(A/N): Leo receives Elaine's letter, he has to prevent Charlie from trying to poison herself, and Danniel helps him distract her. As I upload this (3/3/23), I have chapter 361 all written up, which if nothing changes, should be uploaded on 6/4/23. I'm considering doing an extra chapter again, this time for my birthday, which is march sixth, so it falls between the next chapter and the one after that, but I don't know what that chapter would be about. I like doing the flashback chapters, but they're a lot of work to research, especially if I decide to go further back than ten years.
Leo
It was just about turning evening by the time Charlie swooped down to join us, and we were just finishing up our third bout of sandwich making, and eating.
"Hullo, Sweetheart. Ah, ah!" I tutted as she started stalking towards the open container of turkey on her twiggy little bird legs. "Not for you." I held out a treat I had retrieved from my pocket, and she eyed it for half a second, before returning her full attentions to the scant meat that was left.
"Jeez, she's a persistent one, isn't she?" I hummed in confirmation at Danniel's comment, trying to get Charlie to climb up onto my arm, but she wasn't having it.
"Charlie, you can't have the meat- the beef's too fatty for you anyway, and the turkey has garlic on it, too. Charlie- poisonous. You can't have it, it'll kill you." Charlie, clearly, could not care less about whatever nonsense I was spouting- she wanted the meat, and she wanted it now. "God, Lisbet just had to pick the most stubborn, willful, bird brained-" Charlie shot me a dark look, and I started backtracking. "Look, maybe that wasn't fair to you, but you're really pushing it here, girl." Danniel snorted at the figurative chokehold Charlie had me under, and I decided to ask him for help.
"Danniel, a little help?" He glanced around us, as if help would drop out of the sky, and when it didn't, he shrugged.
"What do you want me to do?" I huffed, honestly kind of impressed with the amount of forced Charlie was exerting as she pushed against the hand I had pressed to her breastbone in an attempt to hold her back.
"Close the containers." He followed my instructions, and snapped the lids back onto the containers, and set them back in the cardboard box. "Seal the box, too." He eyed me like I had lost my mind. "Seriously, Danniel- I shouldn't have ordered her those brain teaser toys, she already tries to break into everything I own, I don't need to encourage her to learn new ways to cat- well, bird- burglar me." Danniel shrugged, looking much too amused for my liking, but he did as I said, so I let him get away with it.
"What now?" Charlie wasn't trying to go after the food anymore, but she certainly wasn't going to let me get access to my letter any time soon, so something had to be done.
"I don't know- find something to distract her." The owl treats weren't having any effect- we needed something new. Something... more enticing.
"What-" Danniel started to question, then frowned, knowing he probably wasn't going to get any further suggestions from me, now that Charlie had spread her wings, and was trying to shimmy away from my reaching hands. His face lit up, and, a split second later, he disappeared into the trees.
"Wha- Danny!" When he didn't reply, I sighed heavily, and met Charlie's eye. "You're trouble, you are. You're Lisbet's revenge for every time I've annoyed her, aren't you? You're... god, you're such a little shit. I love you so much." Charlie's head dipped down, and she nipped lightly at the knuckle of my pointer finger with her beak- which I guess was about as close as I was going to get to any sort of reply.
"Aha! Got one!" Well, that sounded promising. Danniel popped out from between two trees with his hands clasped in front of his chest.
"Got one, what?" Danniel slid to his knees in front of us, bunching up the blanket slightly as he did so.
"One-" He opened his hands halfway, immediately catching Charlie's attention with what he had between them- and my heart plummeted. "Mouse." Oh, god.
"Danniel!" His face dropped.
"What? Owls eat mice, it's what they do! My barn owl, Alexei, ate mice all the time!" Yeah, some owls ate mice- and they did it well away from me!
"Crested Owls mainly eat insects, actually-" Charlie's eager hopping made me think that she was still interested in what Danniel had to offer, however. "And while I'm sure she'll still try to eat it, I- ugh, I really don't want to see that." Danniel eyed me, seemingly half amused, and half bewildered.
"You're a vampire- well, half- you drink blood almost on the daily, and you're freaked out by the thought of an owl eating a mouse?" Look... Yeah, I had nothing.
"I don't like killing deer, either. Are you going to make fun of me for that, too?" Danniel's expression faltered.
"I'm not- making fun of you-" My skeptical look made him reassess. "Okay, maybe I was making fun of you a little- but your compassion is one of the things that makes you, you, Leo- I'm not going to fault you for that." What a nice sentiment. It wasn't going to save the mouse, though.
