Ughhh, back from the house of hate and despair, forced to stay there for a
whole DAY more than was originally planned for no apparent reason.
I hate my family. I wish I could have Remus' 'No Hate' attitude towards my family, but... I'm afraid mine is more like Sirius. The poor soul.
Well I'm bloody happy I'm back, so... today I'm going to answer reviews at the beginning of my story:
DBZruler66: Ahh, sugar, you can never have too much... don't worry, it won't end here! Thank you for all eternity for putting this silly little story on your favourites list, it means a lot ^_^ enjoy the chapter!^_^
This Parrot has ceased to be: Hmm, well about the English thing, you'll find out in this chapter, it's all part of the plan. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! And to clarify, 'Birdie' and 'The Reaper' are most definitely two people. You see, we were a little nervous about starting an account on our own, so we began one together. If you click on our pen name you'll see the ones I wrote (Like this one, and 'Fate Allowed') and a whole bunch of anime that Birdie did. We're just best friends and we make up these author notes together. But, we ARE both completely mad... Mwa ha ha ha ha ha (No prizes for guessing who's more insane)
Birdie: *Cough*
Anyway, Oh and, -blah- are words in Romanian, not just nonsense words I put in for no reason. Back to the story...
******************************
Chapter Three: Is't Night's Predominance?
The middle of nowhere, Romania
******************************
Tatiana was highly confused. She and Robert were just walking along, discussing Shakespeare (There wasn't much to do when you were seven miles from any form of civilisation, unless you counted the murderous werewolves in the forest) When out of the fog, a teenage girl's voice had begun calling out for aid.
In English!
Nobody /she/ knew spoke English, except for her father and paternal grandfather. They were the ones that had taught it to her and Robert and her cousins as a second language, probably because they themselves were British, and wanted to be reminded of their homeland.
Although Robert and herself would sometimes come across young Bulgarian students practising apparation across long distances, who went too far north, (usually from Durmstrang) they had never before met any British or even French students who went this far off target.
And judging by the school crests they had on their robes, a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake all curling around the letter 'H', they were from Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Taught by the infamous Albus Dumbledore, or, 'That mad, werewolf-loving old codger' as her grandfather would say. Though Tatiana was never quite sure what was so terrible about Dumbledore, he seemed okay, from what she'd read about him.
'Don't believe everything you read' grandfather would remark. She never got any further with the mystery of why Hogwarts was such a terrible place. Her father was even less responsive on the matter.
Suddenly, Robert grabbed her arm forcefully, a suspicious look in his eyes,
"They're from Hogwarts!" He hissed under his breath, Tatiana marvelled at his perceptivity, "We should just tell them to -se duce-, you know what that sort are like!"
"-Nyet-, not really, we've never met any before..." She pointed out, with a roll of her eyes.
"Honestly Tattie!" He groaned, using her abominable pet-name "Have you ever listened to a word -bunic- told us these past -unsprezece- years?"
"Bunic pays his taxes with leprechaun gold, Robert, I hardly think he's that trustworthy..."she said exasperatedly
"Werewolf-lovers and -betiv's-!" He snarled
"They don't seem that drunk to me," She observed coolly, glancing back at the confused looking, but apparently sober (Though Ron was beginning to wish otherwise) three students "And stop mixing your languages," She snapped "It's unseemly..."
Robert shrunk back, the last thing he wanted to seem was unseemly, as his sister knew... he valued father's opinion of him more than anything, and father couldn't stand unseemliness.
Tatiana rolled her eyes again, wishing that the popular belief that all twins were inseparable best friends, was true, but sadly, Robert and Tatiana were never really that close. 'Runs in the family' as father would say. Drawing up another blank, as she and Robert and two of her cousins were the only twins in the family, (and it was a VERY big family) the cousins were seven months old, and father had been telling them that all their lives. So who were the other twins?
Mother didn't understand either, and the with the amount of deep dark secrets kept in her family, she knew better than to pry from everyone she could, and just left it alone.
After adding it to her list of things she was not supposed to know.
And it was a long list.
***********************
They had been walking for several minutes, listening to the two twins bicker amongst themselves in a garbled mixture of English and Romanian.
Harry decided to try and make contact with the twins, who were arguing with far more aggression than before. From what he could tell, the boy was intent on abandoning them in the forest to be eaten by 'lycanthropes' whatever they were. The girl, much to Harry's relief, wanted to take them to someone who could help them get home.
