A Letter From Nowhere (for Drew)

[bella]

Bella sat with her back ridged against the armchair, reading and re-reading the letter she’d only received a few minutes ago. There was no plausible explanation for what was going on, and even if there was, she wouldn’t dare believe it:

Isabella,

I must write to regrettably inform you that the condition of your mother has greatly declined and her health seems to only be going ever downward. I’m sorry to say that she may not remain with us much longer. If you wish, I can arrange to have you brought her for a few days. Please reply ASAP.

Your truly,
Ms. Drivels

Why on earth…? She’d been in contact with Ms. Drivels ever since their first meeting when she had rescued Bella from that ridiculous mental ward on the charges that she “was going insane”… How stupid, just because of her magical talents… But regardless, it had been her very mother’s idiocy that had brought Bella’s birth and she had given her to adoption. Why now, when she needs her care, would she even dare propose she come and help when she had given Bella up at her birth? Of course, Ms. Drivels – it was plain to see – had seen Bella’s point of view and was only sending the letter for her mother’s sake.

Bella cursed under her breath and pulled out her wand – and lit the paper on fire. It burned into ashes upon her hand when she proceeded to stand up and toss them into the unlit fireplace. Taking her seat once more, Bella watched the other few in the Common Room, trying to forget about her godforsaken mother. She would not go to her aid, she didn’t care for her mother in the least.

A first year on the other side of the room caught Bella’s attention. He seemed to be fasinated with some little object, his wand out and muttering to himself. Whatever he had been trying to do with it wasn’t to bow it up. A puff of smoke erupted around him and when faded, the poor boy was covered in black. His frown still visible, he snatched the object and stalked up to the dorms. Laughing some, Bella shook her head.

What to do now?

[drew]

Drew swung the common room door open with one hand, and held his books with the other. They were old, beaten and worn, not like he cared. If you thought they were school books you were exactly right, but he didn't have them to study. He just came from history of magic, that was an...interesting experience. Now that he had a week's worth of detention built up he had no need of his homework. What was she going to do, give him more detention? Common practice. She couldn't as it was, he was already scheduled for another detention with a different teacher. Shame.

He stopped half way through the door to watch Isabella light a paper on fire. A usual smirk came across his face and he walked across the common room, bending down he lit the fireplace and threw his homework in it. "You know....this works too." Drew said with amusement in his voice. A first year ran upstairs and he shook his head, they were easily tempered weren't they. Drew dropped his books on the table and kicked back in the chair, letting out a sigh. School had just started and he was already bored. There was something wrong with that.

"Letter from the parents?" He suggested after a moment. Now most people here liked their parents to be sure, but he knew Bella a bit, and Drew didn't like his own mother. It wouldn't be a surprise if she was the same. His brown eyes studied her, going over every feature. He pulled out a granola bar, he was eating those blasted things all the time now. Quick snack, or whatever. Drew leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes.

[bella]

Finding another person of interest, she watched Drew come in with the largest stack of books she’d ever seen. She had to smile to herself, wondering what sort of trouble he’d managed to get himself into. Bella had indeed never seen a night where he’d not had a detention. She hadn’t given it much thought past that when he came over and dumped the load.

“You know, this works too…” The fire lit up and began to greedily burn the already burnt ashes into smithereens. With a small laugh, she shrugged “It’s a bit more personal when I do the burning.” Oh how she hated her mother… Clearly that was evident at his next question – “Letters from the parents?” Why else would she burn the letter? Drew was aware of her parental situation.

Casually, she returned “Yeah, apparently my mother had a bit too much fun and landed herself at Mungos. Stupid git; she expects me to come out and see her, you know, “in her last bit of life”… Like I care. The farther away she is from me the better, and I’m thinking six feet underground is about as far away as I can get her.” A sense of loathing rolled off her words.

“So, what about you? That lots doesn’t look like it seems to much fun, does it?” She nodded vaguely to the burning papers with a smile.

[drew]

Hiding her feelings was definitely not something Isabella Swan did. He just smirked, his eyes still closed. Finally, he sat up in the chair and looked at her, glancing down at the books. He hadn't given them a second thought. He always had that much to deal with. Drew's own situation with his mother was hell so he could relate. Still, having her dead wasn't going to make it better, but he'd have more free time in that case.

"About to kick the bucket is she?" He laughed, leaned over in his chair with his hands in his lap. She wasn't sensitive about it so he didn't see why he needed to be. Besides that, it was hard to keep him serious for five minutes straight. He finished his food and threw the wrapper in the fire, he wouldn't bother going to the trash. Why move if you didn't need to. Drew kicked one of the books for good measure, usually he'd never do something like that, but under the circumstances, he could care less.

