Glass and Crystal

Glass and Crystal

The following day dawned cool and bright. For the first time in her life, the sun did not affect Riana adversely, and she stretched with pleasure, remembering the previous day and her adventures with Fabian. However, old habits die hard, and Riana suddenly sprang up from the soft, antique cushions of her bed and, nearly tripping over Alvean's suitcase, waking the mewing occupant as she did so, walked to the cracked mirror. She pivoted to the left and studied her protruding ribs. She pivoted to the right and hunched her shoulders, causing her vertebrae to stand out in a spiny ridge over her emaciated back. She pivoted to the front and poked at the sharply jutting hipbones. Each bone stood out to such an extent that Riana felt uncomfortably like a foreign presence ... a wooden soldier in her own body...but she was pleased.

The evening before, Fabian had taught Riana the fairly simple game of wizard chess. "It's just like real chess!" Riana had exclaimed and at Fabian's questioning look. "Uh... Muggle chess. Only, now the pieces move..." Fabian had laughed loudly at this after giving her a strange, yellow-eyed stare.

After several raucous and entertaining games of wizard chess, Fabian had then invited her downstairs for dinner with his mum and dad. Riana had declined, feeling that she must not eat anything due to her lapse in self-control the day before. She went to bed feeling dizzy and light-headed but oddly self-satisfied.

Still, this morning was a new day, and Riana looked forward to another jaunt with Fabian. She cast a final glance at her looking-glass reflection and tripped lightly to the remaining suitcase, still crammed full of monochromatic clothing.

"I'll feed you in a minute," she assured Alvean as the kitten set up a fearful din, mewing and scratching at the sides of her suitcase home. Slipping a black dress over her head and grabbing a grey cardigan, Riana knelt on the floor and rummaged underneath the sagging mattress for Alvean's kitten food. She pulled out the cloth bag and picked a spider web off of it, a disgusted expression over her pointed features.

Kneeling beside the suitcase, she lifted little, grey Alvean out and placed the kitten in her lap. Alvean pranced around impatiently as Riana unscrewed the bottle cap of Aunt Arabella's Kitten Mush and poured some of the brown mixture gingerly onto her hand. Alvean mewed angrily at the delay as Riana looked with disgust at the mushy mass in her hand. Sighing in resignation, Riana shrugged and lowered her hand to the tiny animal.

In her haste to discover what the source of the pungent smell was, Alvean proceeded to trip over herself and landed nose-down in the mess. A shadow of a grin played across Riana's thin mouth as she set Alvean on her feet, placed her hand in front of the kitten's pink mouth, and held the small head directly in front of the kitten food. Alvean gratefully lapped the mushy food out of Riana's emaciated hand as Riana softly stroked the fluffy grey back. The kitten arched its back against her hand, tail stiff and straight, balancing as the kitten's four little legs trembled in young weakness.

A loud and drawn-out "Meow" sounded from outside Riana's door, and she leapt to her feet, Alvean mewing indignantly as she was swept through the air supported by one frail hand. Riana walked to the door, stumbling over yesterday's discarded outfit, and opened the wooden panel to find a tawny tomcat staring up at her with a wide, toothy grin. Riana rolled her eyes. "Fabian, quit doing that. Honestly. You'll scare Alvean." She stroked the kitten as she spoke and lowered her high-pitched voice, cold grey eyes softening as she gazed at the tiny creature mewing plaintively in her thin arms.

With a loud purr, the tomcat shook his head, and in his place stood Fabian, the tanned Irish boy that Riana had met the day before.

"I just wanted to see whether or not ya recognized me. Ya were reelin' last night before ya went to bed. It's breakfast time." He walked into Riana's room, scooping Alvean out of Riana's arms and placing the kitten back in her suitcase where she put up a frightful display of kitten savagery, rolling around, grabbing the old bathrobe in her front paws and kicking at it frantically with the grey pads of her back paws.

Fabian grinned down at the irate kitten indulgently, no doubt remembering his own similar infantile fits of anger.

Alvean continued for several minutes before settling moodily down and comically stretching out her rough, pink tongue in an effort to clean her food-covered nose.

Riana simply stood, watching Fabian and the kitten, her cheeks sucked in, lips pushed petulantly out. Fabian glanced up, fixing Riana with his piercing yellow stare as she then began objecting to breakfast loudly.

"No, missy, you're eatin' breakfast this mornin', because I don't aim to have my mate pass out in the streets while we're shoppin'. I'm only a cat." He winked cheekily. "A little chit like Alvean, I can carry. But a big girl like ya ... I'd have trouble with."

At the look of horror on Riana's face, Fabian darted toward her and grabbed her shoulders. "Look at me, Riana. I was kiddin' ... you're so thin already, I..." Here he faltered. "Please, just come eat." His usually laughing eyes were serious.

Riana jerked up her proud chin, ashamed to let Fabian see her one true weakness, and agreed to come to breakfast. "Only a small fruit smoothie, all right? Nothing else..." She fixed him with a hawk-like stare. Fabian just nodded with self-satisfied pleasure, obviously delighted.

"I just need to find some shoes," Riana muttered, looking at the mess on her floor. She spotted the toe of one grey pump poking out from under the vanity table and darted toward it as Fabian approached Alvean's suitcase.

"No, that's not all ya need to do," he said, bushy eyebrows raised amusedly. "This little one needs to take care of business, if ya know what I mean."

Riana glanced back over her skeletal shoulder as she knelt, bony bottom sticking up in the air, elbows and forearms pressed to the floor, her long, thin fingers reaching under the dusty, spider web-ridden vanity, trying to snag the pumps.

"Oh, right..."

She sighed and was drawing her stick-like arms out from under the cabinet as Fabian shook his head, laughing at Riana's compromising position. He rolled his yellow eyes and sighed loudly. "Don't bother, I'll do it ... she's not that much of a problem, are ya? Little rascal." He addressed this last endearment to Alvean as he scooped her up, supporting her delicate body in his strong, tawny arms, and dashed from the room.

Riana called after him, "Don't you dare change into a cat around her! And what about Bevil?" But he was already flying down the rickety staircase, taunting laughter drifting up to dusty room number eight, where Riana crouched, exasperated.

*

Riana had placed her pumps on her feet and was standing in front of the mirror, facing toward the open doorway, one hand pressed to the small of her back, the other to her abdomen, measuring the side view of her body when Fabian came bursting through the door, holding a now slumbering Alvean in his hands.

His heavily-bandaged hands, Riana noticed, narrowing her eyes and leaning closer, her own bony hands dropping to her sides, forgotten.

Fabian placed Alvean softly in the suitcase and looked up at Riana impertinently.

"What happened to Bevil? Did you feed him already?" Riana asked, as Fabian strode toward her, hands thrust in the pockets of his blue jeans.

He laughed loudly, but his eyes held a touch of disgust as he said, "No. I tried to, but, ah... it didn't go so well."

Riana lifted her chin and squinted her eyes, "Oh... he nipped you again, did he?"

She grinned wryly, and Fabian joined in her mirth as he drew his bandaged hands out of his pockets. "Did my battle scars give ya that idea?" he asked as Riana collapsed, helplessly howling with laughter.

After several minutes of red-cheeked, raucous laughter, Riana and Fabian finally quieted down enough to at least stand properly. In silent agreement, they decided to set out for Diagon Alley. Both Riana and Fabian kept their mouths pressed together, though their eyes twinkled in merriment, for a single chuckle would instigate another fit of hilarity. So doing, the young witch and wizard linked arms and walked out of the room, fitting easily through the doorway. Riana sighed happily as she walked down the dust-glazed hallway, and then her eyes fluttered wide.

"Oh! I forgot to lock my room!" she exclaimed. Riana dropped Fabian's muscled arm, dashed back to her room, retrieved her purse, which coincidentally, she'd also forgotten, and stopped to drop a quick kiss on the sleeping Alvean's furry head. She dashed out the door and slid to a stop on the dusty floor, pumps screeching noisily. Pivoting in place, she reached a thin hand out to lock her door. Breathing deeply, her thin ribs expanded creakily and she glanced up to see Fabian grinning at her mad rush with amusement evident in his feline face. She stuck out her tongue at him and approached him unconcernedly, her eyebrows raised challengingly. Fabian gave a mock bow, extended his arm to Riana who grasped it just as haughtily, and they traipsed down the stairs, arms linked comfortably.

*

After Riana's fruit smoothie and Fabian's five sausage links, two fried eggs, and a pint of orange juice had disappeared into two hungry mouths and the respective Knuts had been paid to Tom, the two children walked to the Leaky Cauldron's backyard and stood in front of the wall, waiting, as Tom hobbled forth from the Leaky Cauldron and tapped his wand, three up, two across.

The red brick doorway ground open and Riana sprang forward, only to have her thin arm wrenched painfully in her shoulder socket as Fabian caught hold of her hand. As if to prove a point, he looked at Tom and spoke loudly, "Thank ya, Tom." The old man looked surprised but nodded his head anyway. Fabian grinned smugly then turned to look at Riana, admonition written plainly on his face.

