I do not own the Harry Potter characters. They belong to J.K. Rowling. But I do hope that you will review it.
Ignotus placed his cloak in a chest along with a note to his son. He patted the chest as if it was a living creature that was going to stand guard.
His wife had just passed away, and he felt that now was time to get himself prepare for death. The loss of his wife had reminded him of how limited life was. They had been together so long, grown old together and he had accepted now that he didn't have long again. With his wife death, he felt that his life was soon reaching its end.
There wasn't much left for him to do.
He was a father, but his son was grown-up now. Married with children of his own. He could manage without his old father. But they still loved each other, and it did hurt Ignotus to be thinking of departing from his boy.
Ignotus sat down in a chair near the fireplace and look at the chest. Would his son understand the note? He was sure he would.
He thought about his two oldest brothers, Antioch and Cadmus and their tragedies. They all three used to work together until they all three got married and started over on their own.
Cadmus, the second-oldest, was the first one, it went bad with. He was considered the genius in the family. Praised for his skills at creating enchanted amulets and jewels, brewing potions, and dueling. And while Ignotus had been very proud of his brother, there had been moments where he felt that the success went to Cadmus' head. But most of the time, Cadmus had been sensible.
Then the troubles began when Cadmus' wife died in childbirth. The child survived, but the mother passed away within few days.
Cadmus became overwhelmed with grief and shut himself up in his workroom. He would stay where from sunrise to sunset, working like an obsess on something. He wouldn't tell what it was. Then one day, when Ignotus came by to check on him, he found his brother dead – hanged.
In Cadmus' last letter, he had read that Cadmus created a stone, to bring the dead back, but not in the way he had hoped. And now he had in despair and hopelessness given up on everything.
Cadmus, who had always been considered a genius, had put his expectations too high and seen his results as a failure. The letter ended with a strange symbol, which was supposed to represent of Antioch's wand, Cadmus' stone and Ignotus' cloak.
Ignotus had searched for that stone in Cadmus' house, but couldn't find it. He had hoped that he could hid it away, because he didn't want Cadmus' creation to be abused. But when he couldn't find it, he could only think of two reasons. Either the stone was stolen or Cadmus had gotten rid of it, before he killed himself. He hoped strongly for the last option.
Both Ignotus and Antioch had both wanted to raise Cadmus' daughter, but the mother's family wouldn't allow it. They had already planned for the girl to be promised away to a son of a wealthy and influenced pureblood family, and they refused to let a muggle-loving wizard have any kind of influence over her. All Ignotus could do was giving her a ring, that had been found on Cadmus' body, as a humble memento of a father, she never got to know. Since then he never saw or heard from his niece.
Then the turn came to Antioch, the oldest of the three.
Antioch had been a wandmaker and had probably the skills could become the best one of his time, if he hadn't been killed at an early age. Ignotus thought about how Antioch always would study the wands in their family as a young lad. See what skills in the core and wood made the wands alike and different with each other.
After he got married, Antioch opened a shop in Wales, where he could create and sell wands. And he did manage his business quite well.
He had once written to both Ignotus and Cadmus, before Cadmus' death, about his masterpiece, the most powerful wand. He didn't go into much details about how he made it, but he didn't hide his own pride of it.
Then one night, Antioch and his wife got killed in their own home and all the wands were stolen including the one that Antioch had written about. The Elder wand. The culprits were never caught, but some of the stolen wands had been found again, but none of them were the Elder wand. It was gone – probably forever.
Ignotus could only guess how things could end so wrong.
Antioch had a bad habit of bragging of his wands, which Ignotus didn't blame him for. He could imagine, that the habit came from living with a praised genius like Cadmus. Antioch also had a bright head, but their parents consider Cadmus' incredible skills in magical studies far more important than Antioch's skills in making wands. So Ignotus understood that Antioch desired to be admired and respected for his work. It wasn't hard to suspect that Antioch's bragging had reached the wrong people, and that had caused the murders and the theft.
It had been rumored that a wealthy wizard had Antioch killed to prevent him from creating another wand that might been just a strong as the stolen Elder wand, but no one could tell if it was true or not. But it was of that reason that Ignotus decided to keep his cloak a secret. He had learned that creation also could get one killed.
Antioch left only one child, a little girl named Belladonna, who Ignotus and his wife took in and raised along with their own son Leander.
Today Belladonna and Leander were married to each other and had two daughters. Ignotus had been concerned about their marriage, but he didn't want to be consider a hindrance, so he gave them his blessing.
He was grateful that it turned out well for the pair.
Ignotus' work had been helping witches and wizards escaping punishment – even death – from the hands of the fearful muggles. He even helped muggles that had been mistakenly judged for practicing witchcraft. To do that he had to be cunning and clever. While muggles were ignorant and simple-minded they were still dangerous, when they were driven by hatred and fear. He smiled by the thought of all the schemes he had pulled off in the years. In a lot of these plans he had used his cloak of invisibility, that he had made himself. It was necessary for him to keep his identity hidden from even the people he saved.
He had put a lot of work into it. He had told both of his brothers about the cloak, but they never knew what kind of work he used it to. Cadmus had once teased him about that he used the cloak to escape doing chores in his house. Antioch had thought that Ignotus just made the cloak to pass his spare time.
Ignotus was suddenly pulled out from his wave of memories by a sound.
It knocked softly on the door.
"Come in," he answered.
Iolanthe, his oldest granddaughter, came in. She was only twelve years old, but had an old woman's soul. Ignotus loved both his granddaughters equally, but Iolanthe had always been special to him. When she was born, he began to learn what it feels to be a grandfather, what kind of love, a grandparent was capable of feeling.
"God bless you," he greeted.
Iolanthe didn't say anything but walked straight over to her grandfather and sat down on the floor next to him.
"You shouldn't sit here alone," she said in a strict tone that reminded him of his late wife.
"Thank you, my dear," he whispered. "I'm glad that you are here to keep your old grandfather company."
He reached down and patted her gently on the shoulder. "Are your parents still out?"
She nodded. "And Alethia is sleeping, so I thought I should see how you are doing."
Ignotus nodded and looked toward the fire. Since his wife died, he had felt very lonely. There were moments where he would wake up at night and reach out to her side of the bed only to grabs air or a cold sheet.
He moved his glance down to Iolanthe. She was a good child. She had respect for her family and their history, but she didn't let it cloud her judgement towards muggles. She didn't think that being a witch made her better than muggles. Ignotus remembered one time, she had asked why muggles couldn't do magic. Ignotus had then explained that muggles just weren't born to wield magic. But he made it clear for Iolanthe that it didn't mean that the muggles were sick or anything, just different. And that different didn't mean dangerous.
Perhaps, he had said, the world needs people that can't do magic. Because that means they have to come up with new ways to do thing, we would have use magic for. New ways that might do good both for muggles and wizards.
Ignotus felt that it would be good for wizards and witches to learn how to do things without magic. Or else they could become lazy and self-absorbed.
Magic was a gift – but not everyone knew how to use it in a responsible way. Many took it for granted.
He lay his hand on his granddaughter's head. One day she might inherit the cloak. Hopefully she would understand the importance of keeping it a secret, when the time came.
Iolanthe might have an old woman's soul, but there was still so much she needed to learn. Although he wasn't worried for her. He knew that she would grow up to do great things. Even if he wouldn't be around to see it.
Ignotus was not afraid of death. But he wasn't going to have the kind of death his brothers had.
Antioch who had been brutally taken away.
Cadmus who just took death as an escape from accepting things as they were.
No, he knew that his death would be a completion of his long journey, that had started since he was born.
He would depart from this life in peace.