City of Coventry ~ England

[The Forgotten Weasley]

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the center of England. It has been the capital of England more than once in the 15th century when the seat of government was held in Coventry. The city's outstanding heritage includes the Roman Fort at Baginton, Lady Godiva, St Mary's Guildhall, where kings and queens were entertained, and three cathedrals. It is located in the county of West Midlands. Coventry is the 10th largest city in England and the 12th largest UK city overall. It is also the second largest city in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham, and historically predates both Birmingham and Leicester. It's best known landmark is St. Micheal's Cathedral, which was built in the 14th century and largely destroyed by German bombing during the Second World War; only the outer walls and spire remain. The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum is one of the largest main cultural institutions in Coventry, as is the free-to-enter Coventry Transport Museum, which has the largest collection of British-made road vehicles in the world. The city is also recognized for its range of music events including one of the UK's foremost international jazz programmes, the Coventry Jazz Festival, and the award-winning Godiva Festival.

 

[Graydon Ironshield]

Faina Patrovna xxxxxxxxxxxxx Katya Patrovna
Slytherin Fifth Year xxxxxxxxxxxx Hufflepuff Second Year

Faina eyed her surroundings warily, as she opened the door, and stepped into the kitchen of the house which had been the only home she and Katya knew until she was ten years old. Though the fire was literally a third of her lifetime ago, it still seemed sometimes as though it were only yesterday when she was taken out of her classroom, and given the bad news that their mother was badly injured, their home was unlivable, and their father nowhere to be found. She wasn’t at all sure what she might find, but she was determined to gain a bit of closure about this part of her life, and score a birthday surprise for her mother, if fortune was with her this day.

The soles of her boots crunched softly upon the layer of soot and dust which covered the floor her mother once kept meticulously spotless, and the air smelled faintly of flames and mold. ‘It doesn’t look so bad in here,’ she thought, as she looked around at the kitchen. ‘Maybe the fire didn’t get this far before it was put out.’ It was then she heard somebody else’s footfalls behind her, and the fifteen year old witch glanced back to confirm it was her younger sister whom ventured into the room behind her. “Thought you didn’t want to come inside, Kitten,” said the white-haired girl gently.

“Didn’t want to stay outside either,” answered Katya, with a small shudder, as she looked around inside the kitchen. Memories of happier times came flooding back to her, of baking Christmas cookies with Mother, the warmth of the oven on cold winter nights, and the wondrous aromas which came with all of those things which had been a part of her childhood. Though she was able to help Mother out in the kitchen once more, it wasn’t same now as it was then. The fire took Mother from her and Faina, and though she was eventually returned to them, she hadn’t been restored to the way she was, and their little family still wasn’t made whole.

“I understand,” Faina said simply. This was the first time either of them set foot in their old family home since the morning of the fire, as they were never allowed to come back, not even to try claiming keepsakes which may have survived the flames. The young Slytherin told Cousin Sergei she was planning to look for a birthday gift for Mother, which wasn’t a lie, not technically, she just didn’t mention the day-trip to Coventry to accomplish it. Not surprisingly, she was only allowed to fulfill her self-appointed errand if she took her little sister with her. Faina strongly suspected this was a tactic on the part of her cousin to ensure she wouldn’t attempt some clandestine romantic liaison, as after all she was fifteen, and the last thing she could possibly want would be to have an audience while attempting to snog.

As Faina didn’t have a broomstick, and wasn’t sure if their old house was part of the Floo Network, now or previously, the trip to Coventry required two tickets for the Knight Bus. While Faina took riding around on it with her customary stolid indifference, Katya quickly got carsick, and nearly emptied the contents of her stomach on the floor of the bus before they arrived at their destination. The bus vanished as they walked up to the house, and, when she looked at it, Katya didn’t want to go inside. Faina still had her own key to the backdoor, and was surprised when she discovered the house was all locked up. She got the feeling nobody had set foot in the place in the last five years.

Katya didn’t want to go inside their old house, afraid of what they might find inside; and when she was standing outside all by herself, she found she was too afraid to be there without her sister. Now she was looking around the kitchen and all she could do was wish for better days. “Professor Soichet told us they could use Reparo to fix places like the Coliseum in Rome,” said the little blonde as she looked at their old kitchen sadly. “Why couldn’t they fix our house, Faina?”

Faina remembered the class Katya referred to, as Charms was one of her favourite subjects at Hogwarts. With a shrug, she answered, “Simple, Kitten. We’re not that important. Besides, even if we could have still lived here, they wouldn’t have let us. There wouldn’t have been anyone to look after you.” Katya looked over at her sister, and said quietly, “Faina … you needed to have somebody take care of you too.” The fifteen year old gave her sister a slight smile, and said, “Come on, let’s keep looking around.”

Right then, Katya’s eyes lit up, and she said happily, “Faina, look! It’s Momma’s recipe box.” She darted over and grabbed a small wooden box sitting on the dusty counter. Popping it open, she found the collection of index cards contained therein, which she started flipping through. “See, all of grandma’s recipes are in there.” Faina glanced at the recipe cards, and suggested, “Why don’t you give it to her then, Kitten. She will be thrilled to see it again.” With a nod, Katya closed up the box, and she tucked it in the courier bag Faina had slung over one shoulder.

The girls walked through the dining room, and their hearts sank when they saw the condition both it and the connecting living room were in. The walls were scorched to the point where it was impossible to say what colour they’d been before the conflagration, while the pieces of furniture scattered about was little more than unrecognizable blackened lumps. Katya bumped into what had been a dining room chair and it crumbled like charcoal. With a deep sigh and a sob, Katya asked, “Is this where they found Momma?”

Putting her arm around her sister, Faina laid her head atop Katya’s as she tried to comfort her. “I don’t know, Kitten. They wouldn’t tell me much of anything at the time,” she said to her gently. Five years later, and this was still a sore spot with Faina, that while the Ministry folks were willing to give her the bad news they were not of the mind to offer up the details, as though she wasn’t tough enough to handle the whole of the truth and needed it to be spoon-fed to her. Looking around the rooms still didn’t answer many of the pertinent questions in the fifteen year old’s mind. After a long moment, the two sisters picked their way carefully, trying their best to avoid the bits of glass and other broken bits hidden in the burnt remnants of the carpeting, through the rooms and went toward the stairs leading upstairs.

Up here there were only three rooms, their old bedroom, their parents’ room and the bathroom. While the wallpaper was scorched, it didn’t look as though there was much damage up here, though it was difficult to say as the light that filtered through smoke-stained windows was barely enough to see by. Faina dug through a pocket in her hooded sweatshirt and turned up a flashlight she got in a Muggle store a while ago. Since neither of them were allowed to perform magic off school grounds, this would have to stand in for a Lumos Charm. She shook the flashlight a few times to charge it up, as it used an electromagnet sliding back and forth through a wire coil in lieu of batteries, before flicking it on. A bluish-white beam of light shone out from the device, cutting through the gloom.

Katya smiled and chuckled lightly as the familiar door of their bedroom was illuminated; she glanced over at her sister before opening the door to go inside. Despite the smoke and heat damage, the room didn’t look much different than it had the morning they were packed off to go to school. There were obvious signs the contents were gone through, as Faina knew people made at least a token attempt to salvage a few things for them after the fire. Still, it was worth a shot to see what else they might find. While there were clothes, neither of them bothered to check them out, as even Faina’s old clothes would barely fit Katya at this point. While Katya was looking at toys she hadn’t seen in literally half a lifetime, she heard her sister sob aloud.

“What’s wrong?” the little blonde asked, as she turned, and saw that her sister had knelt by the side of her old bed and flipped up the corner of the mattress, and now was clutching something in her arms. Tears were rolling down Faina’s face, and Katya moved closer to see what had been found. “Faina?” Faina didn’t say anything, as she looked down at the leather-bound book in her arms, as though to confirm in her own mind it was really there. “Faina? Is that the other poetry book Papa gave you for Christmas?”

Despite her best effort to hold it in, a sob slipped past Faina’s lips as she nodded silently. The young woman had promised herself she wouldn’t cry, no matter what, but her resolve wilted in the presence of this touchstone with their past. This time, it was Katya’s turn to offer comfort; she hugged her sister, and told her, “It’s okay, Faina. You don’t need to be brave for me. I can be tough if you need me to be.” Faina hugged her sister in response, and she said, “Not so little anymore, are you, Kotenok?” After a moment more, Faina flipped open the flap of the dragonhide courier bag, and slid her precious book inside. Katya simply smiled and nodded in agreement, while her sister ran her hands along a seam and then revealed another hiding place.

Faina pulled several other books out of her secret stash, and they went into the bag, before she closed the compartment again. “What are those?” asked Katya curiously, unsurprised her sister kept books in a hidden place. Faina shrugged, and answered, “I … um, borrowed some of Mother’s old school books when we figured out I was a witch. I wanted to get a head-start before going to Hogwarts. This stuff will make a lot more sense now I’m going into Fifth Year.” Katya’s eyes widened at the thought, and she quipped, “Well, yeah, and we aren’t trying to study it in German too.” Faina grunted in acknowledgement. Both of the girls fell silent for a moment, as they looked about the room for other mementos they wanted to take with them, knowing they were only delaying the inevitable.

“We need to keep moving, Kitten,” Faina told her sister in a quiet voice. “We still need to find what we came for. Is there anything in here you want? ” Katya shook her head, and said, “Nyet, there’s nothing in here I really want. Are you okay? ” As she brushed away tears from her face, Faina nodded, and answered, “I’m going to have to be, Kitten. You know which room we have to check out next.”

Their parents’ room was closed, and Faina paused a moment before trying to open it; it didn’t feel right intruding upon it without their consent. The air was still and smelled of smoke and mold; while the walls were darkened from smoke, it didn’t look all that badly damaged otherwise. “I wish things were the way they were supposed to be,” Katya said sadly. Faina gave her little sister’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze, and said consolingly, “ I know you do, Kotenok, we all wish it were so, but that’s not how the world works. Everything changes whether we like it or not; not even magic can stop that.”

“Papa’s jacket!” Katya exclaimed aloud, and she rushed over toward where she saw a corduroy jacket draped over their great-grandmother’s antique rocking chair. While her sister picked up the old coat, Faina went over to a nightstand, and slipped a framed picture of the four of them into her bag, before kneeling down to get their family album. Katya rushed over to Faina with the jacket, and the older sister looked it over thoughtfully before draping it over the little one’s shoulders. “Papa wouldn’t mind you having it, Kitten,” she said, before kissing her on the forehead, and hugging her again.

With great care and reverence, Faina leaned over the head of their parents’ bed and gently lifted the antique, and rather heavy, carved wooden Russian Orthodox cross which hung there. Grandma Patrovna told her it was a prized family heirloom, and she wrapped it up in a bit of cloth before safely ensconcing it within her courier bag, which was already starting to get heavy. “We still need to find Mother’s jewelry box, said Faina remindingly to her sister; so far as she was concerned their expedition was a bust if they didn’t leave with it.

