Chapter 10, This, That, and the Other
As usual, the twins had no trouble keeping busy all summer. Both spent several hours a day in the library, delving into the topics that fascinated them most. During the school year, there were those required subjects that limited their personal reading time, so they definitely took advantage of the summer for that. For years, the daddies had researched the matter of elf slavery, or rather the reason behind it. As the reason had occurred long ago, this appeared to be an impossible endeavor. Enjoying the challenge, the twins took it upon themselves to share in the effort, combing the same books the daddies had already explored to see if there may have been anything that their parents overlooked. Hydra was most intrigued by the Muggles calling house elves brownies, considering them to be part of the fae race.
When she half-playfully asked Daddy Kreacher if he felt like a fae, he frowned and grumbled that he simply felt like Kreacher. Hydra supposed that was fair enough, if amusing. She needed to learn more about the fae, then she could decide if she felt like one or not. Of course that involved more difficult research, but it passed the time. Having a puzzle to puzzle over kept the mind occupied in the library, but when they weren't reading, there were plenty of other summer activities to keep them occupied. Loughness spent several hours with Rodolphus Lestrange on the weekends working out.
This was a long standing thing that went back to when he was seven years old. He had come to Rodolphus asking for training in body-building, because he wanted to be big and ripped like Lestrange rather than thinly elegant like both of his parents. While Loughness was training his body, Hydra trained her voice. She practiced various songs that intrigued her, and even tried learning to accompany herself on the piano that the daddies had gotten for Dora long before the twins were born. Dora was the vampire who'd not only turned Daddy Regulus at his request so that he could survive Voldemort, but rescued him from that dreadful black lake of Inferi when he badly misjudged his own ability to escape on his own.
He'd stupidly sent Daddy Kreacher away to spare him a repeat of what he'd already undergone at Voldemort's hands, but in the process had foolishly placed himself in life-threatening danger. Everyone knew that Regulus had lost his mind a little over what had happened to Kreacher. To Hydra this did not make falling in love feel particularly appealing. She had no romantic interests, nor any interest in forming any. Loughness and Guillermo behaved like animals over girls, and the daddies were so clingy with one another that it just made the entire emotional process seem too unhinged.
Even Dora was all hung up on some git who'd turned her two-thousand years ago then kept stringing her along as the centuries passed. If even an ancient vampire could form unhealthy emotional attachments, Hydra didn't see why it was worth bothering over. She preferred music any day. Music was safe, but it was a river, even an ocean of emotion. It gave the emotion without the dysfunction. It was emotion that would never hurt or turn on one, and it only gave without taking. Her current favorite song into which she could pore her emotions was one by a Muggle band called the Beatles.
She'd heard Severus playing it more than once when visiting Sortia. It was called Let It Be, and though the singer sang about his mother, Mary, she substituted Daddy Regulus and Daddy Kreacher's names respectively in the lyrics. It was perfect for describing the role each parent played in her life, and truly began opening her to the ways in which music could provide expression and convey emotions with a magic that the spoken word simply couldn't do alone. The lines she sang for Kreacher completely described his place in her life with the words, /When I find myself in times of trouble, Daddy Kreacher comes to me speaking words of wisdom Let it be And in my hour of darkness he is standing right in front of me,/
The words for Daddy Regulus were equally as descriptive, saying, /I wake up to the sound of music, Daddy Regulus comes to me./
Kreacher was a comforting darkness in her life and as a vampire, he was of the dark. So was Daddy Regulus, but he was the original source of music for her and her literal Bardic inspiration and teacher. The fact that the song covered both of those aspects was amazing and magical.
She enjoyed the song's message about parents soothing the worries and concerns of their children and instilling a feeling of peace. When she was ready, the song would be presented to her parents as a thank you for all they'd done over the years. Being a bit of a perfectionist, she had no idea when she would be ready, so always practiced when the Daddies were sleeping. That way, their was no risk of them overhearing her efforts.
When the next school year began, she moved her vocal practices to the Ravenclaw common room. She allowed herself a song every forty-five minutes for a study break. Switching up the mental activity made things stick in her brain better, and she had it down to a literal science. Forty-five minutes on whatever subject she happened to be studying, then a fifteen minute break on something lighter like singing or solving a Transfiguration puzzle. She thought of her fourth year as her last truly easy year, for the fifth would involve dreaded OWLS. She had heard many a horror story about those from the parents of her friends and even Daddy Regulus. At least Hydra had her study group of friends to help, as they would all be going through it. Well all but Guillermo who, as a fifth year was going through it now, though as he didn't seem particularly moved, she tended to forget. Any time she asked him if he needed help studying anything, he'd just shake his head and say he had it under control. When he eventually did ask for her help, the topic was a surprise.
"This may seem weird, but I'm writing an essay for herbology about parental relationships between plants, you know and their kids," Guillermo explained. He, Hydra and James were in the Ravenclaw common room after dinner when he broached the topic.
"Shouldn't you ask Loughness then," Hydra asked. "I'm decent at Herbology but no more so than you. That's way more Loughness's thing."
"Well it's not that. It's you know, researching that made me think of you and Loughness and..." He broke off speaking to lift his hand to cast a privacy charm around the three friends. They sat in chairs clustered near the fire without anyone else too close, but the common room was far from empty. Once no one else could overhear, Guillermo continued. "Some plants get uprooted as babies and put in greenhouses near other plants with whom they form a relationship. Especially Mandrakes. So I was wondering, like without a Mum, how do you deal with the girl stuff? I mean without a girl to talk to. Do you ever want to talk to the lady who carried you?"
"Bera Karkaroff's cousin?" Hydra felt her eyes widening in surprise at the strange idea. "I mean if I saw her I'd say hi and thanks, but she's not our mum. We have literally none of her blood so no, we feel no connection."
"Okay, but what if you need to talk about yucky period stuff?"
James jerked his head away in embarrassment, cheeks flushing. Hydra sighed at Guillermo and rolled her eyes. What on earth did this have to do with plants? For a Ravenclaw, sometimes he just didn't bother to think things out. "Okay I have other women in my life to ask about anything I need. For one, I have Grandmother Walburga, who while a ghost, is still a lady ghost, and she was not always a ghost so she knows things. Then there is Kereston, who also lives with us. Neither of them need to be my mum to answer a few questions and neither has ever minded," Hydra explained. She spoke carefully as if Guillermo were thick, because right now, he was certainly acting the part.
"Oh," Guillermo said. He blinked a few times as he processed that, then nodded. "Well that makes sense. So do you think young Mandrakes just ask for screaming lessons from the plants nearest to them when they are sold and moved out of their parents greenhouse?"
"Um, Guillermo? Are you comparing me to a bloody Mandrake, because I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's probably brilliant, though, considering how cute yet deadly they are," Hydra decided.
Guillermo chuckled. "No, I am just trying to decide if magical plants have human characteristics, so unfortunately I compared you to a human. Sorry." He gave her an apologetic smile.
"But would cooking mandrakes into a soup give the wizard who eats it the ability to kill with a scream," James wondered excitedly. Hydra chuckled, because James always had a way to bring the topic back round to food.