News from home (open)

[simanus]

Simanus stood waiting for her weekly letter. Rather than receive communications she preferred to have quiet to read amid all the bustle of breakfast, Simanus had trained her bird to meet her here at noon. Right on the dot, the large bird's silhouette appeared in the sky. It resembled an overlarge crow, but was what was called a Rusty (so named for the reddish-brown edging the feathers took on in old age). As it approached and lighted gently on her left forearm, it gave its typical call, "Croo" instead of "Caw," and extended the leg to which the message was tied.

With stolid patience, the bird waited for Simanus to detach the letter and give it its customary treat of dove breast or goose liver, it was liver today, before soaring off to hunt while she read. Simanus sat on the Lake's beach as she unfolded the letter and began to read. Most of the contents were responses to her previous letter mixed with the usual good wishes and queries about whether she needed anything; however, halfway down the page, where the letter changed from her mother's hand to her father's, she saw something that made her eyes widen and her jaw drop.

She re-read the section no less than four times before leaping to her feet, drawing her wand as she did, and blasting the surface of the lake in front of her with coldfire, the water freezing instantly in its explosive shape. This was not enough to let off her feelings and she sent a veritable rainbow of various bangs and sparks flying off in different directions before finally being overcome and collapsing to her back, gales of the happiest laughter she'd loosed in some time pealing from her wide open mouth. As she laughed she thought she heard an occasional crunching

It was a solid two minutes, by the end of which she had been reduced to gasps and tears by the force of her laughter, before she could regain her composure. She realized then that the crunching noise had been the approach of feet, feet which were now standing a yard or so to her right. Simanus raised her head to look the newcomer in the face and smiled, "Well hello there, do pardon my antics, I've just received some fabulous news."

[Sirius Black]

Sirius had decided that a walk around the lake would do him good before he went to ask the house elves about somewhere to practise to become an animagus. He reached the lake when he saw and explosion of water across the lake from him, and then it froze in the middle of it's jagged explosion. Sirius quickened his pace as he walked around the lake to investigate, and as he did so a series of multicoloured bangs followed it.

No insanely curious Sirius walked onto the beached section of the lake and saw a girl, Slytherin, either fourth or fifth year, writhing on the ground laughing her head off.

"Are you O.k.?" he asked as her laughing quietened and she replied by telling him she'd just heard some fantastic news. "Oh, fair enough, I was just taking a walk before dinner, I needed a break from Remus' obsession with studying." he said, then realised that, being a Slytherin, she might not know who Remus was.

[simanus]

Simanus heard her new friend's name and did a quick analysis of the boy standing in front of her. "Ah," she exclaimed, wiping her eyes and brushing herself off as she stood, "You must be Sirius Black. I've heard so much about you and I just met your friend Remus the other day." She extended a hand to him, "I'm Simanus Flagg, don't let the Slytherin thing bother you. I like power for its esoteric and wisdom-granting capacities and, as I'm sure you can tell from my accent," on the words "my accent" she dipped momentarily into the southern belle drawl she was so fond of, "I'm an American. I couldn't care less about a person's parentage, if they've got skill and determination and a decent heart to match, that's purity of blood enough for me. I'd sooner apply the mud-word to half my own house, with their toe-raggish little attitudes, than anyone else here."

Realizing this was a great deal of information to give out at once, much less absorb, she stopped and took a breath. "So sorry," she grinned shiftily, "I get excited sometimes, especially meeting new people. If I may say one more thing and not scare you off, that prank you played at the feast was delightful; with the exception of today, I haven't laughed that hard in weeks."

[Sirius Black]

Sirius blinked slightly at the onslaught of information. He didn't know Remus had met anyone when he went outside to do his homework on Saturday, and was surprised he hadn't mentioned anything. He was pleased to hear that she wasn't a blood obsessed freak like most of her house, and thought that maybe she could keep an eye on Regulus, make sure he didn't become one either. He did think it quite cool that she was an American, but he wouldn't let that colour his judgement of her, at least he would try not to let it.

"That's fine, don't worry about it." he grinned as she congratulated him on the prank. "Well thanks, but was it really that obvious that it was us?" he said curiously, of course they wanted recognition for their work, but they didn't want it to be that obvious that it was them. "So how long have you been coming to Hogwarts?" he asked curiously, deciding that it was a good idea to sit down, he did so. Having met, they might as well have a decent conversation, it was a while till dinner, and a time when the house elves would have time to talk to him.

[simanus]

"I'll answer your second question first," she said, "That will be easier. I came from the Salem Institute during my third year for a Spring abroad. That was two years ago, the second half of your first year." She paused in order to sit and watch the setting sun through the melting ice, when she resumed she once again said a good bit, but it was spoken at a normal pace; her voice retained its neutral American sound, but once again adopted a sultry tone.

"As a subject, pranksters and mischief makers amuse me to no end. I followed the school records on the subject with avid interest, told ol' Filchie I was doing a study on the crime rates, he ate that right up. Dumbledore asked me at the end of my year what I thought about the place, he said he was merely curious to have feedback from a guest student but I think he asked because he knew what I was going to say; 'It's a wonderful school, I'd stay if I could'. Simanus then adopted an impression of Dumbledore, "My dear, were you to request a transfer, I would happily welcome you as a full-time student." When she resumed her own tone, she sounded wistful for a moment before her cheeriness reasserted itself, "Perhaps one of the nicest things anyone's ever said about me."

