July, 1973
In the pale blue sky, covered with beautiful, giant clouds, there was a wizard on a broomstick. Good old Cleansweep Five, with rough oak handle and a broom still burning with its original fire red. A pretty archaic device, purchased on his sixteenth birthday as it came out, was of great service for all the following twenty-three years. Well. Perhaps it was not as fast or secure as the new models, but the wizard felt certain attachment to it, treating it with enormous care and knowledgeability, as one would take care of a treasure, fragile and priceless. The mere thought of replacing good old Cleansweep Five felt wrong, as abandoning a venerable and trusted friend that has gotten him out of countless troubles.
The heavy rain that has not stopped since it started in the early afternoon, seemed to carefully frame the wizard and his broomstick without touching them, as if they were covered with a thin layer of invisible waterproof material. The wind, however, cold and fierce, hitting the wizard's face and playing with his long, black hair, was fully making up for all the other disadvantages he managed to escape with a water repelling charm. He had a deep sigh, fastened the top one of the rhombus-shaped, purple buttons of his black overcoat and watched the last rays of sun vanish behind the mountains. As the time was passing with no result, he was becoming worried and impatient.
- Lien, - he screamed on the top of his voice, closing his eyes in order to focus all the attention on catching a reply.
The name of the wizard was Euan Charles Lestrange, and he has spent last five hours searching for his thirteen year old daughter. If he was to believe the note she generously left before running away, breathtaking chain of mountains right in front was the place she would have reached at this point of her journey. The plan seemed to have been to get to the village just a few miles away by the sunset, but the unaccounted weather conditions must have decelerated her advancement by just about a few miles.
- Dad?
Euan thought he has heard someone saying that in an unsure, questioning intonation, echoing with an unimposing hope and fear. He opened his eyes and flew closer to the rocks. The monosyllabic word that may or may not have been actually uttered was the only intimation he got. He took out his wand from pocket and pointed it forward, hardly having swung it. An uneven, unstable light poured from the tip, illuminating the view as a huge candle would.
Lestrange took a deep breath as he identified a familiar, thick rope stretching across very narrow, practically non-existing path. Oddly enough, the wizard found himself rather confident that nothing incorrigible did or was going to happen with his daughter. Some ten or eleven hours of no matter how heavy rain were far from being sufficient to seriously endanger her wellbeing. After all, she grew up climbing up rocks with him, and has by now became more prowess at it. Still, Euan almost physically felt the need to see her, ensure that she was well.
He slid his wand to the south and saw Lien standing on a ledge only large enough to contain her feet, her knees bent, providing with a greater stability. She was nervously trampling the worn-out pair of jeans she had on, and Euan remotely recalled buying it at a muggle shop last summer that was big on her at the time. As he flew closer, Lien quietly nodded, acknowledging his presence, and, before he could get close enough to converse, showed him to her right. Euan nodded, blew loosely on the tip of his wand, making the light shine stronger and flew into the cave Lien was pointing at.
Despite the scarce dimensions of the cave and low ceiling, Euan jumped off his broomstick without any visible effort, like he would have done twenty-three years ago, as the best beater Slytherin have had in generations he then was. Carefully placing the good old Cleansweep Five just above the dirty ground, letting it float, the wizard raised his wand and mildly waved it. The light condensed into a sphere and disengaged with the tip, hitting the ceiling and illuminating the entire cave.
Close to the ledge, just a few inches away from the entrance, Euan saw his own camping backpack, stuffed to the fullest of its capacity. Lien's once dark brown, now dirty beyond any recognition right boot carefully pushed it further into the cave, opening up some space for herself to enter. Her almost disproportionately large palm lied on the wall, getting a firm grip of a rugged stone. She was pulling herself in slowly, with a serious, prudent confidence of a person that has mastered the skill of balancing on edge as a second nature.
Euan smiled with relief and pride, watching Lien to straighten up. The water was dropping from the light yellow pullover and her short hair. She appeared to be shaking, likely from the cold, but there certainly was a reason to be proud of her. She was only thirteen years old and has been successfully surviving completely on her own for full ten days, with no magic at all.
- You didn't have to come, - she said. She did not seem particularly happy about having been found. - I would have been fine.
