Notes (important): Welcome to the new Missing a Family Member. I'm so excited to take this adventure with all you avid readers. Any and all input will be welcome and appreciated. ALSO if your a beta I would love to have one :) I hope everyone enjoys and while the store is very different it really isn't from the original idea!
Summary: "Vedui'. Elen sila lumenn omentilmo. Nae saian luume' cormamin lindua ele lle fion." It was a problem and there was a simple solution. "Say goodbye Dursley's."
Warnings: Possible Sexual Scenes, Violence, Inappropriate Language/Humor, Ocassional Dark Themes, Alternate Universe, OOC
"Talking"
:Parselmouth:
'Thoughts'
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any characters/plots/amazingness from the book series.
Missing a Family Member : Prologue
It was a dusky morning morning with a heavy frost and an even heavier silence as a young family walked sedately up a cobblestone pathway from the intricate wrought iron gate they had just passed through. It was a long and tedious walk through an expansive field dotted with the occasional spruce and fir tree of an age that spoke of older times gone and pass. A pellicle of wisdom hung upon the large boughs indolently weighing them in the early morning chill.
The young women of the group nearing her thirties gave a gentle pat to the young girl bundled up tightly before her. Withdrawing her hand she gently brushed a few deep black strands from her face giving way to intelligent round russet eyes set in a pale aristocratic face. Turning her head up and to the side slightly she gave a gentle smile at her husband, who a near foot above her 5'1" statue, returned it causing his catawba colored eyes to brighten several shades to a color close to a shade of french wine. Strands of pale white hair fell around his face and down his figure surpassing even his wife lengthy tumble of hair. Pulled back out of his face with a simple black leather thong.
"Atar, mother will we be here long?" The young girl looked back at her parents causing her black plait to swing slightly. Her plum eyes were mature and flat in her young face, still rounded with the plumpness of childhood. The eyes studied her parents knowing with the way her atar's face didn't change and her mother's tightened the visit could be short or lengthy but the result would still be the same. With a simple hum she once more faced forward noticing they were coming to the end of the long journey up the pathway.
Emerging though a small patch of small manicured trees their destination came fully into view for all members of the small family. It took classical old world and new world charming and blended into a seamless stately manor with an estate any true, noble old world, pure-blood would be satisfied to own. Passing though a simple garden of rock formations and trimmed hedges they reached wide granite steps leading up to a grand set of deep chestnut wood doors.
The young man reached out, his gloved hands, and gave a gave a gentle rap on the door. Stepping back to stand just in front of but between the young woman and girl he awaited patiently for an answer to his knock which came nigh a moment later. Without a squeak or scrap the door opened enough for an older, stately, gentleman dressed in a sharp grey suit with a crest sewn onto the right side of the coat right below the lapel. He gave a flat look to the group opened the door wider, stepped back, and with a small bow waved his from the family to the inside of the manor. "The lord and lady are expecting you in the front withdrawing chamber," he drawled out.
Stepping into the lavish front hall of deep woods, gleaming granite, and grand portraits of exotic lands the family awaited the butler of the home as he pulled the door closed and stepped before them. With a slight wave of his hand he began a brisk walk down the hall heading to furthest door on the left side the family not far behind him.
Stopping shortly, he turned addressing the young woman,"I will announce you. Please await here for a moment miss." Turning once more he pulled the door open slipping in and pulled the door shut behind him with a small snap. It was several moments later that the door swung open fully and the butler stepped out gesturing them in before stepping out and shutting the door once more.
The room was simple in its elegance. With a base of design of grey it had accents of different shades of deep blue, white, and the occasional splash of black. Sitting near the far side of the room in two imposing navy Victorian wing back chairs sat a couple in their sixties who bore a strong resemblance to the young woman and the barest of traces in the child, the most prominent being the almost wild deep black hair.
The woman gently placed her hand upon her daughters back and applied the lightest amount of pressure for her daughter to proceed her and the man. Stepping forward with a sense of expectation and false bravado she gave a small and smooth curtsy to the man and woman sitting before her. "How do you do grandfather, grandmother?," the young girl said in a demure murmur to the stern older man and bored woman before her. With a sharp look and frown he waved his hand to the side indicating for her to step to the side and be silent as her parents stepped up to him after her.
"Good morrow father and mother," the young woman said with a simple curtsy and nod. The young man stepped up next to her and elegantly bowed before them while speaking out elegantly,"'Quel amrun, Heru en Charlus and Arwen en Dorea."
With a frown even deeper then before Charlus spoke,"You may be seated Elladorea and Iston. Child, adjourn to the hall you will be called in a moment. The young couple took a place on the settee before Charlus and Dorea while Iston nodded at his daughter as she looked to him. Giving another small curtsy to her grandparents she stepped outside the room silently shutting the door behind her knowing that this meeting would decide her life. It was a cross road that fate was giving her but she knew not the options the road forked towards and she knew even though there were different possibilities it wasn't yet her time in life to choose which road she would take. So, she would await as patiently as a child of ten years could and know fate was not in her hands, at least not yet.
Standing stiffly outside the withdrawing chambers doors for nigh an hour with the sounds of what she knew was muffled screaming through the thick wood of the door and walls was not the worse thing the young child knew she could be doing but she also knew it was definitely not something she wanted to do. Not for the matter of being so stiff or having to stand so still but to know it was her that the, what had started off as, loud voices that had now escalated to raw screaming between her mother and grandparents was due to her simple existence.