"Oh yeah loads of fun" He smirked and answered her sarcastically. "Man, you don't know what you're missing by skipping out on detention. Think about all the busy work you could get." He chuckled. Drew had missed his friends over the summer, especially those from his own house. He'd missed Bella some, who wouldn't miss someone when you were surrounded by muggles. "Number one rule Bella: Don't express your freedom of speech." He smirked again, knowing that was a load of bullocks but apparently to half the teachers it wasn't.

[bella]

He seemed to mull over her response for a moment and Bella swore she could almost hear the gages inside his head turning. He always managed to amuse her – she knew somewhere in there that there was indeed a brain, but he never seemed to put it to good use. However, she couldn’t harp on him when it came to History of Magic. She never listened to the teacher drown on and always ended up either humming a song or writing down the lyrics on the parchment she was supposed to be taking notes on.

“About to kick the bucket is she?” Bella smirked. “I certainly hope so. As it is, I’ve only ever seen her about five times in my life and I don’t really care to go for six.” On some level she knew Drew could relate to that. It was common knowledge to her that he didn’t like his mother much either, although she didn’t fancy he’d want her dead. Still, Bella felt no attachment to her own. Alive or dead, it made no difference to her.

As he rattled on about his unfinished nor would ever be finished homework, she nodded sympathetically. “I don’t think I’d ever slack as much as you do but I’ve been known to get a few zeros on assignments…Silly but I’d rather take the zero then do the work.”

At his last comment, she couldn’t help but rolling her eyes at him. “So how long did it take you to figure that one out? Most students know not to “exercise their freedom of speech” in front of teachers you dork.” She stuck her tongue rather childishly out at him.

When doing so, she noted rather humorously that he was one of the small few she could let herself do that to. It was a mutual tease it seemed, always keeping score. Of course, neither had a sufficient lead at the moment. She hadn’t realized she’d missed that during their few months of separation. It felt good to be back at Hogwarts where she could be her normal self. It was people like Drew that always seemed to bring out the worst and best of her.

[drew]

His suspicions where clear. Obviously, there was not only aminosity between Isabella and her mother, it was pure hatred. Drew didn't think he'd gotten to that point with his own, in fact he knew he hadn't, but then it was only a matter of time. The woman was continuing to try and play that burden of guilt about how he should quit school to take care of her. He in return told her she was perfectly capable, if only she'd stay off the bottle long enough to realize. So yes, Drew truely knew the lack of feeling loyality to family. They were only related by blood, after all.

"You get a zero?" He took this moment of pausing to pull out a bag of normal, every day peanuts and bite into one. Drew held the bag up, waving at her, his way of offering. Not the most polite, but.....hey, they always said not to talk with your mouth full. "I'm shocked." He knew Bella was smarter than she made herself out to be, much like himself. Of course, she went the extra mile, where as he stopped before he even hit the half way marker.

"It took me about..." He swallowed and shrugged. "Probably my first day at Hogwarts" He smiled. "Give or take a few days." Drew looked down into his bag of peanuts, one of them just didn't taste right. He was determined to find the perpetrator. Drew glanced up and put his hand over her heart at the comment of dork. "Oh Bella, I'm hurt." He smirked, the tone in his voice giving away to the fact that he so obviously wasn't. Leaning back in the chair once more Drew kicked off his shoes, relaxing for the first time. He stuffed the peanuts into his bag and shook his head at it. "Muggles." The most reasonable solution of course. They couldn't even pack a bag of nuts right.

[bella]

“Occasionally,” Bella admitted at the comment of her zeros, “Although, I’ll own up to the fact that when I don’t get homework done, it’s usually because I wasted too much time on another assignment that I went overboard with.” She gave a weak smile and shrugged. “Sometimes I get carried away with homework, although I wouldn’t expect you to understand that one,” she added with a grin.

She watched him dig out another food and upon realizing it was peanuts that she was being offered, snagged a few from him gratefully. She hadn’t realized she was hungry until food had presented it self so willingly. Tossing one into her mouth, she chewed while mulling over what Drew had said.

“You know, most of the time when you learn something, you’re supposed to use it to your advantage, not land yourself in detention with it. And” she added quickly before he could say it, “I don’t count detention as a way of getting out of doing homework, because you’ll only receive zeros on them.”

Of course, when accused of hurting his feelings, Bella just answered “Yeah, whatever. I doubt anyone could hurt you, you don’t care enough about anything to let it hurt you.” She winked and plopped another peanut into her mouth, turning her gaze to the fire. She watched the flames dance around the ashes of her old letter and Drew’s homework. She was happy to note while watching the flames, Bella felt just a little bit happier.