"Just- Just, keep it away from me, okay?" Danniel nodded, putting his hand back over the mouse, causing Charlie to tilt her head to the side, moving closer to stare at where the mouse had disappeared with a vigor that was honestly kind of funny.
"Take the letter now, while she's distracted." I reached out slowly, and when Charlie felt the weight of my fingers on the letter that was still attached to her leg, she jerked- briefly glancing down at it before deciding that it was neither prey nor predator, and focused back in on Danniel's hands.
I managed to untie the letter from her leg, and once I had, Danniel held his arm out to her. Reluctantly, she stepped up onto his forearm, using the change in position to her advantage, and leaning down to try and shove her break in between the seam of where his two hands met. He rose to his feet, barely jostling the owl on his arm, and said,
"Back in a minute." Once again, he walked into the trees, and I swallowed thickly- hoping that if I focused hard enough on the letter, maybe I could block out any sounds from Charlie and the mouse.
Dear Leo,
I'm in love with you, too.
...Well, if anything could take my mind off of the circle of life demonstration that was going on somewhere nearby, it was that. I raised my hand up to tug on my hair, but as it brushed past my face, I could feel the heat emanating from my blush- which, I'm sure, was epic.
My eyes ran over, 'I'm in love with you, too' over and over again, trying to imprint it on the inside of my eyelids, so I could get to see it every time I closed my eyes- which I had to do a lot. To blink, and stuff.
The other girls may be making fun of me for my reaction to you saying that, but I don't care. I'm far too happy to care about looking like an idiot, right now.
Elaine was happy? Because of me? Because I told her I was in love with her? Well... that was an ego boost I probably didn't need.
My mother thinks you can do no wrong- well, ALMOST no wrong.
Almost? That wasn't the most reassuring.
In fact, she told me she thinks you 'have a good head on your shoulders'- if you're wondering what that sound was, it was me, laughing hysterically.
Well, ouch- that was hurtful. Guess I'll have to heal that hurt by looking back at, 'I'm in love with you, too.'
Oh, no. I'm not explaining Lisbet to you via letter- in person is already going to be a stretch, but if I must, I must.
Oh, how gracious of her! Maybe, if she was feeling really generous, she'd intersperse explaining Lisbet to me with some kisses- or maybe she could play with my hair. Or maybe, I could play with her hair. Or- Or both. Yeah... Both would be best.
Wait, what? Why are you expanding the clan? Just because of the war, or something else?
Uh oh. Well, technically, it was partially because of the war- but mostly because we were down a member- maybe even two, if you counted Shari. Her weakness did sort of put her out of commission, after all.
I assume that means that Greygorry is there right now- as I'm writing this, anyway- so here's wishing you good luck.
And I needed it, apparently.
Lisbet has a mate? ...Is that... new? To you, I mean, not to Lisbet, obviously.
Uh, yeah. Pretty new, I'd say. Clearly Lisbet had gone to great lengths to withhold any stories from her past that may have contained Jerremyah, and only told me the ones that didn't- or that she could easily remove him from.
Jerremyah sounds awful. He SPAT on the FLOOR in DISGUST about you being half vampire? And you all let him join the clan after that? Is that what I'm hearing?
Unfortunately... yes.
'Pathetic'? But Lisbet seems so... Well, you know. Lisbet-y. Lisbet-ish? Lisbetarian.
I believe, 'Lisbethan' was the appropriate term.
If you're already going for the throat, I hear beheading works a lot better than strangulation when it comes to vampires.
Oof, dark. Elaine was ruthless- and I found that maybe I kind of liked it.
Yeah, I know about Jay's arm- It's been that way for a few years now. The Healers say it's fine- or, not worth fixing, anyway. My father broke it during 'training' a few days before we ended up leaving him, and we couldn't go back to St Mungo's for check ups- for obvious reasons. And, by the time we could, it was already too late.
Hmm... that was... disturbingly similar to what had happened to me- but my mother hadn't been the one to break my leg, and, instead of just being a little crooked, I had had to have it re-broken, and wear a cast for six weeks.
You're always my moral support- It's one of the reason I'm in love with you.
Oh- she was good.
I'm proud of you, too. Always. No matter what you do, I'm proud, and I love you.
...Okay, now I was blushing. I forced myself to push forward, otherwise I knew I would be stuck rereading that line forever.
