Evermore estates. 

A place now of refugees. Rowan, Sybia, Jackie, and now the lovely Elena. Now that Rowan no longer lived with his father, he could have friends over, and as it was spring break, the female was invited.

Jackie was running around frantically, cleaning every inch of the gothic mansion, while Sybia was working on dinner, prepping a roast duck that was simply to die for. At least in her own words, it was. Hopefully it wouldn’t turn out to be charcoal, as Rowan had yet to experience the cooking in this household. He made his own meals when he was home, and ate at hogwarts when he was... well at hogwarts.

Rowan was cleaning up the gardens in front, half to intercept Elena before his aunts could meet her, and half to undo the damage that months of neglect had done. Half of the plants were dead, as Jackie had lost interest in planting, and moved onto her next hobby, as she did not have the commitment needed for the upkeep of the many flowers she had picked out. Rowan loved her, but sometimes she was not the best at certain things. 

And now all he had to do was wait for Elena. She had sent him an owl yesterday saying she would try to be here today.

It had taken roughly about forever to finish getting access to her parent's muggle bank accounts, but it paid off and now Elena was well on her way to the address Rowan had listed. Carrying her trusty crossbody bag, using her carved stick to walk with, and her owl, Valek, perched on her shoulder. Probably looked the very picture of strange, but that wasn't really much of a problem, if she didn't want people looking at her she wouldn't have blue hair.

Elena wasn't entirely sure why she'd been asked to come to such a fancy place, but was happy to show up all the same. Valek occasionally flew ahead and circled back around if he saw something he was afraid of, like larger birds, one time he reappeared after hunting a squirrel. Elena sang softly to him as she walked along, eventually Evermore Estates came into view, and the girl was astonished at the size of the house. She stopped in her tracks, just for a moment, to stare at it.

Valek took this moment to fly off and visit Rowan ahead of Elena's arrival. The little owl circled down and landed next to Rowan with a little screech. Elena was there soon after, walking like some kind of adventurer, "Heya Rowan!"

The owl positively scared the life out of him, but it was enough of an announcement to tell Rowan that Elena was here. 

"Hello darling." 

He reached out to pet Valek's head as Elena came into view. Walking. How long had she been walking?

"Oh gods above Elena! I'm so sorry. I forgot you didn't have a way to get here. Didn't you remember the knight bus though? Or do you even know about the Knight bus? Oh you probably don't, I'm so sorry. Anyhow- Hi, welcome. I'm sorry I'm a mess right now."

He had been working in the dirt for a few hours now, but he didn't look as terrible as he claimed. Rowan kept himself pretty clean at all times. He set Valek on the arm of his wheelchair as he rolled over to the female, a smile on his face even though he was worried. 

"Anyhow. I should probably warn you about my aunts. Jackie's probably gonna fawn over you for the first month you're around her. She'll want to adopt you. And then Sylbia will be making sure Jackie doesn't go overboard around you, which won't work and will end up bickering annnnndddd, yeah, it'll be a thing for a minute or two. But they'll calm down eventually." 

He waves to her to follow him to the door. 

"I would have invited Miko too but they'll make it a thing." 

§

Valek was very happy with his pats and made a slightly alarming shriek noise. Luckily since he was a very small owl it didn't make that much noise.

"Knight bus?" Elena frowned, "Never heard of it. No worries though, I didn't have to walk to far, and I know all the shortcuts."

She winked conspiratorially at her friend, not mentioning that a lot of the shortcuts involved climbing up a building and walking along the roof, "It's all okay, you don't look a mess."

Elena smiled at Rowan, "They sound awesome, I'm really looking forward to meeting them. Also, nice new hairdo. It looks really rather cool. If you ever want to go with blue or cyan you know where I am."

"A thing?" Elena was still completely confused and oblivious, "I feel like I'm missing something, for the second time, I don't know what it is though."

Elena missed out on a lot of things, luckily she didn't miss out on style, because Wanderer Chic was in. Valek flew back up to her shoulder, and she couldn't help but feel absolutely hella cool, "Oh! And I brought chocolate."

Elena dug the cadbury milk tray out of her bag, you were meant to bring stuff when you went to someone's house right?

“Well knight bus is just where you hold your wand out over the street and they’ll come pick you up. Keep that in mind for later, yeah?”

He didn’t know what she ment by shortcuts, nor did he really want to know. As long as she had had a good way to get here safely, that’s all he cared about. She wasn’t injured, and she was here, so those two tests were passed to his standards. 

“Oh. It just means it’s gonna be like- just a thing. Like it’s gonna be a big deal for a minute or two before they calm down. That one is just a saying, I promise. Shouldn’t be wizard specific too. Maybe it’s american? I dunno. Sorry.”

He had been all over the world in his childhood, so he didn’t know where he had picked up most of his sayings by now. Nor did he really care, mostly, as long as he was understood. 

And as Elena mentioned chocolate he was surprised. 

“Wait what? Oh you didn’t have to do that! Thank you. I’ll try to keep Jackie from eating it all within the first two days. Anyhow, brace yourself.”

Rowan opened the door, calling softly.

“Sybia! Jackie! Elena is here!”

§

“Magic hitchhiking, cool.” Elena said approvingly, “I’ll have to remember that.”

That would’ve made it easier to get here, but a lot less fun. London’s twisting streets were still Elena’s home, and a part of her wandered if she should go back to the alley, to see what had happened. Then again, she probably shouldn’t. Elena Jones had to let the past die, or even kill it herself if she had to.