The girls scoured the room, and Faina had to shake the flashlight some more in order to keep the light working. However, as their search wore on, it became painfully obvious things were missing, and Faina was getting increasingly angry and upset the longer their search came up empty. Finally, even she had to admit they wouldn’t find their mother’s jewelry box. “What do we do now, Faina?” asked Katya, whom by this point was really hot, uncomfortable and thirsty. Faina drew a deep breath, as her suspicions were hardening into certainty, and she didn’t like the direction where they were tracking. “Only one thing to do, Kitten. We have to go to Grandmother’s house.”

OOC:

 

[Graydon Ironshield]

Faina Patrovna xxxxxxxxxxxxx Katya Patrovna
Slytherin Fifth Year xxxxxxxxxxxx Hufflepuff Second Year

Faina remembered the last time she came to this house in one of the nicer areas of Coventry, she came here with her father, though she could recall little else of the visit. He made her wear a pretty dress which she detested, she’d have preferred jeans and a sweatshirt, and was told to sit still and not say a lot while they visited his mother. They’d come round for tea, and the main reason why the trip was fixed in her mind was the fact visits to Grandmother Harcroft’s house were thankfully rare, and the little matter that she was pretty certain the old woman didn’t care for the fact she existed.

It was a hard pill to swallow, and one she knew was all on her. While the Harcrofts only grudgingly accepted their mother into the family, Faina knew her own birth killed whatever détente there might have been. Had she been born looking like her little sister, things could have gone a lot better for all of them, this she knew in her heart. Instead, the same exotic features which caused her many issues (and more than a few schoolyard scraps) for her and (by extension) her baby sister, was held up as proof of her father’s poor life choices. While she was willing to put up with the discrimination against herself, it angered her greatly Katya was caught in the fallout as well.

“I wish I’d known we were visiting Grandmother Harcroft, I would have dressed nicer,” Katya said, as they walked toward the house. Having never met their father’s kinsmen, Katya was keenly aware she was underdressed for an introduction, and it wasn’t like they could go back to the house and find something suitable for the occasion. Instead of having a nice pretty dress, the two of them were rather grubby after having been poking about the burned out shell of their former home. “ We should have stopped somewhere and gotten cleaned up at least,” the little blonde twelve-year old added.

With a shrug, Faina answered, “This wasn’t exactly part of the plan, Kitten. If we’re lucky, this won’t be long, and we can be on our way.” She didn’t add in her knowledge that no amount of tarting up would do anything to change their grandmother’s opinion of them. They were an affront to the Harcroft Family, and her personally, as she was the Harcroft matriarch. “We’ll stay long enough to be polite, get our business done, and no more than that. Just be your usual self, but stay close and let me do most of the talking. Okay?” Katya nodded her head, and replied with a puzzled tone, “Okaaay. Faina, what’s going on?” The fifteen year old Slytherin drew a deep breath, and replied, “Nichevo, I hope,” not adding that she trusted the old lady in the house about as far as she could comfortably spit a rat.

Faina knocked upon the front door, using the old brass knocker set to one side, while her sister tried to make herself look a bit more presentable, quickly checking her hair. After a few moments, the door opened, and the two girls were presented with a small creature with greyish skin, pointed ears and thinning hair, which gave them both a hostile and disapproving look. Katya was startled, having grown accustomed to the nice House Elves in the kitchens at Hogwarts, this one came across as being rather … ‘I don’t want to be in the same room with this one by myself,’ she thought nervously.

“Hello, Jeeves,” said Faina, greeting the creature with a thin-lipped smile. She’d been told its actual name by her father, and, after figuring out the House Elf also didn’t care for her, made a point of forgetting it, and called it ‘Jeeves’ thereafter. Knowing it irritated the House Elf to no end, and he was powerless to do anything about it, gave the girl a measure of churlish satisfaction. “Is Grandmother here?” The House Elf looked the two girls over, as though having discovered a steaming pile of offal on the sidewalk, before answering formally in a barely civil and servile tone, “She is. Whom may I say is calling?” Faina answered brusquely, “Faina and Katya Patrovna; her granddaughters. Please do be quick about it, Jeeves. We have other pressing business.” The major domo bowed formally, and replied, “But of course. Veddy good. Wait here until I return to present you.”

“What is up with um …him?” asked Katya, once she was reasonably sure the House Elf was safely out of earshot. Faina was thoughtful for a moment, and said, “What, Jeeves? He seems to be a good mood today, but don’t worry, he won’t like you either.” Giving her sister a puzzled look again, she asked, “Um, why?” Faina glanced back at her sister, and told her quietly, “Guilt by association. We’re not welcome here, Kotenok,”

After a relatively short wait, the House Elf returned to escourt the two girls to a nicely appointed sitting room, with elegant furnishings and antiques displayed in a fashion which made Faina feel as though somebody were trying too hard to make an impression of being gentrified, or being of a higher status they really were. Sitting in a chair was an older lady with her graying hair up, and dressed in a tailored outfit, creating the impression of a witch of some status and power. There was a smile on the woman’s careworn face, and the set of her stern blue-gray eyes told Faina she and Katya were being sized up.

Katya immediately felt embarrassed when she saw the older woman waiting for them. ‘We should have gotten dressed up before coming here,’ she thought despairingly, knowing Grandma Patrovna taught her to be better than this. ‘We look like a couple of street kids.’ She hoped their grandmother wouldn’t hold it against them that they hadn’t tried harder to make a better impression.

“Your granddaughters, milady,” intoned the House Elf formally. The older woman replied, “Thank you. Now, be a good fellow and fetch tea and refreshments for our guests.” The House Elf bowed, and replied, “But, of course, milady.” After the House Elf departed, the older woman regarded her guests. “Well, this is an unexpected surprise. I had no idea you were coming to town.”

“We hadn’t expected to find ourselves on your doorstep either,” admitted Faina, choosing not to point out surprises were by definition unexpected. The older lady shifted her gaze to the pretty little girl standing beside Faina, and asked, “Is this your little sister … Katya, is it?” Faina wanted to retort that she would already know who it was if she’d cared enough to bother, but kept her silence instead, while Katya smiled shyly, and she nodded in response. “Hi,” she said in a quiet voice. Madam Harcroft, gestured beckoningly with a manicured finger, and said, “Come, dear. Let me have a good look at you.”

Katya walked over to where the older woman was seated, and she smiled sweetly as the lady cupped her face with her hands. “You have a bit of your father in you,” said Madam Harcroft, as she studied the lines and curves of the twelve year old’s face. “I can see it, especially in the eyes. He would be pleased with you, I’m certain. The both of you must be at Hogwarts by now, surely. What Houses are you in?” Katya felt a surge of pride within her, and she answered sunnily, “Hufflepuff, just like Papa, going into Second Year. ”

“Slytherin House, I’ll be starting Fifth Year in the fall,” said Faina, offering a more saturnine smile than her sister. There was a time when she hadn’t cared so much for where the Sorting Hat placed her; now she found it suited her just fine, and if it put some folk off, so much the better. She watched as their grandmother looked over her sister, and then eventually released her from her clutches. She gestured for them to be seated, just as the House Elf returned with a cart loaded with the asked for refreshments.

Katya was happy to see the plate of cookies on the cart, as she was proffered cream and sugar for her cup of tea, and she was starting to wonder if perhaps her sister was being overly dramatic about things. Faina took a cookie from the plate when it was offered and took cream and sugar in her tea as well. Madam Harcroft looked at her young guests, and said, “Since your visit was unplanned for, I must assume your reasons for visiting are something other than social, yes?” Faina nodded, and replied diplomatically, “We are hoping you know the whereabouts of our mother’s jewelry box. We couldn’t find it in the house, and hope nothing untoward has happened.”

Faina wouldn’t have put it past the Harcrofts to have taken what valuables they could from their old house after the fire, knowing what she did of the family. Vandals tended toward being indiscriminate in their efforts, and would have left their parents’ room a shambles; and certain valuables were still present while others were absent. So far their visit was civil, if not somewhat amicable, and she wasn’t going to throw around accusations unless the old lady started lobbing them first.

“And, how is your mother, dear? She hasn’t taken ill again, has she?” Madam Harcroft asked politely. “Last I saw her was at the solicitors’ offices when I signed off on allowing the three of you to separate yourselves from the family.” The only outward sign Faina gave of her reaction was the tightening of her jaw, and a slight, sharp intake of breath. After the fire, their mother lay in a bed at St. Mungo’s for two years, unresponsive and unknowing. Though she was no longer in a coma, Reyna Patrovna was reed-thin and in frail health; Faina felt it to be her duty to shield their mother as much as she did Katya. Biting back the retort which first came to mind, Faina answered defensively, “Well enough, thank you; not that it is a matter in this case. Alive, we are handling an errand for her; if not, we would be inquiring into the location of our inheritance.”

With a soft chuckle, Madam Harcroft said, “She doesn’t know the two of you are even here, does she? Either that or she is unable to act in her own interests again; else she would have come here inquiring after her own jewelry box for herself.” Katya glanced back and forth between their host and her sister, wanting to say something, but unsure how to answer or what to say, and hoped Faina would give her some sort of cue. She had a few questions of her own to ask, but wasn’t so sure this was a good time. “If you girls are worried about it, I won’t owl your mother of your whereabouts. Though I should think she and your cousin would be quite concerned about your being so far from home.”

“Um, birthday surprise, actually” Katya managed to get out finally. Madam Harcroft proffered the little blonde with a warm smile, and said, “There, now that wasn’t so difficult, was it? Another cookie, dear?” Katya nodded, and took a cookie from the plate when the House Elf brought it to her. Faina drew a deep breath to center herself, as she’d been taught in her Wandless Class, before asking, politely, “Do you know anything about our mother’s jewelry box?”

“After the fire, I took it into my safekeeping, child. I intended to give it to your mother when she was well enough to claim it, or to the two of you once you were old enough,” explained Madam Harcroft reasonably. Faina nodded in understanding, before asking, “Then, why didn’t you give it to her at the solicitors’ offices, when you saw her next?” Madam Harcroft fixed the young woman with a look, and answered stonily, “I forgot. You will forgive me, I was a bit distraught, since your mother was divorcing my son in absentia and taking both my granddaughters with her.”

The Harcroft matriarch glanced down at her major domo, and said, “Go get it.” The House Elf bowed his head, and replied, “Of course, milady.” With a puff of smoke, the House Elf vanished, and returned a few moments later with an ornate-looking wooden box. Faina took the precious box from the House Elf, and slid it into her courier bag. Judging by the heft, she figured it to still have its contents, though she wouldn’t know for certain until it was opened, and she wouldn’t do that in Madam Harcroft’s presence. “Thank you,” she said, with a note of genuine sincerity.

