"Yes, mom, I am fully aware of the fact that I haven't gained any weight. I already told you that I'm required to stay fit," Clarisse sighed for the hundredth time that evening, feeling incredibly worn out from having to endure her mother's constant babbling.

"Clarie, sweetheart, you can't talk to me like that," her mother said with a pout that made her look like a little girl. "I'm your mother."

And people wondered why she absolutely despised being called Clarie. As if being forced to hear it from her mother wasn't enough.

"Yes, I know that too. Can we please stop talking about me, my weight and my non-existent love life?" Clarisse muttered and scratched her head with annoyance. "I really need your help, as I've mentioned a couple hundred of times."

"You really need to work on your manners. I haven't seen you for a month and now you refuse to answer any of my questions!"

"Can't you... I don't know, foretell my answers?"

"Don't be ridiculous," her mother snorted and gave her an outraged look. "The Inner Eye doesn't work on a whim."

Clarisse really doubted that it worked in general, but telling that to her mother felt completely pointless, so she simply nodded and smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry, mom. I know it's rude of me to come here and refuse to talk to you, but it's really important. My work..."

"... is the only thing that matters, I know that."

Merlin, how she hated her sometimes. It seemed almost impossible that the woman sitting in front of her, drinking her wine cheerfully had been related to her at all. Clarisse didn't even look like her. Her mother had pretty, blonde hair that fell down to her waist in an impressive wave. Her eyes were emerald green and they always seemed to see much more than anyone else's. She was the complete opposite of her daughter, but somehow it managed to elude her mind. Clarisse always had to dress the same way, like the same things and forget the meaning of the private space.

Her mother never really understood Clarisse's drive to be an Auror. She claimed that the job hadn't been carved out for a woman with a gift of Seeing. Too many dead people, she usually said and shook her head with worry, while Clarisse tried not to burst into laughter. Eventually, though, her mom had to accept the fact that her little girl had a mind of her own and said mind clearly despised the idea of Clarisse being anything else than an Auror.

"My work matters, because people are dying. I have to stop the killer before he takes another life and I need your help to do that," Riss tried to reason with the woman once again and this time, her mother nodded after rolling her eyes.

For someone so invested in her spiritual development, she surely didn't care that much for other people's well being.

"Alright. What is it, pumpkin?"

Ignoring the cute nickname her mother used, Clarisse took out the old book from her bag and carefully laid it out for her mother to see.

"One of the Aurors from the Great Britain gave me this, so you could translate it. It appears to be written in Ancient Greek, but I'm not sure," she explained, trying to find the exact page that Aedan had shown her.

Her mother looked at the book with a weird expression, but didn't say a word, allowing Clarisse to focus on the task. After several seconds, the Auror smiled with satisfaction when she spotted the familiar wounds on the woman's neck and she pushed the book towards her mother.

"That is the chapter I need you to translate. Whatever it says, we are hoping that it will help us find the killer."

"Why?" her mother whispered and lowered her palm towards the book, but didn't touch it.

"You see those marks on the woman's neck? I've seen them before. Our killer seems to favour that particular way of killing people," Clarisse explained with her eyes fixed on her mother's hand, which was shaking lightly just an inch above the page.

"I don't like this, Clarie," her mother whispered and closed her eyes for a second, an expression full of agony crossing her face. "This book is evil, I know it"

Oh, Merlin... Clarisse rolled her eyes with exasperation and sighed. If she had been given a Knut for every single time her mother had said something in that fashion, she probably wouldn't have to work till the end of her life.

"Yes, mom. It speaks of ways to murder people. It's hardly a goodnight read."

Suddenly, her mother's eyes snapped open, forcing Clarisse to take a sharp intake of breath when instead of those emerald green irises all she saw was darkness. It lasted for a second and then disappeared, as her mother withdrew her hand from above the old pages. The Auror blinked a couple of times, trying to determine whether she had just made this up, but the woman sitting across the table looked way too shaken for it to have only been a figment of Clarisse's imagination.

"Where did you get that?" her mother asked in a trembling tone and stood up rapidly, suddenly searching for something.

"I... I told you. The Auror from the UK gave it to me," she replied absentmindedly, unable to get a grip on the situation.

"And where did he get it?"

"His father brought this from one of his missions. He's an Auror too."

Her mother searched the shelve with desperation, not caring if she destroyed multiple papers lying on top of it. Finally, she grabbed a small key, which Clarisse recognized immediately as the key to the family safe. A frown appeared on her face when she realised that her mother kept something so important almost in plain sight, but she chose not to comment on that, her gaze fixed on the woman's silhouette.

She watched as the older woman walked briskly towards one of the paintings hanging on the wall, trying to unsheathe her wand from its holster attached to her thigh. A quick flick of her hand later, the painting dispersed into thin air, showing a pair of door encrusted with golden ornaments and jewels.

The safe resembled the ones used by Muggles, but Clarisse knew that it was impenetrable, as opening the lock required a key bound by magic to that exact copy of the safe. No spell would work against it, Clarisse could attest to that after spending several years trying to somehow cheat the mechanism.

Her mother opened the door with shaking hands and took out a small object wrapped in a brown paper, probably to protect it and make it as uninteresting as possible. She had seen that package before, on multiple occasions. Whenever her mother got one of her moods, that consisted mostly of telling everyone that something bad was going to happen, she wore that necklace that was now hidden inside the dull piece of folded paper.

Before Clarisse could have said something, the older woman pushed the package into her hand and then closed her palm over the one belonging to her daughter.

"I want you to take it," she hissed with force and shook her head. "This book..."

"... is evil," Clarisse finished the sentence for her and leaned forward, meeting her mother's gaze. "But why, mom? Why would you think so? Do you know what it says?"

"It's very dark, Clarie. The magic hidden inside those pages is ancient and powerful. You have to leave it alone."

"You know I can't. People are dying!"

"Better them than you!"

With that, the older woman took a few steps back and grabbed her wand once again, pointing it towards the book.

"It would be best if I burnt it down," she muttered and started to cast a spell, when Clarisse snatched the wand from her hand.

"No! I need it. You cannot simply destroy our lead, just because of some negative feelings!"

"Those are not just feelings, Clarie!" her mother exclaimed and shook her head with clear disappointment. "If only you had opened up your mind, you would know what I mean. But you have always been too stubborn for your own good."

"Oh, my mind is open! Which is why I won't let some kind of premonition get in my way of saving innocent lives!"

Clarisse truly hated those moments, when her mother looked at her with regret and disappointment. Sure enough, she had never been a perfect daughter. Hell, she had never been even a decent one, always striving for things that other girls strayed away from. She also had a bad temper - a gift from her father - and it only made her mother resent Clarisse even more.

She never wanted to hurt her mother over and over, but they weren't cut from the same cloth. No one had ever doubted that. No one, but that one woman standing in front of her with the look of utter disappointment written all over her face.

"Mark my words, sweetheart. One day you're going to find out how wrong you were. I just hope that it won't be too late to save yourself," the woman had finally whispered and her tone made a shiver run up Clarisse's spine. "I can't give you what you want. I'm sorry, Clarie."

With that, she spun around and started walking towards the door leading to the garden. Riss found herself watching her mother's silhouette with a stunned expression. Never had she seen her mother so disturbed and shaken. They had their fights, a lot of them actually, but they had always worked everything out eventually. They sure as hell didn't leave the other one in need, no matter how tense things were.

What the hell was wrong with that book? Her gaze laid upon the yellowed pages and a frown appeared on her face. The book looked completely ordinary for something that old. It also couldn't have been cursed, as Finley would undoubtedly had spotted it. He was an idiot, but not this big. And yet, her mother claimed that it held a very powerful magic within its pages.

This entire situation felt weird. With her family, things rarely got normal, but this... This was something else and Clarisse didn't know what to think of it. Her mother clearly knew more than she had told her and that knowledge scared her. It scared her to the point where she decided to give away her most treasured trophy from one of her many travels - that necklace lying safely in Clarisse's hand.

The Auror looked down and opened her palm, carefully unwrapping the piece of jewelry. Seeing that weird black and white stone reminded her of all those times she glanced at it as a little girl, wishing it could belong to her. Not that it was particularly pretty. It had this milky shade of white with multiple black veins crossing its surface in an interesting pattern. Compared to other jewels, though, it wasn't spectacular. Clarisse remembered her mother calling it a Merlinite, but there was no way of telling whether this had been the real case. Either way, according to the older woman's musings, it held a lot of power within.

Riss gently caressed its surface and felt a spark of electricity rushing through her entire arm, causing her to nearly drop the necklace. A frown appeared on her face, as she tried to once again come up with an answer to all the questions circling her tired mind. An image of the darkness filling her mothers' eyes appeared out of nowhere and she clenched her fist with the necklace inside of it.

Clarisse had never wanted to become a younger version of her mom. Actually, the thought scared her to no end. But would it be wrong to indulge the older woman for once and wear that stupid stone? She had no idea what the hell happened today, but if there was even a slight chance that her mother might have been right...

With a loud sigh, she unclasped the necklace and put it around her neck. She felt almost disappointed when nothing happened, but on the other hand, it was only a stone and stones weren't exactly dangerous last time she checked.

Her thoughts consisted of pure chaos, making her head ache. Clarisse knew that finding an explanation to her mother's behaviour had to become one of her priorities, but she still needed to translate that damned book. Finley would undoubtedly kill her if she had failed to do her job. Or worse, he would think that his stupid chauvinistic views had actually been right. She couldn't let that happen.

Sparing one last glance at the garden, Clarisse spun around and exited her family's house with her mind full of chaos.