PART TWO ( NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY ) CHAPTER SIX:
006 || Riddle Me This
"in which aurelia black has a surprise family reunion, well, sort of. . ."
x
AND SO DO YOU, those words echo in her head as Ginny shakes her awake. Aurelia cries out as Cedric slips away from her, the white room, and the other two ghosts are pulled from her sight.
"Hey, Blue, hey, hey, hey," Ginny says softly as Aurelia opens her eyes.
She feels dreadfully disappointed that she had been woken up, the ghosts were gone, the white room was gone, Cedric was gone. Again.
"You were crying," Ginny says, "So, I thought I'd wake you."
Aurelia glares at her then rolls over in her bed and buries herself under the covers. She falls back asleep rather quickly but neither white room or the ghosts return. Most of the Dreamless Sleep Potion had worn off and she has dreams but, they're sluggish and staticky. They're peaceful, however, so she sleeps well for the rest of the night.
And when Mae wakes Aurelia up the next morning, she feels surprisingly well-rested. Something she hadn't felt in what seems like months. She doesn't remember any of the dreams after the white room which she vividly recalls in great detail - Griselda Goyle, Aurelia Carrow, Cedric, and that long white table that could've seated at least twenty people.
Aurelia groggily opens her eyes to Mae's soft voice telling her that she needs to get up as she brushes curls away from Aurelia's face.
"I - I . . . Uh, five . . . Five more minutes, mum," Aurelia mumbles sleepily.
"I wish I could give you that but you have your appointment today and nobody's around to apparate us so we have to drive and that'll take a few hours to get there. We'll have to use the Floo Network to Travis'. He's holdin' my car for me. Sadly, wee moon, you have to get up now. But, you can sleep in the car if you'd like."
Luckily for Mae, Aurelia isn't all that tired so she doesn't put up much of a fight. She gets up and Mae kisses her cheek before leaving the room to let Aurelia get ready. It doesn't take long because all Aurelia does is throw on one of Mae's old ABBA t-shirts and a pair of ripped jeans that are a little too big for her.
Aurelia is sort of looking forward to her appointment because of what happened to her last night. Instead of talking about her usual problems which without a doubt would drain her of any energy she has, she can talk about what she witnessed when she was asleep. It'll make her less sad then talking about the other things.
She doesn't tell Mae about it but, she does bring up the names Griselda Goyle and Aurelia Carrow. Mae's reaction alone is enough to convince Aurelia completely that it hadn't been an actual dream. Mae is more surprised to Griselda's name, of course, Mae wasn't around that Pureblood community while Griselda was alive so she must've only heard about her from Bellatrix. However, she did know Aurelia Carrow. Mae tells her that Aurelia Carrow was Bellatrix's best friend at Hogwarts and she was sort of named after the deceased girl. She also tell her that Aurelia Carrow's death wasn't an accident like most people say but, of course, Aurelia already knew that.
Not much else is said in the next hour before they leave for Dr. Archer's, things are extremely tense as she sits in the kitchen eating breakfast. Molly, Mae, and now, Lyra all seem to be at each other's throats for every little thing so Aurelia keeps her mouth shut until they're out of Grimmauld Place.
It's takes them half an hour to escape Travis Calderwood's clutches, he's still apologising for the 'ex' comment. Aurelia doesn't say anything until they're another half an hour away, seated in Mae's yellow bug.
"Hey, mum? Can I get my nose pierced?"
"Can't you do that yourself?"
Aurelia frowns "Isn't that . . . Like dangerous - oh, you mean with my Metamorphmagus thing, yeah, no. I can sort of do ears but, I can't do my nose. The shininess on my nose distracts me so I lose concentration on it."
Mae laughs softly "Why do you want your nose pierced?"
"I just wanna do something different," Aurelia says, "It's not like I can dye my hair - I mean I could or I could cut it but, they'd probably turn out terrible. Then, I could just use my ability to cover it up. Well, maybe, it's been so hard to get it to work in my favour. Anyways, I've always liked nose piercing since I saw a cute girl with one in Fionnphort a few years ago."
"Well," Mae looks thoughtful, "Alright, we'll see what we can do. There's one just a few blocks away from Atticus' so we could go there."
