Chapter 6
Rue smiled softly, waving. She hefted her bag over her shoulder, turning quickly.
They followed quickly behind her, warily keeping their distance. Frowning, an Aurorer stayed behind for a moment, closing the distance quickly.
He seemed to be in his early twenties and had a fatherly look to him.
“You kids got a place to stay?”
Cassiopeia raised an eyebrow in challenge. “We are well and fine, thank you, sir. We’ll be going to a school in America, till they get back.”
“Fifteen years, no less twenty, is a long time to wait.”
“We’ll be okay. Maybe not great, but okay.” Robin softly spoke, voice tender and eyes irritated from crying.
“You’re pretty strong, kids. Going through what you’re going through would be difficult and horrible for everyone. Try to get help,” There it was, that fatherly smile. Pheobe had seen it on one of the faces of parents when at Diagon Alley. “It really helps, I promise.”
Cassiopeia’s face smoothed out, daring him to try to stay for longer.
He started walking towards his coworkers, casting one more glance at them over his shoulder.
“B-but… where are we going to go?”
“A boarding school, in America.”
Pheobe turned with a frown on her face. “I didn’t think you were telling the truth!”
“I didn’t see the point in lying.”
Robin hugged Pheobe tightly. “Can’t he find us now?”
Cassipeia crouched down to see eye to eye with her siblings. “That man was Teddy Tonks. I met him once with Bellatrix. He was very nice, saying he always wanted to have a girl like me as his daughter.”
“Teddy Tonks? As in our uncle? The one married to” Pheobe dropped her voice. “Andromeda?”
“Yes. They are very nice, extraordinarily if I say so myself.” Cassiopeia mouth twitched, the closest she allowed herself to smile happily.
“But Mother said that they were very mean. I thought he was very nice.”
Pheobe sighed quietly. “Well, it wouldn’t have been the first time she lied to us.” Robin nodded, biting his lip nervously.
“He would have made a great father.” No one disagreed.
An uneasy silence spread but was amplified by Pheobe’s next question.
“Is the reason you made us pack was because we’re going to the boarding schools?”
“You are.”
“Ah.”
Robin stiffened. “We? Not you?”
Cassiopeia frowned, and stood up, walking back towards the house. “Not necessarily. Do you remember the extra work I do? That Elio and Rue did?”
“Yes! I thought Elio always said that it was extra credit.” Pheobe, despite the surprises of her sibling’s arrest, was excitedly bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“It is, in a way. You all remember your awakenings, yes?”
Robin nodded, an intense gleam appearing in his eyes.
“Well, if we had no other people to guide us, what should we have done?”
“Found help, right? But we don’t talk about awakenings, so how would you find someone else who has had an awakening? Unless everyone has them, which we know they don’t. And you told us about the boarding school-”
Robin interrupted his sister; eyes blown wide. “Is there like a secret society? That would be so cool!”
“It isn’t necessarily a secret society, however, in this world, it is something of a secret.”
“This world?! Come on, please tell us!”
Cassiopeia patted Pheobe’s head. “You will learn in due time. And not from me, as I am not the best at explaining these things.
Going back on topic, we went to a boarding school. As wizards here in Britain do not value primary school as highly as the muggle population, they mainly homeschool their children or hire tutors to teach basic math. Bellatrix did not bother with our education at that age with anything other than behavioral study and Cotillion.
Because of this, we were determined to find our origins and discover the cause of our awakenings. The people at the boarding school – where you will now be going to- were our saviors. They explained it to us and offered us a safe haven, but in itself it was a prison.”
Cassiopeia closed the door, twisting the key in the lock till it made a satisfying ‘click’.
“Why don’t I tell you more when we are going to the airport?”
Pheobe frowned again. Her brooding was interrupted by her brother’s very vocal excitement.
“Woah! Are we going to a muggle place?”
“Yes. But rather than using a portkey,” Pheobe shut her mouth, intrigued by her sister’s reasoning. “I would like for you to learn how to travel using muggle methods. They are resourceful in their transportation methods. Aswell as you would do well to depend on one another.”
Pheobe nodded, standing still as she was unsure whether or not her sister was done speaking.
Cassiopeia nodded, following the two upstairs.
Pheobe quickly grabbed her pack, turning in confusion as Cassiopeia turned around and shut the door.
“Do you need something?”
Cassiopeia sighed. “I need to tell you about something and give you a couple things.”
“These, are conductors. At a certain age, you will need to harness and hone your abilities. It is particularly unruly when it first awakens, but you already know that.”
Cassiopeia held out a pair of gloves, letting Pheobe cradle them. From her limited experience, Pheobe thought that they seemed rather expensive for a glove, and overly decorated. Soft golden thread twisted together into a mirage of golden leaves, shimmering softly in the light. The edges of the glove that seemed to have been once clean cut and pristine now frayed and ripped. Pheobe paused, staring intently at a spot (no, a smudge maybe?) on the knuckles of the left glove.
“Unfortunately, how you procced to harness these is information that I have no place to disclose.”
Cassiopeia pulled out a small bag from her dress pocket, handing it to Pheobe. “It is a handbag, while admittedly small, is very useful.”
Pheobe raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“It has a rather powerful expansion spell put on it, with a square space of about ten meters by ten meters inside. Me and Elio were planning to give this to you as a Christmas Present. But,” Cassiopeia chuckled brokenly. “It’s a little late for that.”
Pheobe numbly nodded, curling into Cassiopeia’s legs.
“One last thing,” Cassiopeia sucked in a sharp breath. “Never leave Robin. You might not think you need a reminder, but please, please stay together.”
The little girl nodded. “Why would I leave him?”
“You won’t. But it’s just a reminder.”
‘Never, never. I will never leave him.’
---
“Please hurry up, my bag is really heavy!”
“Sorry! We just needed a girl talk!” Cassiopeia opened the door, Pheobe following at her heels.
Robin hummed, leaning into Pheobe’s side.
Cassiopeia shut the door and twisted the key in the lock, turning to look at her siblings. She knew she undoubtedly looked completely unaffected by the situation. It was a mask perfected and sealed permanently to her personality. She could recall whisps of a time when she was expressive, rather loud, and a more pleasant person to be around. But she would never be as extroverted and outgoing as the two children standing in front of her.
Pheobe seemed to be handling the current events rather well, all things considered. The red rims around her eyes would be barely noticeable to the untrained eye, and she seemed rather put together. The youngest female of the family had a rather regulated speech filter and had no childish urge to share secrets like her cousin, Draco. However, her careful thinking could prove to be a problem in the future, particularly with making time-limited decisions.
Robin was inquisitive and thoughtful, but much too sensitive. Cassiopeia didn’t necessarily hate him for it, but she just didn’t know exactly how to adapt to his easily influenced thought process. She wasn’t sure that she would be able to provide support for Robin if he needed it. He was the most affected in the situation, noticeable and otherwise.
Cassiopeia was incompetent in anything concerning emotional matters. She knew this, so she generally stuck to head pats and things of the like. She decided that it would rest her brother’s emotional state if she removed him of his physical luggage.
Other than mild protest that quieted with a head pat, Robin accepted the help easily.
The group quietly made their way to the edge of the grounds.
Cassiopeia held out her hands for her siblings to take. Their apparition journey took barely a moment of thought as they appeared in a discreet alleyway in the thick of London.
“Don’t let go of my hand.”
Pheobe hesitantly continued to hold her sister’s hand, face twitching minutely into an annoyed expression. It was gone as quickly as it was put in place, leaving Cassiopeia with a feeling of bewilderment.
‘Is… is she mad I didn’t give her a head pat? Or was I too annoying?’ To her embarrassment, Cassiopeia both blushed in mortification and mumbled the second part aloud.
“Uh, what?” Robin turned in confusion.
“No! No, not at all! I’m just wanting to continue our conversation from earlier.” Pheobe sighed heavily. “It’s also very loud.”
Robin found himself left out of the loop, once again. “Well, what should we know?”
“Whatever you want to know.”
They merged with the other pedestrians on the street, who were just heading to work as the beginning rays of dawn began to peak over the horizon. Cassiopeia seemed unbothered with discussing the boarding school that less than 2,000 people (scattered around the globe, no less) knew about. But despite this, Pheobe could not help but feel a sliver of anxiety with talking about such a sensitive topic out in the open.
Robin either didn’t care or didn’t realize that they were talking about a sensitive topic and started to bombard Cassiopeia with questions.
“Where will we be staying? Are the people nice? Do we get to learn more languages? I don’t really like languages! Are the teachers nice? What sort of people are working there? Wh-?!”
The Pheobe smiled sweetly as she slapped her hand over Robin’s mouth. “Let’s take the questions one at a time, Robin. Let her speak!”
He nodded, thoroughly chastised.
“You will be staying with three other bunkmates of your gender. You can make a request for a private room with each other. But by the time that they approve it, you will already be fifty.”
Pheobe giggled nervously. Cassiopeia turned a confused eye to her younger sister. The young girl’s laughter died out at the blank stare her sister was giving her.
“I thought you were making a joke…?”
“They will approve it by the time you are fifty. I did not intend for it to be a joke.”
An awkward silence descended on the group. Cassiopeia continued after a moment, a sigh escaping her lips as they saw the first sign for the airport. She sat down on a bench, peering expectantly at the oncoming traffic.
Pheobe sat down next to her, yelping at the sensation of the metal seeping it’s cold through her leggings.
“People are people. I cannot say what the current hospitality is amongst your age group, but I can say that students my age were neither welcoming nor damning. You shall find out for yourself.
I had an elderly woman and her children as my caretakers. I believe they are not kind, but not outright cruel. However, if you are to come upon trouble with other students or teachers, let me know.” Cassiopeia gently patted Robin on the head. “Languages are hard to learn, that much is a fact. However, considering there are people from every corner of the globe, you must learn to adapt and communicate. Doing so is imperative in the- quote on quote- real world.”
Cassiopeia’s expression relaxed as a large red bus pulled into view. She stood up and pulled out her purse, clutching a wad of pounds. She stood up, walking towards the bus with purpose in her steps and her siblings trailing behind like little ducklings. Cassiopeia nearly chuckled at the comparison.
The doors to the bus opened with a quiet whoosh. She nodded at the bus driver, gently lifting Robin and Pheobe up to the high step and dropping the pounds into the payment jar. It was admittedly more than she would have liked- but she had taken the bus before, and it was safer that walking across London. The bus driver tipped his hat at her.
She sat down a little ways down the aisle, scooting over so Pheobe and Robin could sit comfortably. Luckily, there weren’t any other people in their aisle. So, they could talk with relative privacy.
“Next, you’ll have to be a lot more rigorous in your studies. The course is rather hard, even during the beginning. They expect the best from you, which means that you must put in more than enough effort- which can range from doing extra homework or studying over break and anything in between- to get good grades.
Currently we are heading to the airport, on the outskirts of London. Portkeys would be an option, but I would need to be an adult by Wizarding and Muggle Laws to be able to purchase an international portkey. Tch.”
“How many hours of sleep do you get?” Pheobe inquired softly.
“About four to five hours at the moment. When I was your age it was about 10 hours.”
“What’s your favorite part of the school?”
“The food has been described to me as extraordinary compared to Muggle schools. I do prefer it to our country’s delicacy tastes.”
‘I am a liar. A real fucking liar. Did I use the word correctly? I think that was how Elio used it.’ Cassiopeia’s brow furrowed as she glanced outside the bus, her eyes catching on the bright lights amongst the wet and damp city.
The bus skidded slowly to a stop, jolting the trio forward. Cassiopeia, as always, quickly regained her pois immediately, straightening her posture once again. Pheobe and Robin, however, slammed with an oof into the seat in front of them.
“Owww…”
“Are you upset? You seem, disgruntled…” Pheobe turned at her brother’s words, noting that Cassiopeia did, in fact, look rather disgruntled.
“No.”
Cassiopeia stood up sharply, posture straight and head level. “Here is our stop. We must walk quickly, otherwise we will miss the plane.”
Once again, she led their little group off the bus. Now, they had 2 hours to go through customs and other security measures that were in place. The actual security check was likely to only take them 15 minutes, so they had time to get food and sleep to account for the time difference. Cassiopeia had only travelled twice in a plane, while it was better than no previous experience, she was not the most ideal person to be travelling with Pheobe and Robin. Perhaps there would be a hiccup or two, but the actual plane ride should be rather easy.
As she guided their small group through the entrance, Cassiopeia sighed as here eyes flicked over to the clock. It seemed that the traffic had taken much more time than she had initially anticipated, making them use up an extra thirty minutes of their time.
‘It’s fine. We have time left anyways.’
Cassiopeia shepherded them closer and closer to the front of the line, drawing their attention away from the endless broachers and other distractions.
“Come, we must not be late.”
***
After being greeted by a blank faced woman who checked in their luggage, going through security under lax gazes, and being welcomed onto the plane by an overly enthusiastic flight attendant, it was safe to say that Pheobe was done. It took her not even 30 seconds to find their seats, colasp into the window seat, and fall asleep. Her brother followed her lead.
“Oh well. At least they will not fight over the window seat.”