"Sirius, I'm perfectly capable of eating my lunch by myself..." Adelaide sighed, leaning back against the pillows of her bed just before a levitated spoon swooped gracefully toward her mouth so she could slurp tomato basil soup once more.
"Oh, I know." Sirius smirked from where he leisurely sprawled out across Mary's uninhabited bed.
Adelaide scowled then unceremoniously swatted the now empty spoon away like it was an annoying fly before it could droop back down into the soup bowl at her bedside. "Well then why the bloody hell have you insisted that this stupid thing feed me like I'm a big baby!"
"Well, you are my baby..." Sirius winked, obviously trying to rile her up even more.
"Sirius!" she scolded, chunking Dorris at his face, followed soon after by Doug the purple dragon.
"Hey! Stop it! I was just wondering how long it would take for you to question it!" he laughed.
Adelaide pouted and crossed her arms over her chest, looking pointedly in the other direction, which happened to be in the direction of Marlene's empty bed. Of their friend group, only Lily, James, Sirius and herself were left at the school that easter holiday, which worked out for the best she supposed— It was much easier for Sirius to sneak into her dorm to hang out (and otherwise annoy her) without the others around, something he took full advantage of.
In the three days since she'd nearly been drowned and eaten by a damn Grindylow, he had hardly left her side—his reasoning mentioned something about needing to keep an eye on her after she'd used up five out her nine lives that semester, but Adelaide wasn't really listening as it was part of a much longer speech where he tried to convince Lily to let him stay up in their dorm over night, which she of course did not agree to.
"Oh, come on Addy... I was just kidding around..." he said more tenderly to a still pouting Adelaide. The weight of the bed shifted and suddenly warmth radiated from her right side, followed soon after by his soft lips on her cheek. "I love you, Addy..." he murmured sweetly against her skin making her heart melt into a puddle.
"I love you too, you idiot." she grumbled weakly, face heating up a little and betraying her cold exterior. No matter how many times they said those words, it always felt like the first time to her.
Sirius seemed satisfied with her grumbly profession of love and made himself more comfortable at her side, laying down and resting his head on her shoulder. "So, I've been thinking—"
"Uh oh..." Adelaide interrupted with an audible smirk. "Never a good sign..."
Sirius tickled her side in retaliation making her giggle, then continued. "So, as I was saying... I think it would be a good idea for you to get some swimming lessons from Madge."
Adelaide thought for a moment, idly playing with a lock of Sirius's hair. "Don't you think she'd get suspicious? I mean— she's smart, Sirius... I feel like if I asked her out of the blue to teach me how to swim, it wouldn't take long for her to realize I was Floofs— erm, I mean the cat..." she ended a little awkwardly. While this was a real reason for not wanting Madge to teach her, it wasn't the only one. Her memories of drowning were a little murky, but whatever saved her was definitely not human... or at least, it wasn't purely human and she wasn't sure she wanted to put her Slytherin friend on the spot like that.
Sirius sighed and began tracing little shapes on Adelaide's hip where the old and tattered quidditch practice jersey she'd stolen from James rode up from her baggy sweatpants, leaving a little splotch of porcelain skin. "Yeah, you're probably right... Maybe she could teach me and then I'll teach you?"
Adelaide's fingers momentarily paused their fiddling with his hair. The mental image of him in the water, alone with another girl, a rather pretty girl, in nothing but her swim suit did not sit well with her. "No." she said a little more aggressively than she intended, returning again to playing with another curly lock of his hair.
Sirius was much too relaxed to catch the sharpness to her tone. "Why not?"
"I-I just—" What was she supposed to say? 'I'm too jealous and insecure to let you go off swimming with my pretty, probably part-mermaid friend'? No, that would just make her sound like a crazy girlfriend... which even if it was true, was not the vibe she was really going for. "I-I just don't think it's a good idea is all..."
"Hmm... Well I think it is..." he said a little stubbornly. "You didn't see her, Ads. She swam so fast, I swear she had to be part fish!" he chortled.
"I could swim fast if someone taught me..." she grumbled nastily.
"I know, silly—that's why I wanted her to teach... you..." he trailed off, sitting up so he could look at her properly. "Hang on... Addy, are you—are you jealous?" he asked looking far too amused for her liking.
"No." she said tersely, chewing on the side of her cheek.
"Oh, good merlin, you are!" he said in slight surprise.
