i forgot to add this chapter! sorry! it's kind of important!
Chapter 2 - Childhood
7 years old, 1999
After Abby left, Rudy had been more absent. Natalia thought he subconsciously blamed her, Bonnie and Grams for Abby's departure. He spent most of his time on business trips and Nattie and Bonnie spent most of their time at Grams' house.
"Grams, I need to go to New Orleans." She said decidedly as she and Grams cleaned up the kitchen together after dinner. Bonnie was in the bathroom so this was the perfect time to bring this up.
"Why do you need to go to New Orleans?"
"Marcel." Natalia replied simply.
"Is knowing 'Marcel' important to the plot of the TV show that we're in currently?" Grams asked knowingly.
Natalia told Grams about her reincarnation earlier that year. It was nice to have someone to talk to about it. She planned on telling Bonnie and the rest of the scooby gang eventually. She just couldn't bring herself to it for some reason.
"Not really," Nattie responded. "It's just good to have allies."
"Right." Grams said with a little chuckle. It was extremely amusing how serious this seven year old could be. Well, she wasn't really seven, so that was the reason. "Your father is going to NOLA on a business trip next month. Maybe he'll let you tag along."
"I doubt it." Natalia sighed. "I think he has a grudge against me."
"He has a grudge against all of us. But he's still your father. He loves you."
After the plane ride, Natalia and Rudy checked into a hotel. It took some convincing, but Natalia got her father to agree to take her.
He had a conference to go to, so he left Natalia in the hotel room with the front desk's phone number in case she needed anything. Her fathers absence was positive in this situation because she could now make her way to The French Quarter without Rudy's judgy eyes.
Sometimes Nattie forgot she looked like a seven year old. She was reminded of the fact when the bus driver stopped her as she tried to find a seat.
"Aren't you a little young to be on a bus by yourself?" The raspy voiced man asked.
What is this, Phineas and Ferb?
"Yes, yes I am." She replied simply as a nod to one of her favorite childhood TV shows.
She found Marcel easily. He was at a bar, charming the hostess. She marched up to him, stood on her tippy toes and tapped his shoulder.
He turned to her and grinned. "How can I help you, little lady?"
"Walk with me, Marcel." She ordered, grabbing his hand and pulling him out.
"You're a witch." He commented after she pulled him to sit next to her on a bench.\
"Thanks for letting me know." Natalia responded idly. "But we have bigger fish to fry."
He raised his eyebrows. "What fish are we talking about?"
Natalia smiled mischievously.
They spent the next few days together, and she could successfully say he was wrapped around her finger.
Some of the witches in the quarter helped her out with her magic (they jumped at any opportunity to do magic lawfully) and she convinced him to loosen up on the rules (it was hard, though, he really liked his rules). Of course, she scolded him for what he did to the Crescent pack. She could tell he felt guilty about it after her speech on why doing that was just wrong. Sadly, she couldn't undo the curse, she was only seven years old and Celeste was out possessing another body.
"I'm leaving today." She told him after their latest Mario Kart race.
He frowned and gave her a hug. "Come back soon, little Bennett."
"Oh, I will."
8 years old, 2000
Natalia lounged on her bed, laying on her stomach, kicking her feet back and forth. She played with the cord of the telephone while she waited for Caroline to pick up.
Nowadays, if Caroline wasn't sleeping over at the Bennett household, one of the twins would be on the phone with her. Her father had just come out and moved to Georgia without looking back.
Liz Forbes was indulging in her work to avoid her negative emotions, leaving Caroline to cling on to Natalia who gave her the attention she deserved.
Nattie, Bonnie, Caroline, the Gilbert's, the Donovan's and Tyler had formed their own little family. They practically lived with each other. Elena and Jeremy were the only ones with solid parents, so everybody else spent most of their time at Grams' house.
She frowned when Caroline didn't pick up the phone. Maybe she was calling Bonnie?
Natalia sauntered her way to Bonnie's room. "Bon! Are you on the phone with Caroline?"
"No!" Bonnie shouted from the other side of the room. "I thought you were!"
The knocking at the front door clued them into where Caroline might be.
The twins opened the door together to see their red faced friend standing on their porch.
"Hi, guys." She said. She sounded out of breath. "I ran here. My mom said I couldn't sleep over but something tells me she won't notice I'm gone."
Bonnie and Natalia both stepped to the side so that Caroline could come in.
"Have you eaten dinner yet?" Caroline asked.
"No." Bonnie answered quietly.
"Good. I'm eating with you. I'll be in Nat's room!" She said and strolled up the stairs, leaving the Bennett twins flustered.
"Okay, then. She'll be in my room." Natalia said as she and her sister followed the wacky blonde upstairs.
10 years old, 2002
She decided that she needed to do some preparation for the upcoming plot. She was great at preparing, she even made a little color coded notebook that contained all she remembered about the show. Whenever she wrote in it she giggled like a maniac, causing Bonnie to look at her weirdly.