Then it was silent and she knew it would soon be time for her to reenter and began the newest direction in her life. Just as the thought crossed her mind did the door swing slowly open. Greeted by her grandmother face she could tell it had been a emotional and hard row between them and their daughter, her own mother. Her face was stiff and paler then normal her grey while normally cold where slightly red and wet and sparkling with still simmering angry and a growing sadness. She was being waved in and directed to a simple wooden chair that had been brought from elsewhere in the chamber to join the circle of the two chairs and settee.
Sitting down and directing her gaze about the room from her grandmother who sat down to her right in the chair she had previously occupied to her grandfather to her grandmothers right and who was scowling into the simple white brick fireplace to his right. Swinging her sharp gaze over to her atar who sat to her left, with an almost inhuman serenity, on the settee with her mother who was sitting stiffly under his arm her eyes closed and lines of tension on her forehead and around her eyes.
While knowing it was rude of her to speak up without being address she knew no one would start this conversation without the slightest of pushes. She began,"I beg not for pardon but I wish to know, what will become of me?" and with that all adults in the rooms turned to her with no malice but no sympathy either. There was only anger for the opposite adult which twisted with indecision and an encompassing sadness that she didn't quite understand from her grandparents but was clear with her mother.
"You will not be attending school as is tradition with the family even though you don't carry the family name it was expected that you would go when of age," her grandmother began halting and yet filled with an elegance only a rigorously trained pure-blood could accomplish in the more dire of moments. "It has been decided that you will," and here she paused to shoot a glance to her parents but more specifically firmly directed at her atar,"the school of your fathers' choosing. While you are away for the time it will take for you to finish your schooling your mother, Elladorea, will be staying at home as she should be."
"Very well grandmother," she replied with a nod of her head. "Has it been decided upon when atar and I will be leaving for my schooling?"
"Tonight," Charlus finally interjected into the conversation, "after dinner has been taken and your goodbyes have been completed."
"I see," she could only say reply quietly head turned down towards the carpet to hid the fear the she knew would be clear on her face. She studied the intricate details and designs in the thick Persian rug for a moment before looking back to her grandfathers eyes. "Thank you for informing me."
It was now several hours past the suns zenith and while the family of three had spent their time in the withdrawing room, mostly in quite contemplation about what the future held for them, it was then that they truly realized that they would not know when they would once again be together again for brief moments or for forever. Sitting huddle on the settee which could truly only comfortably fit two average sized adults it was more then cramped but it was a secondary concern and they held each other tightly awaiting to them what could constitute as near a death sentence. So it came understandably which they found themselves in varying degrees of shock when a loud knock came at the withdrawing chambers door and it opened a moment later to reveal the butler who had attended to them that very morning announcing that dinner was ready and that they will be joining the lord, lady, heir, and the heir fiancee in the formal family dinning room. Gathering their wits the family soothed and readied themselves as they followed the butler to what the child felt was their execution of sorts.
Arriving at the dinning room revealed all other dinner guests had arrived and were seated around the large table but when compared to the formal dinning room, for what was assumed for dinner parties, they passed though right before this one came off as friendly and cozy even. The young woman following the butler led her little family into the simple but posh room her daughter nearly on her heels without being obnoxious or improper. It was at this time the young man, who looked just out of his teens, and was conversing with a pretty young women of similar age to his right looked up towards the doors with eyes a shade bluer then her mothers own russet eyes giving his a look of hazel behind thinly framed square glassed.
The child looked on with veiled curiosity at the him as her atar stood behind her a large comforting hand laid upon her right shoulder. With a look of surprise and a fleeting look of a deep hurt and betrayal the man fresh out of his teens stood and approached his mother with a weary grin. Stopping but a few scant feet from the young woman he spread his arms and his grin shifted from weary to hopeful.
"Hello Elladorea. It's been awhile, hasn't it Ella? Eh, Big sister?" and with that said she smiled back and approached to give a hug that was but moments but felt as if it was a lifetime. "Yes it has brother dear. It hurts me to say that it's been over a decade but let me introduce to you some special people to me," she turned waving the child and man forward,"this dear brother is my husband, Iston, and my daughter, Estel. I'm sorry that you are only now getting to meet them and it will only be for tonight as they will be leaving on a long journey but I would be ever so happy if you would be kind enough to spend time with us all when they return."
"I would be more then happy to," he replied his hazel eyes flashing with delight and a dimple showing through on his right cheek his smile was so wide. "Come on time to sit and get our grub on!"
The sun was sinking on the horizon turning the sky a myriad of colors more beautiful then the last. It was cast long shadow made even longer by the ancient trees dotting the landscape of the manors expanse of land. Mixed into those shadow the small family of three stood quietly saying their tearful goodbyes and exchanging gentle hugs and murmurs of reassurance to one another.
It was as the sun sank down fully read for a night of rest on this part of the land that the man and child walked through the wrought iron gate and as a gentle breeze blew up a small patch of dust and leaves they were gone. Little know that the woman who stood there for near an hour longer with silent streams of tears running down her face it was to be there last time to truly see one another.
Language Notes:
Atar- Father
'Quel amrun- Good Morning
Heru en(nonfamiliar)- Lord
Arwen en(nonfamiliar)- Lady
Iston- Wise One
Estel- Hope