While all this was going on, Katya looked around, and saw the framed photographs displayed around the room. On a little table next to their hostess, she saw a picture of their father, though he was a younger man back then, dressed in his Hufflepuff robes, smiling and waving at the camera. Finally, she asked, “Grandma Harcroft, what happened to Papa? Where is he?” Faina glanced over at her younger sister, and she suddenly felt a lump in her throat. ‘Oh, bloody heck. Leave it to Kitten to ask where the dog’s buried,’ she thought worriedly. ‘Well, I suppose it was going to be asked eventually. Now works as well as later, I guess.’

There was a moment of pregnant silence, and Madam Harcroft sipped some tea before answering, “I would suggest you ask your lot that question, my dear.” Katya blinked owlishly before asking, “Our lot? What do you mean?” The older woman replied, “ I would think my meaning was clear enough, but perhaps I need to spell it out for you. I mean: ask your lot what happened to your father, child. After all, they were the ones whom murdered him.” The shocked look in Katya’s eyes was heartbreaking to behold, and the girl shook her head, and said in a disbelieving tone, “No, no, no, that can’t be right. He … he’s not dead, the Patrovnas didn’t murder anybody. You’re wrong, you can’t be right, you have to be wrong …”

Spitting an epithet in Russian so foul it would have caused their mother to demand to know where she’d heard it, Faina retorted, “How dare you say such a thing!” Madam Harcroft barked out a loud and sarcastic laugh, and countered, “Why? What’s the matter? Are you girls afraid to hear the truth? They set the fire to your house, they blew your father to bits so small they couldn’t find so much as a finger afterward, and they left your mother for dead.” Faina narrowed her eyes, and said, “And you left us to fend for ourselves; you and the rest of the family abandoned us. Does that make you any better?

“I wasn’t going to be fool enough to compound your father’s mistakes by taking the results of them in under my roof. He should have never gotten involved with your lot; I knew it wouldn’t end well, and I was right,” the matriarch said, defending her actions, as she looked upon both of her grandchildren with a measure of the disgust her servant had been unable or unwilling to hide. Gesturing dismissively, she added, “I think the both of you should leave, while this conversation is still a civil one. Take your mother’s box of trinkets, and get out of my sight!”

Faina stood up, shouldered her bag, and moved to help her sister get to her feet. “Come on, let’s go, Kitten. We don’t need to be here to take this,” she said gently. Nodding her head numbly, and with tears streaming down her face, Katya took her sister’s hand, and started to follow her lead. The House Elf appeared, and was about to indicate the way out, when Faina turned to look at him. As she glowered at him, flames seemed to appear behind her red eyes, and she said to the House Elf in a sibilant voice, “I can find our way out myself, Jeeves.” With a squeak of real fear, the servant ducked behind his mistress’ chair.

Offering neither resistance nor assistance, Katya stumbled along in stunned silence and she let her older sister guide her away from their host and through the hallway until they were outside again. The door being shut behind them sounded rather like the lid of a coffin being closed. “Papa isn’t really dead, is he, Faina?” she managed to say after a couple minutes of them walking outside in the fresh air. With a grim tone, the older girl said, “Wish I knew, Kitten.” Katya nodded, and she drew a deep breath to calm herself, before saying, “That really didn’t go well.” With a snort of sardonic laughter, Faina answered, “Went better than I expected.”

OOC:

 

[Graydon Ironshield]

Faina Patrovna xxxxxxxxxxxxx Katya Patrovna
Slytherin Fifth Year xxxxxxxxxxxx Hufflepuff Second Year

The two sisters didn’t say much as they walked along, putting their grandmother’s house behind them as quickly as they could short of just running, and Faina contemplated calling for the Knight Bus right then, as they’d found what they came for and a bit more besides. Instead, they started walking in a direction familiar to both of them, leading toward a large park. Faina wanted to have a chance to cool down a bit, and give her sister the time to pull together long enough to go home. Better to surprise their mother with their finds on their terms, rather than tip their hand as soon as they walked in the door, as she would want to know immediately why Katya was upset.

They sat down on a bench under the shade of a big old English oak tree, and Faina looked over at her sister, and asked, “Are you going to be all right?” Katya looked up at Faina with tear-reddened eyes, and she said softly, “Why does she hate us, Faina? What did we do wrong?” Faina answered bluntly, “We were born, Kitten, or more to the point, I was born, looking the way I do. You just got splashed when the potion boiled over, that’s all. You can put this one on me, if you wish.”

“That’s not fair to you,” said Katya, as she daubed at her eyes. Faina shook her head, and said, “I stopped caring about what was or wasn’t ‘fair’ long ago. You know why?” When Katya shook her head, Faina continued with, “Because I thought about it once. What if the world was really and truly fair? It would mean that all the awful things that happen to people does so because they’ve earned it, and that isn’t a pleasant thought. It is what it is, because it is, Kitten. We just have to deal with it. Okay?” The twelve year old Hufflepuff closed her eyes and shook her head sadly, and said, “Okay, maybe ‘fair’ isn’t the right word. How about ‘right’ instead? It isn’t right. It isn’t right for her to hate us just for … for…”

As Katya sputtered for a word to express her anguish, Faina said helpfully, “‘Existing’? I’m not sure we rate outright hatred in her ledger, Kitten. More like sheer contempt. You heard what she said: as far as she’s concerned we’re the results of Father’s mistakes. The family hated Mother, and when she was out of the picture, the Harcrofts were more than happy to wash their hands of us. After the fire, they didn’t even bother to check to see if we were okay, but they did help themselves to Mother’s jewelry box, and I noticed there were other things missing too.” Katya looked up at her sister, and said, “We need to do something about it, Faina. We need to call the Aurors, and—” Faina cut in with, “And tell them what? All I have is supposition and plenty of suspicions, and I’ve taken enough Wizard Law to know by now the Ministry won’t take our word seriously. Let Mother file a complaint, and we’ll see how things go. We’re fortunate enough to have her jewelry box back, I’ll take our victories when we can get them.”

Katya nodded her head, accepting what her sister told her, even though she didn’t like what she was hearing. It bothered her to think their father’s family may have robbed them blind while their mother lay in a hospital bed, and she and Faina worried about where they might sleep on that given night. It also seemed to her that if the Harcrofts had their mother’s jewelry box then they likely took other things from the house as well. She also believed if they had the chance to explain things the Aurors would help put things to right. Despite everything, they still had no clue what happened to their father, Katya couldn’t believe their mother’s folk would have murdered him, and she refused to give him up for dead.

While they were sitting on the bench, Katya’s attention was drawn to a couple kids running around, playing some sort of game. One was a young blond-haired boy, who looked like he was maybe five or six years old, while his little sister was two or three years younger. Katya smiled and chuckled softly, thinking how it wasn’t all that long ago she and her sister would play games in this park. It was one of their favourite places Papa would take them, and if they behaved he’d treat them to a trip to the soft-serve ice cream stand which wasn’t all that far from where they were sitting now.

She heard a man’s voice calling out for the kids not to get too far, and Katya started looking around. For a moment, she swore she heard their father’s voice, and she would have written it off as wishful thinking playing a cruel trick, except she heard the voice again. Though she hadn’t heard him in five years, there was no mistaking his voice as belonging to anyone else. Finally, her blue eyes widened as she spotted a slim man in his mid-forties, with sandy blond hair, wearing casual clothes. “Papa? Papa?” she said softly, before she shook her sister by the shoulder, gestured with a finger, and said excitedly, “Faina, it’s Papa!”

With her eyes closed, Faina was taking the opportunity to relax and gather her thoughts; the warm sun and the cool breeze felt wonderful after poking around inside their old smoke-damaged house. As much as she would have liked to shrug off their encounter with their grandmother, it still hurt to hear her tell them what she knew already. There was no place for them with the Harcrofts, and the old witch didn’t care what happened to them. When she sent that owl to St. Petersburg, their mother’s folk sent them help in the form of Cousin Sergei, and they were greeted with hugs when they came to visit the next summer. Faina didn’t like to think what could have happened to her and Katya if her plea for help had fallen upon deaf ears.

Just as she was starting to doze slightly, Faina was getting shaken, and she heard her sister saying something about Papa. She opened her eyes to see Katya pointing at something, before rushing away. “Bozhe moi, Kitten. What are you …” Faina started to say, but by then she realized she was by herself on the park bench, and her sister was running across the grass toward another bench, where she saw… ‘Katya, what are you … ’ she thought muzzily, but then her mind was clear instantly, when she saw where Katya was running. ‘Holy … that can’t be right. That can’t be … Father?’

Faina got to her feet and sprinted after her sister. As much as she wanted to tell herself they were mistaken, that there was no way he could be there at this park at this time when they just happened to be there, Faina instinctively knew the truth. They couldn’t both be wrong, not unless there was some trickery going on, some cruel joke at their expense. She heard the man calling to a couple of children again not to run so far from him, erasing all doubt in Faina’s mind. There was no mistaking his voice. ‘It’s Father, but how?’

When the man became aware there were two teenaged girls rushing toward him, he turned to give them both a curious look. “I’m sorry, can I help you?” he asked politely. More than anything, Katya wanted to simply throw herself into her father’s arms; however, his puzzled expression caused her to pull up short. “Papa? I know it’s been a while, but don’t you know who I am? It’s me, Katya.” After taking a quick glance in the direction of the children he’d been calling after, he returned to looking at the girl in front of him. With a warm smile, he told her gently, “I’m afraid you must be mistaken, miss. I get that sometimes.”

“Father, it is you, isn’t it?” asked Faina, as she caught up with her sister. All of a sudden, there were a great many things she wanted to say to him, but she wouldn’t dump on him right then. He looked at her, and he said questioningly, “And you are…” Whatever joy she might have felt was suddenly quashed, and the fifteen year old Slytherin was on her guard. Warily, she said, “Faina Patrovna, formerly Harcroft, this is Katya, my sister, daughters of Reyna and Nigel, which the latter would be … you.” Their father looked at the both of them, and shook his head, and told them, “Yeah, my name is Nigel Harcroft, I’m not sure how you know that, but I’m afraid you girls are mistaken about the rest. I don’t know who this ‘Reyna’ you speak of is, and I’ve never seen either of you before.”

Katya couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and she answered, with more than a little bit of anguish in her voice, “Reyna is our mother, you used to tell us stories about when you met after you graduated from Hogwarts, and how the two of you fell in love. Please, Papa, you can’t tell us you’ve forgotten all that.” Faina watched the man carefully, as her got a sick feeling something wasn’t right. Even at Hogwarts, her snowy white hair and red eyes were uncommon, she found it difficult to believe her father could simply forget he had a daughter who looked as she did, and yet… ‘He’s either lying through his teeth, or …’ she thought. The ‘or’ was a can of worms she’d rather not open. Faina smiled, and added, “You gave me two volumes of poetry as a gift, the last Christmas we were all together. When I got to a hard word, you’d help me figure out what it meant.”