"Yeah, I know," Aurelia says smiling, she'd seen the place each time they had drove by, it only made her want the piercing more.
"You know, Hattersley suggested I should dye my hair when I said I wanted to do something different, I was thinking something along the lines of a new wardrobe or a nose piercing, maybe a tongue piercing."
Mae laughs again "Thalia Hattersley? Well, I'm not surprised. It took her five years to get used to the fact Tonks could change her hair colour at will. She's got a strange obsession with Muggle hair-dye, doesn't she?"
x
ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ
x
NEARLY TWO HOURS later and they just barely make it on time for the appointment. Mae kisses Aurelia on the cheek before she hops out of the yellow bug, calling over her shoulder: "See ya later, mum!"
Then she's bounding up the stairs to Atticus' office. He's different today, Aurelia notices a shift in his behaviour immediately even though he tries his best to hide it. Atticus is more timid than ever, it shows in the way his body shakes and he double locks his doors. But, whatever is bothering him seems to vanish once they cross the threshold to his office.
"How are you feeling today," He asks once they sit down in the arm chairs, facing each other.
"I had a dream last night," Aurelia says, fiddling with her fingers.
It's not the answer Atticus is looking for but, he nods for her to continue.
"But, it wasn't really a dream, you see," Aurelia frowns, chewing on her lower lip, "I had a Dreamless Sleep Potion and the victims of Goyle came to me . . ." Aurelia goes onto explain every detail of what happened, insisting that it hadn't be a dream.
"How did that make you feel?"
There's a pause, seeing the perplexed expression on Aurelia's face, Atticus elaborates "How did seeing these ghosts of other victims make you feel? How did it feel to see Cedric again?"
"Well, it was strange to see them although, I should've seen something like this coming."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, should I have really expected to walk away from a literal Killing Curse scot-free. I should've know that it would come and bite me in the ass."
"You believe that this is a bad thing?"
Aurelia frowns "No, it doesn't feel like a bad thing . . . Besides being a wee bit confusing, it was kind of nice."
"You don't look happy or sound happy about it, why is that?"
"How am I supposed to get over Cedric when he's literally haunting me. Fucking hell."
"You shouldn't be thinking like that, Aurelia, death isn't something you just get over. Cedric was a very good friend of yours, his death deeply impacted you -"
"I could've saved him!"
"You jumped in front of a Killing Curse -"
"It should've rebounded - it should've! I heard Potter's rebounded so why did - why didn't - why did it go through me?!"
"You told me the reasons you survived the curse and how Potter did are two completely different reasons. To expect them them to have the same affects doesn't seem fair . . . Don't you think so," Atticus asks, he sounds hesitant to ask the question.
"I -" Aurelia pauses, she hadn't expected anything at all. The moment she realised Cedric was going to die, all she could think about was saving him; nothing else mattered. Nothing, not even how scared she was to die, all that mattered was saving Cedric.
"Maybe I can agree," Aurelia mumbles, it is a miracle she survived at all but, Cedric should've survived instead. However, Atticus brings up a good point, she supposes. How was she to know how this Donum Vitae thing worked when she didn't even know she had it at the time. Maybe, if she had, she could've saved Cedric then.
"Aurelia?"
"I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"Well, alright," Atticus says, "We'll come back to it another time then?"
She hesitates then nods. Atticus flips the page of that notebook he always has on him when they talk, Aurelia thinks he writes things she says in there but, she tries not to pay much attention because that thought makes her uncomfortable.
"Do you remember how you told me about those flashback you had, the memories of the werewolf and Goyle," Atticus says, to which Aurelia nods.
"I believe they're flashbacks caused by the trauma you've experienced. You have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."
Her eyebrows furrow together "What?"
"PTSD as some call it. I believe from what you've told me, you've had it for years now, starting with the werewolf attack."
"But - that - I was eight almost nine when that happened, I -"
Atticus "Your age nor your ability to recall the event perfectly makes it any less traumatic. What you remember of the event traumatised you severely. You must've had a hard time grasping exactly what happened to you."
Aurelia nods her head.
Atticus goes onto explain more about it, describing symptoms and effects of the disorder. Most of them of symptoms Aurelia has felt before, the most prevalent being flashbacks, anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts. She hadn't had many uncontrollable thoughts recently but back before her first flashback, they used to plague her. Aurelia couldn't stop thinking about what that woman had said before she turned into a werewolf, no matter how hard she tried not to, it wouldn't stop.
