The wind whipped past Brenda Sinclair's face beating her until her cheeks shone cherry red and although she was exhausted from fighting against it, she knew she could not give up, her pregnant daughter was huddled in her arms crying tears that almost instantly froze on her face. Her other daughter ran in front to make sure the coast was clear. The two women huddled together to keep pace with one another aswell as to conserve warmth.
Though both women were powerful witches with years of training they could not cast one measly small heating spell, no ... they would be found by the ministry and sentenced to death before completing their mission, they must only carry out the one magic spell that would save Brenda's grandchild, they couldn't risk it without first reaching the base that would hold out all others from entering other than the sinclair family. It was their great great great grandparents crypt, this was the only place that could save the Sinclair lineage, they could not fail or all would be lost.
It had been foretold long ago that the heir of Rowena Ravenclaw would defeat the greatest evil the world would ever see, but only after generations of many, many males would a daughter be born...and she would bare a child, and while pregnant she would die for her child, and that child, twice removed from the first female birth, would be the true heir of Ravenclaw, smartest of them all, she would be an extremely quick study, of course she would be beautiful as all her ancestors were, and she would be brave... she would have to be to face the life paved out for her.
...
Her history was this...
The child of Helena Ravenclaw was taken to a village nearbye her death place, where a boy of twelve years was playing by the rocks and heard screaming, a babies scream.
Helena and the bloody baron were already dead by the time the boy came into the cave, but Helena had taken the last of her dying magic and ripped open her stomach and set her baby on her coat where it screamed and as she died she sent out an amplifying charm so that someone would hear the child's cry, so that someone would save her child, so her child would live but stay a secret before anyone could track Helena as she could not bare the embarrassment a child out of wedlock would do to her family name. So she hoped with her dying mind, the baby would be raised away from magic, away from its namesake and history.
This is exactly what happened, the boy found the baby and took it home, he explained where he found the babe and a group of volunteers went to the scene of the crime...where no bodies remained and the entire scene looked as if it had never been touched by death or blood. Although the boy swears there was blood everywhere and two dead bodies, the village moved past the tale and welcomed the babe into the village with open arms, the boys parents raising the baby boy as their own.
The child lived loved and died of old age with two more baby boys born into the family, and they married and lived, loved and died until the story of the beginning of the original child's life had been lost in time and the children born of the Ravenclaw bloodline lived and died as muggles.
Until a time when one of the boys met a fortune teller...a witch of the true magic just earning a living in the muggle world, having been shunned as a low magic almost squib like witch, and so she used the only tools at her disposal, the little magical ability she truly had...the sight. It had been a boring normal day until Benedict Carlisle walked into the squib like witches hut.
She told him his fortune with fear and awe in her eyes, the fortune that would trace the path set out for a Ravenclaw baby girl, and she gave him his entire family history on a platter...he laughed right in her face telling her there's no such thing as magic.
The witch felt true anger at the mans dismissal, one of the only times the witch had done something truly extraordinary, finding the secret lineage of Rowena Ravenclaw just to be given disbelief in return for her efforts. The witch took the man by the hand and took him on a journey through a magical town and so a beautiful friendship between the two who could speak to one another about a subject no one else in their lives could relate to, they became fast friends and this soon turned to love and they married and had children of their own.
The witch drew up papers, with a small charm to protect them from wandering eyes and from any damage. An enchanted parchment that would pass down through the magical Ravenclaw bloodline until the day a girl was born, that stated the fortune told the day benedict met his witch.
So the future of the Ravenclaw bloodline was set, passed down through the generations where the magic of the bloodline grew and grew, from one great wizard to another, famous authors and aurors, alchemists and mathematicians,
healers and magic creature wranglers, they all turned out to be great wizards.
On their sixteenth birthday every one of them had a magical parchment appear as if from thin air for them to learn their family past and future. All took it rather well until one day one of the boys born of the bloodline married a woman and gave birth to a baby girl.
The baby girl reminded the man of the family future and made him cry with grief for the life his great grand child would have to bare, for the greater good.
