"So, ready to get on the train?" Moira asked, glancing up at the windows where the younger students already pressed their faces up to the glass, little puffs of air frosting their reflections. "I'm not trying to send you off early. Just sayin'," her older sister put an arm around her and gave her a squeeze.

Fauna shook her head and glanced up at her, amused. "You're just a wimp about the cold. I mean, dress in layers, will you?"

Moira gave her a look. They'd been over this before. Layers made her look 'bulky'. And Fauna wore enough for the two of them.

Fauna let out a sigh. "I guess so. I guess I'd better snag a spot before I'm stuck sitting with..." She gestured towards the window, where a first-year was picking his nose.

Moira picked up one end of the trunk and Fauna picked up the other so they could get to the front of the train and say their goodbyes. Fauna had learned long ago that attempting to levitate a trunk onto the train and through the crowded train corridor only ended in bruises and catastrophe. There were some things that were best done the muggle way.

As they trudged toward the front, past clusters of friends and families, Fauna spotted someone she recognized. A few someones: Adelia and Alfie Delacroix. The two siblings were with an older man and woman, who fussed over them like parents would.

She hesitated, causing Moira to accidentally bump her with the trunk. "Uh, is there a reason you've-"

"Sorry," Fauna said automatically, still staring at her friend and her friend's family, whom she'd never met. "Um, I think I'm going to... I think there's uh, something I want to do first. Before the train leaves."

With that, she dropped her end of the trunk and started to move away. Then she looked over her shoulder at her sister, who was looking at her with a puzzled, irritated expression. "You can come too," Fauna offered as an afterthought.

"No, that's alright. I'll just stand here in the cold and guard your stuff. Yup. It's what I live for," Moira rolled her eyes and waved her off.

The closer Fauna got to Adelia and Alfie, the more nervous she became. Her parents seemed like such nice people! Adelia often had good things to say about them. So why could Fauna never come over to her house for dinner, or have her mum meet them, or any of the normal things she did with her other friends?

There were only two answers that Fauna could think of: one, Addie was embarrassed by her. Or two, something bad was going on in her family life that she didn't want Fauna to know about.

Biting her lip nervously, she crept up next to Addie and tried to smile. "Um... hi," she said shyly, glancing at her parents, then at Alfie, and then at Adelia again.

The journey on the A3 to London had been from hell this very day. It had not been contributed to their lime green vw van, nor the frost on the windowpane. Nay, not even from Anne's short temper from earlier (Malcolm hoped that it wasn't menopause; maybe it was losing Addie as a grad soon?) - oh no no noooo. It was hearing variations of "OMIGAWD! ALFIE - UGH! STOP ITTT!" & "IT WASN'T ME, DA! ADDIE STARTED IT FIRST!" for the past thirty minutes. The van had been parked in at the train station closest to 9 3/4. His patience had finally snapped once inside they had entered the platform.


"FER TH' LOVE OF GOD Y'TWO! SHUT YER GAB OR SO HELP ME!" he had barked over the crowds, causing a scene and making people stare the family as if Malcolm was a homicidal maniac. "Malcolm, love...calm down," Anne soothed, stroking his arm that was covered in leather, "you look like a bloody fool." Ah, a woman's touch indeed... "Sorry t'ya both, but jeezus. You have only each other, yeah? So, please... Adelia, show him a lil' mor' understanding & Alfred, grow up a lil' son. Ye can't be a nuisance - no one likes a smartass." The children grumbled in agreement to his instruction.

"Malc...love?" came Anne's voice, which sounded quite alarmed. He had no need to ask what the situation was; his eyes saw what had caught his wife's attention. It was looking back a few years...only this time, a pair of blue eyes were glancing back at his daughter. Fauna. He gulped as she arrived to their little band of a family. A shiver ran down his spine; the past was now back to haunt him.