He asks about her first flashback and what had triggered it. Aurelia remembers it vividly, she remembers it had been the older kids who had triggered it by playing a joke on her. They had locked her in a closet, which they had done before so she had thought it was nothing out of the ordinary until one of them started making werewolf noises. She had thought that it was the werewolf coming for her again, that dark closet became the forest and it was like the attack was happening all over again. It was horrible, she had screamed and begged for help, eventually one of the kids felt bad so they let her out. They never did something like that again.
Atticus tells her more about PTSD and it leads to a long and very helpful discussion that lasts the rest of the session.
x
ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ
x
MAE'S LATE, WHICH isn't unusual, so Aurelia sits in the waiting room to waiting for her. Atticus waits with her, apparently he doesn't have any other patients to deal with today. Aurelia doesn't think he has a lot of patients, Muggles probably find him weird and wizard kind doesn't really use this kind of medical practice. Atticus talks to Bambi as he normally does, occasionally he divulges Aurelia into awkward small talk.
Even Atticus' white cat comes downstairs, Aurelia doesn't know the name, she's only seen it once before and that was when it was sitting outside of his office as she was leaving. It's a pretty white cat with long white hair and silvery eyes, it sits perfectly poised on a chair in the waiting room, staring at Atticus with a disgruntled look then to Aurelia with an even weirder expression for a cat.
It kind of reminds Aurelia of Professor McGonagall, without thinking, she blurts out: "Is that an Animagus."
Atticus looks up, seemingly startled by the question, he glances at the cat then rolls his eyes and nods his head "Yeah, that's Lazarus. Don't mind her. She shouldn't be here right now. She hunted me down to try to drag me to America . . . Annoying really."
"It's annoying really," An American accent mimics. In the place of the white cat now sits a platinum blonde woman, clad in leather and black jewelry and eyeliner. She looks like a Malfoy, the same hair, eyes, and sharp features, she's even got the same resting bitch face as Uncle Lucius. "If I was able to hunt you down so easily, your father could do it in the blink of an eye."
"Laz, we are not having this discussion again! Especially not in front of her," Atticus hisses, lowering his voice.
Aurelia looks away from the scene, catching Lazarus' perplexed and very annoyed expression as she puts her attention on her shoes.
"I have a patient now," Atticus says, "This doesn't involve her."
"Technically it sort of does." Lazarus says and Aurelia looks up, if it involves her then she has a right to look "Besides your little session there ended about ten minutes ago, and I have spent it watching you to have a hissy fit."
"We were having small talk, Laz, now if you would be so kind as to save this for later -"
Lazarus rolls her eyes, bluntly saying: "I'm a Malfoy, Archer, I don't do kind."
Oh, Aurelia thinks, she is a Malfoy! She'd be more surprised if Lazarus wasn't. She must be Uncle Lucius' cousin. Aurelia had never met her and she'd never heard her name before but, she vaguely recalls Uncle Lucius mentioning her American cousin and uncle once or twice. She think the mentions involved reminding someone not to invite them to a party.
Aurelia's pretty sure that the two sides hate each other. She'd never ever heard her Grandpa Abraxas - technically he's not your grandpa anymore! - mention his brother who had moved to America not even weeks after graduating Hogwarts. Lazarus must be the brother's daughter or even granddaughter, she does look a few years younger than her uncle.
"Nice to meet you too," Aurelia cuts in, sensing the tension in the room.
Lazarus pauses to give Aurelia a faint smile but, she doesn't drop the conversation.
"Archer, you were supposed to hightail it outta hear the moment you heard your father was back," Lazarus says, "Yet, here you are up, not even packed, up a patient, and still without that diadem! Did you even ask that Squib about it?"
"Wait, Squib? Does she mean Mae? What do you have to ask my mum," Aurelia asks, her hear sinking, "Is it about me?"
"No."
"Oh." She was hoping the answer would be yes.
Seeing the look on Aurelia's face, Atticus says: "Now, I know this is going to sound rather bad but . . ."
Aurelia looks at Lazarus then to Atticus. Although there is no betrayal evident, Aurelia feels that she has been. Or rather, she has a sickly feeling that she is about to be.
