The Perenelle house was a large, four-storey brick eccentric building with ashlar corners and lintels, situated on the western edge of the campus, its large arched windows and high, round, mediaeval-looking corner towers giving it a very strange feel, as if someone had decided to haphazardly mix numerous European architectural styles from just as many eras. But from what Myo knew of magical architecture, it was more likely that the original building had been in a more uniform style, but that the successive additions of new rooms, balconies, storeys and turrets had transformed the building into what it was now.
From what her pamphlet said, Perenelle House was largely dedicated to teaching the arts of magical medicine and advanced potions, which were high-level courses reserved for academics. Myo doubted that she would go there often, except perhaps to consult the library that Aline had told her she would find there, which apparently contained a number of books on wild flora and fauna, and above all, as far as Myo was concerned, what was edible and under what conditions. She still bitterly remembered the night she spent writhing in pain after letting her sweet tooth do the talking and greedily swallowing a few pretty mushrooms with red stalks and creamy white caps.
Perhaps soon she would be found in this library, perusing the books on edible wild plants and mushrooms, but today that wasn't why she, Luna, Nym and Elevetia were heading in that direction. On the other side of the building, the few hundred metres of meadow separating the campus from the edge of the wood had been selected to serve as a demonstration ground for the Beauxbatons archers' club.
After a short discussion, it had been decided that they would obviously not have time to see everything they wanted to if they stayed together. Consequently, the itinerary was as follows: their little group would go as a whole to see the archery and acrobatic flying clubs, then split in two, with her and Luna visiting their clubs of interest, and Elvetia and Nym doing the same. Which would probably take them the whole day.
The archery range was a vast grassy expanse on the edge of the woods, with a series of open-sided tents on one side, only the tops of which were covered in white canvas striped with various colours, below which were gathered a good twenty people, some chatting, others handling large elegant wooden bows, aiming and shooting towards the other side of the range.
At a distance of between thirty and two hundred metres were what Myo assumed to be the targets. Some were just woven straw circles placed on tripods on the ground, others were straw bales vaguely reminiscent of animals animated to move in visibly random ways. Still others were clay discs levitating in the air, some motionless, others moving. One thing that particularly fascinated her was the fact that arrows stuck in targets or dropped to the ground seemed to disappear after a few seconds.
Under the tents were humans, veela, some of whom she recognised from the day before, but also two centaurs dressed in elegant robes of burgundy fabric reinforced in places with leather, looking particularly dexterous, as well as three people with very long snake tails with beautiful glittering scales instead of legs, All three were dressed in short-sleeved tunics revealing their scale-covered arms, which she could swear were of Veela manufacture by the type of fabric and the arabesque patterns reminding her of the plant-inspired motifs that Adèle usually embroidered. She was about to approach them to see their beautiful emerald green scales when she felt Luna hold her by the arm and shake her head. Myo pouted for a moment, their scales were really pretty! There was a reason why she loved hunting fish with glistening scales beneath the surface of the water. However, she was quickly distracted by a fine shot from one of the centaurs, whose arrow shattered one of the clay discs in mid-air.
Their little group was soon spotted by a tall, blond-haired young man with an aquiline nose and sparkling eyes, dressed in a beige trench coat. After greeting them, he led them under one of the tents, and spent a good hour explaining to them the safety rules, the correct way to hold a bow, the different enchantments... Because yes, to her amazement, part of the interest of archery was to find different ways of enchanting arrows and bows for different effects, from the simple visual, such as luminous arrows, or those propelling themselves further into the air to reach absurd distances. But that was a specific category, a bit like professionals preferring to conjure bows and arrows of pure magic, which seemed absurd to her, didn't magicians use wands for that kind of effect? Well, this was a new addition to his long list of discoveries. The practice had fallen into disuse, but until the end of the Renaissance, when it disappeared from the battlefields after the War of Secrecy, magical archery was a highly effective martial practice for applying spells over long distances. The practice today being kept alive only for leisure, at least in Europe, because Jérôme, as he had introduced himself, admitted that he didn't know how things were elsewhere in the world.
After that, a bow was placed in her hands and a leather armband around her left forearm, because it seemed that the string could rip against the arm and hurt a lot, which was all the more true for the few veela with feathers there, as these could be torn off by an unfortunate movement of the string. At her side, Elvetia was almost trembling with excitement, a smile reaching up to her ears as she did not keep quiet about how happy she was to be able to continue archery at Beauxbatons, her mother not wanting to let her take her own enchanted bow out of the family domain.
