disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, just Arabella. Hope you like this chapter!
Daniél Anastas
To say Daniél was excited would be an understatement. He was ecstatic and over the moon to meet his great-granddaughter. He wondered for a week what she was like and whether she was like him or Callidora, or maybe even Stefanos or Leon. Maybe she was another Isaak, though there was a small part of him that hoped not. But he made peace with Isaak.
He forgave Isaak, but felt remorse for Leon seeing them like that all those years. His boy, they mascaraed him in that pub, and that disease took away his oldest. He doesn't know how Isaak died, but he was gone as well.
This girl could be his last chance at a family.
Arabella Black was sitting right across from Daniél Anastas in his messy flat. She had brought over some tea and biscuits and they said nothing to each other for a while. Harry said he had to go somewhere and wished her the best of luck, and Arabella appreciated that. This was something she had to do alone.
'Is it a girl or a boy?' Daniél asked after sometime.
'A boy,' replied Arabella. 'Found out a couple weeks ago.'
'Oh, a boy,' said Daniél, smiling at her. 'That's nice. Me and Callie – Callidora, your great-grandmother – had three ourselves. Let me see if I can find a picture.'
He then got up and slowly shuffled into the living room. Arabella got up and followed. Daniél was shifting around some old newspapers and many objects in the room before finding a box marked: W.S. He opened the lid and said, 'Ahh…' and then turned to Arabella, holding a picture towards her.
'This is me, and that's Callidora.' It was their wedding picture. They were smiling at the camera, though Callidora's seemed more genuine than Daniél's, which seemed arrogant. 'This was our wedding day, and this is our boys.'
He held up another picture towards her. It was a picture of three boys lined up, each wearing suits. The oldest was smiling towards the camera and looked like Daniél. The second one, the old in the middle, wasn't smile, but stood up straight with a slight frown and he looked a bit like Callidora. The youngest was certainly not happy. He scowled at the camera, which made Arabella smile. He looked about three and he could already make a face like that.
'That's Stefanos,' said Daniél, point to the oldest one with the smile. 'He's the oldest. Then there's Isaak, and Leon, my youngest.'
'That's… nice,' said Arabella uncertainly with a smile.
'And this is one of Callie with the boys.' Leon was sitting on Callidora's lap with Stefanos and Isaak on either side of her. They were all dressed formally with Leon behaving much better than the last photo.
'Would you like to know about them?' Daniél asked, his old face growing with eagerness.
'Um, sure,' said Arabella, nodding. She took a seat on the couch with the pictures in her hands while Daniél slowly settled into his armchair.
'Well, Stefanos was the oldest,' began Daniél. 'He was born about a year after me and Callidora got married. She was very happy that day, mostly because he wasn't born with that disease. About two years later, Isaak came along and… there were complications, of course, but he came out alright in the end. He looked exactly like Callidora and her brother, Kain. Not much of me in there. Then came Leon, who was kicking and screaming the moment he was born.
'Callidora was always a very good mother, and better at being a parent than me. She was a very good person. Kind, sweet, caring… she saved a person's life once. Pushed them away when a car was hurdling towards that person, but that killed her in the end. That… disease killed her in the end. Leon was only three when she died, Stefanos was around seven. They barely remembered her when it happened.
'Then a couple years later, that disease took my boy away.' Daniél sniffled. 'He was playing with Leon and Isaak in our backyard, and he just… right there in front of his brothers. I never forgave myself for not checking up on him sooner. I never would have thought that… Stefanos would get the disease in the end. He was a good boy. He may have looked like me, but had all of Callie's mannerisms.'
'But what about Isaak?' asked Arabella.
Daniél pursed his lips. 'Isaak… he was challenging. Kain was his middle name, did you know? After Callie's brother. He died of the same disease when he was a child as well. But Isaak… he was… my son was… we could have gotten along better. I stopped loving the boy long before Stefanos died. I stopped loving him when Callidora died. He looked exactly like her. Same dark blonde hair and same shade of brown eyes. He was the resilient one of the bunch. Leon liked to create trouble, but Isaak was strong and spirited and he had nerve. That's why he was in Gryffindor, I suppose. I was in Slytherin, myself, as well as Leon. Callidora was a Hufflepuff to the bone. We're all half-blood, if you wanted to know.'
