January 5, 1976 - Nazyalensky Cottage

The distinctly uncomfortable sensation of Side-Along Apparition faded, and she stumbled slightly as her feet hit the ground. The atmosphere here in the countryside was bright, and Cassiopeia drew in a deep breath of the clear, and biting air.

"Here it is," Narcissa announced, looking not the least bit shaken by their method of travel. Beside her, Severus was already making his way up the stone path - although it was little more than cracked pieces of stone - and Cassiopeia quickly followed behind him, aching to explore this yet-unknown piece of family history.

From the outside, the house looked like any other you'd expect to see out on the Scottish plains. Whitewashed, and overgrown, it looked like it came from one of the Muggle fairytales her mother'd read to her when she was young.

Narcissa handed her the key as they came to the door, making their way over the sprawled, untamed garden of wildflowers and roses. With a kind of hushed anticipation, Cassiopeia slid the heavy bronze into the door, finally pushing open the thick, marred wood with her heart in her throat.

"Mistress, you came!"

She recoiled from the doorstep, Severus steadying her, as an elf appeared in front of her with a loud pop, seemingly out of nowhere. Immediately the creature began to weep, supplicating itself on its knees before her, as Cassiopeia stared at the scene in distress.

"I'm - I'm sorry," she stumbled over her words as the elf all-but-crawled to her, embracing her legs like a child. "I don't think I know you."

The creature drew its head away, clear, blue eyes large, and shining with tears. "You don't? You not - You are not Mistress?"

She glanced over to her companions, before reaching down, and gently disentangling the elf from her body. "No, I'm not. I'm her -" she swallowed, her throat suddenly, irrationally tight, "- daughter."

A clarity which hadn't been there before came over the house-elf's eyes. "I remembers feeling… but I couldn't be sure."

The creature smiled suddenly, springing up to open the door wide. "I'll be happy to introduce Mistress' daughter and her friends to the house."

"Thank you…?" Narcissa asked, stepping inside.

"Tully. My Mistress named me when we was just this tall —." the elf pointed to just above the floor. "She was coming here every summer with her family… and then she was not. And a couple of years later…" Tully tugged on her large ears, mood dropping. "I'm glad you is here, though, Little Mistress. Your name is Cassie?"

Cassiopeia stopped her examination of the sitting room, turning to the elf with some surprise. "Yes… how did you know?"

"We was always playing dolls, Mistress and I; she said if she ever had a baby, she'd name them 'Cassie," Tully said, then whispered to herself, seemingly unaware of where she was. "Cassie. Good, strong name. Like the stars. Con-stell-a-tions. Like where Mistress is. Stars. Sky…"

Cassiopeia looked upon her with concern, as the creature's eyes clouded over, and she wandered away from them to another room, still muttering under her breath.

"Is she...ill? she asked, voice heavy in the silence that now fell over the small room.

"From what I've been taught, house-elves cannot often leave their homes without their Masters' permission. If she was here, all alone, for some many years," Narcissa shrugged slightly, her lips twisting bitterly. "Unfortunately, I'd be more surprised if she were completely well."

Cassie bit her lips at Narcissa's grave statement, finally taking a moment to take in the room. It had been perfectly preserved, by Tully she guessed, and as she looked around, Cassiopeia could just see her mother sitting there on the grey sofa - sixteen years old, her cheeks flushed with the heat of the fireplace.

Barely noticing what she was doing, she found herself wandering over to the mantle, her gaze catching a movement amongst the flowers, and greeting cards. Was that…?

She grazed the air over the delicate paper, the two children in the photo scattering to the side with laughter. Vienne and Liam. She'd never seen a wizarding photo of either of them - had never even known her uncle's appearance except from the vague allusions her mother made in her writings.

"What're you looking at?" Severus asked, startling her from her contemplation.

After a moment's hesitation, she handed over the photograph, and watched Severus' face as he looked it over.

"You know… Eileen used to be like that. I wish - " he restored the image to its place, as if he didn't trust himself not to damage it. "I don't know. That she never met Tobias. That he never found out she was a witch…" he fell silent, as if just realising the implication of what he'd said.

Cassiopeia knew she was one of the few who knew the story - Severus had disclosed it to her before the two of them had even gone off to Hogwarts. Tobias had only found out about Eileen's status as a witch after his son's birth, once Severus had begun performing accidental magic. If her son had never been born, however...

