Selina Grey xxxxxxxxxxxxx Fianna Grey xxxxxxxxxxxxx Hannah Grey Ravenclaw Seventh Year xxxxxxxxxxxx Gryffindor Third Year xxxxxxxxxxxx Hufflepuff Fifth Year Summer, 2034 Warm dappled sunlight shone through the green canopies of the trees as Selina walked along the well-trod path of the cemetery. It was a journey she’d made many times in the years since her parents’ death, one she didn’t so much look forward to so much as it was expected of her to undertake. Every time she returned from Hogwarts, be it Christmas holiday or the end of term, she would walk along the green-shrouded path to visit her family.
The seventeen year old Ravenclaw was attired in somber clothes for her visit as she always did when she made this trip to the churchyard, a long black skirt with a matching chain-knit cardigan over a white short-sleeved blouse, and black leather flats upon her feet. She wore a large floppy hat to keep the sun out of her eyes, while her long reddish-brown hair was carefully brushed back, giving her the appearance of being older than she actually was. Over one arm was the handle of a large basket, the contents covered with a simple white cloth.
As was usual, she wouldn’t make this journey alone, Lugh and CuCuchlain saw to that. The matched pair of gray-coated Irish Wolfhounds loped along with their mistress at an easy pace, their eyes constantly searching for any sign of trouble. Though she had their leads, Selina rarely ever used them, preferring to allow her companions to stay with her as they wished. Even the local constables, whom might admonish her for not having them on a leash, hardly ever said anything to her, as she’d pointed out her companions were better behaved than most of the humans they’d likely meet up with.
“
Happy Birthday, Robert,” she said softly, trying to smile as she knelt on the cool earth, in the shade of the large oak not far from her. Selina looked down at the name on the engraved metal plate, and the pitifully short range of time listed below. Five years was so short a season for anyone, least of all the little boy she remembered as having so much life in him.
Once again she recalled him as he was the last night he was with her, when he wouldn’t settle down for the night, not until his big sister finished rereading to him his favourite story, the tale of Paddington Bear. The night he climbed up into her lap and laughed as he always would, the night he snuggled close to her as she read to him, the night he closed his little eyes never to waken again.
Nearly ten years had passed already since the night the furnace killed her baby brother and almost asphyxiated Selina, and still the anguish lanced through her soul was felt as sharply now as then. ‘
The passage of time merely causes the wounds upon our souls to scab over,’ she reflected silently, as she started gently brushing away the accumulated dirt from her brother’s grave marker. ‘
Nothing ever heals, it never ‘gets better’, and the pain never goes away; all time does is deaden our hearts to it all.’
Selina got a bottle of Windex from her basket and a cloth, and started doing a proper job of cleaning the metal plate bearing her baby brother’s name. She could have cast a
Scourgify, now she was an adult and the Trace no longer upon her, but chose instead to do the job herself. In a way, it was as though she were cleaning his face with a washcloth, as she did when they were little. ‘
You’ll always be my little brother,’ she thought. In death he was forever fixed in time, never to grow up, or grow old, or know how cold and cruel a place the world could be.
“
That’s better,” she said, after a few moments of work. She put away the cleanser and rag, and got out a bunch of toy balloons to be inflated and be attached to the sconce where flowers might normally be placed. The little boy she’d known would never have wanted a bunch of ‘
stoopid ol’ flowers’, and so she brought him balloons because he loved them so, as well as a little stuffed bear in a blue jacket. A Paddington Bear. The usually cool and reserved young woman snuffled softly, blinking away tears she couldn’t hold at bay, as she spoke in a voice barely above a whisper,
There’s my brother, wee little Robert; bonny, sweet an’ true”
When she shifted herself over to where her parents were buried, Selina felt the familiar stab of guilt. Her father never forgave her for living when Robert died, and nothing she did at school measured up to his level of expectation. They’d had another of their ferocious arguments, when he told her his plan to ship her off to a Catholic boarding school in England, away from the influences of her mother’s family, and death claimed any chance of reconciliation. Though she accepted now she had had nothing to do with the cause of their deaths, Selina still struggled with the guilt over her unforgivable sin: she had the temerity to still be alive.
For a brief moment images flashed through her mind. The explosion which instantly killed her parents, the attendant wash of heat, and the appearance of the boggart taking the form of her father dressed as Anubis, judging her soul with a set of scales and finding it and her …
wanting.
“
Hello, Mother, Father,” she said softly, “
I’m back from school. You should be pleased to know I passed all my classes, and helped Siobhan and Fianna to do the same, but then, you expected as much from me.” She cleared away the dirt and debris from the headstone, and was pleased to see her estranged paternal grandparents actually carried through their promise and had the spelling of her mother’s name corrected. “
This time, next year, I’ll have graduated and I plan to take a job as a Cursebreaker, perhaps with the Ministry.”
She could almost feel her father’s disapproval and disappointment as though he were still alive and standing there. He would have wanted her to be an engineer, but her talents didn’t lie in that direction. After cleaning the grave marker with Windex and a rag, she placed flowers in the holder, including a single bloom from her mother’s beloved peony bush. When she was done, and put everything back in her basket, Selina crossed herself, and quietly repeated a catechism in Old Latin drummed into her by her ultra-conservative father, “
Pater noster, qui es in cœlis; sanctificatur nomen tuum …”
As she finished the doxology and crossed herself once again, she felt one of her canine companions gently nudge her shoulder and give a soft ‘
woof’ to let her know somebody else was there.
Hannah and Fianna were looking for their older cousin, and Hannah had the hunch she knew where to look, as Linny’s post-return-from-school habits were something she was well-acquainted with. She’d ventured into the churchyard, leaving her younger sister by the gate, in case she somehow missed spotting her cousin.
The soon to be Fifth Year Hufflepuff was dressed for the warm weather in a pair of snug-fitting jean shorts and a bright yellow Tee-shirt under a cute white chain-knit sleeveless cardigan vest, ankle socks and a pair of well-worn sneakers. Her long indigo hair was pulled back into a rather bushy ponytail, and bright yellow hair ribbons held it together.
Hannah walked along one of the paths, knowing where to go in the old graveyard, as it wasn’t the first time she’d found her cousin there, and she soon spotted Selina and her dogs amongst the orderly rows of the cold, gray stone monuments. Lugh and CuCuchlainn were close by their mistress, one sitting and one standing, and both of the wolfhounds instantly spotted her as she approached.
Hannah was convinced they were half-Crup, as they were far too intelligent to be otherwise, and neither had so much as a fleck of white in their muzzles despite their age. There was also the little matter of how the three of them returned from Hogwarts to the townhouse last night, and the dogs arrived, unescourted, to be let in and join their mistress at first light this morning.
Politely waiting for her cousin to finish her softly spoken prayer, something which she was rarely seen doing, Hannah asked her, “
Linny, why do you torture yourself so?” Selina got to her feet, brushing the stray dirt and wrinkles from her long skirt, and answered, “
Is it so wrong to ask forgiveness?” The fifteen year old shrugged, and asked, “
Forgiveness from whom? Your father, God, or yourself?” Though she’d been quite young at the time, she remembered her cousin visiting in the aftermath of some of the vicious rows she had with her father.
“
Father never forgave me for living after Robert died, and he disapproved of my accepting magic more than his faith. Why should I still be alive when they’re all gone? I’m nobody special. An’ if one accepts the teachings of the Catholic Church, we are all born of sin, bereft of His grace, an have nae hope of seein’ the Kingdom of Heaven,” said Selina, her Irish brogue becoming more pronounced as she regarded her younger cousin with graveyard eyes. Hannah shook her head with dismay, and countered, “
What kind of loving god would lay such a heavy burden upon a small child?” Selina drew a heavy breath before answering, “
The one we have.”
Hannah simply didn’t have a response coming for that, and an uneasy silence hung over them. After a moment, Selina asked, “
So what brings you here?” Hannah’s face brightened, and she said, “
We’re going to Mother Grey’s this morning, remember? Selina nodded, and said, “
I havna’ forgotten. Mayhap she might like te get an early start on OWL Boot Camp with ye.” The younger girl pulled a face, and said indignantly, “
I dun think so, Linny. We jus’ got back from Hogwarts last night; I don’t even want to think about school again until the owl shows up with our supplies lists.” Selina glanced toward the dogs and gave a soft bark of her own before saying to her cousin, “
Ye can argue about it later, lass, let’s be on with it.”
As the two girls started walking along the path, one dog stayed at Selina’s side, while the other positioned himself to watch behind them. ‘
They’re like bodyguards,’ thought Hannah, not for the first time, as she realized that bark was telling Lugh and CuCuchlainn they were leaving now. While they were approaching a particularly dark patch of the tree-shaded lane, Hannah saw the form of a large black dog with glowing yellow eyes standing no more than twenty feet ahead of them. As she looked at the dog, it stared at her, bared its teeth, and started to growl menacingly.
“
Linny!” gasped Hannah, pointing into the dark patch of shadow as she gazed at the dog which was every bit as large as the two wolfhounds with them. As Selina looked up to see the large black dog, Lugh positioned himself in front of his mistress, one massive paw atop her shoe, as he blocked her from getting any closer, while CuCuchlainn was now at her side, prepared to launch himself if the stranger threatened harm. Both wolfhounds growled warnings to the large black beast, with hackles raised and lips curled back revealing their fangs. Any icy finger of fear ran along her back as Selina heard the creature growl.
“
Good mornin’, ladies,” came a familiar voice, and the two girls looked away to see the priest strolling along the lane, smiling and waving to them. As they looked back, the large black dog was gone, as though it was never there to begin with, and even the wolfhounds were seemingly a bit mystified as to where it vanished. The two girls waved in response, and returned his greeting politely. “
Bloody hell, that was the grim, Linny, a bleadin’ real an’ hairy grim” gasped Hannah, once the priest passed them. As terror clutched at her heart, another horrible thought insinuated itself into her consciousness “
Oh, geez, I left Fianna by the gate. What if the grim got her?”
Hannah sprinted off through the churchyard, and Selina paused to glance back once more at the spot where they’d seen the ‘grim’, before rushing after her. While she was sure she’d seen a large dog, she wasn’t so sure it was a supernatural creature they’d encountered. Still, it was probably a good idea to follow her cousin and make sure Fianna was all right. Lugh and CuCuchlainn paced their mistress at an easy gallop along the sunny lane as they rushed toward the wrought-iron gates.
The grumbling of her stomach reminded Fianna she hadn’t had breakfast yet. She was a little annoyed her sister left her at the gate, it wasn’t as if the churchyard was really all that big, or she was afraid of ghosts, but she’d figured she’d catch Linny if she ventured out of the graveyard without Hannah with her. Although, even she had to admit it hadn’t taken long for her to lose sight of her older sister amongst the oak trees and the stone monuments, and she was accustomed to spotting a tiny golden ball flying over a Quidditch pitch.
Fianna looked like a normal kid, wearing a bright green Irish National team jersey which was large enough its hem was almost at her knees over a pair of faded jeans with flared legs and a pair of sneakers. Her long red hair was in long braid worn over one shoulder, rather like the way one of Gryffindor’s previous Seekers had worn hers. A month shy of her thirteenth birthday, Fianna was still rather short, and would have given much to be slim and taller like her older sister, or elegant and graceful like her cousin; instead, she was rather short and quick, like her mentor in all things Seekerish and teammate, Ivy.
As she was waiting, Fianna could see Hannah racing up toward the gates, with Selina not far behind, while the dogs were galloping along like small horses. Looking rather puzzled, Fianna said softly, “
What the bloody hell is going on?” Her eyes grew wide when her sister rushed up and clutched her to her chest, and the dogs started snuffling at her.
“
The grim didn’t get you, Fianna, you’re still alive,” said Hannah gratefully, as she hugged her younger sibling. Fianna looked at her sister as though she’d suddenly grown an extra head, and then looked over at her cousin whom was considerably calmer. “
Grim? What’s a grim?” she asked with a puzzled look. Selina glanced back the direction they’d come, but saw no sign anything might be pursuing them.
Selina responded with a shrug, “
Oh, a large black dog that’s a harbinger of doom an’ all that. Your sister’s fairly convinced she might have seen one. I think we should go back to the cottage, where we can discuss things ---calmly, over a spot of breakfast and some tea, I think.”
With the wolfhounds alert and more than a little on edge, the three girls walked away from the church. From patch a deep shade, not far from the gates, a large pair of yellow eyes followed them, and a bit of whimpering could be heard…
(OOC: Exit to Mother Grey's Cottage)
OOC:
