Children of the Gods

by inwardtransience

When the message came, there was little left of Cassiopeia Black in her — soon she would move on, shed her face and her name for another. But, at the last possible moment, she found a reason to carry on, the smouldering embers of her identity sparking to new life. Unfortunately, adopting the Boy Who Lived came with complications. (metamorphs, fairies, AU and very weird)

10. Family — I

Surprise, bitches.

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February 1988

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Cassie stepped into the sitting room, the unnatural fires of the floo guttering out behind her. It was unusually dark in here, rain pattering light against the windowsills, she activated the lights with a muttered, "adhnadh." She tossed the booklets down onto her armchair, loosened her boots with a flick of her fingers before kicking them off in the general direction of the front door. There were a few presences on the wards — one in the dining room, probably Síomha; at least two upstairs, Violet and a friend — she tossed away her cloak, a quick wandless levitation charm bringing it the rest of the way to the rack, and slipped into the dining room.

Síomha was sitting at the table, textbooks and papers spread out in front of her, idly chewing on the end of her pen. A jacket had been hung across one of the chairs, Síomha left in a vest, showing the freckles dotted across her shoulders, her cropped orange-red hair messily uneven from repeatedly running her fingers through it. "Welcome home, a leannáin," she muttered, absently, her eyes not lifting from her papers.

"Mm." Cassie waltzed over, leaned over the back of Síomha's chair, hands propped against the table to either side — she'd been outside recently, there was still a faint scent of spring about her, wet and green. "Susan still here?"

"She's upstairs with Willow." Síomha shook her head, enough her hair fluttered against Cassie's jaw a little, grabbed her wand and vanished a couple scrawled equations with a tap. "They were playing outside with the neighbour girls for a while, until it started raining. Not sure what they're doing up there, but they did come down for tea and biscuits not long ago. Half an hour maybe."

"Good, good." Amy would be very annoyed if her kid got lost while Cassie was out, to put it mildly. "And how's it going in here?"

Síomha let out a harsh, disgusted groan. "I'm trying to isolate out this formant here," tapping at a jumble of symbols on the page, "but I can't get these damn reagents to balance, I must have tried a dozen iterations and I keep getting left with energetic reactants. The problem is I need some of the reactants of the substrate intact, especially the purifying element of the silver, so I'm limited in the—" That was about the point at which Cassie got completely lost, Síomha rambling on, thinking out loud, with far too much technical alchemy jargon for Cassie to follow along. She'd never really studied alchemy much, and especially not in Gaelic — most of the terms were Latin borrowings, but still, Cassie wasn't even sure what "energetic reactants" was supposed to mean...

Eventually she fell quiet, it took a second for Cassie to realise she'd finished with a question. "I don't know, you're asking the wrong person — I never really learned much alchemy at all. I know a little bit about blood alchemy, but just things I picked up from gossip over the years, not enough to even say basic shite about it."

Síomha let out a little, distracted scoff. "You're useless to me."

"Mm. Were you staying, or do you have to go home?"

"Ah..." Síomha scritched out a couple symbols, then immediately grimaced, vanishing them again. "...sure? I have class tomorrow, I'll have to get up early so I can go home and change, but."

"All right. I'll start dinner in a couple hours, then."

"Okay." The word came out muttered, absent, Síomha clearly thinking through her arithmancy. Which was, looking over the page, just completely incomprehensible to Cassie. Not only had she never studied alchemy, but she also just didn't have the head for arithmancy — she had gotten the NEWT, but it'd hardly been her best class, and she hadn't used it for anything besides picking up new spells or designing wards ever since.

Honestly, Cassie had never even considered continuing into Mastery study for anything. She'd gone straight into the Aurors practically right after graduation — after taking a year or two off to kick around the Continent, anyway — and Cassie had the entire absurd wealth her family had gathered over uncountable generations to lean on, so she really didn't have to worry about having academic qualifications or whatever else. Since she'd met Síomha, she'd had vague thoughts about going to the Academy or some other school and, she didn't know, studying history or something, but just idle wonderings, never anything serious, she doubted she'd ever bother.

For a minute, Cassie just watched Síomha work over her shoulder, very slowly poking through whatever this project was (frequently breaking to vanish work she was unhappy with), breathing through her hair — under the echo of spring was something smooth and sweet and vaguely herbal, the rosehip oil Síomha used as a conditioner. She wasn't getting anything out of watching Síomha write anyway, she turned her head, following Síomha's hair down, the strands itching against her nose. Gently nudging her way through, the rosehip oil smell was strangely strong on Síomha's neck — must have gotten caught in the rain, excess oil running down — her skin warm and smooth—

"Hey hey hey!" Síomha groaned, cringing away from Cassie's face, her back arching at an awkward angle. Turning to look up at Cassie — forcing a glare but not quite managing it perfectly, her lips twitching — she said, "I'm trying to work here, Cassie."

"Sorry, got carried away."

"You're not sorry."

"Not in the slightest." Cassie straightened, giving Síomha a careless smirk. "I still have those herring cuts, I thought I could bake some curried vegetables alongside." In a separate pan, definitely. Violet wasn't very picky in general, and she would eat fish, she just didn't like the fish taste getting into her potatoes — and she tended to eat things sequentially, that is, finish off one thing on her plate completely before moving on to the next, instead of switching off between the meat and the vegetables...but she would eat pies and things where it was all mixed together...unless it was fish, she didn't like fish pies. Which Cassie still thought was all slightly weird, but it wasn't difficult to accommodate, and she remembered Dorea and a lot of her nieces and nephews being much pickier, so.

"Shite, I love eating here. And you've always got biscuits and cakes and things — you know, I might have to move in just for the food."

"Just for the food, huh?" Her parents and aunts being irritating surely had nothing to do with it. Not to mention the sex.

"Mostly for the food."

"Mm-hmm, sure." Cassie ruffled Síomha's already messy hair, the younger woman let out a huff but didn't bother reaching to fix it. "I need to go over the rulebooks and things, so I'll leave you to it. I'll come get you when dinner's ready."

Detouring to the kitchen only long enough to pick up some coffee and a couple ginger biscuits, Cassie returned to the sitting room and her discarded booklets. Actually joining the IDL had been very straightforward — there'd been some paperwork, a brief interview, an even shorter medical exam (would normally be longer, but metamorph), and a fee to pay — but going through the various rules and shite would probably be a good idea. Just because she was a member already didn't mean she knew what the fuck she was doing.

It wasn't too complicated, thankfully. There were procedures for registering exhibition matches and the like, which she could mostly ignore, as she doubted she'd be doing much of that anyway. Official tournaments and the like were announced in a newsletter thing, but that only included the ones associated with the IDL, meaning she'd have to go somewhere else to find events outside the ICW. Luckily, there was a list she could join for people who wished to be invited to events — organisers around the world looking for participants would ask the IDL for their list, select a batch of names, and request the IDL send out letters officially inviting them, with travel and lodging information and so forth, which sounded very convenient. She could go ahead and write a letter to be put on the list right now, in fact, let's see...

After writing the letter and handing it off to Nola to give to one of the owls back at Ancient House, Cassie continued on. There were all kinds of rules about members reporting expenses, and gifts and sponsorships and the like — the IDL didn't cover expenses or do anything about things duellists were given by other parties, it all just went on their books as evidence to be used should accusations of fixing matches come up. Which also wasn't a concern of Cassie's, since obviously she didn't have to worry about getting sponsorships to pay her way or whatever. And then there was commercial stuff — duellists were obviously allowed to use their own image for books or posters or clothing or other merchandise, whatever, but there were rules about using the IDL name or their events or employees — which was also irrelevant for Cassie. There were residency requirements (IDL members had to live primarily in the ICW), travel and customs rules involving registered duellists, international law regarding how civil and criminal charges would be prosecuted, and so forth and so on — most of that didn't even apply to Cassie, as she was nobility and therefore considered a visiting state dignitary when on foreign soil, which brought entirely different rules into effect, so she mostly skipped over all of that.

(But only mostly: how much that technicality was actually respected these days varied country to country. Which wasn't a surprise, since Britain was one of only a handful of countries in the entire world that was still ruled by a hereditary aristocracy — Britain might throw a strop if someone flouted what was technically international law, but some countries were less likely to give a damn than others. Cassie didn't plan on travelling around doing crimes, though, so it mostly didn't matter anyway.)

Right, that was mostly all the boring stuff taken care of — the rest of the documentation dealt with the different kinds of official events, and what exactly the rules for each were. It probably wasn't important to read all of that, but she should skim through it, just in case anything relevant caught her eye. But it was starting to get into the evening, so Cassie should get dinner going. Nola popped into the kitchen a couple seconds after her — he'd made a habit of doing that at mealtimes, since she was regularly cooking for Violet now (elves could be slightly obsessive about children sometimes) — but she didn't really need help. He could peel and chop the vegetables, she guessed...

It didn't take long until the veggies were ready and seasoned and wrapped up and chucked in the oven — the fish was still sitting out on the counter, though, since it would take less time to cook. She wasn't sure how much less time, but she figured once it started smelling like curry in here that should be close enough. (She could always speed one or the other along with charmwork if she timed it wrong.) She hopped up onto the counter, skimming through the pages of disciplinary rulings while she waited, idly sipping at coffee.

She thought it was getting pretty close to time to put in the fish when she heard the chatter of childish voices from the stairs, Violet and Susan coming down. As they came into view, Cassie looked up from her book, surreptitiously watching out of the corner of her eye. Little Susan was in muggle-style skirt and blouse this time (Sophie Abbott, a school friend of Susan's mother and her frequent caretaker, was muggleborn), and today Violet was actually wearing shorts — she tended to prefer skirts and dresses and the like, trousers or shorts were pretty rare. They were talking about something completely inane, some childrens' books Cassie wasn't familiar with. It'd be hard to keep up, they were mostly recent and Violet was a good reader, she burned through the things surprisingly quickly. Cassie wasn't the most familiar with what would be expected for a child her age, but still...

Watching them, Cassie couldn't help smiling to herself a little — Violet had been so shy and quiet at first, but she'd obviously made a lot of progress there. She was still a bit awkward, and the stammering didn't help, but still, great improvement in even such a short amount of time. (But then, children did change quickly.) Moving somewhere with plenty of kids around and visiting the Starlighters had been excellent ideas.

Near the bottom of the stairs, Susan let out a little startled, "Oh!" when she finally spotted Cassie in the kitchen, hitching on one of the lower steps. "Hello, Aunt Cassie."

"Hey, kid. Were you going home? There should be enough for you if you wanted to stay for dinner." Speaking of which, she could definitely smell the vegetables now, she should go ahead and get the fish in the oven...

"No, Mum said she'll be home for dinner this time. Thanks, though."

"No problem. Go on then, don't let me keep you." Amy got little enough time with Susan as it was, Cassie shouldn't be stealing any more of it than absolutely necessary.

A moment after sticking the fish in the oven she heard the roar of the floo, Susan sent on her way. Cassie hopped back up on the counter, continued flipping through the rule book — less because she had anything further she needed to know, more because she needed something to do in the ten minutes or so before dinner was finished. Most of this was pretty straightforward, just try not to kill anyone and she should be fine...

Glancing up as she reached for her coffee, Cassie finally realised Violet had come back, sitting in one of the stools at the counter. "Oh! I'm sorry, Violet darling, I didn't see you there." She could be such a quiet little thing...

"'S okay." Violet wasn't looking directly at her, at the wall behind her or the ceiling or the counter, her shoulders shifting just slightly in a way that told Cassie she was kicking her feet.

She was definitely thinking about something — the subtle swaying was a pretty good hint, and the eyes wandering could be nervousness — but whatever it was it would take a moment. Cassie turned back to her rule book, hopefully not feeling like she was being watched would help with the nervousness.

"I was thinking."

"What about?"

Violet didn't answer right away, Cassie glanced that way to find the swaying was a little more obvious, eyebrows dipping in a frown. Finally, she opened her mouth...and didn't say anything, after a couple seconds closed it again and took a breath through her nose — probably one of those times she stammered on a vowel again. "Susan and me, we were t-t-talking."

Cassie waited for her to go on, but it didn't look like she meant to. "I'm pretty sure you and Susan were talking for hours. You two have a good visit today?"

"Mhm. It started r-raining, so we had to g-g-g—" Violet broke off, let out a short, irritated huff. "W-w-we were d-drawing."

"Ah, I see." Violet did like to draw — most of the day, when she wasn't out with the neighbour kids, she was mostly drawing, reading, or working on a puzzle. She seemed to be pretty decent at it too, for a child her age, but Cassie hadn't spent a lot of time around kids for a while, so she didn't entirely trust her ability to judge such things.

"We t-talked about her and..." Violet's throat got caught on a vowel again. "...her mum. Her and her mum, you knnnow."

Cassie didn't know, actually. "What about Susan and Amy?"

Again, Violet didn't answer right away, still subtly swaying, her eyes avoiding Cassie's and feet invisibly kicking. "I d-don't g-guh-g-get things, sometimes. People are really con-confusing."

...Okay. "That's not unusual for a child your age. You're still learning, it's okay if you don't understand things sometimes."

Violet let out a little hum. "Susan remembers, when she was l-little, and Amy t-told her she's not her mum. Nnnot really. She d-d-d-didn't... She d-didn't understand, at first, not really, and still c-c-calls her her mum and everything."

"Yes." Cassie had no idea where this was going, but yes, Amy had actually mentioned that. "Elizabeth died before Susan was old enough to remember her, I wouldn't be surprised if she just assumed Amy was her mum when she was really little. Since Susan was meeting other noble kids, some of her more distant cousins, Amy wanted to make it clear, just in case someone else said something about it. So she didn't get confused or upset, you see. But that didn't change anything between them, so. Darling, did something happen with Amy and Susan?"

"N-nno, I was only thinking." Violet suddenly froze, the swaying stopped, her gaze fixed on the counter. After a quick hup of breath, she spoke slowly and precisely — trying very hard to avoid stammering, Cassie assumed. "I was thinking about Susan and Amy and, everything, and I was– is it okay if I c-call you my mum?"

Cassie froze.

The silence continued on for some seconds, broken only by the light pattering of rain against the house — the occasional scritch of a quill from the dining room had even stopped. Cassie was barely breathing, the air heavy with vegetables and spices too thick in her throat, her heart pounding dull in her ears.

Violet growing visibly uncomfortable, her shoulders tensing and her head dipping further down, was what finally kicked Cassie into motion again. "I don—" Cassie cleared her throat, took a sip of her coffee. "If you want to. I wouldn't make you if you don't... I mean, yes, if you want to, Violet darling, you can. That's okay." Slightly terrifying, fuck, Cassie had no fucking clue what she was doing...

The girl relaxed, enough she even let out an audible sigh. Cassie was suddenly certain that Violet had been concerned she was about to be punished, maybe there was history with the Dursleys there, Cassie should have answered more quickly, she'd just been so blindsided... "Okay," Violet said, nodding a little. She squeezed her eyes shut, concentrating, there was a hot tingle of light magic on the air, and—

A blink later, and Violet had forced a change, her face slightly different but the most obvious was her hair. Longer, falling over her shoulders in curling ringlets, blonde with occasional flecks of light brown here and there for texture — a hell of a lot like Cassie's, she noted instantly. Violet plucked up a lock of it, holding it up where she could get a look, glanced quick at Cassie. Making sure she'd gotten it right?

Violet nodded to herself, let go off her hair. "Is dinner g-gonna be ready soon?"

"...Yeah. Five minutes, about."

"Mkay. I'm g-g-g-g—" Violet huffed. "Ugh. Wash up." She tipped off the stool, and then walked away without another word, vanishing through the door down toward the bathroom.

Cassie was left sitting on the counter, staring in the direction Violet had disappeared in, blank with shock.

She'd hardly moved a muscle when, maybe half a minute later, Síomha silently slipped into the room. "I heard all that from in there," she said, her voice kept low, so it wouldn't carry downstairs. Coming close, bumping against Cassie's knee a little, "You okay?"

Her throat too thick, she had to swallow before she could even attempt to find her voice. "Um. Yeah." Síomha shuffled closer, slipping between Cassie's knees, her hands lightly resting on her hips, Cassie's ended up on her shoulders without really thinking about it. "I just... This was a terrible idea, is all."

"What? Why?"

"I'm going to fuck it up. I'm such a mess, I always have been, and I don't..."

Cassie ruined everything she touched. She always had.

That was the feeling she had, anyway — she knew it wasn't true, intellectually, but... Well, she'd never been particularly successful at performing as expected of a member of her class. There were allowances for people who were for whatever reason unsuited to the role of women in the nobility — at least in the Dark there were, the Light was more particular about it — but there were limits on those allowances. If she didn't want to marry and raise children and manage a household, negotiate the politics that came alongside, she could be an academic or a warrior, and that was pretty much it. There was a time, once, that she tried her hand at the proper lady thing, but she quickly found she was terrible at it (politics just wasn't her game, didn't have the patience for it), and her first forays into courting went disastrously — and she didn't really have the head for academia, so warrior it was.

Her mother had been very frustrated, almost heartbroken, by Cassie's insistence on going into an apprenticeship with the Aurors soon after graduation. In retrospect, Cassie suspected she'd mostly been concerned Cassie would get herself killed...or get wrapped up in something controversial that would harm theoretical future marriage prospects. (It'd already been getting a little late to put herself on the market, so to speak, but she could be any age she pleased, so it hardly mattered.) At the time, Cassie had only recognised the latter, and it'd blown up into a horrible argument — it'd ended with her mother in tears, after Cassie had (rather angrily) admitted that she absolutely would not be consenting to a marriage, ever, in no small part because she found the thought of undergoing pregnancy and childbirth viscerally horrifying. She didn't know why that was, honestly, just one of those things — though she guessed it didn't help that she would have to be very careful about not changing too much for nine months, which sounded exhausting — just as how she wasn't certain even with the benefit of hindsight why that had affected Mother so badly, but she guessed it didn't matter anymore.

Grandfather Phineas, who'd still been Lord Black at the time, had tried to change her mind, arguing back and forth for what had felt like hours, but he'd eventually signed off on it. After already making her mother cry over it, she could hardly back out at that point.

She'd been an Auror for most of her life, and she couldn't even say she'd been particularly good at it — the number of reprimands she'd gotten, complaints from one Lord or another... Just as she couldn't bring herself to conform perfectly to the behavioural expectations of the nobility, neither could she for Aurors...which was a little bit more of a problem, since established protocol and procedures and shite existed for a reason. Sometimes they were just stupid, though, and Cassie had never had much patience for stupid shite. Sure, sometimes she couldn't justify her certainty that she had the right person, but she'd ended up getting a confession verified by truth spells, so did it really matter? And yeah, she hadn't had proper authorisation to trespass onto private property, but she'd found proof of her suspicion that her culprit had been kidnapping, raping, and murdering girls, in the form of a ten-year-old imprisoned in the prick's cellar, and gods witness, Thorpe, if you try to pry your worthless shitestain of a nephew out of this on a technicality due to improper investigative procedures I will murder him myself, you can challenge me to a duel over it if you don't like it.

(Lord Thorpe had ended up challenging her to a duel over it, and Cassie had kicked his arse; Cassie's behaviour ended up causing the House political difficulties over the next months, Archie had been very annoyed with her. The worthless shitestain in question had died in Azkaban years later, so she honestly couldn't say she cared.)

In her early years, she'd had her godfather covering for her, and by the time he'd retired she'd already built a degree of seniority, so it would be more difficult to be rid of her. She suspected she would never have made it in the Aurors otherwise.

Sometimes, she thought she must have been born in the wrong time. There were few enough legitimate avenues for warriors in the modern day — perhaps she might have had an easier time if she'd been born a millennium ago, or a millennium before that. But, when she gave it proper thought, perhaps not: after all, the same behaviour back then would certainly have resulted in innumerable blood feuds, to almost certainly result in her family being destroyed by the enemies she'd made. As terribly restrictive as she might find the Ministry as it existed, it provided protection as well.

She'd mellowed out somewhat with age, due in part, she thought, to watching her family be completely destroyed in an idiotic war. The House of Black had already been in a weak position — economically and politically, no, but their numbers had greatly diminished. There'd been hundreds of Blacks, once, but they'd fared badly in the chaos leading up to Secrecy, the war with Cromwell and her people reducing the House by nine-tenths within a single generation, and their population had slowly declined ever since, due to a host of factors. Cassie's generation and the ones just before hers, they'd had enough children it shouldn't have been a problem...but too many of the men were killed in accidents in their youth, or refused marriage for whatever reason, and too many of the women, who were disproportionately numerous in recent generations, had married out.

The House of Black had been matrilineal, centuries ago, and hardly unique for it, but slow changes in British culture had eventually made that impractical. There were still other matrilineal Noble Houses, but primarily among their close political allies, close enough that there was little to be gained by further intermarrying with them (besides greater risk of heritable illness, of course). The only woman born a Black to marry and remain within the House in recent memory was her niece Walburga — and her husband had been another Black, her nephew Orion, so that wasn't exactly solving the problem. Given how the sex ratio had worked out in recent generations, the House had already been bleeding, badly.

(And Cassie's refusal to marry or have children herself hadn't helped.)

And then they'd bled literally — and it'd begun by their own hands. Cassie didn't know how it'd happened, she hadn't been around enough, but something had gone wrong at some point between her parents' generation and the one after Cassie's, terribly wrong. Too many of her nieces and nephews had turned out to be vile, abusive sacks of shite, and she had no idea how it'd happened. Concerned with her own (volatile) relationships outside the House, she hadn't noticed it happening, not until it'd already been far too late. She'd been around the kids some, especially when they'd been young, and they could have said something, she would have— But no, she couldn't blame them, it wasn't their fault, obviously. And no adult in their lives had ever done shite about it before, how should they possibly have expected that she would? For all they knew, Cassie could have already been aware, and chosen to do nothing.

In fact, Andi had admitted — only recently, when they'd discussed the possibility of Cassie and Violet visiting for Christmas — that she'd assumed exactly that. That, while she had been the favourite aunt of most of the children, she'd been seen as a reprieve but not an ally, not someone they could trust would be on their side if they asked for help.

Because she hadn't been there. Not when it'd mattered.

And now they were all gone. Her sister, her cousins, her nieces and nephews — of those who carried the name, only Walburga was left, and she was quite mad, suffocated in her own hatred and misery. Lost to accident or disease — or, in the case of Lycoris, by her own hand — and to murder, Dorea, Orion, Alphard, Cygnus. Though she was loathe to include Cygnus, as he'd been killed by his own daughter he'd abused throughout her childhood, if Bella had only told Cassie she would have done it herself decades earlier. Regulus, lost, Cygnus's girls all married out, Narcissa alone wanting anything to do with the House of Black any longer, Sirius in Azkaban...

Her family had been torn apart, and she'd been so blind in her selfishness that she hadn't even seen it coming until it'd been too late. And so they were only four, Archie, Pollus, Walburga, and herself. And they were old — they would be the last before the House of Black finally died, a legacy carried on for three thousand years or longer finally lost.

And it was her fault.

She knew rationally that that wasn't so, but she couldn't help the feeling. If she'd only been less...the way she was, if she'd only paid more attention to the signs (there must have been signs), if she weren't so uncomfortable with the idea of carrying a child, if only it were legal for her to marry a woman so she needn't do it herself...

Though that wouldn't have solved the problem — her personal relationships had never been particularly stable to begin with. She could handle professional acquaintanceships, friendships, even intense, sexual friendships. Beyond that, it always fell apart. She didn't know why, it... She always sabotaged herself, without truly meaning to — sometimes even knowing as she was doing it that she was crossing a line, what the consequences would be, that she was hurting her partner and herself, but even then she couldn't stop. It was a compulsion, she didn't know where it came from, she just...

Actually having a child with someone, no, that was beyond her, she was certain. She would do something to fuck it up long before it could ever get to that point. Which didn't rule out adoption, true, but she...

She didn't trust herself to raise a child, not really. Because she ruined everything she touched, her career one scandal after another and her family gone and her relationships self-sabotaged...and after learning of how her cousins and her nieces and nephews had treated their own children, she... She always ruined everything, and she did not want to ruin a helpless child — that was one line she hadn't yet crossed, and she had few enough of those left.

When she'd found Violet, she... She hadn't thought. She'd just done it. Violet couldn't stay there, and she had nowhere else to go, and there were few enough metamorphs in Britain, and she needed help, and...

She'd already failed enough children of the House of Black, not being there for them when they'd needed her. She could hardly permit herself to fail again.

She hadn't been thinking, if she had she might have...she didn't know, gone to the Tugwoods, or the Eirsleys, or— Hell, maybe Rufus, Cassie was sure he had a niece who would take her, the Scrimgeours would have been an excellent choice. But she hadn't been thinking. In the moment, she'd seen yet another child of the House of Black suffering, and she wasn't letting this one out of her sight, she just couldn't.

But this was a terrible idea. She had no fucking idea what she was doing raising a child — playing the fun aunt, sure, that she could do, but she hadn't... This wasn't something she'd ever done before, and Violet had already been hurt, she needed someone to do it right, and... She was trying, everything she could think of, and making sure there were plenty of other people around who could fill in the gaps, who Violet could go to if (when) she fucked something up, people who could tell her when she was fucking something up, because she didn't know what she was doing, and she was terrified she—

She couldn't get the image out of her head, at Cygnus's funeral, Bella openly admitting what she'd done and why, proud and angry, but her fists shaking at her hips and her eyes red and wavering; fighting alongside Death Eaters, but not even bothering to cover her face as the others did, features twisted into a hateful sneer, curses crackling powerful and vicious, she...

Cassie didn't want...

She was going to fuck it up, she fucked everything up. Violet shouldn't get— She shouldn't want this, Cassie was only going to hurt her in the end. Like she always did.

"Hey now, shh shh." Cassie twitched as Síomha slipped closer, her arms wrapping loosely around Cassie's waist, gently pulling her into a hug, soft and warm. Which was a little awkward, given Cassie was sitting on the counter right now — she let out a little breath of a scoff, amused despite herself. "None of that, now."

...None of what?

Confused, her arms automatically finding their way around Síomha, Cassie couldn't think of what to say. So Síomha went on after a brief silence, her voice low, the Gaelic flittering almost poetical. "You're too hard on yourself, chainéalach. You're doing fine, it's going to be okay."

"You haven't known me very long, Síomha, it always—"

"Shh, shh." Síomha pulled back, but only enough to press a kiss to Cassie's lips, soft and sweet — Cassie was too confused and overwhelmed to do anything but, just, go along with it. "I'm looking in from the outside," Síomha whispered, her lips occasionally brushing Cassie's and her breath ghosting down her neck, "and the change has been striking. Even in just a few months. You're not so sharp and harsh as before, you've stopped drinking so much, you smile more. And you care so much, you're always thinking about Willow, how to make her well and happy, she's near all you talk about these days. And even since I first met her, which wasn't that long ago, she's doing so much better already, anyone can see it looking at her. You're doing a great job, really.

"You're not going to fuck it up." Another kiss, soft and warm. "And there are people you can ask if you need help." And another. "It'll be okay." Another. "Okay?"

"...Yeah." Yeah, she was probably right. Cassie was just— She'd noticed how much better Violet was doing herself, and she was... Well, she had stopped drinking, and...things. It was irrational, she knew it was irrational, Violet wanting to— It'd just freaked her out for a second, that was all. "You're right, I'm just. Well."

"I understand, I know you've been through a lot. Well, I don't really understand, I guess, but I get it. And I don't think I've ever actually seen you cry before."

"What?" Turning her head, enough that she could get at her face around Síomha, she touched her fingers under her eye and... There was a little bit of wetness there — not a lot, no, but unmistakable. "Huh. I didn't even notice." Her throat was a little tense, now that she was thinking about it, but...

Síomha let out a little hum, one of her arms moving, fingertips coming up to turn Cassie's face back toward her. There was a brief hesitation, Síomha's eyes darting to the side for a second, refining what she wanted to say. But in the end she didn't say anything, and just kissed Cassie again instead.

Which worked for her, Cassie guessed — even though she was still very confused. Síomha being all soft and sweet wasn't making her less confused, but she was hardly complaining, so.

There was clacking from somewhere nearby, the beads in the curtain splitting off the stairs pushed aside. Cassie twitched, leaned a little away from Síomha — she was hardly hiding her lovers from Violet, but she hadn't forgotten being walked in on with Rufus, that had been uncomfortable — and Síomha smoothly retreated a step, turning to smile in Violet's direction. "There you are, Willow, I think dinner is almost— Oh! You changed your hair!"

"Yes, ah-I did."

"Hmm, you wanted to look more like your mum?" Oh, that sounded weird. Síomha started walking off, giving Cassie enough room to hop off the counter — the fish should be done at this point, she thought, she should at least check...

She looked around in time to catch Violet glancing at her, looking almost... No, Cassie didn't know what that look was. Nervous, maybe, embarrassed? Violet looked away the instant she was caught, shifting in place a little. Her response had been delayed, Cassie had assumed she hadn't quite understood the Gaelic, but now it seemed like it was something else — not that she could guess what, Violet could be hard to read sometimes. "Um. I g-g-g-guess. Bleh."

"Well, I think that's very sweet. And the colour is nice too — I happen to like blondes, you know." There was a little noise from Violet, maybe surprised, followed by a giggle from Síomha.

Cassie wasn't looking at the moment, checking on the fish, but she was going to go out on a limb and guess Síomha had just ruffled her hair. Smirking to herself a little, she said, "She's a little young for you." When she did the maths, Síomha was actually a smaller fraction of Cassie's age than Violet was Síomha's, which was a bloody weird thought, when did she get so old...

"Oh, hush you. Anyway, I thought I'd go out and grab a bottle of wine, if you want?"

They did have wine, but it wasn't actually in the house. Sometimes it was only appropriate to offer wine with certain meals, especially if they had guests over, so she did need to have some around. There was a cellar out in the courtyard, meant to store food to be shared between the homes on the square — very old, from a time before modern grocers — Cassie had some wine, brandy, and gin in there. She had told the neighbours they could pull from her stock as they liked, but a large part of why she'd put it out there was precisely so it wouldn't be in the house — she thought needing to go out in the courtyard, and possibly be seen, might make her think twice before drinking when she really shouldn't.

Wandlessly levitating both pans down to the hob, Cassie glanced over her shoulder to find Síomha smirking back at her, one hand resting on Violet's shoulder. Violet did look a little uncomfortable, but Cassie couldn't guess whether it was from the hugging or the teasing. "Sure, but only the one bottle tonight." Splitting one bottle with someone would barely be enough for her to notice it, and as long as they stopped there it should be fine — she'd mostly been relying on whoever she was with at the time to manage this stuff, it was working out so far. None of her current lovers happened to be heavy drinkers, so.

While Cassie checked the fish and the veggies — everything looked about right, good, she was getting kind of hungry — she heard the squeaking rattle of Violet dragging her stepstool around, glanced that way to see her climbing up to reach into a cabinet. Cassie watched as she carefully went back down the stairs, three plates held in both arms — Violet insisted on helping, but Cassie could at least be ready to catch her if something happened. By the time everything was ready, the fish carefully loosened from the pan and a bit of cream added to the curry sauce — she cheated and transfigured it evenly throughout, it would have been awkward to mix it properly while still in the pan — the plates had been set out in front of the stool, with forks and knives, Violet had even gotten wine glasses for—

Oh, knives! She'd completely forgotten about bread, bloody genius over here. That wasn't difficult to fix, they had a loaf in stasis in one of the cabinets just here, a little trickle of water and a warming charm, dishes of butter and honey, and there we go. Couldn't believe she'd forgotten about bread, there was even sauce to mop up and everything, honestly...

The platters set to levitate along over her shoulders, Cassie made a brief detour to pick up a bowl and a saucer. The fish were all easily levitated off the pan and down onto the plates — she sent the pan off to the sink once it was empty, still hot enough the drops of water in the basin sizzled a little. Then the veggies were divided up into three parts — though one was quite smaller than the other two, Violet was still so little — using a hovering charm to get the sauce to lift off the surface before directing it all where it was meant to go, the two larger directly onto plates and the smaller one into the bowl, so the curry sauce and the buttery juice from the fish wouldn't get mixed up.

Already sitting in her stool, Violet let out a little, "Oh. Um. Thanks."

"Of course, darling. Give me a second, and..." A quick cutting charm to slice off a bit of bread, that levitated over to the smaller plate, easy enough. The next bit Cassie actually pulled her wand for — it wasn't difficult to detach the edible part off of the scales and skin, just the smallest alteration in texture at the seam took care of it, but she wanted to make sure she got it exactly right. The skin levitated up, along with a few little bones that'd managed to sneak through, vanished with a flick of her wand. "There we go."

"Thanks—" The slightest hesitation, hardly noticeable. "—M-Mum."

Cassie let out a little puff of breath — not a sigh, exactly, or, she didn't know what that was. She didn't know what she was feeling, exactly, chest all tight and tingly and... Well, no matter. She hesitated for a second, wanting to say something but she didn't know what, absently levitating the empty vegetable pan into the sink to join the other. She still hadn't found the words, so instead she just patted Violet on the head, running her fingers through her curiously blonde hair, the shade seeming to shift slightly as the hairs were moved around, a slightly lighter one moved closer to the surface here or a darker one there.

She meant to just go sit down, but instead she hitched with an odd, visceral lurch, stepped closer behind Violet. She had to bend over a little — the stool did put her up higher than she'd be standing, but not that high — her head bowed over Violet's shoulder, the vanilla and lavender she liked to use in the bath still clinging to her, one arm circling around her and gently squeezing Violet against her, the other hand slipped into her hair. Violet didn't respond at all, but she also didn't tense up or try to lean away, so.

Something simmering away at the back of her throat, Cassie had to softly clear it (her face was right next to Violet's) before she could whisper, "I love you, Violet. Thank you." She wasn't entirely sure what that was for, it just...seemed like the thing to say...

Again, Violet didn't respond, just silently sat there, breath smooth and quiet and wordless. But her hands did come up to hold Cassie's arm, soft and tentative, almost cautious.

Violet immediately let go when Síomha stepped back inside, the door clicking shut behind her. "No idea if this one will be any good with the curry. I know sod all about wine, honestly, your mum is too fancy for me."

Violet let out a little reluctant giggle, Cassie huffed. "Yeah, yeah." Pressing a quick kiss to the side of Violet's head, she let go, paused to clear her throat — it wasn't quite cooperating with her, which could happen in emotional moments, but she'd learned as a teenager that trying to shift it away didn't actually help, so she would just ignore that. "Set that down, I'll get to it. Violet, did you want water or pop?"

"Oh! I forgot, um, strawberry? D-do we have strawberry?"

Cassie was sure they did, it was Violet's favourite. "I'll check. Sit down, Síomha, I'll just get..."

---

March 1988

---

Like the mages kind of but didn't really do Christmas, they kind of but didn't really do Easter either. Well, the people around where they lived did, because it was still a Christian holiday — actually, Easter was a bigger deal for Irish mages than Christmas, there were going to be big festivals in the public squares in the town, a play and music put on at the school, all kinds of stuff. Síomha said it made sense for Easter to be the bigger holiday, because everyone was born, but obviously not everyone came back to life and all the important religious stuff to do with that, yeah, Violet got it.

That wasn't until April, though. Mum said they might go to the play thing at the school, and also look around while they were there, since Violet would be going there starting in autumn. In the evening they might go to one of the parties in the squares with Síomha — she couldn't be there earlier, because she had stuff with her family — but they were less sure about that one.

But, besides the Christians, the mages didn't really have a holiday at this time of year. Like Christmas, it was kind of halfway between actual holidays they did have — the traditional beginning of spring was a big holiday, in February, and the traditional beginning of summer, in May. The one in February was also one of the most important holidays in the year, pretty much the whole town had been wrapped up in it for a few days. There'd been some religious ritual stuff that Violet didn't really get — the holiday was called the Festival of the Mother, meaning Bríd, one of the old Irish gods people here still had — involving lighting candles and setting up extra places at dinner tables — more religious people went further with it, setting up a bedroom with special decorations and stuff — hanging clothes and jewellery and stuff out where they'd catch the sun for like a whole day — Mum said that was actually ritual magic, if it was done right they'd get special protection spells — and then there were parties in the squares, with bonfires and stuff, and people actually threw food into the fires for some reason, and then the next day little pinches of the ash were mixed into milk...which was sprinkled over farms and gardens and stuff? for some reason? Síomha actually insisted on doing that part in their garden, she'd heard Violet was going to plant some stuff in here, said it was good luck. It'd been a whole big thing, was what Violet was saying — kind of fun, but she didn't really get a lot of it, the weird magical religion was still something she didn't know very much about.

It didn't help that it turned out there was more than one religion. The funny mixed thing in Ireland, with Jesus but also a bunch of other gods, was complicated to begin with, because different people focussed on different gods and everything, each family did it kind of different, but there were other separate ones too. The old, pre-Christian gods in Britain (except Scotland, which was also Gaelic) were all forgotten, mostly, except for a few small groups of Welsh people. There were people in northern islands who also had a weird mixed Christian thing, but theirs with Scandinavian gods — because they were all from vikings, see. Besides those, there were a whole bunch of other smaller religions. Some of them were muggle things, like normal Christians and Jews and whatever else — mostly muggleborns and their kids, but there were magic Christian and Jewish families too — but some of them were magic things. Mum mostly called them "cults," which was confusing, because she talked about them like they were normal (if little) religions, and Violet thought cults were a bad thing?

Anyway, Mum said one of the big things was something called mos maiorum — "in the Latin," because things were in Latin now — which wasn't so much one religion as, like, a bunch of little ones that had some things in common? Violet didn't quite get it, it was complicated. It claimed to be an old thing, all going back to recreate the traditions of their ancestors and everything, but Mum said it was really new. She said, when mages split off from normal people (which was only about three hundred years ago), a lot of people wanted to make a magical culture, that was just theirs — the problem was there was no such thing, before hiding away English mages had just been English people. With some of their own special traditions and stuff, they weren't exactly the same, but Mum said it was mostly little things connected to doing magic, not everything, like they were a separate culture. Because they weren't separate, was the thing.

So people kind of just made up one, based on old stories and stuff. They'd taken bits from little cults that had been around at the time, and based a lot of it on old Roman religion (which Violet knew nothing about), and trying to restart old traditions that had died out, whatever they could think of. It started as one thing, one group of people doing all this, but it'd split apart since into different branches as the years went on — kind of like how there were a whole bunch of different kinds of Christian, but they all still thought of themselves as Christians, if that made sense.

One of the big holidays most of them all shared was in the middle of March, close to but not exactly Easter. Because they had to make it complicated, there were a whole bunch of different names, depending on how the different little groups thought of it, but Violet was just thinking of it as magic Easter. Mum said it was a spring holiday, all about flowers and rain and rebirth and healing — so, kind of like the Irish one last month, but not quite the same thing? And there was also stuff about plays and games and eating sweets and stuff, which sounded a lot like what the Irish mages were doing for Easter, so Violet guessed thinking of it like magic Easter also made sense for that reason. Different people did the holiday different, but the special magic noble families did this thing where they all got together, and the adults would tell each other stories and poems and stuff they made up — serious things about tradition and the importance of the holiday and whatever, but also silly stuff just for fun — while the kids just played games and had too much sugar. Outside somewhere, if the weather was nice.

This year, they were doing it at Cassie's niece Narcissa's house, and they were invited.

Mum mentioned Narcissa before, but Violet hadn't met her yet — and she wasn't told the reason why until they were talking about the invitation. Narcissa's husband Lucius (funny name) had been one of these Death Eater people, from back in the war, and most of the other people invited had been too. Mum was a little nervous about Violet being around those people, and she didn't want for them to slip and accidentally give away who Violet was, because they would definitely tell people, and it wouldn't be a secret anymore. It was probably a good idea for Violet to not go off alone with Lucius, or any of the other adults there — especially the men, for reasons Mum didn't spell out — but Mum didn't really think anything would happen.

At least partially because Narcissa would be very angry if someone tried to kidnap or hurt Violet at her house. See, she was religious, part of the cult of a goddess called Mother Mercy — among other things, Mother Mercy was a protector of children. So, to Narcissa, hurting Violet wouldn't just be bad and wrong, but also against her religion; and being a good host was also part of this whole weird magical religion thing, so doing it to one of her guests would be an insult on top of sinful.

Mum said that, if something did happen to Violet while she was there, Narcissa would probably murder the person who did it. (Really, seriously murder, and Violet didn't think Mum was joking either.) And everyone who was going to be there would know that, so they'd have to be very, very stupid to try anything.

It turned out Mum and Narcissa had been writing each other for a while — Violet hadn't known, Mum never said anything about it — and Narcissa was curious about Violet, had been hinting they should do something together for a while. Mum had been a little wary about doing it, because of the whole Death Eater thing, but if they were going to introduce Violet to the Malfoys, while at a special holiday thing was the safest possible time to do it. So, after asking Violet if it was all right, Mum accepted the invitation.

And Violet was a little nervous. Mum had insisted that she didn't really think it was dangerous, that she was just being paranoid — Violet still shouldn't go off alone with one of the adults, but that was a basic rule for when they went pretty much anywhere, it was just a little more important here. And she wasn't supposed to let people know who she was, of course, but that was a lot easier to do now, because the scar was gone. (Everyone knew about the scar, because Harry Potter was famous for stupid reasons.) Mum had also been worried that Violet not being able to lie now would be a problem, but Violet didn't really see why? They even tested it, Mum asking Violet some questions that might hint at things, and even came straight out and asked if she was Harry Potter, and when Violet said she wasn't perfectly fine — obviously, she was being Violet Black now — Mum had decided it should be safe, they could go. Besides, a lot of the kids who would be there were the same kids Arcturus wanted her to get to know before Hogwarts, and a holiday party was a good casual place to meet for the first time, it all worked out nice.

So, Violet was a little nervous, but she was a little nervous going places a lot, honestly. She didn't think she was worried about the same things Mum was, though — mostly, she was just worried the other kids wouldn't like her, that they'd tease her for her stammer and stuff. She had gotten some of that already, from some of the kids around here — most of the kids in their block here were nice about it, but sometimes other kids and school friends and stuff would come by, and they were more mean — and these were fancy rich kids she'd be meeting today, and, she didn't know, she was a little worried, was all. Especially since she thought it might be kind of rude if they left early, so even if it went badly Violet would probably be stuck there anyway...

But there wasn't anything she could do about that, so when Mum asked if she was ready she didn't have any good reason to not say yes. "Are we going to floo there?" Violet still really didn't like the floo — apparation wasn't that much better, but it was better.

"No, I've been there before, I can apparate us," Mum said, tying her boots with a tap of her finger on each, the laces magically doing themselves up. Those were new, she got them just a few days ago — they were seeing fancy people, so they needed fancy clothes, and on this holiday there was a big deal about being all bright and colourful, so they'd gotten things special for it. Mum was wearing a dress, but kind of an old-fashioned one, like might be in fancy old paintings from hundreds of years ago.

It was kind of like a normal dress, but poofy-looking — she made little rustling noises as she moved, layers under the skirt rubbing against each other — with lace along the hems and in rows down the skirt in a couple places, and something Violet was pretty sure was wrapped over it around her waist, a thicker band of stuff cinched tight around her middle — it wasn't a corset, she didn't think, the laces were up the front, criss-crossing over her chest showing the cloth of the dress underneath (but solid over her stomach and waist), which, Violet thought the laces for a corset were supposed to be in back. The sleeves were baggy and floofy, fell nearly to her elbow when she did things with her hands, so she was also wearing gloves — because apparently it was bad to show your arms, but not your shoulders, because Cassie's were showing all the way around (except for where her necklace was in the way). Violet didn't think it would stay up on its own if it weren't tied tight, kind of hugging her instead of hanging on her. And it was really pretty, with all the complicated lacey bits and glittering gold, the cloth bright red with complicated patterns in it, sometimes random colours but shifting into flowers and stuff, very colourful and very detailed and very pretty. Violet liked it.

Violet didn't like her own outfit as much, honestly. It kind of looked like a dress, if you don't look closely enough — the skirt part didn't go all the way around, made of a couple panels, the gap between them going all the way up, the trousers underneath really obvious if she moved fast enough. And the dress part was actually a sort of long sleeveless jacket, with buttons going all the way up her front, over a long-sleeved shirt, made out of that smooth silk mages used for stuff (which felt really nice against her skin, Violet did like that part). Hers was a darker red, and also had flowers stitched in places, especially around the collar and following the buttons down the middle, but less than Mum's had, and it didn't have the lacey bits. So, fine, she guessed, just not as nice, and she'd rather be wearing a normal dress than this weird trousers-and-long-jacket thing.

Mum said this was normal for little kids at fancy parties where they were supposed to look nice but were also gonna be running around and playing, so they didn't accidentally show their underwear to everyone. Pretty much all the other kids would be wearing something pretty close to this, even the boys. Which, she guessed that made sense, Violet was maybe not as careful about that as she should be sometimes — she knew other kids saw her pants climbing trees and stuff sometimes, but since she was supposed to be a girl now and she never got in trouble for it, she kind of didn't care? Whatever, she knew it wasn't proper, so that was fine. She was a little jealous of Mum's super pretty dress, but it was a grown-up thing, so.

She did like that they sort of matched. The colours weren't quite the same, but they obviously went together, with the red and everything, and their hair was the same. The normal blonde and curly stuff — it took a little practice for Violet to figure out how to make it all nice and curly without getting frizzy, getting metamorph magic to work right could be hard sometimes — and yesterday Mum went out to buy a bunch of flowers to stick in their hair, little violets pinned in here and there and one big tulip a bright pretty pink to the left of their faces. Violet could see the edges of the petals if she looked that way, it was a big flower, which was kind of silly, but she'd seen herself in a mirror, and also Cassie, and it was maybe kinda silly, but it was really pretty. She was kind of worried they'd all fall out, but Mum had magicked them in there, so it was probably fine. But yeah, they matched, which...

Well, Cassie being her mum now was still kind of new, and... Well, Violet really liked it — couldn't say why, it just felt nice. She made a point of calling her "Mum" in her head most of the time, just because she liked to. And they were going to be meeting all kinds of fancy people, and Violet was going to be introduced to them as her (adopted) daughter, and they even matched and everything, and it was... Violet was nervous, but she was also all...excited, and tingly. Not sure what the tingly was, but it was nice, that was all.

(She was pretty sure this was what happiness felt like.)

"Okay." Her shoes tied, Mum popped up to her feet, patted her sides over her hips for a second — she wasn't bringing her bag, and you couldn't tell from the outside but there were pockets in there. "All right, darling, let's get going then," she said, holding out her hand.

Violet took a second to prepare herself, before taking Mum's hand and immediately being yanked into swirly blackness. It only lasted a second, but that was long enough for Violet to get all dizzy and bleh, she hated apparation...

Once she was mostly better, she opened her eyes to look around, and wow, it was so pretty! They were on a little road made of white gravel, and past that was grass, and past that were trees trees trees, their branches all bumpy with leaf buds, greenish patches here and there that were probably mistletoe or something, but a whole bunch of the trees had flowers in them — Violet thought it was too early in the season for that? There were big patches of flowers up in the trees all over the place, some pinkish but mostly all white, almost like there was snow caught up there, and it was really pretty, but... They must have made that happen with magic somehow. It looked like there were a couple little villages nearby, little houses speckled with more flowers and big colourful banners and stuff, people gathered in clumps, Violet could barely hear music coming from over there.

The other way, following the little road, was a big open gate...which was kind of silly, since the iron bars were just connected to these big stone pillars, there wasn't a wall or anything past them. Maybe magic kept people out? Whatever. Anyway, the doors were pushed apart, leaving the way open, but the bars were completely covered with flowering vines, all green and purple and white, so thick Violet couldn't even really see through it, and it was really pretty! And there were flowers in the grass too, densest closest to the road, violets and dandelions, pansies and poppies and all kinds of things, in all kinds of colours, they were everywhere, it was, just, really pretty, holy crap...

Violet was pretty sure there shouldn't be this many flowers this early, that had to be magic. Which was great, magic was so cool sometimes.

Still holding on to Violet's hand, Mum started leading her down the road, through the gate. There was a big open yard over here, a grassy spot in the middle of all the trees — and it was also covered in flowers, just, everywhere, all the colours bright and sharp. At the middle there was a big house, made out of the same white rock as the road under their feet, kind of a castley-looking thing, with the rock walls and the jagged bits along the roof, but definitely not a real castle, because it had way too many windows. (The wall facing them was mostly window, the glass sparkling in the sun.) There were hedges along the path, but they weren't very tall, Violet could see over them easy, and they also had flowers in them, Violet thought most of them were actually rose bushes, flowers and flowers and flowers everywhere — it was just so colourful here, Violet kept trying to look everywhere all at once, it was making her a little dizzy.

After walking for a few minutes — the yard really was very big — there was a brick walk path turning off to the right, they went that way. As soon as they were on the flat brick Mum's steps turned a bit smoother and swaying — her boots did have heels, she must have been being careful on the gravel. A little bit ahead the path opened up into a sort of courtyard thing, bushes and trees and stuff poking through the brick (also covered in flowers), benches and tables around here and there, at the middle of the whole thing a fountain spraying water up, the hiss of it falling again loud enough she could hear it from here. There were people moving around there, walking between that place and the house, carrying things — bringing food and stuff out to the tables, Violet guessed. Near the fountain were a group of people in colourful glittery clothes, poking about with violins and flutes and stuff, Violet caught an occasional note but they weren't playing yet, just getting ready. They must have gotten here early.

They were just getting to the courtyard part when there was a call of, "Auntie!" Violet twitched, glanced that way to find a black-haired woman in a white and blue dress — kind of similar to Mum's, with the long sleeves and gloves and showing her shoulders and everything, but Violet thought that one had a corset instead — heels clicking against the brick as she walked this way. Well, most of her hair was black, long and curly, little white flowers stuck in here and there, but there was also a white streak all down the length just to the right side of her face.

Violet knew at a glance that it was fake, that wasn't her real hair colour, done with magic somehow. She didn't know how she knew that, she just did — it was...glittery? Not quite the right word, but. And it didn't look glittery, exactly, but... It was weird, not sure how to say it, she just knew.

"I'm sorry, you are Aunt Cassie, yes?" the woman asked as she got closer. "Only, I can't imagine anyone else on the guest list I wouldn't recognise."

"Yeah, kid, it's me — I've been feeling blonde lately, you know how it is."

The woman let out a little huff, but she didn't say anything else about it, walked right up to Cassie and took her hands, greeted her with cheek kisses and everything. "It's wonderful to see you, Auntie, truly, it's been too long."

Mum grimaced a little. "Sorry about that, I know I've been...hard to reach lately. I should be around more from now on — Archie bribed me into agreeing to take up the title after he's gone, the crafty bastard."

"Oh, Auntie, honestly," she sighed, giving Violet a quick look — probably, like, don't use bad words in front of the children, but it sounded like she thought it was more funny than annoying. "You're early! I hadn't expected you yet, you're the first guests to arrive..."

"Not making too much trouble for you, I hope. I wanted to introduce Violet to you and Draco, and let her get settled in before people start crowding around."

"No, of course, that's all right, I'm only saying you took me by surprise. And you must be Violet," she said, turning a bright smile on her.

"Um..." That didn't really seem like a question, was Violet supposed to be saying something here?

Apparently not, because the woman didn't wait for her to, sidled a little to the side before crouching down, her skirt making rustling noises as she went. Her arms folded over her knees, she didn't quite get down to Violet's height, but closer anyway, that thing adults did with little kids sometimes. Smiling all soft and pretty and nice, she said, "It's nice to meet you. My name is Narcissa." Oh, so this was Narcissa, Violet had thought so. "My grandfather's younger brother was your great-grandfather — that makes me your aunt."

Violet was confused for a second, before she remembered Mum was telling people that Violet's great-grandfather was her baby brother Marius (who was born without magic and kicked out to live with normal people). Her actual grandmother was Cassie's sister, so they were still related, just not in the way Narcissa thought — and that was weird, Violet still wasn't used to the idea of being related to people who weren't the Dursleys. And she didn't know what she was supposed to say when being introduced to relatives she hadn't known she had, so she went with, "Um, n-n—" Oh, this wasn't a normal stammer, itchy prickles crawling over her skin, it was a lie. Except, no, it wasn't a lie, it was perfectly pleasant to meet her, she was Mum's niece and she seemed nice enough and she'd invited them to a fancy holiday party and everything, so, "Nnnice to m-m-meet you." She let out a little sigh of relief — there, did it.

(When she'd been told she couldn't lie anymore, she hadn't realised it would even make it hard to just be polite like everyone else. Maybe this would be more of a problem than she'd thought at first.)

There was a little flicker on Narcissa's face at the stammering, but she didn't stop smiling. "I have a son your age, Draco. I believe you will be classmates at Hogwarts, when you're old enough. Do you want to go say hello?"

"Oh, um..." She glanced up at Mum quick, but didn't actually wait for her to say or do anything before adding, "Okay?"

Aunt Narcissa (Violet was pretty sure that was what she was supposed to call her, maybe she should ask) led them across the courtyard, chatting with Mum about this or that thing. A lot of the food on the tables looked unfamiliar, but she didn't worry about it, Mum would know what she could eat. Past the fountain and across the courtyard, and Aunt Narcissa led them onto the grass, her steps turning a little slower and more cautious (because apparently heeled shoes didn't agree with grass). Violet hesitated for a second — there were flowers all over the place, and they were so pretty, she didn't want to kill them! But this was Aunt Narcissa's house and she didn't seem to care, so, Violet reluctantly stepped off of the bricks, looking down at the ground and being careful with where she put her feet, trying not to squish any of the flowers.

After a bit of a walk, there was a big wooden building of some kind, with a fence around it, and there were stacks of cages against the wall, and— Oh, there were horses! So rich people just having horses was a thing that was actually real, Violet didn't—

...

The horses had wings.

They were big (she hadn't realised how big real horses were), and a pure white that kind of seemed to sparkle in the sunlight — not a lot, just little silvery bits here and there, Violet hadn't even noticed at first. And they had wings, huge feathery things sprouting out of their backs, and— "Horses with wings are real?"

There was a soft chuckle from Aunt Narcissa, Mum gave her hand a little squeeze. "Yes, darling, they're real — most things you've likely heard of in old muggle stories are real. They're called pegasi."

"C-c-c-c—" She cut herself off, forced herself to take a breath. It was hard, to be patient and try to talk right, she was almost jittering on her toes, because horses with wings were real. "Can they fly?"

"Of course, no point to having wings if they couldn't. They can even pull carriages and the like through the air, though that isn't as popular as it used to be."

That was. so. cool!

(Violet really loved magic sometimes.)

It looked like they were feeding the flying horses at the moment — there were a few people about in much less fancy clothes, trousers and long-sleeved shirts, lugging around buckets and baskets and stuff, leading the flying horses around here and there. Not far away was a boy who was wearing fancy clothes, very similar to hers, though his were mostly blue and white, his hair the same fake white as Aunt Narcissa's, though everywhere instead of just a little bit. (The faint glitteriness to Violet's eyes kind of made him look like the horses' fur, she wondered if that was on purpose. Though, she didn't know if other people could even see that, she should ask.) He was with a little horse — of course, horses were apparently big, so a little one was still about Draco's height, and had to be a few times his weight — and something about how it looked told Violet this one was a baby. Or, not really a baby, but a younger one, at least.

As they walked up, the boy picked up something out of a basket near his feet, held it out to the little flying horse (so cool). The horse ate whatever that was out of his palm, and then licked at his hand to make sure it got it all, the boy giggling a little. Violet thought she would be too scared to do that — that flying horses were real was very cool, but they were also very big.

Sounding a mix of amused and annoyed, Aunt Narcissa said, "I hope you'll remember to wash your hands before dinner, Draco."

"Yes, Mother," the boy said, not looking their way at first, patting the little horse's head. When he did turn, he twitched a little, his eyes going wide. "Oh! Hello." He looked slightly embarrassed, his cheeks going a bit pink as he stopped patting the horse and sidled a step away, Violet didn't know what that was about.

Aunt Narcissa introduced them, Mum first and then Violet — she noticed that Aunt Narcissa called her Cassie's daughter, which meant Mum must have told her to say that, in a letter or something. (The thought that Mum was telling people that Violet was hers made her feel kind of tingly, she felt herself smiling without really meaning to.) Draco made a face at her stammering for a second, but he fought to hide whatever he was thinking and was trying to be all nice and everything. It probably helped that Aunt Narcissa said they would be in the same year at Hogwarts and they were cousins now, kind of telling-him-without-telling-him that he was supposed to be nice, which, Violet didn't know if she liked the thought of people only being nice to her because their mums wanted them to. Better than being mean, though, so she guessed she'd take it.

(Violet was a little nervous, she didn't do great with cousins...or, maybe Dudley was just mean, Dora was really nice. She tried not to worry about it too much, it wasn't like she would have to live with Draco or anything, so even if it went badly it was fine.)

It ended up being perfectly nice, though. Since they had nothing better to do until the party started, Draco showed her some of the animals they kept here. The horses were really pretty, but big and scary, she could barely manage to pat the little one a couple times before she was done, thank you. They had birds, some swans and lots and lots of ducks — Violet already knew they used ducks for meat and eggs and stuff instead of chickens, the Malfoys must raise their own. (Draco said his father had bred some albino peacocks, but he only had a few right now, they were kept out back somewhere where it was safer.) The ducks were kind of funny, little bundles of feathers waddling around and squawking, one of the people tending to the animals gave her a handful of crumbled up old bread and some seeds mixed together, Violet crouched down and was set upon by a bunch of ducks, going for the food in her hands, shoving each other to get closer, feathers rustling and yelling at each other, it was funny, Violet couldn't help giggling at them.

One of the ducks let her pet it — it was warm and...vibratey, like it just had too much energy in there, its feathers soft and smooth and nice. Violet kind of wanted to pick it up and hug it to her chest, but she was pretty sure it wouldn't like that.

There were also goats and pigs and all kinds of things the Malfoys kept, but most of those weren't here here. But they did have a whole bunch of these long little furry things, which were apparently ferrets — Violet had heard the name, but she'd never seen one before. These were also being fed, but this stuff looked more like bits of dry meat, they would hold the things in their little paws and gnaw at it, very cute. A few of these also let her pet them, all soft and warm and nice, though some of them tensed up a little, Violet quickly backing off. (They did have claws and teeth, probably didn't want to annoy one.) A man watching after them — Mum and Aunt Narcissa had gone back to the courtyard a long time ago — warned her not to, but one of the ferrets was being all nice, sniffing at her fingers and coming back for more pets, it let her pick it up, all soft and warm and squirming a little, but not too bad. They didn't look that big, but wrapped up in her arms it was long enough it was kind of hard to hold onto, kind of just seemed to be everywhere, eventually it squirmed around to a spot it was comfortable at, Violet wormed out a hand so she could scritch at its little ears, smiling to herself. The man watching them said something about her being a natural with animals, which was silly, she just let it go where it wanted to...

The fur was nice, and it was all warm and...squooshy. She didn't know what word she meant exactly, but. She thought she might like cats better, but these things were cute too.

Over however long they were playing with the animals, there was a slow trickle of kids coming over to say hi — the guests must have started showing up. The ones who bothered to come find Draco with the animals were all kids who would be in their year at Hogwarts. Their parents made a point of making sure they knew each other way in head of time, so they were all sort of friends already. Violet said sort of because she thought some of them really didn't like each other much, but they all knew each other already, at least.

The first to show up, while they were still playing with the ducks, was Theo Nott, a short, skinny boy with black hair. He didn't talk much, Violet got the feeling he was shy. Then Pansy Parkinson and Zach Smith came pretty close to the same time — they were a little mean, reminding Violet of some of the kids back at Little Whinging who'd make fun of her for her clothes not fitting right or her shoes being old and falling apart. (The first time she stammered in front of him, Zach blurted out what was wrong with her, and after that kept interrupting her when she was trying to get something out, she did not like him; Pansy kept making faces when she stammered, annoyed, but at least she didn't make fun of her for it.)

There was a Terry Boot and a Tony Goldstein who didn't look happy to be here — they mostly stood off talking with each other by themselves — and neither did Millie Bulstrode or Tracey Davis. Millie was tall for their age, with pretty red hair, and she kind of just followed Pansy around, but didn't say anything, just standing there staring off, shy or just very bored. The other kids were mean to Tracey. She looked kind of skinny, with long black hair and grey eyes (like Aunt Andi's), and she didn't seem any different from the other kids to Violet, with the same fancy clothes and everything, but she got the feeling the other kids didn't think so. There was a lot of little comments that Violet didn't really get, a bunch about being dirty — which was weird, because Violet thought she looked fine? After a while, something about her mum, Tracey just turned around and walked off, going back toward where the ducks were, the other kids giggling to each other.

Watching her walk off, Violet frowned to herself — she didn't really get what happened, but something about this bothered her. And it kept bothering her, she kept glancing over to where Tracey was just sitting on the grass by herself near the duck pens, and— Without really thinking about it, Violet walked away, toward Tracey, sat down on the grass nearby, and... Well, she didn't know what to do, so she was just like, hey, isn't this ferret cute (she'd brought him with on accident), do you want to pet him? Tracey frowned at her for a second, but she did want to pet him, and it was a little awkward after that, Tracey was really shy, but it was fine.

She and Tracey were joined later by Megan Jones and Olivie Rivers — kind of like olive but not really, oh-lee-vee (she said it was French, but she sounded British) — who were nice. So, some of the kids were mean, but Violet guessed this wasn't so bad.

After a while sitting and talking with Tracey and Megan and Olivie, the ferret Violet accidentally stole nosing around for more treats and begging for scritches, a couple older girls, maybe around Dora's age, came over and said it was time for the party to start, come back to the courtyard. Except Violet stole a ferret, so she had to go give it back, Tracey coming with her. (Mostly so she didn't have to be alone with the mean kids, Violet thought.) They were a little bit behind the other kids, but that was fine, Tracey said there was some talking before lunch started, prayers and speeches or whatever, so it didn't matter if they were a little late.

They were still a bit away — Violet carefully picking through the flowers, not wanting to squish them — when...something happened. There were a bunch of people in the bricked area around the fountain over there, and they were just sitting around and talking, but now they seemed all, she didn't know, moving around and yelling, at times getting loud enough Violet could hear it from here. Some kind of argument going on? It looked like it was getting worse, everyone turned to look at the same spot, a last shout and a lot of muttering, and then...

Then they started walking off in a different direction. Not everyone, some people were staying in the lunch area, but a good half of the guests were leaving, at least. Not toward the gate, they weren't leaving leaving, but it was obvious something was going on.

Just as they were stepping back onto the brick, Violet twitched at a shout of her name. She looked up, and Aunt Narcissa was walking her way, looking a little frazzled, distracted, her heels quickly click-click-clicking against the floor. But she didn't walk all the way to Violet, stopping partway here before stopping and half-turning, waving Violet to follow. "There you are. Come, follow me — we will be there before it starts."

Violet was told not to go off with anyone alone, but she was pretty sure Narcissa was fine — there was the whole thing with her religion and all, about kids and being a good host — and it didn't take long before she figured out Narcissa was leading her the same way the other people were going. Not really paying that much attention, being careful not to trample the flowers again, they were walking around the side of the house, ahead she could see people grouping up somewhere, but she was too far away to see anything. A couple more ladies were walking with them, muttering to each other, it took Violet a little bit to work up the nerve to interrupt. "Um. Aunt N-N-Naarcissa?" Bluh...

The ladies went quiet, Narcissa turning to look down at her. "Yes, child?"

"What's happening?"

Narcissa frowned, annoyed — but she looked away first, glaring up at the group ahead, so Violet thought she wasn't annoyed with her. "Quincy Avery challenged your mother to a duel, the foolish lout."

...Oh. Was people doing duels something that just happened here? It didn't look like anyone was acting like this was really weird or anything — annoyed, maybe for putting off lunch? She didn't know. That was just...kind of weird, wasn't it?

Also, was Cassie was going to be okay? Violet remembered she could be super scary and all, but, Violet had never seen a magic fight before...

When she got closer, enough to see between people, she saw they were gathered around a little stone platform. Maybe only waist-high — on Violet, so not very high at all — made out of whitish-greyish rock, polished enough it shone in the sun a little. The ladies went off to talk to other people, but Narcissa kept leading her around the crowd, someone here and there saying something to her, Violet wasn't listening. Before too long, they came to a gap in the people, a few stairs leading up the platform, in the middle of the open spot one person.

Violet knew right away that this was Cassie — she wasn't sure how she knew, she just did. She didn't look like she did before, the normal blonde hair and the pretty dress, hair now turned black and short, the wind tossing it around her head, in plain black trousers and vest, feet bare on the grass. (Her dress was hanging off of a wooden stand nearby, must be conjured, her boots sitting on the grass underneath.) More like how she looked when Violet first met her, pale but dark and tall and thin, enough that Violet thought she must have shifted away her breasts altogether. Kind of odd-looking, the more Violet looked at her, not quite like a woman but still kind of girly enough that she didn't look like a man either, hmm.

"Oh good," Narcissa said when she saw Mum there. "I was worried you would have started before we got here."

"We're waiting for Lucius to come back with the ward key." Her voice sounded different, a bit lower and grittier, but still with her same accent and with that little drawl she had. (Mum's voice actually changed a little bit all the time, Violet thought her own probably did too, that was a thing that was hard for metamorphs to get the same.) Turning down to Violet with a crooked smile, Cassie said, "Violet darling. Did Cissa explain what's happening already?"

"Um, she said someone challenged you to a d-d-duel. Is that... D-does that happen a lot?"

"When I was your age it was much more common, it's been going out of fashion for a while now. But it was only ever something that the nobility do. It's actually the law that only the nobility can do it — when commoners do it, it's just considered a fight, and the terms aren't enforceable."

Violet didn't follow all of that, but she did get that it was only a special, old-fashioned, fancy rich people thing. So it wasn't something that happened all the time, then, that was what she was wondering. "Okay. W-w-wih-w..." Violet gave up with a sigh, gritting her teeth — stammering was stupid, she couldn't even talk proper, it was stupid. It was even worse when she was nervous about something, she hated it.

"Hey now, darling." Mum stepped a little closer, crouching down a bit, her hands coming up to grab Violet's arms just under her shoulders. "I'll be fine. I was an Auror for a long time, remember, and I fought in a war and everything. Quincy's not bad, for an amateur, but he's not going to be able to touch me. And if I were to lose, which I won't, I'll still be fine — you're not supposed to hurt people in these duels, not really. It's kind of like flipping a coin to settle an argument, but with tossing hexes at each other instead. Like a game, nobody gets hurt. Okay?"

Oh, well. Violet was worried, but if it was just a game, that was fine. Kind of silly that they decided to settle things by trying to beat each other up, but mages were silly sometimes, Violet decided not to think about it too hard. "Okay. G-g-good luck?"

Cassie smirked. "Thank you, darling, but I don't need luck. And there's Lucius, we're about to start. See you in a minute." She dipped closer, dropping a kiss on Violet's head quick, before straightening again. Turning toward the platform, hopping up the stairs, she yelled, "Let's get this over with, shall we?"

Mum wasn't alone up on the platform, two men climbing up from the other side, an older one with dark hair and a younger one with light hair. Like, really light hair, a bright white that caught the sun all glittery — Violet could tell it was fake, like Draco's and the streak in Narcissa's, she guessed that was her new Uncle Lucius she hadn't met yet. Which meant the other man was this Quincy person, who decided to challenge Cassie to a duel for whatever reason. He looked older than Mum, like older than parent age but not quite grandpa age yet — Violet could see some lines on his face from here, his hair not gone grey yet, a dark blonde sort of colour, tied back out of his face — but mages aged funny and also Mum could look like whatever age she wanted, so it was hard to say, Mum might actually be older. He'd also taken off his fancy robes, in simple trousers and a shirt, barefoot, there must be rules about that. He was glaring at Mum, obviously very annoyed, but Mum didn't seem to mind, her swaying walk still smooth and easy as always.

They came to the middle of the platform, Lucius standing between the two of them. He was saying something about the duel, but the words were really fancy, Violet didn't understand a lot of it. Both Mum and the man said things, promising to follow the rules, Lucius pounded the end of a long wooden stick he was carrying against the floor, three times — clunk, clunk, clunk, way louder than it should be, for some reason. With the last clunk, there was a funny crackle, a faint blueish-purpleish-yellowish shimmer over the platform, just for a second before it faded away again. Mum said something about wards, maybe Lucius just turned them on? A couple more words, Lucius looked their way — at Narcissa, Violet thought — then with a last nod between Mum and this Quincy person, he turned and walked away, leaving the platform.

While this was happening, Narcissa came closer, standing next to Violet. She crouched down again, like when they were introduced, the skirt of her fancy dress making rustling noises again. "Have you seen a duel before, Violet?"

"No. Mum is g-g– She's in the League, we're g-gonna travel around, for events and stuff? B-b-but we haven't started y-yyet." Feeling her face warm, Violet bit her lip, trying not to feel embarrassed. Stupid stammer...

"Oh, that sounds like fun, doesn't it? I was in the duelling team at Hogwarts, there were a couple tournaments with teams from schools all over Europe, hosted in a different country every time. I hadn't the opportunity to travel much before that, besides to visit my mother's family in France, I had a great time with it. I would recommend trying for the team when you're in school, if you have an interest in duelling."

...Violet really didn't think that was going to happen. She didn't know how mages did it, but she didn't like fighting. Maybe as a sport, sure, even normal people did things like karate or whatever, she could see how other people might think it was fun... Or, no, she couldn't really, but she knew that other people did, even if she couldn't understand it. (People did a lot of things she didn't understand, but that didn't stop them.) But she didn't think she would ever want to do it herself — she was a little nervous about Mum doing it, like for the League and whatever, but she was told it was super safe, so. But she didn't want to say all that, especially since Narcissa liked this stuff, so she just nodded.

"Your mother will be fine, sweetheart. Informal duels like this can be more risky than League events, but I can count on my fingers the people I've ever met who I expect can defeat Aunt Cassie in a fair fight. Quincy is not one of them."

That didn't really make her feel better, because feelings weren't rational. That was something Shannon talked about, sometimes, that feelings didn't always make sense, and even if you knew something you were feeling was kind of silly that didn't make it go away — it can help it go away, with time, but it has to sink in first, you know. This was Violet's first magic fight, and she didn't really know what they were like, so, nervous, there wasn't anything she could do about that. It was nice of Aunt Narcissa to try though, she guessed. "Um...if he's g-g-going to lose, why, why is he d-doing it?"

"Aunt Cassie killed his brother. He wants her to apologise."

...Cassie killed someone?! What?!

"It was back in the war, you see — they were on opposite sides of a battle, and Francis Avery had the poor fortune to find himself under her wand. The Averys tried to sue for recompense at the time, but once it was noted that Francis bore the Dark Lord's Mark on his arm, the Ministry ruled in Aunt Cassie's favour. But the Averys never forgot about it."

Oh, well. If it was in a battle in the war Violet was told about before, with the Death Eaters and all, then she guessed that was fine? Especially since the Dark Lord and his people were definitely the bad guys, if this Francis Avery person was fighting on the wrong side then it was probably fine that Cassie killed him. He might have been, like, trying to hurt muggleborns or random whoever, so. It was still a weird thought that Mum killed someone...but Violet kind of already knew that? She meant, she knew Mum fought in a war, and people got killed in wars, so obviously. Violet just never thought about it that way, she guessed.

(Besides, Cassie was nice now, so if she killed some bloke in a war years ago, probably before Violet was even born, she didn't really care. It just wasn't something she thought of, before.)

Before Violet could figure out what she was supposed to say to that, the duel started, and she was too distracted. Um, Quincy, that was what Narcissa called him, he made a jab with his wand, and a bright orange spell came shooting out — like a blob of light, zipping across the air, most magic Violet saw so far was invisible but some looked like that — and Mum hopped out of the way, the spell going on to hit the dome over the stage and burst into a cloud of sparks, quickly fading away. (The sparks were in all kinds of colours, red and violet and white, glittering in the sun, pretty.) Quincy threw another spell at Mum, but she dodged this one too, bouncing light on her toes, spinning as she stepped, her wand flicked at Quincy but Violet didn't see anything, Quincy leaned to the side, and a second later a spot on the dome behind him burst into sparks again — Mum's spell must have been invisible. With a big slash of his wand Quincy made a big spell, a long curve of blue-white light, too wide to dodge, a wall of orange-ish light appeared between them, Quincy's spell crashing against it, the shield winked out, Mum dodged another spell from Quincy, and another...

Quincy shot spell after spell after spell at Mum, but none of them hit her. Mum hopped and spun out of the way of all of them, or turned them aside with little swirls of her wand, or caught them on shields, sometimes that orange one and other times a big, solid-looking triangle, black edged with burning red. (The edge was shimmery, almost like it was smoking, the black almost too dark, unnatural, just looking at it Violet somehow knew it was serious, big-time magic — she even heard a couple gasps and mutters from the crowd the first time Cassie used it.) She hardly even shot back, occasionally throwing a spell at him — mostly small and quick, blink and you miss it — just kept dodging and blocking, so light and quick, almost like she was dancing, almost casual, making it look easy. Quincy shot spells faster and faster, Violet thought they were getting stronger too, the noise of them crashing against shields ear-splitting, the showers of sparks when they hit the dome larger and more colourful — once he even threw lightning at Mum, but she conjured a metal fence, the electricity making it so hot it glowed a dull red, then reshaping itself into three long spears (one still glowing from heat), which stabbed through the air at Quincy, he ducked out of the way of two, a slash of his wand sending the third flipping end-over-end past his shoulder, another spell shot at Mum, she skipped out of the way, spun around another, the glow passing inches from her back, black ice was crawling across the floor toward Quincy, and was met with a big wall of fire, which then swirled around to fly at Mum, but she did some kind of magic that made a roar of wind and a burst of steam — those escaped the special duelling wards, the guests' fancy dresses and hair whipped around — the steam thick enough Violet couldn't see anything, there was a loud crackling of electricity, when she could see again Mum was surrounded in a cage of metal, a swirl of her wand reshaping it into a hundred little needles, sent flying at Quincy to clatter against his shield—

Violet never saw a magic fight before, so she didn't really know what to expect. But this was very fast, spells going zip zip zip, big explosions of fire or lightning or whatever appearing out of nowhere, and very loud — bangs and clangs and crackles, unpleasant, Violet was tempted to cover her ears but she didn't want to miss anything, grit her teeth and tried to ignore it...

Quincy shot another quick string of spells at her, but none of them hit anything, Mum hopping or turning out of the way, one redirected to splash against the dome overhead. Another big spell, exploding into little sizzling fingers of purple lightning when she blocked it with the red-and-black shield, and Quincy shouted, "Quit fucking around and fight me!"

...She guessed he was getting annoyed with Mum just dancing around and not shooting back. That was still no reason for bad words. Or, Cassie had killed his brother, she guessed...

The red-and-black-triangle shield disappeared with a swish of her wand, Violet could see her shrug from here. "As you wish." Another spell was coming from Quincy, but Cassie turned to the side, the glow zipping past her shoulder — Mum stepped forward with a hard stab of her wand, a thick white glow jumping out and—

Boom! Violet flinched at the noise, way louder than she expected, Quincy's shield shattered, he was thrown back onto his bum, awkwardly rolling once backward to flop face-down. Mum was running at him, more spells flying from her wand, Quincy rolled across the floor, got up on a knee, made a shield, it broke after two spells but that was enough for him to get up again. He threw a spell at Mum, but was then scrambling out of the way of one, two, three spells, threw up a shield, it broke again, he jumped out of the way of—

Quincy tripped, slammed hard against the floor, out of nowhere. Violet tipped on her toes, she could barely see... Some shiny metal, maybe from one of Mum's lightning-shields from before, was coiled around his ankles — she hadn't seen that coming, and he must not have either, Mum transfiguring the stuff while he was distracted with spells. The metal was still moving, strings of it crawling up his body, like vines climbing a tree, he cast some kind of spell that made some of it disappear, but before he could do much another white glow hit him in the shoulder, slamming him against the floor again. His wand popped out of his hand, flipping end over end in the air...but only for a couple seconds before it suddenly changed direction, zipping right into Cassie's empty hand.

Violet let out a breath — she was pretty sure Mum taking his wand meant the fight was over. That had been really loud and kind of scary, but not that bad, she guessed. Maybe all the lights and stuff would be kind of pretty if, like, Violet wasn't too close to it, she didn't like the noise...

There was some polite clapping from the party guests, Mum walking up to Quincy, all smooth and swaying, almost mocking. Quincy was back on his feet, they were talking, Violet couldn't hear it from here — but she could see Quincy's hands were in fists at his sides, his shoulders square, angry. Whatever he was saying must be annoying Mum, it looked like she let out a huff. Quincy held out his hand for his wand, but instead of handing it to him Mum just dropped it, before turning her back on him, the wood clattering to the floor behind her.

Violet blinked, glancing around, at the gasps through the crowd, some of them turning to mutter to each other. "Um...w-what happened?"

It was hard to tell from here, but she thought Aunt Narcissa was giving Mum a look, like one of the neighbour ladies getting tired of something silly one of the teenage kids was doing. "Mishandling another mage's wand is very rude."

...So? They'd just been fighting each other a few seconds ago, Violet wasn't sure why being rude should make any difference at all...

Quincy bent over to pick up his wand, watching Mum walk away, toward Violet, glaring at her back. Mum was most of the way here when Quincy raised his wand, snarled out something Violet didn't catch from here, green light starting to—

There was yelling, people in the crowd were moving, she started turning to look, and before she could make out what was happening there was a hard shove on her chest, she fell on her bum, hard, ow...

A bright green spell passed overhead — not straight over Violet, a little to the right — but it didn't look like the other spells she's seen. The ones in the fight right now, they were mostly blobs, or a few in longer arcs, but this one was bigger, branching and flickering, almost like lightning. And the colour was green, but a weird, intense green, the shade not quite like anything Violet could think of, like a green that other green things just weren't.

As it passed overhead, Violet felt cold, the temperature seeming to dip ten degrees all at once. Her stomach dropping, like missing a step on the stairs, it...

After the spell was already gone, Violet was left blankly staring up at the sky where it'd been a second ago, feeling very very weird. Not because of the spell, exactly — the air had warmed up again once it left, leaving only a little bit of an unpleasant tingle on Violet's skin — but something else, it...

There was something familiar about that spell. The colour was weird, she could swear she'd never seen anything that seem shade of green, but for some reason she had the feeling that she'd seen that spell before. She couldn't think of where, though, like a word she couldn't quite remember, at the edge of her tongue...

"Are you all right, sweetheart?"

Violet blinked — Narcissa was a foot away, just ahead to Violet's right. She'd dropped to one knee (probably staining her pretty dress), her wand suddenly in her hand...and just past her was a wall of blueish-black... It looked like glass maybe? She must have conjured that, it hadn't been there a second ago. "Um. Yeah? Oh, d-did you p-p-puh-p—" Ugh stupid lips, just make the stupid sound!

"Yes, I pushed you — I wasn't certain where exactly the curse was aimed, I thought it was safest." Her voice sounded slightly off, not quite as smooth as it'd been before, and now that Violet was paying attention she seemed a little jittery, the fingers of her open hand twitching just a little. Freaked out by...whatever had just happened, maybe? "I am sorry if I scared you. Here," she said, holding her hands down to Violet, to help her back up. Both hands, her wand had gone back to wherever she kept it.

Narcissa helped her up, the glass disappearing a second later with a flick of her wand. Quincy was hanging in the air, his hands over his head, bright orange loops of light around his wrists, waist, and ankles. There was a big, shredded hole in his fancy robes over his chest now, but it didn't look like he was hurt. Mum had two wands again, the one in her left hand must be Quincy's. A couple seconds after Violet looked up again, Mum tossed Quincy's wand up in the air, there was a flash of some kind of spell — Quincy's wand was split in half, and then burst into weird silvery flames, quickly crumbled into ash and blown away on the wind.

...And there wasn't any muttering or gasping at that — Violet was pretty sure breaking someone's wand was more disrespectful than just dropping it on the floor. She must be missing something. Probably something to do with that green spell, Narcissa had seemed really scared about it for a second there.

Now that Violet thought about it, it looked like it went right through the bubble over the platform, that had stopped all the other spells. Huh.

Quincy started shouting something, but before he got very far his mouth snapped shut. (Head tipping back like something was pushing up on his chin, like Cassie did to Petunia the day they met.) Mum poked her wand through the hole in Quincy's robes, pressing the tip against his skin, and—

"Oh, dear." Narcissa's hand came down on Violet's shoulder, gently turned her around so she was facing away from Mum and Quincy. A flick of her wand, and all the little rustles and whispers from the crowd went silent — there was a funny shimmer in the air, surrounding them like a soap bubble, must be stopping any sound from getting through. "Sorry, sweetheart, but this part isn't suitable for children."

...And the fighting part was? Mages were weird. "What's happening?"

"I assume you've seen the arms of our House?"

Violet blinked at the change of subject. "Um. You m-mean the thing, with the sword and the three b-b-birds?"

"Ravens, yes. In less civilised times, it was a common practice in our family that, when someone committed an offence against one of us that was serious enough we could take their life for it, we would burn a raven onto their skin. If they offend us a second time, they would get a second mark."

She waited for Narcissa to say what happened next, but she just stopped there, standing over Violet's shoulder looking a little uncomfortable. "What about the third time?"

A thin smile on her lips, Narcissa said, "The third time, they die. We live in much less violent times now, of course — this sort of thing went out of fashion some centuries ago."

Yeah, Violet had kind of guessed that's what she would say. "What did he do? Was it that g-g-g-guh-reen spell?" Stupid Gs...

Narcissa paused for a second, frowning just a little — not sure if she wanted to tell Violet, she thought. After a few seconds she said, slow and unhappy, "Yes. That last green spell was the Killing Curse. He just tried to kill her, to curse her in the back. By law, she could take his life in retaliation; she's giving him a warning instead."

...Oh. Well, that wasn't so bad then, Violet guessed. Like, okay, it was super scary that that man had just tried to kill Mum, throwing a Killing Curse at her when she wasn't even looking. (Violet was guessing that spell did just what it sounded like.) Not so scary as it happened, really, Violet didn't know what the spell was until it was already over, so she hadn't had time to be scared — looking back on it, yeah, scary. If magic law said Mum could kill him for trying to kill her (which kind of made sense? in an old-timey lords and knights sort of way), but instead she was just giving him a warning, that was even kind of the nice thing to do, wasn't it? Honestly, with how super scary and cold Cassie could be when she was angry, Violet might not have guessed she would let someone off easy like that. He was a bad man, yes — oh, and the green spell had gone right through the dome that blocked the other spells, so he could have killed someone else by accident — but the thought of Mum, just, out and killing people made Violet uncomfortable. It was better that she was giving him a warning instead.

But burning a picture of a raven into his skin sounded really gross, so yeah, Violet didn't want to watch it. She guessed, "Thank you, Aunt Narcissa," for turning her around so she didn't have to.

She didn't say all of that aloud, worried she'd stammer, but she thought Narcissa understood anyway, the hand still on her shoulder giving a little squeeze. "Of course, sweetheart."

(Oh, now that Violet thought about it, when Narcissa saw the green spell coming she'd moved very fast to put Violet behind her. She did get that glass wall up — maybe only solid things stopped that spell? — and the spell went by a bit to Violet's right, so it wouldn't have hit her anyway, but Narcissa made it so it wouldn't hit Violet without hitting her first. So, thanks for that too...?)

After a little bit, sound came back — Violet looked around, and Mum was already stepping down the stairs, coming toward them. "Auntie, was marking him truly necessary?"

Mum shot Narcissa a crooked smirk. "Of course it was, bastard annoyed me. That curse didn't get too close to you two, did it? I thought it should be over your heads..."

"I conjured a barrier just in case, but yes, it missed us by a fair margin."

"Aunt Narcissa p-p-pushed me behind her." It was clicking proper just now what it meant that, if the spell had gone their way, it would have hit Narcissa first — it would have killed Aunt Narcissa, and she made sure Violet was behind her. Violet didn't know how to feel about that.

Mum's eyes widened, surprised, she glanced at Narcissa. "I see. Thank you, Cissa."

"Of course." Violet might be imagining it, but she thought Aunt Narcissa sounded offended, for some reason.

(Later, Violet would learn that Narcissa had been offended. Because, see, it was the only thing she would ever have done, for silly noble family reasons — protecting the children of the Family was what one does. Aunt Narcissa wasn't a Black anymore, but it was her birth family, so she still felt like Violet counted, and she took that rule more seriously than most nobles, for religious reasons Violet didn't get at the time. Thanking her for it was kind of implying that it was a special thing, that there was a chance that she might not have — you didn't ask for a thank you for doing your duty — so, a little insulted, for silly pureblood reasons.)

(Over the next months and years, Violet would learn that purebloods were weird.)

Cassie just smiled at her, and went over to where her dress was still hanging in the air, her body and hair and stuff already changing back to normal. The crowd was breaking up now, people moving over to where the party was. Some were hovering a little bit away — maybe to talk to Mum after she was done getting dressed again? It didn't take her very long, cheating with magic to get her dress back on, transfiguring the flowers back into place, her hair seeming to flow around them like a liquid. That looked really neat, Violet couldn't wait until she was as good at this metamorph stuff, Mum could do all kinds of things.

Mum didn't wear makeup at all, that was all metamorph magic — Violet had played around with it in the mirror a few times, trying to figure out how she did that, but it never looked right when Violet did it...

Though, getting good at it would take practice, and Violet was still too nervous to do that much, especially where people could see. She was working on it.

Once Mum was all prettied up and herself again — Violet knew Cassie was always Cassie, no matter what she looked like, but her shape with the green eyes and curly blonde hair still felt more like Cassie to Violet, she didn't know — she stepped a little closer to Violet. Mum hunched down in front of her, hugging the skirt of her pretty dress closer to her legs so it didn't bunch up on the dirt. "How are you feeling, darling? If the excitement was too much for you, we can leave early."

"...The fight was k-k-kind of scary, —" Violet's lips kind of, just, stuck together when trying to say "but", frozen, she tried to force it for a couple seconds before she gave up. She sighed, their breath hot and tight, trying not to— The stammering thing was just very stupid, was all, she hated that she couldn't even talk right anymore...

Or, Mum and Shannon thought it was going on for a while, Violet just didn't notice. That did make sense, Petunia and Vernon used to yell at her about... Well, she might have been stammering and not noticing, maybe. (They didn't explain what they meant, so it didn't help her figure that out much.) It was just worse now, getting bad fast enough Mum noticed it happening, a few weeks after she took Violet. And, it wasn't just that, other things felt like they were maybe harder too? She felt pretty good every since the fairies took the thing out of her head, but, talking to other kids was really hard sometimes, more than it felt like it used to be — though, maybe not, she didn't have friends before, Dudley scaring everyone off, so it was hard to say — took a lot of energy, some days more than others, sometimes she felt she didn't want to do much more than stay in and work on her puzzles or draw or something. She didn't need to be all alone, just, less talking, Lasairín or Susan hung around drawing sometimes on quiet days...

She didn't know, it happened slow enough that she didn't really notice — and she wasn't sure if it was actually new, or if Petunia just didn't let her take slow days before. It wasn't really really bad or anything, only enough to make her wonder if something was wrong with her. Besides the weird gender and metamorph stuff and the stammering, she meant.

Maybe picking up that Violet was annoyed with herself, Mum's hand came up and combed through her hair — long and curly and blonde, copied on purpose from Mum (Violet had just been trying it out, but she liked it so far, kept it) — straightening some of it from where the wind tossed it around. Violet could feel her fingertips light on her head, ticklish in a funny tingly way — it felt nice, distracting her from the bad thoughts pretty fast. "We can stay. And, I'm hungry."

Her face pulling into her warm soft nice smile (Mum had a bunch of different kinds of smiles), she said, "Well, it would be a shame to leave before getting any of the food, wouldn't it?" She stood up again, held a hand down to Violet. "Come, then."

Violet took Mum's hand and let herself be lead back to the party — the larger hand around hers warm and soft, with just a little bit of icey electric crackling, Mum's magic hiding under her skin. Mum was scary — she just proved that, beating up a bloke with magic and then burning a mark into his skin — but she was nice to Violet, so she didn't really care.

How nice she was to Violet was still weird sometimes, when she let herself think about it, so she mostly didn't. Shannon said it would take time to feel normal, to stop remembering Dursley things, and she was right about most things so far, Violet would wait.

"Ooh, can we g-g-g– avoid the flowers? They're so pretty, I hate stepping on them..."

Mum let out a little laugh. "If you want, silly girl — there should be a brick path through most of it over this way..."

---

Cassie definitely doesn't have any unresolved issues at all, what are you talking about?

So yeah, that happened. I know I dropped this a while ago, but I've been poking at it again. Lately I've been trying to write for The Good War in the afternoon and this fic at night, but I'm in the middle of depression being a bitch, so can't guess how long it'll last. We'll see. My outline has 12 pre-Hogwarts chapters left, but you all know me by this point, really more a rough estimate than a strict formula.

Managed a Christmas gift for my poor neglected readers at least? xD

In case you're not following TGW, there's a Discord server now. FFN is annoying about links, the invite is on my profile on AO3, if you give a damn.

Right, see you all next time, bye.