Faina Patrovna xxxxx Katya Patrovna Slytherin Sixth Year xxxxxxx Hufflepuff Third Year Christmas Holiday, 2042
By the time they finally got home, Reyna was practically shaking with fatigue, as the evening’s events pushed her to the very limits of her diminished physical endurance. So late it was, she couldn’t say for certain whether it was night or early morning, not that it seemed to matter, as much past the start of December even daytime was almost always like unto twilight. No matter what the hour was Reyna was worn out, chilled to the bone, and she was feeling a sense that perhaps a corner in their lives was turned.
Though she could not read tea leaves as one of her cousins could, this was a feeling which grew stronger the more she thought upon it. Reyna was told once, when she was a young girl, by her grandmother, that ‘
the future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us; we know only that it is always born in pain.’ She’d seen evidence enough of that this evening. Seeing her long-lost husband standing there in that house, with a whole other family, was a shock and pained Reyna to the depths of her soul, and she wasn’t the only one whom suffered.
Hearing her own younger daughter asking her father what she’d done to drive him away was gut-wrenching, as was having to hear his denials any of it was truth. When Faina was finally fed-up, she got the family album out of her bag, started flipping through the photographs archived therein, and held them under the noses of their less-than-willing hosts for them to see, there could no longer be any questions of whether their allegations had merit or not. Reyna felt genuine empathy for Amanda Harcroft, whom now questioned every aspect of the life she was leading now, including the possibility her marriage was no longer legitimate, and wondered what else her husband was hiding. As much as Amanda was suffering, she knew Nigel was too, as he knew now something was done to him at some point, and he suddenly couldn’t trust his own mind.
“
Mother?” she heard her elder child say, and Reyna looked and gave Faina a gentle smile. Wearing a well-worn hooded sweatshirt and fleece pajama pants, her daughter looked more like a young girl again than a Russian Auror, something which Reyna took comfort in, and though Faina hid her pain behind a practiced mask which would have done a professional poker player in Monaco proud, Reyna knew her elder daughter suffered too. With an almost silent chuckle at her own foolishness, Reyna shook her head, and in a soft tone, she said rhetorically, “
I suppose it was too much to ask of you to have waited a bit longer, wasn’t it?”
Faina had her hands tucked into the pockets of her sweatshirt as she walked into the kitchen where she knew her mother would be after their unplanned for journey. If she felt guilty at all for anything she’d done this night was placing her mother in a position where she needed to chase after her and Katya, and risking her possibly getting sicker as a result. Though she’d accomplished her mission this night, there was no sense of triumph in her heart, only the sort of ache which accompanied the opening of old wounds. “
How much longer were you expecting me to wait, Mother?” asked the Sixth Year bluntly, as she regarded her. “
I couldn’t stomach seeing Kitten crying over pictures of Father, not again, not another Christmas, not when I know the truth. Something had to be done, consequences be damned.”
With a nod, Reyna accepted what her daughter told her; she’d taught Faina long ago to speak her mind, whether she liked what she heard or not. Lifting the lid on the slow cooker on the counter, she ladled a quantity of the mulled apple cider into a couple of mugs. She passed one of them off to her daughter, before taking a sip and relishing the way the warm liquid rolled down her throat and started to warm her up.
As much as she wanted to be angry with Faina for taking such drastic action, and dragging her baby sister along on another potentially dangerous trip to Coventry, Reyna was honest enough with herself to know she bore as much responsibility for took place as her children. More to the point, she owed Faina an apology; not for anything she did, but for her own inaction. Pausing a moment as she felt another coughing fit trying to assert itself, she waited until she was sure she wouldn’t start hacking before saying, “
I should have believed you girls when you told me what you saw, but…”
“
It was easier to believe Father was dead,” Faina said, finishing her mother’s thought, before sipping at the contents of her mug of cider. As Reyna nodded again, Faina added, “
Fewer questions that way, I guess; or, at least questions for which there’d never be answers. We could have gone on with our lives, blissfully ignorant of the truth, had we not seen him in that park, but there he was, like nothing at all happened. Dead, I could forgive him for not being there for us; alive, I couldn’t accept his betrayal, but now… Now, all I can feel for him is sorrow, and guilt.”
