RP: An owl from Father he'll never finish reading
Date: November 27, 2004
Character(s): Adrian Pucey
Location: His flat, 6C at Copper Towers
Status: Private
Summary: Adrian receives news that he didn't even know would break his heart.
Completion: Complete
Adrian's owl Strix had been missing for a couple of days. It didn't alarm him, as the owl was known to take off for days at a time for hunting or pleasure, but by the fifth day Pucey was starting to worry. The owl was his only real connection to his family and loved ones spread out throughout the world, not to mention the past that he once was so proud of. In truth, Strix had been the closest thing to a confidant Adrian'd had in years, and so his disappearance worried the young wizard. Even with the new friends he had made over his stay so far in Stoatshead, the idea of Strix not coming back got to him.
It was just as he was sitting, thinking of this very thing, that Strix came floating lazily in through the open balcony doors, into Adrian's bedroom and landed with a rather annoyed 'hoot' on Adrian's bed. Adrian looked up from his makeshift reading corner - a small, rather uncomfortable chair he'd had trouble re-enlarging after the move from the estate, and bookshelves currently made out crates he'd found outside an abandoned muggle restaurant and far too few books for his liking - with a look of frustration. He stood and walked toward the bird and asked "And where have you been?"
Strix lifted his wing and revealed a much larger than normal letter rolled and attached to his leg. One look at the seal told him it was from his father, but he couldn't remember the last time his father wrote more than a short note asking how he was doing in the cold and freezing north.
Unrolling the letter, Adrian sat back down in his uncomfortable chair and leaned back, only to sit back up at the first sentence.
My Dearest Boy,
I do wish that I could send you any news other than this, but I know that it will be a long while before the floo network is working there and I feel the news has all ready taken long enough to get to us. I am sorry for keeping your familiar for so long, but Striz didn't seem to mind the warm weather and I found myself re-writing this bloody letter a dozen or so times.
I know that I don't need to remind you of a certain night in Roma. You told me that story so many times, you standing, looking through the crowds at the Fontana di Trevi, and there she is. You aren't 18 and terrified any more, you're 23, and you miss her, and there she is with her eyes closed and her lips quirked in a wish, throwing her coins over her shoulder.
Adrian had to set the paper day. His breath was coming fast and he felt a slight sweat on his forehead. Why was his father writing to him about Morgan? Had they run into her? How did his dad know that he missed her? Had they seen them together that day in Rome? Impossible. He remembered standing there at the Fountain, not believing what was right in front of him. How they has said goodbye five years before and yet he recognized her on the other side of the world, an ocean away from their time together. And when she opened her eyes, she knew it was him too, almost as if she had known before she made the wish, before she looked up into the crowd.
She was wearing a cream colored dress that complimented the tan she had just perfectly, but he remembered thinking how odd it was that she would be wearing a dress at all - the Morgan he remembered never wore dresses. She should, he thought that day, she looked beautiful in the sunlight coming in through the taller buildings, with the blue of the water as the background. He was struck by an odd thought too, why on earth would Morgan be at a tourist trap like this? She was an artist, a brilliant art historian, why would she be here in all of Rome? But then she looked at him, with dark blue eyes and her dark hair being played with by the wind. All thought stopped. They spent the night... he looked down at the letter, praying to the gods that the night in Rome would not be the last he ever had with her, not by choice, but by circumstance. He continued reading...
I remember meeting Morgan the next day and being so happy and so proud of you. You had been together in Boston when you were both young but here you were, ready to be a family and ready to grow up - together. I will always be thankful to Italy for giving you that night. Even if things ended poorly between you. Adrian, son, you should have told her. She would have understood...
I'm not writing to lecture you, I promise, but you should have trusted her. We all should have, I should not have let you walk away. Adrian, Morgan was a witch. She was muggle born, American educated and attended a Muggle university as you know, but she was a witch. She never said anything for fear of what you would think - much the same way you refused to tell her of your bloodlines - but she wrote her parents the same morning that you introduced her to us. She had come across your wand in the middle of the night, she had awoken to get a drink of water, and she knew the truth. She wrote to her parents back in the US that morning but you two had that argument while we were all at breakfast and you asked us to leave Rome. Adrian, please, don't blame yourself for what happened next, I know you and I know you're going to try to blame yourself but please don't.
