[CHAPTER 35] 

THE TALE OF ANNABELLE ROSIER

[ I hope you know

That you're my home ]

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THE GIRLS SPENT the whole day cleaning the house, partly due to the fact it was necessary, and partly because it stopped them all thinking and worrying about the others. There hadn't been a scrap of news from anybody since yesterday evening, and the lack of information did nothing for Emily's anxiety.

"I'm done, I can't clean any longer," Violetta puffed, falling down on the armchair from her role in dusting the cabinet windows.

"You've used your wand for literally everything in this house," Kate pointed out, and Violetta looked affronted.

"Spell work can still be exhausting!" she exclaimed, and Kate raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"Hm," she said, sitting down on the arm of the chair, "Vi's right though, we should take a break,"

Emily said nothng, continuing wiping down the windows.

"And by us I mean you, Em, you've literally not said a word or taken a break since this morning,"

"House needs to be clean," Emily said with a shrug, but Kate's eyes bored into her.

"Vi told me about your breakup," Kate said, and Emily sighed.

"I figured she would've," she said, throwing down her rag, "But I don't want to talk about it,"

"Alright," Kate said, "Now that I get,"

"What were we planning for dinner? One of us would need to go–"

An almighty crashing sound from downstairs interrupted her, and at once, the three girls were on their feet, wands drawn towards the door.

"INTRUDER," howled Mrs. Pickett's shrill voice up the staircase, and there was loud swearing from the entrance hall as the girls shot into action.

"Hide," Emily hissed at her friends. Kate nodded, crouching behind the large armchair and out of sight as Emily went to stand by the side of the door, wand drawn towards the entrance so that anyone coming in would receive a spell to the face. Violetta stood on the far end of the room behind a curtain, wand drawn at the doorway.

The person coming up the stairs made no attempt to hide the fact they were an intruder. Heavy footfalls made the wooden staircase creak loudly as the stomps echoed through the house. Emily could feel her heart beating out of her chest, thumping loudly and sending the blood rushing in her ears. There was the sound of the doors being thrown open, another echoing smack as they made contact with the wall. Emily tried to take a few steeling breaths, trying to hold her shaking hand steady and her wand from shaking.

The footsteps approached the living room, closer and louder until–

A body breached the doorframe, a tall, pale man with chocolate brown curls on his head covered in a newsies cap.

"If you so much as move an inch," Emily said, her wand touching to his temple and making him stop dead in his tracks, "I will stun you to all hell,"

"Ah, Emily Poole, is it?" he asked, and Emily frowned as there were more footsteps on the stairs. Their eyes met, and for a minute Emily was startled by the brightness of his eyes. They were the exact same greenish-blue color's as Violetta.

"Darling?" came a woman's voice, and the man eyed Emily's wand.

"In here," he called, eyes never leaving the tip of the wand pointing in his face.

"Dad?" came Violetta's stunned voice from Emily's right, and the man smiled in a very Violetta-like way.

"We were a little. . .er. . .worried darling. . . Could you point that thing somewhere else please?" he looked pointedly at Emily, who glanced at Violetta. She nodded, and only then did Emily lower her wand. Just then, a woman came to stand in the doorway next to Violetta's father. Her skin was the same dark chocolate color as Violetta's, and her nose matched the button shape of her daughter's.

"Maman?" Violetta asked, and her mother gave her a tight-lipped smile, "What on earth are you doing here?"

"Don't be silly," said her mother, in a less intense version of Fleur's familiar french-tinged accent, "We've come to fetch you,"

"Fetch me?" Violetta enunciated, before scoffing, "You're joking, right?"

Kate had appeared from her hiding spot behind the armchair, and went to stand next to Violetta, a defiant look on her face.

"She wants to stay," she said, and Violetta's father looked at her, with that same tight lipped smile.

"We're her fami–"

"Kate's right," came Violetta's voice, "I promised the order I'd work for them, and to protect my friends,"

"That's all good and valiant, but who's going to be protecting you?" asked her mum.

"I will," both Kate and Emily spoke at the same time. There was a tense silence.

"Stop the nonsense, Vi, we're going," her father said sternly.

"Nonsense?" Violetta asked incredulously, "You think I'm messing? I'm not going with you,"

"Can we talk in private?" her father said, and Emily recognised the same anger underneath his tone that her father had when he was upset with her.

"No we can't," Violetta said, "Whatever you want to say, it can in front of my frien–"

"Don't be stupid," hissed her father suddenly, "You agreed,"

"And now I've changed my mind. I'm staying. I'm fighting," Violetta replied, and her father's eyes flashed with anger.