Before she could shoot, however, Jerome made her remove and replace the bowstring, which he felt was essential, as strings could become slack if left on the bow for too long, which showed a lack of respect for the equipment and the people who had woven the string and made the bow. What's more, the strings had to be stored in special boxes so as not to be damaged by an environment that was too dry or too damp. Elvetia said that this was less the case for enchanted bows, as the string was often part of the runic system, and was itself enchanted so as not to suffer the ravages of time, but that for normal bows, this was essential.
After stepping to the edge of the tent to make sure there was no one in the line-of-sight, Jerome pointed to one of the stationary targets on the ground, a large straw bale to which was attached a round cloth covered with concentric circles ranging from dark blue around the edges to white in the centre.
Myo exhaled softly, gripping the handle of the bow, it felt light in her hands, even though it was really big, its curvature going from her feet to above her head, it was clearly not made to be carried or used on the move. She notched the long arrow with the red feather tail and the long sharp metal tip gleaming in the sunlight. Then she strung the bow - the amount of force needed to draw the string was astonishing, her muscles almost trembling under the effort, the wood and string warping in unison. She followed Jérôme's instructions, and as soon as she had stretched the string as far as she could, she let go.
With a loud snap, the bow relaxed, the arrow whizzing through the air faster than Myo's eyes could follow it... but it passed a few centimetres above the target and continued its course, getting lost in the undergrowth a hundred metres further on.
"Nice shot, you're stronger than you look" said Jérôme, raising an eyebrow. "Try to stop shooting before you start shaking, and when you bend your bow, push with your left hand on the wood at the same time as you pull on the string, you'll get more strength by using both arms. Come on, try again."
Myo picked up an arrow and fired again, applying the advice as best she could. This time, Myo let out a small cry of satisfaction as the arrow sank into the target all the way to the tail. She had only hit the outermost dark blue circle, but it was already strangely satisfying, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Oh, not bad at all, beginner's luck. But you don't need to pull that hard, that bow is 60 kilos of force when fully strung."
A shiver ran down Myo's spine as his gaze ran along the amber wood of the bow. "I like that, when the arrow goes, when it whistles..."
"Don't you? These sensations are inimitable," said Elvetia as she shot her third arrow straight into the heart of a flying target with random movements. Nym nodded, sending her second arrow flying into the grass, while Luna watched them with a vaguely amused expression.
Myo turned to Jérôme, "Tell me, is there any way of learning to fly-shoot in this club?" she said, her wings quivering with excitement behind her.
Jérôme rolled his eyes. "It's always one of the first questions I get from veela interested in the club... Yes, it's possible, Maria is the head of the flying archery, you can go and see her if you like, but before that, you need to master ground shooting."
"Thank you!" Said Myo before concentrating on shooting a new arrow. The day was off to a good start, her choice was made, the archery club would be one of those she would join.
oOOOo
Myo looked at her map, the little dirt track that was supposed to lead them to the acrobatic flying field had taken them through the woods for many minutes, but according to it, they must be very close. And indeed, she could hear voices from here. A few seconds later, as the small group emerged from the dense undergrowth, Myo stopped dead in her tracks. In front of her lay a vast round clearing forming a valley, at the centre of which was a large pond surrounded by reeds and lily pads. Scattered among the surrounding grass were dozens of students, some alone, others in small groups. All were staring up at the sky. Before she had even looked up, Myo could feel the auras of her fellow students, excited and joyful, filled with the pleasure of flying through the air.
High in the air above the highest peaks, a chaotic aerial ballet was taking place. A good thirty or so of her sisters were flying in all directions, some clearly doing as they pleased, slaloming between the others at full speed, others playing that curious ball game Myo had seen the day before, passing it around in the most incongruous poses possible. The more serious ones were flying in formation, their movements perfectly synchronised in a frenzied aerial dance.
A trio in ash-grey plumage caught her eye, all three seemingly plunged into a trance, moving together as if a single spirit were directing their three bodies. They swooped down towards the ground at dizzying speed, spinning on their axis before finishing their course in a majestic loop, skimming over the water and causing great splashes as they went, sending thousands of glistening droplets of water into the air. Then they resumed their flight, all three flying one above the other, until the one at the top did a magnificent back somersault, closely followed by the other two imitating her movement...
On the other side of the clearing, a duo, one with red plumage, the other cyan blue, flew holding long ribbons of coloured fabric describing hypnotic shapes behind them, the curves and spirals formed by the colour-changing fabric so fascinating that she had to hear her name being called to look away.
"Myo! You've come!" Margot exclaimed, while gliding in her direction before landing gracefully to join them.