"I just said I wasn't!" she snapped half-heartedly.
"Addy, you know how much I love you... You have absolutely nothing to be jealous about..." he chuckled softly, gently moving her hair out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear, smiling as his grey eyes looked at her as if she was the only person on the planet.
"I-I know that..." she said quietly, stomach fluttering and thoughts getting a little jumbled, as they usually did when he looked at her like that. "It's just that you—well you talk about her all the time... and how good a swimmer she is..." she trailed off. It wasn't until she said these words out loud that she realized how utterly ridiculous it all sounded. What was he going to do, dump her because some girl he hardly knew could swim better than her? She half expected him to laugh at her for being so silly, but thankfully, he didn't.
Instead, he looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then leaned forward to kiss her on the nose as his warm hand rested on the side of her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "Addy, she could be the best swimmer in the world, and I'd still pick you... I'll always pick you." he said, eyes boring into her with a striking amount of intensity, as if he was willing her to believe him (which, of course, he was). "Besides, you're way hotter..." he smirked.
Adelaide snorted a laugh and pushed him away as he chuckled loudly. "Probably because I'm part Veela..." she remarked sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"No, it's because you're Addy." he said honestly, kissing her on the cheek, making her face flush even more. "Though, if I'm being honest, I really wouldn't be surprised if you were part Veela..."
Adelaide groaned in exasperation. "I'm not an effing Veela, Sirius!"
"Look, all I'm saying is... you don't know that much about your dad's side of the family... and it wouldn't be unlike him to keep some big secret like that hidden away, especially if it made people suspect their precious 'pure blood' was tainted somehow..." he said casually, making himself comfortable once more as he rested his head near the crook of her neck, guiding her hand so she would play with his hair again like the needy puppy he was.
As Adelaide ran her fingers through his soft hair, she briefly wondered if maybe he had a point. It would be just like her father to keep something like that a secret... If he lied about her having a brother for most of her life, what was to keep him from lying about something like that? "I'm not a Veela." she said stubbornly, not totally sure if she was lying or not.
"Whatever you say, Addykins..." Sirius sighed lazily. "So, I was thinking—"
"Again with all this silly thinking business?" Adelaide giggled, tapping him on the head teasingly.
"Fawley, if you don't stop that—" he said in mock annoyance as a smile played at his lips just before he began tickling her sides once again.
"Ah! Stop! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she laughed breathlessly. "Please tell me what you were thinking about!"
Sirius smiled smugly and pulled himself up, leaning on his elbow to face her, brushing away some hair that fell into her eyes. "Well, I was thinking with the weather being so nice, that maybe you'd like to go for a walk with me." he said with soft eyes.
Adelaide quirked an eyebrow. "A walk?"
"Mhmm!" he nodded, looking very much like an excited puppy.
"You want me to take you out for a walk?" she clarified, desperately trying to keep from giggling.
Sirius tilted his head to the side, obviously a little confused. "Well I wouldn't have worded it quite like that... but yeah I suppose—Hey, what's so funny?"
Adelaide couldn't hold back her laughter anymore and dissolved into a childish fit of giggles.
"Ugh! Addy! What's so funny?!" Sirius complained.
"Sorry—it's just that—you really are a dog!" she said through her laughs.
Sirius rolled his eyes as realization hit him and mischievous smile creeped up his lips. "Oh I'll show you dog..." he muttered, pinning her down beneath him before she even knew what was going on.
"What do you—Ack! No! Stop! That tickles" she laughed as he licked her face in a dramatic, dog-like fashion.
"Say you'll take me on a walk and I'll stop!" he laughed, licking her face once more.
It took a second for her to get the words out when she was laughing so hard, but eventually she managed it. "Fine! Fine, I'll take you on a walk! Now get off me, you weirdo!" she giggled, still thoroughly stuck beneath him.
Sirius tucked his hair behind his ears then used his sleeve to wipe his slobber off her face. "I dunno... I quite like the view from here." he smirked, leaning down to press a sweet short kiss to her lips just as the door to the dormitory creaked open.
"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Sorry! Ow—leaving!"
Sirius rolled off of Adelaide and they both sat up and watched in amusement as Lily, who was covering her eyes tightly with her hands, tried to blindly find her way out the door she just entered, running into the door frame repeatedly in the process.
"Lily! You look ridiculous! Open your eyes before you fall down the stairs!" Adelaide giggled.