She looked down at Fabian and demanded indignantly, "What?" Fabian gave a pronounced nod in Tom's direction. Riana's face crinkled into disgust as she shook her head. Fabian's eyebrows shot up.

Now, if Tom noticed this odd exchange, he did not say a word. He simply stood there, arms swinging slightly as he gazed, cloudy-eyed around the backyard.

Fabian mouthed, "Yes," at Riana who looked down at him angrily. Seeing, however, that they were going nowhere until she did as he asked, she lifted her pointy nose, stared down its full length at the impish Fabian, and turned to Tom.

"Yes," she simpered, letting her false thanks leak through her insincere words, "thank you." Fabian nudged her hard in the ribs. "Ouch! Thank you, Tom," she finished, glaring at Fabian's conceitedly pleased countenance.

Tom inclined his rheumy, aged head and ambled back into the Leaky Cauldron.

Glowering at Fabian, Riana jerked her arm free and stepped over the threshold of Diagon Alley, keeping a few paces ahead of Fabian.

"Oh, come on, Riana. Ya know that was rude of ya back there. It was nice of him to do that for us." Fabian caught up to Riana easily and darted from one side of her to the other as she swung her pale, pointed face side to side, avoiding his gaze.

Rounding on him furiously, Riana placed her hands on her bony hips. "I was rude! Who was the one poking me in the ribs? Besides, aren't you supposed to hate him? He's obviously not a pureblood. And I think you were just trying to, I don't know, make me do something I didn't want to. And that makes me mad!" She glared at her companion with all the fury she could muster in her slanted, silvery eyes.

Fabian simply stared back at her and inclined his head. "I like to play with the old gent from time to time. No, he's not a pureblood, I like to tease you, oh, and yes, ya were rude."

Riana huffed and rolled her eyes, turning and walking into the nearby cauldron shop. She didn't need her list to tell her that she needed to visit that particular shop.

*

The cauldron shop was nondescript. It was filled with stacks of cauldrons that looked, Riana thought, like Muggle flower pots. The proprietor, a small man with a little, round belly shaped just like the curved base of a cauldron, greeted them and assured them that if they needed any help, he was their man.

"Actually, yes, we need, um," Riana looked down to check the list that she'd just pulled from her pocket, "two pewter cauldrons. Standard size two?"

The man nodded, put a finger to his nose and disappeared into the maze of cauldrons.

Riana was busy ignoring Fabian, still angry by his rebuke. Uncharacteristic and unpredictable as always, he danced merrily around stacks of cauldrons and popped out of such odd places, pulling the most peculiar faces, that Riana had to laugh. She did, however, succeed in popping him soundly on the arm for criticizing her earlier, but she eventually forgave him.

The short, round man materialized on Riana's left, toting two pewter cauldrons. "Standard size two," he clarified. "And you're both attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year?"

At this, Fabian stopped dancing around, his face frozen in a horrible grimace, one foot raised off the floor, and he and Riana nodded simultaneously.

The man looked from one to the other. "Well then, you'll need scales for weighing potion ingredients. Professor Patil's class, you know, as well as telescopes for Astronomy." He touched his finger to his nose again and faded into the grey background of the cauldron shop, leaving the two cauldrons at Riana's feet.

"You know, if he keeps touching his finger to his nose like that, he's going to end up with a greasy mass instead of a nose on his face," Riana hissed this comment in Fabian's direction, and they both sniggered.

Soon, the man reappeared and handed over the brass scales and retractable telescopes. Fabian and Riana both paid the proprietor as he beamed rosily on the pair and helped them carry their purchases to the door. Fabian thanked him. Riana did not. This earned her another punch, which she ignored.

Riana checked her list and informed Fabian that the last thing they needed was a set of glass or crystal phials each.

"That sounds absolutely spectacular," Fabian quipped, "completely rivetin'!" He shut his eyes and reached his callused hand out in front of him, walking blind, shouting, "Take me to the phials, Riana! Show me the way!"

Rolling her eyes, Riana stepped toward him, the heavy cauldron banging painfully against her knobby knees, dress flowing in the cool wind of the bright morning. She grabbed his hand and pulled it down as he began laughing.

At that moment, a serious looking, blond haired wizard with a receding hairline passed by them, his black robes flapping in the breeze as he cast a cursory look in their direction with cool grey eyes.

Neither Riana nor Fabian noticed the man. To their young and happy faces, he was just another passer-by.

