First Part : Night and Fear
Disclaimers Harry Potter doesn't belong to me. I'm only using this wonderful idea to express my imagination. On the contrary, the familly I'm going to picture only belongs to itself. The words are mine. Sorry if it is not really good. I'm french, and learned german before english. Hope you'll like anyway !
1 - A Family between two Worlds
My Name is Marilde.
To give you my last name is not important. Humans don't know this name, neither do the wizards. Maybe some of them know the name of my mother. There was a time, our family was part of the highest class of the French Wizard community. And then, time flied and generations passed, the family became closer to the muggles. At some point, the children stopped to go to wizard school. It's been two generation since the last of my kind went to Beauxbatons.
Don't be fooled. We are wizards, but we also are, what you can call an open-minded family. The magic world is important, but not the only one. We are curious about what is going on around us, and we disagree to shut up ourselves in one world only. Our strengh has always been our diversity. That's why you can find nearly all the muggles professions - farmer, dentist, lab assistant, computer scientist, mechanic engineer, film maker, financier, musician.
At this point I can guess what you are thinking. Why such a long presentation ? Simply because I need you to understand, that if magic has surrounded me during my childhood et still is, every minute of my life, it is only one aspect of my life. This is the reason why, one day, I have thrown all my memories in a box, forgot my gifts. Because, if we hadn't been wizard, nothing of this would have ever happened.
But I have to talk about the Refuge before I start the story itself. Some people would have called it a manor, even a castle. For us, we considered this building as an house for summer break. Not because it was small or less comfortable than the house we were living in during the year. The reason is, it was situated on an island, lost in the middle of an archipelago with thousand rocks. Faraway from everything, faraway from the world, a Refuge.
The architecture of the house was similar to a Norman monastery, raised with time, but definitely typical from the eleven century in Normandy. From the distance, you have the impression it is only a cube of gray granite, his heart dig in order to leave space for the green grass inside the cloister, everything put near the sea.
Outside, you could never believe that the room can be so spacious. The ceiling from the upper stairs are five to six meter high. The ground is more intimate, with only three meter to the ceiling. Two steps are leading the way from the cloister to the dining room, weapon training room, living room and kitchen. You can see the beam of the ceiling, the walls are white, covered with lime, the furniture are a dark brown and auburn, the curtain representing flowers. A mix between Norman and English style done with a lot of appreciation. The principal door open on stairs going to the see. Down there, boat and small ships are waiting to lead us back to the main island and the civilization. French windows are leading from the kitchen and the living room to the vegetable garden of my great-mother and her daughters.
The adults (my parents and great-parents) have their rooms on the first floor, sharing it with the huge library. I have always been impressed by this library. It was using two of the four side of the house, going 'till the roof, with high ladders enchanted so the children cannot fall or access the dangerous books, rolling from side to side. I was often spending the day sitting on the ladder, a book on my knee, my eyes on the sea and the island, my mind lost in the nature. The second and third floor are composed by the great-children's room, and a multimedia/music room. The children room was connected to the library and the ceiling by mezzanine. I had the luck, as the oldest of the children to have my room at an angle of the building, with great windows, giving me a good view of the sea and the island on which was sitting the Refuge. I loved this room, from which I could see the nature breaking out around me, and still be safe inside the granite walls.
This house is the refuge of my great-parents, their world. Generally, we weren't living there, but on another house, on the continent. This muggle house was not as cool and big as the wizard one. But we spend most of our time there. But even if we don't spend that much Time on the island, the Refuge is printed inside our minds, because it's the place where, to every child of the family, the existence of magic is revealed. This is the place where we were teach the spells and art of the wizards. I hated this house, as much as I loved it. I hated it because we were prisoners, faraway from the civilization. I loved it, because it was the only place I could be in contact with the spirit of the nature, and with myself.
So why all this babbling? I want you to understand, how in a few seconds, your world can fall apart, what you love above everything disappear, lost your heart and a part of yourself.