Disclaimer: all the characters you all know are J.K Rowling's except for the names Cain and such, Imogene Avery is mine.
She grew up watching the war grow and accumulate to what it was to this day .She tells the tale of her brother; who betrayed her, the boy she fell in love with and the society that she came to accept.
The love is lost
beauty and light
have vanished from
garden of delight
The dreams are gone
midnight has come
the darkness is our new kingdom
Angel of Darkness by Alex.C
Chapter one - Grey
I was born in a world of banquets and balls with pretty robes of lace and satin, silk and velvet. In the cultured world of the wealthy making the right friends mattered and women sat around drinking cups of tea. A war was brewing outside that wasn't spoken of in polite company unless you were a business associate or, like most of our Pureblood mothers, gossiped. It was hushed up from little children even though we could make out the most of what happened in our society, much less the Wizarding World. The adults' viewed children as ignorant until they were accepted into Hogwarts, nothing much was said to us really but we were intelligent and made our own deductions. There are times however where the youngest child was naïve and questioned things that shouldn't be questioned.
I was that child.
At the age of seven I over heard my mother talking to my father about 'filthy mudbloods', 'scum of the world' and other such things. Being brought up in my world I obviously knew what Muggleborns and Muggles were. I never knew why we looked upon them in disgust. I pitied the Muggles for not having magic and wondered how they survived, I would have envisioned them living in cardboard boxes. I never heard of the 'dirty blood that tainted our forefather's, a disgrace to the family line…' such things were not made for young children and much less a girl.
I asked my brother, Cain, and he shook his head and explained a whole deal about us loosing our status and power. We had rights, he had said, that enabled us to earn respect and fear from our society. To be a Muggle was to be ignorant and to be a Muggle born was worse. We were pure, powerful, beautiful, rich and intelligent. We ruled the world.
I liked the idea of ruling the world, being looked up to and feared. I was a dark girl, mysterious and foreboding. I was a treasure or that's how my brother described me as, he overheard mother that night and that's all I knew. I had my friends who I had been forced to play with during infancy and it was expected that in the future, I would still acknowledge them and still be their friend. They were all I had I supposed, being who I am. We do not associate with Muggleborns unless we needed to and in that situation we had to upturn our noses and sneer. We never entered Muggle London so it hardly mattered in that instance.
While I had my friends I had my brother keeping a protective eye on me. He said there was a need to protect me, I didn't know what from but he took great care of me. We spent most of our time together trying to use our untamed magic. We would run through the back garden, he would tell me stories. We did everything I could do while being female and bound in heavy robes. He was given more freedom being the heir and being a male.
Our parents never took much care of us and it was our grandmother that took it upon herself to teach us the ways of Pureblood society. My brother spent more time being with my father though who thought it best he learned to handle the family from a young age. He learnt to be cold and intimidating, manners and other such things that heirs needed to learn. It was discovered that my brother had a flare for noticing the little tricks and bluffs Father's business associates had dealt and handled them with precision and intellect, especially coming from a boy of, at this age, was ten.
I was taught by my grandmother to play various instruments, reading and writing, manners and how to plan dinner parties. I was soon allowed to pick my own robes to wear instead of allowing Mother to make me presentable in public. I had fine taste as they said and never went beyond my pastels and light colours. I enjoyed reading in the library, whatever books I could reach on the shelves I would read. It didn't appease my Mother but Father merely replied 'knowledge is power…hide the books' and those books still remain hidden, under the floorboards of my current estate. These books were full of dark spells and I knew I had no interest in learning those.
My brother usually sat with me while I'd read. He'd read his own books and magazines. I'd lie against him, my back to his shoulder and fall asleep; it was always warm in the library. On a summer day the curtains would be open and the light would stream in and during the winter the fireplace would be alight. In the entire manor, the library was my favourite. There were other rooms that I liked to be in such as my bedroom or my brother's and the only houses I loathed were the dark, cramped ones such as the Blacks.
Their halls were hazy from the cigar smoke that the men would smoke and Persian carpets lined the floors. Everything about these houses would be dark with wooden panelling and the usual silver and green furniture of those of Slytherin descent. There was never any light. I didn't like it there and it wasn't because I was scared. I just didn't like the feel. You must surely understand, its like that depressing, ominous feeling you get when you enter a cemetery…just more foreboding because you knew that these kinds of families studied the dark arts.
I believed my family studied the dark arts, I knew they did now of course but back then I didn't. I lived in a large manor of marble tiles and cream coloured walls, rich velvet carpet in a pale green colour. We had large floor to ceiling windows with velvet green curtains and bay windows with fluffy pillows. It was an extravagant but comfortable place to live in. We had the usual decorations of snakes carved into the furniture, on the mantle of fire places. We had the large family portrait above the fireplace in the front parlour and the ballroom housed the piano, a room lined with mirrors and balconies. It was quite large for such a small family.