"It's so pretty..." Myo said dreamily. "It's better than I expected."
"And even then, we're just having fun, it's a thousand times better at our shows! People from all over the Grand Alliance come..." Margot began before suddenly pausing, her gaze fixed on the wings Nym was proudly displaying, her mouth opening and closing without making a sound. Then, as if woken up by a glass of water thrown in her face, she ran to Nym, taking her hands in hers.
"Are you feeling alright? Are you ill? I've never seen you in the tower... are you new? You know, it's very bad to hold back your aura completely! Reduce it a little to avoid making the humans wince, of course! But never completely! Didn't anyone in your flock tell you that?" said Margot, barely catching her breath between questions, her aura full of concern and compassion.
"Um, I..." Nym began, giving Myo a desperate look. Behind her, Luna and Elvetia could barely contain their laughter.
Myo, not really understanding what was happening, cocked her head to one side in curiosity and surprise. "What are you saying, Margot?"
She turned to Myo, her eyes full of concern. "Do you know her? We've got to take her to see Madame Belleforte! She's clearly not well, I can't feel the slightest trace of aura."
"Margot, this is Nym, she's a friend of mine but she's not a veela." Said Myo, feeling more and more amused at the incomprehension and amazement in her colleague's eyes.
'But, but... her wings?' said Margot with a terribly disturbed look on her face.
"I'm a metamorphmagus, and it has proved possible to grow wings. " Nym interjected, looking particularly pleased with herself.
"You... really? But... can I see?" Margot asked, approaching Nym with curiosity shining in her eyes.
"Yes, of course. Nym said with a smile.
"I didn't think it was possible..." murmured Margot.
"So, how do you join the flying club? Is there anything you need to sign?" Nym asked.
"Hm, yes, just the registration form. But are you sure you want to come? It might be really difficult for you to keep up." Margot said worriedly.
"What do you mean? Nym is super strong, you know?" asked Myo, frowning.
"Well, to synchronise in flight we use our auras a lot, to communicate, and when we're really absorbed in the choreography, I'm no longer an I but a we." Margot explained.
Nym seemed to hesitate for a moment before pulling herself together, her determination almost palpable. "It's all right, even if I don't have an aura, I'm sure I can learn to keep up.
"In that case, come on, I'll show you the basics of choreography, Myo, maybe you can go and try to find a group to fly with! Just follow your aura and everything will be alright." Margot said as she took Nym by the hand to a small white and green tent on the edge of town.
Her wings itched, she was dying to fly away and join the flight of the trio of ash-grey feathers, but she didn't like the idea of leaving Luna and Elvetia behind. However, her worries were quickly erased by a smile from Luna, who said. "Go and play, Myo, I want to see you fly, and Elvetia... got tired..." she finished, stroking the owl's head as it rested on her shoulder.
"Do you have your drawing materials, Luna?" she asked, as her wings began to flap in the air, her flames running through her feathers and hair, filled with joy at the idea of flying with her sisters. Luna's nod had the effect of releasing a spring. Myo was airborne in an instant.
The grey-feathered trio were surprised for a moment to see her join them, but as their auras mingled, the flight of one adjusted to that of the other. She felt enveloped in the auras of her fellow, her own joining with theirs, until she could no longer tell where her aura ended and that of her flying companions began. At that moment, she felt herself drawn in, her fear of this sudden and profound connection evaporating like snow in the sun. She was no longer in control of her body, not really, it was as if she and her flying companions had become one united entity formed from their combined minds.
Their quartet soared high into the air towards the firmament in a perfectly synchronised helix, before plummeting towards the ground in a tighter and tighter spiral, ending in a series of loops just above the ground. She didn't even know the names of the people she was flying with, and yet she felt no discomfort at the idea of opening up in this way and allowing herself to be guided by their combined minds. If she didn't feel the mental fatigue of over-using her aura, continuing for hours on end would be something she could see herself doing with pleasure.
After long minutes of additional flight in perfect synchronicity, she made a conscious effort to detach herself from the collective psyche and regain her individuality to glide towards the ground towards Luna, leaving her companions to continue their flight, unperturbed.
She must have flown longer than she thought because Nym and Margot had returned, Elvetia resting on Luna's shoulder in her owl form, Luna herself sitting on the ground concentrating on her sketchbook against which she was running a charcoal.
"I haven't kept you waiting too long, have I?" said Myo as she landed next to them.
"No, I drew while waiting, look at my sketch!" Luna exclaimed as she stood up to show off, her notebook. On the paper were traced the broad lines of the landscape of the clearing and the silhouettes standing out against the sky, the lines thick and imprecise, but the overall effect was most impressive.