As Lien lacked the courage to look her father into the eyes, she lowered her sight to the ground and sat beside the backpack, on a hand's distance from the hem of Euan's overcoat, taking off her pullover, stalling the apologies she thought were expected.
The cave she found just a few minutes ago, and after about an hour's potentially useless and most certainly dangerous climbing up and down steep rocks, could be seen as a decent one. The air was rather humid and there was a puddle, leaking from another tiny ledge further south, but, considering that the closest alternative was to stand somewhere, holding from whatever she could find at the moment to hold to, hanging from the rope under a howling rain, fighting sleep and waiting for it to clear up, Lien did think she would have been fine.
Euan did not rush with a reply, allowing his daughter some time to guess whether he was angry with her or not. He summoned the pack of wet sticks tied to his backpack and bent over, piling them together. He shoot a sparkle of fire on them from his wand, and, watching the wet wood to blacken without producing any heat, highly doubted that his daughter would have been fine tonight.
- Seco, - said Lestrange moving the wand smoothly above the wood pile, drying it. He didn't really need to pronounce the spell, especially for a simple charm like this. He just thought the established silence needed to be broken.
With a similar, but somewhat more gracious and effortless confidence as that of Lien, Euan squatted and sat beside her, shooting another sparkle into the sticks, this time resulting in an actual mauve fire, shimmering in a colorful dance of blue and purple. He stretched his tensed legs across the dusty ground of the cave, and turned his sight to Lien, who was still looking down, as if contemplating her guilt. His hand longed to her shoulder, covered with the sticky wet fabric of gray shirt, but stopped midway.
- There was not supposed to be any magic, - informed Lien.
- Seems like it didn't work out, - simply observed Euan, sounding almost apologetic.
Lien silently nodded, not ready yet to admit that as the shadows were growing thicker and the rain more fierce, she was regretting not being indoors and hoping that Euan was searching for her. She was not intending to share the responsibility of her running away from the house with him, yet, here he was, with a clear determination to help, stripping her off the freedom to suffer the consequences.
Euan put his wand aside and carefully touched Lien's shoulder with his fingertip. She was freezing.
- Lien, - he called, tightening his grip.
Lien turned to him, looking with an unsure, somewhat angry challenge, unapproving of all the convenient magic her father was throwing on her. Euan, concerned, was pulling out an enormous towel from his pocket, still firmly holding Lien's shoulder, as if afraid that she might run away again. Watching Euan struggle with the giant piece of fabric, she could not help to smile.
- Disrobe, - he said somewhat imperatively.
Lien bit on her lower lip. It was quite tempting to turn around and tell her father that he was not welcome in her cave. She coughed, feeling her ears to ring, preceding a possible fever or further complications, and had a sigh.
She quickly took off her shirt and bended over to untie shoelaces. Once bright red, now covered in dried mud, they were stuck together. As the dirt cracked, peeling off and the ties loosened, Lien impatiently forced the shoes off her feet. Euan, putting part of the towel over her back, reached for his wand just in time to catch the boot that would have otherwise fallen to the abyss.
- Takk, - Lien murmured, watching the shoe float back to the cave.
The wet, hardened fabric of old, usually soft and comfortable jeans, manufactured in a small town near Liverpool, was hard to get unstuck from her skin. Euan automatically swung his wand in Lien's direction, and the stubborn piece of clothing smoothly jumped off her legs and landed next to the fire.
Lien coughed and yawned, cold and exhausted. Worried, Lestrange dropped his wand, easily lifted her from the ground and put on his lap, right on the towel, and wrapped her up in it, from head to toe. Only her face, regaining a healthier color, and her dirty pink socks were peeking out from under the towel. Euan's large, strong palms squeezed Lien's shoulders, hurting her just a little bit, and turned her around, so that he could see her face.
She yawned again, inhaling the humid air, drowning in the warm comfort of the material cover and the proximity of her father. Euan hugged her, pressing to his chest with all his might, now allowing himself to comprehend and feel how worried and winded he was for his daughter until this very moment.
Lien took another deep breath, swallowing the tears conditioned by the tension she had to live through in the house she chose to leave without permission, the fear she had experienced in the last few hours and the sincere joy she was feeling from reuniting with Euan after about six months of separation. She has been missing him very much, but could not liberate her hands from his thin, yet strong arms to hug him back.