He looked up many ways in which prophecy's could be changed but had no luck finding any proven ways in which to change a prophecy and so he set to work looking for the most powerful protection charms and spells and trinkets that he could get his hands on, it became his life's mission as he watched his baby girl, his Brenda, grow into a strong independent witch. She became dangerously powerful in fact that they had to keep moving every time she had a temper tantrum when she was a little girl as this would cause massive explosions that were hard to explain, the ministry eventually took notice, they sent a foreboding letter telling the family 'although they understood they were in difficult circumstances with a powerful young witch, the danger had to stop or the ministry would step in'. This threat pushed the family into hiding.
By the time the man was old and grey, having lived a happy mostly normal life, he had found an ancient spell that was so powerful it had been buried long ago, a spell so strong the ingredients had been unheard of and lost in time, but having spent his entire life searching and with the greatness that ran through his bloodline he was able to come up with every essential ingredient but one, one that he cringed at the thought of, a human sacrifice of powerful love, a familial sacrifice.
He prepared everything for his baby girl before he died and was lucky enough to spend some years with his granddaughter as well, Melinda. He shared all his knowledge with his daughter, who had received the same prophecy as he did when she turned sixteen, his daughter at the age of 85 knew the plan and was prepared for it to come to fruition at any point, and told her father she would carry out the plan at any cost as he lay dying.
As her daughter grew, she unexpectedly had another little girl, Belinda, this one came as a squib and had no magical powers but was loved all the same, both girls grew up adored by both of their parents. Unfortunately they did not have long with their father as he died early on in their childhood.
One day when Brenda's first born daughter came home with a boy she loved Brenda knew the time was near to carry out her fathers plan, and after they married and travelled the world they settled down to start a family, and they fell pregnant with a little girl.
Brenda knew of the prophecy, Melinda and her husband Frederick knew of the prophesy, even squib Belinda knew of the prophecy and all began to work towards their grandfathers endgame, protect the family line at all costs...Unfortunately for them a few unspeakables also knew of the prophecy and were intrigued and intent on finding the girl who was at the centre of it all...and not all unspeakables followed the letter of the ministry laws.
...
So on one stormy night a foreboding feeling came over Brenda who had the same sight as one of her great grandmothers, she knew it was time.
She called to Belinda, Melinda and Frederick, to meet her by their old family home. An hour later they all stood shivering.
Belinda turned to them all and announced, with her head held high and silent tears rolling down her face.
"It's time. The baby must be given the protection today."
Melinda and Frederick huddled together whispering words of love and adoration to one another, Belinda took a deep breath knowing although she was not a witch, her family would never be the same after tonight, and Brenda kissed each of them on the forehead, a serene smile forming on her face.
They entered the old home and each gathered the necessary ingredients for the ancient spell, when an alarm went off that someone uninvited had entered the shielded home.
Melinda heard a scream and raced towards it, as fast as she could with a pregnant belly, her wand out, ready for battle.
Frederick was slumped in the corner having been blasted in the chest, blood streaming from his mouth. A woman of small stature but a cruel smile was leaning over the illegal ingredient Frederick had gathered for the spell.
The woman was clearly about to not only take the basket of ingredients but also call for back up, knowing now she could take the prophecy child by force as they were harbouring illegal and dangerous potions ingredients. Melinda raised her wand and cast a spell at the horrible woman.
"Expulso!" The woman was thrown across the room and after hitting her head fell to the floor, knocked out.
Melinda dropped to the floor next to her husband who was barely still clutching on to life, tears streaming down her face.
"Go, save our daughter, I love you. Go!" Frederick whispered in Melinda's ear, before closing his eyes for the last time.
Melinda let out what could only be considered a banshee howl of despair, a sound that you could not unhear.
"Ahhhhh!"
Belinda witnessing the scene before her took immediate action. She dragged her distraught sister away from her deceased husbands body and whispering words of encouragement and love in her ear, grabbed the basket of ingredients and pulled her towards their mother.
They all huddled in a circle of grief and then, as the door was blasted off its hinges by an auror, disapparated into the night.
...
They made their way into the crypt and bolted the doors.
Brenda set warming charms on her daughters and gave both pepper-up potion to give them enough energy to complete the potion and spell. As soon as the spells were cast the crypt was set upon by no less than five aurors, likely unspeakables. But Brenda knew until the spell was complete and the magic drained from the area, no one outside of the family could get in.