"Yeah, we weren't really snogging, Evans!" Sirius laughed. "No need to be so traumatized!"
Lily stopped and carefully removed her hands from her eyes. "I-I knew that..." she said, trying her hardest to sound confident despite her blushing face. "I um...I'll see you later—"
"You don't have to go, Lils!" Adelaide said quickly.
"No, it's fine I was just heading back down anyway—"
"You walked all the way up to our room just to walk back down the second you got here?" Adelaide asked knowingly.
"Erm... Well no... But you two are busy... and I—"
"We were just about to leave, Evans." Sirius informed the flustered girl.
"Oh, thank goodness..." Lily sighed in relief. Sirius took slight offense to her seeming so happy about them leaving, which Lily must have picked up on as she added, "Sorry, James wouldn't stop bugging me downstairs— got me all out of sorts..."
"Oh really now?" Sirius smirked.
Adelaide swiftly nudged him and nodded toward the door pointedly. "I think you need to go get ready for our walk, Pads." she said through her teeth before he had a chance to antagonize Lily about James— that was something she preferred to do alone.
"Right... Well I'll be sure to talk to James— see if I can keep him from getting you all 'out of sorts' again, Evans." Sirius sniggered as he walked out the door.
Lily groaned and flopped backwards on her bed as she heard the door close behind him. "Addy, why is he so annoying?" she asked woefully.
"I blame the inbreeding." Adelaide shrugged. Lily sat back up and gave her a sharp look. "Oh, you mean James..." she said quickly.
"Yes I mean James! Ugh! All he does is pester me with silly questions!" Lily grumbled, brows furrowed.
"Questions, huh? What kind of questions?" Adelaide asked curiously.
Lily ran a hand through her auburn hair, mind flashing back to the last torturous fifteen minutes. "Well he always has to ask about what book I'm reading and how my day's been, and then he usually starts badgering me with more specific questions: how I drink my tea—If I prefer chocolate or vanilla ice cream— who's my favorite Beatle— if I've ever been to Spain—And he just goes on and on! It's so freaking annoying, Ads! I swear he's driving me mental!"
"I think he just wants to get to know you better, Lils..." Adelaide giggled. "Sounds kind of sweet to me..."
Lily scowled, ignoring her comment. "And I don't understand why he has to be so flipping close to me all the time! Hasn't he ever heard of personal space?! I can't even think when he's so close— always ruffling up his hair like he just hopped off his broom—Ugh! And those stupid eyelashes of his always mocking me..." she muttered bitterly.
"Wait, I'm sorry— what?" Adelaide laughed, thoroughly amused. "How are his eyelashes mocking you?"
"Haven't you noticed how long they are?!" Lily asked in exasperation. "Even with mascara my lashes aren't as pretty as his!"
"Hold on... let me get this straight... You're upset with James because he has prettier eyelashes than you?" Adelaide asked incredulously.
Lily opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find the right words to say. "Well it sounds silly when you put it like that..."
"Yes. Yes it does." Adelaide agreed as she laughed. She was quite certain that Lily wouldn't find him half as annoying if she wasn't in denial of fancying him. "Say, isn't that his blanket you're laying on?" she added slyly.
Lily quickly glanced down to the wool blanket that she yet to return to her messy haired nemesis, then blushed bright red. "Ugh! Don't you have to take your dog for a walk or something?" she huffed.
Adelaide smirked, completely convinced that somewhere deep down, Lily really did have a thing for James Potter, even with his 'mocking eyelashes'. "Why yes... yes I do..."
***
After a long and ambling walk around the castle grounds in the warm springtime sunshine, where Sirius and Adelaide discussed important and sophisticated matters such as where in the world Dorris came from and what would happen were they to put a werewolf on one of Jupiter's moons, the two best friends' growling stomachs led them into the Great Hall for dinner.
"I still think it's only our moon that messes with them, Pads..." Adelaide said as she took her usual seat at a fairly empty Gryffindor table, taking care to avoid eye contact with Regulus who sat within her line of vision beside Madge and Severus at the Slytherin table.
"But what's the difference between one piece of space rock and another? Is there something inherently magical about our little moon that makes some people sprout fur and whiskers once a month? Seems super random..."
"I dunno, maybe some crazy, space traveling warlock accidentally cursed it or had an experiment gone wrong?" Adelaide shrugged, putting some roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and broccoli on her plate.