- What has happened? - inquired Euan quietly, whispering just above Lien's ear.
She was not intending on giving her father an explanation of what has happened right now, when she was found so close to failing. The plan was to return in two weeks, triumphantly, with an interesting story to tell. A story interesting enough that Euan would let her go without suffering any serious consequences.
- Mum saw me reading a muggle book, - she said, embarrassed to admit that she was caught. - The book Ted said I should read, - she went on, smiling for an instant. - How's Ted?
- He's well, - replied Euan, also smiling with a bittersweet feeling upon remembering his amateur, unusually strong student he abandoned today in the afternoon. - Getting his PhD done.
Lien moved a bit, getting herself to a more comfortable position and trying to push the moment of the subject returning to what has happened. Euan enfeebled his hold of Lien, providing her with the freedom to move.
- What did Jane do? - he asked.
His right hand, hurting from writing too much too often, slid off Lien's shoulder, stroking her back. There were this rare occasions when deep inside Euan was outraged, hateful towards his wife and could not bring himself to refer to her as the mother in Lien's presence. The current moment, heavy with the silence reflecting Lien's unwillingness to give an answer, was one of those occasions.
- She got mad, - she said finally, in a low voice.
Jehanne Madelaine Lestrange, a pureblood witch from Crabbe family, was a nervous lady and was getting mad more often than one would expect from a reasonable adult. There was nothing extraordinary about the most recent instance, and Lien, being used to it, continued her narration in the same low, even intonation.
- Tore the book in half.
Euan did not remember how his hand lied across Lien, pressing her to his chest, needlessly protecting her from an experience she had already gone through. He could picture the imposing, thin figure of Jane, shouting at Lien in a genuine belief that there is no other way for her, as a good parent, to correct the fallacious nature of the girl, telling her to get lost or taking Lien to her room, and having trouble to breathe, as the anger would be washing all over her.
- I suppose she locked the door as well, - he unintentionally voiced after a short silence.
Euan felt Lien move slightly under his firm grip and yawn again. She didn't need to confirm the guess, as Jane locking her up in the luminous chamber of the northernmost corner of the castle was rather a routine procedure.
- The bloody rotters, - said Lien, swallowing the umbrage of her helplessness, embarrassment on wanting to tell Euan what had happened, seeking his help, - would come in…
- Lien, - interrupted Euan coldly. He didn't tolerate swearing.
Upon being interrupted, Lien thought that her father was not fair with her on this one. Rodolphus and Rabastan were bloody rotters, regardless of her stating so. She felt the resentment and sadness for herself evaporate, hardening her determination to deal with her problems on her own.
- Rodolphus and Rabastan, - she started over, abiding, as not swearing aloud was one of very few things Euan was asking her to do, - would come in…
Lien paused, not willing to get into details. Euan could very well guessed himself what were his bloody annoying cousins coming to her room for.
- By the third day I thought I had enough, - she concluded calmly. - I got out the window and climbed to your bedroom to gather the things I'd need and leave the note. Did you get the note?
- I did, - said Euan, taking off his boots, somehow managing to do that with Lien still on his lap, and putting them next to the broom, carefully as not to damage either of his belongings.
Rushly folded piece of parchment, covered in what would appear to most of the people senseless strings of letters and numbers was to be found in his drawer, next to where he usually kept his backpack. Having developed some liking for muggle cryptography, Lien has used a very simple shift cipher to tell Euan about the rout she was planning to take and that she was going to be back by the twenty second of july, a few days after Euan was to be back from conference in Bonn. She could have had used a spell to encode the letter, if she was skilled enough with charms, but that would have been very vulnerable to being discovered and read by her way more experienced mother or uncles, whereas a simple piece of paper with no magical trace was safe and sound until Euan, for whom it was meant, saw it.
- Well done, by the way, - said Lestrange, quoting the amateur and surprisingly strong student of his, that was currently working on PhD. Lien smiled.
Muggle Theodore Thompson had a dual degree in Security Engineering and Geology and, although his true academic passion lied in later, he liked to brag every now and then about various ciphers. Coincidentally, despite being twelve years her senior, he was pretty much the only friend Lien had, and has taught her some simple tricks that did not involve complex algebra. He would have been excited to learn that Lien has used his knowledge to communicate a secret and would have most certainly said "well done, by the way", among many other comments.
