It has been a very, very long day for Alcina Dimitrescu, and her morning has only just begun.
She returns from the urgent meeting that had been called by her leader, only for said woman to not even show. It wasn't like Mother Miranda to simply forget she had even called a meeting, but Alcina was too tired to care in the moment. She bids her siblings a brief farewell, and she returns to her castle as the moon shines high above her, illuminating her path.
Perhaps she should have noticed, then, that something was amiss.
Her castle is strangely quiet as she approaches its main doors, even for how early in the morning it is. She expects to see a few candles lit or even a maid or two passing a window, but it is dark in many of them.
For only a few moments, she thinks nothing of it. Perhaps she is too tired to remember what her home is like this early, and so, she will ask her daughters about it after she gets some rest.
As Alcina enters her home, she notices two things almost immediately: first, her castle is utterly destroyed. Vases and statues have been thrown or smashed into the ground, paintings and wallpaper ripped, holes in her fucking walls-
Second, blood is splattered along the floor and walls, and there are severed limbs and bodies everywhere.
Her heart squeezes painfully in her chest as she struggles to look for her human, pinching her nose as she walks to hide the stench a little. She knows they're no longer human, not after whatever Mother Miranda had done to them, but for their own sake and out of habit, she continues to refer to them as such.
She also knows what it looks like when someone has gone feral, and she fears for them. She wonders if something happened while she was away, if one of her daughters had something they shouldn't or the Cadou in them snapped; either way, she fears she may find her human too late.
She notices the bodies of maids in the halls as she follows their trail, her brows furrowing. It... doesn't quite seem as though any weapon had done this sort of damage. If she didn't know any better, she would assume claws had dug into her staff and torn them limb from limb.
But... No, that wasn't possible. She could replace the staff if her daughters attacked them, and for some time, she convinces herself that is all it is.
How wrong she would come to realize she is.
Alcina steps into a hallway just as her human stumbles back to leave it, their hand severed and wings twitching behind them, knocking over several vases and paintings as they smear more blood everywhere.
It is then she sees her middle daughter, and for a moment, she is utterly frozen.
She cannot move as Cassandra crumbles to the ground, her body becoming a pale, ashy color as her legs begin to disintegrate. She knew the risks of even gaining her daughters, she knew what it would look like if they were weakened and killed.
Daniela is somewhere nearby, desperately calling for her to help or something, though she finds she cannot focus on what is being said to her. Her eyes widen and her heart shatters in her chest, and for the first time in her life, Alcina is lost.
She does not know what to do. She tries her best; her knees crack as she falls to them on the floor, as Cassandra reaches for her with tears in her eyes and her arms crumbling to ash on the ground, sobbing out, "Mamă-"
She holds her daughter close to her chest, shaking as she ensures her protection with her arms completely around her. She cannot cry, does not dare to, but she feels what little was left of her humanity slip away from her grasp when Cassandra is nothing more than a pile of crystallized ash on the ground.
Daniela is the next to be taken from her, and she assumes Bela was the first. She does not find her eldest's remains, as she does not think herself capable of remaining in this form if she sees them, and she knows she must protect her youngest.
It is a futile attempt.
Her last daughter - her precious child - is taken from her in a moment's notice. She does not realize Daniela is gone until she sees that bastard stand from her crystallized form, dripping with blood as their only remaining eye glows brightly against the darkness in the courtyard.
They run from her, as anyone with a bit of brain left would do. She only manages to keep up with them through the blood stains they leave on the floor and the occasional mangled body of a maid that got in their way.
As the sun peeks over the large mountains encasing the village, trapping it from the rest of the world... She kills her beloved.
If she were being honest, she never thought this day would come. She had hope and faith in them, in their motivations, and perhaps, she wonders, that was her fatal mistake.
She realizes there is no hope for them, not after what they had become. They are nothing more than a feral beast, and even if they had regained their humanity, she would never let them live for what they had done to her daughters.
With tears in her eyes, she slices her large and sharp claws straight through their neck, severing their head from the rest of their body in an instant. She does not know if it will kill them, considering the other various wounds along their body that should have already, but she will slice them to pieces if she must.
There is a moment - a blissful fraction of a second - where her love looks at her with nothing but adoration and gratitude in their eyes. Throughout all the months she's known them, through every interaction she's had with them... She has never witnessed such a pure form of peace in their golden eye.
As soon as their body hits the ground, their head following, she realizes she is truly lost.
She could not protect her daughters, not when they needed her most. She allowed this monstrosity to invade her home, to kill the only things she held so dear to her heart. She will never forgive herself, and she knows she must live with the consequences of her actions.
Alcina sits amidst the cold morning air, watching as her breath clouds in front of her and the blood pools around her love's head, staining the pristine white snow around them. She ponders a way to change the course of things, to go back and prevent you from ever stepping foot in her castle-
It is days before her prayers receive an answer. She begs every night at her daughters' graves, trying not to cry as she kneels by them. She stays with them until she can no longer keep her eyes open and her fingers have lost all feeling, and even then, she shuffles her way back inside.
When she awakens that morning, it takes her some time to realize when she is.
It starts out as any other morning would; the sun peeks in through the barely opened curtains covering her window, her heart aching, her eyes bleary before she puts her glasses on...
Daniela clambers into her bed not long after with what she hopes is a tray of edible meat. She does not understand, wonders if she had passed in her sleep and joined her darlings once more in the afterlife, but she remembers this day.
It is months before her daughters even found that human out in the snow, and as she realizes she has been given a second chance, she does not let her daughters out of her sight.
As she moves about her days with her children, spending more time with them and spoiling them with whatever they ask for, she vows to herself that she will not save her love that night. Whenever it comes, she will keep her daughters inside and safe, and while her heart breaks at the thought of abandoning them, she knows what must be done.
She learns to move on. It is not something she expected to find herself doing, but she is lost in the excited smiles of her daughters, the way they playfully banter with one another like they had before, their carefree movements and hobbies...
She catches herself simply watching them at times as she attempts to forget everything she had witnessed.
It's hard to forget them, though. Alcina often finds herself searching around the castle for her love, her eyes lifting to meet their own as she writes in her office, only to find an empty seat. She asks for two trays of food, expecting a guest to accompany her as she works, and she is left alone until there are mere embers in her fireplace.
She does hope they're all right, wherever they may be these several months back. She sometimes fights the urge to go out and find them, to ensure their care and safety. Her castle is rather dull without their unique light spreading throughout it, but if this was the price she had to pay to see her daughters again? She would be a fool to turn it down.
Two months after her reawakening from that horrible nightmare that had been her life, Alcina decides it is finally safe for she and her daughters to leave the castle's grounds. She takes them into the village, as she must converse with Duke, but she finds little ways to spoil them.
The bright smiles on their faces as she gives them little allowances to spend on the one rule they behave is well worth whatever else she had gone through to get to this point. The kiss on her cheek she receives from Daniela is enough to make her entire life worth it.
Her daughters are just out of sight as she converses with Duke about business and trades, as they discuss prices and routes, though she hears their laughter and snarky comments. It's enough to ease her anxieties enough to relax for the first time in months.
Halfway through her talk with Duke, she spots them walking with a young woman, smiling gently as they speak quietly with one another. She cannot stop looking at them, at the calmness in their stance and the innocent look in their eyes. There are no heavy bags beneath their eyes given after terrible, sleepless nights, and there are no worry lines on their face.
It takes her a moment to recognize them as her human, but even as they pass her, she says nothing. They merely glance up at her, eyes wide and not golden as their companion urges them away. They look so human here, and she resists the urge to go to them, to comfort them-
They do not remember her, and perhaps it is a blessing.
Another month passes as the date of their existence in her life draws ever closer. She's unsure why she remembers them when no one else seems to, when her daughters give her questioning looks about the strange newcomer she swears she saw in the village.
She does wonder if it was simply someone else she saw, and her life without them had caused her to see them in places they weren't. As no one seems to remember ever seeing them, even the commoners in the village, she decides they must not exist in this reality any longer.
She still does not let her daughter roam outside that night, regardless of what had happened to her missing staff. She assures her daughters she will take care of it in the morning, and she falls asleep at her desk before she can think to secure them in the castle.
By morning, she sees them again. Her daughters drag them in by their foot into her office, giggling about them and remarking the state they're in. Their limbs have been chewed on by what she can only imagine were lycans, their clothing torn, especially around their back, blood staining their body, an obvious discoloration or blackness in their skin...
When they open their bleary, golden eyes, glowing softly in the morning sun, Alcina Dimitrescu realizes she is utterly fucked.
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Does anyone else ever think about how Harry & Albus'relationship might have developed had Albus not died that night? (And by extension, had Albus not been dying at all)
Like, consider what they had been through together that evening within the cave. That sort of thing really brings people closer. A shared trauma. Harry witnessed Albus at his absolute most vulnerable (to that point), something which cannot be said by many in my opinion.
I'd like to think that Albus invited Harry to his office one evening, not too long after, once Albus had sufficiently recovered for the effects of the potion.
Harry doesn't know what to expect, but he's pleasantly surprised when his Headmaster suggests they move to the couches behind his desk, and he summons some warm Butterbeers for them both.
And it's there at Albus delves into what he had experienced when he drank the potion. Harry listens intently, a great sympathy falling over him when Albus mentions the death of his sister while they were both teenagers. And that it was her death with had plagued him that night.
Harry thinks to ask why, but decides not to, considering that had the Headmaster wanted to tell him, he would have. Instead Harry takes comfort in the fact that Dumbledore had shared this much with him. He now knows that they have both lost loved ones, and after Albus reveals that the death of his sister happened in Godric's Hollow, Harry cannot help but ask if maybe they could both go someday. To visit the graves of their loved ones. Harry for the very first time.
And Harry thinks that this would be fitting, sharing that moment with his greatest mentor. Albus tells Harry that he will consider it, mentioning that it might not be the safest place for Harry to go to at the moment. Harry brings up... "Hermione told me, first year, that Voldemort could never touch me while, not while I had you to keep me safe."
"While I am touched by the display of loyalty by yourself and Miss Granger, Harry, Tom has indeed managed to touch and hurt you under my watch."
Harry considers this for a moment, "Yeah because he pulled strings to separate us, but you were always there when it really counted.
First year, you rushed to my aid after my battle with Quirrell and Voldemort, after he had lured you out of the castle. I remember seeing your glasses as I lost consciousness. You carried me to the Hospital Wing.
Second year, you sent Fawkes to help me, giving me the option to wield the Sword. To know you had so much faith in me, it meant a lot.
Third year, you gave me the chance to discover who Sirius was for myself, but still took measures to make sure I'd be safe. And then you let me save Sirius when it turned out he didn't want to kill me after all.
Fourth year, when I was in the graveyard and mine and Voldemort's wands connected, I could hear the sound of the Phoenix song. And it reminded me of you. It filled me with hope and gave me strength to keep fighting. A voice even told me to not give up.
Fifth year...well, that's more complicated as you know. But I understand that all you did last year was to keep me safe. And when all I wanted to do was rage at you, you stood there and let me. You gave me a safe space - to let out all of the hurt and anger and confusion I'd felt all year. And of course on top of that, the grief from losing Sirius.
And, and well, this year, when you came to pick me up from the Dursley's... you gave me my first proper drink of alcohol. I mean, you didn't have to do that, but you did and while that might seem trivial, it made feel warm in more ways than one. And then you told Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon off... Professor, I don't think you know what that meant to me.
My point is, no matter what Voldemort has done, no matter what hell my life is at the time, I've never felt more safe, more cared for, than to know you're there watching over me."
Albus sat there listening in silent growing awe as Harry spilled out his heart, and similar to earlier in the year, he finds himself with tears in his eyes. He cannot believe how much Harry holds in high regard. But he is incredibly touched.
"Thank you, Harry. I am, once again, very touched by your words. You are extraordinarily kind. Perhaps we can visit Godric's Hollow before you turn 17. Consider it my birthday gift to you. It would be my highest honour."
(part one)
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