"Hey Myo, you know what? Margot made me fly, and I got in! A certain Sandra said I had potential or something". Nym said proudly, holding up her club membership card.
"Seriously? Really?! Congratulations Nym!" Myo chirped.
It was then that she realised that Margot was staring at her with wide eyes, her aura undefinable but vibrant with energy.
"Margot? Are you all right?" Myo asked as she approached.
"Have you ever done any acrobatic flying?" Margot asked after several long seconds.
"Hmm, I like flying with my Delacour sisters, I like doing acrobatics and playing when I'm flying, but never acrobatic flying as such." She said without really understanding what Margot was getting at.
"I don't believe it... you were really, you know? The Delmaciel brood sisters you flew with are among the best in the club, and yet you managed to keep up with them."
"Myo flies like that all the time..." intervened Nym. "When I fly with her, she loves to play hover."
"Shhhht, Pandora's going to scold me if she finds out!" Pandora, Andromeda and Xeno had made it clear that she wasn't supposed to fly just any old way... let alone at full throttle three metres above the ground after a dive. The excuse that she wanted to try and see if she could go as fast as the wind didn't save her from a long reprimand when Pandora caught her doing it.
"Don't worry, it won't get back to her." laughed Nym.
"I won't say anything." Luna said before putting a finger over her mouth in silence with her most serious air.
"I'm not surprised you're so good if you're used to flying with her..." sighed Margot before turning to her with a pleading look. "Please, Myo, you have to join us, I'm sure that with you the club will achieve glory! She said, handing her the registration form.
"I don't know about glory, but flying with these three was a pleasure. If it's this much fun every time, I'm in!" Said Myo, signing the paper.
"Yes!" exclaimed Margot before running towards the tent, brandishing the registration paper. Myo had no idea why she was so excited to know she was joining the club, her reaction seemed disproportionate to say the least, but if it meant she could lose herself again in that strange state of collective consciousness while flying in the most beautiful way, she wasn't going to complain. The fact that she was being seen doing this in front of an audience bothered her a little, but it wasn't as if the strange rules that apply in the lair of the Dursley pack were of any importance here...
The sound of feathers and a strange movement at the periphery of her vision brought her out of her thoughts, Elvetia had left her owl form and was stretching. "I'm starving, we should get a food stall on campus, what do you say?" she said
"Great idea!" Said Nym, her words supported by a gurgling in her stomach, voluntary or not, Myo couldn't tell. She didn't really want to eat at one of the stalls, but as she didn't yet know the hunting and fishing spots, or what berries and roots she could pick, she couldn't go hunting and foraging either. At Luna's enthusiastic nod, their little group set off back towards the campus.
oOOOo
On this late afternoon, Myo and Luna walked hand in hand down the long corridor with its wooden floor and grey-blue stone walls pierced by a number of high, full-length windows with panes made up of a multitude of small diamond-shaped tiles in various soft colours, joined together by thin strips of wood.
At regular intervals, simple copper chandeliers each holding five candles gave off an orange glow. They must have been made from a special alchemical material because not only were they far brighter than the ordinary candles Myo had seen Luna use for certain small garden rituals or to enliven her baths, but they also gave off no smell or smoke and either didn't melt at all or melted too slowly for her to see with the naked eye.
The last club she planned to visit today was in this large, manor-like building near the centre of the campus, oddly named 'Malbois House'. A few hours ago, after eating a boeuf bourguignon at one of the little Chouettecahier restaurants that had set up their stalls for the occasion, their little group had split in two, Nym and Elvetia heading for the swimming club while she and Luna had gone to see the greenhouses to find out more about the gardening club.
The gardening club was housed in large greenhouses of painted wood and glass on the other side of the valley, each enchanted with environmental spells, making them ideal places for plants from different environments to grow. Some were warm and humid, filled with vegetation as thick as Luxuriante, where all sorts of magical tropical plants grew. Others were dry, almost scorching, where large cacti with changing colours and heady scents bloomed. Still others were cold and rocky, filled with small, stunted plants that only grow in the high altitudes of the world's mountains, or periglacial tundra frozen almost all year round, close to the poles. The local plants, meanwhile, were grown outside the glasshouses in numerous small kitchen gardens bordered by hedges of hornbeam and hawthorn, giving the whole area the strange appearance of a vast plant maze.
Not far away, plantations of rare species of magical plants gave way to larger hedgerows where vegetables and cereals grew, partly supplying the kitchens of Beauxbatons and the markets of Chouettecahier.