Right then, the two little kids came over to where they were standing, the young boy was guiding his younger sister along, whom was rubbing at her eyes. This close, Faina and Katya couldn’t help but see there was a resemblance between themselves and these younger kids. “Dad, Katie says she’s all sleepy,” the boy said, before looking over at the teenaged girls, and asking, “Who are you two?” Katya smiled, and was about to speak, when Faina placed a hand on her shoulder, and said to her in a half-whisper, “Ne seychas, Kotenok.,” and then switching back to English, she told the boy, “Nobody of any importance.”

Their father was secretly glad his kids walked over, and ended a conversation which was getting increasingly awkward for him. As sincere and insistent as they were, he started to get concerned he might need to do something he might feel guilty for later. With a friendly smile, he told Faina and Katya, “Look, obviously, there’s been some sort of misunderstanding. I’m sorry things didn’t work out for you, and I hope you have better luck with finding your family.” At that point, he crouched down to get to kid-eye level, and he said, “So, you’re all sleepy, huh, Katie? Guess we’ll just have to have ice cream another day.”

The little girl suddenly giggled and laughed in a way only a three year old kid could, and she said, “Ice kweam! Ice kweam! I want ice kweam. When we seein’ Granmama?” Nigel scooped his little daughter up into his arms, getting her to giggle again. “After supper, you and Freddie get to spend the night with Grandma. And, I hear, if you’re both real good, there’s chocolate chip cookies and milk waiting for you.” Both kids cheered aloud, as they walked away with their father leaving Faina and Katya standing there in their wake.

“That should have been us,” Katya said in a voice almost cracking with grief. Faina said soberly, “Faina and Katya … Freddie and Katie. Bozhe moi, we’ve been replaced, Kitten. He looked at us like we were total strangers.” Her statements made previously to the contrary, it wasn’t fair for them to see that their father, whom they hadn’t seen in five years, and Faina was certain in her heart was dead, was, in fact, alive and well, and yet he might as well have been just another person they met on the street. She was as upset and angry as Katya was, but she told herself she needed to hold it together for her sister’s sake.

“What do we do now, Faina?” asked Katya, as she looked at her sister’s face. Faina was watching the retreating figures of their father, and their two … half-siblings with a determined look in her eyes. Katya was having a difficult time processing the thought in her mind. Faina had half a mind to whistle up the Knight Bus right then and get home with what they had and call it a day, and had started to draw out her wand. Blowing out her breath, and slid her wand back into its hiding place, she said, “Nyet, we’re not going home yet. I’ve got a plan, Kitten ...


OOC:

 

[Graydon Ironshield]

Faina Patrovna xxxxxxxxxxxxx Katya Patrovna
Slytherin Fifth Year xxxxxxxxxxxx Hufflepuff Second Year

After discovering their father was not only alive and well, but now had a complete other family, both Faina and Katya needed a break from what was going on. In their wanderings they discovered a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant whose signage claimed to offer ‘home cooking’, the place only caught their attention because of the pictures of the skyline of St. Petersburg in the large front window. Walking into the place, they heard multiple conversations going on, spoken in Russian, which immediately caused Katya to perk up a bit. Apparently, there was something of a Russian expatriate community in the area, and this place catered to the tastes of the nearby residents.

While Faina didn’t like parting with even a small amount of the limited sum of the Muggle money (though thankfully the conversion rates weren’t bad) she had in her pocket, if it helped make her little sister feel a bit better about their situation she didn’t mind so much. Even she had to admit, at least in her own mind, if not out loud, she appreciated the atmosphere, and a bite to eat did much to improve her foul mood. If things worked out, they would have a few more questions answered before going home, which would make the trip worth the effort. Unfortunately, it was unlikely they would keep their day-trip to Coventry quiet for very long, as Faina couldn’t expect her sister to stay silent about what they’d learned.

Katya shook her head, as she looked down into her tea, and asked sadly, “Why’d Papa turn us away? Why’d he reject us, Faina? He couldn’t have just forgotten all about us, could he?” Faina shrugged, and replied, “It’s possible, Kotenok. It’s also possible he was just lying.” Out in public, where there were Muggles close enough to hear them talking, she wasn’t about to delve into the possibility they could have been forgotten, or made to be forgotten. Katya took a sip of her tea, and pressed, “Why would he lie to us about even knowing who we are? That makes absolutely no sense.” The Fifth Year Slytherin replied dourly, “Everyone lies. The innocent lie because they don’t want to be blamed for something they didn’t do and the guilty lie because they don’t have any other choice. If he was lying, he was doing so to protect his … our half-brother and sister from a truth he couldn’t acknowledge.”

“Us,” said Katya succinctly. “Which is why we’re going to the house tonight. He won’t have that reason to lie about us then.” Faina nodded, and grunted in the affirmative. After their abortive attempt at a reunion, the girls followed their father and the two kids at a discreet distance, and learned where he was living presently. “Aside from having an entirely new wife to go along with his replacement kids, not so much. However, I salvaged our family album and the picture of all of us by the bed, so he will be hard-pressed to deny us, when I put all that in front of him.” Katya sighed, and said rhetorically, “Won’t that be a pleasant conversation?” Faina sipped at her tea, and rejoindered solemnly, “Truths are never pleasant, Kitten.”

“I suppose not,” said Katya, and it wasn’t hard to tell she wasn’t happy about what they were planning to do. All they’d intended to do was get birthday gifts for Momma, and now they were dealing with all of this. She’d spent half her life adjusting to her new normal, and now her life was being thrown up into the air again; Katya was feeling like a lost little kid at a busy carnival, hoping to spot a familiar face in the milling crowd of strangers. Seeing their father again, reminded her of all the time she’d spent praying for his return, and how she marked off the days since he vanished. Shaking her head, she wondered, ‘Nothing makes sense again. Why can’t things be the way they were? Is it so much to ask?’

Faina looked at her kid sister, and said, “If you’re getting cold feet, say so now. I’ll put you on the Knight Bus, and you can tell Mother whatever you like when you get home.” Realizing her older sister intended to remain behind, Katya shook her head, and answered, with a somber look in her blue eyes, “No, Faina. What did you tell me after the fire: ‘the two of us are one, we drink of the same cup’. I’m not leaving you to deal with this all by yourself. I’m not a little kid anymore; I’m older now than you were when you started taking responsibility for the both of us. Just not looking forward to it, that’s all.” The teenager nodded her head, sighed deeply, and answered, “I know you’re not, Kitten, but you have as much of a right as I to know the truth about what happened, and whether Father was a willing party to it all.”

Faina drew a deep breath, shook her head with dismay, and looked down into her tea cup, and added, “You know, it would have been kinder for everyone if we’d never gone to that park and seen him there. If he stayed missing we could have gone on with our lives none the wiser, if he were dead, I could forgive him, but, he’s not. Father is alive, and that makes everything more complicated. Merlin’s Beard, I hope for his sake he was Obliviated. If he wasn’t, then at best, even if the fire was an accident, he left Mother for dead in a burning house, abandoned us to our fates, and then started all over again with a brand new family.” Katya looked into her sister’s face, gave her a hopeful look, and told her with an insistent tone, “Papa wouldn’t have done those things to us, Faina, not the Papa we knew and loved. You need to hold on to that.” Faina nodded in agreement, and then glanced at her watch. “Come on, we’d best go, and see this done.”

By the time they finished with dinner and left the restaurant the light was already starting to fail, and the shadows were growing longer. Faina spoke not a word as they walked along the streets in the direction where they knew their father’s new household was located, choosing instead to keep own council. She knew in her heart her little sister was right, the man they’d known and loved would never have done the things she suspected him of doing. As it was they were looking at a puzzle, and there were many pieces left to be put in place before the picture was completed. Much of her sour mood and her suspicions stemmed from their meeting with Madam Harcroft, and she recognized this. While Father might not do the things she suggested, she wouldn’t put it past that harridan to have done them instead.

Walking along a particular stretch of road, Faina became aware of a lack of motorcar traffic, and a flash of motion somewhere above them. Ordinarily she would have written it off as normal Muggle air traffic, except now as she was looking up and paying closer attention, there were two objects, dark against the twilight-lit skies, hovering above the row of houses, and making no noise. It took her a moment to realize the two objects were really two individuals mounted upon broomsticks. ‘What’s up with that?’ she wondered, as she tried to make out more details about the riders, though as distant as they were they were barely more than silhouettes against the dimming skies.

One of the figures started gesturing in their direction, and both of them started flying down toward the two girls, drawing out their wands as they swooped downward. Suddenly realizing what the riders were doing, Faina gasped aloud, “Holy --- Kitten, run!” The little blonde Hufflepuff was completely clueless, and didn’t realize anything was amiss until a bolt of azure radiance flashed past her head and impacted against the sidewalk nearby. Faina grabbed her sister’s hand and started running, just as the other wizard shot a spell at her, his aim spoiled by her sudden move. She led Katya up the sidewalk, as the two riders whizzed past them on their broomsticks.

“Why are they shooting at us?” gasped Katya with disbelief, as they ran past a row of houses. She glanced back to see the pair of riders swooping upwards to avoid colliding with the side of one of the row-houses, and then turn about to attempt another diving attack on them. With a note of increasing panic, she added, “Faina, they’re flying back this way!” Faina stole a quick glance back for herself, and replied tersely, “I see ‘em; just keep moving!” As she led her sister toward the shelter of a nearby alley, another bolt of magic struck the pavement beside her, kicking up a small spray of loose gravel, and pelting the exposed skin of her hands and face. The riders flew past them, close enough this time she could hear them laughing loudly, and then Katya screamed as one of the men tried to grab for her.

When he failed to catch the little blonde, he tried to make another grab, this time for Faina, whom quickly sidestepped away. The rider then had to hastily evade a streetlight as he cruised past the girls, and then urged his mount back up into the air to gain altitude. ‘They’re laughing! They think this is fun,’ thought Faina angrily. They were nearly to the alley, when the girls saw the riders had whizzed around the back of some houses, and were flying toward them again. One of the riders badly misjudged his aim and he blasted the porch of a house with magic. Chunks of wood went spinning in all directions, and the girls had to duck to avoid being caught in a spray of splinters.

Without missing a beat, Faina stooped down long enough to grab a length of broken wooden balustrade as it clattered onto the sidewalk in front of them and steered Katya toward the corner of the house. “Keep running, Kitten!” she told her sister, as they ducked around the corner. Instead of the much wider alley, the two girls were now running along between a couple of the houses, the space between them narrow enough there was no way the men would risk riding their broomsticks directly after them. Darting down the little side yard, the two girls could only guess where their pursuers were, though Faina had a pretty good idea of where they’d go. Hoping she guessed correctly, and turning abruptly, she ran behind the damaged house, pulling Katya along behind her.