'What… what did you do to Isaak?' asked Arabella. He didn't talk about Isaak with the same tone as the other two boys. There was something to it, Arabella was sure, but was afraid of finding out.
'He… he didn't live up to his expectations,' said Daniél, looking very remorseful. 'I was hard on the boy. I was stern with him. I hit him and screamed at him… almost every day. I never… I never thought it would make him hate me.'
Arabella's eyes grew wider. 'You hit your son? Why? Why would you do such a thing?'
Daniél sighed. 'I don't know myself. It just… it was something that happened to me. He wouldn't listen to me. He had to always talk back and pick fights with me. He wouldn't just shut up and listen to me.'
'And… and you thought hitting him was the right thing to do?'
'Until he was fifteen,' said Daniél Anastas. 'We were arguing about something thing or another. I… slapped him and he punched me back. Cracked my nose right here,' he pointed to the bridge. 'He hit me back and then left the house immediately after that.'
Arabella was speechless.
'He moved in with his friends, Matty or Muddy or something,' continued Daniél. 'Graduated from Hogwarts and never asked me for a cent ever again. He tried to get Leon to go with him, but Leon was a good boy, he was my boy. He didn't want to leave me, but he did go and visit Isaak all the time with that friend of his.'
'How – how did Leon die?' One more thing and she was done.
'Bar fight,' said Daniél shortly with a frown. 'He got into a fight with a man named Zakharius something. I have the news article here somewhere. He's still alive, rotting in Shotts.'
'Shotts?' asked Arabella. 'Did you say Shotts?'
'Yes,' said Daniél. He was looking at the wall, crackling his fingers while doing so. 'Isaak came to see me after that. He yelled at me and then left. Never saw him again after that.' He continued to stare at the wall for a while, and then he turned to Arabella with a feeble, old smile. 'Enough about that now, tell me about yourself.'
He leaned forward to touch Arabella's hand, but she retracted away from him. 'Don't you dare touch me,' she snarled. She jolted up from her seat and nearly ran towards the door.
'Wait,' called Daniél Anastas. 'I – I don't understand. Please come back.'
Arabella rounded off on the old man, not caring about the hopeless expression on his face at all. 'You abused your son and you thought it was right, why? Did he remind you too much of Callidora? Did he voice out his opinions too much? He just wouldn't listen to you and you now feel remorse for what you did. Why did you tell me all of this? Did you want my sympathy?'
Arabella turned away to walk out the door, but then Daniél said, 'He should have died a long time ago.'
Her hand froze on the door knob and she turned back to him. 'What?'
'It was Isaak who should have died instead of Stefanos. Everything would have been so much better if Stefanos was alive. My son should have never died at all.'
Arabella shook her head. 'Isaak was your son, and you shouldn't have treated him like he was worth less.' She huffed when mandrake gave a particularly hard kick. 'Callidora would be turning in her grave right now. I don't ever want to see you again.' She then looked around the tiny and cramped flat. 'You're all alone. No wife, no kids, no family and you deserve it. You deserve to die alone. I hope I never see you again.'
Arabella opened the door, but then Daniél said, 'You're exactly like Isaak,' in a tone of hatred and disgust.
'Good,' snapped Arabella. 'I hope I'm exactly like him. He's a better man than you will ever be and he raised an amazing daughter that sacrificed her life for her child. Something you will never do for him.'
Still clutching the pictures in her hands, Arabella walked out of the flat and slammed the door behind her. She looked at the pictures in her hands. She ripped the wedding photo in half, tossed the one with Daniél on it and tucked Callidora and the others two pictures in her jeans. She turned into a dark alleyway and apparated back to her house in Godric's Hollow.
Harry was inside, making her a sandwich. He smiled when he saw her and handed her the plate, but she kept scowling at him and that made him worried. She was just starting to become alright with the whole Sirius situation, and for something else to make her blood boil, well, he had to get ready.
