Something Unexpected

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy had decided to remain at the castle for the holiday, mostly because it didn't seem to make sense to travel all the way to the states for such a short stay. Jeremy still couldn't apparate and he lived in a muggle apartment complex with his father, so he didn't even know where the nearest floo network approved floo was. His father had once mentioned that it was about an hour's drive. That wasn't appealing to Jeremy at all since he knew his father would likely be working when he arrived, which would mean he would have to find an alternative mean of reaching the home. All around, it just seemed to make more sense to stay.

Jeremy had sent Avalon off with several cards and a small parcel for his mother, sister and father. That had been about a week ago and she still hadn't returned. Jeremy had already received his mother and sister's gifts, books and a daily planner, but he hadn't received any word from his father. It worried him a bit, but he had the feeling that his father was simply being his usual busy, distracted self. That didn't stop the teen from heading to the owlery everyday to see if he saw Avalon coming. It would ease his mind a bit to get anything, even a scrap of paper simply saying that his father was alive and well.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire had spent the first half of her holiday on the street trying to find enough change to grab a meal and the second half trying not be intimidated by the Le Fay daughters. They where nice enough but Sapphire had gotten some of her jumpyness back from how she had spent the previous semester. Though being alive now made her a bit bolder than she had been. She had started to draw in much more graphic detail and her music seemed to reflect more pain than it used to some saying making more beautiful. It was those artist's hands and mind that where asking her to the owlery to sketch the owls. She had gotten an idea about them and wanted to get some reference sketches. Sapphire had not counted on that her long time friend Jeremy was going to be there and yet there he was. She tapped the (very handsome) boy on the shoulder to gain his attention.

Hello Sapphire signed knowing that he had known her long enough now that he knew at least that much. She didn't wait long for a response before she started searching her bag and took out a scroll with a tag on the end saying 'Marry Christmas' on it. Sapphire handed it to him and smiled kindly. Sapphire was not about run from this one. Her time out and about and the kindness that had been shown to her had made her a bit bolder. She had kept the scroll with her just in case she ran into him while at school Inside the scroll was a strip that she had made in the more realistic styles that she had started to develop. The top panels showed Sapphire sitting on his lap while they read a book together, them holding hands with the fingers intertwined one with the other, and her with her supporting herself on his shoulders while kissing him.

The bottom panels was not as positive. The first one showed her bound and blindfolded as thought bubble lead up to first top panel. The others had thought bubbles too each leading up to one of the panels with them together. The panel next to the one with her tied up showed someone pointing a wand at her and torturing her while the last one showed her sitting under the binding of a building looking ragged as she had felt at the time. Under all of it the words Though liking me this way is impossible, imagining you could kept me alive. where written in her best calligraphy. Sapphire waited for him to open it and say something about it. She had meant what she had said there and thought it impossible for anyone to like her in the way that was illustrated there but at least the art was nice or so she hoped.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

As Jeremy looked out of the window, watching for a sign from his owl, he was not expecting anyone to tap him. So, when someone did, Jeremy turned his head slowly. Looking down, he was pleasantly surprised to see one of his very good friends, Sapphire. The two of them had quite a history, and Jeremy would not hesitate to tell anyone that she probably knew more about him than anyone else in the school, especially now that Logan was gone. He returned the sign for hello as he turned his body to face her while she rummaged through her bag. A curious expression crossed the young man's face as she did because it appeared she was looking for something that she wanted to show him. Smiling, Jeremy presumed that it was a new comic. Jeremy had not seen Sapphire very much this school year, so he hadn't seen many of her comics. He quite missed them.

When she handed him a scroll, Jeremy glanced down at the tag and then looked back at Sapphire quickly, his blue eyes holding that curious expression once again. "For me?" he spoke, wondering if she had drawn another comic for him. He still had the one that she had drawn him last year. It was taped onto the lid of his trunk. Every time he opened it up, there were the pirates looking up at him. "You really shouldn't have..." Jeremy said as he slowly undid the scroll so that he could take a look at what was inside. "I can't wait to see it. Is it a new pirate sky captain comic?" Holding it open with both hands, Jeremy looked at the panels eagerly. He glanced through the first one quickly, noting that it appeared to be a couple sitting together and enjoying each other's company very much. It wasn't until Jeremy was about to turn his attention to the bottom panels that his blue eyes fell on the blue eyes of the guy in the drawings. Looking at several more details, Jeremy realized that the guy was him. His face flushed and he quickly looked back to the first panel and began to realize other details, details that made him come to the realization of who the girl was.

Jeremy licked his lips nervously and quickly went to the bottom panels. By now, he could see that it was Sapphire in the drawings. These bottom ones were not pleasant, however. Instead, they showed Sapphire being tortured and in pain. His eyes went to the bottom of the scroll as he slowly read and then re-read what was written. Jeremy was struck silent for a moment. He hadn't been aware of any of this. Certainly, he had suspected that Sapphire might like him, mostly because someone had mentioned it to him one day, but he had no idea that she had used her feelings for him to keep her going. Is she serious about this? Jeremy wondered, looking at those bottom panels again. He hoped it wasn't true. The idea of someone hurting Sapphire like that made him sick and angry. This was some deep stuff to deal with. "I...I don't know what to say...Did this really happen to you?" he asked in a hard voice as he pointed to the panel that showed her being tortured.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire watched the emotions cross his face with a soft smile on her face until he looked hard at the bottom panels. Jeremy asked about them and Sapphire closed her eyes. She was phycing herself out in case the cursed mark on the nape of her neck decided that nodding counted as telling. With the last bit of fear biting at her stomach she nodded softly. Amazingly Sapphire felt nothing. Apparently confirming if the torment that she went through was real didn't count as telling. Sapphire searched her bag again and took out a pad and quill.

I think I once told you I was adopted well my adoptive mother made very sure that I could never tell people what happened in the house. None of us children can. We are punished if we do. But I found that if I show instead of say I can tell. I can tell everyone what's been going on in that house if I use pictures instead of words. That was where I was this semester Jeremy. Sapphire wrote than looked up at him. She showed him the note her eyes wide. had he not noticed that she had been gone compleatly from HNZ for months.

Sapphire was not foolish enough to think that she would have been missed by the school at large but she hoped at least her friends noticed. Then again she was so withdrawn because of her voice that she wasn't all that surprised that no one had noticed that she had dissapred. She had meant what she said though. Though Sapphire was convinced that Dympna had tried to kill her all this time, it was her imagination and hope in something totally impossible that made her defy Dympna in the most extraordinary way. Sapphire stayed alive.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

With Sapphire's confirmation that the bottom portion of the comic had indeed taken place, Jeremy felt like he'd gotten punched in the gut. He was sick to his stomach, wondering how Sapphire could have been made to deal with something like that and how Jeremy had never known. As she wrote, he read quietly. The sheltered teenager couldn't fathom that a parent would do that to their child. Jeremy had had his issues with his parents, particularly his mother, but he knew that neither of his parents would even think of committing such an act against their children.

The prefect nodded his head slowly. He'd looked for Sapphire at the beginning of the year because it had grown to be a sort of tradition that they catch up before they became overloaded with classes. He hadn't seen her and simply thought that it was more of a tradition in his mind than hers. Throughout the semester, Jeremy had been so busy with prefect duties, classes, quidditch practice and run-ins with a certain Slytherin that he hadn't really sought Sapphire out. That and he could have sworn he had seen her in the halls every so often and thought that she was just too busy to hang out with him. "I wondered why we never ran into each other" he thought aloud.

"We have to do something. You have to tell an adult or something because you can't go back there, Saph" Jeremy said in a bit of a panic. She was one of his closest friends and if she went home and something worse happened and Jeremy never tried to convince her to tell someone, he would live with the guilt for the rest of his life. Jeremy did care for the younger Hufflepuff. He wouldn't deny that. He just didn't care for her in the same way that she cared for him. He'd never tried to. Jeremy had always been so sure of their friendship for each other. Until now that is, when he realized that she thought of him as something more. He knew he couldn't just run and ignore her though. She needed someone after everything she'd gone through.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire shook her head. Telling leads to pain. I hurt if I tell eve if Mother is no where around to hit me with a spell. I've shown people though. Don't worry I can never go back. Dympna banished me from the Manor after thinking that I was weak enough that nature would do me in. She didn't count on how much I wanted to live. And how much I wanted to get Ruby out of there too. Sapphire wrote for him. Ruby Clow was not her sister by blood but she was by circumstance. They had both lived through what Bella-Donna manor threw at them. They had both been victims of her rage at one point.