She suddenly paused, surprised she'd said this much; this boy had a disarming quality most did not. You've gone this far, might as well finish and answer his other question, she thought, "I accepted the invitation and have been here since. My one regret is that I chose to live with Slytherin when I was a guest, I thought living in a dungeon would be cool; I only stayed because of Slugghorn but more on that later. Long story short it was the work of three inches of parchment to string Filch along and there's the answer to how I knew it was you. I've followed you boy's careers in Filch's logs since their inception, younger prankster's styles are easier to spot; you guys have been my Doonesbury for two years now so when the Start of Term Feast came around, I had the eye to recognized your brushstrokes in the execution. Don't worry, the intervening time has given you practice enough to be undetectable when you want to be. Apart from my weekly cup of tea with Peeves, I have no one to discuss it with; I get far more enjoyment out of being one of the only two clever enough to spot your hand and it saves me reading time, so no worries about me saying anything."

She gave all of that a minute to sink in and then added, "I elected to introduce myself to you three in turn after the start of term feast because as a tradition, I bring bags of American muggle candy to split with him after the feast. The large number of Slytherins in this new crop of First Years left so little space I went to sit with some Ravenclaw friends. Your prank amused him so much, he was in a very good mood and he said to me over the chocolate turtles that I looked like a much better fit there and could move if I wanted a room with a view. I was going to go ahead but think I might wait so I can take a few of the younger Slytherins under my wing and move next year." She gave him a look that said, "I'll stop going on now."

[Sirius Black]

Sirius sat and listened to her quietly taking in what she had to say. He grinned, "It's nice to know we have some avid followers, and I'm glad it's not too obvious that it's us. I like Peeves too, and he always seems keen to help us.

"Sometimes I think you have to approach him on his own level to get any sense out of him, and Dumbledore obviously likes him. I mean, I know he insults Dumbledore and everything, but he does it to his face, it's like they've got some kind of understanding. I think if Hogwarts needed Peeves' help, he'd give it, almost without question." he too looked out over the lake to watch the sun make its way across the sky. She wanted to move to Ravenclaw? That was intersting, and wondered if it was at all possible, but then she hadn't been sorted when she'd arrived so maybe it wouldn't be a problem.

"You want to take first year Slytherins under your wing?" he asked curiously, and he suddenly felt confident about asking her a favour. "Um, there's a first year Slytherin, my little brother, Regulus. He got sorted into Slytherin, and we've always been close, but I got sorted into Gryffindor and we kind of fell apart, I don't think he'd listen to me anymore out of principle, even if he wanted to. If it's not too much trouble, could you keep an eye on him for me?" He said most of this still looking out over the lake, only looking at her once he had finished, so that he could try and gauge her reaction. In this short conversation he had discovered that she wasn't easy to read, but he thought this ability would grow more the longer he knew her.

[simanus]

Simanus did not turn but smiled, "I've taken to tutoring him in potions so as to keep him from being influenced by Lucius Malfoy and his ilk. If there's hope of saving one of them it's Regulus, the sorting ceremony binds him to Slytherin though, at least I think. I want to leave after this year at the latest though, it'll be up to you to be there but I think a collaboration between us would succeed." She turned and leaned toward him, extending her hand; her voice was still smooth but had adopted a businesslike tone, "Is this an acceptable arrangement, Mr. Black?"

[Sirius Black]

Sirius smiled when she agreed to keep an eye on his as much as she could. He knew he would have to at least try to talk to Regulus, because he did love his little brother, almost as much as he loved his friends, or maybe more than that. He just didn't know how to tell him, and even if he did, Regulus wouldn't believe him.

"Yes, thanks Simanus, between us I reckon we might get through to him." he said, feeling slightly better about the whole 'my brother just got sorted into Slytherin' thing.

"So what was your good news? if you don't mind me asking that is." he said curiously wondering what could make a girl so ecstatically happy.

[simanus]

"I have an older sister named Mia," Simanus said directly, "She's better known by her professional name, The Daughter of None. She'll be returning to the family's company sooner than we had thought she would." Simanus' older sister was a world class thief who had been released from the Smithsonian thanks to a family friend. "I don't know whether you know of her," she said, "not as well known in Europe."

The rusty was returning from the forest for instructions, it's continuous calling a sign of a full meal. She turned to observe Sirius' reaction to the bird.

[Sirius Black]

"Wow, a thief huh?" he said surprised, that was definitely not the answer he had been expecting, but then again he'd had no idea what to expect, so his surprise was understandable. "I'm glad she's out I suppose, although I guess that means more things will be going missing, hey." he said the last bit with a grin. Yeah he stole food from the kitchens but he'd never got in trouble for it and doubted he ever would, that was more than a bit trivial for punishment. Simanus' sister must have stolen something really valuable.