Morgan left Rome as well, we came here to the islands and she went to England, looking for you. She thought perhaps we had gone back to the estate when we left in such a hurry and she looked up our family and traced us to London. Son, oh my boy, she was killed. The fighting was at some of it's absolute worse by then, only two years ago though it's hard to believe. She was kidnapped, from our estate grounds, they thought she was close to us, and tried using her to get to us. To you. We kept our reasons for traveling secret for so long Son but we can't any more. They wanted to recruit you, They wanted you to work for them, They threatened to take you once you had your NEWTs, we couldn't let Them do that. They thought that by getting to her, They could get to you. But her parents didn't get the news until much later, being muggles, and then they had the task of trying to find us...
It was too much information, Adrian felt his head get heavy and then light and then the room was spinning and he felt sick to his stomach. Morgan. Gone. Dead. Searching. Kidnapped. Family. Hope. No more. Magic. Death Eaters. Light. Threat. Them. He felt the nausea become a ball in his stomach, he felt angry like he never had before - not only at her murderers but his family and her family and her! How could she do this to him? Why the hell hadn't she just told him the truth? Why had she gone there knowing there was a war? How could she do this to him...? The rest of the letter was unread, his father's condolences and concerns would never register with him, he crumpled the paper and crawled down off of his chair, not realizing that the tears on his face were his own. He crawled to his bed, unsure if he could stand even if he were willing to try. He crawled up and under the warm quilt that his mother had made him years ago, and sometimes in just the right spot, would still smell like her. He couldn't find that now though, and the thought made him want to be sick. He curled up and stared at the wall of his bedroom, without even the motivation to have himself a drink. Morgan. Gone. Dead. Searching. Kidnapped. Family. Hope. No more. Magic. Death Eaters. Light. Threat. Them.
Character(s): Adrian Pucey
Location: His flat, 6C at Copper Towers
Status: Private
Summary: Adrian receives news that he didn't even know would break his heart.
Completion: Complete
Adrian's owl Strix had been missing for a couple of days. It didn't alarm him, as the owl was known to take off for days at a time for hunting or pleasure, but by the fifth day Pucey was starting to worry. The owl was his only real connection to his family and loved ones spread out throughout the world, not to mention the past that he once was so proud of. In truth, Strix had been the closest thing to a confidant Adrian'd had in years, and so his disappearance worried the young wizard. Even with the new friends he had made over his stay so far in Stoatshead, the idea of Strix not coming back got to him.
It was just as he was sitting, thinking of this very thing, that Strix came floating lazily in through the open balcony doors, into Adrian's bedroom and landed with a rather annoyed 'hoot' on Adrian's bed. Adrian looked up from his makeshift reading corner - a small, rather uncomfortable chair he'd had trouble re-enlarging after the move from the estate, and bookshelves currently made out crates he'd found outside an abandoned muggle restaurant and far too few books for his liking - with a look of frustration. He stood and walked toward the bird and asked "And where have you been?"
Strix lifted his wing and revealed a much larger than normal letter rolled and attached to his leg. One look at the seal told him it was from his father, but he couldn't remember the last time his father wrote more than a short note asking how he was doing in the cold and freezing north.
Unrolling the letter, Adrian sat back down in his uncomfortable chair and leaned back, only to sit back up at the first sentence.
My Dearest Boy,
I do wish that I could send you any news other than this, but I know that it will be a long while before the floo network is working there and I feel the news has all ready taken long enough to get to us. I am sorry for keeping your familiar for so long, but Striz didn't seem to mind the warm weather and I found myself re-writing this bloody letter a dozen or so times.
I know that I don't need to remind you of a certain night in Roma. You told me that story so many times, you standing, looking through the crowds at the Fontana di Trevi, and there she is. You aren't 18 and terrified any more, you're 23, and you miss her, and there she is with her eyes closed and her lips quirked in a wish, throwing her coins over her shoulder.