"There are space traveling warlocks?" Sirius asked seriously, spoon stopping midway from the bowl of Mac and cheese to his plate.
"Well there has to be! Think about it... if we can fly on broomsticks and time travel using necklaces I'm sure someone's managed to make it to the moon!" she mumbled through a mouthful of her dinner roll whilst Sirius ate some broccoli off of her plate. "Even muggles have made it to the moon, Pads!"
"Theoretically, do you think someone could apperate to the moon?"
"Hmmm... Not sure if it works that way..." she mumbled with her mouth full once more.
"Maybe Minnie would know... We should—Oh, hey Reg!" Sirius said, glancing behind him to a figure that simultaneously cast a shadow over Adelaide's mashed potatoes and made her want to hide under a big rock until further notice.
"Hey..." Regulus said awkwardly from behind her. "Erm... Ads, can I talk to you?"
Adelaide kept her eyes firmly fixed on her plate and even stalled by chewing and swallowing the rest of the food in her mouth before replying. "Isn't that what you're already doing?" she finally said quietly, feeling a familiar queasy feeling just at the memory of the last time they were together.
Sirius looked back at her in concern, probably confused by both her sass and the sudden green tinge that was surely gracing her features at this point.
While she told him and James about the conversation with her dad, including the part about freaking France (which she was seriously considering keeping to herself in case they went overboard trying to be protective), as well as majority of her little feline adventure, including how to get into the Slytherin Common room (James found this part particularly interesting), she failed to mention anything in regards to her growing suspicions about Madge's less than human ancestry nor the fact that apparently Regulus used to fancy her.
"I suppose I am..." Regulus said quietly, taking an uninvited seat beside her, flashing a quick look to his brother. "Um... well I just wanted to say I was sorry for snapping at you a while back... I know you were just trying to help with erm... you know... and I'll try to not be such a prat in the future..."
Sirius snorted a laugh. "Good luck with that last bit." he teased.
Regulus rolled his eyes and waited for Adelaide to respond.
Adelaide still refused to make eye contact, pushing her uneaten broccoli around with her fork. "Erm... You're-you're forgiven." she said almost nervously, internally cursing her self for being such an awkward mess. She was supposed to be a brave and mighty Gryffindor, dammit! Yet, here she was acting like a total coward just because some boy— a boy who happened to be one of her best friends—used to fancy her—past tense!
"Oh... Um... well good." he said awkwardly as well, clumsily getting up from the table. "I uh... well I guess I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow, yeah?" he asked hopefully.
"Mmm not tomorrow— busy... Got to catch up on some assignments." she shrugged.
"Oh, okay..." Regulus definitely sounded disappointed at this point. "Oh, Sirius! Before I forget— Madge wanted me to ask how floofs— erm— how James's cat is doing."
"She's not James's cat!" Sirius began incredulously just before Adelaide kicked him from under the table and looked up at him pointedly. "Uh... I mean he was just cat sitting... for erm... someone..." he chuckled, running a hand through his hair. "Anyway, she's fine. Lily healed up her neck in no time!"
"Oh good! Madge has been worried sick— Kept barging into our dorm bugging me to make sure she was okay." Regulus chuckled as well.
"Yep, well she's good as new!" Sirius said. "Fit as a fiddle— erm..."
"...I'll let you finish your dinner— see you around, Ads." Regulus said as he walked away, sensing that he had clearly overstayed his welcome.
Once Regulus was firmly out of earshot, Sirius leaned over and nudged Adelaide's foot from underneath the table. "What the hell was that all about? You can't still be mad at him for snapping about Marlene?"
"I'm not." she said quietly.
"Then what's up with you being so weird?"
"It's-it's nothing really—"
"It's not nothing, you big fat liar!"
"Did you just call me fat?" Adelaide asked, trying very hard to change the subject.
Sirius rolled his eyes then sighed in exasperation. "Addy, just tell me— you know I'll get it out of you eventually."
Adelaide pursed her lips and looked at him for a long few moments. She knew he had a point, but she was internally debating how upset he would be if she told him the truth, wishing that they were somewhere less public in case he decided to hex his little brother in a mad jealous rage—
"Addykins..." he said, pulling her from her thoughts by reaching for her hand across the table, giving her the most heartbreaking puppy dog eyes imaginable. "We tell each other everything, love..."
Of course he would use that card, she thought to herself.
"Fine! Fine, I'll tell you! Just please stop looking at me like that!" she said in frustration, squishing her eyes closed.
