George stood behind Liz watching the scene play out in front of them. Both Kyle and Liz seemed to be in shock, staring at the woman in front of them as if trying to remember where they had seen her before. He looked closer himself. Besides the black eye she was sporting there really was nothing that remarkable about the woman.
Then Kyle gasped out that one word that changed everything, "Mom?"
Liz gasped.
George watched the woman's eyes. Fear, shame and a touch of pride ran across her face. She squirmed a little, fidgeting with the sleeves of her robes while Kyle confronted her. Then he saw something that made his heart stop. While she tugged the sleeves to keep them covering her arm, she made a rip in the fabric covering the forearm gape open. He saw the dark mark. By Merlin's beard! Kyle's mother is a Death Eater?!
Kyle's mind raced when he bumped into the woman. She seems so familiar, but who… Who is she? he thought. He realized that aside from being clumsy he was being rude and staring. He stammered an apology. "I am so sorry, ma'am," he said in his best southwestern drawl.
Then suddenly it hit him who she was. The dark wavy hair and eyes so like his own. "Mom?!" he exclaimed.
Behind him he heard Liz inhale sharply at his statement and from the corner of his eye he noticed George turn to study the woman before him.
Michelle Valenti looked up quickly and gasped out in her surprise, "Kyle?! Wha… What are you doing here?"
"Um… school. What about you, what are you doing here?" he countered.
"School? But the only school around here is…" she stopped stunned by the revelation.
"Hogwarts," he finished. "I know. I go to Hogwarts."
"But… But that's impossible. You were a squib. You showed absolutely no signs of being a wizard. You took after your father," she stated grimly.
"Well I guess things change don't they? Like walking into an empty house three days after my eleventh birthday. I waited for somebody to show up. That didn't happen until six when dad got home. We scoured the neighborhoods looking for you. It was like you had just disappeared. Dad doesn't know you're a witch does he? You apparated that day didn't you? It all makes sense now. There was no trace anywhere of you. I watched out the window for YEARS waiting for you to come home. Do you have any idea what that does to a person?" he choked out bitterly.
"Oh God, Kyle, I never knew," she whispered looking stricken and fidgeting.
"How could you know? You walked out of our lives and you never even thought to look back did you? It was absolute torture around there for the first couple of years, but eventually things got better. At least until this past year, which was total chaos. But I survived. I survived without you. I know now that I can live without you in my life, so I hope you believe me when I say I hope you rot in Hell!" With that said he turned quickly and stalked away followed by Liz, Fred and George.
"I already am," she whispered brushing a tear from her face and watching as her son walked further and further away without looking back once.
"Fred!" George whispered to his twin as they were walking. They were about ten feet behind Liz and Kyle walking back to the castle. "Did you see it?" he asked.
"Did I see what?" Fred asked.
"Kyle's mum. Her robe was torn across her forearm."
"So?"
"So? So?! So she's a Death Eater, you git! She has the dark mark on her forearm," George exclaimed still whispering.
"What?!" Fred shouted and paled.
Kyle and Liz turned to see what the problem was.
"Is everything alright?" Liz asked.
"Yes, we're fine," George said nudging Fred.
"Wha… Oh yeah, perfectly fine," Fred agreed insincerely.
The Roswell teens were too preoccupied to notice.
"So what can we do about it?" Fred whispered back to George after they began walking again.
There was an owl waiting in the common room for Hermione when they all got back. Her articles had finally arrived.