"I
have had so
much tea today
already," groaned Sparrow. "We all have. No wonder we’re
so restless."
"Oh honestly," said Jocasta, rolling
her eyes. "As if a decaffeinating spell were difficult."
She tapped her wand on the rim of Sparrow’s cup, causing a little
light-grey cloud to rise from the liquid and waft away.
The tea nook had been occupied by Cleo Sassoon
and a sixth-year named Herbert Langtry when Jill had carried Sparrow
to it. The two of them had seen Jill approaching and immediately
cleared out, to Sparrow’s protestations – surely the more the
merrier? But there was only so much space at the table, and it was
also going to fill up with plates of food, and...and Sparrow had
wondered for a moment why those two had even been here, instead of at
dinner. But then the Hufflepuff prefect was incredibly lax this year
anyway.
At the moment, there was tea – which, now
that Sparrow considered her appetite, was probably enough. She
chuckled. "That spell might solve a lot of my problems going
forward. Well. Not all of them." She glanced at the bay window,
where the lake beyond was shimmering in the light of the moon. "Some things you can’t simply
decaffeinate."
"Just drink your tea," said Jocasta,
taking up her own cup. "And let’s relax a bit, shall we?"
Relax. Sure. When in the world outside,
possibly just beyond the window, there were vicious creatures that –
Sparrow took up her cup and hastily took a sip. Yes, Jocasta was
right,tea was just the thing.
Though really, having her raven-haired girl
there with her was the bigger thing. Sparrow idly wondered if tea was
more about the company than the beverage. This particular company –
it was easy on the eyes, anyone could see that, but what Sparrow
could see in Jocasta’s eyes was a deep concern. The girl was there for her. That was worth more than
all the tea in China.
And as Jill came to the table levitating many
small dishes full of delights, Sparrow’s heart was warmed not by
the food – small appetite as she had – but by the fact that her
Jill was there for her, and had come through for her. Yes indeed,
love was here for Sparrow, and so despite her unsettled thoughts and
the view of the dark world outside, Sparrow felt at peace.
"I would have thought they could just
magic the food up here?" said Jocasta.
"And leave me to arrive empty-handed?"
said Jill, as she directed the plates to settle on the table.
"Instead of bearing providence for my little princess, like a
proper knight? Please! Also Brother Ealdwine said the kitchen magic
didn’t work that way after all. So. I get to look like the
Cavalry." She placed a chair right next to Sparrow’s, sat down
in it and patted her lap.
Well, Sparrow couldn’t say no to that. And so
she felt a fair bit warmer, as she sat sideways in Jill’s lap,
cradled by her arm. She hardly needed the tea.
She felt even warmer when Jill gave her a peck
on the cheek.
Jocasta rolled her eyes, then moved her seat
around the table to be close before Jill and Sparrow. "I must
apologize."
"For what?" said Jill.
"I did not think to ask what the panic attack was about," said Jocasta.
She frowned. "Although...now that I consider it, I wonder if I
need to?"
Sparrow shook her head slowly.
"Would you permit me to scan your core?"
Sparrow shrugged. "Go ahead."
Jocasta shook her wand out of her sleeve and
cast the cone of green light over Sparrow’s sternum. Sparrow was
forced to set her teacup down before the tingling caused her cup to
slip from her fingers.
Jocasta dismissed the spell, looking relieved.
"Some residual flickering, but otherwise steady. I guess tea
works."
"Tea and you two," murmured Sparrow,
leaning a little into Jill’s shoulder.
"Tea and us three," said
Jill, giving Sparrow’s shoulder a squeeze, "and kisses?"
"That might make my core shine too
bright." Sparrow giggled. "I might just jump all the way to the moon."
"Not exactly far-fetched for us these
days." Jocasta took up her teacup again. "And I daresay
that, given the progress you’ve already made with your Patronus,
you’ll be able to protect us all from dementors and the like soon
enough."
"The like," murmured Sparrow. "It’s
the like I’m worried about."
Jocasta’s expression softened. "I know,
my dear. I know."
"But do you know what set me off tonight?
