AN: Mine would have to be Willow Shields (The Hunger Games). She has the whole ethereal look about her.
At a risk of everyone thinking I'm trying to milk this dream cast thing for as long as possible; anyone got a dream-cast for anyone else outside our prophecy eight? Audrey perhaps? Or Lee?
I would also like to apologise for the start of this chapter. I am actually taking Latin but I couldn't hope to translate something this big, so I did just google-translate it. Sorry for any of you that do Latin out there. It probably makes no grammatical sense.
Also, there are some spoilers in this chapter for the latest book/episode in the Game of Thrones series (A Song of Ice and Fire) by George RR Martin. If you don't want to read them just skip over the bits in block capital letters.
Chapter Ten
Of Family and Letters
Mihi avunculus, Alexi,
Quia non credo funus diximus. Paenitet me litteris secreto; Nolo in manibus erroneis. Quod numquam per sordes quae non habent furtiva ibo.
Ego scribo notifico vobis occultum reperi- cicatrice orta tribulatione. Scio quod habemus in schola utile indice. Veniam certus sum manus. Im 'certus ut notanda habebunt; Coactus sum et sanguinis proditores Mudbloods coniungitur. Intellexi autem quod aegrotat core me ad Harry Potter venare super nos amici novi quod fieri totidem propinquis bene sentiret. Nesciunt nihil arcani nolite.
Spero autem protinus te audire de licencia opus permanere.
Cum dilectione,
Jayna
"Great. What the fuck does that mean?" Lydjah asked, as Jayna gave the letter to her for inspection. Jayna rolled her eyes with a smile.
"Dear Uncle Alexis,
"I do not believe we have spoken since the funeral. I am sorry for the secrecy in this letter; I do not want it in the wrong hands. You never know what filth will go rifling through things that are not their business.
"I'm writing to inform you that it is I that has started the trials to find the secret. I know we have an informer in the school which is really useful. I'm sure they'll come in handy. As I'm sure they will have taken note; I have been forced to consort with Mudbloods and Blood-Traitors. It sickens me to my core but when I realised Harry Potter was on the hunt for us I knew that making friends with as many of his relations as possible was a good idea. They know nothing of the secret, don't worry.
"I hope to hear from you soon with permission to continue my work.
"With love,
"Jayna." Jayna finished. They were walking up to the Owlery to send it off.
"Oh. Think he'll buy it?"
"He'd better; translating that into Latin took me bloody ages." Lydjah laughed as Jayna called Rowena down.
"You heard about Lee?"
"No, what about her?" The letter was sent off and the two set off back to the castle.
"She's the Beater on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team."
"Good for her. I do feel a bit embarrassed that we went to the Gryffindor trials instead of our own."
"Whatever. Lee wouldn't have wanted us there anyway."
"True. What have you bought Sam for her birthday?"
"What?"
"Her birthday Lydjah. You know; that annual celebration of bursting out of your mum's womb?"
"When is it?"
"13th."
"Shit."
"I'm guessing you haven't bought her anything yet?"
"Not as such no. What do you think she'd like?"
"I've got her a broom."
"You bought her a BROOM?"
"Yeah."
"They're really bloody expensive Jay-Jay!"
"And I'm rich so… She doesn't have one of her own. I have too much money; it made sense."
"You are something else Jay-Jay. She's going to go through the roof."
"Well I hope not that'll damage the broom." Lydjah burst out laughing as they wandered into the Great Hall for lunch.
At the other side of the hall, Sam Andrews was waiting for James to finish eating so they could go and have a five minute race around the pitch. She heard her name from behind her and turned just in time to see a glowering older boy speak.
"Can't believe we have a fucking Mudblood bitch in the strongest spot on the team. We're going to lose the cup by a mile." James started in anger, rising from his seat with his mouth still full of chicken. Sam looked positively excited however. She stared the boy down as she slowly licked her hand… And then wiped it all over his face. "Wha- What-" He spluttered but Sam cut him off before he could continue, standing up so the whole hall could see her and pointing her finger right at his nose.
"You've got mud on your face! Big disgrace! Somebody better put you back into your place!" Sam half-screamed, half-sang. The boy burst into tears as a good portion of the hall started laughing.
"That was lyrical genius Sam!" James exclaimed. Sam thought for a long moment. Then she remembered she'd already told the world her sister could do vanishing charms and that she had feet that glided across the floors, and smiled.
"Thank you."
"Hey Sam!" Hayden shouted from the other end of the table. Sam turned towards her.
"Yeah?"
"You're so original!"
"Why thanks." She responded, just as sarcastically. They both knew that Sam only learnt the lyrics from listening to her dad's old IPod so many times, though only Sam was aware she did that when she missed him.
"Thanks for the present!" Hayden added.
