Mama

Though it wasn't often that Quinn received mail, and when it was, it was usually little notes from his friends rather than his own family, Quentin still managed to make a habit of checking the Owlrey every now and then in a pathetic attempt to save a belief that one day his father would dote upon him like he did Odette. He wasn't exactly sure why he hung unto that faith, as last time he did he falsely received a package and opened it and started one of the worst fights he had ever had with his sister. He was still disturbed whenever he thought back to the words said. Those ugly, nasty words which he had only uttered out of rage. He never wanted to let Odie know just how much he envied her and even despised the affections she received.

Since then, the D'Angelo siblings had mended their relationship and Quinn continued to believe naively that one day a package for him would come. On this day he arrived to find that he did, indeed, have mail, which was odd, as mentioned before. The letter wasn't from any friend of his. It wasn't from his father as well. But he knew the name and felt his pulse quicken as he opened it. He didn't know what he expected to find, but the sweet words on the page were most definitely not what he had in mind. The name, signed at the end, sealed the deal. Marni D'Angelo. The cause for his father to become the woeful man he was. The woman whom Odette resembled greatly. The woman who left his father, Odette and himself when their family was young. He never expected to hear from her ever again and yet, here she was. Writing a letter that was clearly from her. Quentin couldn't help but question what more she wanted to take from the family.

The secret of the letter weighed heavily on his back for a few days and eventually Quentin couldn't take it anymore. He needed to talk to someone about it. His roommate, Charon, was out of the question, knowing how much he bothered the poor boy with his nonsense when he wasn't talking about personal things. He knew his best friend, Caleb, would listen, but would he understand? Not without him having to tell his best friend the whole story. Perhaps Marie-Laure would understand though, being that he had discovered she had been abandoned by her mother as well, but once more, there was story to tell to her. No, who he needed was someone who knew everything and would understand. He needed someone who would also suffer the effects of the letter. He needed Odette and asked that she would meet him at the area where the problem started. He wanted to tell her about it and ask her what she thought the letter meant, even though it put risk that she'd might tell their father, which would only cause more drama. But he needed to tell someone.

Odette usually didn't get messages from Fane, but he had left her one asking her to meet him in the Owlery. This wasn't an uncommon place for Odette to be, since the young girl often received letters and gifts of affection from her doting father. She found herself skipping to the place with all the furry creatures. She loved animals of all kinds especially owls. As she continued through the building she saw her brother and smiled. "Hey Quinn..." She said.

The brother and sister were still repairing their relationship since their harsh fight. Things had been said that they both didn't really mean and they had both left feeling pretty hurt. Odette knew she loved her brother, she just did not understand why the material things that their father made him so jealous. It didn't mean much..but maybe it was the fact that she received them all of the time...but she would never truly understand the boys inferior feeling. Jumping back to the conversation she smiled a little bit. "What's up Quinn?"

He must've looked a bit off and he certainly felt a bit off, but when Odette entered the Owlrey, he didn't know whether to feel relieved that she had come like he requested or to be nervous because then he had to explain to her what was going on. He wondered how she would react to the news he had to share with her, but knew well that it was too late to back out then.

"Hey thanks for coming, Odie," He said, trying to act like his usual, friendly self. He crumpled the letter in his hands as he took a moment to figure out where to start. "I, ummmm, got a letter," He started, though the beginning was vague and hardly seemed significant. He looked down at the first few words on the page; My Dearest Quentin. His heart ached for this kind of affection, but he didn't want to answer the letter and somehow tear apart his family even more. "It's ummm," He stuttered a bit more. "It's from mum," He confessed and then looked up from his feet to meet her eyes, wondering how on earth she would respond. He dared not show her the actual context of the letter because it was personal. After all, it was addressed to him.

Odette could see the troubled look on Quinn's face and the letter in his hand. You would think that since he had been so upset about not receiving mail prior to this that he would've been happy about this one, but that didn't seem to be the case. She found that he was being very professional and cold towards her which made her feel a little awkward when he finally told her what exactly was going on.

Nothing could have prepared her what he said next. Their mother had contacted them? The one who had abandoned both her an Quinn when they were both very young. Odette honestly didn't know much about her mother, except for the fact that she was almost a spitting image of her. "Mother...?" She asked shocked. "Why...?" She questioned. As rude as the question seemed, she had also been the one who had left them. She sighed a little and crossed her arms. "What did she want?" She asked.

Quentin understood the shock Odette was feeling. He had been older when mother had left them and remembered her better. He remembered the lullabies she used to sing. The snacks she prepared when he came inside from playing in the yard. He thought she actually loved him, but surely the love must've been false if she could just up and leave him like that. But here was a note that made it seem like she did still care.

"She just, ummmm, wanted to congratulate me," He held out the paper for her to see. The beginning of the note expressed her joys and pride of the moment when she had heard that he had become the new Quidditch captain of Cerisier. 'I was a Cerisier chaser as well in my days. Though I never managed to acquire captain status. You're a chip off the old block and then some!'

The second part was all lies about how she desperately wished to be with him again but how certain circumstances kept her away. Yeah, you broke my dad's heart by taking his money and running! He thought. The last, was a series of questions. She wanted to know about him and about Odette. Nothing about their father, but she begged Quinn to keep the letter a secret from him and to answer promptly. With much love, Marni D'Angelo.