"You must understand that my intentions to take you on as a patient have nothing to do with what I'm about to tell you. I don't want to tell you but, Laz has left me with no choice but to do so. Telling you now is the only way for us to work, for you to trust me now that Laz just had to bring that up. To answer your question, Laz, no. I haven't spoken to Macleod of the diadem, she brought up Aurelia before I could. Aurelia's well-being is more important than my mother's diadem, so it simply slipped my mind and I focused on helping out Aurelia."
Atticus glances at Lazarus, giving her a little glare before continuing on: "There was a reason I contacted Macleod first, I had no idea about you. All I knew was that Lestrange left her in possession of my mother's diadem which had been stolen from her by my father. I wanted it back, it'd be the only thing I'd own of my mother's. But, I was nervous about approaching Macleod then my father returned and I knew at once that I had to get it back and get away from here as quickly as I could but, I still eased into the situation and before I could get what I needed, Macleod brought you up and your situation you faced and I knew at once I had to put everything on hold for you. It's my duty as therapist to do it."
Aurelia licks her lips, her stomach churning as she nervously looks at Atticus.
"So, my plans of running to America became side-tracked because I now had a patient, my other patients were easily passed off to other therapist because they were Muggles and therapy is more common to Muggle. More therapist options for them to chose from. But, as for you, you can't simply be passed off to a Muggle therapist if you want proper help and as far as I know I'm the only accessible therapist for you. I couldn't just leave you hanging especially after Macleod described what happened to you."
"You didn't arrive in America when you said you would so I hunted you down. You're lucky that Araminta and Cassiane didn't come with me. They're very angry with you and as you know, my step-daughter is scary when angry."
"Yes, yes. An angry Cassiane is a force to be reckoned with! I know, I know," Atticus says dismissively, "But, when I tell them what kept me, they'll understand. Unlike you, you impatient bugger."
Of course, Aurelia thinks, he couldn't just be a normal bloody therapist! He just had to have connections with my family!
"This certainly looks bad, doesn't it," Atticus mumbles, stealing a glance at Aurelia's expression, then says more loudly: "I haven't asked Macleod about the diadem because it isn't important, what's important is that I am able to help you. I'm helping you because you need it not because of the diadem."
"Agatha Rookwood saw you! You told me she saw you just yesterday," Lazarus says, "What if she recognised you because of Catherine! What if she's already told You-Know-Who about you?"
"I won't be my father's biggest priority," Atticus says, "I wasn't when I was born and won't be now that he's alive again. As far as he knows, I'm a Squib, meaning I'm not his biggest threat. Yes, there's no doubt that he'll try to kill me once he figures out where I live but, he won't make it is top priority. I have time. I'm safe for now, Laz. I must use this time to help a child in need."
"You'll be putting her in danger too," Lazarus sings.
"To him," Atticus laughs, "She's a Lupin!"
They seem to have forgotten that she's right there as they continue to bicker.
"If he comes for you, he'll see 'Lupin' as you see her! And I don't know how you see it but, I can see big fucking trouble written all over this situation!"
Atticus frowns, he changes the subject by turning to Aurelia and asking: "Where's Macleod?"
It's a good question, Mae's often late but, never this late.
"The Squib," Lazarus says, "Oh, well, I set the clock in her car back by thirty minutes, she should be here soon, thinking that session is just ending."
Atticus sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose "Why, Laz?"
"So I can this conversation with you, of course!" Lazarus says, giving him a beaming but fake smile, "Two sensible people against you!"
"Laz, Aurelia needs my help, you are not brining her into this."
"I've already brought her into this. Her birthright brought her into this to be more specific but, that's not the point of this conversation." Lazarus turns to Aurelia, "So, I know you were tragically brought up by my dearest cousin, but, despite that you seem to be very sharp. You seem like you'd have good judgement, so tell me - as the son of fucking Voldemort, wouldn't be wise for Atticus to get the hell out of dodge before his father finds his whereabouts?"
Aurelia blinks "How many children does Voldemort have?!"
Is he one of the six she's aware of or is he a secret seventh child?