It was –" Sparrow’s words were cut short by her own nervous
laughter. She settled further into Jill’s one-armed embrace, her
left hand finding Jill’s and interlacing their fingers. With her
right hand she beckoned to Jocasta, and the girl took Sparrow’s
hand with both of hers, eyes fixed upon Sparrow.
"What was it?" murmured Jill.
Sparrow took a deep breath. "It was just
the idle thought that the whole world might have been devoured and
none of us would know. How much do any
of us know what’s going on now? We’ve lost Hogsmeade, we might
have lost the Owl Post, what’s left?"
"The
floo network," said Jill, "but we’re going to get
Hogsmeade back."
"Or die trying," said Sparrow.
As if on cue, Brother Ealdwine floated up
through the table, startling both Sparrow and Jocasta into letting go
of each other’s hands. "Don’t leave too many regrets, dear
child, or you might wind up stuck as a ghost like me!"
"I’ve got plenty," said Sparrow,
letting go of Jill’s hand and crossing her arms. "I’ll
surely be a ghost."
"Then I shall be a ghost with you,"
said Jill, "for I shall dearly regret leaving my little bird."
She threw her other arm about Sparrow. "I shall haunt your ghost forever."
"Seconded," said Jocasta.
Brother Ealdwine sighed. "I suppose I
should not find it surprising, given what you told me. And you think
you need less assistance than your girlfriends! Heaven may smile upon
your humble meekness, I daresay, of course suffering is holy – but
oh, my sinful worldy ways, I simply cannot stand to see a child in
distress."
"Child," murmured Sparrow. "I’ve
set us on a course to become adults early, though."
"Still a child to my eyes," said
Ealdwine, "And not just because I’ve been hanging around long
enough. You and your friends are still bold, still brash, still
daring, still a little uncritical of your own actions, less than
cautious...brilliant beyond your years, there is no doubt of that,
but wise? That takes time, and experience."
"Experience," grumbled Sparrow. "You
mean screwups?"
"We’ve had plenty of those," said
Jocasta.
"We’ve also had plenty of experiences,"
said Jill. "Bad
experiences."
"Yes,"
mused Brother Ealdwine, "Sparrow was telling me that she
survived such, at an early age, and that it was the source of her
oath. Is it now safe to ask what happened?"
Sparrow did not have all her loved ones
about her – that would have required the whole crew. But she had Jill’s strong arms, and Jocasta’s
gentle touch, and tea. It was enough, for the moment, for her to be
able to venture the story. If she could breathe – that was one
thing Jill’s arms sometimes did not allow. "Jill," she
said, shifting a little in the girl’s embrace, "if I might
have some space for this one?" Jill released Sparrow, and
Sparrow returned to her own chair. Not more than a hairsbreadth from
either of her girls.
And then she told Brother Ealdwine the entire
story of the lethifold, and how her magic had awakened, and how her
memory had been altered. By the end of it, she was picturing that one
little fingerbone clearly in her mind again, and it was only the
presence of her loves and a cup of tea in hand that held her
steady.
Meanwhile, Ealdwine was stone-faced. Sparrow
wondered how she might have given him offense, before he spoke in a
level tone, "In my day, long ago, memory charms were considered
dark magic. By and by over the centuries I have heard more of
them – especially in the past few hundred years, especially since
this Statute of Secrecy business. But even then their usage was
strictly regulated...but now, it seems, they are used willy-nilly.
And never mind the damage to one’s eternal soul, oh, no, never mind
that."
"I should have thought you would be more
worried about the lethifolds," said Jocasta, hugging Sparrow
tighter.
"I will admit that the creature in
Sparrow’s story was an utter horror," said Ealdwine.
"Is,"
growled Sparrow.
"Clearly," said Ealdwine, "if it
is still affecting you."
"Still affecting the rest of London too,"
said Jill. "To what extent, I don’t know. McGonagall hasn’t
said how much she’s found."
Ealdwine sighed. "The world really has
gone to pieces, hasn’t it? One would think the day of Judgment were already at hand. But how can one
tell the extent of this problem? Is there any official count of the
number of people who wind up as skeletons? Or perhaps unofficial
count?"