'Next time you try to do something nice, don't,' said Arabella, taking a big bite of the sandwich and chewing with an angry look on her face. 'That guy – Daniél Anastas – he hit Isaak for years and he thought it was the right thing to do. He thought hitting his kid was alright, that it was perfectly fine because he lost his wife and his oldest, so naturally he turned to abusing his son.' She took a deep breath when mandrake kicked against her bladder, making her want to piss. 'I have to go to the bathroom, but I never want to hear that person's name ever again.'
She left the room with a huff, leaving Harry who was staring at her wake in slight confusion. When all the words registered to him, Harry sat down on the couch with a sigh, wondering if he could do anything right now that wouldn't make her mad at him anymore.
Dinner was a quite affair for the both of them. Arabella was still fuming over what happened as she stabbed the chicken while Harry did not know what to say.
'He seemed like a nice person,' said Harry.
'He's old and senile,' snapped Arabella. 'If he has no remorse for what he did, then he's not a nice person at all. Children… you're not supposed to treat them like that.' She shook her head. 'I won't.'
The room was dark, no light, and Daniél Anastas stared at the empty vase in front of him. Callidora bought it for their first wedding anniversary, but she was gone. He then looked at the drawing Stefanos and Leon made for him when they were little children, when they were his little kids. Isaak never made anything for him. Isaak was his mother's son through and through. He wept for her when he was a child, though as he grew older, he began to forget about the beauty of his mother.
Daniél then picked up the wand he hasn't touched in decades. He stopped practicing the moment he found out Leon was murdered in a pub. He remembered the day the Muggle police officers told him that. Leon was going to come over that day for breakfast, but was gone the night before.
Isaak was furious with him. He was always mad at his father. He yelled and screamed at Daniél, who was sitting in the dark, staring at the fireplace at the time.
'You're already dead to me, old man.'
The last words Isaak ever said to him.
Daniél didn't watch his last son walk out the door. He didn't turn his head to see Isaak's back. He continued to stare at the fire. After that, no more magical world. He tried to seclude himself as much as possible, but he did get the Prophet and read it every once in a while.
Reading about Isaak's death was odd to him. They despised each other, but Daniél felt nothing. The world didn't stop around him when Isaak died, not like how everything seemed to stand still when Stefanos dropped or when Leon was stabbed in that pub. The girl was like Isaak. She had his temper and his hated for the father. She hated him for something that did not affect her at all. It must have been the gene. She was having a boy after all.
'You're all alone. No wife, no kids, no family and you deserve it. You deserve to die alone. I hope I never see you again.'
Daniél slowly got from the kitchen table, kissed the photo of his wife, and went to the closet in the hallway. He took the shoebox from the corner on top of the shelf and went back to the kitchen. He quickly washed his hands and opened the box, revealing the small .38 special revolver. He was going to kiss Callidora once again. He was going to see his Stefanos and little Leon. He was going to see his family once again.
Daniél Anastas took the safety off, pointed the end on the side of his head, and slowly pulled the trigger.
Arabella didn't cry or weep when she heard that Daniél Anastas killed himself. She looked at the headline in the sidewalk and just kept walking. His death didn't affect her one way or another. But something did bother her though; it was something that he said that got the wheels in her turning. He said something about the man who killed Leon rotting in Shotts.
This distracted her from her work and Grace Chin was not happy.
'Black, what's wrong?' she asked.
'What? Um, nothing,' said Arabella. She straightened up and ruffled through the papers on her desk.
'Something's obviously bothering you,' said Grace. 'Out with it.'
'Nothing – actually, something's been bugging me,' said Arabella. She knew Grace had a brother, Francis, who was a Muggle police officer, and maybe Grace could help her with this. 'Do you know anything about HM Prison Shotts?'
'It's in Scotland, that's all I know,' said Grace, her hands on her hips and she shrugged.
Then someone walked up to Arabella's desk and said, 'It's more than that.'
Arabella jumped in her seat with Grace did not look happy at the new visitor. Tiberius Norwich smiled at the two of them and held out a folder for Grace.
'Mr Thorne wanted me to give this to you. Says it's very important. Now, what's this about Her Majesty's Prison Shotts?'
'Nothing that concerns you,' said Grace.
'Oh, I beg to differ,' said Norwich, his hands behind his back. 'I can tell you everything you need to know and I can tell you the different inmates and their information.'