It took Euan a solid hour to decrypt the message. He did not happen to absorb all the wisdom Ted was occasionally throwing at him in an unorganised manner and had a rather rudimentary understanding of modular arithmetics that lie in basis of shift codes, so, Lien's choice to leave a note was a bit of a headache in the end.
- I thought I should leave you a note just in case, - answered Lien an unposed question.
She knew her absence wouldn't be of great importance to any of the people she left behind in the manor. She knew neither of them would be bothered enough to contact Euan and inform him about it. It was in fact curious and surprising that someone actually spared their precious time to do so.
- Dad, - she went on quietly, rising a bit and looking on Euan, straight into his juniper green, almond-shaped eyes.
She sounded concerned, as she was realizing that her father being here meant he was not at the conference in Bonn he was looking so much forward to.
- You must have missed Ted's presentation.
- I did, - said Euan without much regret. A nice room in the hotel, paid for by his university, and a glass of scotch with his colleagues in the evening was all he had to compromise. - I didn't have much of a choice, really, - he smiled, - it was either listening him rumble about volcanic granites or making sure my brat did not get herself into trouble.
Lien fell on Euan, taking him out of balance, too, and finally liberating her hands from his weakened hold, hugged him herself. It was perhaps a bad thing, but she was very content that her father chose to come to her above supporting his PhD student on his first presentation in front of the most renowned experts in the field. She felt guilty on some level, for being the reason, but she had absolute confidence that no one was going to pull Euan out of his conference for her, and thus did not feel the responsibility to be hers.
Euan smiled widely and got above Lien in one quick move, covering both of them in the giant towel. Lien started to laugh, forgetting the fear she has gone through in last hours. Euan gently kissed her forehead, inhaling the strangely refreshing smell of rain and mud.
- I got very worried, you know? - he asked, trying his best not to sound as if he was blaming Lien.
She stopped laughing, her hands loosening and sight turning to a side.
- Sorry․
- No, - cut Euan very seriously, lying beside Lien, - don't be.
His long, obsidian hair covered up Lien's face. She laughed again, looking to the sphere of light floating just below the ceiling through a dark, partitioned curtain. She had a beautiful, contagious laugh, and Euan laughed with her, too.
- I want you never to be afraid to ask me for help, - he informed, - brat.
- Brat, - echoed Lien with a pretentious anger and pushed Euan with her elbow, through a thick layer of fluffy towel, moving him by a fraction of an inch.
- Brat, - confirmed Euan, smiling, in his turn grabbing her head and pressing to himself, provoking a loud, cheerful laughter. - How did your second semester go?
Lien closed her eyes, thinking how to start.
- The second semester of the second year, - she said slowly, still thinking.
- Ja, the one, - confirmed Euan, raising and bending over Lien, suspecting that something has gone wrong during the semester in question.
Lestrange has hardly gotten the chance to talk to her since January. He was often busy putting together the conference happening at this very moment in Bonn and working for his uncle at their ancestral establishment producing apparating powder, as well as Lien did not like writing letters or talking with him through magical mediums. So, Euan did not have much of an idea how she has been doing. He looked at her rather intently, as she was mastering the courage to inform him.
- I failed the Potions class, - she said finally.
Euan bended closer, his hair touching Lien's nose. He has had lots of trouble passing Potions, too. There was a faint recollection of Lien mentioning something about it in the beginning of year, but he failed to pay attention to it at a time.
- I made the cut for Herbology, - she continued, embarrassed for herself, trying to somehow restate the fact of almost having failed it, too.
Most of the Herbology classes were spend in the garden, looking after the plants that were assigned to her cousin, who had persuasive enough friends currently attending Hogwarts. However, she did not want to tell that excuse to Euan. Her inability to stand up for herself was a problem she considered to be hers only.
- I could… - Euan stopped for a second, reconsidering the choice of the word. Perhaps he needed to sound more determined. - We will study together this summer.