"Your birthday was five days ago, and now you thank me?"
"And your birthday's tomorrow so I'd be nice to me if I was you!"
"You're a brat!"
"You're a cow!"
"True." They were both grinning. James looked sadly over at the Slytherin table, wishing he and his brother could do random stuff like this.
"Why are your birthdays so close together?" Sam wrinkled her nose.
"Dad usually has time off around New Year so…"
"Ew."
"Anything important to your parents in January?"
"Yeah; their wedding anniversary why- Wait oh my Merlin no!" James said, looking scarred. Sam burst out laughing at his expression.
Their conversation was cut off however over the yell of; "Walt's got a Howler from his sister!" As always, most of the conversation in the hall cut off to observe the embarrassment of the poor Gryffindor boy. With trembling fingers, Walter opened it and the letter quite literally exploded with words.
"WALTER BABCOCK HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT YOU WERE GLAD MY CAT DIED! SCREW YOU! I DON'T CARE IF BLUE PISSED ON YOUR SOCKS SOMETIMES BECAUSE YOU KNOW WHO'S ALSO DEAD? JON SNOW! THAT'S RIGHT, STABBED TO DEATH BY LOADS OF DIFFERENT MEMBERS OF THE WATCH! AND AEGON TARGARYAN IS STILL ALIVE! SO FUCK YOU!" With this the letter burst dramatically into flames leaving a horrified eyebrow-less Walter to stare at the small pile of ashes.
"What the Hell was that about?" James asked.
"Game of Thrones? It's a book series and was a TV show, my guess is that Walter has just started it and his sister just sent him a load of spoilers."
"Is it a good show?"
"Good? James mate, you have no idea. You can come and watch it at mine this summer."
Lydjah frowned as Jayna walked even faster than usual to get to their table in the great hall. She flashed a quick grin at James and Sam but didn't bother trying to find the littlies in the throngs of people.
Jayna sighed in relief as she sunk into her seat and grabbed some bread rolls. Lydjah caught her arm before she could reach for the butter. "What was that about?"
"What was what about?" Jayna inquired, her innocent act upset slightly from her out-of-breath tone. Lydjah raised her eyebrows.
"Jayna!" Jayna froze, her eyes widening in panic and locking onto Lydjah's. From behind them, Cara was hurrying over, looking desperate enough- well; desperate enough to brave a crowd of 'nerds and mudbloods'. She flung herself on the seat next to Jayna, looking thoroughly disgusted by everyone else around her. She shot Lydjah a scorching glare (apparently she didn't see Lydjah's family adopting Jayna as a help).
The two sisters had met up over the holidays frequently; up until the week before the Quidditch World Cup. When Alen and Lydjah arrived to pick Jayna up that day they found her alone, furiously tearing up the grass beneath her legs and sobbing every time a new blade of grass was broken. She refused to speak of what happened and Lydjah let it go, knowing she was keeping more than a few secrets of her own.
"Jayna I'm sorry I- I don't have an excuse I was just angry because of what happened at the funeral-"
"ShuT UP!" Jayna screamed. However much she tried not to be Jayna was unbelievably crap at two things; staying mad at her family and Herbology. The latter was something she could deal with; it was good to be bad at something. The former however had caused her much frustration as she tended to blow up suddenly, cry a lot and then wind up forgiving them all a few moments later. It wouldn't bother her so much if the rest of her family also suffered from this, only they seemed to be able to hold grudges for years against her. Or they had… Back when they were alive.
The area around their table went very quiet. Jayna breathed deeply, looking pointedly at her plate with so much force it was a wonder it didn't spontaneously combust. "I don't want to talk to you Cara." She tried to say calmly, but her voice broke at the end.
"When will you want to talk to me?" Jayna slammed her fist into the table. Lydjah jumped at the loud noise; while Jayna frequently joked about killing anyone who annoyed her, she had never acted on any of these words; but it was clear the table had taken a hit that was meant for Cara's face.
"Probably never!" Cara's own temper finally flared, though, perhaps because she was a Slytherin, she never raised her voice.
"I made one stupid mistake Jayna when I was understandably pissed off, Merlin knows you've made hundreds-" Jayna's eyes almost glowed with fury.
"You haven't made one stupid mistake you vapid self-absorbed bitch; every single second of your life since our house went up in flames had been another fucking mistake."
"'Since our house went up in flames'? Can you still not say it Jayna?" Cara taunted, her words like poison straight to Jayna's heart. "Still can't admit that our family was murdered by the same filthy creatures you surround yourself with; and that you didn't even love them enough to say anything at their funeral-" Jayna lunged for Cara only held back by Lydjah's arms that had suddenly wound round her shoulders.