'No you can't,' said Grace, irritated.
'Oh,' said Norwich, his right eyebrow raised, 'trust me, Ms Chin, I can. If not, I can still find out for you two, if you wish.'
'How's that possible?' asked Arabella.
Norwich gave her a small smile. 'I know people, Arabella Black, and I know the Prison Governor. He's an old friend of my mum's. Convenient, isn't it?'
'Very,' said Grace, her lips pursed as she walked back into her office to look over the file.
Arabella didn't know whether or not to trust Tiberius Norwich. He was a very strange fellow and he crept her out the first day she met him. There was something genuine about his smile, but he seemed very eager to help her.
'What do you want from me?' asked Arabella, narrowing her eyes at him.
'Nothing,' said Norwich, shrugging and shaking his head. 'Maybe have some coffee with me once in a while, not a date of course.'
Arabella was slightly taken back. 'What? You're too good for me?'
Norwich chuckled. 'No, I'm not into date. Don't understand the point of it all. It would be nice to have a friend to talk to once in a while.'
Arabella's face softened. 'Alright then.'
'Fantastic,' said Norwich, clapping his hands together. Arabella looked at them and saw that they were perfectly fine, so why keep them hidden? 'I'll see you at the end of the day then.'
Arabella didn't know what that meant, but sat silently as she watched Norwich walked out of her office. How was he going to find out everything about Shotts in a short amount of time? But he did and Arabella marveled at that man.
Tiberius Norwich came back a couple hours later with three stacks of folders in his hands and dropped them on her desk. He smiled widely at her and said, 'Everything you need to know about the Prison Governor, the staff, and past and present members of the prison itself. Enjoy and I hope to have lunch with you when you are free sometime. I was thinking about the sandwich shop down the street. They make a very delicious bacon sandwich that is to die for.'
He walked away and Arabella gawked at him. Norwich was a very strange young man, very strange indeed, but he produced three stacks of papers for her to go through, and maybe it wouldn't be too bad to have someone like him on her side.
Arabella picked up the last folder, the one she wanted to look through, and flickered through it. Daniél mentioned someone named Zakharius and she kept an eye out for that name, and she found it towards the end with a photo attached to it.
The man had a nasty scowl on his face with something attached to his throat. He was an aged old man, wrinkly olive skin, bald and a foul scar from under his right eye that stretched across his face to the corner of the left side of his lips.
OID#: 00001010511
LAST NAME: Christos
FIRST NAME: Zakharius
MIDDLE NAME: Gabriél
DOB: 02/02/1935
OFFENSE: Citizen Murder – February 1959. Sentencing 15 years without parole; Murder of an officer – August 1964. Sentencing 25 to life – maximum security.
ALERTS: Problems with Authority – Requested To Be Moved By Jones and Swanson Multiple Times.
TRANSFERRED: HM Prison Whitemoor
'What are you doing?' asked Grace behind Arabella.
Arabella jumped up in her seat and the papers became crumpled in her hands. She turned to see a stern look on Grace's face.
'Um, papers,' said Arabella in a small voice.
Grace took the papers from Arabella's hands and frowned at what she was looking at. She then looked up at Arabella and sighed.
'Talk to my brother, Francis,' she said, taking a quill and writing down a number on a scrape piece of paper. 'He works for the West Midlands Police Department. Talk to him and get all of this settled, okay?'
'Um, yeah, sure, thanks.'
Grace gave her a tight smile as she hoisted her bag up and headed off back to her house. Arabella looked at the number and was grateful when Harry suggested a while ago that they should get a phone for the house. It was time to put this behind her.
There was a sandwich shop down the street of the Ministry entrance that Norwich told her about. She was set to have lunch with him soon in the future, she just didn't know when, but she did set one up with Francis Chin.
Arabella got some hot water and a ham and cheese sandwich as she waited for Francis Chin to arrive. She was very early. Her legs were practically jumping up and down as her fingers drummed against the table. Outside, the clouds were grey and rain started to splatter lightly against the windows. Her eyes scanned the small shop. There weren't many people in there, and it didn't seem like a place where someone would meet a cop for information on a criminal. God, that sentence was the strangest thing Arabella has ever thought in recent memory.