The smells of the earth, flowers and various plants had been a little too strong for her taste, but Luna had been all the more interested.
Unlike the herbology club, which was full of people who were passionate about studying the most incongruous magical plants, the gardening club was more modest, made up of barely a dozen members of all ages, whose main aim was to learn how to run a garden and a vegetable patch properly, as well as complementing the herbology course by dealing with the more practical aspects of running a garden. From what she had understood, a certain teacher called Zoé Dusort was supposed to run the club, but Nadia, the club's most senior student, a chubby little blonde with a degree in enchanted perfumery, had explained to them that Zoé was rather discreet and was only really head of the club on paper, preferring to take advantage of its existence to take advantage of the equipment budget provided by the administration and preferring to carry out her gardening projects in her own corner. In short, it was better to turn to her than to Zoé for basic problems and only bother Zoé when she was unable to advise them.
Needless to say, Luna wasted no time in signing her membership papers when Nadia showed her the little patch of land where she could carry out her gardening projects, whatever they might be. (As long as they didn't pose a health risk to the other club members. The tourmentine planting incident still fresh in her mind. When she asked Nadia about it, she seemed terribly embarrassed and simply said that tourmentines had been on the list of banned plants since the incident.
Luna then tried to persuade her to join the gardening club, but not only would signing up for more things take up too much of her time, she also saw little point in growing things. If there had been a wild harvest club, perhaps it would have appealed more to her, but that wasn't the case. Anything she needed, she could hunt or gather, no need to learn how to run a vegetable garden.
However, she found it much harder to refuse to join the domestic arts club, which offered sewing, knitting, cooking and even pottery. But the club's timetable was the same as that of the archery club. She had to make a considerable effort to stop herself dipping into the reserves of shiny little beads intended to be sewn to decorate the members' projects. At least she wasn't worried about leaving Luna alone with the members of the club, who seemed particularly friendly and the room comfortable and welcoming. What's more, Luna's mention of the absence of Wrackspurt reassured her. From what Luna had told her, these little beasts could be particularly harmful.
Signing up for the choir club was no more than a formality. Mr Dupuy, the club's president, a small, round man with a big black beard, a prominent forehead and bushy eyebrows, asked each person wishing to join to sing something of their choice before frowning and taking lively notes, his quill scraping noisily across the parchment.
When it was her turn, she hadn't finished singing the first verse when Mr Dupuy interrupted her, urging her to sign the club's registration form before insisting heavily that she be introduced to the other club members and sing in front of them immediately for some reason that completely escaped her. But she couldn't accept, knowing that she wouldn't have time to get to the last club she planned to visit in that case. Mr Dupuy said that if she was late for even one of the club's sessions, he would not hesitate to come and fetch her as far as the dovecote.
And so, after fleeing the choir room in the Grand bâtiment studio, she and Luna were on their way to the last stop of the day, the magic painting club on the third floor of the Malesherbes building.
In contrast to the noisy party atmosphere that seemed to envelop the whole campus, the long corridor in which they were walking was immersed in a profound calm, the noises and voices from outside muffled and distant. This was a source of relief for her and Luna, neither of whom was used to so much commotion.
At the end of the corridor, a carved wooden double door was open, with a poster stand on the floor next to it, on which was stuck a large piece of paper showing a brush and pencil crossed under the stylised name of 'The Painted Sticks', the name of the magic painting club indicated on the brochure. On the poster, a portrait of a witch in a big, pointy blue hat winked at them, as if to invite them to enter the room.
As they reached the door, she paused to take a look inside, the calm of the place prompting her to be discreet as if by instinct, Luna, behind her, tiptoeing up to see over her shoulder. It was a large rectangular room smelling of paint, with several large windows on the wall opposite the door, similar to those in the corridor, letting in light from outside. In the centre of the room was a table cluttered with materials, sheets of paper of all sizes, pens, bottles of ink, tubes of paint and pots full of brushes of all shapes and sizes. Around the table were a number of easels, some empty, others with paintings covered by a white sheet, others with canvases in progress. The one she could see best from this point of view was a table on which were laid a number of fruits of all kinds, as well as various other objects, what Pandora had taught her to call a still life, she remembered. Against one of the walls were several large blank canvases, ready to be used, as well as a white stone sculpture of a centaur rearing up on its two hind legs, brandishing a bow. Against the opposite wall was a shelf overflowing with files and books whose titles she couldn't decipher from this distance, as well as a large cupboard reaching up to the wooden beams of the ceiling.
