Little Chariot was facing an extremely heavy situation in her life, with the murder of her parents, the little girl almost couldn't save herself in time, but luckily she had managed to hide from what was a disguised person, with a dark outfit, apparently wearing a bullet proof waistcoat, a gas mask with a reddish lens, that was all the Du Nord could remember of that mysterious person that showed up at her house, that was what she tried to help the police to try and solve the case.
After that she had no place to stay, since the family of the little red haired girl had practically suffered a huge attack, but luckily Laura and Bernadette saw it as a way to alleviate the whole situation by letting the little girl stay with them.

It was a tortuous way to go back, after all the information was given to the police and with the help of Rosemary too, the four of them end up going back to Scotland, this time, taking all Du Nord's things to Edinburgh too, since she would be the newest resident of the Cavendish mansion.
When they arrive there, the little girl is surprised to see all that huge mansion, surprised by its size, and also that the butlers of the mansion were surprised by the sudden absence of the two.

" What happened to you? We were worried, Daryl didn't tell us anything and suddenly you fly away " said one of the main carers of the house called Anna.

" Anna it was an emergency, I am sorry I could not communicate about this, but we are fine now, just before you could leave these bags in a room near ours, we have a new resident in our mansion " Bernadette said as the little girl went hiding in between Laura's legs somewhat embarrassed and scared.

" Oh, a new resident? Did you adopt a child? " asked the maid.

" This is Chariot Du Nord, she has just suffered a tragedy with her family and we are adopting her, because she deserves a family and she deserves a better life after all she has been through, please treat her the same way you would treat a biological daughter of ours " Said the redhead who then made a way for the girl to sneak out after her.

" I am Chariot Du Nord... I lost my father, my mother, my grandmother, my great"grandmother, everyone in my family is dead... " Said the little girl who then turned to McLaren hugging her giving a cry.

" I'll make sure to leave Chariot's things in her room, so be more than welcome to the Cavendish family," said Anna, who with the other servants of the house went to get the bags.

Hand in hand, the little girl walked to the inside of the mansion where she came across the huge open corridor, a staircase, and was completely enchanted, feeling like the biggest princess, and also saw two children who were playing there, the twins Maril and Merrill.

" Go on, you can walk freely here, the house is all yours too " Said the older Cavendish patting the little girl on the head.

Chariot starts to run to where the Cavendish twins were, but just as she was about to get close, she runs into legs and hits them almost head on, bumping into Daryl who appeared right in front of her making the little Du Nord fall to the ground sitting up, looking a little scared into those deep blue eyes of her own.

" What is that thing doing here? " Said the older Cavendish's sister, scaring the red"haired one even more, but the two soon appear to quash the snake's intimidation.

" Daryl, she is Chariot and she is our adopted daughter from now on, so I ask you to treat her with respect, if I hear that you have mistreated our girl on any occasion I will make her swallow my hand " McLaren said threatening the other Cavendish.

" Oh what a fright, so you adopted this horrible, catarrhful child? They must have found such a creature on the street, it only makes more affirmation that you don't produce children, you are two women, but it's no use, only the Cavendish gene can succeed the family... Anyway this will only affirm great rumours about you guys, plus it is also affirmation that I will have my lineage guaranteed as the one to lead the family soon... Simply pathetic... In conclusion here I won't mess with this little brat, just don't let her near my girls, I don't want them to be influenced by this rabble," said Daryl in a very intimidating way.

" Are you going to control your daughters and their freedom anyway? It's not their fault if Chariot befriends them, your girls are human beings not your puppets Daryl! I can't believe you got so much worse after Grandma died, after Tracey left. You have no respect for... " Said the furious Bernadette.

" The daughters are mine and I'll take care of them as I want, you take care of that filthy child that was caught on the street, I bet that soon the junkies of their parents will arrive, asking for custody ... " At this time the little girl didn't show any fear and ended up casting a spell that hit Daryl with everything.

" Don't talk about my mummy and daddy like that! " said the weeping little girl as she made even the snake by ending up falling sitting on the ground.

" She had her parents murdered Daryl, have more humanity you snake " Said Laura who then went on to give her adopted daughter a hug.

" It's her problem, not mine, come on girls, don't mix with these bloody people " Said the other Cavendish leaving with the twins.