"So... Umm..." He began. The twins didn't hear him. He began again, a little louder: "Ahem, umm, my name's Harry," He started. Names seemed as good a place as any to start.
The twins spun around. The boy threw a suspicious glance at his sister, He hissed something in her ear, and she rolled her eyes.
"I am Tatiana," She announced, "This is my brother, Robert" He detected a slight hint of a sneer on the 'Robert' and got the feeling that they didn't get along too well.
"I'm Ron" Said Ron "And that's Hermione" He indicated towards Hermione, who was looking a little flustered.
The twins exchanged confused looks.
"Herm-own-ninny" Tried Tatiana.
Harry and Ron tried to hold the laughter back. They failed miserably. Hermione brought her hand up to her head and sighed, Harry caught the word 'Krum' under her breath.
"I am sorry," Said Tatiana apologetically "Do you have a short name?" She asked
Hermione frowned, and thought hard, " 'Mione," She said finally
"My short name is Tanya" Tatiana said with disgust "Unless you're Robert, in which case it's Tattie" She shook her head "But please keep it as Tatiana,"
"Sure," Said Harry "So... do you go to school around here?" he asked
"Well, actually we go to Durmstrang" She said. Hermione gasped...
"Do you know Viktor Krum?" She asked in a very high-pitched voice, as Harry and Ron exchanged amused glances.
"Who doesn't?" Asked Tatiana with a laugh "I know OF him, but he left school two years ago, and this is my first year,"
"Why aren't you there now?" Asked Harry
"First year holiday," she explained "And, Oh! Look! We are here!"
And they looked. A building began to emerge out of the fog. Harry couldn't believe his eyes, he stood there, staring like an idiot. He hadn't stared like that since the first time he saw Hogwarts.
"You live /here/?" Asked Ron, in complete awe
"It's very...big..." Observed Hermione
"...Yeah..." Ended Harry
Well, big was one way of describing it. Harry assumed that Ron would almost envy living in a place like that, except for the fact that Ron wasn't a sadistic executioner. And that was whom Harry supposed built Tatiana's ...house.............mansion...........lair...
Big was one way of describing it. Ominous, dark, foreboding, depressing, frightening, and horrifyingly grim were also apt descriptions of the place. The fog did not help.
There was a grey polished stone path, with different stones in irregular shapes, leading up to the main entrance. Said entrance was a large double door, made of some very dark material with silver vine patterns creeping up the edges. The doors were set at the top of some stone steps and a veranda held up by some black pillars.
There were two large stain glass windows at the front of the house. It was quite wide, and at the back there were several large towers on the left side. Harry couldn't see how far back it went, but he assumed quite far. Also, the entire building had solid black curves jutting out from some of the edges and corners, making it look like the entire estate was wearing a black cloak.
Obviously the architect belonged in a mental asylum, or Azkaban, or a bottomless pit. The mansion made Harry think of Lucius Malfoy.
Malfoy. Stupid slytherin son of a-
"Umm, Tatiana..." Said Ron "Is there a town nearby we could go to instead, you know, to the-"
"Yeah, pretty -infricosator- isn't it?" Asked Robert with a bit of a sneer. Tatiana glared at him.
"Scary," She explained to them, "And I have to say, when you haven't lived here all your life, it would seem very scary..."
"Uh huh..." Agreed Harry, still in shock.
"Don't worry about it!" Assured Tatiana "There aren't any vampires or werewolves hidden under the stairs or anything!" She gave a little laugh and raced up the steps calling:
"Mama! Mama! -Matusa- Victoria!"
The three exchanged glances, shrugged, and ran after her.
"Are you sure about this?" Hissed Ron
"Well it's not like we have a choice!" Hermione shot back irritably
Ron gave Harry a look, then suddenly looked past him and gasped,
"Ughhh!" He exclaimed "What the hell is that!?"
Harry swivelled around and looked behind him, Tatiana looked back,
"What is it?" She called
Good question. It seemed to be a path leading to some sort of garden, but it was a sculpture garden. And the stone sculptures in the garden looked like they had been made by the same bloke who designed the house.
Harry had seen stone gargoyles before, almost comic looking with those bulging eyes and sticking out tongues, but these weren't like that. These were almost life-like: narrow eyed, enormous muscular models with razor sharp fangs and ripped wings. One of them actually had a sculpture of a severed arm in its mouth.
But not just gargoyles, there were monsters Harry couldn't name, there were a few hippogriffs, a painted thestral with a silver saddle, there was a sculpture of a woman with a terrified look on her face, positioned on the ground, shrinking back from some unknown terror with one of her sleeves hanging off her dress. There were also sculptures of vampires and werewolves, but in those sculptures, said monster would always be pictured dead, being stabbed or axed or beheaded.
It was actually quite sickening. The sculptor was obviously very talented, and obviously very psychotic.
"Oh, that..." Said Tatiana, with a look of something in her eyes. What it was, Harry couldn't figure out. Shame, perhaps? "That's nothing..."
"Nothing?" Gasped Ron incredulously
Robert narrowed his eyes, looking a little insulted. Surely /he/ hadn't made these? He began to speak, rather coldly:
"Every -femeie- in our family has sculpted," he snapped "For many generations! Their work is -benefic- above all other sculptors in -Vraja Romania-!"
"Stop mixing languages!" Tatiana snapped
Perhaps it wasn't such a good thing they had run into the twins, Tatiana seemed alright, but Robert was a bit of a brat, and looking at the sculptures, the rest of the family were sadistic lunatics. Ron was looking around at the sculptures with open shock and disgust, Hermione had her head down, no longer being able to look at the horrific scene, while Harry looked in vain for a model that wasn't so... unsettling
"Hey look, that one's not to bad..." He called out
Miraculously, after surveying the garden long enough he had found one that was hidden in the shadows, covered in vines and lichen. It was a .. well after wracking his brains he came to rest on 'druid', a woman wearing a hooded cloak, with a few strands of hair artfully coming loose from the hood. She had a sad look in her eyes (Sad look? She was made of stone? But they all looked so real...) but was otherwise not too horrific.
"Oh yeah..." Said Ron with an air of surprise "Who made that one?"
Tatiana shrugged nonchalantly and motioned for them to come inside.
"Come on, the sooner you get in, the sooner we can get you home..."
And Harry felt like he couldn't be happier doing anything else.
*********************************
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING WHERE HE IS???!!!" Thundered Sirius, raising the hairs on the back of Remus' neck slightly.
"Sirius, you have to understand," Said Dumbledore calmly "Mr. Malfoy's spell went wrong. We can't even determine whether they're alive or-"
"DON'T SAY IT!!!" Sirius roared.
Remus frowned and leant his head on the table. Everything inside him screamed that something terrible was happening, that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in some mortal peril. He wanted to walk forward and calm Sirius down, but his own feelings were too intense to move. If he moved, he knew he'd start crying, and he hadn't cried since...
When had he last cried? It hadn't been when Lily and James died, he had been way too far drawn into the depths of despair for that, no it had to have been before... it must have been when...
"No, I have to agree with Sirius," Tonks was stating "We shouldn't just stand around, we should go out and look-"
"And where do you suppose we start?" Said Severus icily, not too worried as Potter was practically impossible to kill, "Start sniffing around on our hands and knees in the middle of the Caribbean? Or the Pacific ocean..."
"Well it's better than sitting around doing nothing-"
"I beg to differ-"
"Look, it's my little brother out there-"
"Not to mention our only hope of defeating You-know-who-"
"I know perfectly well who's out there-"
"I suppose you're happy about this, Snivellus, a piece of good news for you to tell your master-"
"How dare you-!"
"We still have to tell Mr. and Mrs. Granger that their daughter is missing- "
And then Molly Weasley burst in to a fresh bout of tears and snuggled closer to her husband for comfort.
/Why Harry?/ Thought Remus miserably.
"Oh for gods sake woman, would you just SHUT UP!"
"HOW DARE YOU-"
/Why me?/.......
*********************************
Thankfully, Tatiana's interior decorator, though a little obsessed with wolf-hunting, was otherwise not as mentally unstable as the architect, and the inside of the house was almost pleasant (The numerous wolf heads mounted on the wall, notwithstanding.)
Hermione was confusing him a little, she kept on staring down as if there were some of those sculptures were littered about the hall, but then... Well she was a girl,* maybe the garden was a traumatic experience for her.
Tatiana brought them to a sitting room and sat them down on a comfortable expensive-looking sofa.
"You wait here," She told them, "My father, grandfather, and uncles are away, but the women should be in..." Then she broke off, running down the hall shouting:
"Mama! -Matusa-Victoria! -Matusa-Bernice! -Matusa-Ariadne! Oh where is everyone? Grandmother! -Matusa-Anetka! -Matusa-Natalya!"
As soon as she was gone Hermione turned to them angrily
"How stupid are you two?!" She hissed
Harry and Ron exchanged confused glances, were they being thick again without realising?
"What?" asked Ron
"The mounts you fools, the mounts!"
Harry looked around at the mounted wolf heads,
"What about the wolf heads?" Asked Ron
"They're not wolf heads you morons!" she snapped "They're /Werewolf/ heads, you can tell by the snout!"
Harry gasped and reeled back, staring at Hermione as if she'd suddenly sprouted spaghetti from her nostrils. His thoughts immediately travelled to Lupin and his stomach lurched.
"I think I'm going to be sick..." Said Ron weakly
Unable to keep the thought of Lupin's head mounted on a wall, Harry was pretty much sharing the same feeling as Ron. What the hell was this?
"T-Tatian-Tatiana!" He called frantically
Her head appeared in the doorway
"Yes?" She answered
"Umm, about the werewolf heads..."
"Oh that?" She asked, with the same look in her eyes as when they had first noticed the sculpture garden
"Well, I hope you're not werewolf sympathisers, the men in our family have been professional werewolf exterminators since the fourteenth century..."
**************************************
*Not being sexist here, I happen to be a girl...
Birdie: You are?
Reaper: Oh shut up!
***************Romanian Dictionary******************
-Se duce- = Go away
-Nyet- = No
-Bunic- = Grandfather
-Unprezece- = Eleven
-Betiv's- = Drunkards
-Infricosator- = Scary
-Matusa- = Aunt
-Femeie- = Woman
-Benefic- = Favoured
-Vraja Romania- = 'Magic Romania' I made this up, it's supposed to mean, like, the magical community of Romania
***********************************
Well, hope you all enjoyed... next chapter should be up this time next week!
Hope you all had better holidays than I did!
I hate my family. I wish I could have Remus' 'No Hate' attitude towards my family, but... I'm afraid mine is more like Sirius. The poor soul.
Well I'm bloody happy I'm back, so... today I'm going to answer reviews at the beginning of my story:
DBZruler66: Ahh, sugar, you can never have too much... don't worry, it won't end here! Thank you for all eternity for putting this silly little story on your favourites list, it means a lot ^_^ enjoy the chapter!^_^
This Parrot has ceased to be: Hmm, well about the English thing, you'll find out in this chapter, it's all part of the plan. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! And to clarify, 'Birdie' and 'The Reaper' are most definitely two people. You see, we were a little nervous about starting an account on our own, so we began one together. If you click on our pen name you'll see the ones I wrote (Like this one, and 'Fate Allowed') and a whole bunch of anime that Birdie did. We're just best friends and we make up these author notes together. But, we ARE both completely mad... Mwa ha ha ha ha ha (No prizes for guessing who's more insane)
Birdie: *Cough*
Anyway, Oh and, -blah- are words in Romanian, not just nonsense words I put in for no reason. Back to the story...
******************************
Chapter Three: Is't Night's Predominance?
The middle of nowhere, Romania
******************************
Tatiana was highly confused. She and Robert were just walking along, discussing Shakespeare (There wasn't much to do when you were seven miles from any form of civilisation, unless you counted the murderous werewolves in the forest) When out of the fog, a teenage girl's voice had begun calling out for aid.
In English!
Nobody /she/ knew spoke English, except for her father and paternal grandfather. They were the ones that had taught it to her and Robert and her cousins as a second language, probably because they themselves were British, and wanted to be reminded of their homeland.
Although Robert and herself would sometimes come across young Bulgarian students practising apparation across long distances, who went too far north, (usually from Durmstrang) they had never before met any British or even French students who went this far off target.
And judging by the school crests they had on their robes, a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake all curling around the letter 'H', they were from Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Taught by the infamous Albus Dumbledore, or, 'That mad, werewolf-loving old codger' as her grandfather would say. Though Tatiana was never quite sure what was so terrible about Dumbledore, he seemed okay, from what she'd read about him.
'Don't believe everything you read' grandfather would remark. She never got any further with the mystery of why Hogwarts was such a terrible place. Her father was even less responsive on the matter.
Suddenly, Robert grabbed her arm forcefully, a suspicious look in his eyes,
"They're from Hogwarts!" He hissed under his breath, Tatiana marvelled at his perceptivity, "We should just tell them to -se duce-, you know what that sort are like!"
"-Nyet-, not really, we've never met any before..." She pointed out, with a roll of her eyes.
"Honestly Tattie!" He groaned, using her abominable pet-name "Have you ever listened to a word -bunic- told us these past -unsprezece- years?"
"Bunic pays his taxes with leprechaun gold, Robert, I hardly think he's that trustworthy..."she said exasperatedly
"Werewolf-lovers and -betiv's-!" He snarled
"They don't seem that drunk to me," She observed coolly, glancing back at the confused looking, but apparently sober (Though Ron was beginning to wish otherwise) three students "And stop mixing your languages," She snapped "It's unseemly..."
Robert shrunk back, the last thing he wanted to seem was unseemly, as his sister knew... he valued father's opinion of him more than anything, and father couldn't stand unseemliness.
Tatiana rolled her eyes again, wishing that the popular belief that all twins were inseparable best friends, was true, but sadly, Robert and Tatiana were never really that close. 'Runs in the family' as father would say. Drawing up another blank, as she and Robert and two of her cousins were the only twins in the family, (and it was a VERY big family) the cousins were seven months old, and father had been telling them that all their lives. So who were the other twins?
Mother didn't understand either, and the with the amount of deep dark secrets kept in her family, she knew better than to pry from everyone she could, and just left it alone.
After adding it to her list of things she was not supposed to know.
And it was a long list.
***********************
They had been walking for several minutes, listening to the two twins bicker amongst themselves in a garbled mixture of English and Romanian.
Harry decided to try and make contact with the twins, who were arguing with far more aggression than before. From what he could tell, the boy was intent on abandoning them in the forest to be eaten by 'lycanthropes' whatever they were. The girl, much to Harry's relief, wanted to take them to someone who could help them get home.
"So... Umm..." He began. The twins didn't hear him. He began again, a little louder: "Ahem, umm, my name's Harry," He started. Names seemed as good a place as any to start.
The twins spun around. The boy threw a suspicious glance at his sister, He hissed something in her ear, and she rolled her eyes.
"I am Tatiana," She announced, "This is my brother, Robert" He detected a slight hint of a sneer on the 'Robert' and got the feeling that they didn't get along too well.
"I'm Ron" Said Ron "And that's Hermione" He indicated towards Hermione, who was looking a little flustered.
The twins exchanged confused looks.
"Herm-own-ninny" Tried Tatiana.
Harry and Ron tried to hold the laughter back. They failed miserably. Hermione brought her hand up to her head and sighed, Harry caught the word 'Krum' under her breath.
"I am sorry," Said Tatiana apologetically "Do you have a short name?" She asked
Hermione frowned, and thought hard, " 'Mione," She said finally
"My short name is Tanya" Tatiana said with disgust "Unless you're Robert, in which case it's Tattie" She shook her head "But please keep it as Tatiana,"
"Sure," Said Harry "So... do you go to school around here?" he asked
"Well, actually we go to Durmstrang" She said. Hermione gasped...
"Do you know Viktor Krum?" She asked in a very high-pitched voice, as Harry and Ron exchanged amused glances.
"Who doesn't?" Asked Tatiana with a laugh "I know OF him, but he left school two years ago, and this is my first year,"
"Why aren't you there now?" Asked Harry
"First year holiday," she explained "And, Oh! Look! We are here!"
And they looked. A building began to emerge out of the fog. Harry couldn't believe his eyes, he stood there, staring like an idiot. He hadn't stared like that since the first time he saw Hogwarts.
"You live /here/?" Asked Ron, in complete awe
"It's very...big..." Observed Hermione
"...Yeah..." Ended Harry
Well, big was one way of describing it. Harry assumed that Ron would almost envy living in a place like that, except for the fact that Ron wasn't a sadistic executioner. And that was whom Harry supposed built Tatiana's ...house.............mansion...........lair...
Big was one way of describing it. Ominous, dark, foreboding, depressing, frightening, and horrifyingly grim were also apt descriptions of the place. The fog did not help.
There was a grey polished stone path, with different stones in irregular shapes, leading up to the main entrance. Said entrance was a large double door, made of some very dark material with silver vine patterns creeping up the edges. The doors were set at the top of some stone steps and a veranda held up by some black pillars.
There were two large stain glass windows at the front of the house. It was quite wide, and at the back there were several large towers on the left side. Harry couldn't see how far back it went, but he assumed quite far. Also, the entire building had solid black curves jutting out from some of the edges and corners, making it look like the entire estate was wearing a black cloak.
Obviously the architect belonged in a mental asylum, or Azkaban, or a bottomless pit. The mansion made Harry think of Lucius Malfoy.
Malfoy. Stupid slytherin son of a-
"Umm, Tatiana..." Said Ron "Is there a town nearby we could go to instead, you know, to the-"
"Yeah, pretty -infricosator- isn't it?" Asked Robert with a bit of a sneer. Tatiana glared at him.
"Scary," She explained to them, "And I have to say, when you haven't lived here all your life, it would seem very scary..."
"Uh huh..." Agreed Harry, still in shock.
"Don't worry about it!" Assured Tatiana "There aren't any vampires or werewolves hidden under the stairs or anything!" She gave a little laugh and raced up the steps calling:
"Mama! Mama! -Matusa- Victoria!"
The three exchanged glances, shrugged, and ran after her.
"Are you sure about this?" Hissed Ron
"Well it's not like we have a choice!" Hermione shot back irritably
Ron gave Harry a look, then suddenly looked past him and gasped,
"Ughhh!" He exclaimed "What the hell is that!?"
Harry swivelled around and looked behind him, Tatiana looked back,
"What is it?" She called
Good question. It seemed to be a path leading to some sort of garden, but it was a sculpture garden. And the stone sculptures in the garden looked like they had been made by the same bloke who designed the house.
Harry had seen stone gargoyles before, almost comic looking with those bulging eyes and sticking out tongues, but these weren't like that. These were almost life-like: narrow eyed, enormous muscular models with razor sharp fangs and ripped wings. One of them actually had a sculpture of a severed arm in its mouth.
But not just gargoyles, there were monsters Harry couldn't name, there were a few hippogriffs, a painted thestral with a silver saddle, there was a sculpture of a woman with a terrified look on her face, positioned on the ground, shrinking back from some unknown terror with one of her sleeves hanging off her dress. There were also sculptures of vampires and werewolves, but in those sculptures, said monster would always be pictured dead, being stabbed or axed or beheaded.
It was actually quite sickening. The sculptor was obviously very talented, and obviously very psychotic.
"Oh, that..." Said Tatiana, with a look of something in her eyes. What it was, Harry couldn't figure out. Shame, perhaps? "That's nothing..."
"Nothing?" Gasped Ron incredulously
Robert narrowed his eyes, looking a little insulted. Surely /he/ hadn't made these? He began to speak, rather coldly:
"Every -femeie- in our family has sculpted," he snapped "For many generations! Their work is -benefic- above all other sculptors in -Vraja Romania-!"
"Stop mixing languages!" Tatiana snapped
Perhaps it wasn't such a good thing they had run into the twins, Tatiana seemed alright, but Robert was a bit of a brat, and looking at the sculptures, the rest of the family were sadistic lunatics. Ron was looking around at the sculptures with open shock and disgust, Hermione had her head down, no longer being able to look at the horrific scene, while Harry looked in vain for a model that wasn't so... unsettling
"Hey look, that one's not to bad..." He called out
Miraculously, after surveying the garden long enough he had found one that was hidden in the shadows, covered in vines and lichen. It was a .. well after wracking his brains he came to rest on 'druid', a woman wearing a hooded cloak, with a few strands of hair artfully coming loose from the hood. She had a sad look in her eyes (Sad look? She was made of stone? But they all looked so real...) but was otherwise not too horrific.
"Oh yeah..." Said Ron with an air of surprise "Who made that one?"
Tatiana shrugged nonchalantly and motioned for them to come inside.
"Come on, the sooner you get in, the sooner we can get you home..."
And Harry felt like he couldn't be happier doing anything else.
