Katherine Frances's Blog, page 248
February 29, 2016
February 28, 2016
"The snow doesn’t give a soft white damn whom it touches."
- E.E. Cummings (via landscape-photo-graphy)
"Infatuation is when you find somebody absolutely perfect.
Love is when you realize that they aren’t..."
Love is when you realize that they aren’t and it does not matter.”
- puffcamelot
(via wnq-writers)
Kim Shimmers and the Black Prophecy
A Harry Potter Fanfic by me (and the 3rd installment of the Kim Shimmers series)
Chapter 1
The Whole World at Once
Kim’s eyes began to glaze as they moved over the black inky text on the pages of the Daily Prophet.
More and more cauldrons seem to be going missing, according to long time cauldron expert Mr. Huffleybux of the Round Bottomed Brew Pot’s Company. Mr. Huffleybux claims that the rise of missing cauldrons is a real problem, because it predicts an imminent decline in future sales of cauldrons from reputable cauldron shops. Furthermore, cauldron seller’s success greatly effects wizard stock as well as overall UK economy. “It’s really a full rounded issue in that way,” reports Mr. Huffleybux. “It isn’t merely a matter of concern for my company or other cauldron companies, but for the wizarding economy at large.”
There are other concerns in relation to the increased cauldron theft rate as well…
Kim blinked hard and tossed the paper onto her desk with a huff. The papers rattling gave Strix a bit of a start where she was perched on a notch of wood in the cabin walls where her claws fit around nicely. Kim had been reading the paper all summer, but she thought since she’d recently arrived in the UK, she would have better luck. She’d thought that it was merely the American newspapers covering up news of Lord Voldemort to keep people calm. But she had been at her internship in Wales for almost a week now. She’d been receiving and combing over the paper the whole time, and there had not yet been a single mention of the Dark Lord’s rise to power.
Is it possible that he hasn’t made a move yet? Kim wondered. Why would he resurrect himself only to slink back into the shadows? What’s he planning? What’s he waiting for? The thoughts were more than troubling, and what was worse; no one else around her had any clue that Voldemort had returned. They all thought Harry was a bit of a crack pot, as the paper made him out to be, or merely thought he was mistaken. But Kim new. She not only new from Harry’s testimony, but from her own eyes…
A shudder ran down her spine as the image of those red eyes flashed across her mind. Her gaze landed on a letter she’d left open on her desk. She stared at it, letting the neat feminine hand writing on the page fill her sight where the blood red had just been. Kim had been writing to Hermione on a fairly constant basis, not that she had any more information to give about Voldemort that the papers. Kim had written back Harry as well when he’d sent word, but his letters had become simply angry and rather unpleasant to receive. Kim thought he didn’t much like being left in the dark about what was happening. She was starting to become suspicions of Hermione and Ron too, so she supposed she couldn’t blame him too much. In Hermione’s letters it seemed from time to time like there was something large and gaping that she was leaving out, but Kim couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. Perhaps that was because she was preoccupied by the main subject matter of many of their letters; Fred.
Kim’s stomach turned at the mental mention of his name, making her stand restlessly in her cabin and move to her bunk merely a pace away. Fred had not kept his word. At the end of last year, Kim had promised to give him time to figure out what he wanted from his and Kim’s relationship or- whatever they had. She had only given him two conditions, the first being that he had to act normal toward her again, which he had sort of managed at some point last year. The second was that he would keep in touch over the summer. Was that so much to ask? she would write to Hermione in complaint. No, most certainly not, Hermione would respond. But in the end, it didn’t make her feel any less abandoned. Fred hadn’t sent her a single letter, and it wasn’t as if Kim could send him one. The issue had been that Strix couldn’t make the flight across the ocean because she was so small. But now that she was in Wales, she supposed she could…
No, Kim reminded herself firmly. She and Hermione had already discussed this in their letters as well. I will not give in and send Fred a letter. He promised me that he would write to me. Summer is almost over. He’s had plenty of time to send me just one measly letter! He didn’t write me for a reason… He didn’t write me, because he doesn’t care about me.
Just then there was a wrapping on the door that broke Kim from her reverie. The teepee-like structures in which interns lived were tiny, so it took her only a few steps to get to the door. She turned the latch to the make shift wooden door which let in quite a draft from outside, and peered out. At her doorstep was a shirtless young man with tan freckles across his shoulders from being out in the sun and swirling patterns of black ink intermingling with the lines of muscle. He had medium brown hair with malty-tipped antlers protruding on either side of his head. His sharp features were naturally keen and calm, and he was peering at her with the most breath takingly green eyes imaginable.
“Cane,” Kim breathed in surprise, though she really shouldn’t be that surprised. She was more anxious, as she always seemed to be when he was around. He gave her a polite, if not a bit tight, smile. Andasoe, Kim had learned since arriving at Cane’s village, did not traditionally smile politely. They only smiled when they felt like smiling. So the fact that he was doing so now meant he was doing it for her sake.
“I’ve got to go down to the horse field to tend to the porlock. Was wondering if you’d come along?” he asked. Kim faltered, trying to find her voice amidst the swallowing green blossoms she was enveloped in.
“Me?”
Cane shrugged and smiled, genuinely this time. “They say you’re the best.”
“Well, not with porlocks. Not better than any of you,” she said, a bit embarrassed. “Uh, sure, I’ll come. Just give me a second.” She turned back into her room and let the door fall shut behind her as she rooted around for her shoes.
Since she’d arrived at the Andasoe village a little under a week ago, she’d had a few exchanges with Cane like this. First was her surprise, awe, and utter flattery that he recognized her from Professor Maddox’s class. He’d given her and the handful of other interns, not all of whom were from Hogwarts, a few lectures on Andasoe culture and experience, all of which were just as awe inspiring as the first he’d given to Maddox’s class. But in her time here, Cane hadn’t sought her out or really singled her out in any way. Until now.
She reemerged from her teepee cabin which was situated in a grouping of other structures just like it where the other interns were staying. They were all one room structures, similar to the way Andasoe’s themselves lived. The Andasoe’s had separate buildings for everything. They had a large building in which they all slept, lined with rudimentary nest-like beds. They had a house for cooking and eating, and it was the largest and most decorated of them all, with carvings and statues and hand woven tapestry. The interns were sharing this building with them. They were also sharing the bathrooms, which were two separate buildings, one far away and high up on a hill side with out-house style toilets, and one in the village with a large steamy bath house that offered very little in the way of privacy. Kim had snuck in the middle of the night to bathe so far only one time, and it had been relaxingly empty.
“Do you know why porlocks don’t trust humans?” Cane said, making light conversation as they made their way through the cheerfully busy village. Kim’s eyes caught on one of the Andasoe’s as they worked in their shop, filing down wood to make into weapons for hunting. The old woman smiled kindly, which Kim returned reflexively because it was the kind of smile that made someone else feel happy to see it. That was how all Andasoe smiles were. Kim supposed that was because all their smiles were genuine. The woman nodded at the two of them, her blue eyes dazzling, though not quite as much as Cane’s.
“No, why?” Kim asked, though she was only half listening. The village was always so full of activity that it was easy to get lost looking at all the men in their cloth shorts and women in their simple dresses moving about, carrying woven baskets of food, carving statues or bowls, making weapons, children playing tag through the worn paths as their elders called after them not to break any of the merchandise. Laughter and the smell of smoking fish wafted through the town and up into the leaf speckled sky above.
“Because a long time ago, they were hunted for their fur,” Cane said. At this, Kim looked him.
“Really?”
He nodded. “And because of their small size, they were nearly eradicated.”
“Oh my god…” Kim muttered, staring at the path they followed. They were leaving the center of the village now, and the comforting bustling sounds were growing distant. Porlocks were small creatures, as Kim knew. They only grew to be about two feet tall, and had soft shaggy fur not unlike the wool of a sheep, but much softer and better tended to. Kim had never heard that Porlocks had once been hunted by wizards, though. She wondered why Cane knew about this when it was certainly not common knowledge in the wizarding world.
“How did they come back? They’re not endangered now?”
“We protected them,” Cane said. “Andasoes.”
Kim was silent for a moment, considering this.
“Andasoes saw what wizards were doing to a creature of the forest, and they thought it was wrong. Wizards couldn’t understand it, though. They said that andasoes and porlocks weren’t of the same breed. It wasn’t andasoes business what happened to porlocks. They didn’t understand that we’re all part of the same cloth, even if we’re woven on a separate thread…”
“I understand what you mean,” Kim said solemnly. The path they walked was now fully engulfed in trees on either side, and the air was permeated with the rustling of leaves and the calls of birds. The sounds and smell of the fresh air was utterly awakening. Kim felt more alert out here then she felt anywhere in the world. More present. “And I can imagine wizards thinking like that…”
“Well, as the story goes, the only way to convince wizards that they had to stop hunting porlocks was to convince them that the andasoes needed them. Andasoes have always used horses to hunt and to farm… So the village leader of the time told the remaining porlocks that if they wanted to survive, they would have to make an agreement to watch over our horses for all time. The porlocks that survived the massacre of those days are the ones who agreed to be horse guardians for andasoes.”
Kim giggled happily. “So that’s why porlocks are always found hiding in barns. They’re trying to watch over the horses, to keep their word to the andasoe ancestors.”
“That’s right,” Cane said with a wide smile, chuckling a bit too as he looked down at Kim.
By this time they had come to the field were the horses grazed freely. They were mostly white with some grey and speckled tucked in the mix. To anyone they would appear to be wild horses, for their manes were untrimmed and there was no fence keeping them in. There was merely a silent agreement between the horses and the Andasoes. Kim didn’t pretend she completely grasped how this was possible, but she thought on some level, she did understand. It wasn’t magic, necessarily, or at least not the kind of magic that a wizard does with an incantation and a wand. It was, perhaps, the root of magic. She thought of how, when she looked at Buckbeak after all that time of not seeing him, she still knew that he trusted her. Though they didn’t share a common language, she still knew somehow. Kim thought that maybe, what the Andasoes had with the horses was something like that.
“What are you thinking about?” Cane asked, startling Kim from her gazing at the horses to peer up at him. The question had been light enough but there was something furtive in his eyes, like he desperately would like to know.
Kim smiled nervously and looked away. “Oh, nothing really,” she said, much too embarrassed to voice her innermost thoughts aloud, and to himno less. He looked briefly saddened by her response, and then a moment later, reinvigorated. A small smile crept onto his face.
“You get a certain look about you,” he said. Kim felt her cheeks getting hot. She didn’t much like feeling as if she were being watched, but at the same time, she didn’t want him to look away. “Like you’re thinking about the whole world at once or something.”
"I wish I had known that it was just the beginning."
- James Herriot, from All Things Bright and Beautiful (via the-final-sentence)
"I harbor her sanity and enshrine her sanctity. I’m the birch bower in which she seeks peace that’s..."
- kj-knight (via wnq-writers)
"I’ve lived without the sun for long enough to know, that the memories of it alone will burn you to..."
- vaqarious (via wnq-writers)
