As the Eagle Flies

Chapter 7

Christmas was upon them. Ronnie and Jamie were both planning on going home for the holidays. "Along with the rest of the world," griped Ema, and it was true. The list of students who were staying over in the Ravenclaw common room had a grand total of - two names.

"Fun," said Ari grumpily. "It's going to be so bloody quiet I won't be able to hear myself think!"

"Wrong, DeLingues," said Ronnie who, for her part, wasn't overly pleased to be going home. "You're staying over with Potter here, aren't you?"

Ema made a face.

"Be nice! I can't be loud enough to make Ari happy! Hell, people think Ravenclaws are like the quiet ones! We're so loud it annoys even me sometimes!"

Jamie put her hands up, as though Ema was pointing a gun at her. "Eepers, Em, I'm sure Ronnie is sor-ee that she made that comment now. Anyway, we'd better go and pack."

"Yeah, have fun," said Ari, sounding annoyed.

* * *

I've been informed by Professor Katkin that you and Ari are the only ones staying over Christmas. Excellent. I'll be there first day of the holidays.

Love (unless you get in a fight again),

Mum

PS. Tell Ari that her mum says hi. I think. I'm not sure exactly what she said...

"What? That's tomorrow! Damn, I wasn't ready to see her again so soon! I can tell she's still griping about that little squirmish with Valerie," grumbled Ema.

"Who's griping?" asked Ari pointedly. "Anyway, I'll be quite glad to see her. I'm keen to know what that bloody song was about, and what's going on with us. Why Margothten's after you and everything...you know..."

"Yeah, whatever," said Ema, and she turned towards the fire to pout. "If only the bloody Gryffindors hadn't been such babies, we'd've been out on the bloody Quidditch pitch by now."

"I see, now there's not one thing in particular bothering you; you just want to be against the world. I agree though, gits, they were babies about it weren't they?"

The Gryffindor vs. Slytherin grudge match had taken place in October. Slytherin had won narrowly and the Gryffindors had pouted so much that there had been a re-match. Well, it wasn't wholly down to that pouting, whatever Ema would like to have said. It was down to the Gryffindor Seeker insisting that he had been fouled during the crucial dive. Knowing the Slytherins, it had been agreed that that was possible and there had been a rematch. That Slytherin had won.

"What was the point?" grouched Ema. "Now we can't play Hufflepuff till January and the Gryffies aren't any better off."

Ari ignored her. Sometimes, when Ema was in a bad mood, even Ari couldn't stand to be around her for long.

* * *

Ginny arrived at the school promptly the next day. By the time she had found the Ravenclaw portrait, she was very hungry and wrongly chose her first words to be, "Let me in."

"Absolutely not," said the lovely lady in the portrait whose name was Madam Leila la Flora. "Not unless I get the password and even then, after that greeting -"

"Then could you kindly tell my daughter that I'm here?"

She waited. She heard, from inside, a shriek and a crash as though Ema had fallen in shock.

Which is exactly what had happened, only Ginny hadn't known it.

Then the portrait swung aside and Ginny entered the Eagle's Perch, the Ravenclaw's nickname for their common room, and looked around.

The walls were covered in pictures of the Ravenclaw House and their families, there were beanbag chairs all over and large blue throw pillows. There were also a number of rugs on the floor.

Ginny thought the rugs were not very tasteful. Most of them were made of some kind of disgusting matted blue fur and the rest out of the same disgusting fur but green instead of blue.

Then, out of nowhere, Ginny raised her wand, pointed it at Ema and said, "Poine."

"Ow!" said Ema, clutching her backside and shooting a revolted look at her mother.

Ari too looked at Ginny, inquiringly.

"Spanking Hex," said Ginny coolly. "For fighting."

Ema stuck out her tongue.

"Well, come on now, say hello to your mother."

"Hi, Mum," mumbled Ema. "Great of you to come."

"Hello, Ari."

"Hi Mrs. Pot -- Ginny," said Ari. A bit shy, it was true, but, after all, it was her first time calling this woman by her first name.

"Hello, Neanderthals, come and sit down. I gather that there is a lot you'd like to have answered."

"Too right!" said Ema, forgetting her annoyance and bouncing down from where she had been getting no paper on the walls and all of the glue in her hair.

"Okay, what's up?" asked Ginny, without beating around the bush.

Ari and Ema hesitated; neither wanted to be the first to share their dream.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I think I've got a pretty good idea of what's going on. You've each been visited in a dream by a woman--"

"Woman's eyes," corrected Ema. "And I couldn't even tell that the eyes were talking. So how do I know...?"

