Open Feel The Harbour Breeze

[Yuelia Rossingol]

Yuelia had never seen this many people before in her life.

It wasn't even an especially busy time, she'd been told, but to her it was almost overwhelming. Her parents had decided that as she was getting to the age where she'd be attending a magical school, it was time she start engaging in the world around her and getting used to crowds.

Naturally, they had also been the ones to decide to keep her away from crowds until she was ten, an irony that Yuelia would surely come to understand in time.

Her father having gone to the Ministry for something or other, Yuelia found herself wandering by the edge of the harbour. She'd never even seen such a large body of water before! She wondered how wide and how deep it truly was, and how she'd ever be able to measure such a thing. Everything at home was measurable, was a known quantity. But there was so much, she was realizing, she didn't know.

A gust of wind blew her loose ribbon from her hair, and she turned her head to watch it dance on the breeze. "Oh, it's flying," she said out loud, staring at it in quiet contemplation. She wondered where it might go, what sights it might see, where the breeze would take it.

 

[Euphrasia Zephyr]

It had happened, Euphrasia had received her letter. It had been the talk of the last fourteen months in her family, whether or not the youngest member would be off to Hogwarts or not. With two elder siblings, neither of whom had been invited, there was pressure and an anxiety surrounding Euphrasia that she might be the last hope for their line to continue into a magical line. Squibs was a phrase that the brunette had heard many a time in her life already, and one that didn't particularly sound pleasant either. The moment the eleven year old however had received her letter, her mother in particular seemed to have flipped a switch, and prepared to transfer her youngest daughter to New Zealand, ready for the approaching term.

For three weeks she would be spending her time in a new country, a new town, and meeting new people. It would be good for her, her parents had said. Their trip had begun in Obsidian Harbour, and Euphrasia was walking alongside her parent by the water's edge when she spotted a ribbon flying above her head, the wind carrying it away. Her icey blue eyes followed it's previous trajectory and she found herself looking at another girl around her own age. A nudge from her mother to the arm, and a shared glance between one another, was all it took for Euphrasia to know that this would have been considered good training if she were to begin engaging in her own conversations without her mom looking over her shoulder, something she wouldn't be able to rely on come September. "I'm sure there's a store around here that would sell ribbons, if you need another one." Euphrasia offered, though quite frankly she had no clue if that were true.​

 

[Rory Styx]

It was still a few months until Rory turned eleven but the knowledge that he would be attending Hogwarts New Zealand in the Spring sat with him in equal parts excitement and dread. Carrying the name that he did came with certain expectations in the magical world, he was just thankful that he could escape the traditions and pressures from his mothers side of the family. Rory just wanted to be himself and make friends at his new school, something he'd always struggled with growing up due to constantly being shipped between his parents. His mother could never settle on where she wanted to be having never truly felt at home in New Zealand which hadn't made for the most stable home life for him and his sister, his father had at least provided some stability.

They were lucky that despite all the moving around they had managed to hold onto their New Zealand home so when it came to settling back down in preparation for Rory and Victoria starting school they had somewhere to go. Rory was glad it was close enough to Obsidian harbour that even at his young age his mother allowed him to walk over and spend time there. The street was full of children his own age excitedly preparing to start school and for a while, he could feel normal and not like the son of a disgraced noble and professional Quidditch player.

Moving down to the edge of the harbour Rory came across two girls who guessed were around his age though he was terrible at guessing ages. He watched one of the girls ribbons fly from her hair, all he could do was look on in amusement as she just watched it. "Or we could try and catch it," He suggested loud enough for both girls to hear.

 

[Yuelia Rossingol]

Where did the wind go? Did it have a home it would rest in when it was done blowing? Logically, she knew the basics if how it worked, but she'd hardly been outside her home for most of her life, her father ever worried about keeping her safe. She knew she was a little different to others, her father having worked to amplify her capacity for magic as much as he possibly could have, but she was only ten after all - there was so much about the world and its people she had to learn.

At the sound of voices her hand reflexively reached for her chest, gripping the fabric of her dress as her heart fluttered. She was not afraid as such, merely startled. "Oh. I should try and catch it, shouldn't I." She blinked a couple of times, putting on a well practiced smile. "I could use a spell but I don't have my dad's wand with me." She reached out her hand, pausing as she was seeming to calculate the distance.

 

[Euphrasia Zephyr]

Euphrasia's eyes darted towards another voice and she saw a boy in the vicinity. She sort of recognised him a bit although she couldn't really have told anyone his name if they'd asked. He suggested they try and catch it instead, which wouldn't have been a bad idea if it wasn't being pulled away by the wind as they spoke. If they were going to do that then they'd have to have been much faster than they currently were, all just standing around. The girl didn't really seem to be paying much attention though, and Euphrasia wondered if maybe she'd actually lost it on purpose?

The brunette watched as the girl who'd lost her ribbon put out her hand and spoke about a wand, but Euphrasia was much too young to be having a wand yet, and perhaps so was she. The girl didn't really seem particularly interested in getting it back though, or at least that's what Euphrasia thought. Her own mom was still keen by the looks of things for her daughter to get involved though, and so as much as Euphrasia thought she was finished here, it seemed she was mistaken. "Why don't you follow it and wait for it to land?" She asked, glancing between the pair.​

 

[Yuelia Rossingol]

Yuelia had a strange sense of freedom. Perhaps it came with the territory, having been kept safely in a cage like the nightingale her name implied. It wasn't that she didn't like being at home, though. She loved her father and she enjoyed the tranquility, she just always wanted to stretch her wings and fly for no more reason than feeling the wind.

"Maybe it just wants to fly," she mused, stretching out her fingers to let the breeze blow around them. "It's an old ribbon, anyway. Maybe it's happier like this." She didn't really know if she was supposed to introduce herself properly to the other two or anything of the sort. Her father wasn't especially social, had never invited people over to their house and encouraged Yuelia to speak to them.

 

[Rory Styx]

The girl who lost her ribbon seemed almost fascinated by it as it flew around in the breeze. She seemed more interested in watching it than actually getting it back, it was a curious reaction to losing something, he'd certainly never seen it before. "The ribbon is...happy?" Rory scrunched up his face as he contemplated the girl's words. The second girl seemed much more reasonable about the situation, she seemed familiar to him like he had seen her face before but he couldn't quite place where. She had offered a solution but the ribbon girl didn't seem interested. "I don't think the ribbon can feel anything," Rory didn't want to be too dismissive of her but what she had said was crazy.

 

[Yuelia Rossingol]

If you would like to come back, dear ribbon, please do.

As she turned away to look back at the other two, vaguely aware they seemed to think she was strange, her fingers closed around the ribbon now safely in her hand. She may not have had her wand yet, and couldn't really control magic, but sometimes she could make things happen. Mostly completely unintended, sometimes disastrous. Her father didn't discourage it though, rather he seemed delighted whenever she did it.

"It can't? But what if you use magic to turn it in to an animal?" She looked between the other two, assuming they were about her age. She reached up and tied the ribbon carefully around the braid in the back of her long dark hair. "Are you two...going to Hogwarts too?"