"Jay-Jay not here you'll just get detention. Let's go." She whispered. Jayna broke free of her arms but did what she said, stalking out of the hall with a posture like the Queen's, except for her head that was ducked to hide the tears that fell down her cheeks. She didn't look back at her sister, not once, though if she had she would've seen Cara's devastated expression, and even her attempt to stand up and follow her, which was quickly shot down by Lydjah's angry hiss.
The Gryffindor common room was unusually subdued for a party, but it was James who had a small army of friends, not Sam. She preferred parties where she could speak to everyone at least once in the time she had. That being said, there was still a few colourful decorations and a small stack of presents she had yet to open by the fireside. Her guests were sat around, chatting to each other in small groups, content to just enjoy the warmth of the hearth and the butterbeers in their hands.
"Tell me what's happened." Jayna looked up from her butterbeer, plastering a bright smile on her face as she saw the birthday girl. She assumed Sam was over here mainly because she was so pissed off that James had charmed her hair to flash 'I'm the birthday girl!' every few seconds and she had no idea how to get rid of it. She neglected to mention that Lydjah and herself had helped with the Charms work.
"Sorry Sam I was just a bit out of it-"
"Bollocks. Something's wrong and it's killing my buzz." She was starting to see why James and Sam knew so much about each other; there was no bullshit between them.
"I had a fight with my sister." She tried to shrug off, too tired to come up with a believable lie.
"About?" Sam prompted.
"Family." Usually when she said that, people knew to back off. She supposed there was a reason Sam was in Gryffindor as she ploughed on.
"How specific of you. Anything in particular?" Jayna blew out a long sigh and weighed the consequences of telling the truth.
"She intercepted my invitation to the reading of my families' wills last summer." She said finally.
"She stole your stuff?!" Sam exclaimed. Jayna was touched to see the Gryffindor getting ready to storm out of her own party and probably quite literally knock Cara down a few pegs.
"No. I just don't know what 'stuff' I have. It's not the actual missing the will readings I have a problem with; I've already sent off for a copy of them. It's the fact that she-"
"Purposefully prevented you from going?" Jayna nodded. "Why did she do it?" Jayna coughed uncomfortably and looked at her feet.
"On the day of the funeral I was supposed to be doing a speech. But when I got up to make it… I couldn't stand the people there, pretending they cared. I don't know if my family had a single true friend. And now I think about it; loads of them were probably Night-Watchers. The deaths of every single person I had ever cared for was a social event for them; a chance to show off their social status and how kind they were. It made me sick. So I apparated out of there."
"You did what?"
"I apparated. Accidental magic. Splinched myself all over the place and had to go to St Mungos."
"Ouch." Jayna smiled wryly in agreement. "So your sister stopped you from going to the will reading because you got, putting it simply, stage-fright?"
"I left her alone, surrounded by people she had no reason to trust, completely abandoned her."
"You were going through a tough time."
"So was she!" Sam grinned wickedly, and Jayna realised that she'd just made her defend her sister. Her face softened. "Look Jayna; I can't pretend to know what it must be like for you, having only one family member left and they're a purist bitch most of the time, but I do know that you can't give up on family unless there's no other option. I think you need to have a really long talk with your sister; hash it all out. You can't start rebuilding your relationship until you've moved past the things that ruined it in the first place. For now; perk the fuck up; we've got booze, of a sort, we've got good music and this threat; if you don't smile properly we're going to play spin the bottle and for you I'll make it land on your ex-fiancé."
"I severely dislike you Sam Andrews." Jayna glared, but there was a hint of a smile curling her lips. "And calling this music good is a huge overstatement-"
"Take it back! You have to love Queen!" Jayna squealed as Sam started tickling her furiously, as she often did with Hayden. The rest of the people in the common room turned round in confusion at the shriek and the accompanying maniacal laughter.
"Stop! Stop!" Jayna yelled, her limbs flying out in all directions. It seemed to Sam that every single inch of the Ravenclaw's skin was ticklish. James hovered over Sam's shoulder, grinning widely.
"How can one person be so ticklish?" Sam finally relented, leaving Jayna collapsed on the sofa emitting the occasional recovering giggle, and returned James' grin.
"I've just discovered Jayna Blackwood's weakness." Jayna's eyes widened vaguely in alarm at the look that passed between the two troublemakers.
"I thought being your friend meant being exempt from your pranks!" She protested. James and Sam both smiled pityingly at her. "In that case consider yourselves demoted!" She joked, taking a swig from her butterbeer.
"Please Blackwood! Take me back!" James yelled dramatically, dropping to his knees in front of her. Jayna smirked.
"Not for a thousand kisses." She replied cheekily. James pouted but Sam frowned.
"Is that a magical saying or something?"
"I thought that was a universal saying." Jayna replied. "It means like… Never in a million years."
"It doesn't even reference magic and it's a magical saying!" Sam groaned.