Disclaimer && Warning: Not even optional. Nothing big to warn of.
Speaking to you: Soooo I'm kinda sorta super late and all. But i have an excuse. I no longer have the internet at my house and i'm stealing from the library right now. Sorry.
Da Storeh: Eli makes some buddies, er a buddy. A Seer is involved and the lovely horse-beasts of death. Do you think the messengers of the Apacolyspe would ride a threstle? It does have a lovely ironic ring to it. Tell me you love me, or hate me, my writting the twins and my lovely Luna Lovegood?
Read and Rate lovey!
Hogwarts was a beautiful building. Even in the photographs I'd seen of the place it was unique. But he reality was more than stunning.
The towering castle walls, the turrets and the towers. All made from magical stone, something crossed with granite and black marble. In every window, lit up in the gloom of the fading day light, you could see the glow of hundreds of hovering fairy lights.
With a stone courtyard edged with magical shrubbery, directly in our line of sight down a straight cobbled path. In the distance I could see the faint outline of greenhouses and a cottage along the edge of the woods.
The wood and the lake, two of the more notorious magical habitats for some of the greatest creatures in the wizarding world.
The Forbidden Forrest – wizarding imaginations are just limitless that way – was the location of the last known Golden Snidget sighting in the 1700's, ironically it was a student sentenced to serve detention in the woods who'd seen the illusive create. The woods were populated by equally stunning, if not quite so rare, magical flora. Those woods were a dream come true to any Magical creature specialist with their Faery Rings and Centaur hoards, and for Herboligists as well, Auggie had once been permitted to acquire Cypress wood from one of the trees there and commended it highly.
The Black Lake was equally impressive, if not as showy. It's surface was gleaming like a darkened mirror, a flat sheet of midnight water stretching from the Hogsmead station to the campus broken only by the rocking boats that rested against the pier. Beneath it's still surface lurked Grinidilow, Merefolk and even the mythical Giant Squid.
In my own magical sight it was almost painfully illuminated. The stones, the gates, the grounds, the forest edge. Wards and Charms and innate protections woven into the very fabric of the place. The air was almost alive with the currant of humming power concentrated here.
All of it was glowing more than the Alleys with the hundreds of shops and wizards preforming spells by the minute. It could not even compare with the amounts of magic I had seen since I was a child.
I could see the magical signature of hundreds of Headmasters and Headmistress' mingling with the protective wards. I could see the original ward builders faint magic trace, and the stone masons, as well as all renovators over the years.
And faintly, ever so faint, I could even see the founders. The glorified Hogwarts Four, Rowena Reavenclaw with her sharp wit and thirst for knowledge, Helga Hufflepuff a loyal girl with a penchant for hard work, Godric Griffindor the bravest knight of an age charging to battle with half cooked plans, And Salazar Slytherin the most cunning and ambitious who left the castle in a huff before it was finished because no one wanted to play his way.
Honestly he couldn't understand why he wasn't taking his OWLS at Durmstrang, there at least he could test in all the subjects he had studied. The Housing system of Hogwarts was outdated and prejudiced and he was ill suited for every house. Not to say he wouldn't be sorted easily enough, every trait was generalized to the extreme, he just wasn't suited for any particular house.
And with the sorting of houses came other trivialities, competitions and prejudice. The whole thing made me want to sigh, and recluse myself back in the tiny apartment above the wand shop.
The only reason the signature of the founding four could have lasted over a millennium, was if the castles magic had been tied directly to their own. Interestingly enough, only the Soul Arts could leave that kind of mark.
Walking toward the black carriages I was standing between the two Prewett twins who were enthusiastically babbling about places they could show me and all the things we could explore. I gave Lee a faint smile when he rolled his eyes and choose a carriage. Just before we got in though I caught sight of the beast pulling the carriage.
I was immediately reminded of a dog I had once seen. The beast had been skeletal, almost dead with malnutrition. His fur had fallen off, subjected to mange, and he was left a hairless black thing. His eye had been enormous in the proximately boned face.
These creatures had no eyes. The blackened pits set into the vaguely muzzle like face were empty. That tore at my heart in a more agonizing way than anything I had ever seen. Their bodies were black, leather-like skin covering it's skeletal structure. Grey boned horns curled, two on each head, from just above the eye sockets. On their backs wings reminiscent of a dragons were folded neatly.
The creatures magic was most unusual as well.
Heedless of the Twins and Lee following me. Ignoring the fourth year students, Malfoy, Nott and Zambini, who had accompanied us off the train, altogether. I approached.
I faintly recognized a sharp intake of breath and a half asked question behind me, before Lee shushed them all.
I walked until I stood directly in front of the larger one on the carriage we would be riding in. Taking extra measures of caution, in case these beasts were temperamental, I forced myself into a bow. With my body angled toward the ground I looked dead into the eyeless face and waited. Not a moment later the creature dropped not one knee, but both forelegs, to the ground in front of me.
I relaxed my stance and moved to it's side with a hand stretched toward it's flank. I shivered when I ran my hand across the leathery expanse. His aura was a deep grey, almost black. It flickered, almost as if it were torn between this pale and some other. And the feeling….