Sirius laughed. "Deal!"
Adelaide peaked her eyes open once more, then pursed her lips. "And you have to promise you won't get mad and do something rash."
"When have I, Sirius Orion Black the Third, ever done something rash, Miss Fawley?" he asked much too innocently, batting his eyelashes at her.
"You hexed a second year once because he looked like he was going to steal your sandwich." she deadpanned. "It wasn't even your sandwich..."
Sirius waved her off dismissively. "Let's not dwell in the past, love— Now tell me before I die of unresolved curiosity."
Adelaide nodded then took a steadying breath. "Okay... well, when I was erm... Cat-Addy, Madge brought be into Regulus's dorm—"
"Oh merlin! Please don't tell me you saw him naked or something!" Sirius said in horror.
"Ew! No!" she exclaimed loudly. "Gross! Get your head out of the gutter!"
Sirius sighed in relief. "Sorry... go on."
"As I was saying, she brought me in there and they started erm talking... and I may have been mentioned in the conversation... and one thing led to another and... well..." she paused, looking around to makes sure no one was there to overhear them, then leaned forward and said her next words very quickly. "Apparently Reggie used to fancy me— there I said it!"
Sirius blinked a few times with a blank expression on his handsome face as Adelaide waited with bated breath at what his next course of action would be, subtly feeling for her wand in her pocket just in case he started to spontaneously attack his little brother.
She was prepared for anything... or so she thought.
"That's it?" he asked tilting his head to the side.
Adelaide blinked a few times with her brows pulled together in confusion. "Well, yeah?"
Sirius took a big bite of his own chicken and hummed as if she'd just told him some mildly amusing fact about the weather.
"You— you aren't upset?" she asked incredulously.
Sirius shrugged, finishing off his bite of food before answering. "Should I be? I mean, it's not like he fancies you anymore and you definitely don't fancy him."
"But still! It doesn't bother you at all that your own brother had a thing for me?!"
Sirius thought this over for a minute as he took a gulp of pumpkin juice. "Well I guess it does a little... but it's not like he ever really stood a chance— I mean look at me, I'm gorgeous..." he smirked, flipping his hair theatrically and raising his chin to show off his impressive jawline.
Adelaide rolled her eyes and had to let out a laugh at how silly he was, grateful he didn't end up hexing Regulus into oblivion. "And so humble..." she said under her breath, shaking her head.
* * *
The rest of the holiday week, Adelaide and Sirius were nearly inseparable during the day, sharing sweet lighthearted moments of silliness and laughter that somehow managed to keep Adelaide distracted from the looming date of Mary's arrival back at Hogwarts. However, at night, when it was just Adelaide trying to drift off to sleep, facing Mary's empty bed in the darkness, her thoughts and dreams had a mind of their own.
She tossed and turned, never getting more than a few hours of sleep at a time, dreams filled with scenes of Mary furiously calling her a fat, lying, space traveling, mermaid hating, moon witch; of her getting shipped off to France and getting chased by some weird white wolf while Mary wailed in the distance; of Riddle's high pitched laugh ringing in her ears while Mary demanded answers to questions that Adelaide couldn't give, especially not when she was being attacked by what looked like a gigantic, flying version of James's disembodied eyelashes—They were truly awful. But thankfully, Adelaide could tell that these were all just bad dreams, and while she found it disturbing that her subconscious chose to torture her so frequently, she found a small amount of solace knowing that they were not necessarily predictions of the future.
Adelaide was determined to try to make things right with Mary when she returned—to apologize, grovel at her feet if she had to, if it only meant that she could be friends with her once again (and also put an end to her tortuous dreams). But when the day finally came, and she saw Mary looking tanner than before, fresh from the train ride back and eating her dinner down the table beside Marlene and Lily, Adelaide just couldn't do it.
Taking her seat by the boys, in between Remus and James, Adelaide slumped down and began absentmindedly pushing her peas around with her fork, ordering them in to a frowning face.
"I thought you were going to talk to her?" James said softly, bumping his shoulder against hers to try to pry her attention from her peas.
Adelaide shrugged. "I am... now's just not a good time..." she mumbled back.
Well as it happened, it was never a good time.
