Wicked Ways

Chapter 9 – “Letters from Home”




The week before Halloween was a busy one. Most of the other students ran around happily, some playing jokes on each other, but most just happily enjoying the feeling of an encroaching holiday. Avari and Tuardae spent every moment not asleep or in their uniforms dressed in their Halloween clothes.

Avari was happy to don her long black dress with bell sleeves that dragged along the floor a little as she walked, the dark silk material rustling quietly. She wore her hair down with a single braid falling from the locks at her forehead in the style of the dark elven people. Happy she’d remembered the spell, she’d pointed her two fangs. “I wish I’d hurry up and reach maturity. I’m tired of being this short, and I want my teeth to be fanged for real. This spell only lasts a week!”

Short for elves was around five foot five inches before maturity. After maturity the males stood around six foot five inches, the females usually around six foot. Avari didn’t know if she’d be six foot or a little taller, since she’d never known her real mother. Tuardae on the other hand knew she was going to be around six foot one inch since her mother was that tall, and her father was six foot seven.

Tuardae’s dress was less intimidating than Avari’s, though the same style. It was a deep green color, like shadowed leaves in the summer time. Unlike Avari, Tuardae sprung from High Elves and sported two long braids that came from the hair behind her ears, the rest falling in heavy curling locks.

Many students often asked why they dressed this way, and the girls, knowing their Elvish nature had to be hidden, usually responded with, “Oh, it’s a tradition back home,” with sheepish grins.

The day before Halloween had been scheduled as the Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin Quidditch match. It had been a much more interesting game than the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor match. The Ravenclaw team put up a tough fight, but eventually lost. Avari was probably the most ruthless player on the team, acting more like a Beater than a Chaser. The final score was 270 to 120. Tuardae now had her own small hissing Slytherin flag to hang underneath her roaring Gryffindor one. No one questioned her actions, not since hearing about Avari’s little upset.

The morning of Halloween dawned bright and frosty. Tuardae trotted down to breakfast, having stayed awake the night before to play wizard’s chess against Ron. She’d almost beaten him, even though it had only been her fourth time playing the game. The red-haired boy had looked at her, slightly shocked and squeaked out a “Are you sure you’re just a beginner?”

Tuardae met Avari in the entrance hall and smiled, her sister practically glowed with holiday joy. This was the dark-haired girl’s favorite holiday. “Happyloweloween, sister!” Tuardae said as the two hugged.

The entire school was awake and singing things like “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and “I Put A Spell On You,” an adaptation the Twisted Sisters had done to a Muggle Song they’d heard while on tour around the world. The hall was crowded for breakfast, even though no one would eat much; they were all saving room for the big feast later that night.

As usual, like every morning, the owls swooped in and delivered letters. Most of Hogwarts’ students found candy from their parents, letters wishing them a happy holiday. Among the owls and easily spotted because the owls gave them wide berth, were falcons and hawks, and a single raven. Tuardae, looking up at the screech of a white falcon, stood up with a start and said, “Hasgemduo!” startling those around her.

Hermione looked at Harry, who had shoved a pumpkin muffin into his mouth and said, “What did she say?” He just shrugged, his mouth still full, and watched as half of the killer bird population flew to Tuardae, the other half to Avari, who was standing up, her eyes wide and mouth agape.

“Letters!” Ginny said, looking at the large pile left by the bird as they all flew off. Only one stayed behind, a small scroll attached to his leg. It was the white falcon that had screamed as he flew into the dining hall. It had perched itself on Tuardae’s shoulder and was making an odd noise while she ruffled his breast feathers, cooing softly to him. “They’re all letters!”

Tuardae took the scroll off of the white falcon’s leg and read it quickly:

“We restricted contact with you to your peers at first. Eventually we knew there would be an uprising, and it happened a few days ago, so we agreed to let them send scheduled letters. Hope you don’t find the mass amounts of parchment too much. Happy Holidays, we love you. T’la T’lageos.”

Looking over at her sister, who seemed to be arguing with a raven, Tuardae grinned and picked up one of the letters.

“Tuardae! I’ve missed you so much!” wrote Yelsig, a centaur. “Divination just isn’t the same without you!”

“You will never guess what Ronnie did when you left!” wrote another friend, Jessica.