They set about creating the potion mixing all the ingredients ,thought lost to time, in an ancient bowl that best amplified the affects of any potion, every single part of this potion is something the unspeakables would kill to get their hands on. Eventually the ingredients were mixed and the area set with amplifying magic.
Brenda took both their hands, knowing they didn't have much time left.
"My Melinda, you will tell your miracle daughter about her fearless and loving father. You'll share with her his strengths and his weaknesses, tell her about how he lived for his family, and died for them too..." Her voice broke.
"No one else was supposed to get hurt and for that I am truly sorry my love, you'll also tell your daughter of her loving and adoring grandmother, how she would do anything to protect her family."
Both girls clutched themselves to their mother as if little girls looking for safety.
"My darling daughters, I have lived and loved as well as anyone could wish, now I must give to the family."
All three women nodded their heads in sync and said "For the family."
Brenda drank the potion which would not only protect her granddaughter from muggle harm but magical harm as-well, and she spoke the spell her brilliant father found lost in history.
Sparks began to rise around them, smashing into them as if trying to break them apart, but it could not reach the three women who's hands were tightly clutched together in a circle and so the magic got angrier, and bigger.
So much so that by the end of the spell it was as if the women were in a crypt in the ocean, the magic around them had become so strong and overwhelming it looked like the waves of the sea, demanding to get in. Blood slowly began to trickle out of Belinda's mouth and without breaking the chain with her daughters she kissed Melinda's pregnant stomach then released both her daughters hands in a flourish.
The magic finally being allowed in, rushed through Brenda's body. It streamed through her in a blaze of painless fire. Her daughters looked in awe and horror as their mother quickly became one with the magic, and as the magic took Brenda with it, and drained all the surrounding ancestral magic, the crypt broke open and unspeakables flooded in casting dark spells to try to stop the magic castors but they were too late.
Although...The crypt was broken open, and one spell was cast towards Melinda, and there was a moment, before the strong magic entered the baby in Melinda, after the doors flung open, ...before the magic could protect her.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Belinda carried on with the plan, not noticing the slump in her sisters shoulders, grabbed her sisters hand and the preset port key that would take them to a safe place.
They were whisked through space before any other spell could be spoken, and landed on sand next to a small beach house.
Belinda clutched at her chest and took deep breaths while also laughing hysterically at all that had occurred in the last 24 hours. She then realised she was the only one laughing...or making any noise.
She quickly turned to her sister to see her sister wasn't moving and her eyes were closed. Belinda sat in shock leaning over her sisters dead body.
It was all for nothing?
Melinda was dead, Frederick was dead and so was Brenda...Belinda had no one left...it was all for nothing.
Belinda let out a wail of anger at the person who came up with this scheme, she screamed at her grandfather, she screamed at her mother and father, she screamed at her sister, she screamed at her ancestors, all going along with this plan...for the family.
When she finally had screamed so much she'd lost her voice and could only cry silently...she heard someone else screaming. It was muffled, and quiet but it was there.
Confused and disoriented by the sadness Belinda followed the noise, to her dead sisters stomach. The baby was crying.
Realising Melinda's baby lived Belinda quickly ran into the beach house to find a knife.
She cried again in disgust as she had to cut open her sisters stomach...until she looked into her niece's eyes.
Nothing mattered now apart from this little girl. She was Belinda's miracle and she would protect her from the world. She picked the baby up with nothing but love now covering her face. The mania of the past 24 hours faded into nothing, the deaths of her family almost inconsequential as it brought this little girl into the world safely. Belinda knew every person who died tonight for this little girl would do it again.
"For the family." Belinda whispered to the little girl.
As the girl blinked in Belinda's direction, Belinda noticed her eyes were the brightest most vibrant green she had ever seen. Belinda had a quick flashback to the monster who threw the killing curse at her beautiful sister, the green light that flashed around them had settled into the beautiful baby's eyes.
"I'm gonna call you Ava, your namesake is a tribute to your mother and a spell that will never be able to touch you again, but will always be apart of you."
And so, Ava was born.