“
Guilt?” queried Reyna, eyeing her elder daughter thoughtfully. “
Why so?” Drawing a deep breath, Faina closed her eyes, and answered, “
Guilt, because of all of us, only Kitten kept the faith. She still believed in Father, even long after I gave up on him. I hope someday he can forgive me… ” She squeezed her eyes tighter in an effort to keep the tears she knew were coming from flowing. Putting her mug down on the counter beside her, Reyna embraced her elder child, as Faina choked back a sob. “
Oh, Snezhinka, it’s all right, he would understand. I’m sure he’d forgive you if …”
“
…if he ever remembers who we are?” suggested Katya sadly, as she walked into the kitchen. Wearing her fleece pajamas and wrapped up in a warm housecoat, the little Hufflepuff was dressed for bed, but she’d come down to the kitchen to get a little snack, and because she didn’t want to be upstairs by herself right then. Hearing their father’s continued denials wasn’t nearly as hurtful for her as hearing his voice faltering as undeniable proof was presented, and certain conclusions forced upon him. All of a sudden, the man she’d always looked to for strength was lost and vulnerable, and Katya was sad and scared for him. “
W-who would do that to him? Who would steal us away from him like that? Why?”
Reyna pulled her younger child into her embrace, and kissed them both on the tops of their heads, before stepping away to fill a third mug and hand it to Katya. “
I’m certain we will have all of those answers soon enough, Kotenok,” she said assuringly. The little Third Year took the mug full of steaming hot cider in both of her hands and took a deep sip. “
I hope so, Mama,” said Katya softly. “
Papa looked so …so …”
Faina drew a deep breath, as she regained her usual composure, and said darkly, “
I wouldn’t hold your breath, Kitten. It’s pretty obvious to me we aren’t exactly first in line for whatever answers the Aurors might get, and I should think the Harcrofts would be more than happy if we never darken their doorstep ever again. Besides, I already have my suspicions about the who and the why.” As she took a sip of her cider, she looked out through the kitchen window, as she was pretty sure she caught a flash of movement somewhere outside, though she hoped it was simply her imagination. While they were in the Harcrofts’ house she was never able to shake the feeling they were being watched, and though she never caught sight of who might be observing them the feeling persisted.
Katya gave her sister a slight smile, and said with a hopeful tone, “
I don’t know about, Faina. Now they know we’re family too; we’ll help each other through this.” As she thought about it, while Amanda was trying to help her husband parse out what was going on, she’d been talking to the kids. Freddie was pretty nervous, especially after the Aurors arrived, and they began conducting their immediate investigation, however she and Katy started to bond rather quickly. The four year old girl was understandably unable to process what was going on with all the adults in the house, and upset by all the shouting and arguing, but when she found out she just acquired two older
sisters, Katy was happy and laughing like she’d just found a new stuffed animal under the Christmas tree. When his sister started giggling, Freddie started to relax, and even offered to show the two of them his room, and his collection of Chocolate Frog cards, which he was particularly proud of.
As Katya offered her optimistic opinion, she saw her sister duck her head back from the window an instant before a flash of light struck, shattering the glass and the wooden window frame. “
Kitten, go get help! Run!” Faina shouted, as she grabbed a carving knife from the butcher block on the counter, flipping it about so as to hide its presence against the back of her arm, and drew her wand from pocket of her hoodie. Katya stared in shock, and gasped, “
Faina, what’s going on?” Reyna had her own wand out, as she looked around in time to see a shadow at the back door window and a light coming through the keyhole, and she ordered her younger child, “
Do it, Kitten! Run!”
The backdoor was blasted open as Katya ran past it and toward the short hallway leading to the sitting room. Reyna summoned a magical shield into existence in time to avoid being blasted down by one of the hooded figures whom rushed into the kitchen from outside. The men wore long, dark hooded coats, while their faces were obscured with identical-looking, smirking Guy Fawkes masks. Faina aimed a
Stupefy at one of the men, just as he Apparated out of harm’s way, and she didn’t know where he was until she felt a rough hand grabbing her by her long white hair, and a wand being pressed against the side of her head.