There were several people in the room, two boys who looked a little older than her chatting quietly near a window. A woman was cleaning brushes at a washbasin in the corner of the room and... Myo's gaze fell on a familiar brown plumage, Lina, if she remembered her name correctly, the shy girl from last night was sitting behind an easel, a palette of paint in one hand, a brush in the other, dressed in an elegant green tunic embroidered with small blue stylised fish, protected by the apron covering her front. Her tunic was short-sleeved, revealing her arms smeared with spots of coloured paint, which she didn't seem to care much about. She seemed diligent, concentrating on her creation.
Curious, Myo approached from behind, trying to walk as silently as possible, resting her talons in such a way as to prevent her claws from rattling against the ground, to look over her shoulder... Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Luna, her arms crossed, giving her a cautious look. And she was right, because when Myo had only taken a few steps, Lina sighed, stood up and turned in her direction, "I could feel your aura while you were still in the corridor. Were you really hoping to sneak in? What do you want from me?" glowering at her, her aura cold and silent, barely perceptible.
"What are you painting?" asked Myo, taking no notice of Lina's defensive tone as she continued to move forward until she was right next to her so that she could observe her canvas. It was a full-length portrait of a veela in her prime, with a peaceful face marked by a slight smile. She was richly dressed in what appeared to be an elegant drawing room. There was something of a family resemblance between the woman in the picture and Lina, but Myo was unable to say whether it was her mother, an older sister, a cousin or an aunt. These questions were not what interested her most, Myo had to admit, if this painting was representative of what Lina could paint and draw, then she was much better than she was. Although Myo was quite proud of her portraits, which made it possible to immediately recognise the person depicted, she lacked precision, and there were always certain details such as the shape of the head, or perspective, with which she had a great deal of difficulty.
She could say that Lina's painting wasn't perfect, there were simplifications and minor problems with volume, but it was still much better than what she herself was capable of doing. Pandora had said that her drawings were impressive for a girl of her age, and Lina's were probably even more so. The portrait didn't move, as many magical portraits could, but that was to be expected, as the paint animation spells were far from their ability. And that was without even mentioning the real enchanted portraits that really capture everything about a person's identity that only certain masters are capable of doing.
"It's beautiful, who is this lady?" she asked, ignoring Lina's look of outrage at seeing her approach like that.
"It's none of your business," said Lina, stepping between her and her painting.
"You paint really well, you know? We could give each other tips! I'm more into watercolours and drawing, but painting sounds fun!" She said, feeling her excitement grow in her aura.
"I know, and I also know that all the advice I could give would be wasted on you." Lina replied, her aura increasingly agitated and perceptible. Her aura seemed... acidic, but full of flavour, and she found herself loving the almost electric sensation of their auras meeting. "You're no fun! What kind of paint do you use?" she asked, ignoring Lina's increasingly outraged expression.
"I... you..." began Lina, her cheeks flushing, but she was interrupted by Luna.
"Myo! Stop bothering her!" She said.
"But I wasn't bothering her!" She retorted, moving away from Lina and her canvas to join Luna in the centre of the room, realising at that moment that the three pairs of eyes of the others in the room had turned on her with curiosity. The two boys looked amused and the woman put away her clean brushes as she approached. She was about to say something when the sound of running in the corridor caught everyone's attention.
A tall, lean woman with a round face and blue-grey eyes burst into the room. Her long, almost silver-blond hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she was dressed in a thin green woollen jumper and brown canvas trousers under a large grey apron spotted with multicoloured paint. Out of breath, she finally stopped only to place the three large crates she was carrying at arm's length on the table. "Here I am again! Did I miss anything?" she asked, her gaze sweeping quickly around the room.
She didn't have time to receive an answer to her question as Luna threw herself on her to give a hug, exclaiming: "Auntie Maeva!"
"Luna! Why didn't anyone tell me you were here? I would have come to see you sooner!" Maeva said as she hugged Luna, a big smile on her face.
As if nothing had happened, the two boys returned to their discussion and Lina, her aura icy, returned to her painting. Myo, not quite understanding what was going on, turned to the woman who had come to see them before the sudden interruption. "Who is she?" Myo asked.
"Maeva Lovegood, seer and soul painter, she's the head teacher of this art club at Beauxbatons. We haven't met, but my name is Lucie d'Envers. And yours?" She said, watching the reunion with an air of expectation.
"Myosotis Potter, I'm here to visit the club. Are you taking new registrations?" she asked.
A flash of recognition crossed Lucie's face, her eyebrows rising almost imperceptibly, but she made no comment, content to reply. "Maeva looks after the new members and I'm sure she'll be happy to show you around the club. In fact, good luck." She said before slipping away with a wink.
