Pain's Mother
So many eyes. Solely resting on her. Little eyes – doe eyes. The light of curiosity shining in them was too stubborn, too intense to be easily diminished by the dim lighting provided by lonely fire basins hanging from the stony walls of the Great Hall. She wished she could pulverize them, all of them, and, after the task was done, slink into the shadows. Then run. Run fast. And far, far away.
Galathea Carrow wasn't paranoid. Just cautious. Or so she kept telling herself. But then again, if she indeed was cautious, why was she here?
Suddenly the chair in which she was sitting seemed to big for her slim figure, the smooth mahogany far too hard. She didn't belong here, she knew. The students, apparently, did, too, for she was currently exposed to numerous stares they didn't even try to hide.
She responded with an icy glare, an icy glare directed at those blue, green, brown doe eyes– little doe eyes, which were immediately averted by their owners, ashamed – or angry? – they had been caught watching.
Galathea's eyes were brown, the colour of dark, mildy bitter chocolate. Her ability to let that usually tasty and tender candy turn into something dangerous, deadly even, hadn't faltered with age, she noticed, only momentarily satisfied before she was pulled out of her thoughts, back into the far from pleasant reality.
"Exciting, isn't it, mother? It will be so much fun having you around."
Nails dug into the pale, aged skin of her left hand resting in her lap, and it weren't her own. As Galathea looked up, she saw madness dancing a waltz in her daughter's eyes.
She involuntarily wondered when exactly in time they had lost their spark of innocence.
She wasn't as naive as to dismiss the possibility of it being her own work. Galathea had held Alecto, at the time a screaming toddler, in her sweaty arms, still weak from having gone through labour mere moments ago. She had given her her breast when little Alecto was hungry, had watched her grow and learn as a toddler, had comforted her when older Amycus had made her scream and cry again.
And she also had left.
Galathea hadn't regretted it at the time. Certainly, it had nearly... killed her to part from her children, her only blood – but she hadn't been able to live with a Death Eater, let alone be the wife of one. When Arenius had told her, she had stood there, completely paralyzed, before slapping him soundly. He hadn't let that go without proper payback, of course. She had left the house that night with some of her belongings before he had been able to notice anything, her cheek a dark shade of violet and still burning, and had never come back.
She hadn't kissed Alecto and Amycus on the forehead while they were sound asleep before leaving like in all the stories – Galathea had never been one for clichés –, but not out of lack of care, or love. On the contrary – she had loved them too much, and she had feared the sight of them slumbering, being at peace for once, would be the death of her plan. In the end, her youthful mind had idly placed ambition over family.
Now she couldn't believe how careless she had been with leaving her children to fight for themselves under the eye of that... animal of a husband. The malicious, almost hungry glint in Alecto's blue orbs proved that the result was more than disastrous. The sight made whatever was left of Galathea's heart shatter.
She would cast a Cruciatus on Arenius now, if he still had been alive. Then again, it was better he wasn't. In that state, he wouldn't be able to inflict any more damage.
Galathea thought it was only a small consolation, if any at all.
The shock must have been visible in her eyes as a stinging sensation spread through her hand, and Alecto turned away from her mother, silently cackling while removing her nails.
The former didn't notice the bits of blood on the tips of her fingernails, but the satisfaction was there all the same.
Everything and everyone belongs to Miss Rowling but my Galathea. Now that this is clear, I would like to thank you for reading this! This is unbeta-ed, and I'm still unsure whether I should continue this. I'm extremely crappy when it comes to regular updates. Let me know what you think if you can spare some time for reviewing.