Lien nodded without any enthusiasm. She could recognize it when Euan was serious and there was absolutely no way he would change his mind. The thought of spending evenings in a classroom in a muggle university, reciting magical plants and their properties, while muggles would sip from the tenth mug of steaming coffee, cracking an unresolved question of modern science in a passionate excitement, made her sigh with an acceptance of a person that was doomed for life.
- Come on, now, - said Euan almost apologetically, raising and looking around for something to distract the conversation from the current thread.
He stretched to take off Lien's dirty pink socks, something he should have done earlier. She absent-mindedly followed his pale, thin hand cover her legs to warm them up, debating whether to tell him about the rest of her exams, all completed with a perfect or a nearly perfect score.
- Lien.
Euan's voice sounded concerned. He reached for his wand and directed the light closer to Lien's left foot. Just above her ankle there was a slight, blue rush, surrounding two long, although not too deep scratches that reminded of a bite mark. There were also couple of pimples, filled with what appeared to be light-blue liquid.
- Does it hurt? - he asked, gently pressing the skin next to it. Lien shook her head negatively, straightening up.
- Probably just a Dental Nettle, - proposed Euan thoughtfully. - Nothing to be worried about, - he added reassuringly.
Lestrange lied down. The sphere of light floated up, illuminating most of the cave. Euan was thinking really hard, recollecting all he knew about Dental Nettles. Remembering the rush, he corrected himself.
- Or a Dental Nettle Lengua Caeruleus.
He looked on Lien, hiding his smile. It would have been oddly funny if he failed at recognising the magical plant her skin came to contact with right after he threatened to educate her about magical plants and their properties. It has always been of an interest to Euan that the magical plants, even when growing in most ordinary locations, bit or scratched muggles with a negligible frequency, but were sure to catch a wizard.
- Still nothing to be worried about, - he said. - Might get a little itchy later.
Lien rolled over in the towel, covering herself up in the warmth and the feeling of security it was providing. Although still angry for the future Herbology lessons, she made the decision to share the good news as well.
- Marvelous, - commented Euan, teasing.
The second year was certainly not the most demanding one, and a perfect score on a final did not really mean awfully a lot, and Euan knew that.
- Do you want to stay here for the night? - he asked, taking off his coat and also getting covered up in the towel that due to its size could serve just as well as a blanket.
Lien readily nodded. She would in fact be thrilled to stay here until September, even if that meant continuous study of the grass growing in the cave, instead of going back to home.
- All right then, - decided Euan.
He put his wand aside, close to the fire. The light slowly dimmed to nothingness. Euan yawned, summoning his backpack to use it as a pillow. Lien drugged his hand in her direction, also claiming it as a pillow. She nervously stuck her nose to her father's chest, spinning inside her mind a question that has been haunting her since March, when she overheard a classmate to voice his intent of escaping from his house one day.
- Dad, - she whispered, hopping Euan was not sleeping yet. He hummed questioningly, inviting her to continue. - Why don't we go live alone?
Euan opened his eyes. He felt sad and guilty again for forcing his daughter through all the experiences that were associated with coexisting with the rest of his family in the same building. The thought of leaving the manor for good has been occurring to him since long before Lien was born, on far more regular basis, and has caused a few complications.
- Because that would break your grandfather's heart, - he answered honestly.
- I guess that would, - agreed Lien disappointedly. She wanted to wander further why the integrity of her grandfather's heart was a concern, but decided not to.
Euan closed his eyes again, having a sigh.
- When we get back, I'd like you to apologise to your mother if she appears to be expecting that, - he said coldly.
This was another of those times when Euan was not about to change his mind regardless of many things, and Lien could sense that. She knew something along those lines was in order, so she nodded without any enthusiasm, putting a lot of hope on the ambiguity of the condition.
Lestrange put his free hand over her, hugging. Gratitude for her existence and maturity filled him up, reminding once again how much he was missing her in all the past months.
The howling wind and the sound of raindrops hitting rocks on the other side of the cave seemed to have only grown stronger, separating them from the rest of the world, hiding and protecting them from all that could have threatened their unity.
- Dad, - called Lien after a few minutes of silence, this time excitedly, as she remembered there was a multitude of stories to tell. - I met this man in Talgarth, he fought in a muggle war, with bullets and helicopters…
And talked well past midnight, telling about most unusual muggles she encountered.