Faina heard the man laugh aloud, and crow practically into her ear, “
This is too easy. Avada Ka---uhf!” The Sixth Year drove the heel of her foot on to the top of his instep, interrupting his attempt at getting the Killing Curse off, before flipping the carving knife round in the grasp of her left hand and shoving its point into her attacker. The man yelped aloud, as the blade struck him in the meat of his thigh, and yanked harder on Faina’s hair, hoping to make her drop the knife, as he continued to hold the tip of his wand at the side of her forehead. “
Try that again, you little witch! Avada…”
Even though it felt as though her hair was being pulled out of her scalp, Faina managed to twist her head around just enough to see her attacker, and spun the carving knife about in her fingers like a baton, so she’d get more of her strength into her next attempt to make him release her. “
Gospodar!” she snarled aloud, as she buried the entire length of the blade of the carving knife in his gut. Her attacker’s incantation ended in a high-pitched scream, accompanied with a sour, coppery smell of blood and urine, as his precious vitae washed over Faina’s hand. With a savage heave she pulled upwards on the knife, and felt the man let go of her hair…
**************************************************************************
Terror clutched at Katya’s heart as she ran toward the sitting room, as the sounds of spells going off behind her warred with the frantic pounding of her heart in her ears. She heard her sister shout something, and an instant later it was followed by a man’s screams. Katya could hear thumping and banging upstairs, her cousin shouting oaths in Russian and additional spells being cast in rapid succession. ‘
How many of them are there?’ thought Katya frantically, as she realized their cousin was fighting with somebody who’d broken into the house somewhere on the upper floor. ‘
What do they want with us?’
Wide-eyed with fear, Katya ran into the sitting room, and she scampered over to the fireplace, her hand seeking out the bowl of Floo Powder mounted in an iron sconce off to one side. With her wand sitting forgotten on her nightstand upstairs, all she could do was go for help, while the rest of her family did what they could to fend off these men. As she prepared to make good of her escape, Katya heard another loud bang, her head whipped around in time to see the front door being blasted off of its hinges. Katya screamed as another man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask rushed into the house, while she hastily clambered into the fireplace. Before she could call out her destination and release the Floo Powder from her grasp, Katya was pulled bodily from the grate.
Seeing the short blonde girl attempting to escape, the man in the hooded coat and mask, asked rhetorically, “
Where do you think you’re going?”. Wrapping an arm around Katya’s waist, he hauled her out of the fireplace, and clamped a wide cloth pad over her face. Immediately, the Third Year’s senses were assaulted by a thick, cloying chemical smell, causing her eyes to water and her throat to constrict as she tried to snatch a breath of clean air. She remembered then what Faina told her to do if someone grabbed her on the street: ‘
Kick, punch, scratch, bite, claw and scream like your life depends on it, because it probably will.’ Katya immediately tried to kick at her attacker and squirm in his grasp, while still trying to hang onto the fistful of Floo Powder, in case she managed to get free.
As the teenaged girl managed to land a rather painful kick into his shin, the masked intruder let out a muffled grunt and kept the cloth pad clamped over her face, while he tried to squeeze her midsection harder to force her to breathe in the sleeping draught which the pad held. She nearly managed to wriggle loose of him, and he simply threw his weight forward, draping himself over her back to drive her onto her knees. “
You’re not getting away that easily, kid,” he told her with a laugh. “
You’re our Christmas bonus.”
Having her attacker’s superior weight pressed into her back, Katya was slammed painfully down to the floor onto her knees, and practically doubled over; she let out a cry of pain causing her to involuntarily suck some of the noxious draught into her lungs. Somehow, she managed to hang onto the fistful of Floo Powder, and she kept sight of the grate even as her vision started graying at the edges. Desperately, she tried to squeeze loose of the hold the intruder had of her, but her strength was already failing her, and she couldn’t shift his mass from across her back. The certain knowledge she’d failed her loved ones and the sound of the masked man’s laughter was what she took with her as darkness and oblivion swallowed her up.
