And Then There Were Two

[Dittany Belrose]

Much as Dittany pretended to hate receiving letters from home (her dad was so embarrassing, after all), she always felt a little excited when the owls arrived at breakfast with the mail. There were some kids whose parents wrote to them every other day, and thought Dittany definitely did not want that, she did like to feel as if her dad had remembered her. If nothing else, it was an opportunity to brag about what a great duellist he was.

This morning the owls brought letters and parcels in the dozens. Dittany raised her hands to grab the envelope before it fell in a jug of cranberry juice. "It is from Papa," she told Peony, on her right, as she slid a finger beneath the seal and opened the letter up.

Something wasn't right. Something in the handwriting - the way it sloped downward across the page, uncharacteristically messy - the way the ink had smudged in several places where liquid drops had fallen. Before she'd even begun to read, Dittany's heart began to hurdle. She skimmed the text quickly, shaking her head in absolute disbelief. No, she wanted to say. No, no, no. But no words left her mouth. Azalea couldn't be dead. She couldn't. It didn't make any sense. Death was something that happened to other people - to other families. This had to be a dream. A nightmare. It had to be.

 

[Peony Belrose]

Mornings were Peony's favourite time of the day. She got to do basically whatever she wanted and didn't now have to worry about classes until a little later, given that most of them seemed to start after ten. It was a good thing for her considering she'd never really been a morning person. Still, breakfast was good too! She could eat whatever she wanted among friends and Dittany, with whom she spent most of her breakfasts. It was no different to being at home, though she dearly missed Azalea, she did not begrudge her sister wishing to remain with their father. He was a great duellist and surely could teach her all the magic she would need to know. Peony was just a bit more sociable than Azalea and preferred to be around people and to travel or she might have thought the same.

Peony reached in front of her for the eggs as she noticed her sister capturing the letter clearly meant for them. Peony always looked forward to letters from either their father or Azalea and though she knew Dittany would never admit it, she knew she would also love them, try as she might to pretend otherwise. She nodded when she was told it was from their father this time and looked forward to hearing about his adventures. She would normally read over Dittany's shoulder, but was preoccupied with her breakfast to do so this morning.

It took her several moments to realise that Dittany was not telling her what the letter said and Peony frowned as she turned her head to her sister to complain, only to see the terrible look on her face. Dittany was uncharacteristically still and Peony began to worry that something terrible had happened, though she couldn't ever be prepared for the truth of it. Peony shook her sister slightly, asking her what was wrong before peeking over her shoulder to read the letters contents. As she read, the fork of eggs she began to eat clattered to the table and it's was like the once loud room had suddenly fallen into a deafening silence. Were Peony not reading the words for herself, she might have thought they'd been misrepresented, but she knew her father would never allow such thing to happen. Peony's chest tightened and she leaned closer to Dittany, needed to be in her space to fully understand the words she was reading. It was like the world had stopped and her heart clenched. Azalea was dead. The words were so... cold. Her father had tried to present the news the best way he knew how, but it wasn like there was nothing left in him. There was nothing left in Peony either. There was nothing left at all.

"Dittany! What do we do! What do we do!?" She cried, suddenly bringing the tables attention down on them. She didn't know what to do. This was... this wasn't right! This didn't happen to them, their father was famous. This didn't happen to famous people. It just didn't. Someone had broken into their fathers home and written this. It had to be. Merlin there was no way. It was Azalea. She was a strong swimmer. Peony was the one who couldn't swim. How could this happen? Peony wrapped her arms around herself and shook her head. No, this was wrong. It was just so wrong.
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