the main reason for why John was so guarded. That and what had happened when they had both graduated…
"Irene?" Hestia interrupted her thoughts.
Hestia, in fact, had been watching her sister, instantly biting her previous words as soon as she had said them. She was supposed to be steering Irene away from her husband's situation, not towards him!
She blurted out, "Er, Balfour and I were wondering what you guys were planning on doing for Christmas?"
Irene blinked. "But that's months away! I really haven't thought that far…I mean the children don't have anyone on their father's side for us to have Christmas dinner with, and since we all had a party last year, I thought they probably needed a quiet one this time. Why?"
Hestia flushed and looked down, not meeting her sister's eyes. "O-oh, Balfour and I were just talking, and it turns out that his mother had called and was just gushing about her plans for this winter (you know how she is, always planning ahead and making assumptions for everything) and, anyway, she wanted to throw a big party. So big, in fact, that she wouldn't be able to accommodate them all, so she asked me if she could throw it here!"
Irene blew her cheeks out, "Wow…but she would organize it all, of course? I mean, she can't expect you to do everything! But let's not talk about that now…it's July."
She reached over to the side-table and picked up her knitting. She was making a new blanket for Evan, since his old one was obviously very worn out, and instead of buying one or charming her needles like every other witch, Irene wanted to do it the old-fashioned Muggle way. So far, as she held it in her hands, the soft, periwinkle fabric fell down three feet over her lap. Hestia watched as she started clicking away.
"How long will it be?"
"I plan on making it full-size, actually. You know how he loves to wrap himself in these things. At the rate I'm going, it should be ready in time winter." Irene counted her stitches for a moment than set off again, clicking madly.
Hestia relaxed back on the couch; looking out of the window and watching Lord Balfour and Old William as they conversed near the gatehouse by the hedge. Some might say that it was a bit loud for a conversation; Old William was twirling his arms around in the air, his cane having long fallen, and shouting in his old Scottish brogue. She wasn't even going to guess what he could possibly be on about now.
Irene's clicking slowed considerably as she looked to see what her sister was gazing out of the window for. Irene, too, watched the tall Baron…but she was too busy considering a thought in her head to actually pay attention to what it was they were arguing for.
"Speaking of husbands…" She started saying slowly, "I know that you never had the intent while you were working on your career, Hestia, but now that you have all of the money and time that you need, wouldn't you say it's about time you…"
Hestia's gaze shifted from the window to her older sister, who had her eyebrows raised and questioning. She didn't say anything for a while. Instead she twisted her fingers and studied her hands.
"I think," Hestia began after a while had passed; seriously contemplating what she was about to say. "I think that it would be hard for me to find a man to settle down with. I've always watched you and John, and Jason and Vicky, and I've watched all of your children grow up, and I…"
She suddenly looked up at Irene, eyes pleading, "I want that, Irene, I do…but ever since I first published Munificence a year and a half ago, and ever since Harmony came out in January, there has been at least one paragraph about me in every issue of the Daily Prophet since! I mean----" Hestia stood up and started pacing the room.
Irene followed her with her eyes as Hestia walked around, one hand on her forehead and one on her hip. Irene thought that she suddenly looked very exhausted.
"I mean to say, Irene, that finding a man would be a lot harder if more than half of them didn't want to just marry me for my money! I'd always known I'd never be able to marry for love…you know how I am, always the one to lead and not follow, blurting my thoughts out to the world…men want women who make them feel masculine, Irene. I've always been the one to make them feel like the lowest organisms on the planet! I've always been like that, always…" She trailed off, searching for the right word.
"Strong-headed?" Irene fished out for her, still watching her intently.
"Exactly." Hestia threw herself down next to her sister, exhausted. Always the dramatist, Irene thought fondly. And she knew that her sister was right…Hestia had always been one of those girls who would be out there playing Quidditch with the guys instead of waiting on the sidelines, rushing in to kiss them better when they got hurt. The boys in her year, instead, had had to suffer her wrath when they didn't perform up to her standards. Moreover, Hestia would sometimes deflate a bit to actually wonder whether it was because of this and her ability to always play with the guys rather than flirt with them that made her who she was today.
Thirty years old----retired Head of Department, with two best-selling books, a vault full of thousands of Galleons she worked hard for, and a mansion with plenty of room----and still single.
Irene put a hand on Hestia's forehead. Perhaps it was her instincts as a mother, or perhaps it was just because she grew up being the older sister of the wild Hestia Hesperus, but Irene could tell that Hestia was seriously wearing herself out.
Outside, Old William stormed off, leaving Balfour standing speechless and shaking his head.
Hestia leaned over to put her head in Irene's lap, tucking her legs underneath her and closing her eyes. Irene smoothed her sister's dark curls from her flushed face with practiced ease and a cool hand. She studied Hestia's features.
Buckwheat, who had recently been lounging on the back of the couch, was caught off-guard by this sudden shift of weight and he toppled out of sight. In the distance a door closed and loud footsteps echoed down the hall.
The two sisters sat unaware of anything outside of their own little bubble.
The Baron, however, was very aware and, what was more----he was furious.
So furious, in fact, that after he slammed the door and stomped down the hall to the cozy paneled room where Irene and Hestia were, he couldn't even find the words to tell them exactly what that Old William Rhum was.
He sat down on a straight-backed chair next to a large roll top desk that held every single one of the many, many letters Hestia had received after publication. He tore off the lacings of his large boots in his haste to get them untied. When he had finally succeeded, fuming the entire time, he furiously wrenched them off, throwing them to the ground where they lay, dejected.
This done, he couldn't bear sitting anymore, so he stood up, accidentally knocking over his chair, and started walking back and forth behind the couch where the Irene was crocheting and Hestia was laying with her head on her sister's lap, rubbing her temples.
Perhaps this was an effort to drown out the loud noises the Baron was making...but if it was, it wasn't working very well.
Pacing across the room was quite relaxing when one was frustrated. Especially if it only took you seven gigantic strides to cross from one end to the other; and with the Baron, Lord Balfour...well, when he was mad it didn't even take seven.
Lord Balfour Marjoribanks was a tall man. One could even say he was large, but with him it was all muscle. He stood six feet, nine inches respectfully and with his enormous black boots that laced all the way up to his knees, he looked even more foreboding. His long, wavy auburn hair was always drawn back into a low ponytail to keep it out of his face when he was working with his plants. He had intense yet twinkling brown eyes and the most adorable grin...yes, the Baron was an incredibly handsome man and had made many girls swoon when he was younger. But he had never been interested in them. Who would when there were Venomous Tentaculas, Snapping Dragonworts, and Devil's Snares to charm instead?
Ever since Lord Balfour could remember, his heart had been stolen by green foliage and poisonous flowers. When he turned eleven and entered Hogwarts, he could never keep himself away from the magical greenhouses and vowed that when he older, he would own a hundred of them. It was fortunate that Professor Sprout was his Head of House and a kind lady because if she had taken points off for all the times she caught him sneaking in at night to make sure the Shrivelfigs were growing well, he would have been the least-liked in his House.
Eventually, his pacing calmed him down long enough for him to mutter a string of incoherent words. Once in a while, Irene would catch something like "...Stubborn, beastly Scotsman..." or "...Expects me to fix all his problems..." or even a "...Makes me wish I could shove that garden spade up his----" to which Irene finally interrupted with a----
"Lord Balfour!"
He started, suddenly remembering he wasn't alone. His hair was unusually crazy and disheveled from his clutching it in annoyance and Irene thought he looked quite funny in his sweeping blue robes and bare feet.
"Well I do!" He said in defense. He crossed over and fell into an armchair opposite theirs. "I did him the decency of defrosting his precious potatoes last winter and now he wants me to fix everything else for him! I don't see how I am going to manage that with everything else on my list. I'm trying to keep the Mandrakes from screaming each other to death, my Violets need plotting and the European Womgnats need repotting, and I still need to go to Hogwarts to have a look at the Whomping Willow. Not to mention my trip to Chili to rid them of their large infestation of Poisondung Ivy, which has to be done by the fourteenth, or else..."
The list went on and on. As one of the higher members of the Wizarding International Botanical Society----W. I. B. S. for short----Lord Balfour Marjoribanks was a busy man.
While he continued his rant, Irene whispered in her younger sister's ear. "Do you still think it would be a good idea to be married?"
Hestia smothered a smile as she replied, "All thoughts have flown clean from my mind!"
Ten minutes later, they were actually having a decent conversation. Lord Balfour abruptly stood, walking over towards Hestia and kneeling down. Once his anger had cleared, he noticed she was looking quite pale despite the sunlight falling across her face. There were beads of perspiration and her lips were cracked with the lack of moisture.
"Hestia? Are you feeling alright?" He asked her gently. During the conversation she had closed her eyes and her head was still lying on her sister's lap.
At his voice, her eyes snapped open and she bolted upright.
"Of course I am! Don't I look it?" She snapped.
Balfour smirked at her, "Actually, no. Perhaps you should lay down, it's not like you've had any sleep at all the past few weeks!"
Hestia rubbed her face vigorously. "It's just my story. I am nearly through with it...I'm just at a difficult part right now, trying to get to the last chapter and all. What I need, in fact, is a good stroll outside. It is marvelous and I intend to enjoy it."
She stood up and Balfour joined her.
"Irene, where's Evander? He was going to accompany me, he said," Hestia looked out the window to see if any of the children happened to be hiding in the bushes or the trees.
Balfour blinked, remembering his own due engagement, "And I still need to plant the Violent Violets but I haven't seen Morgan since she zipped out of the room after we finished eating. Where have they all gotten to?"
Irene just sat there, crocheting away with the slightest smile on her face, as though she knew something they didn't know.
"I don't even know why you're asking," she said. "I gave up ages ago. They'll make themselves known when they want to be found. After all, they must be somewhere in the Mansion..."
In the Hesperus Mansion there was a room. It was on the third floor of the eastern rampant, fourth window from the vine-covered corner, and it was a secret room…or that is, it was until four children discovered it not but two days from their first arrival.
They had come across it quite by accident, so confused they were at first by the many unexpected twists and turns permeating the very existence of the Mansion. They opened a small door at the end of the hall thinking they had come upon a dumbwaiter when a room suddenly opened up unto them.
They were instantly intrigued and sent Evander through, because he was the only one small enough to fit through the opening and because they didn't have Dingy handy (he was taking his bath for rolling in the mud earlier).
When he first crawled into the small, very dusty room, Evander was strongly reminded of the attic at their house in Kent. There was a small hole in the wall----one could not even call it a window----which a dingy ray of sunlight squeezing through to shine on feathery cobwebs draping from the ceiling to the door. The walls and floor were made of wood and there were shelves hiding underneath the ceiling, not too far above his head. Evander poked about the rusty metal cauldrons and loose leaves of paper scattered about the floor, but other than that, there was nothing else in there.
In the opening, Tobias, Alexandra, and Morgan had been craning to get better looks at this secret place when Tobias' elbow bumped into a hidden lever, making the small door slam shut, narrowly missing Morgan's face. Stunned, they started pounding on the door yelling for Evan.
But Evan, on his side of the wall, had found another way out. When the small door had shut, there was a loud creak and a strange groaning that resonated throughout the tiny room and a few boards gave way on the wall behind him, revealing the mustiest stairway Evan had ever seen. Thus, he stepped onto it, descending the old, creaky boards that winded their spiraling way downward until they stopped at a dirty wooden wall.
Now, Evander was only four years old at the time, and though it was a bit of an adventure at first, he was now quite tired and hungry and very dirty indeed, wanting very much to just get out of this strange tunnel and have lunch. He started to turn around to go back up the staircase again when he suddenly spotted a pink-eyed white rat and gave a startled yelp.
In the wide entrance hall, Irene was just passing through, shuffling a stack of yellowed parchment when she heard his small yelp and a bang as something heavy fell. But the next second, Balfour yelled in pain and swore loudly in the next room and she thought the noise she heard had come from the next room, so she rushed in to see what the matter was.
When Evander yelled at the rat, he was scared yet again by the wall behind him giving out and as he swiveled around to stare at the darkly gaping opening, then brooms, mops, and dustpans suddenly fell on top of him. When he finally untangled himself from these moldy cleaning supplies, he walked through them, opened yet another door, and walked though his fourth and final mysterious doorway. He was quite surprised when he found that he was facing the front door.
So as it turned out, the children found that the small door at the end of the corridor on the third floor led to a small room, and that small room led to a staircase. The staircase, in turn, led to a wall, which turned out to be the back of the broom closet on the ground floor next to the entrance hall, which of course was a part of the Hesperus Mansion.
Tobias, Alexandra, and Morgan were very confused when they were still pounding on the wall five minutes later, providing an enormous racket when they heard a voice behind them ask what they were shouting for. There Evander stood looking every bit a mess but very curious as to what his older siblings were doing, acting like lunatics.
And that was why, on the seventh of July in the year 1991, the four missing children of John and Irene Rosier were not to be found by anyone who wished to know where they were hiding in a very secret room.
Of course, it does not explain why they were sitting on the floor around a musty cauldron, whose nasty orange content was bubbling and seething over a small fire. Nor does it quite explain the fact that one of their number had just giggled mischievously. Also, it doesn't really expound upon the fact that scattered around them were a few empty candy wrappers, a mallet, a kitchen knife and several other utensils, and dozen bottles and jars half-filled with slimy substances, powdered essences, and other nasty-smelling things. In addition, nestled in a cobweb corner next to the smallest boy lay a brightly glittering stuffed turtle.
Alexandra peered into the cauldron and wrinkled her nose. "One would think that a potion with as many good candies as this one would smell a bit nicer."
Tobias shook his head and carefully measured out a teaspoon of powered Womgnat, stirring it into the cauldron with a narrow, black stick.
"Turn the fire down a tad, Alexa," he ordered his twin, who would have grumbled if it hadn't been for the fact that if she did complain instead of adjusting the flames, the potion would explode in their faces.
Their six-year-old sister was telling Evander excitedly about the new plant Uncle Balfour had recently imported from Africa. When she came to the part about the horrible smell it emitted, he delightfully let out of one his cute infectious laughs, making Tobias and Alexandra grin at each other over the potion fumes.
"Hey you guys," Tobias motioned his brother and sister closer. "It's nearly ready. We just need to keep it stirring for another half hour and add everythin' else in after that. Than I'll cork it all up and serve it with tea!"
"You sure it'll work, Tobe?" Alexandra asked him, somewhat doubtfully. Tobias was usually the one to think up the plan and he was a mastermind, really, but there had been several instances in which their exploits had abysmally failed. "After all, you did make this potion up, you know."
Her brother grinned, undaunted, "It's gonna work. Trust me. It's just a simple Sleeping Draught, but instead of adding the periwinkle, crushed sleeper fins, and beetle legs, these three ingredients right here should do the trick!
"See," He continued in a practiced voice, "In Fizzing Whizbees, there are a coupled ingredients which make you levitate when you put them together----sort of like a Levitation Potion, except that the effects aren't nearly so strong and it doesn't last quite as long. So I turned them to a liquid to make them blend and added a third-forth a cup (the same as periwinkle, really). Then next went the powdered Pepper Imps, but I had to individually take out the sugar crystals because it wouldn't work otherwise."
Alexandra just looked at him with one eyebrow raised and shook her head. Tobias patted the candy wrappers satisfactorily and went about stirring the slimy orange liquid. As he stirred, the potion slowly changed to a duller, brownish color, which strongly reminded him of a rotten orange he found under his bed once.
Morgan and Evan's talking, meanwhile, had taken quite another turn. Morgan was apparently trying to convince Evan that unicorn plants were real, and he refused to believe her. He was having a hard time picturing a plant that looked just like a unicorn but it was green, which wasn't right because unicorns weren't green. He saw one in a picture his mother had shown him once and it didn't look like a plant, either…
Just then, there was a scurrying sound accompanied by creaks and scratches. The next second, the house-elf, Dingy, appeared in his tiny, hand-sewn clothes and clutching a stitch in his side from running up the hidden staircase.
"I's come, Toby! I's come but was very much distrackleted coz of Marmie wanting to have a talks…somethings to do with Dungbombs, methinks," Dingy said all of this quite breathlessly in his funnily squeaky voice.
