Chapter 14: The End Of The Summer

Last Time:

When the sisters got home, they all curled up in their mother's bed and wept, knowing she would no longer be there to help them and teach them. They slept there and the next morning, went down to breakfast to find the Daily Prophet headline screaming that the Aurors had found the body of Lady Crest. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner were skipped that day as they spent the majority of it crying, removing people from the wards who had access to their property, cleaning out their mother's room, and Owling the Goblins to arrange for the Will to be read the following day at their manor.

Now:

The Goblins came and went in the span of an hour, the reading had taken all of twenty minutes but they had had to discuss how their accounts would be managed and how the estate would be divided up, should they all live to reach their 21st birthdays. They had also gotten many letters from their friends, wondering how they were and if they needed anything or wanted to talk, they were welcome to rely on them. This heartened them to no end but knew that they would not be talking about their mother's death anytime soon.

They finished cleaning their mother's room shortly after breakfast. Her clothes were all sealed away, along with her shoes, make up and jewelry for when the girls would have need of them while the bed was stripped of its sheets, furniture covered in white linen and the bathroom stripped of its towels and toiletries. The one thing they kept in the room was her bottle of perfume, which they sprayed one last time before they shut and locked the door, never to be entered until the next time it was needed.

The only things they had moved to their room from their mother's was her parchments and books of all things magical, economical and ancient. The books were added to their own collection while the lose parchments were placed in a locked drawer in one of the side tabled that could only be opened by a password-charm combination.

After the trying day they had had, the girls changed into swimming costumes and entered the large bath. Lavender, Vanilla and Rose scented candles were lit and a large basket filled with chocolate was brought to them by the elves along with a charmed record player to play their mothers favorites. They spent the rest of the day in the bath crying and eating chocolate and reminiscing before moving their beds together in their common room and falling asleep.

The next few days passed in a blur before they left their sanctuary of the manor and braved the outside world. The café Lucifer had arranged for them to meet at was in the muggle world, where they would not be noticed.

"Hello ladies, would you like a table?" The blond waitress asked once she noticed them girls.

"No, we're meeting a friend of ours, is he here by chance?" Magnolia asked.

"Oh, you mean Mr. Harcourt, he's at the back table, let me show you to him." The waitress led them to the back where Lucifer stood to greet the girls, allowed them to order so the waitress would leave them alone for a while, before pulling out the contract they had written at the Malfoy Ball and a Blood Quill to sign it in.

"Wait! I want to read it over first to make sure you didn't add anything to it, Lucifer!" Hermione growled before reading it over, words, numbers and the signatures of every active and inactive demon.

"Good, we'll sign." And they did, the three Crest sisters signed on the dotted line and, until they were 22, they would not be allowed to vanquish a demon, nor would a demon meddle in wizarding affairs. They just had to hope that their muggle counter-parts with the basic magics would be able to fight off any problems they would have until the sisters were allowed to fight again. The war with Voldemort was one step closer to ending. The uncomfortable scratching on the back of her hand reminded her of her fifth year when she had been in and out of detention with that toady ministry woman named Umbridge. She hoped that the woman would be kinder this time around but she wasn't holding out hope.

The contract had just been duplicated and given to the respective parties to be placed in safe keeping when the waitress returned with their drinks, not noticing the drying blood on the backs of their hands nor the self-satisfied smirks each party had. They lingered only to finish their drinks before allowing Lucifer to pay, as was appropriate of a gentleman, before returning home to place the contract with the rest of their mother's papers and then a possible outing to the cinema to have a good cry at a sad movie.

The days leading to their return to Hogwarts were filled with chaos and confusion as the sisters arranged for their books and supplies to be received by the elves and they debated what they would take to school.

They had not talked to any of their friends since they had responded to their kind letters of consolation. Hermione and Morgan were nervous about how they would be treated by their boyfriends while Magnolia wondered how long they could keep their secrets from the Headmaster.

When September 1st rolled around, they left the Manor, closing it off to everyone but the elves and themselves, and promptly dissapparated to the platform with their trunks shrunk and stored in their pockets. They had yet to find their friends so they got a compartment and sat down, waiting for the train to leave and wondering what their year would look like, now that the war was about to pick up.