Magical Hogwarts

November 3rd, 2005

A small ash tree stood a dozen feet from the edge of Lake Bala, in full leaf despite the lateness of the season and the chill wind that blew across the landscape. This side of the lake was mostly deserted. A train track ran alongside the shoreline, the occasional train rattling along the tracks made faint by distance. Beyond that, a minor road, likewise mostly deserted this late in the year.

It was a fine morning for early November in North Wales; the weak sun occasionally peering out from behind thick, grey clouds that threatened rain later on. The tree, or rather Linnet Willowsong, had arrived here yesterday evening, selected a comfortable place that would enjoy the morning sunshine, tucked her clothes into a waterproof bag that now hung from a low-slung oak branch nearby, and morphed for the night. Experience told her that she would sense when he arrived.

Kyle.

They had been close once, but she hadn't seen him for years. Hadn't tried, in fact, hadn't even considered the possibility that she might want to. Linnet was mostly detached from emotional bonds these days, though she had rekindled some sense of affection for her grandmother. It was Gwynedd Willowsong, now living in Chatoeil, who had suggested the meeting, in fact. Whether her former friend had written to her or they had encountered each other at the trial for her supposed murderer, she hadn't thought to ask. It hadn't seemed important. But the idea of rekindling a friendship with someone who had shared a large part of her teenage years, particularly a fellow elemental, had pleased her, as much as anything pleased her these days.

So she had written a note, inviting him to meet her here. Perhaps he would turn up. Perhaps he wouldn't. Linnet was surprised to discover she hoped he would.

But for now, she remained in her tree form, enjoying the late autumn breezes and the brief interludes of sunshine.

Waiting.

@Kyle Gibbes

Kyle clutched the note in his hand. He’d read it a hundred times or more since it had come through post. It was an invitation. But not in the sense of any invitation he’d ever received before. It wasn’t an invitation full of joy and emotion. It wasn’t an invitation that said any more than it needed to. It was an invitation that asked him to come out to a lake in Wales and was signed. Simple, direct, void of emotion. That is what he had heard of Linnet, the girl he had once cared for so deeply. The one whom he’d loved.

Nothing had ever really been ordinary for Kyle. His school years were far from normal between a wizarding war, dangerous ancient magics encasing the castle in a dome, Linnet’s prolonged morph. The years since had been something of a blur travelling around the known magical world looking for a cure within any elemental or standard magical literature, tradition, or fringe practice. He had returned thinking his journey a failure only to find that Linnet had demorphed herself. The joy had overwhelmed the sorrow and feelings of failure he had travelled home on. But even that joy couldn’t bring him to reunite, not at that point. He needed to give her time. He didn’t fully understand how he knew she needed it, but he knew it was right.

Now this, the excuse he had been waiting for to come and see her. As he made his way via non-magical transportation to the lake, Kyle started to feel nervous. He’d given her time and would have given her more were it not for her request to meet. He didn’t know what to expect, what she would be like after so much time away. The only other elementals he knew who spent that much time morphed were acolytes and the harbingers and neither of them were exactly known to be the life of the party, the Madin acolytes seemed as much plant as they did person.

Walking towards the lake, Kyle saw a tree near the edge of the lake. He couldn’t feel Linnet like he could when they were younger, when they spent so much time together. Elementals that he knew he could sense without issue. This tree didn’t feel like that, but it didn’t feel natural either. Assuming this was some change that came as a result of her time away, Kyle made his way to the shade of the ash and sat down in her shade. The weather was absolutely perfect. A crisp autumn day, not too sunny and warm, just the right amount of breeze. He couldn’t have asked for anything more.

After a few moments of silence, Kyle greeted the tree as he had so many times over the years they had spent together in school. It was something of a joke between the two of them, a nonsensical phrase in Council Gaelic that they used to say hello. Nothing more was needed. She would respond when she was ready. The note had been a first step, but there were many more steps on any kind of road to reunification, redemption, or whatever it was that the two of them really were looking for.