She didn't have long to wonder about it, because barely a second later she found herself face to face with Maeva, who put her hands on her shoulders, kissed her cheeks and ended with a final kiss on her forehead, her eyes shining with joy and excitement. "You're Miss Potter, aren't you? Luna told me a lot about you in her letters. Thank you for being such a good friend to my niece." She said before hugging a poor confused Myo.
"Can you put Myo down please?" asked Luna with a pout.
"Yes, yes, of course sorry. So, you want to join the art club?" said Maeva.
Coming to her senses, Myo looked up at Maeva, who was having a quick chat with Luna about joining. She had already heard Luna talk about her aunt, and she had to admit to having a great admiration for her despite never having met her. Some of her paintings decorated the rook and she found herself staring at them for a long time, her gaze always on new details, new perspectives, as if no matter how long she spent admiring one of her works, she would never finish appreciating it from every angle.
And that was without mentioning the animated portraits. In the stairwell leading up to the rook's floors, she had noticed a small painting of an empty chair in front of a grey-blue curtain. For months, she had never understood what it was all about. Until Pandora told her it was a portrait of Philippa Lovegood, her grandmother, painted by Maeva. When she asked how it was that the little painting had no occupants, Pandora smiled mysteriously before saying that Philippa loved to travel. Two weeks later, as she climbed the stairs, she came face to face with a tall lady with greying hair and sky-blue eyes sitting on the chair in the painting, reading the newspaper. Never had the discussion been more disturbing, not because the woman who had turned out to be a portrait of Philippa was behaving in a way that betrayed her... portraitist nature, but because Myo had proved unable during the ensuing discussion to know whether the person in the painting was real or fake... She had tried to understand by asking question after question, until Philippa let out a long sigh and told her to go and annoy someone else before leaving the canvas with her diary under her arm.
When, obeying Philippa, she went to annoy Pandora with her questions, Pandora explained that Maeva was a soul painter, one of the few people really capable of immortalising a person in portrait form. Before launching into details that had gone way over her head, making her more confused than anything else.
Since then, she had wanted to meet her, but the opportunity had never presented itself, Maeva having, according to Pandora, a very busy schedule and the number of people capable of creating portraits like hers being very small. Myo had expected someone serious and wise, someone much less flamboyant than the person chatting to Luna at the moment.
"I'm not strict about attendance, but I'd be pleased to see you on a regular basis... Miss Potter? Did you hear?" Said Maeva
"Sorry, I was lost in thought, yes, of course," she replied, taking the paper Maeva handed her, a tiny sheet of paper with the bare minimum on it, much less than the long form she'd had to fill in to join the choir. Just her name, first name, signature and a few lines about respecting other club members and shared equipment.
After a few seconds spent filling in the form, she handed it back to Maeva, who nodded with a big smile. "Welcome to the Club Myosotis... sorry, I didn't ask, can I call you that?" She asked, her cheeks rosy.
"You can call me Myo if you like." It wasn't a suggestion she'd made to the other teachers at the clubs she'd visited today, but it seemed oddly appropriate, this was just Luna's aunt after all.
"Myo, Luna, welcome!" Maeva said as she put the papers away in a cardboard sleeve. "I can't wait to see your art grow."
oOOOo
With the arrival of dusk, the sky had taken on a dark blue hue, with only the tops of the rounded mountains surrounding Beauxbatons still shimmering with an orange glow. Myo put her hand to her mouth to hide a yawn, it had been a long day and she couldn't wait to curl up in her nest with Eldur. But before that, she wanted to take Luna back to her dormitory. Nym and Elvetia had passed by them a few minutes earlier, but as their dormitories were in a different part of the campus, they had had to split up again, leaving her alone again with Luna.
Myo didn't know if it was tiredness or something else, but Luna had been strangely silent since they left the magic painting club room. Her gaze was lost in emptiness as they walked down the middle of the central aisle. At this late hour, everything was much quieter. There was still the sound of voices and the activity of the few people still busy dismantling the temporary stalls set up on either side of the aisle, but most of the students and visitors had retired to their dormitories, gone back to Chouettecahier or gone home through the network of chimneys.
It took them several long minutes to reach the small, octagonal, stone-paved road leading into the forest and up towards Luna's dormitory. After a whole day on her feet, Myo's talons were aching despite her slippers and the regular application of cream, forcing her to walk more slowly and cautiously than usual. It had to be said that she had been particularly hard on her walking over the last few days, and her legs, which weren't really adapted to it, hadn't helped. She'll have to try and fly as much as she can and avoid resting on it for the next few days, she told herself as she clasped Luna's hand in hers.
