Callandra Bella Druella Lestrange swore as she tripped over a paving slab and fell flat on her face
Callandra Bella Druella Lestrange swore as she tripped over a paving slab and fell flat on her face.
This was ALL she needed.
Could this day get any worse?
"Hiya, need a hand?" Callandra looked up and their in front of her was a muggle boy, holding out his hand.
Answer to previous question: yes this day could get a lot worse.
Callandra pulled herself up on her own and glared at the boy who was looking at her curiously,
"Go away," she snarled then attempted to push past him; only to trip over the bottom of her robes in the attempt and fall back on her face again.
This was too much and Callandra felt the tears flowing down her cheeks as the stinging pain in her knee drew her attention.
Callandra sat up and wiped her tears away angrily.
She was a Lestrange and Lestrange didn't cry.
The tears came faster and before she knew it she felt someone lift her up off the road,
"Come on, my house is just round the corner. Mum will know what to do." It was the boy again who seemed completely unfazed by her earlier attitude and seemed determined to help her regardless of her attitude.
"I…I've got to…g…get home," she mumbled while wiping at the tears again.
They started walking but Callandra cried out and would have gone down again had the muggle boy not grabbed her,
"My ankle," Callandra gasped.
"Might be twisted. Come on, lean on me. We're nearly there." Callandra tried to think up a hundred nasty retorts but the pain in her ankle jolted her back to reality and she realised that she needed his help as common sense told her that she couldn't make it back to the manor on her own.
Cursing she leaned against him and allowed him to support her to a smallish homey-looking cottage round the corner with a white picket fence round the perimeter and ivy growing up the stone walls.
It was exactly like a story book cottage right down to the oak door with a small quaint porch over the door.
The boy took her indoors just as the clouds broke and the rain poured down.
Great! How am I going to get home now?
"Sit down here." The boy helped her into a cosy cheery yellow armchair then went through an archway yelling for his mum.
Callandra took the time to look around.
The room wasn't huge with a stone fireplace, already lit, taking up most of one wall, the stairs right next to the front door. Along the yellow wallpapered walls were fixed photographs of a man, woman and four children.
Next to the armchair was a sofa which looked equally as comfy and straight in front of her was a silver box with a glass screen.
A huge cream rug was on the floor and by the wooden archway that supposedly led to another room was a small bookcase.
Callandra, for lack of anything better to do, looked at a few of the titles,
Whiteout: Ken Follett
The phone book…What the hell was a phone and why would you need a book on it?
A giant Slice of Horrid Henry…what?
Dream Catcher: Stephen King
A dummies guide to Computers...what in Merlins name was a computer
All and in it was a very homey warm place, even if Callandra didn't understand half of the blasted contraptions in the room, which contrasted greatly to the large archaic coolness of the drawing room in Lestrange Manor. That was where she had to be. Her father would kill her if he found out she had been in a muggle dwelling.
On that cheery thought she got up to go, just as a small motherly looking women with frizzy greying hair in a flowery apron came bustling in with the muggle boy behind her and a small toddler bringing up the rear.
"…twisted ankle, mum…"
"Yes, yes." The woman turned to Callandra and forced her back down, lifting her swollen ankle tenderly and placing it on a footstool, "Is that better dear?" Tears sprung to her eyes again at the unexpected kindness but she quickly fought them and nodded wordlessly. What was wrong with her?
The lady was applying some cream onto her ankle and examining it closely,
"Yes, yes: a twisted ankle but I'm sure you'll be alright by tomorrow." The lady glanced out into the storm, "Where do you live dear?" the lady asked.
"Oh em, outside the village," Callandra muttered.
The lady sighed.
"We'll have to wait until the storm dies down before we can take you home."
"T…Take me home?" Callandra gasped; horrible images of torture and death coming to mind if there people even came close to Lestrange Manor,
"Yes dear. You won't be able to walk on that ankle for another week or so, and walking home is quite out of the question." The lady reminded Callandra of a mother hen and she felt suddenly warm towards her.
Then she smacked herself mentally.
This was a muggle. A MUGGLE! Lestrange's did not feel warmth towards muggles. Muggles were filth, her dad always said, and something to be avoided unless you were ridding the world of them.
Though this woman had shown her nothing but kindness…
Stop it! Stop it!
"I really need to get home," Callandra blurted out.
"I understand dear but with the rain like this the roads with be impossible so I'm sorry but no." She looked at Callandra thoughtfully, "Do you have anyone you could stay with in the village for the night." Callandra shook her head, "Well then, I suppose you will just have to stay with us…"
"But…But I don't even know you. I could be a serial killer for all you know," she snapped, thinking of her parents.
The lady smiled,
"I highly doubt that dear. The rain will have passed by tomorrow and you'll be able to go home then. I'm sure your parents won't mind once we explain it to them."
Callandra held back a snort of disbelief before bringing up another problem,
"We haven't even been introduced…"
"Well that is easily remedied. I'm Claire Brown; this is my son Daniel and my youngest daughter Rosie. My husbands name is Karl and I have twin sons called James and Theodore…." Theodore? Oh crap, weren't the Nott's coming over to dinner tonight.