Tobias nodded and Dingy plopped down next to Morgan, wiping his small forehead comically.
"All right," Alexandra cleared her throat loudly so that Morgan and Evan would stop their bickering and look at her. "Good. You said it would be ready in an hour Toby?"
Tobias nodded once more and she continued, mostly talking to Morgan, Evan, and Dingy because they probably couldn't remember what their secret missions were. They were only children after all, whereas she and Tobias were full-grown nine-year-olds and therefore quite capable of remembering. Tobias had just invented his first potion! And Alexandra had successfully accomplished something no one thought could ever be done.
"Right, then. We're gonna have to keep them out of the way for the next few hours. You told Toby that you and Aunt Hestia are going to go for a walk, Evan?" She asked.
Evander gave one nod, a small smile on his face.
Alexandra grinned broadly at him, "Perfect! So that takes care of her…but what about Uncle Balfour…?"
Morgan brightened up at this. "Me'n'him are gonna plant the Violent Violets! It might take a while…they're squeamish things, those."
Alexandra stood up, pacing. The younger kids eyes, including Dingy's, followed her. Tobias had to switch hands because his right one was about to fall off from stirring the draught constantly.
"Well, Mum should be easy…"Alexandra went on slowly. "After all, she'll prob'ly just go to the drawing room and mope, like she always does when Dad's gone. I think that it's just Marmie, Old William, and Biddy we'll have to look after, then…Er, can you get past Marmie while she's cooking, Toby? I don't think we'll be able to get her out of there, not when she knows we've got company now."
Tobias said doubtfully, "I really don't know...she can get awful possesive of her cooking when we've got company...and it'll take a while, no doubt, to change everything once she gets going..."
Dingy suddenly stood up onto his tippy-toes, stretching his hand into the air and waving madly. Even at his full height he was barely taller than a squatting Evander.
"Dingy nose! Dingy nose!" He said excitedly.
"You know what?" Tobias said.
"Dingy nose how to distrackle Marmie! I does, I really do!" Dingy ceased waving his hand now that he had everybody's attention. He lifted up his little chin and said proudly, "Dingy has gotten nastily ideas, yessir! An idea with climbing up treeses and making distrackletions for Marmie and Old Williamer's to be very nicely distrackled! Dingy can do it!"
There was a mischievous glint in Tobias' eye as he nodded vigorously. "You'll do it, don't worry, Dingy. I have just what you need...it'll be perfect!"
The four kids grinned, though for four different reasons. Tobias grinned because of the imp he was; Evander grinned because they were doing something secret and fun and he loved those two words, though he didn't quite understand what Dingy and Tobias were planning. Morgan grinned because she did know what Dingy was going to do, and she had front row seats. And Alexandra grinned because they were going to cause lovely mayhem, and because it was the exact sort of mess in which people laughed and applauded you for your brilliance and not ground you...and also because this left her with Mum, and she had a very important question she wanted to ask her.
It was at this point when Tobias' left hand grew very tired and developed cramps. As Morgan, Evan, and Dingy were going on excitedly about what was going to happen at dinner that night, Tobias motioned Alexandra over.
"Did you get it?" He muttered.
"Nope. Aunt Hestia made me hand it over on my way out----I really don't know how she does it----!" Alexandra said.
Tobias interrupted with a howl. "You mean I have to keep stirring that thing for half an hour? I've only been stirring for five and my arms are about to fall off! How inMerlin's name am I gonna----"
He suddenly stopped when he saw the look on his sister's face.
"What?" he asked suspiciously.
Alexandra was wearing a smirk not unlike his own when he knew something that others didn't.
"If you had let me finish talking, I would have told you that I really don't know how she can lecture me about stealing people's wands when they aren't looking, and not even notice that while she was talking, I had swiped this!" Then from behind her back she produced a long, dark wand with a flourish.
Not every hug is out of affection.
A/N: Ha! So what do you think so far? So sorry for having this one done so late! I have been confined to my bed and room...something which, I am sure you all know, I dislike very much!
Please review! They keep me going and I enjoy them immensely!
Cheers! Happy Holidays!