Chapter 7

I don't own Legacies, The Vampire Diaries or The Originals, they belong to Julie Plec (and whoever else). I just own Giulia and any other OC. I'm not making any profit from writing this.

This chapter isn't betaed, any mistakes are my own and English is definitely not my first language. Constructive criticism is much appreciated, flames are not.

My spells are the results of using Google Translate to translate from English to Latin so they're probably wrong.

Spells

(Translation) : when there's no translation beside a spell it's because it comes from The Vampire Diaries, The Originals or Legacies.

Thoughts

SUNDAY MAY 24th, 2009. DAY.

Stefan left after snooping around the Gilbert parents' bedroom. She waited ten minutes staring at her watch to be sure he'd actually left before dropping the sound muffling and scent blocking spells. She then grabbed the box and walked down the stairs to the kitchen and out the backdoor into the woods.

Once she was deep in the woods, she cast a spell that 'showed' her all sentient beings in 300 metres. It was one of the many spells she'd developed, she'd hear a ping if there was anyone within that radius. There was no one.

She dropped the invisibility spell and walked to her car, placing the box in the trunk of her jeep. She sat behind the wheel and drove back to the Salvatore house.

"I'm home," she called out.

"In the kitchen!" yelled Zach.

Giulia went to the kitchen and saw Stefan, "Hey Stefan, did you find anything out about the lookalike?" She grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and bit into it, sitting down opposite the vampire.

"Just that she's not Katherine, she's completely human." he told her.

"You don't know that, she might be a witch." she pointed out.

Giulia did know that wasn't the case, but she did have Traveler blood in her, however distantly. Not that she had magic, Giulia knew Elena before she became a vampire again, and the only magical thing about her was her doppelganger blood. Had she been a Traveler, there would've been magic for her to siphon.

"You think she is?" he asked her curiously.

"Nah," she smirked, "I'm just messin with you. Her ex introduced us before they broke up last night and she's not a witch."

"Really? How can you be sure?"

Giulia stared at him incredulously for a sec, "Aren't you like, a hundred years old?" she didn't wait for an answer before continuing, "How can you not know witches can recognise each other?"

She wasn't fibbing, witches could recognise vampires, werewolves and their own kind. With enough experience, and if you knew what you were looking for, they could even recognise fairies and mermaids and all sorts of supernaturals. Little Pedro had been the best at it.

"Sorry," he apologised, "there aren't many witches willing to work with vampires, much less talk to us."

"Uh." Giulia sometimes forgot that this was the past, where ghosts had a lot more influence than they should, and the supernatural world was divided. She went to school with vampires and werewolves, they were her friends and allies. She fought with them, bled for them. They were her partners in crime. She forgot that her acceptance was unusual for a witch in this time.

She shook it off and asked him what he was planning now in regards to Elena.

"Well," he thought about it for a second, "I think I'll look into how the Gilberts and Katherine are connected. You?"

"Me?" she asked, surprised, "I don't care why Elena looks like your sire." I wouldn't be interested even if I didn't already know.

He laughed, "No, no. I meant, what are you planning?"

"Well, I start working at the Grill tomorrow and then I'll go to the library and pick up some study books."

"Homework?" he asked her.

"Giulia will be taking her placement tests on the 15th of June." said Zach. "I'm almost done, could you set the table?"

"Sure!" Giulia grabbed the plates, napkins, glasses and cutlery and prepared a table for three. Stefan offered to help but she told him to leave it to her.

"Placement exams?" asked the vampire.

"I was homeschooled so I need to take them to enrol in September." she said.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"I'm 18."

"A senior eh?" he grinned. "That's older than me."

"Oh please. You're a grandpa." she laughed. "Thank you" she told Zach as he gave her a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce.

"Thanks." said Stefan as his nephew gave him one as well.

They all sat down at the table and Giulia told Stefan, "I don't think I'll be with the seniors" she hesitated, "mom wasn't a particularly good teacher." There's no time for history and maths in war.

"That's tough," he sympathised, "I'm sure you'll do great."

Giulia smiled at him, "As long as I'm not with the freshmen, I'll be fine. Zach already offered to homeschool me if I can't stand it."

Zach swallowed the food in his mouth, "Yeah. I can get you a tutor or something."

"I'm sure you'll be fine." Stefan assured her.

Giulia smiled and changed topics to what Stefan had been doing before coming here.

§§§

SUNDAY MAY 24th, 2009. NIGHT.

"Ugh!" Giulia muffled her scream of frustration in a pillow. There were spells on her room that soundproofed it as soon as the door was locked.

"Guess there must be another journal, or more." he said.

Giulia glared at the Soul Stone, "That's not helpful" she growled. "How am I going to find them?!" She took a deep breath and asked "Did Jeremy tell you anything?"

"Only that it's how he found out about vampires. Who even told you the journals mentioned the daggers?"

"Damon." she answered. "He said that's how they found out how to deal with Elijah."

"He didn't tell you how they found them?"

"No" she snarled, "I re-read the whole binder twice already and nowhere did I write down where the journals were. I was just lucky Greyson kept them close like he did the key or I would've never found these ones either."

"Doesn't he have a brother?" he asked.

"Yeah, John." she told him absentmindedly, "Wait. Do you think he has them?" The possibility horrified her. Damon had been very clear that John Gilbert hated vampires, if he knew about the daggers, he could ruin her plans.

"It's a possibility. There's not much we can do until he comes to town."

"And then what? We can't kill Elena's dad, she has to trust us. At least at first."

Things would go more smoothly if she didn't have Elena being a loose cannon. Her final death was the prime example of why Elena Gilbert had to be managed carefully, giving her the illusion of being in control. Damon had admitted in their planning sessions that his late wife had always been that way.

"We can always wait for him to mention the journals and steal them. We don't actually know if he has them." he said.

"Where else would they be?" she asked, frustrated.

He didn't answer.

§§§

MONDAY MAY 25th, 2009. DAY.

Giulia was waitressing at the Grill. Matt had told her to just take people's orders and clean the table for today, he would show her how to work the coffee machine and the rest another day.

She headed towards the table where Tyler Lockwood was sitting, "Hey Tyler, what can I get you?"

He looked up from his phone and smirked at her, "Hey Giulia, where's Vicki?"

She pointed behind herself, "She's manning the bar, so I'll be your waitress today." She made sure to keep a smile on her face. It was starting to ache a bit but even she knew that smiles were a must in the service industry.

"Well," he looked down at his menu, "I'll get a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a coke."

"Alrighty." she chirped.

"Wait," he grabbed her arm, "I'm having a barbecue at my house on Saturday, you wanna come?"

"Ehm," she looked at Vicki and then back at him, hoping he'd understand her question.

His eyes widened and he hurried to let go of her arm, "No, no. As friends. Since, you know, you're new and all. Thought I'd introduce you around."

She smiled at him, this time for real, "That's nice of you. Thank you, I'd love to come to the party. Is there a dress code or something? Zach told me you're all big on balls around here."

Tyler laughed, "Those start in autumn. You're safe for now, just bring a swimsuit."

"Sure," she started walking away, "I'll bring your order over."

§§§

THURSDAY MAY 28th, 2009. DAY.

Giulia had no idea how she ended up at the Lockwood's house playing videogames with Tyler. Somehow, an innocent question about what Call of Duty was had led her here: sitting on the floor with Matt Donovan, the ex-future-Sheriff, and Tyler Lockwood.

"Woohoo!" she jumped up and danced around, crowing her victory in their faces. "I wo-on! I wo-on!" she sang.

"Damn it!" Tyler cursed, a frown on his face.

"Beginner's luck," Matt complained, a smile tugging at his lips.

"Yeah. You wish." Totally beginner's luck.

"Let's play something else," Tyler said.

"Do you have board games?" she asked.

"Seriously?" the future wolf asked.

She shrugged and sat back down on the carpeted floor. "If you want to keep playing, I'll watch." She grabbed a fist of chips and started snacking on them.

"Fine," he said, disgusted. "There should be some somewhere. I'll go ask Sonya." He stood up and left the room.

Matt stood too, "I'll go grab more drinks."

When the boys came back, they spent the afternoon playing monopoly. Giulia ended up going bankrupt and giving Matt terrible advice that he, smartly, refused to heed. Tyler destroyed them both, by the end of it, he owned more than half the squares and had at least one house on each one.

For once since she came back, she wasn't worrying about the future. She was a normal girl, having fun with her new friends. She had never understood those supernatural beings who wished for normalcy. Not really.

She understood wanting the war to be over, wanting to be safe, but she'd never wish her magic away. Today, she got a glimpse of what that normal would look like, and it wasn't too bad.

It wasn't for her, not for long anyway, but she wouldn't mind having more simple days like this.