As they continued to run, they burst out into the alley, right as one of the riders swooped down on his broomstick to grab Katya. The little blonde twelve year old was so shocked she didn’t even struggle or scream as the man tried pulling her off her feet. Her older sister knew there was trouble the instant she felt her sister’s small hand wrenched from her grasp, and heard a man laughing aloud. “Oh, hell no!” Faina snarled, as she spun around, and swung the piece of broken balustrading she picked up as a club. Her swing would have done one of the Slytherin Beaters proud, as she slammed it across the back of the man’s shoulders, narrowly missing the back of his head, with enough force to break her makeshift weapon, causing him to yelp aloud in pain and let go of Katya.

Wide-eyed and scared, Katya was shaking, as Faina pushed her away from the man on the broomstick. “Come on, Kitten, keep running !” the older girl shouted, to get her sister to snap out of her moment of stunned shock, getting to start running again. As they fled down the alley, they could hear the one man screaming curses at their backs. Just as Faina wondered where the other thug was, she caught a flicker of movement in the corner of her vision, and looked up to see him rocketing toward them from above. Pointing his wand in their direction, he fired another bolt of magic toward them, striking the house they were running by, showering both girls in tiny bits of shattered brick and mortar. Flying high enough to avoid the wires crisscrossing overhead, the rider flew past the girls, and up out of sight again.

The girls ducked around a corner and into another alley, one cluttered with dumpsters and piles of junk. Their sudden arrival caused a cat searching for a meal in a garbage can to yowl loudly and leap away from them, causing the crate it was standing on to clatter noisily to the ground. Faina paused a moment to give her and her little sister a chance to catch their breath. “What do they want with us?” gasped Katya, she was already gassed and shaking from sheer terror and running for her life. Faina shook her head, and answered breathily, “Don’t know, Kitten, but I’m pretty sure muggers don’t work this hard. We … we … just need to lose these guys … long enough to whistle up … the Knight Bus, okay?”

Looking up, Faina saw no sign of their pursuers –yet, but saw that the light was already a bit dimmer than she’d recalled it not long before. Suddenly she saw the man she’d hit, at least she guessed it was he, coming around the corner on his broomstick. Flying barely more than a handful of feet off of the pavement, he charged in after them, shooting off a spell as he closed the distance. This time his spell struck Faina hard in her shoulder, sent her spinning around, and drove her to her knees, as she tried to move to escape. Katya was also trying to run, and got a few steps before her foot found a bit of broken pavement, causing her to trip and send her on a headlong sprawl.

The man gave a shout of triumph; glancing back to see he’d managed to tag one of the girls, the white-haired one who hit him, while the little blonde was prone on the concrete. Unfortunately, he failed to see the metal dumpster he’d flown straight into, as the tip of his broomstick caught the lip of it. The impact catapulted him from his mount, and flung him headlong into the open mouth of another nearby dumpster. He landed in a pile of the trash therein with enough violence to cause the heavy plastic lid to slam down over him, while his broomstick flipped end over end, clattering noisily before coming to a halt several yards away.

“That’s one way to take out the trash,” commented Faina, as she probed carefully at a shoulder she was pretty sure was broken, as she found it hard to move her arm, and white-hot shards of pain shot through her. “Bloody gospodars,” she growled. Part of her wanted to investigate what happened to the man, make sure that, at least, he wasn’t dead, just as much as she considered confiscating his broomstick; Faina pushed such thoughts aside, when she looked down and saw her little sister crashed down on her side on the concrete.

Tears rolled down Katya’s cheeks, as she clutched at one of her ankles and her knee. Her foot was bent at an odd angle, her knee throbbed, and her ribs hurt as the breath had been knocked from her body when she slammed into the pavement. A shadow fell over her, and the little twelve year old fully expected one of their tormentors to start laughing at her. Instead she saw it was just her older sister, whom knelt down beside her. She let her sister check her over, and she bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood to keep from screaming when Faina examined her ankle.

Without access to her spells, Faina had to rely on other means to tell her what she needed to know. “Broke your ankle, I think, Kitten, not sure about that knee though.” Katya noticed the way her sister was holding herself, particularly how she held her left arm close to her side, and that she was speaking through clenched teeth. “What about you, Faina?” The white-haired girl tried to shrug and instantly regretted it as a fresh wave of pain lanced through her. Allowing only a hiss of pain to slip past her lips, and not wishing to scare her sister any further than she already was, Faina replied, “Nichevo, Kotenok, an inconvenience, nothing more. We need to get out of here, I’ll help you walk.”

Katya looked around, now that she was finally started to calm down, and her heart was racing, and asked, “What happened to… Faina shook her head, and replied huskily, as she even she had to admit she was tired and hurt. “One threw himself in the trash, the other I haven’t seen for a while.” Katya suggested hopefully, “Maybe he left.” Faina glanced skyward, but still there was nobody else to be seen. “Only if our luck changes, Kitten,” she said tiredly. Slowly, Katya managed to sit up, and she said, “You need to check on the creep in the trash. I don’t want to feel guilty if he died because of us.”

Faina wanted very much to argue with her sister, these creeps weren’t worth their compassion or feeling guilty about, so far as she was concerned, but decided it wasn’t worth the bother to debate. Slowly, she got to her feet; her shins ached from landing so hard on the concrete, and staggered down the alley to the dumpster where she heard some groaning coming from inside of it. ‘Lucky bugger,’ she thought, as she reached down and picked up a rock, before flipping open the lid of the dumpster, figuring if he were dumb enough to grab her or try shooting off a spell she’d make him regret his decision. Upon closer examination, she saw a youngish man covered in blood and garbage laying there amongst the detritus. Right then, he didn’t seem capable of causing much trouble, and so Faina set the rock aside. However, she spotted a piece of parchment which had slid partially out from the man’s coat pocket. Deftly, she reached in and plucked the parchment out, and saw it was a picture of herself and Katya.

‘These guys weren’t random muggers, they were looking for us, specifically. Don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out who might have a reason to want something … unfortunate happen to us,’ thought Faina grimly. ‘I need to get Kitten out of here, now. We’re in no shape to deal with much else.’ Slipping the picture into her jacket, the fifteen year old walked down the alley, picked up the man’s broomstick and started back to where Katya waited for her. As she passed the dumpster, she said to the guy, “You can bill our grandmother for a new broomstick,” before flipping the lid of the dumpster back over. The only response she heard was another groan.

“Isn’t that the creep’s broomstick?” asked Katya. Faina gave her a look, and said with a note of sarcasm in her voice, “Da. Didn’t hear you calling ‘dibs’, Kitten. Next time someone tries to mug us, you’d better say something. You can have his broomstick, and I’ll take his wallet. ” When Katya didn’t laugh at her attempt at humour, Faina drew a deep breath, then added, “Relax, already, I’m just making him work for it if he wants it back. Unless, you really want him to come flying after us as soon as we leave.” She chose not to add that their mother probably wouldn’t let her keep it anyway, so there was little point in dragging it along with them. At that, Faina chucked the broomstick behind a nearby dumpster.

With a bit of work and cooperation, Faina got Katya to stand up again, though it was obvious she couldn’t walk without help, at least not without leaning upon her sister, so she could keep the weight off her injured leg. Though they could only hobble along slowly, the two of them worked their way toward the entrance of the alley. While she hadn’t liked riding it earlier in the day, Katya was really happy when she saw the violently purple triple-decker bus appear in front of her.

OOC:

 

[Graydon Ironshield]

Faina Patrovna xxxxx Katya Patrovna
Slytherin Sixth Year xxxxxxx Hufflepuff Third Year

Christmas Holiday, 2042


It was trying very hard to snow, but the conditions weren’t quite so cooperative as to make it so. Flecks of ice were whipped along by the wind, stinging exposed skin when it could find it. Faina huddled a little deeper in her plain black military-cut shinel greatcoat, and shoved her hands a bit deeper into the pockets, as bits of wind-bourne ice collected in the deep blue fur-trimmed ushanka hat atop her head, as she walked along a Coventry street she hadn’t travelled in nearly two years. Though she hadn’t expected there to be trouble during her previous visit, she was fully expecting it this time. Since getting off the Knight Bus, she barely spoke a word, choosing to keep silent and focused upon their errand.

“Are you really sure we should be doing this?” asked Katya, as she hurried a bit to keep up with her older sister’s purposeful pace. In contrast to her sister’s utilitarian Russian army surplus winter coat, hat and boots, and thick green and white Slytherin scarf, the thirteen year Hufflepuff had on a bright pink coat and a woolen hat which complimented the blush the chill air brought to her cheeks. Faina glanced toward her sister, and replied soberly, “If you didn’t want to come along, you had ample chance to say so. We’re here to get some answers, Kotenok, but, if you’re getting … cold feet, just say the word, and I can have you back on the Knight Bus quickly enough.” The little blonde teenager shook her head, and answered, “No, it’s nothing like that. You shouldn’t have to do this all alone, Faina, and I said I’d stay with you. I just wish …”

“Wish we weren’t the ones having to do this?” offered Faina bluntly. Katya nodded her head, and she looked toward her sister with soulful blue eyes, as she tried to get a sense of what she was thinking and feeling. “We should leave this for the Aurors to do, Faina,” she added. Faina retorted, “And how much longer are you willing to wait, Kitten? It’s been a year and a half, and they’ve done nothing. The men who attacked us vanished, Madam Harcroft denied everything; we gave them Father’s new address and still they do nothing. Then again, the word of a fourteen year old and an eleven-year old witch is scarcely likely to be heeded by many, so it’s hardly surprising.”

“Momma and Cousin Sergei believed us, Faina. That’s what’s important, right?” asked Katya, as she tried to hang on to some bit of good which came out of their adventure the summer before last. Faina had her own opinions about whether their mother and their legal guardian actually believed the story they brought back, and chose to keep her own counsel on the subject; it wasn’t the first time the Sixth Year Slytherin felt the need to shield her younger sister from her dour assessments of the world. “It isn’t enough, Kitten. Not this time, not now.” Katya would have asked what the difference was, but she already knew.

The two girls rode on the train back to London from school the day before, and Cousin Sergei and their mother were already on the platform waiting to meet them when they stepped down, just as they promised they would. It bothered both girls greatly that their mother contracted a cold, as she always seemed so frail to begin with, and she risked her health further by trekking out in this inclement weather to meet them at the station. Much of the day was spent decorating for Christmas, and they had fun trimming the tree which was set up in the sitting room, and their mother was busily baking cookies in the kitchen, which helped to make her feel less ill.

