Golden Girl; 𝓕𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂

Summer, 1991: The Letter

As Bambi sat there spinning back and forward, she desperately tried to think of something entertaining to do, anything would be better than this right now.

She had read almost all the books she had brought with her the first week they arrived. Her paints had dried up about a month in, and even though she tried to remind her father, he always seemed to forget to cast a rehydrating charm on them before he crawled into bed at the end of the day. She had a junior quidditch set and broom, but nobody to play with, and she wasn't allowed out on her broom here anyway.

"Someone might think you're some bird and try to shoot you down!" Her father had said.

She had a collection of miniature animals and figurines, but even though she still rather loved them, she felt she was growing too old to be distracted by them for long enough periods of time.

Bambi sighed again.

"Gerald, how much you wanna bet it'll be three days this time?" She asked.

Gerald stared again.

"Wanna say... 100 Galleons? 200 Galleons?" She wiggled her eyebrows at him. "4,000?" She gasped, pretending to fall over, "Gerald! You are a risky better, you are!" Bambi waved a hand through the air, "But, if you insist... I'm sure Dad has something worth that amount in one of these drawers,"

She pulled open one of the drawers, trying to find anything interesting to look at and show Gerald.

"Ah! What do we have here?" She held up the first strange artifact he had stored away in the bottom drawer. It was some heavy stone slab with weird cryptic writing on it. When Bambi touched it, it grew warm and hummed, the writing glowing a bright green.

"Possibly cursed magical stone... dating to..." She read her father's handwriting on the small paper label on the back, "Early 400 BC." She ignored the warning about wearing some special gloves, "What an interesting find! Any takers? No bidders?" Bambi switched her betting game into an imaginary bidding one.

Gerald closed his eyes as if bored with the game already.

Bambi slid the stone back into the leather pouch it was in before and shut the first drawer with a rather loud slam.

She moved her attention to the second drawer up. "Ooh, Strigiformes and gentlemen, you'll like what I have here! It's a..." Bambi squinted her eyes to see what was inside the clear orb she held up, "I honestly don't even know what this is. Looks like a bunch of gross green stuff in a clear circle. I'll start the bidding at... 3 billion. Gerald?" She looked at the bird with hopeful wild eyes.

Gerald shuffled a few steps further away from Bambi.

"Okay fineee," She gave a resigned huff, "Give me one last shot, I'm sure the best is left for last."

Bambi tossed the orb into the drawer before opening the last topmost drawer.

"Ah, paperwork. Another unsuccessful day of snooping." She sighed, "Gerald, please tell me it's already been at least four hours? I think I'm going to die of boredom."

Gerald didn't respond.

Bambi flicked through the papers, all either scribbled notes, pages of her father's manuscripts, and a couple illustrations to accompany said notes or manuscripts. She pulled out the three identical letters, all a yellow sort of paper with dark purple seals bearing a coat of arms; a lion, eagle, badger, and snake all around a large letter H.

Bambi flipped one of the letters around. In emerald green ink, it was clearly addressed to a "Miss Bambi Hargroves; The Large Canvas Tent, Omo Valley, Ethiopia."