From there it was a shock that Chariot started to notice in the Cavendish mansion, different from the family house where everybody loved each other, treated each other with respect, affection, even joking among themselves, always being well educated people.
In the huge mansion she is already faced with the shock of the other party being completely oblivious and even having a feeling of rivalry to the point of seeing as one side being the enemy of the other, a conflicting zone that was not expected by the little girl.

" That Daryl is bad " Chariot said.

" Even though she is my sister I have to agree with you Chariot, she is bad " Bernadette said.

" Bern! Don't say such a thing! Yeah, we know she committed atrocities we can't deny it, but she is your sister, you had the same life, she just got fed up with everything she has been going through, and she saw? " McLaren said.

" You saw that you were going to become a criminal, I went through even worse because I was the eldest and you didn't see me wanting to destroy the family, I didn't become my mother, I want to be better than her, Chariot nor Diana will be my puppets, they will be our daughters free to be who they are " Cavendish said giving the little one a cuddle.

" The house is too big, I'm afraid Daryl will catch me " Little Chariot said.

" My hand on her face will also be big if she catches you, we will always protect you " Said the redhead giving her adopted daughter a cuddle.

With that the three went hand in hand walking through the corridors, showing each corner of the huge mansion that had everything, including toys, which was what the little girl was most surprised to see, besides the huge mansion with some corridors that were a little scary, a lot for being huge empty spaces with paintings.
Until arriving at the room where the little girl's things were, who got excited with the size of the bed.

" You see all this? It's all yours Chariot " Laura said.

" It's all very wonderful, but all this is still no better than dad, mum, grandma, great"grandma... Nothing is better than them... " said the little girl, starting to tear up.

" Really nothing is better than family... I've lost everyone too " Cavendish said.

" And you ma... Laura? " Du Nord asked.

" I still have my family, one day we will meet my parents and my little sister, we still get along super well, Mr Mark, Mrs Joanne and Chelsea, they must be missing me terribly, now you have another family " McLaren said opening her arms for another hug.

" I love you Laura... Do you promise to look after me? " said the red"haired one.

" This is not a promise, it is a certainty, I will always take care of you little Chariot," said the redhead hugging the little girl.

And so the time with Chariot, Bernadette and Laura went by, for at least a good few months and years, the relationship of the three of them was creating a family tie, always with the two oldest giving all the freedom to the girl to be whatever she wanted, to like anything, for this part Du Nord always felt amazed, but for another she still had a feeling of fear when staying at the mansion.
This feeling was because of Daryl, a lot because
she always bullied the little girl when she got close, trying to scare her, even bullying her, a lot because she didn't have the same class as the others and this wasn't seen as a problem by the adoptive mothers.
It was a wonderful time that Chariot could spend having all the love and care given by Laura and Bernadette, taking the little girl everywhere, but they still hadn't got any adoption papers in all this time, with the documentation getting too stuck by the case, they kind of couldn't touch anything of it.
Only at some point this whole issue was going to escalate into something worse, something that gave Daryl reason to want more than ever to see Chariot Du Nord out of this mansion.

Saturday, 26 June 1999

Chariot was at Cavendish mansion on a summer afternoon, at her room she was playing Mario Kart 64 on her Nintendo 64, having also the company of one of the twins, in this case Merrill, who was playing with her and having a lot of fun, this from a friendship relationship that she was already making hidden with the little girl, since Daryl couldn't find out, kind of the two could enjoy the moments that she wasn't, but they weren't waiting for one thing.
Knocking at the door came, the little Du Nord now with nine years old was walking to the door that was knocked already asking the other to hide, when opening she noticed that there were Maril and also Daryl, who found with an angry expression.

" Where is she? Where did you leave my daughter, you catarrhal? " said Daryl in an intimidating way, searching the room.

" Who is it? There's no one but me " said the red haired one shrugging.

" Don't play dumb! My daughter is here and I swear if you don't find her here I will do everything I can to throw you out where you should never have left! " Cavendish said.

" I am in her room yes Mum! Chariot is my friend! I came here for... " At that moment the daughter ends up getting slapped in the face by her mother.

" You make me sick! Now I'm going to do everything I can to make your life a living hell, you brat! I knew there was something wrong with you! You are part of the rotten lineage of the invader Louise Du Nord, now it makes sense that those two took you here, but even so you should know that you have no Cavendish blood, even if you try, and they will still replace you one day, or do you think I never believed in the fertility stone " said the snake to the little girl.

" Stop treating me like this! What have I done to you?" said the furious Du Nord.

" You exist! You are the fruit of that fertility stone! But well, now everything makes sense, you're here already making my daughters head, then you'll stay here when they have the other one, or do you really think that being an adopted child you'll have all the love in the world? You're just training for when they have theirs, theirs is a real daughter, not a child taken like you " said Daryl trying to intimidate until she was slapped hard by the red haired girl.

" Shut your mouth! Don't talk about my mothers like that! " shouted the red-eyed one which caught Laura and Bernadette's attention.

Daryl was in shock at the slap he received, sort of stopped to think for a while, then grabbing the nine-year-old girl by the collar of her t-shirt, about to go to return the slap, while her daughters were watching the scene, but her hand was blocked by the presence of the foster mothers who broke up what could have been a fight.

" Don't even try to lay a finger on my daughter," the elder Cavendish said.

" Don't you try? She just slapped me! " Said the furious other Cavendish.

" Is that true Chariot? " Asked the olive green"eyed one.

" That woman spoke ill of my family, she hit Merrill just because she came to play with me and you know what, she came and played a lot, it's not the first time, she always comes here because she can't stand you treating her daughters like objects, she saw me as a friend, as someone who doesn't treat her like an animal " Chariot said.

" What I do or don't do with my daughters is not your problem, now you are going to let it go unpunished? She has no respect for her elders " said the snake.

" She has her reasons, get out of here Daryl, don't disturb our girl, she's just a child, you shouldn't hit them, that doesn't teach you anything, or do you remember how mum treated us if it worked at all? " Bernadette said.

" Shut your mouth Bernadette I swear you will suffer and pay for this disobedient girl, you can kiss her goodbye soon " Her sister said and with that she left with Chariot showing her tongue to her and Merrill trying to look back half with a worried look.

That was the trigger for a bigger situation, what Daryl needed to run after Chariot's information and get any way to get her out of the mansion, finding out by chance about her documentation not having any validation and with that it didn't take long for her to show up with an application.

This requirement that took Laura and Bernadette's custody away, even going as far as to possibly subpoena the two to take away their custody and to not risk this judicial danger, for having a foreign girl and still adopting her for the documentation arrested because of the murder investigation, was where the two had to take the most risky decision.
Taking her as a last resort to Luna Nova, where they managed to convince Holbrook to let the child stay there, as long as she studied well and continued to eat, she would do the whole roll of pretending the place was an orphanage, which kind of worked out.
But then came the disaster of 1999, when the cultists attacked the magic councils all over the world and there was nothing that could be done, besides a single, almost suicidal mission made by Laura and her friends in an attempt not to let magic die. Which in a way further opened the breach for Luna Nova to become an orphanage ever since.

Back to the present...

" That's what happened with Chariot before you were born, Diana... She was our first child, it was only for kind of three years, but they were wonderful days, we still kept on visiting her all the time, now do you realise that our relationship has always been so close? " Laura said.

" So you mean... It all makes sense now, you guys always going to Luna Nova, so it was all about taking care of Chariot, even in her career and everything? " Surprised Diana asked.

" They always gave me all the support and affection and with them I could also have another that came in the hands of Croix when she arrived there " Du Nord said.

" So does that mean we have a little sister? " Hellene asks.

" I think so, if you really want to call me sister... They've always been the most special people in the world to me, they've saved my life, they've always treated me with respect.

" I'm in shock right now, I never thought Chariot's history would be this heavy and this much, I never thought you guys would be this connected, so that means I was also competing against two people who even have a closeness to her... Woahhhh " Akko said impressed.

" Apart from the fact that I never knew she's my adopted sister," Diana said.

" So the whole time you mean that Chariot has always had that hint of Bernadette? " said Marianne also shocked.

" Who taught me to skateboard was Laura, but who taught me and trained me was Bernadette, they kind of at first were afraid of teaching me because it was dangerous and all, but I see that her two daughters are also two great future talents heh " Said the red haired girl with a smile on her face.

" I am happy to know that we now have a new generation coming up, we will look after her as if she were our granddaughter, that I can be sure of " McLaren said.

" And we as aunts " Hellene said.

Chariot's harrowing past that even when everything seemed to be going well she still had to go through a lot, this all in a shocking information of how it was that the whole roll of becoming Laura and Bernadette's adopted daughter ended up happening, how all their influence even came to be something much more like a mother"daughter relationship than really a friendship they had, something that was surprising for Hellene and Diana who are having this realisation of a past long before they existed.

See you, adopted witches...