Callandra had been betrothed to Theodore Nott since birth and their parents expected them to be married by Christmas despite her being only seventeen, and now Mr Nott and Theodore were coming over tonight to finalize the betrothal papers.
Honestly, could this day get any worse?
The back door flew open and a tall man with broad shoulders, receding brown hair and an open honest face came in, soaked with two identical teenage twins who looked to be about fourteen with brown hair and deep blue eyes.
"This is my husband Karl and my twins. Everyone this is, erm…" she looked at Callandra worriedly, suddenly realising that she hadn't grasped her name.
Feeling incredibly moody and thinking about stunning all of them just to get out and apparate back to the manor, but deciding against this as she was hungry and the smells coming from the kitchen smelt as good as any Hogwarts meal, she muttered,
"Callandra Lestrange." If any of the family found her name odd they hid it well.
"Why are you dressed up for Halloween? Halloween was ages ago," the smallest girl asked with the embarrassing honesty of a child.
The family members looked away, all red in the face while Callandra realised that she was still wearing her wet robes while they were all in muggle gear. The idea of drying herself off with magic was quickly dismissed as she didn't want to use magic in front of a bunch of muggles.
"I'm sure Callie can wear whatever she wants," Daniel said to his younger sister.
"Yes and while we are about that you should change dear before you catch a cold, I'm sure I have something that will fit."
An hour later Callie was washed, dressed in some old muggle clothes, fed and sitting in front of the silver box with the rest of the family feeling drowsy.
The Silver box, which she was secretly fascinated by, was showing a muggle game which team players, eleven players on each team, kicking a ball around trying to get it into the net.
Callandra much preferred Quidditch.
"Do you like football Callie?" Daniel asked,
"Don't know much about it," she answered honestly. Daniel then went into a long and tedious monologue about all the different type of players, the rules, who the managers were as well as the whole boring history of football.
Callandra vowed never to take for granted her broom or Quidditch again.
"Bed time!" Claire announced. It was like a bomb had gone off; all four children started protesting at once
"Mum we're fourteen…"
"Too old for bedtimes."
"Rosie has bedtimes we don't."
"I'm Seventeen!"
"Mummy, I'm not tired."
"It's the holidays!"
Callandra stared at the open mutiny with amusement and fascination. She would never have dared speak to her parents like this, let alone arguing with them.
Claire gave them a look and they all fell silent.
"It is past ten o clock and you all need a good nights sleep." Callandra felt a pang in her heart; her own mother, although absent for fourteen years of her life, had never seemed to care about her like that.
All four children and Callandra went upstairs (Callandra had magically healed her ankle in the bathroom and was glad of the overly large pyjama bottoms which hid the evidence).
Callandra was led to a box room which had a single bed and a wardrobe.
"Sleep well dear," Claire said, tucking Callandra up, "We'll wake you tomorrow." Callie nodded before turning on her side and hearing the door close.
Her last thought before sleep claimed her was that maybe muggles weren't as bad as her father and uncle made them out to be and on that thought what would they say if they knew where she was?
Callandra woke up to the sound of rainfall. Glancing outside the window she saw it was still dark. The rain had thinned to a drizzle and the worst of the storm seemed to have passed.
It was then that she made her decision.
Slipping silently out of bed she grabbed her robes and dried the off with a simple drying charm before slipping them on and, deciding that maybe it would be for the best, scribbling a note explaining, vaguely, why she had to leave and thanking the family for their hospitality.
Leaving it on the bedside table she slipped out of the door and down the stairs to the front door.
Daniel lay in bed listening to the pit-a-patter of raindrops on the roof thinking about the mysterious girl in the spare bedroom.
Despite his questions about her family and school and stuff at dinner last night she had hardly answered, preferring to sit there in silence and listening to the conversation around her in an almost wistful way.
What also intrigued him was her fascination with the TV. When his dad had turned it on she had seemed amazed, almost as if she had never seen one before.
She was a mystery alright and a damn attractive mystery as well: tall with long dark wavy hair and heavy lidded dark blue eyes she reminded him of something from a fantasy novel.
And her clothes: he wasn't one to be prejudiced but her clothes had seemed rather…archaic.
This just added to the mystery; one he was determined to figure out.
He closed his eyes in an attempt to go to sleep but the image of the strikingly beautiful girl kept on swimming to the forefront of her mind; those deep blue eyes he could swim around in forever.
Daniel opened his eyes again and wondered weather he should go check on her.
Somehow he knew she wouldn't like that as she struck him as liking her own privacy but she had seemed…scared as she had come upstairs.
Daniel puckered his lips out in thought,
The valiant Daniel Brown got upth from his chamber and walked stealthily across the heavily carpeted landing to watch the beautiful, virginal hearted, maiden Callandra sleep in her chamber. He paused at the threshold; though her chaperone wasn't far away his conscience felt it wrong to corrupt her enchanting innocence with his prying eyes…
Ah, sod it!