“Okay.” Elena blinked a few times, then decided that whatever was going on with Miko and Rowan would make sense eventually that she’s be fine with the knowledge she has now, “Don’t worry Rowan, no need for any apologies! It’s all good.”

Elena dug through her brain for a cool cockney phrase to tell Rowan then realised that speaking in cockney would probably confuse and alarm most people who weren’t used to it. Also she was feeling very mysterious in her current clothes and wasn’t planning on ruining it with weird sayings.

“It’s cool, I thought it’d be nice.” Elena said quietly, speaking loudly enough really only for Valek. Elena pushed her hood back off her head, realising it was still up, and held her stick out to the side. Waiting to meet Rowan’s super cool sounding aunts.

“Ahh! Elena! Hi! Oh my gosh- hi!”

A woman in probably eight inch heels ran up to her, instantly going for her hair. The woman herself had bubblegum pink in her braided hair, which still went down to her waist. 

“Rowan! You didn’t tell me she had dye! I didn’t think any of your wizard friends had stuff like this!”

“Elena, this is Jackie. Muggle hair stylist that works in town.”

“Jackie, calm down please. Good afternoon, Elena. Welcome to evermore estates. I’m Sibya, Rowan’s aunt. I work in hogsmead as a waitress.” 

A shorter female in not heels walked up out of the kitchen, a towel slung over her shoulder. She seemed much more calm than the jumpy bubblegum next to her. 

“But look at her hair! The dye job is awesome! Where do you get it done? Or do you do it yourself? Oh- sorry- do you mind if i play with it?”

She had begun to run her hands over her locks, before she finally remembered her manners and stopped, stepping back. Sibya smiled and chuckled a little. Rowan rolled forward and inside, closing the door behind them all. So far everything wasn’t going wrong, so it was a success in his book... for now. 

§

A woman with amazing hair, and obviously amazing taste in hair dye, ran toward Elena in heels higher than anyone should functionally be able to walk in. Elena smiled happily as Rowan’s aunts introduced themselves.

“Hi Jackie, hello Sibya.” Elena’s cool calm voice seemed a little more mature than the girl standing in front of them probably should sound. Her eyes sparkled slightly as she looked around, mostly out of curiosity but also a little out of wonder, “I’ll thank you for inviting me, I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere that could be described as estates before.”

After a moment viewing the situation, Elena seemed to relax and become a bit younger, the Slytherin turned excitedly to Jackie and smile brightly, “I don’t mind at all! And I did it myself, sadly they haven’t put a hairdresser in the castle and I’m not quite allowed to go to Hogsmeade yet.”

The mischievous look on Elena’s face clearly showed that being allowed to go to the town was not entirely viewed as an obstacle to getting there, just something that slowed down progress, “Your hair is amazing! How’d you manage to put the colour through that light and still have it look so bright?”

Rowan laughed a little as Jackie's face lit up, upon being given permission to touch her hair. Jackie stepped forward a little more, running her fingers through it and even starting on little braids on instinct. 

The large grand room was adorned in a similar style as the outside was. Gothic lavenders and black covered the walls, followed by bronze torch holders. A chandelier of glass and gold hung above their heads, sending shards of light across the walls, dancing with the flames in the center. The piece didn't even have candles, but rather a small golden brazier hanging down from the hooks on the ceiling. If that didn't give you an idea of the size of the room, I don't know what else to tell you. 

In front of Elena and Rowan, a grand ghost marble staircase stretched up to the upper floors and landings. The building had looked something like five stories from the outside, but it must have only been three at most. Either way, as Elena looked around, she could see into some of the open rooms, which held giant open windows, and various green or purple hues themselves, all as ordinate as the first. 

Now that Jackie had gotten closer, Elena could see her immaculate makeup, and nonexistent roots. Piercings adorned her ears, as well as detailed tattoos over her hands and arms. The woman was not shy about body modifications. 

"You're a wizard and you dye your own hair? Oh my gods- That's incredible."

"Elena, if you're going to be a troublemaker, you should stop by. So someone knows where you are, and to actually help if something goes wrong."

Sibya gave her a halfhearted stern look, before she smiled again. It was more out of concern than anything else. 

"Oh! I'm naturally blonde, so I bleach it once and it's platinum for forever. Besides, I do touch-ups every few days to keep it like this."

§

Jackie, Elena thought, was amazingly bubbly. Like literal rainbows taken human form, and she had a cool style too, closer to Rowan’s than her own, but awesome nonetheless.

The inside of Evermore Estates definitely showed off the word estate. It was a mansion paradise, and for just a moment Elena wondered what might’ve happened if she’d shown up here when she was young and alone. Then the what ifs disappeared and left her once again in the present.

“I- I promise I’ll drop by, if I go to Hogsmeade.” Elena looked at Sibya and nodded solemnly, as if to seal it, maybe she’d been reading too many fairy stories.

“Thank you.” Elena beamed at Jackie, “That’s so cool! Are you the one who did Rowan’s edgy, uh I mean, dark and mysterious new hair colour?”

Maybe Elena’d been talking to Griffith too often, the words edgy and emo had become a lot more prominent in her vocabulary. Elena peered at Rowan and mouthed You okay? He hadn’t been talking much, Valek in the little owl’s infinite wisdom decided to go back to Rowan and hang out with him. Because he’s a good little owl, who knows when people might need hugs.