"Skeletons…" Sparrow thought back
to her own childhood. She hadn’t encountered a single skeleton,
since that finger bone. Dead bodies, occasionally, but then, a
lethifold wouldn’t have left one of those. "You know what’s
weird," said Sparrow, "I never hear about anyone dying,
these days. It just feels like, whenever I come back home for the
summer, there’s fewer people than I remember. Mother always says
that people just say they...went to Manchester...or wherever."
"Same story every time?" said
Jocasta, her voice sounding dangerously quiet.
"Same basic story," said Sparrow. A
flashing red light went off in her head. If
Jocasta had sounded perfectly innocent and chipper a moment before,
Sparrow would have kept her next thought to herself – but the cat
was probably out of the bag already, and Sparrow just had to hope the
result wouldn’t be as bad as she expected. "But nobody really
knows for certain, do they? Nobody...nobody actually remembers the
truth."
At that moment, Jill’s eyes began to glow
red, as Jocasta’s began to glow green. There was a sudden clinking
sound, as the lid of the teapot was rattled by escaping steam, and
all the tea in the cups began to boil. Even Sparrow’s cup in her
hands was trembling. She hastily set it down on the table. The air
was growing hot and a wind was picking up from nowhere, forcing
Sparrow to cast her shield spell in a flat plane blocking off the
open side of the tea nook. She turned to Ealdwine, half-wondering if
she ought to ask him to cool her girlfriends down by passing through
them. Then again, that could just set them off bang. Ealdwine was
drawing back anyway.
She looked around the room. Some of the
students were filtering in from dinner already. Sparrow had to keep
her shield up to protect them – but she was currently exposed to
whatever magical fiasco was about to burst forth from her
girlfriends. Indeed at this moment the two of them were projecting
visible auras of green and red an inch from their skins, and the air
was growing ever hotter, and the wind was still rising. And Sparrow
didn’t know how to do the multiple-shield trick without kissing Jill, which was
already out of the question.
She looked wildly about the tea nook, until she
realized there was the bay window – she ran to it, it didn’t have
a latch to open – she shook her wand out of her sleeve and flicked
it at the glass, which immediately vanished. A cold wind blew into
the room. "Alright, out the window, let’s get to the walkway.
Come on."
She moved toward the window, but the two girls
were not moving. Sparrow growled in frustration.⋄⋄OUT
THE WINDOW AND UP TO THE WALKWAY, COME ON, MOVE!⋄⋄
That worked. Jill and Jocasta were both out the
window and climbing the sheer face of the cliff before Sparrow could
even cast her own wall-crawling spell. She turned to Ealdwine.
"Brother, I’m going to need you to ascend to the walkway
before the Dragon Tower as quick as you can. This is the moment I
needed you for."
Brother Ealdwine saluted, and immediately
floated up through the ceiling.
Sparrow clambered out the window and proceeded
to follow her girls, trying to keep up with them at a safe distance.
Already Jill had tongues of flame whirling and swirling about her,
while Jocasta had a few translucent green humanoid figures hovering
about her in the rising wind. As the two of them reached the cliff
top, a few students mounting their brooms near the edge were sent
scurrying back or flying off, save for a couple who readied their
wands.
Sparrow had to offer these particular students
some hasty apologies and platitudes as she reached the cliff top
herself. Ahead of her, the two girls were already flinging themselves
up to the higher parts of the walls without even putting their hands
on their wands – unpracticed wandless casting during moments of
extreme magical energy, Sparrow made a note of that as she used the
ascendio spell to catapult herself forward. She turned the
direction of the spell upward and leapt after her girlfriends.
She landed on an open windowsill, and found
herself unceremoniously yanked forward into
darkness.
…
Once the pain in Sparrow’s head was fading,
and she came to her senses, she did not need to cast Lumos
to light up the room, for a golden glow was being cast all about her,
lighting on desks and
chairs, throwing the room into a weird relief of shadows.
⋄⋄WHOEVER
SEEKS TO TAKE ME AWAY FROM MY FIANCEÉS, TO WHOM I OWE EVERYTHING
INCLUDING MY LIFE, KNOW THAT I WILL NOT SHOW MERCY.⋄⋄
There was one more object in the room, just
before her – the golden glow was striking a human-shaped figure,
casting a shadow behind it.
All of a sudden, in its face opened two eyes,
with rainbow irises, gazing down at her.
Sparrow was
startled into stumbling backwards, the golden glow disappearing. She
flicked her wand to cast Lumos,
raising a feebler light than before. There was Wilhelmina Burke, her
grin gleaming white in the dim light, no longer camouflaging herself.
Sparrow planted her feet squarely and stood as tall as she could.
"Mina, what the hell
are you playing at."
"Calling your bluff for one
thing." She chuckled. "I know you could never harm anyone."
⋄⋄YOU
SEEK TO TEST ME? I HAVE BROKEN MY OATH MORE THAN ONCE.⋄⋄
"Not much of an oath then," said
Wilhelmina. "Anyway, I apologize for this rude intrusion, but at
this moment, everyone else is likely to be distracted. Including a
certain divination professor. I needed a chance to give you something
without anyone else interfering."
Sparrow let out an exasperated sigh. "Of
all the freaking times for you to talk to me again...make it quick,
I’ve got magical energies to contain at this very moment."
"Indeed you do," murmured Wilhelmina.
She held out her wrist, where was banded a tight bracelet covered in
small metal studs. She tapped the bracelet with her wand, and into
the air sprang an ordinary remembrall. She caught it, and held it in
her palm. "I am offering you this, if you will take it."
Sparrow frowned. "A useless magical trinket?"
"It
looks
like a useless magical trinket." Wilhelmina’s fingers loosely
closed over it. "It is
a portkey."
"Portkey
to where?"
"London."
Sparrow’s eyes grew wide. She reached for the
remembrall – but she stopped her hand halfway. She shot a sharp
glance at Wilhelmina. "Precisely the sort of thing I would be
asking for at this time. Are you trying to get me out of
the way?"
"Just offering you some peace of mind,"
said Wilhelmina. "And a means of actual communication with your
parents."
"Why would you –"
Wilhelmina tapped her bracelet again, and the
portkey vanished into one of the metal studs with a faint pop.
She rummaged in her pocket and brought out a crumpled bit of
parchment, which she held out to Sparrow.
When Sparrow snatched it out of her hand, and
read it over, she realized it was her own handwriting, to her own
parents. She looked up at Wilhelmina, who bore an expression of
fearful worry. "Mina, what is this?"
"A result of the owls being on strike,"
said Wilhelmina. "They…" she sighed. "They’re
refusing to carry any more letters. I don’t know why. I assume it
has something to do with the Howler attack. Do you understand why I
am offering you the portkey, now? I wanted you to be able to reach
your parents, to communicate with London – it might be that only
you could be safe going there."
"How the hell do you mean, ‘only me’?
If I brought my crew –"
"Your merry band of pirates would be quite
conspicuous," said Wilhelmina, "and from what I hear, only
you have achieved the Patronus."
Sparrow felt the blood drain from her face.
"Don’t...don’t tell me it’s worse than we thought."
"I don’t know," said Wilhelmina. "I
don’t know. It’s not possible to know. Percival isn’t getting
any updates from his contacts in the ministry. No one is, now that
the owls are down and the floo networks are locked."
"Even the floo? What about McGonagall
getting her own work done in London?"
"Is that where she’s been?" said
Wilhelmina. "Ah, well. How inconvenient that the networks
are locked and she can’t get back down there. Security measures are
a pain, aren’t they?"
Sparrow found herself trembling. If what
Wilhelmina said was true...then her family could be in grave danger,
and she had no way of knowing. She ought to be going immediately, now
that she knew the memory-charm situation was as endemic as the
lethifolds. But her girlfriends were currently in the throes of fury
and grief, and she needed to be there for them. Triage was such a
bitch. "I assume this portkey of yours is two-way?"
"I am certainly not trying to trap you,"
said Wilhelmina.
And then out of the darkness spoke a familiar
adult’s voice. "No way for Sparrow to tell, right?"
Sparrow jumped. There was a tall woman stepping
into the light, her raven hair falling down her back to her waist and
her sleeves hanging down to her ankles. A woman that Sparrow never
felt terribly comfortable encountering. Especially if it was her
choosing to meet Sparrow. Sparrow squared her shoulders, and took a
breath in. "Professor Clearwater –"
"You," growled Wilhelmina. "Why
aren’t you up where the action is happening? I thought you would
have been responsible."
"I am precisely where the action is
happening," said Clearwater.
"But," said Sparrow, "my
girlfriends –"
"Are getting a lot of stuff out of their
system in a place where they wouldn’t be hurting anyone else,"
said Clearwater. "I know you want to go to them, but consider
what it means that I am seeking you here, instead of up
there."
Sparrow hesitated. What did it mean? The
woman’s visions about her and her friends only pertained to moments
of critical decisions that were metaphorical crossroads, and the
occasional peril. If she was here, rather than up on the
walkway...Sparrow glanced at Wilhelmina, who was not looking mightily
annoyed. "I have to make a big decision here and now," said
Sparrow. "Is that right?"
Professor
Clearwater shrugged. "You
could refuse to make a decision, and that would itself be a
decision."
"Can’t you just tell me –"
"I told you I could only offer you
warnings based on what path you chose," said Clearwater. "If
I tell you which path you choose, if I even look into it without
telling you, it could change the timeline and render my previous
visions useless. Your decision must not involve my temporal
interference."
"But you are here to interfere," said
Wilhelmina.
"I am
here to inform,"
said Clearwater. "Honestly, girl, could you make yourself sound
any more sinister?"
"Could you get out of my hair?" said
Wilhelmina.
"Could you just give me those warnings?"
said Sparrow. "I really do have places to be."
"Let me see what I can see."
Clearwater closed her eyes, and a brief bit of light seemed to shine
behind them. Her eyes snapped open. "In your refusing to take up
the portkey, I see visions of dark clouds and rolling seas, a little
sailboat tossed by the waves in the howling gale."
Sparrow frowned. "Not sure how to take
that."
"Well
it sure isn’t peaceful," said Clearwater, "so keep that
in mind. Now as for the other path…"
She closed her eyes once more. This one took longer, and Sparrow
found herself tapping her foot impatiently, turning her head to look
out the window, as green and red ropes of magical energy swung past.
"Got it," said Clearwater, and
Sparrow snapped back to attention. "What I saw
was...complicated. Towers tumbling, rivers overrunning their banks, a
whole gaggle of Wizards borne down to the ground by high winds...and
a ballot box? And a lot of whirling fire, that was the only thing
holding it all together, it seemed all disjointed."
Sparrow sighed. "Okay. Raw visions.
Great."
"I could try to interpret them for you –"
"What’s to interpret?" said
Sparrow, crossing her arms. "They both suck. It’s just that
one is dark and cold and wet, and the other is bright and wild and
weird and fiery...yeah, okay, so it’s a question of creeping
degradation versus immediate chaos. But it’s possible to fight
against the former, right? Like how we’re doing. That boat on the
waves isn’t sunk yet."
Professor Clearwater smiled. "You would
have done well to continue in my class."
"I might have talked myself out of a lot
of the stuff I’ve done," grumbled Sparrow. "And my life
would be a lot more boring. There wouldn’t be some kind of security
guard around my family...God, I should have sent them a letter so
much earlier. I wish I could get any message to them. I shouldn’t
have asked Wren to take apart that Wireless...wait a minute. I’ve
got my own Wireless, don’t I?"
"You can afford a personal Wireless?"
said Wilhelmina.
"In a sense." Sparrow looked at the
window, beyond which a tongue of green flame was periodically
shooting down. "But if I try it now, and I get lost in the
vision…"
"I’ll shake you out of it," said
Wilhelmina, putting a hand on Sparrow’s shoulder.
"Alright." Sparrow closed her eyes,
and concentrated on her thoughts of her parents. All they had done
for her, all they had given her, the years they had spent in rough
survival before Mother had found a more secure position – the looks
on their faces when they realized their memories had been altered.
Both of their forms started to take more solid
shape in Sparrow’s mind.
But then pain fairly split Sparrow’s head,
and she gasped – but her eyes did not open, and the vision neither
faded nor became more clear. The pain only increased, and Sparrow
could not get out of it.
Until she felt a sharp pain on her cheek as she
staggered sideways, her eyes flying open to see Wilhelmina drawing
her arm back. "Ow," groaned Sparrow. "Did you have to
go that far?"
Wilhelmina nodded.
"There might have been magical ways of
handling that," said Clearwater.