She couldn't find the words to comfort him, or even summon the courage to say something, to contradict his self-deprecating statement, so instead she shook her head. "Come on. Let's go find Tully, and have her show us around."

Severus nodded, seeming relieved that she hadn't answered him.

After a few minutes of searching, during which they discovered Narcissa in the kitchen, as well as a dining room and bathroom, they finally came across Tully, sitting on the stairs, a distant look in her eyes.

Cassiopeia approached slowly, wondering if once more she'd appear to the elf as her mother. "... Tully?"

"Little Mistress," she blinked, and Cassiopeia breathed a personal sigh of relief. "What can Tully be doing for you? You are wanting tea?"

"No, that's okay - Narcissa's making some. Actually, Severus and I were wondering if - " Cassiopeia cut herself off, as the little elf in front of her began to tug on her ears again in distress. "Is something wrong?"

"Tully is getting lost, is forgetting to take care of her Little Mistress and friends. Tully should be one making tea."

Cassie was lost. She hadn't banked on discovering a house-elf on this property, had assumed if there ever was one they'd be long gone - in whatever way. And finding Tully - the most fretful, and anxious creature she'd ever seen - well… this visit would be more mentally draining than she'd thought.

"No, that's alright, Tully. It really is," she added, when the elf glanced at her in surprise. "I don't expect you to do everything - really, I'm already very happy with how well you've kept the house. I don't need help with anything else."

"But - " the elf alternated between staring at Severus, and at her. "You is sure? Tully remembers Mistress' brother - he was always wanting tea and sandwiches, and playing with him, and getting him things. You are not wanting that?"

"No, Tully. If you'd just show us around…"

"I would be happy to, Little Mistress. If you will be following me?" With that, the creature bounded upstairs, leaving the two of them alone in the foyer. Severus made as if to follow her, but Cassiopeia stopped him with her lightest touch of her hand on his.

"Yes?"

"Severus…" she said quietly, her hand falling away. "She's like a child, is she not?"

"I - I can see that, yes," he added after a moment of surprise, his brow rising in question. "Why?"

"I can't take care of children," she said, the slightest note of panic rising into her tone. To her annoyance, she saw Severus' mouth curl into a facsimile of a smirk.

She made to scold him, but he spoke before she could. "You'd be wonderful at it."

Moments later his eyes widened, and she could just see him cursing his thoughtlessness in his mind. "Thank you for the reassurance," she told him, hoping to redirect his mind, and relief flooded her body when he smiled slightly.

"Of course."

The upstairs of the cottage was small, but not oppressively so. On the right of the steep staircase sat one larger bedroom, immediately recognisable as that of the elder Nazyalenskys, and on the other sat two small ones, each engraved with a child's name.

"This was the bedroom of the Master, and Mistress' mother, Eirene. Tully liked her very much; she gave Tully her own Mistress."

"You were… a gift…to my mother?" Cassiopeia asked distractedly, very much intrigued by the Master's Certificate on the wall. She couldn't quite make out the name of the Curse-Breaker under which her grandfather had apprenticed - even magic couldn't completely eliminate the ravages of time - but his own name was still legible, and just as odd and pretentious as most wizarding names she'd heard of: Tarquin Aeneas.

"Yes, Tully was," the creature answered. "For Mistress' fourth birthday - so that Tully could take care of her when Mistress Eirene and Master Tarquin were taking care of Master Liam."

"They left her here alone?" she frowned, turning to head to the other room.

"Sometimes. Mistress Eirene was not often having much time to take care of Mistress Vienne, and her father was not wanting to very much. It was better that she play here with Tully."

Liam' room was filled with sports paraphernalia. It wasn't Quidditch, however, but a football league - surprising for what seemed to be a family which valued the traditional ways, and customs. That wasn't all, of course, as the colour-coordinated bookshelves which lined the walls seemed to suggest an appreciation for learning, but the room in itself did not give much insight into this elusive figure from her past.

Tully, however, was willing to elaborate on her earlier statements.