"Because I said so," snapped Ginny irritably. "The point is, it was the same woman in your dreams. Do you know who?"

"What is this, a history lesson?" grouched Ema. Ema is a very accomplished groucher. "You're supposed to be telling us, not asking us what this thing means."

Ari, however, looked thoughtful. Then she said: "I think it was Nienne."

Ema looked at her in awe.

"What? Nienne? How would you know?"

"I had another dream," said Ari. "But it didn't make much sense. I saw the woman, and I asked who she was, but she didn't answer. When I was waking up, I heard this whisper saying her name. I think. But whatever. Mrs...erm...Ginny?"

"Just Ginny, just Ginny," said Ginny, "I hate being called 'Mrs. Potter'."

Ema sighed. "Ok, so now it's a tea-party," she grumbled. "Can we please talk about what's going on?"

Ginny sighed. "Yes, we can," she agreed. She hadn't really expected Ema to be in a good mood with the common room so quiet, but she did wish that she, Ema, would calm down enough to talk in a civilized manner.

"Just tell me," said Ari, sensing tension between mother and daughter, "What gift I have. I don't understand it at all. I mean...Gryffindor--I think it was him--did some Crucio curse and Ema started crying--"

"I was not crying!" lied Ema emphatically.

"Liar," said Ari casually.

"I am not lying!" shouted Ema while still lying.

"Okay, okay, you weren't lying! And you weren't crying," said Ginny, smiling slightly. "Ema, this is a serious conversation, can you please attempt to discuss it civilly?"

"Oh, right, anyway, Ema was crying--" she shot a nasty look at Ema "--but I didn't feel anything at all. Well, no pain, just a kind of tickle. It wasn't comfortable, but it wasn't overly unpleasant."

Ginny smiled. "I see," she said. "Well, I should be able to explain that quickly enough...should only take...five hours or so." She made a face. "Why do you two have to be the cause of all my worries and woe?"

Ema grinned. "It's our job," she said, and Ginny smiled too; it was nice to see Ema's smile. Ari realized that she hadn't seen it in days. It was most unlike Ema.

"Well," said Ari who for her part was not in the mood for smiling, "Could we get this explained?"

Ginny sighed. "How many pairs of twins are there in your year?" she asked abruptly.

"You and Ronnie!" said Ema, exasperated. "What does it matter?"

"It matters," said Ginny. "How many? And who are their parents?"

* * *

"Okay, that's five pairs of twins," said Ari finally.

Ginny smiled weakly.

"And I know all of their parents. All of their parents had a part in Lord Voldemorts downfall," she said, and her smile had lost all of its warmth.

"I feel a prophecy coming on," said Ema in a mock-hushed voice that made even Ari laugh though only briefly.

"You feel correctly, my young one," said Ginny sadly. "It was a prophecy devised by a powerful seer just after Voldemort's downfall. I don't remember it exactly word-for-word, but what I do know goes like this:

Good with bad, love with hate,
Those who have vanquished the Dark One
Shall live in wonder at their own fate.
For from each and their spouse,
Two will arouse...

"Meaning the twins," said Ginny. "And then later, it says:

And from the female shall come the male,
And from the male forth shall come female,
Except for that one who did strike the last blow
From he shall come one, one small..."

"I am not that small!" said Ema indignantly.

"You caught on," said Ginny sadly. "Yes, the prophecy speaks of you. Harry, your father, struck the blow that killed Voldemort and we had only one small girl. And it is you that this speaks of."

"So?" said Ema, not overly rude. "What's the problem?"

"I never finished," said Ginny. "It continues:

This small one, though small she shall be,
Is the one who shall climb the thick, dark tree
And eat that fruit which is forbidden to thee,
Seeing what no other eyes can see.

"That means," continued Ginny, before Ema could ask, "not that you're going to go to the Garden of Eden, but that the fruit which Margothten has never tasted, you shall taste and that which he shall not see, you shall see."

"You sound so old-fashioned!" said Ema. "And I don't get it."

"It's too complicated. You shall be the one, basically, who shall either cause Margothten's fall, or you shall be the one who shows us how to kill him."

"Where does it say that?" asked Ema, looking genuinely interested for the first time.

"It doesn't," admitted Ginny. "But the Aurors have interpreted it and the Aurors are usually right."

"Alright, oh high-and-mighty-one," said Ema irritably. "So Gothie's after me, I suppose, let's move on to Ari."

"Yes, let's..." Ginny was thoughtful. "I wonder how to explain this. You, Ari, are the Ravenclaw...you are Ravenclaw's...I don't know, redeemer. You are here to redeem Ravenclaw; to let the Eagle free."