[drew]

He rolled his brown eyes at that one, he wasn't surprised to say the least. "Isabella, you, are a perfectionist, plain and simple." Drew reached into his bag and pulled out a peanut to eat anyway, ignoring the fact that just moments before he had turned his nose up at it. At least he was being honest for once. Besides, he knew that wasn't going to blot her feelings a bit. "No can't say I know the feeling." He winked "Can't say I ever want to either." Lazy is what lazy does, though he was definitely not lazy. The only reason Drew refused to do his homework was because they told him to.

"Ahhh but what good is learning if you don't express what you learned?" he stated, nodding his head at her like he'd just made a philosophical point or something. "Like take for instance yesterday. I learned that Professor. Cubble's left eye twitches when he's trying to cover up, his ears turn red when he's lying, and if he scratches his knee on his right leg....it's the right answer." Drew laughed and threw a couple of peanuts to catch in his mouth. "What kind of person would I be if I didn't share this fact with him? I guess if he wants to live the rest of his days giving away answers...." He was talking nonesense but it was getting him out of the way of answering for real. At least, that's what he hoped.

"That's because I don't care what people think, not that I don't care about anything." A normally pretty easy going guy it was hard to strike him to anger. If you did you were in for a major problem, other wise he liked to live school in peace. Just slipping by was alright by him. "I care about some things" He reasoned with a little smile, it was hard to tell if he was serious or not.

[bella]

She could feel a small blush reach her face at his not-so-complimentary-compliment. “Yes, well, I guess since I have no one to push me with my learning, I try and push myself. And,” she added a bit more seriously, “I refuse to grow up and be a godforsaken alcoholic and get myself laid every night.” Rather annoyingly a picture of her mother flashed across her mind. Stupid, stupid woman…

“Although,” she added in a lighter tone, “not worry about school work would definitely be nice every once in a while. I certainly wouldn’t mind. I just can’t seem to actually do that is all.” She shrugged it off and threw another peanut into her mouth as Drew shot up several into the air and caught them simultaneously in his mouth. Show off, she thought in vague humor though she didn’t mind in the least.

“As for Professor Cubble’s…” She found it hard to believe that he had realized all this and proven his facts correct, even telling the teacher himself. She tried to think, but was surprised to find out she could scarcely remember any of his physical movements – she was always concentrated on the words he spoke, not movements. Shaking her head in exasperation, she asked “How on earth do you sit through a class and think about nothing but how a professor acts when he gets a right answer?” Bella couldn’t imagine.

“That's because I don't care what people think, not that I don't care about anything…I care about some thing.” She glanced at him curiously, “Yeah, like what?” Bella tossed another peanut into her mouth lazily.

[drew]

I refuse to grow up and be a godforsaken alcoholic.. Drew shifted in his seat uncomfortably and ate another peanut, the last one in the bag. From here on out, she'd have to fend for herself. Crinkling the bag up he shot for the trash can, fortunately making it inside. He even surprised himself on that one. The pair of them were different in many ways. For starters Bella couldn't seem to get her mind off school, whereas Drew couldn't drag his mind over there if ten blood hounds were chasing after him.

He smirked, finding it amusing the way her mind tried to put together how he did it. Several people did this on numerous occasions, and all he could do was sit and smile. It was in fact, entertaining. Drew was an observer, always had been. "When everything he's teaching you already know and you're bored out of your own mind." There came his straight answer. It was part truth in a way. He did know a lot but not everything, the other part of it was that if you watched someone enough, you could figure out all their secrets. Instinct or hobby, you decide.

"Clabberts." Came the short reply. "I care deeply about clabberts." His face stayed straight, and he blinked as though he found nothing funny about it. A clabbert was a magical creature that looked somewhat like a monkey crossed with a frog, they lived in the trees most of the time. The only way you could tell he was lying was the smile that remained in his eye as he put his wand to the fire and blew it out. "It's getting hot."

[bella]

Bella’s expression lowered slightly at Drew silence to her comment, almost feeling bad about it. However, he seemed to quickly recover. Being his usual show-offy self, he took careful aim for the nearest trash bin and to her surprise it soared in with a small “fwoop” as it hit the bottom. She smiled just a little.

“You don’t expect me to believe that everything Cubble’s talks about you already know, do you?” she asked suspiciously, “You really must put your brain to work if you do. It’s a shame to let it go to waste like that.” For a moment she felt very mother-ish. “It seems silly to throw away perfectly good knowledge and use it to figure out a teachers habits…” Bella couldn’t stop herself from laughing while shaking her head at him.

Dropping the last peanut from her hand into her mouth, she raised a questioning eyebrow at his reply of “clabberts.” She had talked to Drew far too much to believe he was taking her seriously with the question. “You’re such a liar,” she accused with a grin, “clabberts are one of the most pointless creatures to ever exist. Don’t you care about anything more personal? Like a person, an object of sentimental value, perhaps a song or particular lyric?” Of course that last bit she just threw in to make herself feel better. She knew no one cared about music and lyrics as much as she did.

[drew]

He listened to her speech and let out a low laugh half way through, and when she was done as well. "You eerily sounded like a mother right then I hope you know." Hehe maybe she didn't seeing as the mother she has, he had to give her a benefit of a doubt. "It's not being wasted it's just on pause." That was one way to put it. Drew refused to do what others thought he should do, unless he thought there was a good reason behind it.

He rested his chin on the ball of his hand and yawned throughout her lecture, teasing her just as much by it. Drew couldn't remember what he was on his way to do before he stopped in the common room to talk to Bella, but it didn't really matter. He'd get to it eventually, one way or another. He ruffled a hand through his unruly hair while the other remained in place underneath his chin. Slowly he began to pick at the loose threads in the patterning of the old chair.

"Yes, I am. What are you going to do about it?" He gave a half smile, not really expecting an answer to that question. Lyrics. She'd done it. He broke into a full on grin and shook his head. "A song or a lyric? Well I've never had a love affair with a song before if that's what you mean, but there's a first time for everything." Chewing on the edge of his finger he whistled some nameless tune. "Objects have no correlation to me, and what person should I be caring about? Let me know, I wouldn't want to leave them out."

[bella]

She had nothing to say to that one. A brain on “pause”…who ever heard of such a thing. Drew seemed to have an answer for everything, even if they weren’t in the least relevant. She’d long before this picked up on his way for avoiding real answers. He was all about sarcasm. Of course, Bella had no right to nag him about it as she was often found tossing sarcasm into the wind herself. It just so happened currently she really had no need to due to Drew’s overwhelming generous offer to give out his.

“Well, I suppose I can’t do anything about your love for clabberts, no,” she sighed rather dramatically as if it were such a dire loss, “I suppose one day you plan on keeping one as a pet, do you?” She smirked. To be perfectly honest, she wouldn’t be surprised if he one day did. It seemed like something Drew would do.

But of course, leave it to Drew to mock her passion as she so directly did his. “You know, it wouldn’t kill you to take me seriously once in a while. It doesn’t even have to be me,” she added as an after thought, “It could be anyone really. Just make sure I’m around when you do, alright?” Naturally she wasn’t truly offended as anyone could plainly see, but their conversations were always about keeping score – she had to level out the playing field somehow.

[drew]

"No not really, what can I say, I'm a hopeless case" He shook his head uselessly. Drew actually found clabberts to be quite annoying creatures, and if he ever had the opportunity he'd hex them all. "I think I might start up a habitat center for them, seeing how rare they've become." Drew's sarcasm could never be stopped unless he turned it off himself. Sometimes even he couldn't manage it.

Drew pretended to comptemplate her idea and then shrugged it off. "Nah, it might." Was all he answered her with. Serious wasn't his thing, even when he was upset. In the worst situations he counter-balanced it with sarcasm, which wasn't the best idea, and often got people wanting to ring his neck. "I'll tell you what though. The day I'm lying on my death bed I'll have someone ring you up to let you know. Then you can come to my funeral, and I can promise you, I'll be serious then." He smirked. "Unless someone's hand slips on the rope and I go crashing into the ground. "I might have to laugh at that."

Drew sat up from the chair and picked up his books, heading to the door. "I'm going to the library, if you want to come." It was already getting late and the library would pretty much be cleared out. Not exactly an exciting adventure, he couldn't think of anything else to do at the time.

[bella]

“Actually,” she answered in a rather regrettable tone – it was just she, wasn’t it? Lecturing him on the proper ways of school? That waiting to do your homework was awful and even worst to not do it at all? It seemed quite hypocritical of her to go back on her word now, but her mother’s letter had gotten her mind so far from homework…

“I’ve sort of put off that Potions essay I was supposed to be doing…” She braced herself for taunts. ‘Little Miss Perfect, forgot to do her homework did she?’ Either way, she could handle him if the need arose.

Of course, Drew wasn’t exactly the perfect studying buddy and she highly doubted if he was indeed even going to bother getting anything done. However, now that he’d brought it up and the responsibility of forgetting to do her homework weighed heavily upon her shoulders, she had to go there whether Drew or not.

”Listen, I’ve got to go run upstairs and get my bag. You don’t have to wait up if you don’t want.” She didn’t really want to go alone – walking alone in corridors nowadays wasn’t exactly was she called ‘smart’ – but before he could even answer her she bolted upstairs to her dormitory. Quickly gathering her things, she trotted back down the stairs to the Common Room.