It was disgusting, like she was just trying to play games with him now. And he wanted to tear the letter up, burn the fragments and give up on his mother like she had to him, yet another part of him wanted to scrawl out a response, sweet and true, in hopes that she'd send another, signing with her love again. He was so conflicted. "I don't know what to do, Odie."

Odette looked at her brother and sighed. Her mother wanted to see them...well let her see them, but that did not mean that it was going to make up for all of the years that she had abandoned them both. She sighed shrugged not really knowing what to say. Well rather, knowing...but not knowing how to say it. She knew her brother was touchy about the subject of getting love and attention; a luxury that she didn't have to worry about.

"You expect me to know..?" She ask trying not to sound harsh. "Quinn...you know her better than I do. The only thing I know her by is the picture that father gave me." She sighed. "This one is left to you, and...I don't have the answer..sorry." She said quickly. She did not mean to hurt his feelings, but it was so spur of the moment that she could not approach this softly and gently. Shaking her head, she turned away and sighed. "What do you want to do, hmm?" She questioned Quinn. "Because obviously you have a longing to go see her." Turning back to Quinn she looked him dead in the eye. "Going to see her won't change anything you know...she abandoned us, Quinn...and I don't know if you're too shocked or blind to see that!?" She narrowed her eyes slightly. "She broke our father's heart...and she'll just break yours too..." she shook her head again. "You're setting yourself up for disappointment Quinn...and I don't want to be there when you realize it and come crawling back all broken up about it.." The response may have been cold...but it was the truth.

Quinn stepped away from Odie and paced the Owlrey, pressing the palms of his hands against his eyes to help keep his composure. "I don't know either! That's why I asked you!" He replied, a bit louder than his usual talking voice. He felt overwhelmed with the sweet memories of his mother. If he went back to her, he'd have her love again, right? She loved him as a child, surely she'd love him as a teenager as well? She already expressed her pride in him through her letter.

"You'd like that, huh? You'd like me to leave so you don't have to feel guilty about Dad doting on you all the time," He whipped around and yelled at Odie. How dare she accuse him of being so shallow? Of course he craved love from his parents and wasn't getting the amount he desired from their Dad. But the only reason he ever mentioned the letter to Odie was because he knew if he left it wouldn't be without consequence. Odie would be upset with him. Their dad would be upset with him.  "You know you're the only reason why I didn't immediately write back and tell her I am going home. Because I care about you Odie! You're my sister and I knew how much it would hurt you to go!" He explained, still sounding harsher than he normally did. He approached her and took her pale hands in his. "Odie, what if we went together? We could both meet up with mom and see how she's doing. Don't you want to at least know what mom is like?" He offered. He wanted to see his mom again, but he didn't want to go if he knew it would make Odie upset with him.

Odette did not know how to respond, he was accusing her of wanting to get rid of him, she was just trying to protect him, she didn't want him to get his heart broken, again. Quinn never yelled at her like that. He never got angry...which made her mad...but she decided just to keep it inside because of the circumstances, she did not want to deal with another fight with him. That would probably just send him on a downward spiral and frankly she didn't want to deal with that.

It seemed as though their happy-go-lucky brother and sister relationship was as perfect as it was appearing on the outside. She glared for a moment and then sighed. "If you really want to see her that badly, I'll go with you...however...I'm not going to promise that I am going to love her...I do not know if I ever could after what she's done...but I'll try....for you." She said emotionless. She didn't want to go..but Quinn did. Even though it didn't show some times, she did care about him, a lot...but she couldn't always form the right words for it. She was quiet a long moment and sighed. "When..?" She said.

His face pulled into an uncontrollable grin as he watched Odette cave to his point. He couldn't believe it! His offer had worked out! He was going to meet his mom again and still keep on Odette's good side. He opened his arms and caught Odette in an embrace, picking up her short figure from the ground and spun her around. "Oh Odie, You'll adore her! I just know you will!" He said, laughing with joy.

He put his sister back down and then pulled out a crumpled sheet of parchment from his pocket. "Well, she told me to write back. So I'll write back now and tell her we both want to see her and she'll tell us the information," Quentin replied, hardly able to keep still from excitement. He pulled out a quill and then started writing the return letter. It was short and sweet, but he hoped his mother would be most eager to see the part where they wanted to meet her. He signed his name and then offered it to Odie. "Sign it, please." He readied an envelope and perched one of the school's owls on his shoulder.

Odette sighed to herself as Quinn picked her up and spun her around like when he did when she was younger, but she wasn't a child anymore the the act just seemed to make her more annoyed than anything. He just seemed overly excited about the whole ordeal to her and was just setting himself up fro disappointment whether it be from their father or mother, but she did not want Quinn to go down alone...he was such a wreck when small things went wrong that she was sure that this would crush his spirit the most. He immediately started to write the returning letter, and finished within 5 minutes. She was fine with going, but when he asked her to sign it, it took her back. She didn't want to engrave a glimmer of hope for their mother...she did not want to be reunited with her...the woman who had abandoned her, not stayed to watch her grow up...it seemed like a tedious act of 'love', if you could even call it that. However, not wanting to upset Quinn and obliged and signed her name away.