“Will you and Avari visit for Christmas?” signed Tuomeos.

“How could you have left? You know I would suck as captain of the Quadpot team! You did this on purpose!” wrote Justin.

“What’s your new school like? Do they really have four houses?” asked Veronica.

Tuardae shuffled through the letters, thinking of her responses to each person. She wanted to tell Yelsig she missed him as well, and wanted to know exactly what Ronnie had done to make Jessica so excited. She wanted to tell Tuomeos she and Avari would visit as soon as possible. Justin would scowl no matter what she wrote, and Veronica would be astounded when she replied that everything was restricted to what house you were in, even Quidditch teams.

There were so many more letters, and her heart panged, looking at the pile. She completely ignored the Gryfor tor table staring at her as if she had sprouted another head. Some weren’t staring at her though, some were staring at the while falcon, Hasgemduo, as he stalked across the table, nibbling on certain foods. Dean jumped back when the bird came too close, afraid to get between the plate and razor sharp beak. Looking back over at Avari she noted that her sister had already left, leaving a large empty space where her letters had been on the table.

Gathering up her own letters her hands started shaking. Another hand crept into view and helped her, looking up she saw Harry, who smiled gently down at her. “I’ll help,” he said quietly.

Together they left the dining hall, which was now buzzing steadily again, and headed up to the Gryffindor Common Room with Hasgemduo sitting on the girl’s shoulder. Tuardae, Harry watching quietly, put her letters into small piles depending on what each person had written, and who the author had been. Harry looked over a few of the letters after Tuardae had finished writing responses, using a Quick Quotes Quill instead of trying to write out each letter.

“Who the bloody hell is Chris, and why is he demanding to know why you left him hanging in the library?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked down at another letter. “And here’s one from someone named Mihumet, who says you did the same thing but in . . . a storage closet?”

Tuardae blushed before saying, “I’ve a nasty habit of leaving boys hanging.”

Harry blinked at the papers before putting them down. “Well, I’m sure they deserved whatever you did to them. I just hope you didn’t get in trouble for it. Did you hang them from wall sconces or chandeliers? Do you have chandeliers in America?”

Tuardae looked at Harry as he plowed through another pile, people starting to trickle in through the portrait hole, before stammering, “Oh, y-yes, w-we do.” She steered the conversation away from the letters, hoping Harry wouldn’t realize those kind were only from boys. After a while he asked her questions about each person, wanting to know what her life had been like back in America. Usually she responded with stories of how her sister and herself had made the friend before giving details that were just between the writer and Tuardae herself.

“Did you and Avari share a room at Ferlin?” he asked, his brow furrowed.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, of course we did.”

“You didn’t have Houses?”

Tuardae blinked before saying, “Yes, we have three: G’mwoti, Dioveys and Uvios.”

“What defines who goes where?” he asked, putting a letter down and picking up another. She snatched it out of his hand, seeing it was from Cliff, another boy she’d left hanging, and pushed Jessica’s gossip-filled letter in front of him.

“Certain aspects,” she said carefully. “Just like here.”

“The names of the Houses,” Hermione said, sitting down with them, along with Ron, both having just come in from breakfast. “They sound like the words you use. The ones we don’t know. What is it?”

“And can’t pronounce,” Ron said dryly, picking up the letter from Justine while Tuardae hid the pile that Cliff’s letter had just been put on top of.

“It is a language that Fernlin teaches,” Tuardae said, still carefully tip-toeing around her own words. “Fernlin was founded by one of my mother’s ancestors, who spoke it, and since then it has been handed down to those who show the capability to use it. Mainly those who teach there know it, as all of the castle’s secrets were created with that language.” She didn’t tell Hermione that it was the Elvish language, and that only Elves were born with the knowledge of the language. Although she had spoken the truth about Ferlin teaching it. The school did teach it, although not many non-Elves were accomplished in speaking it.

Ron had moved on to another letter from a girl named Ashley who’d discovered a new secret entrance into the pools. Harry was quietly reading the letter from Yelsig, who told about his late night star-watching excursions. Hermione gave her a funny look before picking up a letter, reading a few lines before turning red and passed it to Tuardae. Glancing down Tuardae tried not to turn red as well. Apparently Danny was upset she’d left him hanging as well. She shoved that letter in with Cliff’s and Mihumet’s.

She smiled gratefully a Hermione just as Ron made them all jump with, “Blimey! I knew Quadpot was dangerous, but this bloke has been in the Hospital wing for three months!”

After a while Hasgemduo started getting fidgety with all of the commotion the Gryffindors were making, and Tuardae went to go put him in the owlery, though if the owls would put up with the falcon was another story. After she’d set him on a perch and made him promise not to eat the owls, especially the small one named Pig that Ron owned, which immediately flew around the two of them, hooting loudly. Hasgemduo looked upset when Tae hae had scolded him for snapping his yellow beak at the annoying owl, but ruffled his feathers in agreement. The stupid owl wouldn’t be harmed. The mice on the other hand, Tuardae feared for even more than usual.

“Have-jem-duoh is a very lovely bird,” Harry said quietly from behind her. The white falcon snapped its beak angrily at Harry for the mispronunciation, and Tuardae jumped.

She smiled at him and walked over, hugging him tightly. “Hasgemduo,” she said quietly against his chest.

“Has-jemsuo?” he asked, pulling her chin up with a hand. “Is that right?”

She smiled at him and shook her head softly, looking past the glasses and into his eyes. “No,” she said, whispering. “Hasgemduo.”

“Hasgemduo?” he said, whispering as well as he leaned down.

“Almost,” her fingers played with the unruly locks of black hair at the nape of his neck. “You have to flick your tongue on the ‘duo’ part, between the vowels.”

“Show me,” he breathed, before kissing her deeply.





* * * * *




Avari looked down at the letters, half about to be thrown away anyway. Most of them were from boys who were upset that she’d left in such a hurry. Her raven, Sewiot, just sat on the bedpost and cawed when girls came in or out of the room. It had bated at Pansy and cawed loudly until the other girl had left the room.

After writing back to those who required a proper response she left to go into the Common Room, Sewiot on her shoulder and preening through her black hair as she went to pamper Blaize some more. It was still fun to watch Draco grind his teeth when she hung all over him. Maybe tonight after dinner she’d show Blaize the ice trick. She knew that would get back to the Malfoy brat. It would be fun to watch his face turn red every time he saw her for the next week.

Pansy snuck in and picked up one of the crumpled letters, smoothing it out so she could read it. Her eyes went wide, and she picked up a few more crumpled letters, finding them to be mainly of the same context. Shoredored these letters in a spelled box in her trunk, thinking of just how to use them. Draco would find them very interesting indeed.

Going out into the Common Room the raven flew by her head, the claws zipping by her face dangerously close. She screamed before yelling, “Put that damn thing in the owlery!”

Avari tutted, petting the raven which was nn hen her fist. “I told him if he was hungry to go find a rat. Too bad you’re too big to digest,” she said before turning and walking out.

She glided down the hallway, smiling and wishing people every so often a ‘Happy Halloween’ as she passed friends from her other classes, flashing them a fanged smile. Climbing up the owlery she could hear the steady coo of the birds, and something else she couldn’t distinguish over the feather ruffling. Turning the corner at the top of the stair she ran smack into Harry and Tuardae making out.

She coughed politely and the pair jumped apart, both of their faces red. Sewiot flew to a perch, just as Tuardae and Harry excused themselves, heading down the stairs. Remembering the long talk she’d had with her mother, Avari’s arm snatched out and grabbed Harry as he was about to follow Tuardae down the stairs. He looked at her with an eyebrow raised and moved to stay.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

Avari stared down the stairs, listening for her sister’s continual footsteps. “You’re on dangerous ground,” she said softly before looking him dead in the eyes without blinking. “Don’t get attached Harry Potter, you’ll only endanger her.” She heard Tuardae pause halfway down the stairs. “Go, she’s waiting for you.”

He gave her a questioning look before she snarled at him and pointed down the stair. Sh. She watched Harry trot down the stairs before looking over at Hasgemduo. “You’re a horrid little bird,” she said to him, watching as he snapped his beak and tilted his head sideways. “Just because he can almost say your name properly you have to go and let him make out with her.”

Hasgemduo whistled.

“No. She won’t fall in love with him. She hasn’t fallen before.” After Hasgemduo stared at her, blinking she finished with, “And I hope she doesn’t start now. Not with him.”