"FAUNNNNNNNA!" Alfie piped up loudly, causing the three to revert back to reality. "CHRISTMAS WASSSSSS GREAT! I missed ya! ANNNDDDD.." Malcolm intervened, putting a hand over his boy's mouth. "I assure ye he gets not from me nor his mum, dear....I'm Malcolm. Addie's told us so much about ye over these past six years. Tis good t'see a face to a name."

This occurance was going to be so awkward; seeing Mor, his other child & once joy too, in the distance didn't help.

Fauna giggled nervously when Alfie shouted his greeting. She gave him a funny little wave and then raised her eyebrows when his father cut him off and said hello.

"I assure ye he gets not from me nor his mum, dear....I'm Malcolm. Addie's told us so much about ye over these past six years. Tis good t'see a face to a name."

"Oh, uh, thanks," she smiled at him, held out her hand from him and Anneliese to shake. It was the father's expressive eyes that caught her attention. They seemed to search her face, even seemed a touch sad.

"I hope it's okay that I sorta... came over here, but I've heard a lot about all of you too."

She glanced at Addie, looking for some reassurance that she wasn't mad, and that Fauna wasn't intruding. She didn't yet notice Moira, who was still standing by her luggage, staring at Malcolm as if she'd seen a ghost.

Addie's eyes were not only twinkling in excitement that for once, all four Blake children were in one setting but also registered that Mor was like herself: shock-struck. After all, it seemed fate had finally sealed the group in the first few steps of recovery, right? Anneliese took Fauna's hand & squeezed it reassuringly, which if put to words would've been "the pleasure is so much than you know." Alfie was soon able to speak up once more as his eyes twinkled happily to see her. "Did you get our care packages? I did the . . ." A pink tinge around his cheeks said it all as Addie held back on a snicker & in its place, her father speaking.

"I can imagine so! Adelia's got her family's knack at storytelling on m'side of the family. I daresay you're not like that, are ya?" Malcolm commented, chuckling as he smiled at his girls. Cor, could a dad be any prouder?

Addie's blue eyes kept a fixation on Fauna, smiling the entire time. "Ready to tackle our final semester? Storm...he's a hard one as I was telling Da. Granda Jimmy, in his infinite wisdom (Anne & Malcolm snickered at the word of 'wisdom') said that he should meet up with him, but Da protested as did Uncle Frankie. They said the two would be like an atomic bomb forming, especially if they began to bicker & that the second the two grew close, both worlds would suffer the consequences."

Alfie was growing impatient in standing in one spot. "Hey! Is that your sister, Fauna?" he asked as an inquiring motivator to head over to Moira. Arriving in no time, he smiled brightly. "COR! Yer mom & dad must have kickin' genes 'cause ye, wiv Fauna, are some of th' most prettiest girls I've ever seen!" Alfie commented all while the rest of his family looked in inner horror. This chance meeting had gone swimmingly until now.

They were now in Calcutta. Sheol. The pit....and most definitely the pendulum, which was swinging above them ever so closely.


(your choice what alfie made fauna lol)

Fauna felt both relieved and a bit embarrassed when Addie's mum took her hands in her own and gave them a reassuring squeeze. She smiled at her and glanced down, face flushing.

Alfie was hilariously adorable, as always. She did indeed like the hat he'd made for her out of old Daily Prophet parchment. Fauna had known it was his work because he'd drawn a doodle with her name and a heart that was half-smudged away, though for his sake, she wouldn't mention that she'd noticed it.

Fauna grinned at Alfie and and nodded as his father began speaking. Addie's parents seemed genuinely pleased to see her, and she couldn't help but regret that she'd never met them before. Addie didn't seem bothered at all, either. So what was the big coverup? Every family had its oddities. It wasn't as if Fauna's mum or grandma were perfect- Moira could attest to that.

She glanced over at her older sister and finally caught the bewildered expression on her face. But Addie asked about their final semester and Professor Storm, and Fauna shifted her attention back to her friend.

"That would be entertaining. A match for Storm, huh? I'd like to see that," she told her, about to comment on how the first-years were all terrified of him, when Alfie burst out with:

"Hey! Is that your sister, Fauna?" he asked as an inquiring motivator to head over to Moira. Arriving in no time, he smiled brightly.

"Err..." Fauna managed, giving Moira an apologetic look.

"COR! Yer mom & dad must have kickin' genes 'cause ye, wiv Fauna, are some of th' most prettiest girls I've ever seen!"

Chuckling, Fauna nudged Adelia, shaking her head in amusement. "Don't give her a big head, now," she told Alfie. Her sister had a tendency to attract that kind of attention, and even now Moira hammed it up, putting a hand on her hip and winking at Alfie, who turned bright red in response.

Fauna went over there to help her drag the trunk towards the Delacroixs so she wouldn't have to stand off to the side alone.

"Uh, yeah," Fauna said. "This is Moira."

"Hi," her older sister grinned at them, then turned to look at Alfie. "See, I prefer your introduction to hers. Much more enthusiastic. Calling me pretty doesn't hurt either. Right, Fauna?"

"Blah, blah," Fauna rolled her eyes in response.

There was a pause. Then, "You look really familiar," Moira told Adelia's father, peering at him curiously.

Malcolm couldn't help but be in awe having all of his children here. The feeling may have been a fleeting thought initially, but it was now full blown emotions that flooded his body. It took Anne's gentle touch to his hand & squeezing as she had Fauna's for him to realize that his youngest was as loud as ever. Shaking his head, Malcolm knew that some things would never change about that boy. . .  Looking to telling Fauna about his father was cut short by Addie mentioning the facts. "My father is pretty eccentric, so it came as no surprise that he would find Storm's methods... well, intriguing for a lack of a better term." Jimmy had his grandchildren partially convinced that magic was more than just hereditary & well, Alfie was now willing to brag he was like a 'mutant' out of those comics that the boy so enjoyed.

Seeing Moira (MJ as he remembered calling her along with Mor & Moira Jane) made him all a mixture of emotions, including a sense of annoyance suddenly with his son's mouth blathering away about her beauty, forgetting instantly he was oblivious to the connection. "Alfred, lad, for cryin' outloud! Ye don't go 'bout praising a lady's beauty without knowing all th' facts! What did I teach ye!?" he barked, a mixture of tough love & general concern.

"Sorry, Da..." the boy said, the pink tinge rising once more to his cheeks as he looked to the girls, "and Miss Moira. And Fauna." Anne stifled a laugh as she nudged her husband's ribcage as if to say 'you ought to be ashamed - you were the same way, as I recall' in the jab. He winced momentarily - they were still healing from that fall off the stage platform the other week. . .

Then it hit him like bricks when Moira said she recognized him. Oh, good gravy. How was he going to explain this? Another white lie? The letter to Fauna wouldn't be delivered until Monday, so he came up with the plausible answer. "I play at a pub in London...Pigs Can't Fly, have ye heard of it? Maybe there?" Phew. Playing fire with fire wasn't easy. No sir.

Fauna looked surprised when Adelia's father scolded Alfie for commenting on their looks. She felt there was some sort of tension there, but knew that Alfie hadn't meant any harm by it. Fauna hadn't felt offended, and by the look on Moira's face, her older sister hadn't been either.

"It's okay, Alfie," she reassured him with a shrug. "It takes someone with good looks to see it, right?" What an absolutely ridiculous statement, but it got a smile out of the kid.

Moira stifled a snicker at her attempts to reassure the boy.

When Moira wondered where she'd seen Malcolm before, there was a pause. Fauna studied the expression on Malcolm's face. Perhaps he just wasn't good with surprise questions. Or perhaps he couldn't think of where they'd met before.

A pub in London? Oh, Moira was familiar with those. She played music as well, and Fauna grinned, certain they'd get into a discussion about bands and groups and all that.

"I've been there!" Moira exclaimed. See? Spot on.

"How often do you play? What do you play?" Moira asked excitedly. Fauna glanced at Addie and gave her an 'here it comes' look.

"Because I sing, and I've been trying to get my name out there, but it's just so hard, you know."