There was a ring as the door opened and a man she assumed as Francis Chin walked in. He looked much like his sister, Grace, but taller. He had a nice face to look at, sweet in a way that you could help but smile at. He noticed Arabella immediately and walked over to her. He wasn't wearing the official uniform, but a colourful plaid shirt.
'Arabella Black?' he asked.
'Yes,' said Arabella. 'Please, take a seat.'
Francis Chin took the empty seat across from Arabella on the small circular table. He smiled at her and looked around the shop as well.
'So, what do you want to know?' he asked.
'I – I need to talk to someone in prison, but I need to do it without people watching.'
Francis looked confused. 'What?'
'I'm a – you know – and I don't want other people watching in case we talk about – you know.'
'Yeah, I think I do,' said Francis, though he looked at Arabella as though she was slightly mental. 'What area are you looking at?'
'Whitemoor,' said Arabella.
'Whitemoor?' asked Francis. 'Who are you looking for in there?'
'There's… there's this man named Zakharius Christos, and I – I believe we're related and there's this connection between – I think – this is something I have to do and can't get into because it's complicated and mental.'
'Are you sure you want to go to Whitemoor?' asked Francis. 'I've been there once, nearly pissed myself.'
'I can take it,' said Arabella.
Francis didn't look impressed, but shrugged and said, 'Well, alright then. I'll see what I can do, but I'm not making any promises about this, and I'm only doing this because of Gracie… and it's something we can talk about later.'
'I know,' said Arabella, nodding. 'So, when can we go?'
Rain drops were splattering against their windows as Arabella went home twenty minutes after meeting Francis and had told Harry everything. As she continued with her story, his face grew more massive with anger. When she was done, he was shaking.
'Absolutely not,' said Harry. 'You are not going to go visit a prison because of some gut feeling.'
'I've already talked to Francis and we're going to do it,' said Arabella, frowning. 'I'm not asking you, Harry. I'm just telling you what I'm doing. I'm not asking for your permission.'
Harry opened his mouth to say something, but then his eyes caught the cloak and he stood up from the couch. 'I have to go. I'm late for a meeting.'
Arabella looked confused. 'It's six o'clock in the evening and it's a Friday. What meeting are you talking about?'
'Just… just something I have to go to, alright?'
'Where you off to?' asked Arabella. 'Where have you been actually? You're been disappearing a lot lately. Are you meeting someone? Are you meeting another girl?'
'What – no! Of course not!' said Harry, sounding offended. 'Why would you even thinking of that?'
'Well, I don't know,' said Arabella, 'maybe because you're gone most of the time, you missed the first appointment for mandrake, you weren't there when those interviewers bombarded me. Ron was there and you weren't. You weren't there when I met Daniél; you said you had to be somewhere. So, who are you meeting?'
'It's just a meeting, okay?'
'No, it's not.'
Harry walked towards the door and Arabella followed him.
'Are you meeting another woman?'
'I'm not meeting another woman, Arabella!'
'Then where are you going?'
Arabella was practically back up against the wall as Harry kissed her. One of his hands was on her side while the other was gently touching her left cheek. She leaned forward, returning the kiss, wrapping her hands around his neck, bringing him closer. It was slightly uncomfortable with mandrake in the way, but the kiss itself was brilliant. There were goosebumps on the back of her neck.
Harry broke the kiss, leaning his forehead against Arabella's. Other than that, they barely moved for a while. It was their first kiss in months. They stayed in that position for a while, and then Harry kissed her cheek.
'There's nobody else,' he said, 'trust me. There is absolutely nobody else besides you and my son. This… where I'm going, it's just something I have to do and I'm not ready yet to talk about it. I'll see you later.'
He opened the door and took a step out, but then paused. He turned back to see Arabella still where she was. He gave her a small smile that didn't quite meet his eyes.
'If you go see this man, will all of this stop?'
Arabella contorted and shrugged. 'Maybe.'
Harry nodded. 'Just… get it over with, and get it out of your mind.'