"No sense wasting time," said
Wilhelmina. "So what was that about then, Sparrow?"
Sparrow held her palm to her temple, the pain
in her head still throbbing. "Just trying to Send my thoughts as
far as I could. Which wasn’t far enough. I gotta figure that out. I
need to be able to warn my parents, warn the city, do something
for them from here at least – if I’m going or not? I need to know
what’s actually going on there. I need to be able to make a more
informed decision. I’ve got too little to go on right now."
"Seeking more information," said
Clearwater. "Door number three. Could be greater rewards. Could
be lesser."
Sparrow took a deep breath. She was sorely
tempted, at this moment, to grab the remembrall and hop right down to
London – and then get herself trapped by some gambit of
Wilhelmina’s? Or simply ensnared by monsters she had yet no power
to resist? Either way, to be held away from the truest rewards in her
world, which were currently up on the walkway, requiring her
presence. Triage, triage. London could wait a moment. "I must be
going," said Sparrow, "if you will excuse me." She
cast her shield spell in a flat plane just outside the window, and
then clambered out onto it, swiftly rising away before either
Wilhelmina or the professor could object.
…
When Sparrow reached the walkway, she was
greeted with a sight that caused her to sweat, not merely because it
was unsettling. For there before her swirled a great sphere of green
fire, out of which flew green phantoms and shrieking shades.
All of a sudden, the flame vanished, and there
stood four people. For a given value of "standing". Brother
Ealdwine was floating, Jill was falling to her knees, Jocasta was
swooning sideways and being supported by – Blaise, of all people.
Sparrow almost called out, but Blaise shot her
a grim look before helping Jocasta to sit back against the stone of
the battlements. They tipped their hat in Sparrow’s direction, then
departed without a word.
She made her way to the scene. "Brother
Ealdwine? What was Blaise doing here?"
"Being the other person that fire could
not harm," said Ealdwine. "Perhaps both of us may serve to
hear the troubles of these poor girls."
"What all did they say?"
Ealdwine shook his head slowly. "I am
afraid I cannot divulge what was revealed to me in this rather
strenuous discussion."
"But –"
"Seal of the confessional," said
Ealdwine. "I’m bending the rules to even take confessions,
really. I am no ordained priest."
"Confessional," said Sparrow. "Well,
I did ask you to serve in that role, so you may direct your God’s
blame upon me." She looked behind Ealdwine, to where Jill was
kneeling, bent over with her palms flat on the stones. "Excuse
me." She ran up to Jill, and put a hand on her shoulder –
uncomfortably warm, but not burning.
It was Jill who flinched. She turned, her
startled eyes meeting Sparrow’s, and she tried to roll over and
back away, though her limbs seemed to be reluctant to help he
actually scoot backward. "Little bird –" Jill let out a
racking cough. "Sparrow. You shouldn’t have come. Not safe."
"I know very well," said Sparrow, not
moving closer but neither backing away. "I have met your flame
before, my dear. Do you think it
could possibly deter me?"
"I think it could roast you, if your power
failed for even a moment." Jill continued coughing. "Told
you I was holding back for your sake."
Sparrow looked around at the scorch marks on
the stone. "Hm. Not melted like you said earlier. I take it this
wasn’t going all-out, then? You still have a bit left in your
magical core?"
Jill nodded. "I could still be a danger."
Now Sparrow stepped forward. "To me, of
all people?"
"Maybe…" Jill let out a long,
rasping sigh. "Maybe not. I can’t say."
"I can." Sparrow moved close to Jill.
"I can say no roaring fire there ever was can keep me from you."
"Sparrow –" Jill let out another
rasping cough.
"You’re exhausted," said Sparrow,
moving a bit closer. "I...have an idea of how to fix that. If
you will permit me." She knelt at Jill’s side, and put her
hand on the girl’s shoulder once more. "Only if you permit
me."
"Damn," said Jill, a smile creeping
into her voice, "you really can’t keep yourself away from me,
can you. You think this will work?"
"If it works from you to me," said
Sparrow, "then maybe me to you. If you’re willing to try it."
Jill leant forward, and captured Sparrow’s
lips in a long, lingering kiss. Sparrow could feel herself growing
just a little tired, as if she’d been practicing magic all day.