"Ok, enough poetry," said Ema. "What's Ari's dream about?"

"Oh, yes, well, to understand that, you have to understand the story of Nienne which I really don't feel like telling now."

"Mum...!"

"Relax," said Ginny wearily. "I said I didn't feel like telling it, but I will."

Ari settled back, ready to listen to a nice, long story. She was disappointed. Ginny made Nienne's thrilling tale swift and, in Ari's opinion, rather dull.

"Okay, Nienne was the youngest daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw. Shortly after Nienne's fifth birthday, they realized she was showing no signs of magic," Ginny rattled off as though she'd learned this by heart. "Rowena did not want to put her child in danger, but by the age of eleven - for Nienne - it was clear that Nienne would be in danger. Squibs were, after all, in those days, deeply mistrusted." She took a deep breath; she seemed to be trying to tell the history of the world in as short a time as possible.

"Rowena wished to keep her daughter and simply keep it secret that she possessed no magical powers. She was unlucky. Salazar Slytherin was the first to find out. He cast Nienne out into the Muggle world. That's when she wrote the song In a World I Once Knew.

"Slytherin would have been content to leave Nienne out in the world of nothing, but not so Godric Gryffindor..."

"Mum," said Ema sternly, "You're talking like you live in the fourteenth century! Hello! You're talking to eleven-year-olds!"

"I'm twelve," said Ari vaguely.

"Whatever," said Ginny, sounding annoyed. "As I was saying, Gryffindor found out about Nienne shortly after Slytherin left the school, which, Ari, if you're wondering is a different tale entirely which you'll just have to look up yourself." Ginny glanced around and ploughed on.

"Gryffindor took it upon himself to find Nienne, with every intention to kill her. However, when he reached the hut that she lived in, she was not home. After waiting a lurking for days, he spotted her coming in from the meadows, wearing daisies on her belt and lilies in her hair..."

"Mum, who cares about the flowers?"

"I do," snapped Ginny. "Who's telling the story, you or me?"

"You," muttered Ema.

"Good, as I was saying, the second Gryffindor saw Nienne returning, he leapt out and performed the Cruciatus curse. That, Ari, is the curse that was put on you. It is meant to cause excruciating pain and can, if used frequently enough, break a person. That is to say, cause them to go insane. However, the curse had no effect on Nienne save to make her wince. Gryffindor, being a temperamental man, then did Avada Kedavra which is the killing curse, Ari. It too had no effect. Did you get that, you two? No effect. I am talking about Avada Kedavra, the curse that you cannot block, cannot escape...it had..."

"No effect," said Ema sounding thoroughly bored. "Okay, so?"

"Er..." Ginny hesitated, as though not really knowing where to go from that dramatic monologue. "Well, you see, this is a very rare gift that Nienne possessed and it was caused by her going down to the stream every month on the full moon, soaking daisies and lilies in the water and then, the next morning, putting them around herself. You see? Even though Nienne was a squib, and could not do magic, neither could magic affect her. This is a rare trait that has been seen only twice before besides in Nienne."

"Who else has it?" asked Ari, dreading the answer.

"Oh, no one, technically," said Ginny, shrugging. "I meant that two mages besides Nienne have had a form of this gift. Only Nienne could throw off any curse at all. The others who possessed it were Margothten...and Ari."

"What?" Ari didn't understand how she hadn't seen this coming, but it was a shock all the same. "You mean, nothing will ever affect me? No magic? Where's the fun in that?" she pouted.

"No," said Ginny heavily. "No. You possess a...well...a weaker version. No, perhaps that's not the way to say it. You posses a different form of the gift. The Unforgivable Curses - that would be Cruciatis, Imperius and Avada Kedavra - will not work on you. However, other curses will. Ari, when you are summoned, you must make the founders believe you are in pain. You must, or all will be ruined."

"Mum, have you been reading Lord of the Rings?" asked Ema. "Because you're talking like that wizard...what's his face? Gandalf?"

"Eh? No!" said Ginny defiantly, then quailed under her daughter's imperious stare. "Well, yes, but I had to, don't you know?" she said, clearly uncomfortable. "It's hard to have a conversation with Ari's mum when you haven't read the books!"

Ari laughed. But then she frowned again. "But what did Nienne mean that I have to protect Ema?"

"Oh, that," said Ginny, smiling slightly. The girls were taking this very well. "You can pass your powers on to Ema. Not permanently of course, but you can cause the pain to lessen if they ever lay off you and move on to Ema."

