(1) Family Ties (D. Salvatore)

Chapter Eight

The morning after Halloween, Tansy is in a much better mood, as she knew she would be. It is only really Halloween that affects her that way, because it is the day that her parents were murdered, the day that her life changed to the point that she would spend the next ten years in an abusive home before she went to Hogwarts. Halloween will never be a happy time for her. But the day after is a lot better. She gets up, showers, and dresses to her usual standard. Her hair is curled to perfection. She just feels better as a whole. She enters the living room with one of her old school books in hand, along with a feather and her wand, to find that Bonnie is already waiting for her, still looking affected by what happened at the party the night before with her necklace, even with the knowledge that it is a witch's amulet. It's a rare magical item that went out of fashion years ago. Not many witches use amulets anymore. Tansy herself had looked into using one in her fifth year, but she would have had to create one herself as no store sold them. It just isn't a thing, at least not in England, she doesn't know where the Americans stand.

Bonnie smiles at Tansy, a look of relief flickering across her face when she notices that Tansy has gone back to her ordinary self. All traces of the girl she was yesterday are gone. Tansy sits on the couch next to Bonnie, setting the book in her hand down on the table.

"Ready to try some actual magic?" Tansy asks and Bonnie's eyes light up with excitement. This is something she has been waiting for.

"Really?" Bonnie asks. Tansy nods with a smile. She has been looking forward to this part of Bonnie's training as much as Bonnie has. Tansy always loved the practical aspect of magic at school. She loved the reading of history and lore and practices and such, but actually doing magic was where she shined. Charms, jinxes, transfiguration, healing, counter-spells, and even things like potions and herbology. She liked getting her hands on the actual physicality of magic. Bonnie, it seems, is much like her in that regard.

"Just a simple levitation spell to start with" Tansy offers as she opens up her Traditional magic textbook from school. It's basically a starter list of spells. Bonnie has done well with the history and basics of the theoretical aspects of magic. And it has been a month now and she should start teaching some practical spells. It's longer than it took her teachers to start teaching practical spells. In the first week of their first year. Bonnie is a late bloomer though so Tansy has been a little more cautious with her. "It's an adapted spell from a spell I was taught in my first year" Tansy sets a feather onto the top of the book's open pages along with her wand. "Only this one obviously uses traditional magic" Bonnie nods, understanding. She's been through the differences before, she knows that any spell that Tansy knows for Pure magic has to be adapted to work for Bonnie's traditional magic. Tansy looks at the feather and focuses on it. "Casso tor" Tansy casts and the feather levitates above the book page, floating in the air. Bonnie lets out a breath and leans closer to really look at the feather and book. But she is clearly not paying attention to the information on the pages. There is a curiosity that is left over from yesterday that she is finding it hard to move past.

"Can I ask you about yesterday?" Bonnie asks, not looking up from the book. Tansy lets out a breath. She knows that for Bonnie, who has no idea what has gone on in their world, their history lessons haven't breached the last twenty years yet, it would have been confusing to her to see her usually very light-hearted and warm friend suddenly so upset and down.

"Okay," Tansy whispers. She feels like she should explain. Bonnie has nothing to explain why Tansy was in such a sour mood yesterday. She can't imagine how that looked. "My parents were killed...Halloween, 1991" Bonnie looks up from the book with that admission. "A dark wizard broke into our home and killed them"

"Tansy" Bonnie starts, ignoring the magic to comfort Tansy. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have asked...you didn't have to tell me that" Tansy gives her a soft smile.

"It's okay," She reassures her. "It would have come up at some point in our lessons anyway, eventually....that wizard is a big part of our magical history, my history" Tansy clears her throat and shrugs. "I still struggle with it because..."

"Because they were your parents and you lost them" Bonnie finishes for her. Tansy nods.

"I'm sorry you saw me like that yesterday, I try to isolate myself, usually my brother and I spend the day together and we mourn in our own way" She lets out a breath, swallowing the emotions bubbling in her throat. "Shall we get back to this spell?" Tansy asks, motioning to the book and Bonnie nods. Sensing the need to change the subject. Fair enough. It is a tough subject. Tansy picks up and holds out her wand to Bonnie. "It is not going to be a perfect fit, but you should try it with the wand first; wandless magic is a lot harder"

"Are you sure?" Bonnie asks her, Tansy hums and nods.

"My wand's allegiance is not fickle" Tansy states as she taps the book with the feather on it. Bonnie takes the wand from her and scoots closer to the book to read through the spell instructions.

"Wand's allegiance?" Bonnie asks.

"The wand chooses us, not the other way around, but they can change their minds. I've been through a lot with mine, I know it will stand by me," Bonnie looks down at the wand and shakes her head. That might be a far stretch for her to believe. "Just as I know it will help you now" Bonnie takes a deep breath.

"What if a wand doesn't choose me?" Bonnie asks.

"One will," Tansy assures her. "Ollivander will see you right" Bonnie glances at her. "He's the best wandmaker in the world, in London. I'll take you to see him soon"

"I don't think my dad will let me go to England" Bonnie argues.

"Tell him we're going to, I don't know, Pittsburg or something and then we'll just not go there, instead we'll actually be going to London" Tansy offers with a small smirk.

"We can't just go to London as if we're going to Pittsburg" Bonnie argues, Tansy chuckles and leans closer to her.

"Magic" She reminds her and then turns to the book. "Let's just work on this spell for now and I'll plan something..." Bonnie snorts a little and then nods. "Start slow, practice pronunciation and then wand movements, and then we'll put them together"