"Master Liam was… Tully does not know. When he was little, he would be being nice to Tully, and playing with her, but Master Tarquin was not liking it very much. He would say, 'Servants are not for talking to,' Tully remembers. Then Master Liam was not talking anymore to Tully, and was being mean when Tully did not do things like he was wanting. Only Mistress was being nice to Tully, then."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that he was like that," Cassiopeia remarked with a frown, her perception of some members of her family dropping considerably.

"No, it's alright, Little Mistress. Tully had her Mistress Vienne, and now she has her Little Mistress, and I is very happy to have been having them both."

Cassiopeia paused at the entrance to the last door. Apprehension curled in her stomach as she contemplated the scarred wood and engraved name, feeling as though by opening it she would be disturbing the last vestige of her mother's memory.

"Tully has tried to keep it like Mistress Vienne had," the house-elf remarked, seeming to sense where her thoughts had gone. "It would be good for Little Mistress to see."

She nodded. "It would."

Her heart in her throat, she peered inside, Severus' solid presence at her back a comforting reassurance.

The room was bare, was her first observation. Although, on second glance, sparse may have been a better description. The whole space stood in stark contrast to Liam's - whose room had been richly decorated, and filled to the brim with material things. Instead, the most opulent object here was the bed - whose cramped image would look less out-of-place in Manchester, and not this idyllic cottage in the countryside.

"Did my Mother like to keep her room like this?"

Severus had wandered over to a small desk, upon which sat a plain, wooden box, filled with needles and yarn.

"Tully does not think so. Mistress…" the house-elf blinked, losing some of her clarity. "Mistress was always wanting to have many books - like Master Liam - but Master Tarquin was not wanting it. He was telling Tully to be giving her yarn, and teaching her how to sew."

Cassiopeia's heart went out to her mother - a sentimental, and meaningless gesture. She almost, almost couldn't imagine how stifling and oppressing it would be to live with a Father such as that - one who expected you out of sight, quiet, and ignorant.

Looking upon these rooms - these fragments of the past - it was easy to see which child had been favoured in this house, and which had been not.

I wonder if she resented him...

When Narcissa called for them to come downstairs, Cassiopeia only glanced back once - she'd see the room again, of course - but Tully had already closed the door, disappearing from sight.

"Have you thought about what you'd like to do?" Narcissa asked, her unworried gaze as she poured them tea a balm on Cassie's frayed nerves.

"We can't leave her like she was," she announced flatly, after a moment of silence. "She'll only get worse."

"I was thinking you'd say that." Narcissa's voice held no judgement. "I'd suggest relocating her to Hogwarts, so she could be close to you, but I doubt that'd be allowed."

Cassiopeia huffed in amusement - in Dumbledore's Hogwarts, the mere idea was laughable. "I don't wish to impose upon you home either, Narcissa. Really, the only place for her now is here - but I'll have to make sure she is able to come and go as she pleases."

"But will she even want to leave, given the freedom?" Severus asked pointedly, draining his cup. "She could just as easily go back to her old ways."

"I'll have to get her to visit me, then," she sighed. "It'd also be good - Narcissa, would you mind sending Dobby over every once in a while? It'd be good for her to talk to some other elves, I think."

"Of course. Merlin knows it might do him some good, too."

It didn't take long before they were getting ready to leave. They'd arrived in the early morning, but the hours had flown by, and it was now almost time for her arranged meeting with… him - the last one she would have before returning to Hogwarts.

"Don't go, Mistress!"

The house-elf's distressed cry tugged at her heartstrings, and she knelt down to meet the creature who'd just run into her arms. "I'm not Mistress, Tully, but I do have to leave. School is starting in just a few days, you know, and I have to be there. But you'll have to come visit me often, okay? You know where Hogwarts is?"

"Yes, Tully knows."

"Good," she smiled. "Meet me at the front entrance to the grounds in a week, okay? And at any other time, go wherever you want. To the garden, or to France - whatever you wish."

"Tully can be going anywhere?" the creature asked, eyes shining.

"Yes, anywhere."

"Mistress Cassiopeia is the best Mistress Tully has ever had," she beamed in response.

•••

And here is the second part of last week's chapter. I really was planning on posting it earlier, but life just got away from me, and I wasn't able to, unfortunately. Special thank-yous to SilentMayhem and Stephanie MRV, as always, and to everyone for reading. Only twelve days of school left for me, and then I'll finally be free. Have a delightful week, everyone.