"You can't fight if you're dead," he exploded, and Violetta looked taken aback. Clearly her father had never raised his voice with her before.

"Darling," her mother said, mouth slightly ajar.

There was a tense silence, in which Violetta's dad sighed. "Our family has a bad history with wars, Violetta,"

"You're talking about Aunt Annabelle, aren't you?"

Her father looked defeated, taking off his cap. "Violetta, please,"

"What happened to her?" she asked, and an expression of pain rolled over Louis Rosier's face, before he sat down in one of the armchairs with a sigh.

"Annabelle was the eldest– only by a year. For years, she was my family's pride and joy; she was clever, and headstrong and beautiful. We were the Rosiers, one of the sacred 28. Our grandmother, Vinda, was a Grindelwald loyalist. . .you know how it is, pureblood families often carry certain. . .er. . . ideals. . ."

No one said anything.

"Our family was no different. . . our parents and grandparents would spout on about how magical education should be strictly for those. . .ah. . .worthy of magic, so to say," he glanced at Kate for a second, "For years Annabelle and I went along with it, we believed it. In retrospect, I'm ashamed of the way we behaved. . ."

Violetta glared at her father. "You should be,"

"Something changed with Annabelle, when she was 15. She met a boy at school my grandparents didn't approve of, muggle-born. They tried to keep them apart, but Annabelle was so smitten with him, she wouldn't hear a word of it. For a whole year, I watched her change, realize the crap she had listened to all her life was nothing but a pile of nonsense. She defied my parents on more than one occasion, even spent Christmas with this boy, and then she moved out when she was sixteen. My grandmother, especially, was livid. . ."

He was quiet for a moment.

"And then, what happened?" Violetta asked.

"I still remember the day she got the news. . . .I used to visit her secretly. She had gotten a letter, from the boy's mother. He'd died. . . a freak accident, they said. She was so heartbroken, I remember the look in her eyes still,"

"But Annabelle was clever. . . she knew my family was so ashamed of her, that they valued their reputation above all else. She returned with me that evening to confront my grandmother. . . I had never seen her so angry. . .so broken before. They argued and screamed and my grandmother confessed that she had had him killed. . ."

The living room was dead silent, and Violetta's father had tears running down his face.

"It was awful, Annabelle drew her wand, and spells flew. Somehow. . . she got hit. We called the emergency ward at St. Mungos, but by the time they got there–" his voice broke, and more tears streamed down his face, "–. . .I held her hand the w-whole t-time, but. . .by the time they got there, she had bled to death,"

Emily's eyes fell on Violetta, whose expression remained hard, but whose blue eyes had started to glisten.

"They wrote it off as another accident, in an effort to salvage any reputation we had left. . .I was furious, I ran away from home, I gave it all up; the money, the name, the ideals. It all seemed so pointless to me, to argue about something so insignificant. . . it didn't matter to me where magical people came from, what their status was. All I knew is that it had cost my sister her life. You've always asked me why I haven't fought against the forces like the ones that killed my sister . . .the pain of losing her almost destroyed me, Violetta, and I knew I wouldn't survive it a second time. So, I hid. I've kept our family as far away from these poisonous ideals as I possibly can, I've ignored summons and letters and visits. . ."

"Please, darling. Just come with us," her mother pleaded.

Kate's eyes met Emily's, and they shared a look. What would their friend do?

The conflict was evident in her eyes, and after a minute of silence, she took a deep breath.

"I can't," she said, her voice shaking slightly, "I have to fight this, Dad. I can't look away like you, I can't hide as my friends fight and die. . . faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. . .I refuse to turn my back on the people I love and that love me,"

For the second time that day, Emily felt a great rush of love and admiration for her friend. Violetta's mother was crying, but her father gave her a soft smile.

"I understand. . . You're a lot like her, you know. Fiercely loyal to her beliefs and the ones she loved,"

He stood up, walked towards her, and embraced her. Tears ran down Violetta's face now, as she held her father as tight as she could. When they pulled apart, her father took a deep breath, reaching for his wife's hand. Emily went to stand next to Violetta, a reassuring hand on her shoulder, as Kate took her hand and squeezed it tight.

"Bye Mom," Violetta said, and her mother smiled.

"Be careful, darling. God willing, we'll see you soon," she said, and Violetta nodded.

Before they dissaparated, Louis Rosier took one last, sad look at his daughter.

"I love you. . ." he said, "Give them hell," 

a/n: 

wooooow, that took forever I'm so sorry ya'll. to be honest I've had very little motivation to write lately but all these comments and votes you all have been leaving keep me going so I'm very thankful. hopefully next update won't be a month from now eek