Jill pulled back. She was able to push herself
to her feet, now, taking Sparrow by the hand to rise with her. "How
about that," she said, smiling down at Sparrow, "I guess
when I’m out of juice, you’ve still got some."
"Energy flows from high states to low states," said
Sparrow. She gave Jill’s hand a squeeze, then turned to Jocasta.
"Talking of which." She let go of Jill and moved to her
other girl, kneeling before her where she sat slumped low against the
stone.
Jocasta looked up at Sparrow, her eyes smiling,
but then she fell into racking coughs. Before Sparrow could ask, she
gestured to her lips and nodded. Sparrow did not hesitate, but leant
forward and gave Jocasta a gentle peck.
Jocasta at last caught her breath, and she
struggled to a proper sitting position. "Oh, my dear, what would
I be without you? Dead, I know that much. Also bored."
"I wish I could do that diagnostic spell on you," said Sparrow.
"You wouldn’t see a pretty sight,"
said Jocasta, another small cough escaping her.
"Are you...able to transform, right now?"
"Definitely wouldn’t be a pretty sight."
Jocasta pushed herself to her feet, but before she could get out of
her crouching position she had already fallen forward, then over.
"Nope. Bad idea. Hey, maybe another kiss would do it?" She
lay out prone on the stone of the walkway. "Or I could just
sleep here."
"I will make it a good one this time,"
said Sparrow, and she knelt down and planted a hard kiss on Jocasta’s
lips.
At the end of it, though both she and Jocasta
were grinning from ear to ear, and Jocasta was at least able to rise
and keep her feet, the girl could not do more than that, and when
Sparrow rose to her feet, she was beset by deep dizziness. She swayed
on her feet, halted only by the hands of – a certain red-headed
gold-earringed blue-cloaked old friend. "Hey there bird
buddy," said Sparrow, and now it was her turn to cough. "You
fly up here from your nest?"
"Kinda wish I could make an actual nest,"
said Wren. "It would be funny. But Iphis has veto power over our
bedding." They nodded to a certain lavender-clad lad supporting
Jocasta on his shoulder. "But yes, we did effectively fly up
here, once Miranda alerted us to the situation."
Sparrow caught sight of the great tall girl
supporting Jill on her own shoulder. She met the girl’s eyes –
they were red and puffy, and it wasn’t hard for Sparrow to guess
why. How she felt now, being dragged from the seeming safety of her
isolation...but she had been the one to choose to leave it. Perhaps
that made a difference. She did not seem too put-upon, anyway.
Sparrow could not help her thoughts wandering
to how the girl might actually feel better if she had company in her
grief, for once. But it would be impolitic to bring it up now, of all
times.
They had all their troubles, some bright and
wild like Jill’s, some quiet and cold like Miranda’s. What
mattered was that they could, at least, come together when they
needed, without even Sparrow having to call them to assemble. A crew
well on its way to being well-seasoned. As
they made their way down the walkway and into the Astronomy tower,
Sparrow felt she had to be content with that, for now – tempting as
it was to ask them again to charge into London, she could not be
certain any of them were ready.
They might just melt the whole place, after
all.
…
Three girls lay in a bed in a room that existed
just for them. This time it was Jocasta playing the pie filling.
"That was certainly the most exciting
teatime I’ve ever had," whispered Jocasta.
"It’s been one Hell of a sabbath,"
whispered Jill.
"Another one like that and I’m
finished," said Sparrow. "But as for what happened at the end...I think I'm changing my vote on going to London. At least until we're better prepared."
"I am changing my vote the other way," said Jill. "I went off bang this evening because it became clear that the Ministry has been doing so much Obliviating that nobody can tell the actual extent of the lethifold problem. Or the extent of any problem, really. There's people I want to rain hell upon." Beneath the covers, it began to grow warmer.
Jocasta rolled over and threw her arms over Jill. "Don't set the bed on fire dear. I'm not changing my vote on London, anyway, until we can contact this Harry Potter fellow, get him on side."
"Far more likely to get Ruby Lupin," said Sparrow. She yawned. "If we can manage to communicate with anyone beyond our little siege."
With those thoughts swirling in her mind, it was only her utter exhaustion that allowed her to fall asleep.