The path to the dormitory was deserted, the sound of voices coming from the merchants and workers dismantling the stands muffled and distant. In the forest, it was even darker, the last light of day filtering through the thick foliage of the great oaks. So much so that she decided to raise her hand in front of her, palm up, elbow bent, before concentrating on her inner flames. Ever since the first time she had felt her fire burning inside her as a child, it had always been a comfort, as if it had feelings of its own, a wild joy when she called on it to hunt, an intense excitement to the point where she had to make a conscious effort to keep it inside her when she felt particularly joyful, an intense, all-consuming rage when she was threatened, when its bluish flames had reduced the troll to ashes and melted the stone of the walls. But since her catastrophic arrival at the dovecote, her fire had been relatively quiet, tired from her excess. But today, her flames seemed to be slowly awakening, so much so that tonight she could feel them running just beneath her skin, between her feathers, ready to burst forth. She felt them happy, as if rested. A simple thought was all it took for a blue flame to form in the palm of her hand, illuminating their path with a bluish glow and pushing back the shadows.
Luna gasped, her gaze focused on the flame. "Sorry, did I scare you?" Myo asked.
She sensed that Luna wasn't in her usual state and that worried her a little.
"No, just surprised, thanks". Luna mumbled, her gaze once again lost in the darkness of the evening undergrowth.
"Is something bothering you?" Myo asked, determined to help Luna shed the weight that seemed to be weighing her down.
Luna seemed to hesitate for a moment, her fingers crossing hers as if to hold hands even more closely, her gaze staring at her for a moment, searching for something Myo couldn't name. "It's Maeva." Luna finally said, her voice low, as if she were telling a secret.
"She seemed perfectly healthy to me, was there something wrong with her?" she asked, Maeva had seemed cheerful, energetic, healthy... But it was true that this was the first time she had met her, and she was in a much worse position than Luna to notice anything unusual.
"I've never seen so many creatures hovering around one person. There were one or two wrackspurt, but that's not too serious. It's the others I'm worried about." Said Luna, her voice low, as if she feared being overheard by some sort of invisible observers.
"You know so much about these kinds of creatures, if there's a problem, I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding out how to help Maeva, and I'll be there to help you. So what should we do?" she asked, giving Luna a reassuring smile. But Luna seemed in no way reassured.
"Myo, I don't know what to do, most of the creatures that were around Maeva, I've never seen anything like them, I don't know them, I don't know what to do to keep them away!" Luna said, a worry in her eyes that she hadn't expected, it must have been really serious.
"It can't be that dangerous, can it?" she asked.
"A few years ago, I was friends with a girl in the neighbourhood called Ginny, until a Great Grey attacked us while we were playing near a pond that I thought was safe. The Great Grey, they're one of those things that most people don't seem to notice, Ginny never saw it, not even when it was about to try and bite her and drag her down into the depths of the silt. There are creatures that many people don't see, but which are dangerous if you're not careful. In Maeva's case, such a concentration of inconspicuous creatures around her is really not normal, they seemed to be watching her from every dark corner of the room. And I've never met any like them, I don't know what they want or even if they're dangerous." Said Luna, her words pouring out at an unreal pace, to the point where at the end of her tirade she had to stop to catch her breath.
"I... Luna, we should contact Mélusine, I'm sure she'll know what to tell us." She said after a moment's thought.
"I'll write her a letter." Luna said, shaking her head, the tension seeming to evaporate from her shoulders.
"Isn't she at your place? You could tell her in person as you go home on weekends." Last time, Melusine was at the Rook for a while. At least that's what she understood.
"No, she's accepted the post of Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. Pandora insisted she do it, she's still angry at her for hurting you in training and she wants Lulu to learn how to teach children properly instead of risking hurting you. And Lulu said she had unfinished business with Dumbledore anyway, so I might not see her at home again." Luna said with a sigh,
"Luna, I've got an idea, next weekend I'll come with you to the Rook, and then we'll sneak into Hogwarts to see Melusine, so you can tell her all about the creatures that are bothering Maeva and the ones you saw yesterday in the chimney!" She said excitedly, and maybe as well as seeing Melusina again, she could also go and say hello to Professor Snape and Minerva at the same time, they'd probably be so happy to see her again.
"Thank you, Myo." Luna said, hugging her side.
Myo folded one of her wings so that it covered Luna to bring her comfort. A few minutes later, Luna hugged her for a moment before disappearing behind the dormitory door, leaving her alone in the glow of her little flame amid the shadows of twilight.