Answers To Questions Impossible To Find...

[Jay Rastan]

Jay Rastan had officially had enough of it.

Striding down the corridor toward Lady Saphricorn’s office door, with his blue robes flying out behind him in a almost menacing manner. His icy blue eyes were narrowed in anger especially after this latest incident, Jay wanted answer and he darn well wanted them now. Knocking quickly on the heavy set wooden door bearing the name plaque belonging to his Head of House.

After asking himself the same question over and over for the past six years, and it seemed everyone else had as well and now it was all he heard. “Jay, you’re acting like you’re a…” but it was never a Saphricorn or it was “You don’t belong in Saphricorn” and Jay was starting to think it himself. Opening the door after hearing a noise inside and taking as an affirmative to enter, he couldn’t help but look around the boundaries of the office, not willing to call them walls when he thought the room was made up more of nature than bricks and mortar. While he usually would have been in a slight awe of his surrounds, his gaze looked over it uninterestedly.

Determined to finally get some answers from the only person he knew that could give it to him, he took a few steps further into the office after closing the door behind him.

“Lady Saphricorn?” Jay called out, only now starting to think she should have sent Valpot ahead to make an appointment with the founder. “Lady Saphricorn, are you here?”

Jay was started by the loud squawk of a from above sitting on a vine looking down at him, the bird has beautiful multicoloured plumage and looked regal when it squawked at him again and Jay realised where he knew that sound from. It was the obnoxious and bothersome bird that woke him up every morning at five, Jay had often seen a bird of the same colours and now it all made sense.

“Why don’t you fly down here and squawk you giant pain in my behind you flying pillow stuffing…” Jay growled out at the bird, who deemed it fitting to let out another cry. Which caused Jay to let out a rumble of laughter realising he was having an ‘argument’ with a bird. It couldn’t understand him, its small brain capacity probably only allowed it to realise that he needs to eat and sleep and could fly.

“This is ridiculous. Saphricorn is probably at the other end of the school not that she probably could have shed any light on my dilemma and I’m almost bickering with a stupid bird. Leaving and that stupid arranged marriage proposal is looking better by the day…” Jay said to himself out aloud, sure he was alone and it wasn’t like the bird could understand him. “See you tomorrow at five bird brain”

And with that, Jay turned and begun to head for the door.

[Phil Parrot]

“Well I must say, I have been called a lot of things in my time, Mr Rastan, and I admit my disappointment over the continued use of that particular insult, after three hundred years you would think one of you could think up a new insult,” the bird circled the sky above the room a couple of times before handing prestigiously upon the desk which had nothing on it. It was clear to see that Lady Saphricorn never used this office for anything other then a storage facility for her own private green house.

One might wonder why it is that a bird can talk when a student appeared to have problems with doing so coherently; but then this was a magic school, and these were a bunch of pubescent teenagers. “What’s your problem today, young man, you know every time I see you all you are ever doing is shouting of throwing things, you’re not a very happy boy, are you? One would consider perhaps that you should have been a Ruberagon student?”

Unaware of Jay’s issues, the bird did not see any danger in testing this thin ice. All the same though it busied itself with pecking through it feathers and pruning itself just a little, “Got ot maintain ones appearance, it’ll be breeding time soon,” he said as he did it a little more before looking back up at the boy, his yellow and black eyes blinking once or twice while he spoke, “Of course though, you already knew that? Saphricorn students always know when the breeding season comes,”

“If you really are a Saphricorn,” the bird narrowed its eyes as best it could, though being a bird and having very little of such expression it simply looked as if the bird had half closed its eyes.

“You know these feathers are much too good for pillow stuffing,” the bird said to Jay as it continued to nip through them, demonstrating, just as everyone knew, that all birds were ever interested in talking about was themselves; their appearance, their song, their wing span, their nests, and the breeding periods, “Much too good indeed, it would be a great honour for you to be able to make a pillow of my plumage, though it would also be considered poaching,” he thought he might want to make that point quite clear.

“See my tail?” it said fanning out its rainbow of long and sweeping tail feathers, each as beautiful as the last, “They make the finest quills, if ever I lose one I give them to Saphricorn Lady and she makes them into quills for her own usage, she has the finest quills in the world, she tells me, the very finest, you cant get those feathers anywhere else, my kind don’t usually give them away, we decorate our nests with them,”

“Oh you should see my nest, it is spectacular, perfect for any female, you know the females of my breed don’t look nearly as good as we do, so it is up to us to decorate our nests, mine is most beautiful of course, I decorate it with my feathers, but because I give most of my tail feathers away my next is not overly decorated, which is why mine is best, a lot of males of my kind think that the more the better, but my mate’s over the years have commented on how mine looks better because it is not overdone,”

“That and my nest is also stocked with fabulous gifts I have taken… I mean borrowed from the Saphricorn lodges, it is quite a beautiful nest, I should like to show it to you sometime when you are in a better mood,” the bird was rambling, it was talking about itself. It wasn’t showing the faintest interest Jay’s issues, but that’s what birds were, and this bird knew that he could get away with it for a Saphricorn, as they were so patient with animals, where as no one else was.

[Jay Rastan]

Jay stopped and turned around a few feet from the door, almost expecting to see some short, balding man with more than a little pudge around the stomach, but turned around to see nothing except that stupid bird which seemed to me looking at him. Shaking his head and laughing, Jay had to wonder if he was having stress induced hallucinations or something of the sort. There was no way that bird was talking.

Then the bird opened its beak and out came that voice. It reminded Jay of nails on a chalkboard, and he couldn’t help but stiffen when he was addressed as ‘Mr Rastan’ barely holding control over his urge to look over his shoulder and search for his father or grandfather. Jay opened his mouth to respond to a few things the bird had said, but it didn’t seem capable of shutting up now that it had started. He may have been a Saphricorn by house, but that didn’t mean when he looked at this parrot he didn’t see a image of a stuffed and roasted chicken in his mind.

“You want to know what I think,bird?” Jay said, cutting cross the bird as it started in on another rant that he could really not care less about. “I think you should shut up before I start thinking about serving you up with garlic sauce and roasted vegetables”

Even thought Jay had been brought up with the strictest of manners, waiting until any and all females in your company are seated before you do, bow to your superiors and female companions and how to approach people, anything about manners and Jay knew it, a man is nothing if not a gentleman as his mother used to tell him, but this bird and the stupid people around this school were testing his patience and his manners.

“You know maybe I wouldn’t be throwing things or shouting at you if you learnt to read the time.” Jay said snappishly while he had the bird shut up, determined to have his opinion out before the bird start on another useless rant. “Not only do you woke me up every morning at five am, but you have also been doing it to Mariana. Why do you do that, obviously you must know I don’t enjoy being awoken that early or like that by my reaction, so why persist? And no I’m not happy, not that it is any of your business”

Jay wouldn’t say anything, but he wondered to how much this bird knew about him, commenting on how he perhaps should have been in Ruberagon. Jay didn’t know why but he felt the pit of his stomach drop at this flippant comment made by the bird. Watching the bird preen itself, Jay couldn’t help but me more than a little disgusted. He understood it was normal for birds to do such to clean themselves as he had seen it happen many times, but he could only imagine all the germs and murk the bird would have in its mouth in doing this.

“Haven’t you ever heard of a bird bath? Surely that’s more hygienic than what you’re doing now.” Jay said raising an eyebrow, almost completely forgetting his anger and everyone and everything and the reason he was here to see Lady Saphricorn in the first place. “And I don’t need to know about you being lucky and your many conquests. Why not find one lady bird and be faithful? I’m sure it would be more fulfilling.” Jay said, as an after thought.

“Do you know where Lady Saphricorn is at all, bird brain? I have better things to do like be mocked by my own housemates than stick around listening to you talk about absolute dribble”

Jay knew it was kind of harsh, but still the sound nails on a chalkboard or one equal of made anyone edgy.

[Phil Parrot]

Phil listened to Jay bitching with a minor interest on the subject. If he didn’t see so consumed in angst that his company was almost completely unbearable, then Phil might have been interested in helping him. As it was, the bird was only interested in ending the conversation. Especially due to the fact that he was being insulted and threatened. He had no compassion for people like this guy and would demonstrate so.

“Mr Rastan,” it started again, placing more emphasis on the fact that he was being totally formal with the pubescent teenager. This is what people did when they wanted to refrain from insulting each other, wasn’t it? Phil had seen it so many times over the years, on occasion he even forgot he was a bird… until humans started acting like this, and he was quite please not to be a human, “Mr Rastan, if that truly is what you think then I should like to attend to you, my pity,” it said ruffling its feathers, puffing out its chest to look all important.

“I feel for you that this is the way your mind works and offer you this advice,” it cleared its throat, its snapping little beak closing and opened a couple of times as if testing it to make sure it worked right, “Choose your words,” he did not feel for a moment that this would not make sense to the boy.

He blinked his yellow eyes a couple more times before walking backwards n the desk and pouncing up to the back of the chair behind it. He paced back and forth along the top of the chair a couple of times before letting out a squawk that carried throughout the office and beyond. The boy would not know this, but this was how Phil called for his mistress. Lady Saphricorn would be along soon.

“Well you know I can read clocks, I was taught to read them a very long time ago, you know? When I started having responsibilities that ran to a schedule, so I know perfectly well what time I wake you up everyday,” Phil said, unaware that this might not be the right answer to give. It was, however, the correct one, “I think the issue here is effective communication, boy, that’s what it is, you have never once told me you don’t like being woken up at five in the morning, and you always go for a run afterwards so I thought I was going you a favour,”

“Mariana is supposed to be up at five in the morning, so that is why I sing to her,” he said, bouncing around on the chair back, feeling indignant about being told that he was annoying, when all he had been doing was try to help them. “Of all the ungrateful little…” he started then faltered. He jumped and opened his wings, and in a moment he was standing at the top of one of the trees. Well out of harms way, he didn’t like the temper on this boy at all.

“Haven’t you heard of manners?” the bird said to him after feeling incredibly insulted about being told he should not clean himself the way he had been, “You know, for a Saphricorn, you are very stupid,” he added, knowing that this was probably the first time in history that when a Saphricorn was called stupid, the person call them it was spot on, “I am a bird, and this is one of many ways we need to keep ourselves clean, a bird bath is only one step, and this is one of many follow up steps, you don’t really know a lot, now do you?”

“Oh sorry, am I dribbling?” he had not been listening correctly and only caught the word ‘dribble’ and so suddenly he was making the noise of a rather large bird clearing its throat, and then it opened its mouth and projectile spit. The spit hit the desk, but he was sure he saw some of the spit hit Jay’s hands, “All better?”

[Jay Rastan]

That was it. It was like someone flciked a switch in Jay Rastan's head.

Within a blink of an eye, Jay’s hand had plunged into his robes and removed his wand and pointed it directly at the bird’s chest. With narrowed eyes full of anger and disgust, he approached the desk where the bird perched on top of the chair.

“You really must be dense, bird. You do not understand that expletives about being awoken up in the morning shouted at you every morning were not discouragement to repeat the action? And then you spit on me” Jay snarled, eyes flashing dangerously. “Finish that sentence. I’m an ungrateful little what? Hm? I’m sure the headmaster would enjoy knowing that a school pet was insulting and attacking the students. Start counting your breaths…”

When Jay got angry his tight rein on his magic seemed to slip and accidents seemed to happen, although at the moment all that was happening was his cloak whipping around him in a breeze that seemed to only move his clothes and left the rest of the room in its stillness. He knew it wasn’t the birds fault per se, as irritating as it was being it was still just a mangy bird. The bird did after all think it was doing both him and Mariana a favour, and the runs had been giving him a look at the serenity of the Saphricorn Plains that he had missed in the last few years with everything else that dominated his life. Feeling his anger start to recede Jay took a deep breathe before feeling a spike of pain go through his body and he felt his irrational anger returning again as his wand hand seemed to be fighting itself, it would lower slightly then snap back to be pointed at the bird.

’Kill the bird. Be a Rastan. Kill the bird. It insulted you. Be a Rastan. KILL IT NOW’[/b]

“No”

With a groan, Jay fell to his knees on the ground; his wand fell to the grass on the floor as his hands clutched at his head letting out whimpered noises sounding like the word “No” being repeated over and over as he tucked his head towards his chest and rocked back and forwards. The voice repeating itself in his head over and over telling him to kill the bird and how to do it both efficiently and messily. Jay’s whimpers now accompanied a mumble of “I can’t”. The voice that had once been his father’s subtle guiding him to do things was now his grandfathers firm, booming commanding tone, much harsher than his father’s had ever been.

“I WON’T” Jay’s roar echoed around the room. Having lost control of his magic the air around him seemed to sizzle and crack with energy with occasionally shot out and hit random objects and, regretfully as Jay would later feel, some vegetation. Gulping down deep breaths as if having had his air cut off, Jay was shaking and broke out in a cold sweat as the voice died out completely in his head. Not trusting himself to speak or look at the parrot, fully ashamed of how he had been acting both before and now when he had lost control of himself, Jay just changed his position to hug his knees to his chest and remainded on the floor watching his hand shake as he raised it to eye level before dropping it back down.

“I’m sorry” Jay mumbled as his eyes rolled back in his head and fell back in a limp position on the floor, having passed out cold. His blue house robes falling aside to show a rolled up parchment with Rastan family seal full visible in his pants pocket. One of his grandfather’s letters he sent weekly to remind him of who he was; a pureblood of noble Rastan blood who was better than everyone else, and the usual warning of mudbloods to be fun and strictly fun only.

[Lady Sylvia Saphricorn]

Having heard the calling squawk of Phil, her feathered companion, Sylvia stopped her wandering around the castle and took the most direct route to her office, weaving through, students, professors and house elves all the same. There was something about the call that struck her a nerve of worry since she knew she had no appointments for meetings with anyone, neither member of the faculty or student body.

As she approached her door which flew open at a look, her long hair and white robes were moving in a sway as she strode purposely down the corridor where she could see a figure in the robes of her own house on the floor clamping their hands over their heads, their wand laying feet away from them. The lips of the person in question were moving quickly but barely any sound coming from them although her superb hearing caught it barely, it was at this stage when she heard the end of the whimpering as the student, she now identified as Jay Rastan, one of her seventh years, who apologised to Phil who was perched on her seat, looking as confused as a bird could, but Sylvia could see the signs clear enough in her companion.

Gasping as the boy slackened in his stiff posture and fell backward into a sprawled out position with only the white of his eye balls showing, Lady Saphricorn rushed to his side, she could feel his life force, however faint it was, which seemed to be showing signs of irregularity, almost as if tainted by something or someone, putting her fingers to his pulse point on his neck she monitored it over a minute as she noticed a slow but constant pattern. All she could hear was the blood roaring in her ears, although the room was deadly silent.

“We need to get him to the hospital wing immediately” She said, more out to herself than to Phil, before straightening up and withdrawing her wand and casting a 'Wingardium Leviosa' wordlessly on her student, she watched as what appeared to be a letter fall out of his pocket and flutter to the ground. Picking it up, Lady Saphricorn recognised the family seal of the Rastan’s from previous letters of correspondence she had had with her student’s parent’s. Not for the reason of being meddlesome but hoping this letter may have some clue to what had cause Jay to be in his current state of unconsciousness, and could not but let out a strangle gasp as the word and meaning behind the letter. Sylvia was enraged to think that someone could say such mean spirited things, even with the best of intentions to their own flesh and blood.

“Come Phil, I will want a report on what proceeded Mr Rastan’s collapse as soon as we get him checked over by the school nurse” She said, her tone leaving no room to accommodate any argument on the manner, before she following the floating body of her student as she started her way down the passage to the corridors leading to the hospital wing where they would find out what was wrong with the student.

But as she was walking and guiding Jay’s body through the students in the hallways, she couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that there was something more at play with that letter than what was on the surface. She knew there was a certain way or two to find out the answer to that, and she would, for the safety of her student.