*

Though Fabian had asked Riana to lead him to the phials, he was the one who knew where they were located and led Riana across the street, a few buildings down, to Slug and Jigger's Apothecary. Riana opened the green-tinted glass door and gasped in disgust. Her pointed nose wrinkled in distaste as the odor of a thousand different herbs and other various magical ingredients assailed her aristocratic nostrils. Fabian, as always, was perfectly composed, though his nose twitched disdainfully at the smell of rotten cabbage and putrid eggs.

An old witch with stringy, tangled, mossy hair and a large hairy mole on the side of her nose crept up to Riana and, grasping her arm in a claw-like hand, spun the thin child to face her.

Biting back a gasp, Riana raised her chin and pulled her arm free of the witch's gnarly clutch. Turning and glimpsing the revolting cause of her pain, Riana's face pulled itself into appalled lines. She purposely made a bigger matter of the unwanted grasp than she normally would. "Ow... That hurt!"

The witch ignored her drawn out protest. "Those eyes look familiar, little one," she croaked, "Parents been in here lately, have they?"

Riana heard a sharp intake of breath, and realized it was her own. Will this woman tell me who my parents are?

"I don't know who my parents are," Riana admitted reluctantly. "Can you tell me?" she asked hopefully, desperately seeking to rectify her earlier response. She was trying unsuccessfully and unaccustomedly to be polite to this rather disgusting old woman.

It was a futile attempt

For, sensing her true purpose, the witch cackled and hobbled away, picking up a handful of wriggling worms from a nearby basin on her way to a remote corner of the shop.

Riana stared angrily after her, eyes narrowed and searching, as her lip curled up in a sneer.

Fabian crept to her right side and placed a comforting arm around Riana's gaunt shoulders. Shaking his head, he pulled her off to another aisle where they found crystal and glass phials. Because of her recent influx in financial funds, Your parents' money, the voice reminded her, Riana bought a set of crystal phials while Fabian stuck with glass, evading her query as to why he didn't just buy the crystal. He was a pureblood, and by the looks of his own leather money bag, he certainly had enough money.

After selecting their items, they approached the witch who was crooning softly to the undulating worms in her knobby claw. The two cleared their throats faintly, and the witch spun around, giant nose wrinkled, eyes beady and staring.

"Well? What do you want?" she demanded briefly, before promptly turning her back on the young witch and wizard.

Fabian and Riana shared a glance.

"She's acting rather uncharitable," Riana whispered defensively, "especially since we've just brought her business."

Fabian's lips thinned into a grim line and he tried his skillful hand at the matter.

"Ma'am," he purred, "we've decided to purchase these phials." The insincere words flowed silkily from his mouth in a musical Irish brogue, and producing the desired effect, the witch turned around, smiling.

Riana shrank back involuntarily.

The witch's smile, though she might have been trying to look friendly, was rather a gruesome affair. The poor woman only possessed one tooth, and that one was oversize, yellow, and cracked. However, she beckoned Fabian forward, and he seized Riana's set of crystal phials as well as his own glass ones and walked to the front desk, on which was scattered an assortment of fuzzy green moss and frog spawn.

The witch, shuffling behind the front desk, turned to a table placed conveniently behind her and began humming tunelessly as she scooped various ingredients into little bags and then tossed this hodgepodge into a larger cloth sack.

Riana looked at Fabian questioningly, but he only shrugged and returned his gaze to the decrepit witch. After a minute or so, the witch turned back to the two children and stared beadily down at them.

"Basic potion ingredients," she informed them, "for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." She didn't wait for their answer, yea or nay, as she rattled off a price. Fabian smiled wryly as he paid up and Riana followed suit, earning her the piercing glare of the witch. Riana ignored the woman, but was interested nonetheless as she and Fabian grabbed their purchases and smashed them into their newly bought, size two cauldrons.

That witch recognized my eyes, Riana mused, as she and Fabian, their pewter cauldrons loaded down with potion ingredients, bumped their way out the door and into the blustery alley outside. She knows who my parents are ... or she had a suspicion, at least. Making a mental note of this, Riana vowed that she would return to question the intimidating, repulsive witch again ... just as soon as she could. But she would have to be alone. Fabian couldn't know. How soon could that happen? She didn't know, but she had to try.

*

Reaching the street, Riana took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the sweet, clear air of Diagon Alley, increasingly thrilled to be out of the Apothecary's shop.

Fabian was doing the same, and as he took a giant gasp, expanding his small, tanned chest, he cast an insolent glance at Riana. "God, that was borin'! I think it's about time to have some real fun. Let's head back to the pub. Ten to one says I take your queen in five minutes."

With an arch look, Riana set her cauldron on the pavement, extended her hand and took Fabian's. "And I, Mr. Big Shot, say that you won't win one game this evening."