Now, first stop on her agenda, her sister's room.
"Bonnie!" Natalia shouted.
"What?"
"Come here!"
Bonnie scrambled into her sister's room. "What's up, Nat?"
"Come sit next to me. There's something I need to tell you."
Bonnie sat criss cross applesauce next to Natalia who sat on her knees, her hands folded in her lap.
A few years before, Grams taught them how to start using magic. Natalia begged Grams to teach them instead of waiting until their powers surfaced themselves like in the TV show. They were planning on telling their friends about their magic when they were a bit older and better at keeping secrets.
Natalia was now planning on telling Bonnie about the plot of the show. The Salvatore's, Katherine, the Mikaelsons - all of it. Only, she wasn't going to tell her about the TV show part, that would probably terrify her. She was just going to say that she was a seer and she could see the future.
Bonnie's eyes were wide as she hung onto every word Natalia said. When she finished Bonnie smiled widely and ambushed her sister with questions.
She took that better than I expected.
Next, she and Grams took a trip down to Whitmore to rescue Enzo. Bonnie begged to come with them, but they both decided it was too dangerous, so they sent her to Caroline's house.
Their plan was to cast a spell on everyone in the building, putting them in a temporary trance. What they forgot was that 'everyone in the building' included Enzo himself. So then, the fifty five year old woman and ten year old girl had to carry Enzo, the heavy vampire, back to their car and drive him home.
Natalia was rambling and fretting about how terrible their plan was, how dumb it was that they didn't even consider the fact that they'd have to carry Enzo out - Grams almost had to put her under the trance spell as well.
When they got home, they laid Enzo down on the couch and waited for him to wake up. His eyes were wide as if he were looking at something that wasn't there and his body was limp.
When he woke up, he was extremely confused. Grams was sitting on the couch by his feet and Bonnie was standing a few paces behind Natalia, holding her hand.
"Hello? Where am I?" He shot up from the couch.
"Relax." Nattie soothed. "We saved you. From Whitmore."
"Oh. Thank you. But who are you?"
"Natalia. You can call me Nat or Nattie."
"Bonnie." Bonnie said quietly.
"It's nice to meet you, darlings." He smiled. He turned to Grams, and his gaze went predatory. "And who is this lovely lady?"
"I'm Sheila Bennett." Grams said with a little blush.
"It's a pleasure. Well, it's always a pleasure to be in the presence of a beautiful woman." He grinned charmingly and kissed the back of her hand.
Grams giggled. Bonnie and Nattie looked at each other knowingly.
Enzo and Grams flirted constantly over the next few days, and it's safe to say that it made Natalia want to rip her eyes out. What was it with Enzo and parental figures? Didn't he like Damon and Stefan's mom too? Must be mommy issues.
Enzo decided that he wanted to explore the world, but he would come home occasionally.
Her next goal was her friends. She wanted them all to be able to take care of themselves in the following years, and she wanted to work on some of their problems.
Matt and Vicki's mother was rarely home and their father left when they were babies, so they stayed at the Bennett's house a lot of the time. Grams always had time for them. Natalia admits to being a Donovan hater when she was watching the show, but now she has to say they won her over. She loved them both to death.
Tyler's dad was the absolute worst, and Carol Lockwood did absolutely nada about it, so Natalia added him to the list of people that would stay at Sheila's house.
She wanted to work on Caroline's self esteem. Caroline was obviously very insecure and one of Natalia's main goals was for her to feel better about herself.
Watching the show, she found Elena kind of self centered. On the rare occasion that something didn't revolve around Elena in the show, she would insert herself and then make it worse. She also had a savior complex. A bad one.
She recognized the root of this problem as Miranda and Grayson's treatment of Elena. They gave her extra attention, sometimes pushing Jeremy aside to give it to her. Nattie loved Grayson and Miranda, they were nice and had great snacks, but they clearly favored Elena over Jeremy which played a big part in how both Gilbert siblings turned out.
Jeremy once confided in her, letting her know how his parents were making him feel, and Natalia's solution to that problem was encouraging Jeremy to talk to his parents about it. That caused Elena to be 100% more loveable and Jeremy to be 100% more confident.
Bonnie was not going to be used and sacrificed over and over again - not a chance in hell. Natalia loved her sister more than life and she was going to protect her at all costs. She was also making sure Bonnie was more open minded when it came to the supernatural world.
Her next stop was taking the moonstone. She was over at Tyler's house, and he went to go make some nachos.
"Nat, are you hungry?" He asked after they finished watching Monsters Inc.
"I could eat." She replied.
"Okay, I'm gonna go make a snack. Be right back."
"Alright, I'll stay here."
The second he left, she sprinted up from her place on the couch and scurried towards Richard Lockwood's study.
She scrambled through the drawers and nooks until she found the moonstone.
"Minus vim geminam creando." She whispered as she held the small stone in her hands.
After she chanted the spell, a duplicate stone appeared on Mayor Lockwoods desk. She hid it in the same place she found the original and put the real one in her pocket.
