Hogwarts United: Nothing Lasts Forever

Chapter 1. Quoth the Raven, "Congratulations and condolences."

"But it's such a girl's name!" Jax pleaded exasperatedly. She tossed herself face first onto her bed, feathers puffing out of the goose down duvet.

"In case you hadn't noticed, Jacqueline, you are a girl! And if I'm the one who pushed you out my body and grew you out of nothin', then I'll call you whatever I'd like, thank you much." Her mom clunked her boots on the wooden floor over to the window and opened them again, letting Merda soar out with a grateful croon. "Now, let's have it! Unless you want to try and claim that Merda is so keen on your company that she's stopping by for small talk. Again." She held her hand out expectantly to her daughter. "The letter, if you please?"

Isabelle looked over the edge of her book at her mother, but her smug look of superiority and raised thin eyebrows said 'I don't know what you're talking about', and then returned rudely to her book, gracefully turning to the next page. Mrs. Edenfare turned to Jax. "All right, let's have it then." She could hear the clacking of her mom's boots taking a few steps towards her bed. Jax let out an exasperated groan and pulled the letter she had shoved in her pocket out, tossing it in the direction of her mom.

"Honestly, Jacqueline!" she shouted. "It's all wrinkled!"

"Stop calling me that!" Jax retorted, her voice muffle by her pillow.

Her mom pulled up the bottom of her skirt to allow her knees to squat, and grabbed the letter from the floor, smoothing it out.

"Who's it from, mother?" Isabelle asked in a tone that clearly implied that she was only asking as a formality, and did not, in fact, care.

Crinkling her nose to try and read the writing on the wrinkled envelope, She gave it up as a lost cause. Jax's mom was in denial that her eyesight was going. Even though they had decreased the use of magic for household tasks, Mrs. Edenfare took to enchanting her embroidery and mending duties in secret, closing them in a cupboard as they worked, and passing the work off as her own. She had integrity, but her stubborn insistence that she did not need, as she put it, 'muggle visual aids' out weighed her moral discrepancies. She did feel guilty for sneaking the magic from Mr. Edenfare, who was the only one in the family who seemed to insist upon the limited magic use of late. Hehad not yet given them a reason as to why, but they all suspected it had something to do with his new Job, for which, of many reasons, they had moved here for. It was a fairly new position that was affiliated with the Ministry of Magic, but was being kept very hush hush. To Jax, who liked her facts straight forward and not laden with cloak and mystique, the whole thing made her uncomfortable.

Mrs. Edenfare flipped over the envelope, pulling a flat piece of copper from her pocket that looked like a pen someone had placed on a railroad track and run over. She slid it under the wax seal, a bronze color that was typical of her family, and placed the copper edger back into her apron pocket. Pulling out the letter, she read it aloud, an action which caused Jax to shove the pillow her face had been buried in over the back of her head, blocking off her ears.

"Dearest Violetta,

I hope this letter finds you well, as there has been much word about town that you no longer dwell at 31 Plainsburrough, Surrey. Vince and myself have wondered, too, if there is truth to the rumors that your poor husband was sacked from the Wanding mill. Pity, because he always made such fine wands. Bought one myself when I was just a girl. Is it true that he learned from Olivander himself?

Listen to me, prattling on. We just want to know how you are all getting on. How has Isabelle, the poor dear, taken the loss of her scholarship to Waverly's? Such a prominent school, and not at all easy to get in!"