Chapter Four: For the Love of Doxies
It took a while for Tobias to get over the fact that his sister had swiped Hestia Hesperus' wand. Their Aunt Hestia was considered by many in the wizarding world to be one of the elite, the best wizards and witches who lived, and yet a nine-year-old witch had been able to deprive her of her second strongest weapon. Her strongest, of course, was her brilliant mind.
Thus, Tobias cast away the wretched stirring stick, and with this stolen ivy wand of twelve inches, containing the plumy feather of a phoenix, he proceeded to perform a simple spell on the cauldron.
In fact, the twins had been practicing this very spell for days. It was Marmie's favorite spell, excellent for times when she had to stir a boiling pot while visiting the loo, mending a nasty burn, or simply walking out to the cabbage patch to unearth a few more heads. The twins had watched Marmie doing it countless times and were positive it would work for them.
It was quite simple. They'd studied the movements and worked out the incantation. They had never done it with a wand before this, though.
Tobias held the wand in his hand and licked his lips. The first time he performed the spell on the potion, nothing happened. He cleared his throat nervously and tried again. This time, the surface of the potion followed his movements rather vigorously, splashing over the side.
Alexandra jumped away just in time. "I think you're making the sweep too wide," she said. "It should be more circular."
By now, Morgan, Evander, and Dingy were all watching with interest.
Tobias gritted his teeth and performed the spell for the last time. Morgan and Evan cheered when the cauldron's contents began to swirl around the inside, stirring themselves successfully.
Their cheers stopped abruptly when Alexa and Tobias, as one, moved to clamp their hands over their younger siblings' mouths.Just outside the hidden room, they could hear Aunt Hestia and Uncle Balfour calling their names.
The four children stood, stock-still, listening intently. Had Hestia and Balfour heard them? Did they know where they were?
They heard Hestia speak to Balfour, right next to the dumbwaiter door, far too close for their liking. "That's funny…I was so sure I heard them."
Uncle Balfour's voice answered her.It was a low rumble that had always scared them when they were very small. "Well, they have to be somewhere. More likely than not, they're playing a game of hide-and-seek. You know they can hide for hours at a time, blast it! I can't just do this without Morgan…she really wanted to help me with this one."
Hestia's ringing gale of laughter startled the children a bit. "I think you need her for moral support! Morgan told me about this plant.It has…what is it again? The most disgusting smell on the face of the earth? What are you going to do, pile dung around it with one hand while holding your nose with the other?"
In the dusty room, the four kids and Dingy shifted uncomfortably while their aunt and 'uncle' held their amiable conversation right outside the thin wall. Morgan, tired of having her older brother's hand tight over her mouth, started squirming. A second later, she stuck her tongue out and licked him on his palm.
Tobias yelped and jumped away from her, nearly falling over the churning cauldron. He wrinkled his nose in disgust, then froze as he realized, too late, just how loud his yelp had been. Hestia and Balfour had stopped speaking abruptly.
If Alexandra's hand weren't covering Evander's mouth so tightly, he would have giggled. Alexandra, unfortunately, did.
Both parties stood frozen on either side of the wall, listening intently. Hestia and Balfour knew that what they heard was definitely the children, but where they were exactly, the adults didn't know. The children held their breaths and strained their ears, hoping the adults would just think that what they had heard was only a mouse or a closet ghoul and go away. Then they could sneak back down the hidden staircase and out the cupboard and intercept them on the first floor.
It seemed like forever to the children until their aunt and uncle decided to move on in their search; their footsteps echoed as they walked away and down the corridor, and the children relaxed with sighs of relief.
In reality, though, it had only been a minute.
While Hestia and Balfour were upstairs looking for Tobias, Alexa, Morgan, and Evan, Irene headed to the door to search outside. She crossed the entrance hall and had just opened the door when there was a loud racket behind her. She turned and found her missing children. Bright-eyed and grimy, tousle-haired and quite breathless, they leaned heavily against a closet door. A few brooms and mops clattered to the floor beside them.
Irene cocked an eyebrow. "What were you doing in the broom cupboard?" she asked suspiciously.