It was cold, not the soulless draining cold of a dementor, but not the clean cold of a natural winter either. More a distinct numbness. It wasn't unpleasant, but it was uncomfortable. After on last stroke, from the base of it's bone tail to it's ribcage, I withdrew my hand and walked back to my group. Careful not to turn my back until I was at least four feet away.
A slight blond girl had appeared in front of me before I reached the six of them though. I stopped inches from her but she did not look up at me. Instead her light, light, grey eyes were unfocused and looking to my side. Uncertain of what to do I looked at the Twins, they seemed to be confused, Lee just looked thoughtful.
The girl was young, she had an oval face classic English nose, but her eyes, though unfocused seemed ageless. Hers was the type of fey beauty men remarked upon, the kind of looks that would always be in fashion. She had taken though her ordinary face, pale colorless blond hair, wise eyes and miniature features and coupled it with the extreme.
Her clothing was the uniform robe with house trim, but that was where the compliance to code ended. She had a necklace that seemed to be made of thousands upon thousands of thread pieces knotted and hanging down from a black cord wound round her neck. Her hair hung around her face in a pale halo of ringlets interspersed with thin braids and leaves from various plants. One her feet were two flat, sandal like shoes, one creamy yellow and the other orange.
The cuff around her ear lobe denoted her heritage as a pureblood, but did not excuse the eccentricity. The cuff even appeared to be made of some sort of cork, of all things.
"Death. Threstles. Some of them say death is a burden. They were given to those of us who have seen someone taken. The irony is they are creatures of light" The little blonds voice was sharp, but her expression never faltered, as I turned my killing-curse eyes back to her examining her face, I thought over what she said.
The uncomfortable sensation could be attributed to them being of the Light, when I was definitely of the Dark. But… Their aura was blackish and grey. I'd observed every type of aura, colors and smells, and the darker, the more foggy the aura, the more Dark the affinity.
The girl didn't seem to be stupid though. Her voice seemed confidant, assured. And obviously she could see the beasts.
And then my eyes widened and I looked at her again. Her eyes looked into my own this time, and they were no longer grey. Her eyes were black, solidly so, no white and no shadow denoting a pupil. Abyss', deep and cold. She had a shrewd awareness now etched on her fey features. And so intense, as if she was reading my soul.
Eyes like my own. Eyes like Auggie.
Other.
She was no simple witch. And her words were not simple either. I understood what she was saying, and asking.
She was saying, in a roundabout way, that Threstles would only appear to one who had seen death and those that regarded the Thrstles as a gift to the grieving were the light one, not the beasts. She was also asking if I could see that for myself.
In her own way she was giving me a hint, admittedly one I had already known of, but vaguely. She was saying that Dumbledore would find out my leanings towards dark but would try to reform me, or tame me. By taking in a purely dark creature, even taming it down and using it as a pack beast, he was showing his willingness to use any resource.
I locked eyes only long enough to nod. And suddenly her face was averted and the seemingly light grey was back in her unfocused gaze.
"Seeress" I whispered.
A small smile twisting and then disappearing on her face was my answer.
"Would you share my carriage miss?" I said indicating the carriage before us. Looking at the deep blue trim of her robes edge I noted with amusement I seemed to draw Ravenclaws. I wonder if it was telling.
Of all the houses I truly would not end up in grfyndor, no matter my courage or stupidity in certain circumstances. That was a house of solely Light and Neutral magic's. My most likely, though not nearly suitably perfect of course, choices were Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Both Dark and Neutral houses, sometimes a Ravenclaw had Light blood, but not so often as Hufflepuff.
The carragie was a wide space, able to fit six apparently, but only myself, the Seeress and the original three I'd met entered the carriage. I found myself facing the twins and the Egyptian, with the tiny blond on my left side and the window on the right.
"So, do you just attract the most attractive of the house members, or do you have a plan?" Gred, I think the twins name was, commented. A calculating glint in his eye belied the benign statement, and his twins head tilted slightly.
Ignoring the stares of the others I turned my face to the Seeress, having no answer that would satisfy them. The truth was that it was best to collect, as he accused, the better of the brood. I didn't know for sure if that was what I was doing myself though, I'd not actively sought anyone out at all.
"My name is Eli, Heir of House Ollivander. It's a pleasure to meet you." I said smoothly. My whole name seemed to pretentious for the little blond, whom had already helped me. Besides, she might take the obvious route and think I was a born Ollivander.
An indignant huff came from the opposite side of the carriage but amusement flitted across the blonds face.
Her expressions, beyond the dazed and dreamy mask she seemed to be fond of, flowed across her face like water. Nothing stayed long, but you could glimpse it, if you were quick enough.
"Luna Lycoris Lovegood. Heir of House Lovegood and De facto Heir of The House of Forsooth." She responded, ignoring the niceties of greetings.
A double Heiress. Granted De Facto Heir wasn't quite the same, it was the tittle given to second sons and daughters when no other options were available. She was regal enough and had the features of a pureblood, I was almost certain, but her bearing was more casual.
I gave her a nod, and turned my attention to gazing from the carriage window out onto the castle grounds. The rest of the ride was relatively silent.
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