However, at one point during the day, Faina found her sister was looking through the family album they’d recovered from the bombed out ruin of their former home. Katya found the photographs taken the last Christmas when the whole family was all together, the four of them. Admittedly, it was a bit funny seeing how she looked as a little kid, and how scrawny Faina was back then (though she would argue she was really slim and wiry), but it was seeing their father’s image waving back at them that caused whatever mirth to catch like a lump in her throat. As Katya started to cry, she heard Faina muttering something about ‘unfinished business’ before walking off to get her coat from the closet. The next thing Katya knew, she was getting her own coat out, while Faina slid the album into a school bag, and calling to their mother that they were leaving to run an errand.

After a particularly unsettling ride on the Knight Bus, they were in a cold, sleepy neighborhood in Coventry, within easy walking distance of their old house. You could have tried Apparating us here, you know,” said the Third Year Hufflepuff peevishly, once she was sure she wouldn’t heave up the contents of her stomach. Faina answered solemnly, “I’d rather not risk a Side-Along Apparate at this point. One little mistake, and we might end up sharing something a bit more intimate than each other’s clothes.” She declined to share what she knew of the perils of splinching and its potentially gruesome consequences, nor did she point out she’d yet to take the Apparation exam and receive her certification. Katya simply took the comment for what it was, and nodded quietly.

Many of the houses were decorated for Christmas, and Katya could see coloured lights glowing in various windows, and there were even some houses whose exteriors were aglow with displays of lights and colour. The house they were walking toward was similarly decorated for the impending Yuletide. On the door was a wreath decorated with pretty bows, while small silver bells hung from it. As they went up the walk toward the front door, Faina glanced toward her little sister, and told her simply, “Last chance to bugger off, Kitten.” For a moment, Katya’s level of determination wavered; she would have been just as happy to get back on the Knight Bus and be on their way, but …

Closing her eyes, Katya said quietly, “Let’s get this over with. Time to find out where the dog’s buried.” Faina grunted appreciatively, and commented, “That’s one way of putting it,” as she knocked on the door. For a timeless interval, Katya almost hoped nobody was home, and their ill-advised adventure might end there and then, but she heard the sound of running footfalls, the door was opened, accompanied by the jingling of the small bells hanging from the wreath.

A young boy had opened the door and was looking up at the two teenaged girls, while a small girl was staring bravely at them in wonder, while hiding behind her older brother. ‘No, that’s not a familiar sight, no, not at all,’ thought Faina sarcastically, as she took in the sight of their half-siblings, Freddie and Katy, ‘Kitten and I were replaced,’ she added silently, echoing the sentiment she had when she first encountered them. “Happy Christmas!” the boy said loudly and cheerfully, while his little sister chimed in with an equally enthusiastic, “Happy Kwismiss! Did you bwing us, pwesents?”

Katya couldn’t help chuckling at the little girl’s innocent expression and her questions, even if she was suddenly feeling awful for intruding upon this family right before such a festive occasion. Faina offered a thin-lipped, pussycat smile, and answered politely, “In a manner of speaking, yes, we are. Are your parents home, presently?” The older boy looked up at the girls; if he recognized them from their previous encounter, he gave nary an indication, and he said, “I’ll go get them.” the boy rushed off deeper into the interior of the house, leaving his baby sister there standing at the door to stare at their visitors.

“Soooooo, who are you?” asked the little girl, pointing at Katya and giggling, as only a four year old could. Bending down so as to get down to the girl’s eye level, and maybe not seem so scary, Katya smiled and said sweetly, “My name is Katya, what’s yours?” The little girl laughed aloud, and she said, “My name is Katy, Katy Harcroft.” As Katya and Katy talked, Faina watched them with a sad look in her eyes. ‘She laughs freely, as though she hasn’t a care in the world; and why not? She’s … four. I shielded Kitten as best as I could so she might laugh like that still. When was the last time I could laugh so easily or so freely? What is the price the world has exacted upon me, I wonder?”

It wasn’t long before Faina saw the young boy returning to the door, accompanied by their father and a young-looking woman with long blonde hair. Focused as she was on talking to her younger half-sister, Katya missed the scowl which crossed her father’s face. Faina knew and understood his unspoken reaction. While their half-siblings seemingly forgotten whom they were, their father’s expression was one of recognition and dread. Her white hair and red eyes weren’t exactly common, not even in the Wizarding World; her appearance was distinctive and not easily forgotten. There were reasons why Faina told her sister over the years how much she wished she looked more like her. Right then, their presence was as welcome as having a raven tapping upon one’s window.

Nigel Harcroft looked at the girls and shook his head, and told them gently, “I don’t know why the two of you here, or how you found me, but I told you two summers ago I couldn’t help you. Please …” He didn’t want to be mean, or sound callous, but all of a sudden he was feeling cornered, and more than anything right then he wanted for these girls to be gone from his doorstep. The hope Katya might have had when she heard her father’s voice again, became a lump in her throat she couldn’t swallow. “Please, don’t …” she started to say, with a plaintive tone.

As the tension rose, Freddie asked curiously, “What’s going on, Dad?” Focused as he was upon the albino girl at the door, it took his young son’s question to remind Nigel there were others present. He looked down at his children, and he told them, with an edge to his voice, “Freddie, go play in your room; take your sister with you, right now. No arguments; just do it, please.” For a moment, curiosity warred in his mind, but the young boy muttered something before taking his little sister’s hand, and pulled her away from the doorway. The little girl protested, but she was soon following her older brother deeper into the house. It was then the young woman, whom was standing there asked, “Nigel, what’s going on? Do you know these girls? At least let them come inside, it’s cold out there.”

The feeling of unease twisted at Nigel’s gut, though he couldn’t put his finger on why this was so, and his wife’s suggestion to bring these intruders in the house only reinforced this feeling. However, he could scarcely say no without having a good explanation to give his wife afterward, alternatively he didn’t want this conversation where neighbors might hear. Against his misgivings, he nodded, and said quietly, “Please come inside.”

Faina nodded, and said quietly, “Thank you, accepting hospitality grudgingly granted. Doffing her ushanka from atop her head, allowing her long white hair to flow freely over the shoulders of her greatcoat, as she stepped into the foyer, the Slytherin girl made a point of rubbing her hands together as though to warm them. Katya came inside, glad to not have the door slammed in their faces; she wasn’t sure if would have been able to bear being rejected by their father. She felt her sister take her hand, and give it a squeeze, offering her comfort and a reminder. ‘I need to be strong, I need to be brave.’

Nigel would have been content to keep their unforeseen guests in the foyer, but his wife chose to conduct them to the sitting room. “Would you girls care for tea?” Katya nodded, and answered, “Thank you, please.” Faina nodded, before adding seriously, “You are most kind.” As the girls peeled off their heavy coats, Faina caught a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye, though nothing was there when she turned to get a proper look. She hoped it was nothing more than the kids snooping as they were wont to do, but it was still enough to remind her she needed to keep her wits no matter what happened next.

“Why are you here?” asked Nigel simply, once his wife was safely out of the room. Faina settled into a chair, which granted her a view of the window and most of the entrances to the room they were in, and laid her coat across her lap. She answered him, “I believe you already know why we’re here, Father. You hoped not to see us ever again, didn’t you?” Nigel Harcroft shook his head, and he asked, “How did you find us?” Katya was seated in a chair close to the roaring hearth, she had her cute pink coat on her lap, and she said, rather guiltily, “We, um … followed you here … the, um, last time. S-sorry, Papa.” Katya wanted to run now, end this before any real harm was caused by their visit, but knew Faina wouldn’t do that.

Before Nigel could say anything further, his wife returned, bearing a tray with a teapot, cups and a plate of homemade gingerbread cookies. As she passed around cups of tea, and cream and sugar for their guests, she said chattily, “I’m Amanda Harcroft, and apparently, you seem to know my husband, Nigel. You girls are …” Katya took a sip of her tea, and she said with a smile, “Well, I am Katya Patrovna, and this is my sister –” As she glanced toward Faina, her older sister gave a slight shake of her head.

Looking at both of their hosts, Faina offered them a wintery smile, and she said in a cold tone, “I am Faina Patrovna, daughter of Reyna Patrovna and Nigel Harcroft.” Faina knew her sister wanted to do this in a more diplomatic fashion, ease their way into this, but there was no gentle way to broach this subject, and no point trying, so far as she was concerned. The silence after her statement was long and uncomfortable. Amanda looked both of the girls over, especially at Katya, before shaking her head, and saying, “Th-that can’t be possible, right, Nigel?”

Nigel shook his head. He’d wanted to be nice, gentle even, but he needed to put this matter to an end before things spiraled out of control. Looking Faina in her red eyes, he told her insistently, “I told you before, you are wrong, Miss Patrovna. I am not your father, and you are no child of mine!” Katya sobbed aloud, and she pleaded, “Papa, please don’t do this to us. It isn’t right.”

Hearing the pain in her sister’s voice was enough to cause Faina to get a bit angrier than she already was, as if being denied by their father wasn’t bad enough. She returned her father’s resolute gaze with one of restrained molten fury, and she replied to him with a cut-glass tone. “Child of the man you are now, no, I am not. Children of the man you were, or at least, the man we believed you to be, yes, we are. We were abandoned, our mother, yourwife, was left for dead in a fire. Our mother spent nearly two years in a bed at St. Mungo’s, in a coma, the Harcrofts never bothered to even check on us; we were burned out of our house, and got dumped into a foster home. Every night, I would watch my little sister light a candle and pray. Do you know what she prayed for? She prayed our mother would wake up, and she prayed our father would find us and put things back to right. Katya counted the days you were gone in a diary, and you never came back for us.”

‘What the hell’s going on here?’ thought Amanda as she watched the white-haired girl level her accusations at her husband, and she heard another loud sob and glanced over to see the younger girl was crying openly. Katya asked in a soft voice, “Papa, please, tell us. What did we do wrong? Why did this happen? Why did you leave us like that?” The anguish in the younger girl’s voice was enough to cause Amanda, to pass a box of tissues over to here, as she did this, she made a sudden realization. “Um, here, Katy, uh, I mean, Katya, I mean … oh, hell, no. That can’t be right … For God’s sake, Nigel, what’s going on here?” Before she said anything else there was another knock at the door.

******************************************************************


Reyna Patrovna was feeling tired and nauseous by the time she and Sergei made their way to what she guessed was their destination. Though she knew how to Apparate and had a valid certificate to do so, since her time in the hospital she never felt as though she trusted herself enough to do it without splinching herself. The Durmstrang alum certainly wouldn’t attempt a Side-Along Apparate, not unless she had no other option. This meant either a long, cold flight on a broomstick from Surrey, or the Knight Bus and neither would bode well for her sense of well-being, however, this was not a journey of her own choosing.

She only recognized something was wrong when she realized the house was quieter than it ought to be so early in the evening. Reyna thought she’d heard Faina say something about needing to run an errand, and when she asked Sergei what was going on, he’d told her he thought he heard Faina mentioning something about ‘unfinished business’ to Katya. It was when she saw the family album was also missing, Reyna had a pretty good idea of what was happening, and knew she needed to put an end to this mess tonight.

“Is this the right place?” rumbled Sergei, whose evening plans hadn’t included an emergency trip to Coventry. Reyna drew a deep breath and answered, “We’ll know soon enough.” She breathed the words of a spell and gestured discreetly with her wand. For her thirteenth birthday, Katya received an antique Orthodox cross on a chain from her grandmother as a gift. Though her daughter rarely ever took it off, Reyna placed a Charm on the valuable necklace, so it could be found in case it were ever lost. Now, it would serve to help her find Katya, and, by extension, her sister, as she knew where the one was the other wouldn’t be far away. “It would seem so. Let’s hope they haven’t too much of a mess of things already, eh?”

After the girls’ last trip to Coventry, though she’d called the Aurors to investigate the attack, she’d never pushed their contention about their father being alive and well and having a whole other family. Though she believed her daughters met a man whom looked and maybe even sounded like their father, she couldn’t believe the rest of what they told her. The man she married would never have done the things which had to have happened to cause their current situation. It didn’t make sense to her that Nigel would abandon them all, take up with somebody else, and start a whole new family from scratch. No, as far as Reyna was concerned, there was a far simpler answer, and one which didn’t involve Aurors and likely innocent folk in a tragic misunderstanding.

Katya so loved her father, so much she couldn’t bring herself to believe him to be dead, and wanted so badly for him to be alive that when she saw this other man, she believed what she needed to believe, as unbelievable as the purported situation was. As much as Faina tried to be the adult, she needed her father too, and as she and her sister clung to each other, Katya’s belief became her own as well. They endured so much, and they hung onto the fragile hope that their family would be put back together again, and Reyna couldn’t bring herself to involve the Aurors, learn the truth, and have those hopes taken away from her children. While they were at school, there really wasn’t anything they could do to press the matter, and she’d been able to deflect their questions when they were home over the summer, and they had other things to keep them occupied.

‘Obviously, something happened tonight to cause them to do something rash,’ thought Reyna, as she and Sergei walked up the street, and she didn’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to guess at the details. Reyna paused to cast her Charm once more before tucking her wand back in her coat pocket, and assured they were where they needed to be, she walked up the sidewalk to the front door. As she got to the front step, Reyna started to cough and wheeze aloud, and her whole body shook as the coughing fit wrenched itself out of her.

Not for the first time tonight, Sergei had doubts that Reyna had any business being anywhere outside of her own bed. When she got ill, it always seemed to hit her like the proverbial ton of bricks, and it took her a while to get better. As he watched, Reyna clutched her arms close to her body, and was nearly doubled over, as she was wracked by a coughing fit which shook her frail body hard enough Sergei was concerned she might slip and fall onto the hard pavement, and he positioned himself to catch her if it happened. It took a couple minutes for the painful sounding hacking to pass, and Reyna looked over toward Sergei, and she said huskily, “Wish you wouldn’t look at me like that; it’s bad enough when the girls do it, without you treating me like I’m going to drop over any minute.”

Sergei looked over at her, and said, “Reyna, you should have seen a doctor the other day when this started up.” Reyna shook her head, though now her ribs ached, her breathing had eased. “And miss getting the girls from the train station? Absolutely not, Sergei; I made them a promise,” she told him, as she stood up straight again. He replied understandingly, “They would understand if you were too sick to get them; they worry about you, Kotenok especially.” Reyna nodded quietly, she knew her illnesses scared both of the girls. She held up a hand to forestall any further discussion, and said, “If this persists, I’ll see a doctor – after Christmas; I won’t spoil the holiday for them by succumbing to my frailties. Now, let’s deal with our errand before it gets any colder.”

Not being able to refute his kinswoman’s argument, Sergei reached over and knocked loudly upon the door. After a moment, the door was opened, and they saw a young blonde-haired woman, whom was looking rather concerned. Right then, they heard Faina’s voice from within the house. “O, chert vodzmi,” muttered Sergei. As the woman looked at them expectantly, Reyna offered her a smile, and she asked politely, “Pardon our intrusion, but you wouldn’t happen to be entertaining a couple of teenage girls, would you? One of them’s a little blonde, and I already hear the other one.”

Feeling a little shell-shocked already, the woman answered numbly, “Oh, is that what we’re doing? Who knew?” Sergei offered the woman a friendly smile, and chipped in with, “We’re here to collect them, we’d be happy to take them off your hands, if you wish it.” Amanda looked up at the burly Russian wizard and just nodded, as right then she wasn’t sure how else to respond. Reyna shuddered as a particularly chill breeze blew a spray of ice at her back. “Mind if we come in?” she asked hopefully.

******************************************************************


“Whatever it was, we’re sorry, Papa. We didn’t mean to drive you away,” Katya said, as fat tears rolled down her face unchecked. For a long time, she’d wracked her memories trying to figure out what she or her sister had done to cause what had happened to them. Why else would their father have left? It didn’t answer the other nagging question, but she knew in her heart their father couldn’t have caused the fire, and surely it was an accident or just an awful coincidence. All of her soul-searching turned up nothing, which pained the sensitive little Hufflepuff all the more.

Nigel was unsure which was worse, the older girl’s forceful efforts to get answers to her satisfaction, or the younger one’s heart-rending pleas. His wife was out of the room again, and he was facing their guests by himself now, and his efforts weren’t getting him anything. “Nobody drove me anywhere, dammit! I’m not who you think I am! How many times do I have to tell you this? I’m not your father!”

“Yerunda!” snapped Faina, as she glowered at her father, his continued denials doing nothing for her already foul mood. Having caught a sense of other people arriving, Faina added with a thin-lipped smile, “We have proof that says otherwise, Father.” As she moved to get to the school bag beside the chair she’d been sitting in a moment previously, she was amazed to see Amanda returning to the living room, with their mother and Cousin Sergei hot at her heels. Anger was suddenly replaced with shock, and the Slytherin girl gasped, “Mama! Chto ty zdes’ delayesh?”

“Faina, kak ty dumayesh', chto ty zdes' delayesh'?” was Reyna’s immediate response, before turning to address the man her daughter was berating. “I am so sorry, please forgive my children. They had no business –” her voice stopped in mid-apology, as she looked at the man she was speaking to. With a shocked tone, she exclaimed in a hushed tone, “Nigel? Oh, my God; Nigel, you’re alive. How? What happened? Where’ve you been?” Before the man could even come up with a response, Reyna clutched at his shirt and started sobbing. While she’d thought it likely her daughters had made a mistake in their identifying this man, there was no way possible she could make him out as anyone other than the kind soul she’d fallen in love with.

Katya got up and started walking toward her sister, staring at the scene she’d been hoping and praying to see happen. Faina hugged her younger sister, as she also watched their mother meeting their father again, after having been separated for so long.’Guess I don’t need to bring out the family album now,’ she thought. ‘Mother is all the proof we needed.’ Cousin Sergei wrapped his arms around both of the girls, and said softly to them, “Bog na nebesakh, never thought I’d see the like of this.”

Shocked as she was by what was taking place in her sitting room, Amanda didn’t notice her own children crouched in the doorway, watching everything. The young woman said in a quiet voice, “I think I need to call the Aurors.” Faina glanced toward her, and nodded in agreement, and suggested, “Might not be a bad idea, Mrs. Harcroft. You might want to make some more tea while you’re at it; this evening’s just getting started.”


OOC:

 

[Graydon Ironshield]

Faina Patrovna xxxxx Katya Patrovna
Slytherin Sixth Year xxxxxxx Hufflepuff Third Year

Christmas Holiday 2042


The first thing Katya became aware of as she slowly regained her senses was a pounding headache and an intense desire to throw up. Accompanying the throbbing was the flashes of light behind her eyes strobing to the beat of her heart, along with a sort of whirling sensation, even though she was pretty sure she wasn’t spinning around. She also started sensing other things were amiss, not the least of which being was unable to see anything though her eyes were open. The little Hufflepuff groaned softly, she could feel there was something obscuring her vision; though as she moved her head whatever it was refused to be shifted.

Katya tried to lift her hand and brush aside whatever it was aside, and found she couldn’t move her arms, or really any other part of her body. She was sitting bolt upright, though she couldn’t figure much else out about her situation. The young woman squirmed and tried to shift herself about, and found she couldn’t do much to help herself. “Hmmm, whas goin’ on?” she said muzzily, her voice rough and somewhat hoarse from the effects of the knockout draught. “Where am I? Why can’t I see?”

Madam Harcroft was sipping a cup of Darjeeling tea as she sat in a chair regarding her captive granddaughter. She was pleased when Katya was delivered to the house, still dressed in her pajamas and housecoat, though she’d managed to lose her slippers during the trip, as she would have been quite upset if her paid operatives had done anything untoward to her acquisition. ‘Operative’, she had to mentally correct herself, of the crew of six she’d despatched to expedite matters for her, only one returned to drop off the package she’d asked for, and receive payment for his services rendered.

The teenage girl was seated in a hardback chair from the kitchen, as Madam Harcroft wasn’t about to risk having one of her nice sitting room chairs possibly damaged, tough cords were used to hold her in place, with her arms fastened at the wrists and forearms to the arms of the chair, while other cords at her waist and chest fastened Katya to its back, and her ankles bound together and pulled up under the seat so her bare toes couldn’t even touch the floor. Originally a scarf was stuffed into the girl’s mouth to keep her quiet, but Madam Harcroft didn’t want to have spent all those Galleons to acquire her newest …project, only to have her possibly choke to death on her own vomit. She’d just have to put up with the girl’s whining and mewling, at least for a little bit.

Glancing toward the House Elf at her side, she gave him a slight nod. The diminutive creature gave the girl an undisguised scowl, as he walked over to her chair, as he didn’t like her. He climbed up on the chair and quickly untied the knot holding the blindfold in place. “Is that better, dear?” she asked her granddaughter, as though this were all perfectly normal.

Though the lighting in the sitting room wasn’t particularly bright, it still caused Katya’s head to pound harder than it already was; she winced visibly and squinted as she took in her situation. The teenager squirmed and tugged frantically at the cords holding her in place, but there was no slack. She looked around at her surroundings, she saw that particularly evil-seeming House Elf , the one Faina had derisively dubbed ‘Jeeves’ walking away with a long black scarf in his clutches, while Grandma Harcroft was sitting in a chair supping tea nearby. “You’re not getting out of that chair until after we’ve settled a few things, so I hope you’ve put the silly idea of escape out of your mind. Besides, you have such pretty skin, dear, it would be a pity if your struggles left you with scars.”

Katya shook her head, as she tried to clear it, and make sense of what was going on, and the obvious questions tumbled from her mouth, “Why am I here? What do you want from me? Where’s Momma and Faina?”