Adelaide convinced herself that she was just waiting for the right moment to talk to her brunette best friend, saying that it would be even more awkward if she tried to rush such an important conversation between classes, or when Mary was working on her homework, and that it would be rude to ruin someone's dinner or mess up Mary's bedtime routine with unwanted professions of guilt. But deep down, Adelaide knew that she was just avoiding her, afraid that if she did finally talk to her and Mary didn't accept her apologies, that any hope they had at still being best friends would be over forever.
Before she knew it, nearly two weeks passed since Mary's return and she still hadn't said a single thing to her besides 'excuse me' when she accidentally bumped past her trying to get to her seat during Defense against the Dark Arts.
On April 15th, she knew she had hit an all-time low when she found herself willingly entering the very place she had sworn to loath for eternity: The library.
It was stuffy, dusty, and reeked of nerd and desperation, but with any luck she knew she could find a nice quiet corner to hide away in and distract herself. Strolling down a particularly secluded aisle of bookcases containing information on various magical beings on her way toward a hidden desk near a window, her eye caught hold of a rather curious title: "Vessela the Veela: An Autobiography."
Her small hand lifted to take the book from it's shelf, but hesitated as it made contact with the book's old and slightly tattered binding, that oddly seemed to glow white-gold beneath the thick layer of dust that had accumulated upon it.
It wasn't as if simply reading a book on Veelas mean she believed any of those silly rumors, she thought to herself, and perhaps doing a little research would help her to prove people wrong the next time they went on about her alleged, 'Veela charms'. And so, for purely research related purposes, her hand continued to pull the book from the shelf, making the book beside it on Mediterranean Sirens flop over slightly, and her feet led her to sit down at the little secluded wooden desk.
The light from the stain glass window poured out upon the pages giving them a moon-bright luminescence to them as she flipped through to the first chapter and began to read.
"To many of my kind, the task of describing one's exquisite existence in a world of mediocrity seems as futile as relaying the radiant colors of the dying sun to the blind, or the haunting tones of a mourning melody to the deaf. But, I, Vessela Vassileva, shall take up this mantle in hopes that a feeble minded human of extraordinary imagination might grasp but a small wisp of what it is to be me."
Adelaide scrunched up her nose in disgust. This Vessela woman sounded more conceited than James. But, again for the purposes of research, she powered through, skimming over the more personal bits about the perils of being so beautiful and bewitching, to a list of the Veela's defining attributes which included: incredible beauty; white-gold hair that fans out behind them despite the absence of wind, hair that though temperamental, can be used as a wand core; the ability to woo most men with their seductive dance; and most interestingly, to Adelaide at least, that they possess their own type of magic that does not require a wand.
Adelaide's heart raced and she found herself pouring over the book with a heightened sense of intensity, trying to make sure she didn't misread a single word.
Apparently, Veelas were known almost as much for their irascible natures as they were for their charm. When angry, she found that they transformed, faces turning into bird-like heads with cruel beaks, with long scaly wings that burst from their shoulders and the ability to launch balls of fire from their hands.
A shutter ran through Adelaide as she remembered back to all the times she'd set things on fire using wandless magic... perhaps it wasn't a coincidence after all.
For hours, Adelaide sat hunched over the little desk with a quill clutched in her left hand as she combed through Vessela's autobiographical accounts, scribbling down notes and trying to find something, anything that mentioned what traits someone who was only part Veela might inherit, until finally her eye lids grew too heavy and sleep overtook her.
Hunched over the small table in her nursery with a black crayon clutched in her right hand, Adelaide tried her hardest to draw a unicorn. She knew that Miss Lestrange said she had to hold the crayon in her right hand... but it just felt so wrong...
The crayon made contact with the parchment, but instead of making a circle like she intended the line went jutting out in an unflattering angle making a sort of wonky triangle-like shape.
Adelaide huffed in frustration wadding up the parchment into a ball and throwing it at a dollhouse on the other side of the room, knocking a miniature rocking chair out of her dolls miniature sitting room. She bit her lower lip as she folded another piece of parchment over, then picked up the crayon with her left hand this time, not even caring what that stuffy ol' tutor said, and proceeded to draw a beautiful stick figure unicorn worthy of being in a museum.
She decided to color the background yellow as it was Alex's favorite color, then opened up the makeshift card and drew a rainbow on one side and on the other wrote the words:
"HAppi 11tH BiRfdAee ALex, LovE, LAidY bUg"
After adding a bit of glitter to polish things off, she grinned and tore out of the nursery to find her father.
