December Rising

"Good mornining Kate." Said Jon as he walked through the office door. He wasn't quite sure as to how to address her. Since he knew that she was indeed an elder of the school now and did not mean them any harm. Still the situation was hazy at best. He knew that he ought to be polite, the way that his parents had taught him and he would have called her miss or something if he had only known what was appropriate. Thankfully Kate did not seem to upset and greeted him warmly.



"Good morning Jon. I am glad that you have come so early, although I must say that I am suprised to see that you are still here. Personally I thought that you would all be long gone by now. I take it then, that you do have questions for me?" Being an elder did give Kate an advantage over others, she had quite a few tricks up her sleeve, one of which is that she could read thoughts. Jon was harder to read than most, as he had been apparently been tought how to close parts of his mind to any but the strongest of telepaths. This was something that she had anticipated, but the strength she had not. But she let Jon voice his concerns anyhow and chose not to pry into his vulnerable mind.



"I hope that it is ok for me to call you Kate. I do not want to show any disrespect. But, yes I do have some questions for you. I would like to know where my grandparents are. That is to say my mothers parents. We have never had any contact with them and my mother always refused to answer any questions about them. Are they still alive? If they are, will they help us? Jon had been hoping all this time that they would have some family left that could help them out in any small way. But his hopes were dashed in just a few seconds as he saw Kate sigh. " No Jon, they are no longer alive. They did however leave each of you a small inheritance. It was something that you were each to recieve after graduation. I don't see why you should be kept from it under these circumstances. It isn't much but it will help you. There is a crate for each of you and they are being held in storage. No one knows what is in them, but you should be able to unseal them at your leisure. As for your brothers and sister's crate, you can decide when they recieve thiers. And unfortunately they were the last of your relatives as well.



It was Jons turn to sigh. He had really wanted to live with family. He just couldnt' let them be a burden on anyone and four young children would be a burden, of that he was certain. " So what other options for us are there? We have nothing that would be helpful to anyone other than our powers. And since you say that evil has been hunting us, we can no longer afford to use our gifts. We could be tracked to easily and we would put anyone harboring us in danger as well."



At last he had arrived at the fruit of the matter. Kate regretted what she was about to tell him, but she knew what must be done. "Jon, you are more right than you know and even more intelligent than I could have hoped for. We would have to forbid that your siblngs use magic untill they are here in school and they would have to be split up, not only for thier protection, but for those that would care for them as well. I know what you are thinking, but you will have control over which families take which child. I myself would offer up my home for you or one of your brothers or even Ember, if you would allow me. There are hundreds of families that would take you all in a heartbeat. Also, let me remind you that this school takes more than just human children. And although you cannot tell it to look at me, I am actually a fairy. You must wonder where my wings are and why I am not tiny. Lets just say that there are perks to becoming an elder. And there are many more creatures here, a total of eight to be exact. From witches and wizards to fairies, elves even angels. Each specie brings their children here for learning. Some of these homes Jon, are a lot more safe than you would think. If you would like to meet some of these families I would be more than willing to call them here." Kate knew that it was almost pointless to offer, but she still felt that it needed to be said.



"Kate, thank you for being honest and forthright with me. I truely appreciate it, but it is a very hard decision to make. It is not one that I would want to make so quickly. How long might I have to decide?"



"You have untill tomorrow morning to make your decision. If you choose not to foster then you would have to leave here then. If you do decide to foster then you would have three days to find a family for each of you. For now though, let me show you around the school today and show you what you might learn here."



The rest of the day Kate did exactly as she said that she would. She showed Jon the wonders of the school and introduced him to many of the students, teachers and assistants. She took him to potions classes, defense classes even spells classes where he could see how staying here would help him to better defend his family. He spent the evening with his brothers and sister and talked with them about thier choices. They didn't want to be split up, but they knew that staying together could prove even more dangerous. The next morning Jon met yet again with Kate in her office.