"So, I'm the Eagle's redeemer person, Gothie's after Ema, and I can fight off the Unfogivable Curses?" Ari was still attempting to process all this.

"Fat chance that you'll get to be the redeemer thingie," said Ema, sinking back into her annoyed mood. "We'll never get to play Quidditch with those Gryffie bastards hogging the field."

For some reason, this made Ginny look extremely frustrated.

"This isn't about racking up house points and winning at Quidditch!" she snapped, glaring at Ema, who looked surprised.

"It's not?" she asked.

"No, it bloody well isn't! It's about getting the other houses to accept you as people, Ema, people, not walking-talking books. Not machines who know their school work." She looked at the girls' blank faces.

"You don't understand," she said, dully.

"No," said Ema coolly. "I guess we don't."

* * *

Though slightly discouraged by her daughter's attitude, Ginny did not give up hope for the girls. She stayed that night in the second years dorm and the next morning she, Ari and Ema were found sitting around the fire in the Eagle's Perch, ready to try again.

"Sorry Mum," Ema began. "I was in...I didn't mean to...but anyway..."

"It's alright, Ems," said Ginny, glad that, for once, Ema was showing some signs of having a conscience. "But we do need to figure this out...first of all, no, Ari you're not the only Ravenclaw redeemer thingie. Hell, we need to think up a name for you, don't we? Anyway, you're not the only one. Don't you remember the Twilight Prophecy? Ema, you're the one who works on bringing the house standards up and Ari, you're the one who has to defeat the Dark Lord and get you guys accepted as people."

Ari burst out laughing. Ginny and Ema stared at her.

"Um...Are you alright, Ari?" asked Ema tentatively.

"The...way...you...said...that..." choked Ari. She sat up, put on a serious face and said airily, "Oh, yeah, Ari, you just get to defeat the Dark Lord, but in the meantime you're to work on changing the whole school's mind about your house..." then she burst into gales of laughter once more.

"But," Ari said, suddenly stopping her laughing, "What do we do? I mean, what's the point? Ginny, you said we didn't understand, and you're probably right, but what is it besides racking up points and winning at Quiddich?"

"You two are so, so...Slytherin!" said Ginny, grinning.

"Am not!" said Ema defiantly. "But I do have a question, Mum. Why was the twin prophecy thing relevant in any way, shape, or form?"

"Oh, it's just a time marker. When those twins all start at Hogwarts is when, basically, all the Aurors get to jump up and set tabs on all of you."

"I see," said Ari. "But answer my other question."

"Right. What are Ravenclaws?" asked Ginny. Ari and Ema looked at her blankly. Ginny repeated the question: "What are Ravenclaws? Bloody hell, you two! You need to think! Don't tell me that you don't know the traits of your own house!"

"Well, we're smart?" said Ari as though it were a question.

"No! No, no, no!" said Ginny. "Look at me; you are not walking-talking books! Okay, time to play the teacher. Go now, each of you and write five traits of Ravenclaws. You've got five minutes."

Ari and Ema groaned but Ginny did look like a teacher and--to an eleven-year-old--that look meant business.

* * *

Ravenclaw's Traits

Ari

"Good, Ari, good!" said Ginny after reading this. "Ema, let's see yours."

The Eagle

Ema

"Ema," said Ginny sternly. "You're handwriting is egregious. But you're right. You guys are lonely. Now, tell me what that means."

"This is turning out to be just like a lesson!" complained Ari.

"Ema?" said Ginny, ignoring Ari. "Why are you lonely?"

"I'm not," said Ema. "But, you know," she squirmed slightly, "The Gryffies are friends with the Hufflepuffs. Not close friends, mind, but they always get along. The Slyths and the Gryffies enjoy a love-hate relationship, and they know each other really well. We get along okay with the Hufflepuffs and we don't fight with the Gryffs that much and we're not on bad terms with the Slyths, but, we don't know them. They say things like, 'why aren't you in Ravenclaw?" to a smart Slyth, but that Slyth isn't outgoing or talkative or creative or anything, just ambitious and if they knew anything about us, they wouldn't think that the Slyth belonged here." She took a deep breath.

Ari grinned.

"Repeat that Ema, I may have missed something, no don't!" she added hastily as Ema opened her mouth.

Ginny, however, looked thoughtful. "I see your point, Em," she said. "You've got a good one. You'll have to work off of that, you two. In the meantime, I've got to get back home to relieve your father of his loneliness."

She turned and swept out of the common room, leaving two very confused and slightly annoyed girls staring after her.

Author notes: Please, please, don't come running to me about 'why is Gothy after Ema?' That is explained later. Now we're busy dealing with Ari. Thank you.