"I'm glad to see you both made it back safely." Dumbledore said as they entered his office. He stood behind his desk, smiling as they walked in. "Would either of you like some tea?"
"I'd love some." Loralei smiled.
"Me too." Katie said. "Thank you."
"I am sorry about pulling you away from your significant others." Dumbledore told them. "But we do need some help."
"With what?" Loralei asked.
"I know about your talent, Loralei. I know that you see possibilities for the future." He told her.
"I can't control it." Loralei told him. "I've never been able too...it's not apart of my 'talent' as you call it."
"What do you call it if it is not a talent?" Dumbledore asked.
"It's a blessing and a curse." Loralei told him. "Either way, I don't know what I can help you with. It's not going to give me something because I ask for it. It comes randomly."
"I know." He told her, pouring the tea and handing them each a cup. "Professor Cassandra kept me up to date on you."
Loralei took a sip of tea, trying to think about what to say. "I don't know how to feel about that, honestly." She finally said after a moment.
"She thought you had a gift important enough for tell me. Take it as a compliment." He told her simply.
"Is that why I keep being sent back here?" Loralei asked softly. "Because I have a gift I can't even control."
"Not the only reason. I really do like having aurors on the school grounds." Dumbledore told her. "It just made it easier to choose who to come, though."
"If that's the reason, why didn't you tell us at the beginning?" Katie asked. "Then you could get Sirius to come here, and I can go home."
"He's not a full auror, nor is he apart of the Order...yet." Dumbledore said. "He's not supposed to be here."
"But we have different lives. We can't only work. We have to live too." Katie told him, getting upset. "She has a fiancé back home. I have a boyfriend I love. You used to preach love, and now you're making it hard to. It's not fair!"
"I know this may sound hard." Dumbledore told them. "But you're both part veelas, and there's a week left until the students come back. I need you to go see Loralei's grandfather." He saw Loralei's shocked face. "Don't act like you're surprised. I knew the moment you got your badge you would find a way to look up where you came from."
"Why do you need our help?" Loralei asked, her face turning to stone.
"I need to make sure that if they are willing to fight, they don't fall onto Voldemort's side." Dumbledore told her. "If you are willing, you will leave in the morning."
"We're willing." Loralei stated.
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Katie grabbed Loralei's arm, pulling Loralei to face her. "You're helping him? He pretty much told me that I'm only here because I'm part-fucking-veela. He's pulling us away from our families. Please tell me why you would do what he says?"
Loralei sighed. She didn't look happy about doing this either. She raised up her index finger. "One: if we go I can stop and see what Niklaus Eichmann can tell me about the time between my mother ran away and when she died. I can find out from Atli Vale what Rayna Vale said as she died." Her middle finger raised to join her index. "Two: If it makes us more likely to win the war, that means the faster we can get home. We can get to be with our families. I don't fight for Dumbledore, I fight for no one but my family. A lot of it has already been taken from me. I will not lose any more of my family."
With that, the girl pulled her arm out of Katie's grasp, and walked to their rooms.
Katie couldn't blame the girl, but unlike Loralei, her family chose to abandon her. She lost her family because the man she refused to give up didn't have pure blood. Loralei lost a family that loved her, and she wants to meet the other part of it. Loralei was able to keep her family, and add to it. Katie lost her family, and the only way for her to get one was to make it.
Katie was never as loved as Loralei was. She was used to it. She didn't expect that anyone would want her as surely as Loralei believed it. It made her sad. It made her jealous.
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"I'll go with you." Katie said that night, holding up a small backpack. "I'm already packed and everything."
Loralei smiled slightly and hugged her friend. "I knew you would." She laughed sadly, letting her friend go. "You're too good of a person to let me go alone. Through the perils of the Norwegian Mountains."
Katie sighed. "So we go to Germany to find your father and then move onto Norway?" She asked.
Loralei smiled sheepishly. "You in for a hike?"
"I have all the food I think we could possibly need for a week." Katie told her. "I have bandages and the small amount of medical training that we were trained with and a little more of what Colin taught me. I went to the book shop that is in Hogsmeade and I got a book of maps of the mountains and books on Veelas." Katie took a deep breath. "I just want to get back to my life. Just like you. If you can get Sirius here, and I can go home, we both get what we want. We both get our families."
Loralei smiled. "Extension charm?" She nodded to the bag.
"Yep."
Loralei nodded slowly. "You know, Lily is my sister, but you are too. You are my family even though you may not think it. I don't want to leave you alone here. Even if it was once magical, the magic has gone out of it since we don't have our loves around us."
Katie smiled. "We have to be each other's family. Mine abandoned me, and yours died."
Loralei loved that Katie was so straight to the point. It was much easier than being vague or running around the answer or statement. "Either way, we are all each other has. People say blood is thicker than water, but they've never had people who would die for each other before."
Katie laughed. "Those poor bastards. They don't know what they're missing."
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The blonde part-veelas stood in front of a large mansion. It was dark outside by the time they found it. The grounds were unkept and there was moss and ivy growing up the walls. The windows were so dirty that no one could possibly see inside the building. It might have been a pretty place once, but now it just seemed like it was a ruin.
There was a broken fountain in the front lawn and a dead rosebushes lining the house. Dead plants were everywhere. It looked as though it had been dead for years. It didn't look like someone could possibly live there. The occupant would have to be dead for a long time.
It reminded Loralei a bit of the Potter mansion if she didn't make sure it was well kept up. It reminded her of what it would look like if she didn't live throughout the war. She was the only one who knew how to take care of it all. Without her it would probably fall into the same ruin this once beautiful place did.
"Katie..." Loralei swallowed. "How old is this address? Are you sure Niklaus Eichmann still lives here?"
"He's owned this place since you've been alive." Katie told her, her voice uncertain. "It looked so much prettier in the picture."
Loralei nodded before letting out a breath. "Well, we're not going to get any braver standing here." She started strutting up the walkway. Anyone who looked at her would think she was the most confident person in the world, but she was actually terrified in this moment.
Katie followed her. "What's the plan?"
"If we have to get in, I go first, you cover me." Loralei told her. "It's time to see where daddy dearest lives." Loralei pulled out her wand from her robes.
Katie nodded. "Sounds good." She whispered as they reached the door.
Loralei raised her hand slowly, pausing slightly before knocking on the door. There was no answer. Loralei knocked again, and just like last time there was no answer.
"Mr. Eichmann?" Loralei called, reaching for the door handle and seeing if the door was unlocked. It was, so Loralei opened the door. "Mr. Eichmann?" She called again.
The house smelled like mold and mildew. There was a dead cockroach on the floor, and it seemed to have been there for a while. There was a sound coming from the right side of the mansion, that Loralei followed, looking into dirty rooms that had not been cleaned for many years. There was a thick layer of dust on everything.
Loralei didn't know if she hoped to find a dead body or not. She didn't even know which was sadder; finding a man living in this filth, or finding a dead body that no one seemed to miss.
There was a light under the door, so Loralei called again. "Mr. Eichmann?"
There was a scrambling, the sound of something hitting the floor and paper being rustled as Loralei slowly opened the door.
Behind it stood an old man in what looked like a suit from the forties. He was an older man with blue eyes and gray hair that had once been dark. He had wrinkles on his face, and his back was slightly hunched.
"Rayna!" He cried, lunging at Loralei. "I knew you'd come back for me!" He grabbed her before kissing her.
Loralei couldn't think, but she didn't have to. She brought her knee up, hitting him right in the family jewels.
"WHAT THE FUCK?"
A/N: Ugh! I have no idea why, but this chapter was hard to put down! I hope you all enjoyed. I know winter break is almost over, so I hope you all had a good one!
Padfood19: Loralei is a very special girl. Loralei is an auror. Loralei is part veela. Loralei can glimpse into the future. But will she have a baby? I guess we will have to wait and see! Thank you for your review!
Griffinclaw: For your first question, see above! For the second, I will say that I don't want to change the canon of Tonks and Remus. I really do like them together. That is all I feel like I can say on the subject. Haha. Thanks for your review! I'm happy you like this! I love hearing that people like to read this!
Please review!
Kat