Lazarus laughs mirthlessly "Too many to count. But, what do you expect from someone who is incapable of feeling emotion with multiple female Death-Eaters at his disposal? Females who either would do anything to please him or are too scared to say no. He's a monster. Atticus is one of his children that lived -"
"I'm his only living child -" Atticus says.
"Right." Lazarus drawls out, giving him a look.
Atticus rolls his eyes "My mother was a Seymour, an Albanian family of pure blood. She wasn't a Death-Eater, my father sought her out for that diadem. He manipulated her and eventually they became involved. She became pregnant with me and he gave her a potion to get rid of me. He did it secretly however, she wasn't a Death-Eater so he believed that she wouldn't react the same and willingly give the child up as they did. But, the potion didn't work and I lived. When he learned of this, he was livid, I'm sure you know how he feels about his children, so he came back to murder me but my mother had already given me to my adoptive parents."
Aurelia is reminded again just how much she hates Voldemort and reminded of how terrifyingly powerful he is.
"Now, the thing about Seymours, is that Squibs happen often in that family. Especially in the males. So my mother told him that I would be a Squib which is why she gave me up. He believed that it would be true so he never made it a priority to seek me out and kill me. However, he was still livid that she didn't kill me herself so he killed her. And then he took the diadem, he believed that it was the lost Ravenclaw diadem because the Seymour claimed to know where it was. They even hinted that they had it in the possession, saying that their descendant knew the Helena Ravenclaw. That's what drew my father to my mother. He must've figured out that the diadem wasn't the Ravenclaw one because I discovered he gave it to your mother as a wedding gift."
"You promise you're not just in it for this diadem thing," Aurelia asks quietly.
Before Atticus can respond, Lazarus snorts: "Nah, he doesn't have the crown because he decided to help you out like the bleeding-hearted fool he is."
Atticus shakes his head "Aurelia, I promise. I'm in it to help you. That'd be completely unethical of me to do, I might even lose my license if I did that and someone found out. No, I'd never do such a thing. Helping people matters the most to me."
"So, if I gave you the diadem, would you still be my therapist," Aurelia asks, looking up at him through heavy-lidded eyes.
"Of course," Atticus says at once.
"You're an idiot," Lazarus exclaims, throwing her hands in the air, "Atticus, you're in danger! With Araminta, Cassiane, and I is where you'll be safest! And you!"
She points a shaky finger at Aurelia "You don't even know the danger you're in! I'm telling you now, you and your weird little family should hightail it to fucking Alaska!"
Without another word, she's returned to her Animagus form and bolted up the stairs and out of sight. Atticus sighs, turning to face Aurelia.
"I am truly and deeply sorry for this, Aurelia, this isn't a matter that should've involved you. This was supposed to be between me and Macleod."
"It's alright."
"No, it's not. I should've expected Laz to pull a stunt like that and stopped it before it happened. I'm terribly sorry you were involved in this."
"Please, I've had worse family reunions than this," Aurelia says.
Atticus pause, his eyes widen slightly then he shakes his head "Oh, because she's a Malfoy, still . . . Still, I apologise. Luckily, I saw Macleod pull in a second ago so you're free to escape. Have a good rest of your day, Aurelia, and I'll see you the same time next week."
"See you later then," Aurelia says, giving him a salute, then she turns on her heel and walks out of the door.
He's a good person, Aurelia decides as she descends the stairs away from his office, if he wasn't he would've asked her to bring that crown or whatever next time. He's got good intentions.
Despite his parentage, he made it. He turned out to be good. Maybe, there's hope for her too. Sure, Voldemort isn't her father but her mother is just as bad as Voldemort. So, maybe she can make it just like Atticus did.
She smiles as Mae greets her with a large grin and an even larger strawberry milkshake.
"Hey, mum, did you know I'm related to a cat?"
X
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Honestly, I wanted it to be Tybalt Riddle to be Voldy's living child surprise (although it's not much of a surprise that Voldy has at least one living child in this story) but that would ruin not only Esrom Trelawney's entire character but, Aurelia's as well (mostly because she's pressed that Voldy has the audacity to kill his OWN children). Atticus being Voldemort's child is not important to the storyline just yet, and it won't be until part three of this story, as for now he's most important as Aurelia's therapist! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter please let me know what you thought of it in the comments, your thoughts/feedback means a lot to me!