Spoils of Vanity

* * Chapter 7 * *

Deirdre Fitzsimon sat on the wall outside her uncle's cottage, a mug of tea steaming gently on the gatepost. The past weeks had been spent roaming the countryside with Eddie, rifling through the books in her Library, and practising the charms and hexes they had found in some of the more accessible books. A book on shadow weaving had turned out to be a veritable treasure trove of useable spells. Deirdre also found herself devouring books on oneiromancy, delving into the ethereal realms of dream, while Eddie lost himself in the intricacies of liberating the inherent energies of magical substances. He had obviously stayed awake reading for hours after she had gone to bed last night for this morning he was no where to be seen.

Wee Piteous lay on his back in the August sunshine at the bottom of the wall, legs stuck up at strange angles and his good eye tucked into the grass. The cats tail twitched and his claws flexed in his dreams. The drowsy barn owl that had brought the mail watched her with half-closed eyes. Deirdre struggled and failed to keep a smile from her face as she looked at the letters that had just been delivered. Two were for Eddie, a thick heavy letter bearing the Hogwarts crest that felt remarkably like her own, and a second plain parchment letter, sealed with the Carmichael seal and addressed in his fathers neat hand. She was tempted to go in and chivvy him out of bed so she could confirm her suspicions about his letter from the school. Hers contained her booklist, and reminded her that term started on September first, and notified her that she was a prefect for the coming year. The bronze badge was heavy in her hand, a 'P' superimposed over the blue and bronze eagle of Ravenclaw.

She grinned. Eddie was going to loose his life when he saw this. Her. A prefect. Sure, it wasn't as though the rest of her classmates were exactly sterling examples of school spirit but still, she was sure Cho would have gotten it. Or Lucy... no, not Lucy. Lucy would have just used her detention powers to kidnap cute boys. But what about... and as she ran down through her classmates Deirdre realised with a pleasant start that she must have been giving a better impression of herself than she thought.

"Hey Piteous! Look what we've got."

The cat twitched in its sleep, and Deirdre rolled her eyes. Right. The cat didn't care. She jumped off the wall, and dashed inside, banging open the door to Eddies room. "Wake up! Letters from Hogwarts, I'm a prefect, going to find Uncle Martin!" A confused and drowsy "huh?" followed her as she dashed out again.

She ran back out and around the house to find her uncle. Her calloused feet scrambled through the grass on the edges of the steep bank behind the cottage. The fields stretched down to the shoreline, and she could taste the salt in the air as she neared the beach. Low spurs of rock rose to either side of the small bay and she spotted her uncles footprints in the sand and dashed after them. The boat was still on the shore but he had taken his fishing rod, so she knew he was on the far side of the spur to the east, fishing in the deep pool there.

Stuffing the letters inside her shirt, taking care to button the badge into her pocket she scrabbled across the rocks, hurrying carelessly until a slip on some seaweed and a cut shin brought "more haste, less speed" to mind. A few minutes later she found her uncle sitting on a rock staring out at the calm sea.

"Uncle Martin!"

He started and looked around and seeing her coming looked worried.

"What is it?"

"I got prefect!" she shouted as she closed the last few yards.

"What?"

"Hogwarts! They made me prefect! I got a letter and a badge!"

The old man smiled widely and stood up.

"Well done, a ghrá!"

Deirdre hugged him, then fished out the letters, and the badge.

"Look, right there."

Martin smoothed out the letters and pulled out his spectacles, reading through it all before smiling at her.

"Well done. What will you have to do for this?"

"I'll find all that out on the train to Hogwarts."

"Fair enough. Well, this is excellent news."

"What shall we do to celebrate?"

"What do you feel like doing?"

"I don't know. I was thinking I should see my parents before I go back."

"If that's what you want."

"I think I should."

Deirdre nodded in decision then smiled at her uncle again and walked back across the rocks to the cottage. She would go see her parents. Prefect! Her!

Walking back across the sand she thought about the year ahead and all the possibilities that opened up ahead of them. She saw Eddie on the top of the rise behind the cottage, he spotted her at the same time and came running down, slipping and sliding in the sand, his shirt half buttoned and the letter brandished in his hand.

"Hey Dee! I got Prefect!"

Deirdre jumped up and spun around, landing and running to meet him. Eddie was slightly breathless as he held out the letter and the badge.

"Prefect! Me!"

"I know, me too!"

They hugged each other, and drew apart grinning.

"This is great."

"I know. Freedom to roam after dark, we can keep all the pesky first years in line, have a crack at Head boy and Head girl together."

"Are you going to write home?"

"Yeah, I have to anyway about arranging my luggage since I'm here. This is a bit of good news to tack on the end. Should I put it at the start or leave it as 'P.S. I made prefect'?"

"They'll kill you if you do that."

"Yeah, but what are they going to do, come all the way out here?"

"No, put it in the main bit. I'm not loosing you over some daft prank."

"Aw."

The started back towards the cottage.

"Mother asks me whether I'm coming back home before I go back to school."

"Are you?"

"I don't want to be hanging around there on my own when I could be here, with you."

"You should see them before you head back, otherwise it will be Christmas before you do."

"I know. I should."

"We have to be back September first, that means you leave here mid-August and spend a fortnight at home. I'll see you at Platform 9¾, or maybe in Diagon Alley, when I pick up these books."

“You do have an invitation to stay with us you know.”

"Oh? I might just do that. That could be fun."

Coming back around the cottage to the sunlit front yard Deirdre stooped to pick up her cat. Nodding at the owl she said, "You should write home by return of mail."

"I should. So shall I say you'll be accompanying me or not?"

"Do, if there is a problem, I can cancel out. It's far easier than turning up unexpectedly."

A quick search of the kitchen turned up a battered goose quill and some ink, and a large sheet of brown wrapping paper to use in place of parchment, leaving Deirdre wondering how she had managed to live her entire life in this cottage and not know where the parchment was kept. Her own stationery supplies were all up in the Library of Macgowan Keep, so they settled for expediency and Eddie dashed off a note to his step-mother, before tying it to its leg and sending it on its way.

Dear Mother,

I hope you and everyone are well. It's beautiful here and I am having a wonderful time. My letter came today from Hogwarts, I made Prefect. I shall be setting out home shortly, expect me in ten days. I shall have company, prepare a guest bedroom, please.

Your Loving Son,

Eddie