Arabella nodded slowly and watched as Harry closed the door behind him. A couple seconds later, there was a small pop and Harry had gone from their grounds. Arabella sat down on the dining table and rubbed her eyes and forehead. She then took out the piece of from the pockets in her pants and looked at the picture of the man. Thunder and lightning clashing outside as Arabella wondered whether or not it was a good idea.
The doorbell rang and someone was pounding against the door. They kept banging on the door until Arabella finally answered. George Weasley was completely drenched by the rain. He was completely out of breath and was breathing heavily and quite loudly. Shivering as well, it looked as though being soaked was the last thing on his mind.
'There was a kid,' he began, taking many breaths, 'he – he was walking down Diagon Alley and – and he was talking to his mum about the toys on the win – windows and then he asked whether or – or not his new brother was going to like it to me – and – and – I got this for you.'
He held up a small brown stuffed bear with a red bow tie around his neck. His arms were shaking.
'I thought about you and the whole baby thing and thought you might like it.' George took another shaky breath. 'How – how did you do it? Your mum and your dad and then Remus – how did you do it? How are you fine after all of that?'
George looked sad and miserable. Arabella looked at the bear and then at George.
'Come inside, George,' she said softly.
Arabella quickly led him to the couch and wrapped the shawl she had on the couch around him. He was shaking on the couch and she quickly wiped his face with a towel she Summoned from upstairs in the linen closet. Looking closely, George's eyes were as red as his hair.
'I – I can't talk to Mum or Dad about it,' he said, hugging himself closer. 'Or Bill, Ron, Perce or Ginny. I don't want to talk to them about it. They just – what – how did you do it? How are you okay? How are you fine?'
Arabella shook her head. 'George, I'm hunting down people and anybody I could find that's related to me. I'm trying to find a person in prison that has the same last name as my grandmother. He probably killed my granduncle and I still want to meet him. George, I'm not okay. I'm not okay whatsoever.' She shook her head. 'Nothing… nothing's ever going to feel right ever again after this. I'm not going to give you the pleasant, 'Everything's going to be fine,' speech, because it's not. What you're feeling right now is like a scar or a wound. It's open and it's bleeding. No matter what you do, it's just going to keep bleeding at the slightest touch. And you, you're gonna want to lunge at your own image in the mirror and cut yourself with shards, you're gonna want to do that so badly.'
Arabella had a distant look on her face as her eyes glossed over. George waited for her to say something, and after a while, when nothing happened, he said, 'But…?'
Arabella looked at him with a straightforward look and said, 'Over time, the appearance of the scar lessens,' she glanced down at her arms. 'But then new ones come along, like the one on my back. Have you seen it? It's garishly. Nothing is ever gone, George. You're going to remember Fred all the time. He's never going to leave your mind at all. He's going to be there when you walk down the street, when you wake up every morning. He's going to be there when you get married and hold your first child.'
'It doesn't get better, does it?' asked George, his voice sounding hollow.
'Sometimes you'll laugh and smile, but then you'll remember later that he's gone, you'll feel guilty for being happy and cheerful with him.'
'What do you think I should do, then? What did you do?'
Arabella shrugged. 'I'll tell you when I figure it out myself. I'm chasing down criminals because I think it's going to bring me closer to my mum. I talked to two portraits for two whole nights because they looked like my dad. I cried the other day when I found out I was having a boy because it just reminded me of how I was having a boy while Remus and Nymph barely had time with theirs. When I figure out how to act okay without it being an act, then I'll tell you the secret.'
George's head hung, as though he was disappointed in Arabella's answer.
'I'm sorry, George. I truly am. Would you like to stay here until the rain dies out? I'll make us some hot chocolate.'
Arabella entered the kitchen and quickly set off. She was stirring the coco when George said from the house: 'Do you have marshmallows?'
Arabella smiled and said, 'I think so.'
They drank hot chocolate the whole time it rained, and even after it was over. Arabella held George as they stayed in the position for a while until he began to feel a bit sluggish. George ended up lying on the couch with his head on her lap. Arabella gently stroked his hair as George slowly fell asleep.
Thank you for reading! Tell me what you guys think :)
Daniél was never meant to be a good character at all. He's nice to other people except for certain members of his family: Isaak.
