Ink and Parchment ~ blood and bone

7

Secondly I heard from my grandfather that you got a warning for underage magic? I know you can do wandless magic Eliza, it's not exactly a close kept secret after what happened with Rosier, what happened?

Hoping you are well,

Theo

~

Dear Eliza,

Happy birthday! How does it feel finally being the same age as the rest of us? I won't keep you from unwrapping your gifts for too long but I will say that me, Theo and Blaise are planning to meet up in Diagon on August nineteenth and it would be wonderful if you could meet us

Yours,

Daphne

Eliza smiled when she read through Daphne's note and set it aside with the others as she went back to packing her meagre belongings. Although definitely not her strangest birthday her 12th was far away from normal. She hadn't even had a chance to unwrap her presents before she had been accosted by a mad house-elf calling itself Dobby. It had told her under no circumstances was she to go back to school and even pointing out that she stayed in the hovel that was the orphanage hadn't changed its mind. It had then gone on to decide that the only way to get Eliza to not go to Hogwarts would be to expel her. It had levitated the broth that had been on the stove and promptly dumped it all over the floor which meant Eliza was threatened both by the matron who was raving about how sinful children needed punishment and a letter from the ministry warning about the use of underage magic.

After that Eliza decided she had stuck around the orphanage long enough and had informed the matron that she would be leaving for boarding school a bit earlier this year and dashed upstairs to pack what little she had lying about her room.

She had enough funds to allow her a three week stay in Diagon. Plus she had to check in with the goblins and see how well her investments were fairing. She shoved her presents, still unopened, into her trunk and locked it flinging her ratty leather jacket over her shoulders as she left.

Good riddance.

Eliza spent her last weeks of the summer holiday in Diagon feeling happier then she had been since the end of June. Her investments were doing well and Eliza knew she at least had enough money to live comfortably until she turned 17 and so didn't feel guilty when she splurged on some new books and clothes to go alongside the gifts her court had given. Blaise had given her a book on mind magic which he thought she would find interesting his assessment turning out to be completely right. When she had read the preliminary chapters it had instantly reminded her of Sherlock Holmes' mind palace from the detective books she used to read. She had always been interested in the concept and she found working on her occlumency quite fun. Theo had also gifted her a book and Eliza was actually considering hugging the boy in thanks as he had gifted her a tomb from his old family library on blood magic. Daphne had broken the mould and instead of giving Eliza books had instead gifted her with several gorgeous hair pins that Eliza took great pleasure in wearing. She still wasn't used to enjoying the luxuries the wizarding world provided but that didn't mean she didn't like to indulge in them.

August 19th arrived faster than she thought it would and soon she was waiting downstairs in the leaky cauldron for her court to arrive.

Blaise arrived first elegantly stepping out of the fireplace in a way Eliza wasn't sure she'd manage.

"Ciao Eliza!" Blaise said greeting her warmly his skin even darker after months in the Italian sun "is it possible for you to have gotten even more beautiful since we parted?" he said wiggling his eyebrows. Eliza scoffed in response rolling her eyes fondly. Blaise always turned into an incorrigible flirt whenever he spent time with his mother, it had happened after Yule and Easter break as well. Eliza was saved from responding when the floo flared again as Daphne stepped out fixing her blonde hair.