SPOILER!!: Quotes and comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Biochemkris 
Hey dude! I love the update! And, as keeper of the History of SS Hogwarts (sounds like a boat LOL) I'd just like to remind you (in case you didn't know already, though I'm sure you do) that Theodore Puppington of Gryffindor was a 3rd year when the girls came to Hogwarts. Also, don't forget that Thomas Duskurk came to teach at Hogwarts from 42-47, which would have been the girls' 4th year. He was the Defense prof and since they were going to be aurors, he might need to have an appearance (though, I suppose he'll get mention at some point anyway considering all the trouble he caused when Rae was teaching and HM
).
Um... other than that I really need to update that timeline in the HaH to include details of all the other staff so people can get a better idea of who attended school with whom.
Maybe I'll find more former staff for them to know.
Gooood thing I have the actual Keeper of the HaH reading my story for accuracy. And you know... for pleasure. I like that reading my fic makes you think of things you have to do. LOL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Droo I loved this update!
Thanks, my dear
. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I promise some Natalya some day. I promise I promise I promise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mad Eye Touz *facepalm*
That voice in my head is SO EMBARRASSED that.... you told the part about the kisses. Gawd. She says Rae's memory is graying, like her hair. But she's mean, so don't listen to her.
Man. Like, I already was well aware of what an epic character Rae and such was, right? Right. Established. But somehow READING it like THIS is all different and depth-y-er (depthier?) and I just straight up LIKE IT.
And then you capture my nutball's awkward, mouth-spouting, brave-but-not's-ness.... like YOU KNOW HER. And you do. You do. Lullz. Man.
COLBY JACK's karate chop. Gawd. Rotten. *swoon*
hold on. THere was something else, too.
OH OH. HEHE. Clara and Bren shoutouts!I love Brenny. SO one of my favorites of yours. SOOOO is. WOOOO! Man. Clara tells me that every word of that article caused her pain. But, shhhh, don't tell. Not common knowledge.
This is good, Ern. This is good.
You're like... hm. One of the people I think about when I write. Mostly about whether I'm getting Lainey!voice down true or not, but also when I write things that I know will tickle you a bit. And because I leave stuff out and know that you'll forgive me.
You will right?
Might need that brain soon, 'cause I've run out of pre-write.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
AmbiguouslyMe Love. love love love.
And now, an attempt at coherent comments:
I love that these are characters I don't know, because when I read an update, I feel like I do. You really give a sense of who they each are as distinct beings, but not in a way that's simply expository. It's more... I don't know, evocative? I guess what I'm saying is I don't see the scenes and the characters so much as I feel them. It's really well done.
I feel TEASED, by the way, by the 'I didn’t know what Hogwarts meant to me until I left and came back again." Cause, great, Rae, you know. I'd like to.
I already told you about Preston's great great disapproval of such antics at the feast, but it still amuses me. *snicker* I am enjoying getting to know the characters that mine would have known.
I love children. Best friends in a matter of hours.
I feel absolutely CERTAIN that 1) there will be some Preston in here at some point. I don't know his voice, so I'll need your help, and 2) there will be more about Rae and Hogwarts. Has to be.
I love that you're enjoying this, and I reallllllllllly appreciate your comments. They mean a lot
Quote:
Originally Posted by
D.A Forever 
I second that suggestion! *puppy dog eyes*
The voice inside my head Savannah's saddened that anyone could think such a thing about Rae, she was an amazing Headmistress. *shakes head*
Not true.
Ahh, so she still checks up on the school?
Complicated and snooty brainiac. Gotta love Lainey.
Whuuuuut?
Is this denial, I hope?
LOL. How cute!
Meet again, hmm?
The more I read, the more I absolutely love this FanFic and can't wait for more.
Brilliant, Miss Ern.
Rae is so thrilled that Savannah came to her defense like that. Such a dear child. *pets her* I'm so glad you're enjoying the fic, and THANK YOU for reading and commenting. I can only hope I don't disappoint... and that if you have a request for someone to make an appearance, let me know and I'll do what I can.
Same old song and dance. I'd love to know if there are lurkers out there. If you have a way to fit into the fic, I'd love to have you, especially as the circle is about to widen for the Rae-Branxton clan. Love your faces. 
Chapter 5: A Constellation of Irises It had been weeks ago now, but Cassandra clearly remembered the moment she’d looked up at Alena’s reflection in the Malkin’s mirror and realized that the girl was looking back at her. Not just looking, but seeing. At first, the expression on her face had simply made Cassandra stutter as she attempted to force her way back into the conversation she’d been having with Anj.
Only later, when she had time to think about the moment as a whole and not just the oddity of finding Alena doing something other than retreating and hiding, only then could Cassandra attempt to put the pieces together. The Mystery of Alena’s Expression. It was such a strange expression, too, one that was entirely foreign on the girl’s placid features, and so it took her weeks to really understand.
“How goes the writing venture today?” Cassandra started guiltily at Doyle’s interruption from the doorway of her office. It was to her credit that she didn’t begin shoving papers into crevices in an effort to keep from being discovered.
Calmly, she turned in her seat and gave him a docile smile. It widened at the sight of Marcus Orion shadowing his father’s footsteps. Mo had his hair carefully parted and was wearing some version of a tie, which typically meant he’d been following Doyle long enough to warrant cleaning up on his father’s terms. Cassandra waggled her fingers at him, and Mo glanced at his father for permission before climbing into her lap for a squeeze.
“I’m not writing today. Or… I am, but I’m not working on the memoirs today.” For it had become a memoir once Cassandra realized she was incapable of not taking long tangential turns through her own thoughts as well as memories. “I’m working on a project for Alena.”
“Ah.” Doyle seated himself on the chaise and crossed his legs. In a characteristic gesture, he removed his glasses and began to clean them with the end of his tie. “And does Alena know of this project?”
“Not… precisely.” Cassandra felt a tug on her blouse and was surprised to find Mo polishing her buttons with his t-shirt. Just like his father, the little lovey. “Lainey and I were discussing how she hired that nice Bucky girl to babysit CJ now that she’s working up at the school again, and Alena got this look on her face.”
Doyle put his glasses back on. “What look?”
“It was… desire. Want. She wanted something about that for herself, and all I can think is that working with our children has sparked some desire in her to pursue a career as a… a nanny,” Cassandra felt the blood rush her face in a blush that was quite undignified for a witch her age. “That’s what I think, at least.”
“And so you’ve taken it upon yourself to find her a posting.”
Cassandra nodded.
“Without asking Alena.”
She nodded again. Odd how those weren’t really questions. As if he suspected she was capable of meddling to such a degree and was entirely unsurprised when she did it.
Before he could ask any more guilt-inducing questions, Cassandra interrupted the interrogation. “She never wants anything for herself, Doyle, and if we asked her what she wanted, she would deny it with every breath in her body.”
Mo slipped from her lap and seated himself on the chaise next to his father, although his attempt to cross his legs sent him head-over-feet off the other side of the chair. Doyle lifted his son back to his seat and straightened Mo's clothing.
“And what,” he responded without looking back at her, “what if she sees this as an attempt to get rid of her? What if the family you place her with is unkind or impatient with her?”
There was a squeal from somewhere upstairs, followed by something heavy falling to the floor repeatedly. Cassandra’s eyelids fluttered, but she was otherwise composed.
“Where is the line between taking care of others and being an insufferable meddler?”
“I think, perhaps, that one is done out of love and the other serves only selfish motives. But I would never call you insufferable,” Doyle mused as he rose to his feet. It was an elegant motion, like a handkerchief being drawn fluidly from an inside pocket. “If she wants this, then we must help her to have it.”
From Doyle, that was permission. Cassandra turned back to her papers and allowed her husband and his little shadow to go rescue the twins from their folly.
*** We used to push the ottomans together and drape ourselves across them, necks supported by a cushion and arms and legs spilling off the sides toward the floor. In the smoky near-dark after curfew, when the dwindling fire was the only source of light in the entire common room, Anj and I could imagine that we were the only two princesses left in our fairy tower. We were the only ones still awake, at least.
The stars painted on the Ravenclaw ceiling were small glimmers of silver-white in the dark, but we knew them all as if by name. An astronomer in his own tower couldn’t have known the night sky better than Anj and I knew the stars on that ceiling. We pinned our own hopes on them, one wish per star, whispered constantly as our years at Hogwarts drifted past.
It seems fascinating to me now that those moments seemed to belong only to us, much in the way that the rain-slick streets at midnight belong to lovers and Sunday morning picnics in the rose garden belong to mother and child. In retrospect, I'm sure there were others there, but in my memory, it is only ever two. ***
“Do they make you make your bed here?” Cassie wrinkled her nose in the direction of a curious old man peering out of his frame. It was so
cool how many of those moving paintings they had here at Hogwarts, and she was enjoying the reaction from the little boy ahead of her who kept shrieking whenever a portrait moved.
Apparently he was Muggleborn and didn’t know that was how paintings were
supposed to act.
“I dunno, but I don’t want to get in trouble for not doing it,” Anj huffed on the staircase behind Cassie, pulling herself up hand over hand on the railing. Cassie knew just how she felt… their common room had to be about a million stories up and they’d been walking for a long time. “Keeps animals out too, you know? Or at least it makes them easier to see when it’s made.”
Wait. What? Cassie paused on the stairs until Anj gently shoved her to keep going. “What kinds of animals live in your bed?”
“I had a doxy in my bed once. And a mouse. Suppose anything could get in if it really wanted.”
For years, for her entire life, Cassie had been making her bed and wondering why she had to do it. Each night, you climbed right back into bed and mussed it again. Of all the tasks and rules her mother set for her, making the bed made the least sense to Cassie. But if there was an actual reason, one like keeping biting critters away from her toes, then Cassie might continue to do it.
“A doxy? Did it bite you? Was it cool?” She paused again, moving only when another student ran into Anj, who in turn ran into Cassie.
“No,” Anj admitted, once they were moving again. They entered a corridor and a few portraits muttered encouraging words. The boy ahead of them began to cry. “I saw it moving under the covers because my bed was made. Actually, I never saw it. Mum says I was too young to see it.” Cassie wondered if it was a motherly ploy to keep Anj making her bed, and the tone of the other girl’s voice indicated Anj wondered that too.
“I think… we’ll have to jump on our beds tonight,” Cassie decided, reaching out to touch the frame of a portrait in greeting. The woman within trilled in delight. “You know? As part of the super secret handshake we’re going to make up. It has to have jumping in it.” She hopped a few times to demonstrate.
“Check for mice first, and then we’ll jump all night,” Anj agreed, giving the portrait a critical look before scurrying along in Cassie’s wake. The bossy older students who had collected them in the Great Hall directed the whole lot of first years up a spiraling staircase, and the two girls were forced into silence so they could keep up with the group.
The stairs ended abruptly at a landing, with a broad door opposite the stairs. It was a strange door without knob or keyhole, instead, the only decoration was an elaborate knocker in the shape of an eagle. Which was totally weird, because this was
Ravenclaw. The chatter of the students around her prevented Cassie from hearing what the bossy students did at the knocker, but the door swung open to let them enter.
And entering was a revelation. The Ravenclaw common room was the tower room in her fairy tale dreams, and Cassie found herself spinning in slow circles to take in everything. From the slope of the walls and the broad windows hung in gauzy blue to the star-scattered ceiling and graceful marble statue guarding the stairs, every detail was enchanting.
Cassie was
enchanted.
“We’re going to be like princesses,” she finally whispered, reaching blindly for Anj to join her in spinning. The group continued to shuffle toward the end of the room, but there was plenty of time to take in everything. Cassie stopped her circles right at the stairs up to her dormitory; she pirouetted face to face with the marble statue. She looked like a gigantic queen, beautiful features, old-fashioned gown, and a delicately-carved tiara. There were even bowls full of irises around her feet, the same dark indigo as the twilit sky outside their royal tower.
“Oh, Merlin,” Anj’s whisper came from just over Cassie’s shoulder. “I’ve never seen anything so wonderful. Ever. I think I’ve been put in the wrong house.”
“No way. I couldn’t be in a house where I didn’t know anyone. I need you.”
“It’s just… this place? It’s for rich kids. I used to share a bed with my
mom,” Anj clung to the back of Cassie’s robes as they were finally released up the stairs. She sounded close to hyperventilation.
“You don’t pay to come to Hogwarts. They let everyone in,” Cassie said, clearly not intending to be unkind but certainly not realizing the implication of her words. “Everyone deserves a chance to learn.”
“Not the school... this house." Her voice wibbled.
Cassie spun to look at Anj and teetered on the stairs. “What? I think the whole school looks like this, and I think it's brilliant. It's the place where everything you want is possible. I don't have to make my bed, and you don't have to share yours. Unless you want to. You can sleep in my bed if you want.”
“It’s just all so nice,” Anj threw her arms around Cassie, and they clung to each other. “Maybe just for tonight."