She got back to the living room at the same time as Tyler.
"Where'd you go?" He asked as he set the nachos down.
"I had to go to the bathroom." She replied.
He nodded and the friends ate the nachos together in comfortable silence.
Her last task was snatching back her ancestor Emily's grimoire from Giuseppe Salvatore's grave. Grave robbing was actually fun. She did look suspicious as hell and she got dirt in places she didn't think dirt could go, but it was kind of symbolic. She was taking back her history.
It was also kind of a screw you to Giuseppe for being such a bad father to Stefan and Damon.
There were still some little things she needed to do to prepare but she got all the main stuff out of the way.
12 years old, 2004
Natalia's powers were pretty unreliable at age 12. Sometimes they acted on their own, but other times they did exactly what she wanted them to.
Especially during the years she was going through puberty, her magic was wild.
One night, Bonnie insisted on watching The Titanic near the end during the sad part (you know the one), Natalia just couldn't stop her tears. This scene always hit her differently, but this one particular night was horrible.
Her sons were so hard that she didn't realize the storm that was going on outside. Trees were shaking, rain was pouring and inside their house, all of the faucets were running.
When she realized what was going on, she gasped and her tears, along with the storm and all the faucets, stopped.
"What- did I do that?" She squeaked.
Grams let out a scoff in disbelief. "My dear, you have just found your element."
14 years old, 2006
Natalia sat on her bed next to Bonnie, as they waited for their friends to arrive. Today was the day that they would tell their gang about the supernatural world.
Matt and Vicki's mom was back and she was trying to make them spend time with her, but they escaped her grasp to get to the Bennett's house first.
Tyler got there next, then Caroline, then the Gilbert's. They all gathered on the bed with Bonnie and Nattie.
"What's up?" Elena asked.
"What do you want to show us?" Vicki questioned.
"You know how Grams is always telling us we're witches?" Bonnie asked.
They all nodded. Nattie pulled a knife out from behind her.
"Yikes! Put the knife down!" Matt exclaimed.
"Were you sitting on that the whole time?" Tyler asked.
"Way to be creepy, Nat." Jeremy remarked.
"You haven't seen creepy, Jere." Nattie said. She grabbed a pillow and stabbed it like six times.
"Was that really necessary?" Bonnie asked.
"Yes." Natalia replied.
She and Bonnie put their hands over the feathers and closed their eyes. All of the sudden, all the feathers from the pillow started to levitate around them. The twins opened their eyes to see their friends all with tears in their eyes.
"Grams was right?" Caroline asked.
"Grams was right." The twins confirmed with a smile.
They spent the rest of the day playing around with magic. Natalia explained what would happen after the Salvatore brothers would arrive in town, and told Tyler about his werewolf gene - the whole sha bang.
16 years old, May 23, 2009
Elena held a box of cookies in her hands as she and Natalia stood outside the Salvatore boarding house.
Elena was confused as to why she was here. Natalia told her that they'd take the cookies, knock on the door, introduce themselves to Zach Salvatore and leave. She trusted Nat with her life, so she did it even though she was confused.
The door opened after she knocked.
"Hello?" A man asked. He looked like he was in his mid forties, and Elena could recognize him as Zach Salvatore easily.
"Hi, I'm Natalia Bennett and this is Elena Gilbert. We realized that we've never introduced ourselves even though you've lived here all our lives. So we brought cookies."
"Oh, that's very nice of you." He stepped aside to see if they could come in without an invitation.
When the girls entered, Zach's demeanor relaxed. They stepped in and they saw Stefan sitting on the couch. His eyes were glued to a book so he didn't see them.
"This is my nephew, Stefan. He came to visit me tonight."
"Oh, hi." Stefan said. When he turned to look at them, he froze. He looked at Elena with wide eyes.
Elena understood what was happening now. She had to admit, being near a vampire was scary. She knew Enzo but she had time to get to know him. She held Natalia's hand.
"I'm Elena." She greeted him.
Stefan snapped out of it and cleared his throat. "It's nice to meet you. I have to go."
"Will we see you in September at school?" Natalia asked.
"Uh, yeah." Stefan replied and then realized what he said and sighed frustratedly. "I think. I'm not sure. Sorry, I have to leave now. Nice to see you, Uncle Zach."
Elena and Nattie grinned at each other when the flustered vampire left.
Natalia dropped Elena off at the bonfire.
"You coming?" Elena asked.
"Yeah, I'll be a second." She replied.
Elena hopped out of the car and joined the rest of their friends.
Natalia quickly whipped out her phone. It rang twice before Miranda picked up.
"Hey, sweetie, what's up?" Miranda asked from the other end of the call.
"Hey, Miranda. Elena is going to sleep over at my house tonight, so there's no need to pick her up from the bonfire."
"Oh, great! We were just gonna get in the car. Maybe Grayson and I will have a date night in. Bye."
"Bye, bye."
Natalia sighed then smiled. And so it begins.
thanks for reading!