Word spreads fast when there is a panic, sometimes is just out right amazing how rumors can spread in no time at all. When utters began to float around about the Dark Lord's return, every magical being, pure or muggle, had fear lace through their veins at the speed of light. It said so in the paper, Minister of Magic has witnessed the return of You-Know-Who. He's Back. Just by reading those words, Elena Roberts very being went stiff. She knew about You-Know-Who, everyone did but the people who knew the most are the very people he targeted.
Muggle-borns.
Elena was born to non-magic parents in Rochester, New York. Her parents were both loving and hardworking Lawyers but when Elena's magical abilities began to form at age eight, to say they were concerned was an understatement. Her parents were Christian; went to church every Wednesday and Sunday, participated in the gatherings and fundraisers. Hell her father even stepped in as Pastor when their regular got pneumonia. They saw her magic as the work of the Devil that they even had her Baptized a second time and even had the church elders pray over her.
When her powers showed no sign of being cured, her parents kept their distance. They loved her dearly but they loved her from afar, only giving her a two second hug at least before side stepping from her. Her mother even carried Holy Water in her purse and whenever Elena tested her abilities, her mother would spray her and chant the Lord's Prayer until the poor girl was in tears.
That was her life for the most part of three years until a letter addressed to her came in the mail. It was a beautiful letter, thick folded parchment with a deep red colored wax seal that bore a coat of arms symbol of a badger, eagle, lion and snake. She was ecstatic that there were others out there like her and even more so that there was a school for her to attend. As she tore into her first letter, her father snatched it from her hands, read Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry then tossed the lit fire burner on the stove where he mother was cooking.
"No daughter of mine will attend a school for the wicked." He seethed at her before walking away, the eleven year old with tears falling from her eyes stood and watched as her ticket to freedom was scorched away.
It didn't end there though. From that day forward, letter after letter would arrive, flooding her mail box or shoot from under the door or crash through the window. They filled up her home and no matter how many her parents destroyed, more would show up with no ending in sight.
Finally they let her open one; finally they had given up.
Elena must have read that letter a million times over, not wanting to believe that she had been selected to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was a witch and she was going to learn how to be one. The plane ride to London was long but the whole flight she read her letter and kept it close to her heart as happiness filled her soul, her parents joined her not looking thrilled but to see their child so happy they just couldn't deny her anymore. Even if their faith rejected the notion, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts had accepted their child for who she is, for who God made her to be and they would support her.
That was so many years ago. She attended Hogwarts for seven years before graduating and becoming a Seeker for an American Quidditch team. She played the sport all through school, becoming a seeker in year three and playing ever since. She won her Ravenclaw team many games throughout her years at school and had wanted to do it professionally. That's where she met her husband, Ivan Krikot, a Pure Blood Keeper for the Bulgarian team. She had played against them in the Quidditch World Cup, lost against them and then they began dating right after.
After three years of dating, he had asked her to marry him and here she was now. Elena sighed and rubbed her swollen belly as she flipped the paper to where the headline was facing the table top and leaned back in her chair. She had taken a three year retirement from Seeking when she became pregnant. Ivan had to retire completely after taking a fall from his broomstick when a bludger crashed into his hip a few months ago. He fell into a depression that not even the anxious awaiting day of their daughter's arrival brought him happiness. She was only two more months away and he acted as though it was only a mediocre celebration. The thought of being first time parents brought him no joy.
This on top of the newspaper headline was too much for her slowly forming family that it brought along a migraine.
Even though Ivan's accident was four months ago, he could hobble around with the use of a cane but when he did manage to get himself walking, he would leave the house no doubt heading toward the pub down the road a short ways. There he would sit, drink and merry with a friend he speaks little of while she handled the bills, baby issues and be alone in their home. She hated how she could recount the happiness in her life and then be shoved back into her bleak reality with close to zero happiness. The only happiness she felt was when she felt her daughter kick her spine.
Elena sighed once more while she rubbed her squirming belly before looking at the clock on the wall. It read fifteen past ten and she knew that her husband was supposed to be home hours ago. It was a set schedule with him when he went to the pub, an hour every day; he was never late coming home. Worry dripped into her core as she heaved herself from the chair and waddled to window above the kitchen sink.
A fog had rolled in making the dark night look eerier than it has ever been before, lights from the street lamps set an ominous glow to the darkness making her shiver as she closed the blinds. She wanted Ivan to be home, she hated being by herself. What if she fell? What is something was wrong with the baby? So many situations rolled through her mind it made her nauseas.
Something about this evening didn't feel right. Elena placed a protective hand on her belly as the sound around her began to grow low. It was too quiet in her home. The leaky faucet wasn't dripping; the shutters didn't creak when the wind blew. Elena reached for her wand and slid it into her jeans pocket before lacing her finger together over her protruding bellybutton. She was starting get frightened.
Her mind was jolted when she heard the door slam open forcing her to turn around and see that Ivan was standing there, without the use of his cane and what made her blood run cold was that he had his own wand pointed right at her.
Elena swallowed a lump in her throat. "Ivan? Ivan what are you doing?" Her voice betrayed her as it trembled. She searched his face and saw that his eyes, his beautiful hazel eyes were now clouded over in a milky mist.
Her heart stopped as she took a step back and reached for her own wand.
"I wouldn't do that, Mudblood." He growled as he took a large step forward, kicking the small sitting chair out of his path so there was nothing between them.
"M…Mudblood? Ivan you've never said that to me." Her voice shook, tears gathered in her eyes as she held her belly tighter. This wasn't Ivan. Her Ivan would never say such a word to her; even in his depression he never called her such things.
"I have seen the truth, heard the truth of what you filth are. You have no place amongst the Pure Bloods of this world. You are nothing but a waste of magical potential." Ivan seethed those words through gritted teeth but as Elena's tears fell, she saw that tears were falling from Ivan as well.
No, this was not her Ivan.
"Darling." Elena sniffed and held her hand up. "Ivan this is not you, please whatever is holding your mind." A sob left her throat as she stepped forward. "Please fight it."
Ivan's hand faltered, his wand slowly went to slip out of his fingers before he grasped tighter once more, tears dripping down his chin as his fist shook. Through the bleak mist he could see the outline of his wife, his pregnant wife who he now realized he loved so dear. He saw her hand reaching toward him and he wanted to run to her but that voice, that hissing voice in his mind was telling him to do the unimaginable.
Ivan let a sob leave his lips as he gripped his wand tighter. "Forgive me, my love." His voice was strained and she could see the hazel of his eyes for a brief moment before they were misty once again.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Elena had no time to react, there was no slow motion for her, no life flashing before her eyes as she watched the green light stream from Ivan's wand, crackling through the air and slamming into her chest. Elena's head fell back, eyes dulled and skin grey as she fell to the ground; landing on her back with a sickening thud. Her daughter wriggled and kicked for a few moments before finally her belly went still.
Ivan's eyes cleared of the mist, dizziness wobbling him but when the pain in his hip returned he crumbled to a heap on the floor. He couldn't remember what happened but when he saw his wand in his hand, and Elena on the floor he realized what he had done. His feature contorted into pure agony as a wail escaped his lips, dragging his body toward his wife's and letting another wail echo through his lips once more.
"No!" He cried as he turned Elena's face toward his, her blue eyes dull and lips parted in a small breath. "No! Please No!" He screamed as he stroked her hair then her belly where his child lay still. There he cried over his love, there he wished for death, there he wished he never told that stranger about his family; about his muggle-born wife.