Daniel got up and padded softly towards the door and onto the landing and, making sure to keep silent, walked over to Callandra's door which was slightly ajar.
Glancing in, he stopped in shock.
The room was empty.
Daniel had always had pin-prick ears and it was probably this that allowed him to hear the soft click of the downstairs door closing.
Cursing silently to himself he swept downstairs and, grabbing his anorak from the peg and slipping his crocks on he opened the door and slipped into the night.
Callandra stood on the deserted sidewalk, ready to apparate back home.
Turning on the spot and feeling the darkness closing in…hold on, something was wrong.
Someone was with her! She tried to shake the person off but it held tight and the next thing she knew she was standing in the surrounding forest of Lestrange manor which was situated in a large clearing.
Built in stone Lestrange Manor was of an architectural brilliance.
It had no order to it as each generation liked to add another part so it was like a maze of different sized buildings, each depicting the different era it had been built.
The grounds were sprawling and housed plants of the muggle variety and the wizard variety.
At the back the large hoops of a Quidditch pitch could just be seen minus the stands that Hogwarts had.
"Bloody Hell!" Callandra looked down and realised why apparating here had been different and slightly difficult; Daniel had decided to grab hold of her and she had now brought him to possibly the most dangerous place there could be for him.
Lying on his back after the most uncomfortable experience of his life on a forest floor Daniel looked up at a Manor House which would have placed the Queen herself to shame.
"Bloody Hell!" was all he could say and it was then that he realised Callie was with him and was now glaring at him in a way which reminded him of his mother when she was told that she was a smoothing mother by the woman next door.
"You live here?" he asked. She didn't answer, only crouched down next to him and hissed,
"What the hell do you think your doing?"
"What do you mean?" he snapped back, annoyed by her attitude but even more annoyed with himself as he struggled not to get lost in her eyes.
"Why did you come with me?"
"You were running off. What else could I do?"
"Left me alone, that's what. You can't be here."
He struggled up so he was now half sitting while leaning on one elbow
"And why not?" he asked defensively, "We invited you into our home the least you could do is invite us back, or at least tell us when you're running off."
Callandra stared at him, realising that he honestly had no idea of the danger he was in.
"I left a note," she finally hissed, wondering to herself how Daniel, a muggle, had got past the many anti-muggle wards around this place.
Daniel took her hand and she realised, looking down and seeing the Lestrange heir ring that she wore, that she had brought him here when they apparated.
The wearer of the ring could bring anyone safely through the wards; muggle or not and Callie was surprised to feel a little bit guilty for what she had done,
"Come on, I'm taking you back. You're not safe here." Dragging Daniel up, she was about to apparate when a yell stopped her.
"Who's there?" The voice was cold and cruel though with a cultured accent.
Daniel felt Callandra stiffen in the dark before she pushed him to some bushes,
"Stay there," she snapped before walking into the clearing,
"It's me uncle."
Rabastan Lestrange stared out of his window down at his errant niece.
"Where were you tonight?" he snapped down.
"I'm really sorry uncle, I was going for a run in the village when I fell and banged my head. I woke up only a few minuets ago and apparated back."
Daniel, from his place in the bushes, wondered why she didn't just tell him the truth. Surely he wouldn't mind? And what did apparated mean?
He next words, however, had Daniel frozen in shock,
"Get in now girl; you've shamed the family no end with your antics tonight and I hope for your sake your father buys your ridiculous story because you know exactly how he is." Daniel saw Callie bow her head,
"Yes uncle." Although it was said loudly enough for Rabastan to hear her tone reminded Daniel of the Elizabethan times when woman were expected to obey their men without question.
"Good! Now come in and wait in the drawing room while I go get your dad."
The window slammed shut and suddenly Callie was above him, yanking him up.
"Keep to the woods and follow this trail round the back of the house where you'll find the summer house. Hide in there and I'll come to get you when it's safe! Be quiet and don't let anyone know you're here!" And without another word she sped off towards the large black front door.
Daniel did as she said and found a small summer house situated quite far away from the main building.
Opening the door he slipped in silently, closing the door behind him and sliding down on the floor under a large window.
As it was dark Daniel couldn't see anything but the scream which came from the house pierced the night like a knife.
Resisting the urge to run into the main house he curled up on the floor in a corner; a thousand questions buzzing through his mind about how he had got here; the strange house; why Callie, who had seemed so confident in the presence of his family, seemed to become a submissive kitten at the sound of her uncle's voice.
Also the place had a wired aura about it, something that both intrigued him and frightened him at the same time.
Also the screams that were emitting from the house; he had no idea how he knew it was Callie but he did and somehow his instinct, coupled with the panic in Callie's voice when she told him to come here, made him stay put.
And why had she lied? And why had her uncle talked about shaming the family? All she had done was stay away because of circumstances that she couldn't prevent.
With these uneasy thoughts Daniel fell into an uneasy sleep.
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