Chapter 721 - Actualities

At the start of the week, the loud flapping of hundreds of owl wings is heard in the Great Hall as owls swoop in with packets from home and copies of the Daily Prophet. Rowan grimaces as usual at the sight and protectively covers her food with her arms lest a feather on anything else strays onto her plate of food. The hooting owls immediately drop the letters and packages into the laps of their rightful owners, before fluttering away to the tower to rest.

Severus's large brown Great Horned Owl, Owyn hoots stoically as he deposits a letter from their grandfather into his owner's lap. Severus happily accepts the letter, while Rowan takes a strip of bacon from a tray and hands it to the tired owl that had weathered the cold weather. Owyn hoots thankfully and accepted the strip of bacon, before fluttering off with his treat in his beak. He'd return to the tower and share it with his lovely lady, Nibby, (Nibby is the Great Horned Female owl of Lily), who he was in the process of wooing, and successfully too might he add. If all went well, they would build a proper nest in the nearby future and possibly even lay eggs in the upcoming months. That was only IF and IF is good.

(Incidentally, Great Horned Owls tend to lay eggs early on. Males tend to find territory in December and a nesting site by January. Eggs are typically laid at the end of January and through February.)

Severus quickly opens the letter from their grandfather and scans the content. "What does it say?" Rowan asked as she stabbed a cut-up piece of her ooey-gooey, perfectly warm cinnamon roll with her fork. She'd earlier cut up the cinnamon roll with her knife and was now proceeding to enjoy the cut-up sweet pastry.

"The usual," Severus murmured in reply as he only briefly scanned the top of the letter not bothering to read the entire contents before handing the letter over for Rowan to read. "He wants us to be ready for the upcoming presentation ball. I didn't bother reading the rest since it's usually the same," before taking a bite of his brunch.

Rowan made an unpleasant expression, before stiffing at seeing the carefully crafted paragraph at the bottom that said that her grandfather wished to speak to her in private during the winter holidays. The matter of concern was the knowledge regarding a wizard by the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle. The blood drains from her face as she stiffly folds the letter and puts it away on her person to read for later. It would seem her luck had at long last run out and she had no further excuses to give.

Far more importantly just who had informed her grandfather of the truth of the matter for it easily could have been anyone in the Slytherin common room present that day, but the odds were greatly in favor of Lucius Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy was one of her grandfather's allies and bishop on the wizarding chessboard. A powerful chess piece with its own mind and a deadly one at that.

Rowan winces as she reads and feels a faint throbbing behind her left eye pulsating. She shuts her eyes for a moment as the throbbing dulls to an ache. The pain was becoming more frequent especially when she was stressed which seemed far too often as of late. Sir Knight's Prince's words were coming true, the spell to seal her sight and maintain the illusion had begun to painfully take its toll. Far more concerning was that she had noticed an increased sensitivity in her left eye that was different from her right eye. The only silver lining and consolation to her were that an artifact was already in progress and would be completed by the start of the Winter Holidays.

Opening her eyes, Rowan composes her expression as Severus gazes at her with more than a bit of concern. Rowan loudly grumbled and partially lied, "It's not as though we can do anything more to prepare for the Winter Ball. We're overworked as it is, and I'm frankly surprised one of us hasn't collapsed from exhaustion yet. I've been having headaches as of late especially on the left side of my temple."

"That won't happen until the end of the school term," Severus darkly murmured with some concern in his voice. "You should stop by the infirmary and see Madam Pomfrey if your headaches are that bad."

Rowan waves Severus's concern away with one hand, before proceeding to continue to eat. She doesn't taste the food on her tongue as her mind keeps returning to their grandfather's letter. Before Severus can repeat his question, Terry lets out a loud shriek and crumbled the Daily Prophet in his hand hard enough to tear. The students in the Great Hall all turn their heads towards the source as Terry digs his fingers into the crumbled, torn Daily Prophet as if wanting to shred it into smithereens. Bethanie, Syliva, Tiffany, Rowan, and Severus all share concerned expressions until Sylvia finally asks her courting partner, "What is wrong, Terry?"

Terry practically shoves the torn, crumbled Daily Prophet into their faces. "Read it," he growled dangerously. They all obediently do so as Terry rants, "Marriage of the Century! Rosie Greengrass is to wed the wealthy pureblood heir, Peregrine Mulciber! For personal details of the wedding plans turn to page 2!"

"That BLOODY pompous bastard," Terry began to swear to the shock of everyone including Sylvia. "How dare that TW*T sell-off Rosie to that family! I'll kill him see if I don't succeed during the Winter Holidays!"

There is a dangerous maddened gleam in Terry's eyes as even Rowan feels the hairs on the back of her neck begin to stand straight up. She had the feeling that Terry might actually murder his Uncle and cleanly get away with it. And she knew just how protective Terry was of his female cousins especially that of Rosie after Damian Mulciber failed attempt to force himself onto the poor girl. That and she had met Rosie during the Quidditch World Cup. The girl was rather lovely and sweet, and even Rowan thought she might be worth getting to know.

"Calm yourself," Rowan quickly said as Severus chimes in agreement.

"Mm, your great-grandmother is rather fond of Rosie is she not?" Tiffany hastily interjected. "Surely, she would have opposed the betrothal if she did not believe Rosie would be well off!"

Terry slowly relaxes as Sylvia swiftly declares, "And your father, certainly would not have permitted it either, Terry! I'm certain he would have stopped your uncle as well."

Terry slowly relents and murmurs, "I suppose Father nor Great-Grandmother would have allowed it, but still I must write to them immediately! I must know as to why I wasn't informed of such a significant decision concerning Rosie!"

Without waiting for a reply nor finishing breakfast, Terry rushes out of the Great Hall towards the Owlery. He wasn't the only one as Professor Eponine Mortimer wasn't far in tow. Rowan had the feeling that if Terry nor Professor Mortimer did not receive the current answer, they'd poison their uncle with an untraceable poison. And considering that one of them was the Potion's Professor at Hogwarts that was a very likely conclusion.

"Well that went well," Severus drily remarked, before taking a sip of his orange juice.

"There, there Sylvia," Bethanie consoled their friend. "I'm certain that Terry won't do anything too outrageous."

"Not if he doesn't get caught," Tiffany mumbled under her breath earning her a sharp glance from Bethanie in a stern warning.

While Tiffany keeps quiet, Bethanie manages to cheer Sylvia up by the end of breakfast, while Rowan and Severus rush off on a Prefect errand. The rest of the day passed in a blur and by the end of the day, Terry seemed to be back to his usual self except for the fact that he and his cousin, Professor Mortimer had strange smiles on their faces. Even his friends knew better than to ask, and tactfully remained silent on the subject.

Not that Rowan and Severus would have had time too as they were running all about as usual. Still the next day during lunch, Severus broached the subject of speaking to Lily to Rowan after their DA class that afternoon. Rowan agreed and hoped for the best, before they went to their elective classes, Ancient Runes for Rowan, and Care of Magical Creatures for Severus.