One Day at a Time
Seginus and Matar
I ended up procrastinating a fair amount on copying the needed pages of Nex's textbook. I didn't feel like going to Snape for the ingredients (even if he said I could), and although I owned a cauldron, it wasn't at Hogwarts; it was buried somewhere in my flat in London and I was feeling lazy enough over break that apparting there felt like an awful lot of effort. Finally, a couple of days before the end of break, I forced myself to do so.
I had a weak anti-apparting charm on my apartment, and since it was a building mostly inhabited by Muggles, I had to apparate in the alley nearby and hike up the several flights of stairs to my door. My apartment was dark, still and dusty. I illuminated the lights to be greeted by its familiar sight—it was now light, still and dusty. The small foyer/living room/dining room connected to my bedroom, in which I had a small closet. I didn't know where my cauldron was for sure, but I had a guess that it was somewhere at the back of my closet. After removing just about everything from the closet—old robes, a Muggle outfit I had used as a Halloween costume once, boxes of trinkets that I had no use for but couldn't bring myself to throw away—I found the cauldron. It had a large dent in it, but was otherwise in fairly good condition.
I carried it back into the foyer/living room/dining room, and almost dropped it in shock. My door was wide open and two men were standing in my apartment. Both of the men had short chestnut-colored hair and hollow-looking light blue eyes in sunken, sickly faces. The shorter of the two had a weaker jaw line and generally less well-defined features than the taller one. The taller one had, at one time, had a muscular frame, but instead of that muscle slowly turning into fat or disappearing it had simply become mass, mass which hung heavily on his bones and made it seem like he took up the entire room.
"Liseli," the taller one greeted me with an inclination of his head, as though it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be standing in my apartment with his wand out.
"S-Seginus, Matar, what an unexpected surprise," I smiled falsely at my two oldest brothers—Death Eaters, the both of them. "Unexpected but pleasant, pleasant of course." My mind was racing; their presence seemed distinctly threatening, but my wand was in my pocket. I would have to subtly put down the cauldron in my hands before I could stop feeling vulnerable.
"We just wanted to have a little talk with you," Seginus, the taller one, continued in a nonchalant tone.
"You see, we don't really approve of some of your activities," Matar leapt in.
"Your career—"
"Your working for Dumbledore—"
"Your disrespect for Mother and Father--"
My eyes darted about the room, trying to think of a response. "You know, I haven't seen you two in so long," I falsely smiled again. "Let me set this cauldron down so I can come give you two a hug." I started moving towards a table, but suddenly what looked like a fiery snake leapt out of Seginus's wand and wrapped itself around my lower legs. I let out a yelp as I fell forward onto the floor, and I quickly made a movement for my wand.
"Accio wand!" Matar yelled before I could so much as get my wand between my fingers.
I angrily glared at them, temporarily incapacitated and trapped. "What do you want?"
"We just want to talk," Matar said smoothly.
"And we want you to sit and listen without doing any funny stuff," Seginus elaborated.
"See, we've spent almost fifteen years in Azkaban," Matar continued.
"And we got around to asking ourselves why. Why did we spend almost fifteen torturous years in Azkaban?"
"For the cause."
"We wanted our pureblood family to be happy, to be able to flourish, without those Mudbloods and blood traitors taking away what is rightfully ours."
"And not just our family, but all pureblood families."
"So imagine our disappointment when we were released from Azkaban."
Released. Yeah, sure, I thought sarcastically. They had had life sentences. The only ones they were released by were other Death Eaters.
"And we come back home to find our family in pieces," Matar finished Seginus's thought for the umpteenth time.
"Deneb's trying to hold the family together, but we find that our beloved sister is playing the rebellious one."
I was starting to get rather aggravated. Not only were they twisting the story an extreme amount, the fiery snake immobilizing me was squeezing tighter and tighter, and I could feel its heat burn against my flesh.
"We discover that you haven't followed our loving parent's advice—"
"And what advice would that be?" I spat out, unable to hold my tongue any longer.
Matar looked surprised at being interrupted, before Seginus replied, "Why, that you should settle down and have a family, continue the line of pure blood." He said it as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"But no, instead you have a job."
"We find you trying to start a career, and ignoring your true calling," Seginus continued the story they were telling.
I was glaring at them with as much hatred as I could muster—they sounded exactly like younger versions of my parents. At this point, though, I was only half concentrating on their words. The fiery snake had become extraordinarily painful. I could smell the burning cloth of my robes and burning flesh, and I was having to use every drop of energy to not cry out in pain. It felt as though it was steadily draining my energy.
"And then just to make things worse, we hear something, something which we can't believe at first."
"That you're working for Albus Dumbledore."
"Dumbledore the Muggle lover, the reason for ours and so many fellow Death Eaters' imprisonments!"
"And you're cooperating with him."
"It was too much, we just couldn't take it."
"We decided that you'd rebelled too much."
"That you have learn your proper place." I continued glaring at them. As though they had the right to control my life!
"And we wanted to make sure your loyalties lie in the correct place." At these words the fiery snake intensified and a strangled cry issued from my mouth; it felt as though the Cruciatus curse was being performed on my lower legs.
"So that's all."
"And we'll be—ah—checking up on you."
"So make sure you take our advice."
Seginus waved his wand and the fiery snake wrapped around my lower legs disappeared instantly. Matar threw my wand at me, and with a small pop they both disapparated.
I felt weak, exhausted beyond belief. I was shaking all over, and my first attempt to stand resulted in my legs buckling underneath me. Unfortunately, Seginus and Matar had escaped from Azkaban long enough ago that the Dark Magic they had used on me had been full strength. I felt as though I simply wanted to stay lying on the floor, close my eyes and rest. I knew I couldn't do let myself do that, though, and my first thought was that somehow I had to get back to Hogwarts. By the second attempt I was able to shakily stand and walk outside of my apartment to apparate. I apparated to the edge of Hogwarts' anti-apparation barrier and started trudging across the field with small, slow steps. It had been quite a distance to apparate, and my exhaustion weighed on me like one hundred hippogriffs.
Hospital wing, hospital wing, I thought repeatedly to myself, as though by saying the words I would have enough strength to reach it. The little strength I had had directly after the curse was quickly disappearing. My steps became an uneven stagger, I continued walking while leaning against the wall, dark splotches were appearing in my vision, I couldn't focus my eyes on anything, the world seemed to be moving of its own volition, my legs couldn't hold out anymore, I tried to hold onto the wall, two men were walking down the hall, there was nothing on the wall for my fingers to grasp, the men stopped and looked towards me, the wall was slipping past my fingers, one of them was running towards me, the wall was slipping past my fingers…