I told you how close I was to my brother, that we were quite inseparable, so when the day came for him to leave for Hogwarts I was quite scared and naturally sad. I had held tightly to my father's hand, who said that I should Side-Along Apparate with him. I had to remind myself not to squirm because I had been told splinching was an uncomfortable experience by my brother, who at the age of eight had splinched off a bit of his arm. I was only seven at the time and didn't understand what was going on. But yes, I wasn't splinched on my way to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.
"Now Cain, dear, you be good at school."
Cain stood cold and impassive under the gaze of my mother, whose voice wasn't at all very comforting. She wasn't the sought of mother who would care for her children. I suppose that if one of us were to die she'd be upset…but probably think along the lines of 'good riddance'. She was a beautiful woman. I was told I look a lot like her, that my looks were Rosier dominated. My father and brother looked a like too but it was evident that my brother had the softer features and less angular proportions of my mother.
"Yes Mother," my brother said, looking into her eyes defiantly.
"I long to go to Hogwarts," I whispered and I felt my father squeeze my shoulder, there was a light smile on his lips.
"You will next year," he replied softly and I looked up at him with bright eyes, I still clung to his hand. I feared Mother but not so much Father.
"Father, may I go wish Cain farewell?" I asked.
"While your mother doesn't see, now go on." I felt him push me slightly in the direction of my brother and I turned back to regard my father with admirable eyes.
He was rather tall and muscular with sleek hair parted to the side. He had a crooked nose and strong facial features. He hands had battle scars that I saw occasionally whenever he took his gloves off at dinner and despite the good looks and charm that got my father far, he had a weathered look about him. He was a man that had been through a lot and even had a spot of grey hairs mingling with his brown.
I picked up the sides of my robes which at the time and almost always to this day are poofy around my waist line. Mother liked seeing me in flared sleeves with lace cuffs and I thought I'd indulge her today because I hardly wanted my mother on my case in the present. I appeared just outside the little circle of boys and stood there patiently. I was told not to intrude but to wait for them to notice me first, a lady was always to be noticed.
"Avery isn't that your sister?" One of the boys asked, nodding in my direction.
"I have a name you know," it slipped out of my mouth and I decided to look anywhere but at the boys.
They chuckled but my brother laughed the loudest, "yes, it is. Her name is Imogene, Jean come ere'." I stepped forward into my brother's embrace, his arm wrapped protectively around my shoulders. He looked down at me with a handsome smile, "I'm sure you know Lucius Malfoy?" I nodded and politely smiled at him, "and Antonin Dolohov?" I nodded again, "but I'm quite sure you haven't met Theodore Nott or Walden Macnair."
He pointed out two boys standing opposite us. Theodore Nott was handsome if a little lanky with blonde hair and pale eyes, he was watching me intently and it made me uncomfortable. The other scared me a little and was scared in some places on his face, I'm sure if he didn't have the disfigured face he'd look handsome. There was something I didn't like about him and it might have been because I wasn't used to grimy appearances.
"How do you do?" I said, bowing my head a little. I looked up to find Theodore still staring at me and Walden smiling creepily.
"You're far too polite," Theodore then said and I felt my brother laugh in my ear.
"Excuse me?" I asked and I felt incredibly angry. Was he insulting me and my up bringing?
"It was a compliment."
"An unusual one." I eyed him slightly and took in his immaculate appearance of expensive robes in a dark blue with silver trimming, his hair was long and shaggy. I knew he was from a wealthy line.
"You're the perfect Pureblood Princess," Lucius put in, touching my hand to his lips. Cain pulled me closer. "And a Princess such as you young Lady Avery will go far in our world."
I was confused by this point and I didn't dare ask my brother in front of all his friends. I was used to seeing Antonin and Lucius at parties and dancing and having conversations with them. I grew up with them much like I grew up with Narcissa Black and her sisters; my favourite being Andromeda for her intelligence. Daffy Edwards was another of my friends and she was a leading gossiper and exaggerator, quite annoying but good when it came to eaves dropping spells.
There was a bell was ringing announcing the time for the train to leave and I felt like a bucket of cold water was dropped on me. I looked at my shaking hands and then at the group of boys, I was whisked away before I could ask them to give my brother and I some privacy. "You'll be fine, won't you?" Cain asked suddenly. I was staring into his anxious face, the cold demeanour fallen.
"Oh yes, I'm sure I can bribe the elves to buy me some new books while your gone." He ran a hand through my brown waves and then tilted my face up.
"You only need to send me a letter…"
"And I will, I'll send you many. I have Narcissa for company and Daffy-"
"But they're daft!"
"Brother!" I stifled my giggles with my hand, "that's mean. Apologise."
"If they didn't hear it I have no need to-"
"Cain!" We turned to see our father nodding towards the train.
I immediately hugged my brother and kissed him on the cheek, "I'll miss you." I said.
"I'll miss you too," he turned away and stared at the train for a few seconds. He then lifted a hand and patted my cheek, "you'll be fine…just three or so months…" I made a move to grab his hand but he was on the train before I could say anything. I looked at the floor again and not at the train because it was taking my life away.
I remembered…I was a pureblood witch and it was unacceptable to cry in public…