21 Dec 2024, 20:33
nuvole bianche
December 24, 2024 - Talla Samhraidh, Northumberland, England
A lot happens in a year. While she'd certainly taken a blow, a crushing one, back in spring, Astra had found the hard way that twelve-year-olds bounce back surprisingly well. Twelve-year-olds with a goal, and the determination of a legion, at least, which was exactly what she was. She didn't focus on that day, either of those days, any of those days, and it was getting easier to forget, especially in light of her ongoing investigation of what the actual hell was wrong with Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
There was a bench, in the gardens, and she sat on it, much like she had in many years past. Talla Samhraidh was no longer purely a "summer hall" as the name suggested, but instead a gathering place for various members of the Lerian, Norrick, and occasionally Foret clans, with the newest edition of Helena and her family in recent months. It still baffled Astra still how Elliot had by some immensely strong magic deceived Helena into courting him (as it must have been the magic, there was nothing inherently charming or desirable about her dolt of a cousin in Astra's eyes), but he'd managed it, and the girl couldn't complain.
Speaking of the devil, the snakelet saw a shadow coming from the house. "Heya." Helena. Astra smiled, though one could hardly see it over her scarf.
"Hi." Helena seated herself beside Astra. Every move from the young cursebreaker screamed of grace, even the buttons askew on her coat shouted elegance.
"Whatcha thinkin' about?" Lena's accent was strange, but beautiful. Predominantly Catalan, with touches of the harsher northern accents here and there, and of course the undercurrent of highest RP when she spoke English.
"Nothing, why?" Astra drew up her knees to her chest, her head canting till it rested upon them, looking at Helena with bright blue eyes in the evening sun. Hermes leapt up from the ground, where he had been playing amongst the flowers and settled himself between the young woman and the young girl.
Helena gestured to her own face. It was starkly different from Astra's. Black hair, skin a deep brown but far lighter than it had been that summer when they met, eyes like topaz in the slanting sunlight. She had freckles, too, less orange and more prominent on her smooth face. "Your resting expression, it looks like you are thinking about something not so good."
Astra stroked a hand down Hermes' fluffy back. He purred. "I guess it does." The girl had inherited an RBF from her mother, but it seemed to be even worse since her spiral back in spring.
Helena pointed to the sky, the action sudden, as many things were with her. The heavenly vault, a light blue gray only minutes ago it seemed, was now painted in tones of midnight and russet and ochre, dotted by clouds hued in rose. "Nuvole bianche," she said. "White clouds. Italian."
"Nuvole bianche." She fumbled the words. Helena just smiled and laughed.
"Good try." Almost as quickly as she came, Helena seemed ready to leave. She stood over Astra with her hands in her pockets. "Sibkey asked me to tell you dinner's ready." Sibkey, the Lerian's house elf. She was very sweet, very thoughtful, always remembering and taking care to take good care of everyone in the household. That was hard with fifteen people in the household at this moment in time, but she tried her best. Unlike Astra, Sibkey's best was enough.
Astra rose, letting Hermes jump into her arms before she followed after Helena, her steps quick.
A lot can change in a year. Last year, around this time, hadn't she been amongst the vipers of pure society at Moredell? Now she was amongst her kin with blood unstained, unlike her own. It was a cruel mentality, to see herself and her mother and her brother as lacking in some way, but it was a paradigm better adopted than not in the shining halls of House Slytherin and in the society of the unblemished at large, the society Raymond had introduced her to. He would not yet know the loathing she held for it, that her priorities had shifted and she's divorced the dreams he'd fostered in her.
The table was full, very full, with no particular order to it, all members interspersed between each other with little respect for age or "clan." Something Astra appreciated. While strong bonds were something unfortunately lacking with her peers, at least she had family.
The Forets were there. Astra hadn't seen them in a long time. Cedric was an adult now, technically, though still in his final year at Durmstrang. Astra asked him about his studies. He said they were interesting and nothing more. She couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit slighted, as if he thought because she was a student of a "softer" school she would not want to hear the darker magics he'd studied for the past six years. He seemed to have plenty of words for Roderick though, which forced Astra to consider that perhaps it was the curse of the youngest cousin that barred her from knowledge. That, or Cedric still had it in his thick head that girls were diseased and contagious.
Well screw him. Everyone else was plenty interesting. Jesse was getting more and more airtime and really carving a place for himself in the news media. He'd helped cover the horrible accident in Hogsmeade back in October, Astra remembered tuning in and hearing the familiar voice of her cousin uncharacteristically solemn and grave as he reported the dead, injured, and missing. But that wasn't all he'd covered, and that certainly wasn't something to bring up on Christmas Eve.
Elliot too was making his name, world-wide, venturing further into Europe and Asia as jobs dictated. He and Helena made quite an effective treasure hunting duo. Maria was getting plenty of jobs with her agency and growing her portfolio. Aunt Seren and Uncle Don's dragon tales never disappointed, certainly not now.
However, the youngest Norrick's attention to these stories, often so rapt and undivided, was now absent. Her eyes followed her wandering focus, away from the storytellers and to wherever her thoughts lead, which was often the far wall. This did not go by unnoticed, and indeed as she sat out on one of the eastern balconies late into the night, Aunt Aces joined her.
The redhead saw her aunt from the corner of her eye. The elder Astra took a seat on the railing of the balcony. "You look cold," she observed.
"I'm not," the younger assured, glancing over at her aunt. Aces shrugged, staring off into the stars just as Astra had been.
"What's wrong?"
Astra didn't say anything for a long time. "I don't like it. The whole pureblood society thing. That Uncle Ray's trying to do. I mean, I appreciate his concern, but there are more important things." Aces looked back to her, similarly colored eyes meeting. "There are a lot of questions to answer."
The glint in her aunt's eye was almost knowing. Uncanny as it was, it wasn't an uncommon look to the Unspeakable, and Astra didn't doubt for a second that Aces was aware of every single thing the snakelet meant by that statement.
"Understandable. I can tell him, if you'd like. I can give you some books, too, if you need." Aces stood, grabbing Astra's hands and pulling her up to her feet as well. "It's late. You should go to bed." She leaned over and pressed a kiss to the top of Astra's head. "Sleep tight."
Astra bid her aunt goodnight and retreated to the bedroom in which she was to stay. When she got back to school, she'd stop focusing any energy on holding up the charade, focusing everything on finding new leads and exploring old ones. She lie in bed awake for several hours, turning various plans of action and pieces of information over in her head, before she slipped into the arms of unconsciousness mid-thought. Tomorrow, such thoughts would be dormant, lost to the holiday merriment, but the tides were beginning to shift, and the winds of change blew ever stronger.