Evan looked up at Morgan from his sprawling position on the floor. Morgan swiveled around to look at her sister. Alexandra casually picked a sticky cobweb out of her hair while raising her own eyebrows at her twin, nodding at him to answer their mum.
When he didn't say anything, Alexa said loudly, "Very good question, Toby. Why were we in the closet? I can't really remember."
He glared at her, then turned to Irene, plastering a smile on his face. "We were playing Magical Murder, actually, Mum. It's best if you play it in the dark, you see, and Morgan and Evan really weren't scared at all!"
Irene glanced over at her two youngest, who all looked up at her and smiled innocently. She then turned back to Tobias; his jaunty grin was definitely too jaunty. Alexandra seemed preoccupied with examining the hem of her crimson shirt, down to the very last stitch.
Something was definitely up. Irene crossed her arms over her summer blue dress and glared at her children. "I had better know what you four are up to by the end of the day. You understand?"
They nodded hurriedly, beaming, and a smile spread across Irene's own face. You could never trust a conspirator or a daredevil, but the other two were such angels they could all get away with anything. And they all were so adorable, really, no matter how mischievous.
"I think you all could do with a bath!" she exclaimed and they immediately groaned in protest. "But I think a simple wash in the sink will have to do. You four are covered in dust and dirt and cobwebs and---Toby, stand still, you've got a spider on your shoulder----"
Tobias spotted it and cupped it in his hand. "Hey there, little guy," he said to it softly.
"He's not exactly little, is he?" Alexandra peered at the black spider, which did look a bit larger than usual.
"Let me see! Let me see!"
Tobias lowered his hand so Morgan could peer at it, too. "How d'you know he's not a girl?" she asked affronted.
"You just know these things when you're nine, Mory," Tobias said. He ignored Alexandra rolling her eyes at him.
"Oh. What are you gonna name him, then?" Morgan squirmed away from her mother, who was trying to dust off her dirty white dress.
"Morgan! Hold still, baby!" Irene sighed, exasperated. "We need to wash you up. Balfour's looking for you, he wants you to help him in the greenhouse. If you want to plant something with him, you need to change your clo----"
"Yes! Yes! I do! We're gonna plant the Violent Violet! I have to help him!" She jumped up and down excitedly.
Irene laughed. "All right then! Come on!"
She and her dirty children all set off to the kitchens, Tobias now letting his spider explore on his arm and Morgan telling her mother all about the Violet (keeping out, of course, the part about it being on the kitchen table with their food). Evander walked on his mother's other side, holding her hand contentedly. He was his mother's baby…well, everyone's baby, really.
Alexandra trailed behind them, looking at the paintings on the wall. She could have sworn as she walked past them that one of the pictures featuring an old hag carrying a harp had moved a bit. It startled her, because the paintings were magical pictures, of course, and the frames were permanently stuck to the wall with some charm or another; so why would the frame jump an inch or so to the left, closer to a Ravenclaw tapestry?
She shook her head and walked faster to keep up with her brothers and sister, thinking it was just her imagination. She ran up to Tobias, who was debating on what to name his new 'pet'.
"I think he looks like a Warwick, actually." She peered at the spider on her twin's arm.
Tobias cocked his head to the side studying it. "You're right," he said. "He looks awfully like a Warwick…don't tell me how, though."
Irene looked at the twins. "Why Warwick?"
"Because," Alexandra answered decisively, "in a story I'm writing, Warwick is the name of an old dwarf who helps Phyllida fight off the robbers that have come to steal her mother's famous heirloom. Warwick has black hair, you see, with white highlights, and he's pretty round. Toby's spider just looks like Warwick, that's all."
"I see…" Irene said, just as Morgan asked, "Who's Phi-lee-da?"
Alexandra sighed. "You'll see. I'm only on the ninth chapter, and Phyllida just lost her third wand, so she's off to…what is that old guy's name again, Mum?"
"Ollivander's," Irene replied promptly.
"Yeah, him. I'll have to remember that for when evil Marcus steals her seventh."
Up in her grand bathroom, Hestia turned the hot water off and stepped out of the shower with a fluffy red towel wrapped around her, feeling much better for it.