When the girl ceased her struggles, the masked intruder waited a moment longer to do anything, just in case she was trying to pull some stunt with him. However, when he pulled the cloth pad from her face, and the girl was simply limp and unresisting in his grasp, he knew she wasn’t faking it, and was out for the count. The grains of gray powder she’d tried so hard to hold on to, now fell freely through her fingers to the floor. “
Easy money,” he commented, as he stood her up. As he took a quick look around, he could hear the sounds of a fight still taking place upstairs, while he heard the ‘
whoosh’ of flames and another loud scream coming from the direction of the back of the house. Deciding to leave his compatriots to finish the rest of the job, the intruder Apparated away, taking Katya with him.
Just as the intruder left with his prize, there was a loud crash from upstairs, followed by the thud of a heavy weight landing, as the unconscious body of one of the masked men slammed down onto the stairs in a shower of broken bits of plaster along with chunks of the splintered and shattered wooden bannister. A moment later, Sergei was pounding down the flight of stairs, making no pretense of being quiet, as he rushed to help the others in the household, with his wand in one of his hands, and a broken piece of balustrading in the other.
Seeing nothing going on in the sitting room, Sergei turned toward the short hallway leading to the kitchen, and as he rushed along it, he saw another masked intruder. The figure in the hooded coat was aiming his wand, and intoning, “
Avada Kedavra!” Spitting an oath, Sergei whipped the chunk of wood at the intruder. Hearing him, the intruder shifted his attention, and his aim toward Sergei. The bolt of icy green magic flashed past the Russian wizard, narrowly missing him as it sizzled down the hallway, while the chunk of wood clipped the intruder across the shoulder. Sergei hastily put up a Shield Charm and continued toward the kitchen.
As Sergei got closer, the masked wizard spat out an incantation and a flash of light leaped from the tip of his wand and slammed into the magical shield he’d just cast into existence. The burly wizard barked out an incantation and a similar spell flew from the point of his wand and impacted upon the
Protego the intruder already had in place. With the distance between them getting smaller, the masked intruder tried hurriedly to cast another spell, but couldn’t manage to complete it before Sergei lowered a shoulder and plowed into him. Both men crashed into one of the kitchen cupboards, causing the wood to crack loudly, with the back of the intruder’s head catching a corner of it. “
Gospodar!” Sergei swore aloud as he hit the man in the mask, hard enough to split open the smirking countenance of Guy Fawkes depicted thereupon.
The last of the invaders slid down the wall and collapsed at Sergei’s feet, and the Russian wizard stood over him breathing hard and shaking with pure rage. Angry as he was, he almost wished the man would stand back up, just so he’d have the pleasure of hitting him again. After a moment, when he decided his opponent wasn’t getting back up any time immediately, Sergei looked around the wrecked kitchen. Sprawled upon the floor were the forms of three more figures wearing the smirking masks and hooded coats, one of which lay close at hand, still smouldering from the effects of the spell used to put him down, while another lay in a corner in a puddle of his own blood. Broken cupboards, scorched wallpaper, the wrecked door and all the shattered glass and other debris, bore mute testimony to the savage intensity of the close-range battle with the invaders, and they didn’t matter so much to Sergei when he realized his kin were also slumped down in the middle of the floor.
Reyna was collapsed face-down upon the floor, her wand still clutched firmly in her grasp, while Faina was splayed over top of her, as though she were shielding her mother from their attackers before she too was blasted down. Wisps of smoke rose ominously from a nasty looking wound in the girl’s shoulder, while her clothes were spattered in drying blood, and her face was obscured by her snowy-white hair as though it were a burial shroud. “
Bozhe moi,” Sergei gasped, as he knelt down to check on his two cousins. While he checked to see if Faina and her mother were still alive, a bad feeling took residence in the pit of his stomach. “
Where’s Kotenok?” Sergei muttered aloud. ‘
And where’s the bleedin’ Aurors?”
OOC:
