Chapter 721 - Actualities (1/2)
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!”