Adrian had to set the paper day. His breath was coming fast and he felt a slight sweat on his forehead. Why was his father writing to him about Morgan? Had they run into her? How did his dad know that he missed her? Had they seen them together that day in Rome? Impossible. He remembered standing there at the Fountain, not believing what was right in front of him. How they has said goodbye five years before and yet he recognized her on the other side of the world, an ocean away from their time together. And when she opened her eyes, she knew it was him too, almost as if she had known before she made the wish, before she looked up into the crowd.
She was wearing a cream colored dress that complimented the tan she had just perfectly, but he remembered thinking how odd it was that she would be wearing a dress at all - the Morgan he remembered never wore dresses. She should, he thought that day, she looked beautiful in the sunlight coming in through the taller buildings, with the blue of the water as the background. He was struck by an odd thought too, why on earth would Morgan be at a tourist trap like this? She was an artist, a brilliant art historian, why would she be here in all of Rome? But then she looked at him, with dark blue eyes and her dark hair being played with by the wind. All thought stopped. They spent the night... he looked down at the letter, praying to the gods that the night in Rome would not be the last he ever had with her, not by choice, but by circumstance. He continued reading...
I remember meeting Morgan the next day and being so happy and so proud of you. You had been together in Boston when you were both young but here you were, ready to be a family and ready to grow up - together. I will always be thankful to Italy for giving you that night. Even if things ended poorly between you. Adrian, son, you should have told her. She would have understood...
I'm not writing to lecture you, I promise, but you should have trusted her. We all should have, I should not have let you walk away. Adrian, Morgan was a witch. She was muggle born, American educated and attended a Muggle university as you know, but she was a witch. She never said anything for fear of what you would think - much the same way you refused to tell her of your bloodlines - but she wrote her parents the same morning that you introduced her to us. She had come across your wand in the middle of the night, she had awoken to get a drink of water, and she knew the truth. She wrote to her parents back in the US that morning but you two had that argument while we were all at breakfast and you asked us to leave Rome. Adrian, please, don't blame yourself for what happened next, I know you and I know you're going to try to blame yourself but please don't.
Morgan left Rome as well, we came here to the islands and she went to England, looking for you. She thought perhaps we had gone back to the estate when we left in such a hurry and she looked up our family and traced us to London. Son, oh my boy, she was killed. The fighting was at some of it's absolute worse by then, only two years ago though it's hard to believe. She was kidnapped, from our estate grounds, they thought she was close to us, and tried using her to get to us. To you. We kept our reasons for traveling secret for so long Son but we can't any more. They wanted to recruit you, They wanted you to work for them, They threatened to take you once you had your NEWTs, we couldn't let Them do that. They thought that by getting to her, They could get to you. But her parents didn't get the news until much later, being muggles, and then they had the task of trying to find us...
It was too much information, Adrian felt his head get heavy and then light and then the room was spinning and he felt sick to his stomach. Morgan. Gone. Dead. Searching. Kidnapped. Family. Hope. No more. Magic. Death Eaters. Light. Threat. Them. He felt the nausea become a ball in his stomach, he felt angry like he never had before - not only at her murderers but his family and her family and her! How could she do this to him? Why the hell hadn't she just told him the truth? Why had she gone there knowing there was a war? How could she do this to him...? The rest of the letter was unread, his father's condolences and concerns would never register with him, he crumpled the paper and crawled down off of his chair, not realizing that the tears on his face were his own. He crawled to his bed, unsure if he could stand even if he were willing to try. He crawled up and under the warm quilt that his mother had made him years ago, and sometimes in just the right spot, would still smell like her. He couldn't find that now though, and the thought made him want to be sick. He curled up and stared at the wall of his bedroom, without even the motivation to have himself a drink. Morgan. Gone. Dead. Searching. Kidnapped. Family. Hope. No more. Magic. Death Eaters. Light. Threat. Them.