Shari's friend sounds much nicer than Jerremyah-
He was. Then again, that wasn't exactly hard.
Sure you can't exchange them? He must be trusted if you're taking his advice and calling me in.
Well... Yeah, I guess. I trusted Herc about as much as I could, for someone I had known for less than ten days- and he had given me absolutely no reason to doubt him.
I look forward to meeting Danniel and Jo- Or, well, meet them again, I mean. Meet them properly, I guess. I've heard so much about them both, without being able to get to know them for myself.
That may be a good thing- after all, the Twins had heard a lot about Elaine as well- and while they were the two least frustrating members of the clan- maybe vampires got more annoying as they aged- it was a very low bar. I couldn't imagine the extra teasing I would receive with two more people being able to directly interact with Elaine.
I didn't realise you helped train the Twins- I mean, I knew you trained WITH them occasionally, but I didn't know you actually TAUGHT them stuff.
Oh. Yeah. Sometimes. Had I not mentioned that?
Actually, I DIDN'T know that the way you lived as a human affected the way you end up as a vampire- that's so interesting. Do most vampire hunters know that? My father never mentioned that.
Huh. Maybe that was just a vampire exclusive theory- I'd have to ask... Uh, maybe Greygorry would be the best candidate to ask that kind of thing- he was the academic sort.
Shh, no spoiling it. Do as you're told.
I rolled my eyes, huffing out a laugh, before my breath caught in my throat as my eyes landed on the next few lines.
I'm in love with you,
Elaine
PS: I love you.
PPS: I'm IN love with you.
PPPS: I'm in love with you, TOO.
I sat there for what felt like a full minute, just staring at the words inscribed on the parchment, feeling my cheeks flame the whole time. I let out the groan that had been building for a while now, and buried my burning face into my hands through the letter- barely registering that my entire chest was vibrating.
"Leo-? What-?" I peeked around the letter, and saw that Danniel had returned, and was standing at the edge of the blanket, looking oddly stunned as Charlie perched contentedly on his arm.
"Mm!" I whined, waving the paper at him, and when I pointed to it, he leaned in to read the last few lines- Elaine's postscripts.
"Leo, that's- that's great!" I nodded. Yes, yes it was. "Um, Leo?"
"Mm?" He hesitated for a second, before leaning down to rest a hand on my shoulder.
"Do you realise that you're purring?"
(A/N): Elaine: 'I love you, and I'm proud of you. I will ALWAYS be proud of you, no matter what. I love you, I'm in love with you.'
Leo: ... *Purrs*
Danniel: 'Do... do I tell him? Is this something I shouldn't mention?'
Danniel: 'Are you aware that you're purring right now?'
So, Leo trying to explain to Charlie that the food would be poisonous to her is directly taken from whenever I hang out with my sisters dog, and when she tries to beg food off me, I feel the need to explain to her that I'm not not giving her food because I don't like her, but because the food would hurt or kill her if she ate it.
I had to look up whether owls could eat beef or turkey- yes, they can eat turkey, and they can eat very lean beef, but, like most animals, they can't eat garlic. Crested Owls specifically DO mostly eat insects, but they also eat small invertebrates, and an estimated 5% of their diet is bats- I figure mice count as small invertebrates, and Barn Owls DO often eat mice, which is why Danniel catches one for Charlie.
I have this theory that Owl Treats are magically enhanced to provide a whole diet for an owl, like a mix between cat or dog kibble, and that classic sci-fi trope of entire meals being shrunk down into pills. Owls probably hunt whenever they deliver mail, and it's encouraged to let them hunt for themselves most of the time because the variety of diet is good for them, and it provides enrichment- and good Owl Treats are probably pretty expensive. Leo doesn't care that Charlie eats other critters, he just doesn't like to witness it- because he tends to over personify animals sometimes, and if he'd spent much longer with that mouse, he probably would have adopted it, named it Mr Mouse and introduced it to Peter when he got back to Hogwarts.
I had to calculate roughly how long it would take Charlie to carry Elaine's letter from Hogwarts to where Leo is in Derby, and it ended up being roughly eight hours, without breaks. So, with breaks, I estimated about ten hours- and since Hogwarts classes start at 9am, and Elaine did everything before breakfast ended, I figured she probably sent the letter off between 7 and 7:30am, meaning Charlie got to Leo at about 5 or 5:30pm. Evening is defined as 6-9pm, which is why Leo said it was just about turning evening.