*********************************
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING WHERE HE IS???!!!" Thundered Sirius, raising the hairs on the back of Remus' neck slightly.
"Sirius, you have to understand," Said Dumbledore calmly "Mr. Malfoy's spell went wrong. We can't even determine whether they're alive or-"
"DON'T SAY IT!!!" Sirius roared.
Remus frowned and leant his head on the table. Everything inside him screamed that something terrible was happening, that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in some mortal peril. He wanted to walk forward and calm Sirius down, but his own feelings were too intense to move. If he moved, he knew he'd start crying, and he hadn't cried since...
When had he last cried? It hadn't been when Lily and James died, he had been way too far drawn into the depths of despair for that, no it had to have been before... it must have been when...
"No, I have to agree with Sirius," Tonks was stating "We shouldn't just stand around, we should go out and look-"
"And where do you suppose we start?" Said Severus icily, not too worried as Potter was practically impossible to kill, "Start sniffing around on our hands and knees in the middle of the Caribbean? Or the Pacific ocean..."
"Well it's better than sitting around doing nothing-"
"I beg to differ-"
"Look, it's my little brother out there-"
"Not to mention our only hope of defeating You-know-who-"
"I know perfectly well who's out there-"
"I suppose you're happy about this, Snivellus, a piece of good news for you to tell your master-"
"How dare you-!"
"We still have to tell Mr. and Mrs. Granger that their daughter is missing- "
And then Molly Weasley burst in to a fresh bout of tears and snuggled closer to her husband for comfort.
/Why Harry?/ Thought Remus miserably.
"Oh for gods sake woman, would you just SHUT UP!"
"HOW DARE YOU-"
/Why me?/.......
*********************************
Thankfully, Tatiana's interior decorator, though a little obsessed with wolf-hunting, was otherwise not as mentally unstable as the architect, and the inside of the house was almost pleasant (The numerous wolf heads mounted on the wall, notwithstanding.)
Hermione was confusing him a little, she kept on staring down as if there were some of those sculptures were littered about the hall, but then... Well she was a girl,* maybe the garden was a traumatic experience for her.
Tatiana brought them to a sitting room and sat them down on a comfortable expensive-looking sofa.
"You wait here," She told them, "My father, grandfather, and uncles are away, but the women should be in..." Then she broke off, running down the hall shouting:
"Mama! -Matusa-Victoria! -Matusa-Bernice! -Matusa-Ariadne! Oh where is everyone? Grandmother! -Matusa-Anetka! -Matusa-Natalya!"
As soon as she was gone Hermione turned to them angrily
"How stupid are you two?!" She hissed
Harry and Ron exchanged confused glances, were they being thick again without realising?
"What?" asked Ron
"The mounts you fools, the mounts!"
Harry looked around at the mounted wolf heads,
"What about the wolf heads?" Asked Ron
"They're not wolf heads you morons!" she snapped "They're /Werewolf/ heads, you can tell by the snout!"
Harry gasped and reeled back, staring at Hermione as if she'd suddenly sprouted spaghetti from her nostrils. His thoughts immediately travelled to Lupin and his stomach lurched.
"I think I'm going to be sick..." Said Ron weakly
Unable to keep the thought of Lupin's head mounted on a wall, Harry was pretty much sharing the same feeling as Ron. What the hell was this?
"T-Tatian-Tatiana!" He called frantically
Her head appeared in the doorway
"Yes?" She answered
"Umm, about the werewolf heads..."
"Oh that?" She asked, with the same look in her eyes as when they had first noticed the sculpture garden
"Well, I hope you're not werewolf sympathisers, the men in our family have been professional werewolf exterminators since the fourteenth century..."
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*Not being sexist here, I happen to be a girl...
Birdie: You are?
Reaper: Oh shut up!
***************Romanian Dictionary******************
-Se duce- = Go away
-Nyet- = No
-Bunic- = Grandfather
-Unprezece- = Eleven
-Betiv's- = Drunkards
-Infricosator- = Scary
-Matusa- = Aunt
-Femeie- = Woman
-Benefic- = Favoured
-Vraja Romania- = 'Magic Romania' I made this up, it's supposed to mean, like, the magical community of Romania
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Well, hope you all enjoyed... next chapter should be up this time next week!
Hope you all had better holidays than I did!