Flying down the stairs as fast as her short legs would take her, she spotted her father talking to an old man in the grand marble atrium near the front door. The stranger was quite old, much older than her father and had a crooked nose, a long white beard, twinkling blue eyes that matched his blue and purple robes, and appeared to be holding a yellowish envelope. Cautiously, she stepped toward them with the newly finished card still in her little hands and heard her father sounding quite cross... But this wasn't anything out of the ordinary as he was always cross, she noticed, ever since Alex got hurt.
"Professor, there is really no need—"
"Filip, I only wish to tell you that my offer still stands." said the old wizard kindly, peering up behind his half-moon spectacles to make brief eye contact with Adelaide.
"And while I truly appreciate your offer, as I said in my letter, my wife and I have already made our decision—" her father's words trailed off as he followed the old man's gaze to Adelaide. "Sweetie, Daddy's busy right now. Go back up to the nursery." he said sternly.
"But Daddy I—"
"Adelaide, I won't ask again." he said harshly, making her lip quiver slightly in fright before she ran away without another word.
She didn't run directly to the nursery as he ordered, but instead took a quick detour to a bright sitting room on the east side of the manor with large framed windows and bright white furniture. It was always Alex's favorite room and a tiny part of her hoped that he might be there, hiding behind a sofa as he used to do when they played hide and seek, or perhaps sitting in the big armchair reading her favorite book about a secret garden out loud to her.
However, as she walked in she found not Alexander, but her mother sitting on the sofa, face hidden as she looked out the big windows.
"Mummy!" Adelaide squealed with joy, running over to the woman without even a thought. "Mummy! Look! I made Alex a card for his birthday!" she said happily, climbing up to sit beside her and shoving the card into her mother's hands, little specs of glitter falling onto her dark robes.
Her mother looked at the card for a moment without saying anything and even opened it up to read what was inside. Adelaide heard her mother breathe heavily and looked up to her pretty face. "Mummy... Don't cry, Mummy..." she said, watching the woman's silent tears fall down her cheeks and onto the parchment, trying to scoot closer so she could wrap her arms around her and give her a hug her to try to make her feel better.
However, as soon as she touched the woman, her mother pushed her off and shoved the card back into her little hands. "Go back to the Nursery, Adelaide." she said coldly. "And work on writing those letters correctly."
"But— but mummy, I made him a card..." she said, voice shaking as she tried not to cry at her mother's unfamiliar hostility. "It's his birthday— I just wanted to see if we could g-give it to him—"
"GO BACK TO THE NURSERY!"
Adelaide flinched and scrambled to get away, nearly tripping over her feet in her haste and took a short cut that ran right past the small sitting room on the first floor. There is where she stopped for a moment to catch her breath, leaning against a big armchair near a roaring fire.
She always liked that room, well she used to, before Alex went away. It was the room where her father used to read to her as she drank her tea before bed... but he never read to her anymore, he hardly spoke to her most days.
She was just about to go back up to the nursery and see about tidying up her dollhouse when she spied a large and very pretty book laying open on the coffee table. Carefully, she stepped toward it and gazed upon the picture of a big tree with lots of little faces sprouting from the branches, one of which being her own with Alex right beside, smiling just like how she remembered him.
Adelaide woke up with a start and rubbed her eyes as the bright light of a wand shone harshly in her direction.
"What're you doing here, Ads?" asked a hushed voice she recognized as Remus. "I thought you hated the library?" he said as he began to pack up her stuff for her.
"Remmy?" she said in bleary eyed confusion. "The library...? Oh shit! What time is it?" she asked in a rush, looking down at her watch.
"Time for you to go to bed," he laughed. "You're lucky I saw you here on the map, you almost got locked in overnight!"
"I-I fell asleep..." she said face heating up as he looked at the book she had been previously been drooling on.
"Why were you reading about Veelas?" he asked knowingly.
Adelaide fiddled with the hem of her jumper sleeve and shrugged.
"Addy, you're not really entertaining all those silly rumors, are you?" he asked in concern.
"I just— I was just doing research, Rem..." she said quietly.
"Right... Well let's get back before Pince finds out you've been in here drooling on her books." he said with a slight smirk.
Adelaide nodded with a small smile and walked with him all the way back to the common room, feeling a little sad as she thought back to the odd memory he interrupted, when suddenly it hit her.
The family tree book...
If she could find the book, she could finally prove once and for all that she wasn't a damn Veela.