Sapphire wasn't sharing her story only for herself but for her too. Ruby needed to get out of the Manor too. She could see who glass like her sister had been becoming over the years and she seemed right about ready to crumble into dust at any moment. Sapphire knew she would not be able to bare it if her sister lot what she had left of her mind. It was that fragility along side her own determination that drove Sapphire forward to show all these things. Sapphire pointed at the last panel. That is what that means. I lived on the streets for a good bit of the holiday. I found my way to the Inner Eye and I couldn't be happier. Of all the things that could have one wrong with me breaking and entering, Morgan Le Fay was the one good thing that happened. She took me in. From there draw. She wrote then took a leather bound sketch book that she had gotten as a present from Lilith as a matter of fact.

Sapphire the moment she had gotten back to school had charmed a title onto it. 'Adopted by Sapphire Bookchild' was a comic more or less but it showed in vast detail what happened in Bella-Donna manor. There where few words and the words alone wouldn't tell anyone anything but the pictures where more than clear enough to show what she had been through. What her siblings had been through and how she corrupted the Soul children. Sapphire showed Jeremy the cover but wasn't sure she wanted to expose her sheltered friend to the true horrors of her past. She put the book back into her bag then took her notebook back. The pictures are my voice. And once I'm done I will send it to Morgan so she can go to the Ministry. She can say what I can't. I will be free of her and that house forever.

Sapphire never mentioned the pictures of herself and Jeremy together. There was no need to. As ot had been constantly pointed out to her at the Manor, she was too slow, too ugly and too deformed for anyone to want her in a romantic way. No matter how hard she tried to free herself of the image of herself that she had been given she couldn't. All she could see in the mirror when she looked at it was large glasses and flaws. Not that it mattered anyway, it was clear that Jeremy never saw her that way. Still telling him what lived inside her heart and what had untimely saved her life a number of times when she had thought so hard about giving up felt good. At least he knew now.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy moved a bit closer to Sapphire as she began to write. He had half a mind to simply leave the room and tell the first adult he came across, especially if Saph wouldn't or couldn't do it herself. Instead, Jeremy kept reading and he nearly sagged in relief to see that she could never go back. Jeremy looked back down at the panel that she was pointing to and then kept reading. A small smile crossed his face as she said that she was really happy. "I'm really glad you got away, Sapphire" Jeremy said and before he could think too much about it he threw his arms around her and gave her a hug. Even before Logan had left the school, Sapphire had been the one person Jeremy hadn't pushed away when his parents were going through their divorce and he was busy being bitter and angry. She'd been there for him and now he'd be there for her.

Jeremy released her and continued to read over her shoulder. When she mentioned the name of the the person she was staying with, Jeremy looked at her curiously. It was a rather unusual name and Jeremy was certain that there couldn't be many Le Fey's. "Is she related to Prof...Elvera Le Fey?" Jeremy asked, his blue eyes staring at her quizzically. In Sapphire's company, he knew he didn't have to be so formal as to call the woman he was speaking of 'professor.' She'd know who he was talking about.

"Good. I'm glad you're going to get help with this. I hope...I hope she gets the kiss" Jeremy said with only a slight hesitation. The normally even-keeled teenager wanted that woman to be punished for what she'd done to Sapphire and who knew how many others. He could only hope that the aurors who were assigned to the case believed what Sapphire had drawn. He knew, at least among his father's friends, that some of them were very logic minded and might not be eager to believe a teenager's drawings. "So, there's no way she can find you and take you back?" Jeremy asked, still very concerned. This Dympna woman sounded insane, and insane people were liable to do insane things like steal children back to torture them some more.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire was nearly in tears when Jeremy hugged her. Why did he have to make it so hard for her not to love him? She let his comfort spread through her then nodded. Yes that's one of her daughters. She comes to the house to visit every once in a while mostly lives here in the castle. They are all very nice to me, I hope that I can please them just as much. Sapphire wrote for him. She thought of the few weeks that she had spent with Morgan and how she had been talked to by all four of them in turn. They where all supporting her with what she had to do. Sapphire had also thought of how credible her pictures would be Sapphire smiled at that.

Morgan and Eden are going to back the drawings up with their visions. The ministry believe Seers more than they do teenagers and that doesn't work I'll just show them my mark and the scars I have. They have to believe me then. Sapphire continued with the note. She knew that grown ups tended to disbelieve the young because there is the large consesis that young people lie. Sapphire never lied to anyone. She kept secrets and that was why she had gotten in trouble with Dympna in the first place but it was such a trivial thing. Being in love was not a bad thing, not by a long shot. Dympna had called it 'hiding her weakness and Sapphire had needed a lesson in strength. Still Sapphire would not let any of what she was feeling go.

