(Another future one! Lolz)
"Dad, why couldn't you just let me ride the train?" Winry asked as her and her father arrived inside the Ravenclaw Common Room.
"Because it wasn't safe." Nathan said, gruffly.
"Tavis and Vince would have watched out for me." She said, knowing she was whinning, but it was embarrassing. Plus she wasn't going to be sorted with the rest of her year. She had been sorted a week ago, as a special request from her father. The headmaster had fallen over himself when he found out Nathan was a king, and Winry was a princess.
"Now, I'm going to go, you should be safe. If something happens, drop me a thought." Nathan said, hugging his daughter tightly, then dissappearing. Winry sighed and went to a couch. The start of term feats would be going on, but she had eaten already.
"Stupid dad and his stupid parnoid ideas." She muttered, darkly.
"Booger brain has learned a few more nasty words then, eh?" Came a light, low toned voice.
Tavis was slouched in one of the chairs facing the firepit, a familiar smile upon his features, weighed down by an overhanging, new shadow. Dark rings of sleeplessness circled his fiery eyes, hallows steeped from his strong, sharp jawline, and though a substantial amount of rippling muscle had grown upon him since the half a year Wintry had seen him last, but he seemed quite thin for his athletic structure. His head hung a bit more than weariness could effect - Tavis had lost something very dear to him. It was tearing him, inside out.
"Welcome to the Hog's warts, baby Wintry. Though I'll bet you've heard that enough, already."
She smiled at hoim, surprised.
"Tavis. How are you?" She asked, noticing his state. She stood, walked over to beside his chair.
"I thought you were in Gryffindor?" She said, smiling at her friend.
"I am..." he said airily. "It's just.. quieter here."
"Tavis, why do you need quiet? Are you sick?" She demanded of him, folding her arms.
(How old is he again?)
{{If Winry's eleven, Tavis is sixteen.}}
"No.. not exactly." He shifted, and crossed his arms, a thick lock of raven hair dangling before his frosty eyes. He flicked his hair out of the way and sighed.
(ok, I forgot, lolz)
"Well, what? Cause if your sick, you should be in bed." She said, frowning at him.
{{ ;) }}
"I'm not sick." Tavis said calmly. He never snapped at Wintry, even when he was as taught and as traumatized as he was then. He never thought it releiving or truthful or smart in any ways to snap at that of whom he called his little sister.
"I'm just a little tired."
He sighed and shifted again, then finally standing. He ran a hand through his hair, his passing the firepit raising the flames there a foot or so over the mantlepeice, settling as he left the aura of it.
There was a long pause, until he finally turned, and faced Wintry.
"My mother was murdured the day before yesterday."
"Oh Tavis..." Winry covered her mouth, shocked. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him, for he was like her brother as much as she was like his sister.
"Are you okay?" She asked. Her orb had begun to glow.
"Yea, baby Wintry, I'm alright."
Tavis returned the hug, messed her hair, and slung her to sit upon his shoulder. He went to the window and stared out into the sunset of red, bleeding hues. He sighed, and hooked his thumbs in his jean beltloops.
"Confused."
She put and arm ontop of his head, leaning on it.
"Don't be. Your mother was really powerful, Tavis. Which means she's still around in some form." She said, thoughtfully.
"You think, baby Win?" he questioned, almost hopefully, quietly.
He watched out the gaping window with a lost sort of detachment, tired, empty, and wary. And it was only the first day of school.
'You're probably... usually... right, little sister."
He had said 'little sister' without a thought, the words coming naturally. Wintry was not his true blood sister, but close enough just the same.
"I don't know why, but I do think so." She said, still leang against him, but playing with her purple orb with her free hand.
Tavis was silent for a long moment, letting his thoughts begin to settle, almost, to calm. Tavis was never one to be seen anxious, scared, or angered for too long. He worked things out within, quietly, things, most things, to himself. He glanced over to the table, to the clock of which he had repaired to magical standards and given to a time-hopeless Ravenclaw ages ago. It was an hour before lunch.
He offered the ghost of a smile. "Have you wandered Hogwarts yet, Win? Met people?"
She shook her head,
"Nope. My dad brought me stright here. I swear, he thinks I'm actually worth the lugging around he does."
"Well let's go then, Win. The house Elves will be quite happy to meet you, I bet. And I'm starving. Well, I'm always starving."
Tavis tugged her ankle, and smiled.
She slid down from his shoulder.
"Yes you are, it's amazing what you fit into the black hle you call a stomach!" She said, laighing and poking him in said stomach. She grinned and walked to the way out.
Tavis chuckled, but nodded in agreement. No point to deny it. He could eat the table.
"Yea, shut up."
He followed her in a shadow of black robes, his toned form tall and lean, dark and calm.
"You lead the way, Win."
Winry walked through the door, out into the hallway.
"No problem, I've been here with-" She stopped though looking at where the hall way turned.
"What?"
Tavis looked down the hallway after her, the channels as routine and known and yet still curious to him as ever.
(lol,Maybe I should have made him younger...can i still say its his last year?Well,I think so..)*vince wandered the halls,searching for a book he had dropped* *he then saw winry*hey,win...hey tavis.
(Sure, why not?)
Winry looked up, nodded at him and glanced back toward the hall. She bit her lip.
"Someone's there...." She said, slowly.
{{loloz, I don't mind}}
~~Someone, as in someone who shouldn't be?~~ Tavis said quietly into Winry's thoughts.
Winry nodded, her orb glowing. She looked into the shadows, frowning.
(Now who should be after them??)
Tavis growled wolfishly, the flickering candle light reflecting his being in an animalish way, as he snarled, padding suddenly into the shadows, in the direction little Wintry was looking.
"Tavis!" Winry said, following him, worridly. She stopped a foot away as a large hand snaked out grabbing her wrist. She scowled.
"If you know what's good for you, you'll let go." She said, in a deeper, older voice then her own. Her orb glowed again.
Tavis whipped around, a familiar flicker of Lavender's temper flashing in his burning eyes. There was a sudden warming of the cold corridor, and the shadows were suddenly alit, by the cold red flames pooling from his body. A ring of hot pain zipped into the mouth of the male holding Wintry, and he let her go in a gasp of pain. Tavis, careful to avoid her, flung himself with the agile, precise methods of Hogwarts's best Keeper, landing upon him, as a fight ensued, in a rolling pile of arms and legs. There was too much commotion, for Tavis to be able to catch the other, whom looked a lot in general like the male Tavis was brawling with.
Winry scowled again, as the male attempted to sneak up behind her. Her orb glowed warningly and she ducked just in time to avoid his fist.
"What are you such a cowerd, you'd hit a little girl?" She aksed him, before swipping her foot underneath his feet, knocking him backwards.
There was a low growl, as the male Tavis fought with drove his fist across his face, leaving two long, deep gashes - evidence of his rings. Tavis shook his head and put up one arm as to block another blow, his other fist pummeling deep into the soft spot beneath his ribs, curling upward, and throwing the male back into the wall with a crunching effect. The male fell, but did not seem to be too dazed. For just as Tavis rose to his knees, he was tackled, skidding across the stone floor with the great weight of the fat male across his stomach. He rammed his elbow into the male's nose, his other hand into his jaw, and then his right fist back at the male's temple.
Tavis growled and rolled, kneeing the male in the throat, but stumbling, falling to his side.
Two fat fists took that advantage, hitting him roughly, in the thigh, the stomach, and then the middle of his chest, which sent Tavis skidding back across the floor. He weighed at least half the others size - the fists left him breathless. But it was only a moment, before he stood upon his feet again, hurts only evident by the long, deep streaks across his left cheek, and slit lip..
Winry looked at Vince.
"We could use your help over her!" SHe shouted to him, ducking another punch.
Tavis quickly sidestepped a tackle, and extended his hands, a great fireball erupting from his fingertips, pummeling the male attacking Wintry, and sending him backwards into the wall. Such a curse would have lasted longer, in Tavis hadn't then, been literally flattened, falling with a breathless thud, and a groan, as the male took desperate measures to sit upon him, drag his arms back and bind them with a torn peice of robe.
Tavis thrashed, but finally became still, unable to breath, because of the dead weight upon his back. He was patient and calm, waiting, until a breathless snarl of a yelp escaped him. He wormed frantically enough, that he managed to free himself, rising to stand, flames freeing his hands. He reached to the area above his right hip, and pulled out, with an angered sigh, a sharp, now bloodily drenched, quill.
Tavis threw the weapon to the side.
Winry frowned.
"Hurt yourself, Tavis?" She called, glancing as he threw the quill.
"That idiot just stabbed me! Honestly, I would have expected a little more of a weapon, but a quill hurts enough.."
He rubbed his side, with a slight wince, though it itched more than it hurt. The gashes at his cheekbone hurt worse.
Tavis growled, and his eyes danced more devilishly of ember colors, as both males together, started toward Wintry. He extended his left arm, and a solid wall of fire became, quivering just slightly, as they ran headlong into it, and fell. Under his command, the flame wall fell into liquid fire and picked them up, spinning them at a dizzying speed, harassing their thoughts and creating a great many deep gashes and bruises and burns, as they screamed in protest. They fell with a crunching thud, and were finally still.
Tavis rolled his aching shoulders, and walked calmly to them, kicking them to their backs. He stared at them with again, a certain, unplaced calmness, rubbing his knuckles over his cheekbone absently, wiping a warm layer of trickling blood away.
"They look familiar," he said simply.
"SLightly..."Winry tilted her head, staring at them.
Tavis looked over the two in silence for a moment, then kneeled down, searching through the pockets of both of them. He stood up again then, looking over the things that had surfaced. A wallet, a kitchen steak kniph, a marble, an empty wrapper of chewing gum, and a lock of Tavis's just-pulled-out hair. Tavis winced at the hair, and dropped it, the strands, by a subconscious thought of his, melting into liquid flames, then dancing at his feet - fire seemed to love Tavis.
He flicked the gum wrapper back at the limp forms of the two, and pocketed the kitchen knife.
"Best return this to the kitchens, then let them about the castle with it," he said quietly.
He looked through the wallet, which turned out to be empty in each and every pocket, and threw it back down to lay atop one of their grand sized abdomens.
"Want a marble, baby Winry?" Tavis said lightly, gesturing to the plain old looking marble, wondering, what she would do with it. The marble was not merely, a marble, but an unbroken stone of an element, like her necklace. But it was meant to be temporary, not like her necklace. He wanted to see if she could place it. After, of course, he made sure it could not harm her.
She took it from him, her fingers gliding over it's smooth surface. She felt the power comming from within it.
"This isn't a marble Tavis." She said, outloud, while inside, she thought, 'It's an element stone.'
"Good, yes, it is not."
He inclined his head, knowing this.
"What kind of an elemant stone is it, Win?"
She glanced up at him.
"Stay out of my mind, Tavis." She muttered, looking back at the stone.
"I think it's a wind stone."
"Hey, I never intruded. I would have let you know if I had."
He uttered the ghost of a laugh - ghostly in true, like his mothers had been so very long ago, at the school, but not as lost, or hurt.
"I just knew that you would figure it out."
He peered into the wind stone, noting the tints and swirls, and characteristics of the things within. He nodded gravely.
"Yes, it's a wind stone. And it's someone's that I would have not expected. Remember years ago when we were looking back on the Malfoy's, and we discussed Crabbe and Goyle? This is the distant relative to the Goyle of the time your grandmother and my mother were here, at Hogwarts..."
Winry nodded, thoughtfully.
"Okay. SO why are they after us?"
"There are many possibilities. One, might be, an old revengeful hatred..."
Tavis sighed, shook his head, and jammed his hands into his pockets.
"Tavis, my father kept me on a three foot chain most of my life, I never did anything to them."
"Yes, I know. Until now, my mother tried to hide me from whatever she could. Allowing things to slip at the right times, was her specialty, though," Tavis said softly.
He bent down, scooped up Winry and sat her upon his shoulder, starting down the corridor toward the passageway that led to the kitchens.
"But you know how people are apt to tell their children about people and things they disliked in their school years? Things like that may be passed down. Though we've never done anything to them personally, I have a feint hint that they are out for our blood, anyway."
He ran his knuckles over his jaw absently, hissing as the burning gashes at his cheek flashed anew, reminding him of their stately presence. He dropped his hand back to his pocket, walking with natural soundless, agile steps, despite the weight upon his shoulder.
"Why do you always put me on your shoulder?" She asked.
"I'm just wondering. It's not like I hate it or anything." She said.
(g2g)
{{Kay, tootles, lolz ^.- }}
Tavis glanced at Winry thoughtfully, and chuckled quietly.
"I don't know. I've been throwing you up there since forever, booger brain."
He smiled slightly, nodding at the portriat, which let them through without incident or password, knowing Tavis well enough.
"Out of habit, I guess. I dunno."
His thoughts left the topic of their attackers quite easily, and wondered upon this.
"Not forever, since I was about six and made my father bring me around." She muttered. She was really resentful of how protective her father was, and it bothered her. She always wondered if her Aunt Alisha, the one of Ginny's kids who could see the future, had ever said anything about the future to him.
"Well, forever then," he mumbled quietly, eyes searching about the corridor, seeing perfectly as they passed through the shadows. Quite soon, they entered a musty room, a stench of old clothes and spilled mead about the room, freckled over with a great many off-duty elves. Many of which, recognized their most favored and most often to visit friend.
Tavis grinned, as they approached them.
Winry slipped off Tavis's shoulder again, grabbing his arm tightly as she almost tripped over her own feet, then letting go and smiling at the elves. She might have been a bit short, but they were even shorter then her.
"Hi." She said, looking at them. They resembled the kind that her mother insisted on having at home. The ones that Winry got yelled at for tryong to talk to. Her mother had said, "We don't pay them to talk to you!"
Tavis grinned and waved at the elves, many of whom, if not bustling off into the kitchens, waved eagerly in return.
Tavis named off a few, "Barty, Booty, Boot, Scout, Terrece, Tout, Dobby the Seccond, Katy, Karty, Kirty, Kilda..."
He grinned down at her, as a few approached them, looking interestedly upon Winry.
"Hi," a few said in unison.
(Nice names! lolz)
She smiled at them and looked back at Tavis.
"There's more of 'em then I expected to see." She said, smiling back.
{{lolz. ^.^ thanx! }}
"Me too, actually. I guess lunch is a bit early today."
He breathed in deeply the soft aromas of fresh bread and soup, his stomach rumbling with an all too familiar hunger. Tavis grinned and shook his head, brushing his raven black hair out of his eyes.
"I don't doubt you'll know all their names by the end of the year."
"I have a knck for names, tavis!" Ginny said, showing him to fingers as the victory sign. She laughed.