All Roads Lead Home

[Estrella Drage]

The cottage on the corner hadn't entertained a guest in what seemed to be centuries. It was a quiet place, disturbed on occasion by the soft hoot of an owl or the shriek of a child. Its owner had begun to can the cobwebs and gut the grime, opening the windows and letting the sun in again. The bite of absence was undoubtedly still there. However, it had released its jaws slightly, nervous and bothered by the squeals of children. Those tiny witches and wizards fended off ruin and sadness, sentinels prepared for any siege. They were the true guardians of the house. It was their laughter, their happiness, that kept the place from falling down around them.

Estrella was glad to have a visitor. She'd all but retreated from social contact, more content to consult her runes than someone else. The woman did what she had to in order to get by at work, but she'd lost her streak for overachieving months ago. Despite her lack of friendliness, she was lonely. She would've spent Christmas shut up in the house with her babies if it wasn't for a letter from Jaken's sister. The girl had never seen any of her nieces or nephews, and the two women had struggled to work out a meeting time and place. Something buried deep had caused Estrella to send an invitation. She'd reasoned that the Hufflepuff would have other plans. Estrella was surprised to receive the letter that yes, Patricia could come and yes, she would love to spend Christmas with them.

The former Ravenclaw was putting the finishing touches on the house now. She'd managed to squeeze a tree into the sitting room, decorating it with floating candles and bulbs until it hurt to look at for all its colors and reflections. The boys were asleep on the floor, Lydia was in her bouncy seat, and Olivia was surely off making a mess somewhere else in the house. Estrella was waiting for Patricia to show, rearranging the presents that Olivia had tried to rip open ahead of time. Thank Merlin for child-proof Charms.

 

[Patricia Styx]

Patricia had been looking forward to the Christmas holidays, much like any other normal teenager. It meant she got time away from the school, everything NEWT related and got to see her family. Of course with this year Patricia’s last she wanted to make as many memories as possible in the school and while spending as much time there as possible would probably let her do that, the place was almost as good as a ghost town around the holiday period with not many people opting to stay within the school grounds for their holidays. They, like Patricia, opted to spend some time with her family and friends. Her holidays had been pretty busy so far, she had returned to the flat she lived in with her best friend, Luna Paramore. After spending a few days there and relaxing for a bit, she returned to see her family back in Northern Ireland who she saw less off during the year and as such made an effort to go see them during her holidays. After that she returned to her other family home and spent some time with Niccy and her younger siblings – with seeing her father at the school every day it didn’t make a difference to see him all the time. It was times like this when Patricia was glad that she could apparate or she would find it very hard to get from place to place.

With the holidays well started now she had one final stop to make before spending the last few days back at her flat and gathering some things before the final semester of the school year started. Patricia tried to think about the fact that when she returned back to Hogwarts in a short while it would be her last time going back for the start of a new semester. With a bag of goodies firmly in her hand she left from her fathers house to the house of her sister-in-law. Patricia hadn’t seen Estrella in a while and with Jaken having passed away not too long ago she figured that she had to make more of an effort to see her as well as Patricia’s nieces and nephews which she had yet to see and with the oldest of Estrella’s children being two and three in a few short months, Patricia found this a bit of a disgrace. Apparating outside of Estrella’s she took a few steps forward and knocked softly on the door, but loud enough still to be heard – she just didn’t want to wake any of the children in case they were asleep.

 

[Olivia Drage]

Olivia was drawing in the entryway. Thankfully, she was putting her markers to construction paper and not to the walls. She hummed off-tune to a song that she barely remembered as she scribbled pictures in a code known only to small children. The toddler was soon yanked out of her own world. She gasped, remembering that her aunt was coming over. Olivia had never met Patricia and didn't have any attachment to her. However, since she was an aunt, she must be bringing presents, right? "I GOT IT!" the tiny child shouted, off her belly and on her feet in a flash. She charged the door and attacked the doorknob. Unfortunately for her, it did not turn. Her mother didn't want her letting strangers in.

 

[Estrella Drage]

Estrella could only shake her head and sigh. There were too many untrustworthy people in the world, magical or no, and her daughter was obnoxiously friendly. Once Olivia had begun to walk and talk, her mother had known she would have to take every precaution with her. The little girl was clever, however, and often found ways to outwit the adults in her life. Magic wasn't always on Estrella's side.

Rising from the sofa, Estrella left the sitting room and found her way to the front door. She gently nudged her daughter out of the way and waved her wand at the lock. The door gave way with a click, swinging inward to reveal the woman they'd been expecting. Both mother and daughter lit up.

"I'm so glad you could make it, Patricia," Estrella greeted her warmly, trying to keep Olivia from smothering their guest. The child did not understand the concept of personal space. "Was it easy to find us?"

 

[Patricia Styx]

At the other side of the door Patricia could hear a young girl shouting and, unless Estrella had company that the Head Girl didn’t know about, she could only take a wild guess to belong to that of her eldest niece – Olivia. Patricia felt a tiny bit nervous about meeting her nieces and nephews as she had yet to meet any of them – well this batch anyway. She looked down at the door handle when she heard it rattle as if someone was trying to open it but clearly with no luck. A new set of footsteps were heard at the other side of the door and with a small click Patricia saw the door open to the familiar face of her sister in law, Estrella.

Smiling brightly she looked down for a moment to see the young girl, she was so pretty and it was easy to see similarities to both of her parents as she looked at her face. “Thanks for inviting me.” she said in reply to Estrella’s welcome. If Patricia wasn’t here today she’d be goodness only knows where, she would probably have made more of an effort to be at either of her parents house instead of doing the visitations early or back at her own flat just relaxing. Estrella gave her the opportunity to be mutual and not hurt anyone’s feelings – something the young woman was grateful for. “Oh yeah it was easy enough. Finally getting the grasp of the whole apparation thing.” she said with a small laugh, having only obtained her license a few months ago there was still a bit of a learning curve when you moved on to apparating to places further away outside of the Great Hall or Brightstone.

 

[Olivia Drage]

Struggling against her mother's grip, Olivia finally managed to break free. She moved closer to her aunt without any respect to distance. Forever an attention hog, she announced quite loudly, "I'm Livya!" The curly-haired toddler tugged on Patricia's trousers. Craning her neck, the little girl asked, "You gived me presents?" Her look was more than expectant. At Olivia's age, the world turned all for her.

 

[Estrella Drage]

"Well, thank Merlin you made it here in one piece!" Estrella laughed, moving out of the doorway, "I'm not much of a Healer, if you'd splinched yourself you'd be out of luck." It was nice to have a guest who wasn't immediately expressing their condolences. Estrella wasn't the happiest of witches at this point in time, but she didn't need to be reminded of that. She liked to smile for real every once in a while. In other words, she was almost as excited to have Patricia over as her children were.

The young mother shook her head at Olivia's question. Mouthing a silent apology to Patricia, she decided not to reprimand her daughter. The little girl was oblivious to all scoldings when other people were present. When Olivia didn't want to listen, it wasn't going to happen. She was shameless.

 

[Patricia Styx]

Patricia looked down when she saw Estrella made a weird movement to which she discovered was just her niece making herself known. Looking back up again she felt her trouser leg being pulled so she looked down to look at the little girl again. Patricia couldn’t help but beam brightly at the girl, she was such a little cutie. “Hello, Livya.” she said, repeating the way the girl had said her own name as she found it very adorable. Seeing Estrella’s silent apology she shook her head, she wouldn’t expect much each from Olivia – Joanna had been about the same and still was considering the young girl was only three now. Lowering herself down so she was eye-level with Olivia she let out a small laugh when she asked for presents. “Oh! I think I might.” she said, over exaggerating her words and facial expressions. Reaching into her bag she pulled out a small pink box with a silver bow around it with Olivia’s present in it. Giving it over to her she watched to see how the girl would react before standing up again to talk to Estrella.

“A splinch wouldn’t be that bad, the healing process seems easy enough.” said Patricia in response to what Estrella had said before she got interrupted by Olivia. It may have sounded strange for someone to come out with that but Patricia still have every intention of becoming a Healer after Graduation and Niccy had gave her some more training while she visited home for the holidays and with her own research and everything during the school year she had come across the healing process for splinching and it didn’t seem too bad. Once Patricia had covered the basics everything else seemed to fall into place for her – something she could only take as a good sign. “So where’s the rest of my nieces and nephews?” Patricia asked, eager to meet the rest of them now that she had met Olivia.