Odessa {S.B}

CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XV | Love Letters

Two weeks of utter boredom and seclusion greeted Odessa ever so kindly upon her return to London.

In fact, Odessa was so bored that she had resorted to taking one of her father's horses out for a ride. Vlad enjoyed riding, and for some reason (Odessa suspected it was because he was insane), he kept four of the surliest, wildest horses possible. The stablehand had tried his hardest to warn her that maybe it wasn't the best idea but no matter what he said, the stubborn girl still took Apollo, the most obstinate of the four. All the ride did was leave Odessa with sore thighs and remind her why she didn't go horse riding more often.

Having completed all of her summer assignments and exhausted all her other options of entertainment, Odessa returned to the seemingly futile task of trying to locate her broom. The search was hopeless; that was, until Odessa came across a door, less than half her height and disguised as part of the wall of one of the second floor landings. The door was jammed, but after a few tries Odessa managed to pull it open and crouch into a narrow passageway.

Cobwebs filled the corners between the sloping ceilings, forcing Odessa to take special care in order to avoid getting them in her hair. The broom had to be up there. She'd spent the last week and a half searching every other room in the manor and this was the only one left. The nature of the small and hidden room must have made it an attractive hiding place to her grandmother.

When Odessa had squeezed along the narrow passageway between the elf-sized door and the actual attic, she took a second to take in the room. She wondered how, in all her bored exploration of the manor, she had never come across the attic room before. Maybe she had when she was younger but, being unable to get through the locked door, had forgotten it.

Ugly, stained green carpet covered the floor. In some places it had pulled up, exposing the damaged floorboards beneath. The ceiling was high and storage boxes lined all the walls, save for the back wall, which had a bookshelf leant against it. Despite the unit's intended purpose, the shelves were void of books and were instead filled with all sorts of knickknacks and random collected items.

Odessa approached the shelves to inspect the various objects they held. While attempting to pocket an expensive looking sneakoscope (that stood deathly still) from one of the higher shelves, she spotted what looked like a twig poking out from the top shelf. Cursing the Ministry of Magic's age restrictions on using magic outside of Hogwarts, Odessa looked around for something she could stand on, but all of the boxes were cardboard and would collapse under her weight. It was times like these she would kill to have Xeno, who was six foot and still growing, on hand.

Deciding there was nothing else to do, Odessa gingerly placed her bare foot on the first shelf, checking to see if it would take her weight. Satisfied, Odessa started to climb the shelves that would take her to her beloved broom. It wasn't until Odessa started to feel a slight swaying that she realised the shelves weren't secured to the wall. By then it was too late to save the weird and wonderful possessions the old piece of furniture held. Odessa nimbly jumped back down to the ground and moved out of the way just as the entire unit and it's contents came crashing to the ground.

It was truly a miracle that the weak old floorboards hadn't fell through. Cringing, the concerned girl wondered whether the noise would alert her father. However, despite the loud boom that resounded through the air, the house remained as quiet as ever.

Thinking it best to clean up her mess, Odessa first tried to pick up the shelves and restore them to their original position. They were surprisingly light and easy to lift. Odessa thanked her lucky stars that nothing had been damaged when it fell, putting it down to protective charms being placed on the items at some point. She spotted the sneakoscope that she had been eyeing earlier and placed it in her dungarees' pocket. The chaos covered the floor and Odessa really couldn't be bothered to put everything back in it's rightful place. Sunny would do it later. It was her job, after all.