Dympna was crazy no doubt about it but she was also very arrogant. Dympna thinks I'm dead. She can't very well collect a dead person. Sapphire said as half smile on her face. Sapphire was not in the ground but little Sapphire Clow in a way did die out in the streets somewhere. She wasn't a Clow anymore or at least she didn't feel like she was. She had even started writing her name as Sapphire Bookchild everywhere she went. She had loved how it felt to write her true sir name when she had written it for Morgan and she had wanted to feel it again. To everyone here and everyone out there my last name is Bookchild. As it should have been all this time. She wrote to Jeremy with a large smile on her face.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

Jeremy continued to write and nodded his head as she confirmed that she was staying with Elvera Le Fey's mother. He knew that couldn't be a very common last name. The teenager was glad that Sapphire truly seemed to be happy now. He hoped she stayed that way because judging by those pictures, Sapphire deserved to have something good happen in her life. "Good, I'm glad they're so willing to help you" he said as he finished reading that Morgan was going to help Saph. He didn't know how this particular ministry felt about Seers, but Sapphire seemed hopeful that they held some sort of weight, so Jeremy was hopeful as well.

Jeremy lost himself in though for a moment, wondering how many times Sapphire might have been on the verge of telling him about the treatment she was receiving at home. He could easily recall one conversation when he'd begun to question her about something she'd mentioned about a forest behind her home and she'd basically shut down on him. The prefect couldn't help but wonder if he could have helped Sapphire sooner if he'd pushed her for a reply. Still, what could he have done? Sure, he was a year older than Sapphire, but he was still just a teenager. That did nothing to ease some of the guilt that Jeremy was feeling.

Jeremy frowned as he read that Dympna thought she was dead. "I don't even want to know" he muttered to himself. If the woman thought she was dead, things must have gotten horribly bad. Jeremy didn't think it was a bad idea that his friend had decided to reinvent herself. Changing her name wouldn't exactly do that, but it was a good and smart start. "Bookchild?" he said, letting the name come forth. He weighed it for a second and then smiled briefly. "I like it. I think it suits you well."

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire nodded. She had called herself after Rosamud Bookchild from The Monster Blood Tattoo. The story of the orphan boy who had the girl's name and had been chosen for such extraordinary adventures had kept her spirit alive before she had gotten to Hogwarts. Now she got to call herself after him. She only hoped that such bravery would pass on to her. She didn't go out and fight demons in the naked night but Sapphire still needed the bravery for other things like O.W.L exams. Sapphire smiled brightly then tilted her head.

She jotted down Come on, I'm hungery and I think lunch is right about now. You can tell me about how you spent your holiday. I could use some idle chatter after what what you've seen. She said offering him her hand as a friend. Sapphire knew very well that she had no hope of anyone especially someone as wonderful as Jeremy would ever give someone as damaged as her a second look. That didn't stop Sapphire from wanting all the time she could get with her best friend. Eventually she would show him everything what she had been through. For now Sapphire decided that Jeremy knew enough.

 

[Jeremy Thorne]

As Sapphire began writing once more, Jeremy looked over her shoulder once more. His stomach seemed to gurgle on cue, and he nodded his head in agreement. He grabbed a hold of his friend's hand without hesitating, not wanting anything to be weird between them. Sapphire had just shared very important information with him and for better or worse, those kinds of things often linked people together in mysterious ways. Jeremy wasn't even thinking about what the future would hold at the moment though. His stomach was trained on finding some lunch, and his mind was already thinking about what to tell his friend.

Opening the door to the owlery, Jeremy stepped out with Sapphire and began speaking. "I spent the holiday here at the castle because I didn't want to go all the way home just to spend most of the break alone. My mum sent me some books and my sister sent me an organizer that has this really annoying buzzing sound that gets louder the closer it gets to something that is written inside." Jeremy rolled his eyes. He hated that thing, especially when he didn't feel like doing work and that incessant buzzing wouldn't stop. "And, I spent a lot of time on the pitch, practicing moves for the upcoming game" he said, being very careful to not mention his interaction with Kendra Snow. He didn't know what was happening with her but it was exciting and confusing, and he knew that speaking to Sapphire about it would be a bad idea.
As they continued to walk down the stairs, Jeremy continued to speak about quidditch. He was really excited for the game and hoped that SlytherClaw would be ready. When they reached the Great Hall, Jeremy held the door open. "After you" he said with a smile.