Daughter of the Crow

Chapter 8

December 2006

Kiara ducked under the flying clothes that Haley had spelled. Kiara took last look over her area before it was a minefield of clothes and belongings. before gingerly stepping between scatters of belongings and setting her trunk by the door. She was glad Regulus convinced her to do a pre-pack before everything went crazy. He had been adamant that she leave early the night before and start packing. She thought he was being over-prepared but like with so many things he was correct. Kiara didn't know how he knew this year would be more chaotic than most but she was thankful he did. Without him, she would have been flying around the room like the cleaning harpies. Only she would be trying to find her sweaters not, a misbehaving camper. Three out of the four occupants of their room were present. Haley was madly stuffing pants into her trunk, Quinn was dashing in and out of hers, and Kiara was dodging any projectiles that came her way. Eleanor, their other roommate, had left earlier to go bother Jonathan.

"Can someone help me find my sweater?" Quinn asked, her head poking out of her trunk.

"I just finished. I can look over here. It's the blue one right?" Kiara walked over to Quinn's area of the room.

"Yep. I don't think it's in here," she pointed back into her trunk, "but I've accidentally packed things before and forgot about them. I might as well check one more time."

As Quinn disappeared back into her trunk, Kiara searched through the pile on the bed. She found a strange amount of clothes for a girl who wore her uniform everywhere during the week.

"Are those my shorts?" Haley leaned off her bed, holding on to the curtains to keep from falling.

Kiara held up the mentioned piece of cloth.

"These? Didn't you say you lost them two months ago?" she raised her voice for the next part to make sure Quinn heard her. "You both need to deal with your organization habits. How are either of you supposed to find any of your things if you both just assume whatever is on the floor is yours?"

"It's worked so far. Well except for this." Haley snatched back her belongings.

Kiara shook her head before heading back to the slightly more manageable pile on Quinn's bed.

"Where do you even keep these things during the year? I never see them?"

Quinn's voice echoed up to them suspiciously, "Oh here and there. The elves help me with some of them."

Haley huffed something not for polite company towards the elves and their lack of care for her problems. Kiara ignored both of the maniacs. After looking through the whole mess on the comforter there was only one other place for her to look. Kiara got down on the floor to look under the bed. She was trepidatious about sticking her hand in but there was no other way of searching the dark void. Kiara wouldn't be surprised if there was one under there. Kiara poked her hand under the bed and swept it around tentatively. Once she determined it to be safe enough she reached to the back of the bed, mentally thanking the house elves for their magnificent cleaning.

The tips of her fingers brushed something soft, and thinking it might have been the sweater they were looking for, Kiara extended her hand forward to get a firm grasp on it. However, the thing—that was now very obviously not Quinn's sweater—moved out of her reach. Before Kiara had time to react the fluffy thing twitched and brushed her hand. It was warm. Kiara yelped and pulled her hand to her chest, backing away from the bed.

"There's something down there!" Kiara pressed against the far wall. Her gaze frantically switched between the shiny eyes peering out from underneath the bed and Quinn's shocked face. "What did you put under there?"