[simanus]

"I imagine she'll go to work for Sayre at Sombra Corpo...oh, I'm sorry," she said suddenly, "you probably don't know what I'm talking about, it doesn't really matter. That's all water from America-side." She had liked Lupin, but this boy intrigued her. "I feel hungry but dinner isn't for a little while. But I can never remember which fruit to tickle on the door to the kitchens..."

[Sirius Black]

Sirius grinned as she started babbling and then stopped herself as she realised he had no idea what she was on about. Girls like that were awesome, he could tell that he'd never have a weird headache after a conversation with Simanus, like he did with some of the Hufflepuff girls.

"No, none at all." he said glancing across at her with a smile. He also knew that she'd never fall for his charms, but that didn't disturb him, there was something about her that meant he almost didn't see her that way.

"I warn you, they may be a little busy to hand out food, but I doubt it, they're usually very accommodating." he stood and held out a hand to help her up too. Just cause he knew it wouldn't happen didn't mean he couldn't be a gentleman and flirt a little. "I've got some business with them myself, I'll show you."

[simanus]

Simanus was so surprised by a fellow Black's age showing such gallantry that she placed her hand in his before thinking about what she was doing. She did not let her alarm show, nor did she commit the faux-pas of pulling her hand back; she compromised by using his hand to steady herself as she stood of her own volition before he could give her a pull. "If you want to know more about the Sombra Group or NCP, you can have some of my old Tempuses to read, the Tempus Romanus is our newspaper; the masonic wizards who founded the US named the wizard's capital 'Rome,'" she said, "anyway, Dad's and Sayre's outfits are in the Business and Technology section all the time."

Simanus imagined that Black would only have a passing interest in these details. He did offer you that hand, there's that to make something of, she thought, who knows what he'll want to know more about; depends really on what Remus told him about our meeting on Saturday.

[Sirius Black]

Sirius nodded absent mindedly at her continued babble, having almost no idea what she was talking about, but being willing to listen at the same time. He was almost pleased by her barely veiled shock at the surprise of his offered hand. He smiled, he'd been brought up to be a gentleman after all. If pure blood society had shown him anything it was how to be a gentleman and crush a woman under his heel, the second he hoped he would be storing enough to never use.

Now that they were both stood up, he realised that she was taller than him, and felt a bit silly for his show of chivalry, but decided to continue, so as not to make it look like he did.

"Unfortunately I don't have a clue what you're talking about, but I'm sure you'd like to enlighten me some more. It's a long way round the lake, I'm sure you have time to make me understand. Shall we?" he said politely.

[simanus]

"I would be happy to enlighten you," Simanus said, reaching into her robe, "it's the least I can do to rep-" both her voice and arm stopped as a bird call echoed across the grounds. A black shape exited the sky over the forrest and banked for the lake, making a number of its loud "croo-croo"-ing calls as it went. "Andrew had a good hunt, he only ever makes that much noise when he's been well fed," she chuckled, "He's a Rusty, one of the few domesticatable birds that can handle trans-oceanic flight with ease; although, strictly speaking, his kind don't naturally occur on this side of the doors."

She returned to her fishing and moments later removed a newspaper from he robes. Simanus reshuffled the pages, made of a thin grayish paper rather than the parchment of the Prophet, and then handed the lot to Sirius, the new top page one from the front of the Business and Technology Section.*

As she and Sirius walked, she pulled out her wand and brought coldfire to its tip. Rather than use the lightless spark to produce more of the un-fire, she amused herself with the contrails mist the supercooled tip left in the air. After a few minutes of this, her older sister's adage about people who could comfortably share silence came into her head and she immediately began scanning the sky to check Andrew's progress. Simanus was relieved to see the bird would be back soon and she would have something to do while Sirius read.


((*-Text of the Article:
NCP-Sombra Merger Meets Mixed Reviews[/b]

Last week saw the merger of North-Central Positronics and Sombra Incorporated. North-Central has, through this in-name-only merger, become the nineteenth business concern to join the Sombra Group. Many of our readers will recall the denunciations NCP Pres. Mallakh Andrys received in most major European publications for his company's willingness to do business with IBM, one of NCP's muggle-world equivalents, a co-operative policy which premiered with the company's transition to supplying muggle-products. It is known that Sombra CEO Richard P. Sayre and Andrys are old friends and this led to an explosive fusion of their bad press this morning. A group of conspiracy-minded men and women attacked Sayre and Andrys as they were en route to the Smithsonian Maximum Security Prison. The group was entirely wiped out by Sayre's personal guards, a search of their bodies uncovered a number of copies of the pamphlet "Centurions and the Crimson King," a popular conspiracy circulatory which names note-worthies like Andrys and Sayre as well as a few fictional or unknown entities, "Farson" "The Walkin' Dude" and "814in3" among them, as servants of the devil and agents of the end of the world. After being interviewed by the responding Jurricars, Sayre and Andrys left without talking to reporters about why they were attacked or why they were visiting the prison together. The muggle stock index has put both NCP and Sombra in the top ten most traded column for two years running, since the merger the two have become one of the top five. It would appear that no number of crazy people are going to stop this new entrepreneurial powerhouse.[/color]))