She and Balfour had found Morgan and Evan in the kitchen, washing their hands and faces. Once she saw her 'uncle', Morgan let out a shriek and tore out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Apparently she had been told to change out of her play-dress by her mother.
With much griping, Balfour had proclaimed he might just as well go help out "that useless Scotsman" while he was waiting for Morgan to change. Irene, meanwhile, thought that it would be best if Hestia bathed and changed her robes before she went out in public. So leaving Evander to play with Tobias and Warwick the spider for fifteen minutes, Hestia left.
It felt so good to wash off the dirt and grime of the past couple of days. She buttoned up a dark blue blouse and pulled on some very Muggle jeans for their walk in Glasgow. Absent-mindedly walking to her small balcony, she pushed aside the silk curtains and pulled open the glass doors.
Below, Tobias was coaching Warwick to do things, making Evander laugh excessively. Morgan was heading towards Balfour and Old William, who were crouched next to the hedge beside the gatehouse.
Back in her room, Hestia rummaged through her drawer for something to pull her hair back into and her fingers stumbled upon a pleasing white barrette she had never worn before. This was lucky, for Hestia's mind was churning again and she had no idea what she was putting on.
She had fallen once more into her story The Tempest. The last scene she had written before upending the saltshaker took place on the dock of Bowman's Isle, near the Bristol Channel. The night was dark and stormy with a fierce wind and pounding rain. A lone figure stood in the dark, searching frantically for any sign of his friends, the Grangers, and the boat. Behind him, an eerie green light hovered above the island in the middle of this freakish storm.
He had known that they would leave him…in fact, he was the one who commanded David to let him deal with the Death Eaters alone, to take Neenie and run. "If I don't come back in ten minutes," he had said, "you have to get out of here, with or without me!"
And they had. He stared out into the darkness, all hope leaving him. Then he turned around, knowing as he did so that he was handing his life to his family's murderers. And that's when it happened-----
"OUCH!" Hestia yelled in pain. Her hand flew up to her face where a long bloody gash had appeared on her cheek. Above her head, a hairy, black, insect-like fairy zoomed away, cackling madly.
She had been so focused on the scene playing itself out in her head that she hadn't seen the black doxy coming. Hestia wiped her bloody hand on her red towel and dabbed some water onto her face. Feeling in her pockets for her wand, she became a bit puzzled when she couldn't find it.
I suppose I must have left it in my other robes, she thought.
The wicked little doxy zoomed around on its beetle-like wings, apparently delighted at the mayhem it had caused.
Glaring at it and silently cursing, she felt around behind her for something hard to throw. It would have been far easier if she had had her wand, but since she was without it, Hestia was determined to make do with what she had.
She fumbled behind her and opened the doors to her wardrobe, feeling around the shelves. Her slender fingers closed around a glass sphere the size of a Quaffle. She brought it around in front of her, poised to aim, but paused when she saw that it was the Fore-token Orb given to her by Alastor Moody.
The Fore-token Orb was a Dark Detector that showed future danger in the very depths of its darkness. There were many wizards who thought it was pure folly because they didn't want to believe what was hidden in its center. There were others who were driven mad because of what they saw in it, locking themselves in dungeons and never coming out for fear of that something happening to them.
Since there were very few Orbs in the wizarding world and even fewer owners of them, it was quite surprising that Hestia Hesperus had one contained in her wardrobe. She herself had been astonished when Moody, then Head of the Auror Department, presented it to her ten years before, saying that she had far more need of it than he. Confused, she accepted it, but she had never in all those ten years gazed into it...
As she drew back her arm to throw the Orb, Hestia took her eyes off the doxy for one second and looked at the darkened sphere. In its swirling black contents, at the very heart, what she saw burned itself into her mind forever. There was at first the outline of a man, then he was swept away by death and fire and was replaced by four beasts, two of which had claws gleaming with blood. Next came a small blob that Hestia slowly recognized as an island with a fortress upon it, then the island dissolved, leaving merely a large castle with sweeping grounds.
Hogwarts.