Madam Harcroft chuckled, and she replied, “They’re dead, dear; or so they’d best be given the monies spent to see it done. When its announced in the ‘Daily Prophet’, I’ll be happy to read the article to you. Admittedly, though, your mother has been indecently lucky before, so perhaps I may need to finish the job myself.” The Harcroft matriarch had misgivings about the results of the events she’d set in motion tonight. Six men she’d sent to that house to kill one frail woman and a sixteen year old girl, and only one returned to be paid for his work. “Why are you here? Simply put, your sister made the fatal mistake last year in making me aware of your existence. Oh, I knew you’d been born, your father, dear boy he is, made certain to announce there was another Harcroft in the world, but I believed you were to be as strange and ill-omened as your sister, so I never gave you much thought. As to what I want of you? Such dangerous questions you ask, however, for now, your mere presence is enough, later on, your loving devotion which is my due.”

Katya’s blue eyes widened with shock and horror, while a cold chill ran down her spine. They’d sent her to get help, and she never made it out of the house before being grabbed. Had she been a little quicker perhaps she could have escaped and gotten the Aurors to help save everyone else. ‘But the Aurors never got there, not in time to matter, I guess. What about Cousin Sergei? Is he dead too?’ she thought despairingly. “Why are you doing these things?” she asked, with a sob in her voice.

The matriarch set her tea aside, and replied calmly, “Why, my dear, because they need to be done. Someone has to clean up the mess, and this is what mothers do. It starts simply enough, changing your diapers and wiping the front of your shirt when you burp up whatever we tried feeding you when you’re a little baby, and as you get older the messes of yours we clean up get more … complicated. You scrape your knee, we clean up the blood, you get into a schoolyard squabble, we’re the ones whom get everyone involved to shake hands and be friends again, because, this is what mothers do; we clean up the mess, for your own good.”

As Madam Harcroft patiently explained things, Katya sat in her chair, staring at her with wide blue eyes. “Who’s mess are you … ‘cleaning up’?” she asked hesitantly, and more than a little scared of the answer she was likely to get. Jeeves, as Katya now thought of the House Elf, poured his mistress a fresh cup of tea. The matron offered the girl a matronly smile, and told her, “Why, it would be your dear sister’s mess. She couldn’t leave well enough alone, could she? One would think after the scare I put in you girls, the two of you would be content to live your lives while we lived our own. All of us could have continued merrily onward through our lives, mutually ignoring each other. But, like a petulant child, she took great glee in breaking the fragile peace between our worlds, and here I am ... cleaning up the mess she caused.”

“We just wanted Papa to come home, to come back to us. Is that so much to ask?” posited Katya feelingly. Madam Harcroft chuckled softly, and replied, “Dear child, have you not learned anything at all from life? It’s the ones we love the most whom ultimately destroy us. Your mother invaded my family, stole my son from me, then sought to ingratiate herself into my good graces by bringing a disgusting freak into the world.” Katya answered angrily, “You’re wrong. My parents love each other, and my sister’s not a freak; not that you’d know the difference.”

Madam Harcroft sipped from her cup, and said primly, “Mind your attitude, Miss Patrovna. I’ll not take such petulant tones from you in my own house. Enough lip from you, and I may be inclined to shove that wadded up scarf back in your mouth. Though, I must wonder, do you truly believe what you say, or are the words spoken simply out of blind loyalty.” She held up a hand to cut off whatever response Katya might provide to add, “It isn’t me to whom you must give an answer to that question. Loyalty is an admirable trait, but one so easily abused, and too easily confused with love.” When the captive teenager said nothing in defense of her beliefs, the Harcroft matriarch continued with her own oratory flow.

“My son believed your mother loved him, believed it so much he chose to marry her, despite my warnings that she would destroy him and our family. He wouldn’t hear it, and then the proof of her taint was delivered unto the world. I waited, and hoped he would see the wisdom of his mother’s counsel, and then he brought you into the world, and still he wouldn’t hear it. When he rejected my request that he put the three of you out of his life, I knew then I needed to act. The last thing I wanted was for that white-haired, red-eyed daemon-child walking into Hogwarts ruining my family’s good name for all to see the shame of it,” explained the matron in a reasonable tone. “So, it was time for a mother to do what she always does: clean up her child’s mess before it got any further out of hand. So I arranged to have your mother … dealt with, and your father taken into my care. That you and your sister were left homeless was … unfortunate; I wasn’t of a mind to have either of you harmed, as I see no reason for children to be punished for the … indiscretions of their elders.”

“You tried to have our mother killed, and you caused the fire?” asked Katya incredulously. Madam Harcroft said reasonably, “My son is so trusting, so kind, so gentle; he couldn’t see the things I saw, and he wouldn’t do what needed to be done, so I arranged for him to be removed from the toxic situation he placed himself in. He needed for me to protect him, and so I did for him what I could. After he forgot all about the poisonous things formerly in his life, things got better for him; I was sure to see it done. He has a good job at the Ministry, a wife from a good, respectable Wizarding family, two beautiful and obedient children, a life anyone could be envious of. Everything was, as it should have been from the outset, until the two of you blundered back into his life.”

Katya latched upon a bit of information, and she asked, “How could he forget about us? Papa loves us, I know he does. He told us every day how much he loved us.” As sure as she knew the sky was blue, she knew this to be true, and it was this belief she held onto no matter how bad things got for her and her sister. In her heart, she’d believed her father was out there somewhere and for whatever reason he hadn’t found her and Faina, but knew when he did everything would be okay again. Madam Harcroft smiled, and she said, “I am particularly good with Memory Charms, my dear girl. I simply removed what needed to be removed, and told my son what he needed to hear to nudge him in the direction I wanted for him to go.” The matriarch stood up and walked over to where a bit of sculpture was placed upon a display plinth. It was a crude bit of clay made into a shape Katya was unable to make heads-or-tails of.

“You take an Art class at school, yes?” asked Madam Harcroft conversationally. Katya nodded her head numbly, and grunted affirmatively. The matriarch nodded approvingly, “Good for you; a well-rounded education is a wise investment in yourself. Sculpture is a subtractive process, the final shape is already in the material, waiting to be revealed; all one does is chip away what is undesirable and what is left is whatever is wanted by the artist. People are no different, really, they are pliable, waiting to be shaped into whatever form is desired. The trick, as always, is to be certain one doesn’t chip too much away, otherwise –”

She gestured, and struck the sculpture, though Katya couldn’t be sure whether it was done purposefully or not. The chunk of clay fell from the plinth, fell to the floor, and shattered to bits. “Oh, dear,” said the matron with mock-distress. “Katie was so proud of that; she’ll be very upset when she finds out it broke. I will have to ask her to make a new one for me, I’m sure she will be happy to do that for her grandma.” The unstated intent wasn’t lost on Katya, and she commented, “Because you will make her happy if she isn’t.”

“Too right,” said Madam Harcroft agreeably. “I’ve got them fairly well trained at this point. I’ve been working to get them the way I want them to be since they were old enough to talk.” Katya replied, with a touch of horror in her tone. “You’ve been using Memory Charms on Katie and Ferdie? They’re just kids.” Madam Harcroft chuckled and countered with, “I learned many lessons with raising my son, and applied them. He was too wayward as a child, I allowed him too many liberties, and it has brought so many unnecessary messes that I’ve had to clean up. Grandchildren should be well-behaved and dote upon their grandmother, which brings us back to you, my dear. Your sister was a fatally flawed bit of sculpture, but you, I think can be moulded into somebody I can be proud to have as part of my family. It may be a bit of a task, but I’m always willing to accept a challenge.”

‘Oh, crap,’ thought Katya, as a cold sweat ran down the sides of her face. ‘I don’t want to be moulded.’ She gave the woman a fragile smile, and she said pleadingly, “Please, let me go. I promise I won’t tell anyone what you told me; I’ll stay quiet.” Madam Harcroft replied, as she walked over toward where her granddaughter was now squirming to slip loose of the chair she was strapped into, “You think I’m daft? I let you go, you’ll be back at that school of yours blabbing everything, and I’ll be spending the rest of my life in a cell in Azkaban. I think not. But, don’t you fret, you’ll go back to Hogwarts; I won’t have you skipping classes just because your sister and your mother were tragically killed over the holidays, and bringing shame upon your family. I will chip away all the undesirable bits away from you until I get the granddaughter I want. You should be happy about all this, I think.”

“Why is that?” asked Katya miserably, as she watched the matron walk over behind her. The older woman placed her hands upon the girl’s shoulders, and Katya needed to twist her head round and upward to look at her. “You wished to be reunited with your father, did you not? You’ll get to live with him again, and after I perform a few more memory edits on my son, and the rest of his household, and arrange a few legal matters to my liking, you’ll be a proper eldest child. I will expect your loving devotion then.” As her breath started coming in panicked gasps, and frightened tears rolled down her cheeks Katya started breathing the words of a prayer in Russian. Madam Harcroft gently patted the girl’s cheek, and said softly, “Oh, dear, I do have a lot of work to do. Don’t fret, this won’t hurt.”

Suddenly there was a series of loud bangs and thumps from elsewhere in the house, and Madam Harcroft had a look on her face suggesting whatever was happening it wasn’t her doing. “Bloody hell …” As the matron stepped away to investigate, Katya realized her chance; she threw herself forward against the cords holding her in her chair, and she started screaming at the top of her lungs, “Help! Somebody help me, please! I’m in here!”” Madam Harcroft glanced back toward her House Elf servant, and snarled, “Shut her up, while I deal with our unexpected guests.”

“A pleasure, Mistress,” Jeeves said, and gave Katya an evil smile and an equally unpleasant laugh, as he stalked toward her, with a balled up scarf in his small hand. The antique armchair creaked woodenly and rocked slightly on its legs as Katya frantically fought with the cords, trying to get something, anything, loose to help herself out. As she heard spells being cast, and things breaking, Katya continued to scream, “Help! Help me, please!” The House Elf snarled, “Shut up, you little brat!” as he hopped up onto her lap and moved to stuff the scarf into Katya’s mouth. The little blonde Hufflepuff twisted her head away to stop Jeeves, and she continued to scream, while Jeeves laughed, and said, “ You want to make this hard for me. Oh, goody.”

Jeeves grabbed some of Katya’s hair and pulled hard on it, causing her to scream again, and turn her head toward the House Elf. Laughing aloud once more, the little House Elf was about to shove the scarf into Katya’s mouth when a flash of light caught him in the chest. Jeeves was blown off of Katya’s lap, and was knocked across the room before landing on the floor. The House Elf bounced lightly to his feet, turned to see the Auror which just stepped into the sitting room and flipped him a mocking salute before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Katya looked up and saw a trio of figures in dark blue coats, and one of them, a woman with long blonde hair rushed over to where she was seated. The woman offered the girl an encouraging smile, and told her as she started working on freeing her from the chair. “It’s all right, Miss Patrovna. We’re here to take you home.”


OOC: