A letter from home

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda sat down for dinner absolutely famished. It had been a long day, she had finally managed to get some time in the duelling chambers alone to practise on the metal dummies. She still wasn't nearly half as good as she would like to be but a few more days of practise like todays and she would be fine. A beautiful white owl swooped down to the Gryffindor table and dropped a letter infront of her before flying off again.

Andy pushed the plate of food she had laden with a handful of vegetables and a stack of delicious juicy blue steaks, to pick up the letter. She didn't recognise the writing immediately on the envelope and as she was about to open it another owl flew towards her and dropped another letter before her. She picked this up too and frowned. It was her mothers handwriting. Andy sighed trying to decide which one to open first. She decided to read the one from her mother, after all the 'devil you know' and all of that she thought. Putting the other letter down infront of her, she sliced the envelope open and extracted the parchment from inside.

Her mother hadn't written to her in the longest time, even for her birthday last September she had only sent the barest of cards to her with money. Her hands shook slightly as she began to read.

 

[Maeve Silverback]

Dear Andromeda,

I don't know if you are aware of this or not but Luxen had left. He is missing. I am devastated of course, he has left me to bring up Luthor on my own. I know I haven't written to you in a while but it's virtually impossible when there's a new baby about.

I will need you to return home to your new home on the holidays to help out, that's a good girl. I will write to Esmerelda and tell her my wishes. I expect school is going well. Keep your grades up.

Mother

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda looked at the letter and couldn't believe it. She reread it to make sure she wasn't imaging things. Her mother was either completely bonkers or she really did expect Andy to come home after all they had put her through. Missing? Andy thought it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Horrible man that he was, she wished him a terrible ordeal where ever he was and without another thought put that letter down and picked up the other one.

She opened it up and scanned it quickly. Her eyes widened...

 

[Patrick O'Brien]

My dearest Angel,

I hope this letter finds you well, I am so sorry and can't apologise enough to you for literally abandoning you as I have done. Please find it in your heart to forgive me. I have been on a quest of sorts, one which has taken me around the world to almost every corner.

I always think I am close to a cure for the cancer that killed your grandfather but I never am. What is the point of all this magic if I can't heal the ones I love, if I can't even help you. I have spent alot of time with Shamans and tribal medicine men hoping that they could help me in some way to understand what it is and means to be a werewolf. But I will never be able to get there I' m afraid. Unless you are one you can never empathise.

My dearest child, child? You should be what ... 14 now, you're a woman already and I've missed it all. I hope this letter does find you and finds you happy. I miss you terribly but know that somewhere out there, there is more than simply wolfsbane. I want you to lead as much an ordinary life as possible and when I return I will have in my possession something that will make this true. I will not return otherwise.

I hope school is going well and you are studying hard. Is there a boy on the horizon? I seem to recall a very serious young man once upon a time who never really liked me. I don't know what I ever did to offend him but whatever it was let him know that for that too I am sorry.

This letter will be short but I will write more often I promise.
All my love and remember Andy, you are an angel not merely a wolf in the guise of a human.
Be good to yourself

Patrick

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andy read and reread this letter for completely different reasons than why she had bothered to reread her mothers one. Tears fell slowly down her face and she had to move the parchment away quickly so that her tears wouldn't stain the page. He was alright, that was all that mattered and he hadn't forgotten her. She was still his angel and he had been looking for a means to help her live a normal life. Didn't he know she was better off if he was simply here?
She didn't think her mother would have had a chance to neglect her the way she had if Uncle Patrick had been around. He would have taken care of her and Durmstrang would never have happened.

She wiped the tears from her eyes as she read the letter once more.

 

[Aries Centauri]

Aries had sat alone throughout dinner, a fork in one hand while a book was held in the other. For the last few months he had pretty much sequestered himself away in the library and the common room studying and practising his spells and potions. If he were honest with himself he would say that he was really keeping a low profile, he had seen the hurt and pain in Andromeda's eyes the day she had recognised him and never wanted to inflict it again. Of course this meant a few things, he never got a chance to see Violet again and he ditched attending the Halloween feast and the Yule Ball as well. He had no intention of going home for the holidays before his chance meeting with her but found when the time came that he had to. He even left the morning of the Yule Ball so that at least if he ever bumped into Violet again, he had a real reason for never having asked her and he had really wanted to.

As he stood up from the Ravenclaw table he glanced at the Gryffindor one. He saw Andromeda there and though usually he would have walked away keeping his head down, he noticed a few things. She was on her own, none of her usual posse were hanging around and she looked as if she was upset. Would he be only adding to her misery if he went over to her now? Aries took only a second to decide before throwing his bag over his shoulder and the other hand in his trouser pocket, walked over to the Gryffindor table.

"Hi" he didn't wait for a reaction but sat down infront of her, "Please don't get up and walk away. I've wanted to talk with you for ages, to sort some things out. Please. Just a few minutes and then I'll leave and you'll never have to talk to me again."

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda felt worn out, she looked about to see if Zuka might be around but instead all she saw was Aries Centauri the former Durmstrang boy getting ready to sit down infront of her. She felt defeated as if one too many battles had been verbally fought over the last few days. Simply nodding she left him sit down and didn't bother to say anything. She would hear him out but that didn't mean she had to say anything to alleviate his conscience.

She folded up her letters and wiped a tear drop from her cheek. She fumed that her eyes were red rimmed from crying and that he had caught her in such an emotional state again. Damn Durmstrangs.

 

[Aries Centauri]

Aries shifted uncomfortably on the bench before taking his bag from his shoulder and placing it on the table infront of him and leaning on it.
"I was one of the class members sure but I hated everything that was being done. In fact Harrison did too and so did our other friend. We protested and got detention numerous times, we attempted to boycott the class but were told we'd be expelled, that we were priveleged to have such a hands-on professor who could teach us by practising on life subjects. It was disgusting and we hated it. We were taken along to each class after that, literally frog marched down to the dungeon every time. Once down there we started just hiding ourselves at the back of the group so we wouldn't see what was happening" that had been the worse part for them, knowing a young girl was being tortured right infront of them and not being able to help her. Having to turn their backs literally on her, he had felt like a coward then.
"Harrison wrote and told his parents what was happening and they pulled him from the school. He made us promise not to step out of line, in case you needed a friend there" he looked up at her wondering what she was thinking.
"Of course that was just before you were seriously injured and were taken to the hospital wing. We never got a chance to see you after that but we both went home for the holidays and begged our parents not to send us back. I told mine everything that happened and eventually they agreed to send me here instead."

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka had been looking for Andy actually deciding to have dinner with her in case she had something interesting to tell her or maybe just talk about nothing. Zazuka had been trying her best to make Andy feel like she had never left Hogwarts in the first place but it was hard with all the reminders around them. Aries had invited her to his dorm so he would talk to her but he never said when. Really Zazuka didn't mind. Zazuka had little way of telling weather the Drumstrang was lying to her or not. Her perceptions had been acting weird on her lately.

Zazuka made her way over to the Gryffedor table when she saw the person she had been thinking about and Andy's eyes rimmed with red. Her first thought become her first words. "What have you done to her?" She asked her usually dreamy voice now cold as ice. She had seen or probobly heard too many of Andy's tears to have her cry yet again at the hands of this boy.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andy listened, listened until her ears felt sore and tired like the rest of her. All she wanted to do now was put her head down and sleep. Just sleep without any bad thoughts or dreams seeping in. So he was a friend of Harrisons, so much of what he said seemed plausible. She knew that Harrison had been pulled from the school by his parents because of her so maybe, just maybe Aries was telling the truth.

Raising her head up to look at him, she could see no malice there. Looking him right in the eyes, she tried to figure out if he really was in earnest and after a moment she knew deep down that he was. Of course at that moment Zuka came over, almost storming with anger.

"Z it's alright" she told her, Andy's voice sounded tired, as if she was completely exhausted, "It's alright. He's explained everything. Haven't you?"
Looking now at Aries she gave him the vaguest of smiles.
"Thank you for telling me" Andy raised a hand to her head, as it began to swoon uncomfortably. Something wasn't right, she was feeling right. Slowly she stood up but had to sit down again immediately.
"Z, he's cool. Really" she didn't know why she was doubly reassurin Zuka, it was almost a means of distraction, her hands had begun to shake a little and her body felt very cold.

"Thanks again Aries" holding out a hand to him she attempted a smile, "let's just put it behind us now".
Easier said than done she knew but she needed to get out of there and fast. Moving her legs over to the other side of the bench Andy pushed herself up only to collapse in a dead faint on the floor of the great hall.

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka forgot her anger on the spot. "ANDY!" She cried then went to try to move her to the hospital wing. Zazuka knew that this was stupid because she knew that she couldn't move her. Andy had an inch on her a lot more mussel mass. Zazuka took out her wand and hoped this would work. She knew that she would need it one day. Zazuka cleared her throat "Mobilicorpus" she said now calm as she needed to be to work the spell. It was meant to lift a body so it could be moved. It was good for her because there was no way she could do it on her own.

 

[Aries Centauri]

Aries had barely finished talking to Andromeda when her body guard came over giving out stink to him. He rolled his eyes about to plead his case again when this time Andromeda did it for him. He looked at her bewildered and listened as she told Zazuka that everything was fine. It was more than fine however, she believed him and he felt a surge of relief wash over him. He smiled at her but something didn't seem right, at first she moved to stand up but sat down almost immediately. He took the hand she offered which seemed really cold and after releasing it smiled at her.
"No thank you Andromeda. By gones be by gones right?" he smiled as he watched her move away from the table again, he stood up himself and picked up his bag turning to climb over the bench he sat on. Zazuka screamed out Andromeda's name and turning around he saw her slumped in a heap on the floor. Throwing his bag down he practically jumped over the table to the other side. Zazuka was already attempting use the body moving spell to lift her.
"I won't ask you how you know that spell but come on I'll give you a hand" he took his own wand out and repeated the incantation over Andromeda's unconscious body.
"To the hospital wing yeah? You lead I haven't a clue where it is".

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

Zazuka smiled warmly because Andy had told her it was ok. She may not have trusted him if he said it but she trusted Andy's sense. "It's called being a Raveclaw." She said with a slight blush on her cheeks. She lead the way making sure that Andy's body didn't hit anything. Andy was too teasured a friend to let get hurt on her watch. "This way. Hopefully we can get someone to attend us this time. I wish Mr. O' Brien where here. He would know what to do." She said with a sigh while leading the way to the Hospital wing.

 

[Aries Centauri]

Aries dutifully followed her lead, being careful not to lower his wand as they made their way up the stairway. Andromeda's body floating easily and seemingly comfortably ahead of them.


[will start up in the hospital wing tomorrow]

 

[Zazuka Getathorn]

((I already did))