Hestia wrenched her eyes away and brought her arm forward with all of her might. She hadn't been one of the best Chasers in the school for five years running for nothing. The Fore-token Orb slammed into the laughing doxy, who was about to tip an inkbottle onto the bed, and they all crashed into the wall behind them with tremendous force. There was an explosion of ink and glass as the Orb smashed into pieces, its dark essence hanging in the air above her canopied bed like a foul gas before vanishing into thin air. The doxy slid to the floor, unconscious, amid the litter of glass and ink.
Hestia stared at the mess she had made, dazed. The canopy of her king-sized bed was slashed in several places by flying glass. Her bed and rug, wardrobe and vanity, shelves, tables, and desk were all covered in splashes of ink and glass, and, Hestia saw as she looked down at herself, so was she.
How ironic, she thought mildly. It seems I'm always going to be covered in ink stains…there is just no escaping from it.
Irene was going to kill her.
And so was Biddy. Trickles of blood were still running down her face, alongside her own tears. The tears startled Hestia when she looked in her vanity mirror.She hadn't been aware of crying when she looked into the Orb…
Oh, yes, the Orb. She decided that Moody was going to kill her, too. Forever seemed to pass as she stared at her reflection, until she remembered how this had all started anyway. The doxy.
"Tobias!" Hestia yelled to the open window.
A faint "What?" was the response.
"I have something I think you will like!"
Outside, Tobias took off running into the Mansion, past Evander, Morgan, the Baron, Old William, and a very sneaky Dingy, who were all staring up at the empty balcony curiously.
Hestia was still in the same spot when a breathless Tobias appeared in her doorway; still wearing her newly ink-splattered blouse and jeans, and still sporting a pale, bloody face.
He looked at her in alarm. "Are you all right, Aunt Hestia? Cause you, er, don't really look it."
Hestia dabbed a handkerchief onto her cheek, smiling weakly. "Yes, I am…really. It's just the doxy over there."
Tobias followed her pointing finger and peered at the inky doxy, who was starting to wake up. A clattering behind Hestia announced the arrival of everyone else in the bloody Mansion.Their mouths fell open and Balfour, who stood nearly a full foot above everyone else, looked in at the mess and uttered a low whistle.
Biddy and Irene immediately started fussing over Hestia, ignoring her protests that she felt fine. Balfour dispatched the doxy, despite Tobias' insistance that he could tame it. Alexandra retrieved a broom and was starting to sweep when stopped by Biddy, who vanished all of the bits and pieces of glass with a single snap of her fingers. Irene scolded Morgan and Evander for standing on the bed and trying to reach the slashes made in the canopy above. Marmie conjured an ice pack for Hestia to hold on her cheek before she salved it and used a Healing Charm.
Old William just stood and watched it all, boring them with a tale of when he came across a nest full of dozens of swarming doxies attacking him. Nasty buggers, those. Was in St. Mungo's for three months while being treated for each individual venomous bite applied to him. Took the Healers forever to be able to reach the one up his-----
Hestia sighed amid the chaos. It was now, more than ever, that she needed a peaceful walk outside. When the hubbub subsided a little, Hestia took Evander's hand and slipped out of the room.
The people she left behind didn't see them leaving. They didn't see that there was something more to the scene than met the eye…or the wand. They couldn't see that it wasn't the doxy at all that had frightened her.
But Evander could. He looked up at her with his very blue eyes, looking into the windows of her soul as he walked alongside her down the staircase. What he saw, Hestia could not tell…and what he saw, Evander wouldn't tell.
Unnerved as she was by what she had seen in the Fore-token Orb, Hestia vowed inwardly to forget it. In the months and years to come, she would find that it wasn't that easy. But, for the love of doxies, nothing ever is.
Author's Note: I am terribly sorry this is a day later as well! And it isn't "Into the Greenhouses" as I had promised. That chapter has been moved up to take the place of chapter five, seeing as how I couldn't fit it in here.
I hope you all were appreciated by the excerpt from "The Tempest" in here! The tale of the Granger family on Halloween of 1981 will be available after this current story has been written. It will be nice to take a break.
Also, the Fore-token Orb...whatHestia saw in it will be important in later stories! Believe me, you will all find out in time...
Please review! This will be my last post until the holidays are all over and I have gotten back on my feet again.
Cheers! Love,
Hestia