The house of Gaunt
After three years in Azkaban Morfin has lost his adored father and useless sister, his house that previously matched his appearance: messy, dirty, scary and about to crumble, was now surrounded by flowers along the valley. As he approached the cottage he could hear a soft humming of a woman’s voice become louder.
Cecilia Riddle was crouched next to a pile of dirt with a shovel in hand. She was so caught up in her own world that she didn’t even see him until a shadow formed above her flowers. The man she instantly recognized as the tramps son muttered something that didn’t seem like real words. He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her into the ground.
- Please, I’m sorry I didn’t think you’d come back - she yelled like a prayer.
But as though he hadn’t heard her, he kneeled between her legs. And Cecilia knew what was going to happen, she couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with guilt. Tom, her husband, had told her many times that she shouldn’t lurk around the cottage, that place still had something thing dark about it, even with the Gaunts being gone for a couple years. But she couldn’t help it, the meadow needed life and color. The sun bathed the valley and it made her flowers shine, that sight was enough to make her ignore the shivers when she got close to the land.
When Cecilia was riding home she was not thinking about it, instead she was worried about the future. Tom didn’t dare to lay with her since he was back from London. It seemed like he wasn’t actually back, Cecilia saw how different he was, and at times she felt like she didn’t know him anymore, but what could she do? A divorce was something unholy, they chose to become one flesh before God, little did she know about what he had done in London.
Time went on and she grew tired and scared, she stayed her days as though she was soon to meet death, which seemed to annoy Tom to the point he became aggressive towards her. A couple months later Cecilia knew she was pregnant, and her husband would not accept a bastard child. With fear what he could do not to her but to her baby she left on one quiet afternoon to check her plants with more things than were needed, but he didn’t question her.
She couldn’t go to London, it was too obvious. She wanted to get as far from her old life as possible. Once she was in the harbor her stomach turned and she had no time to avoid the woman next to her when she threw up just an inch from her feet.
-Are you alright? - a tall well dressed lady asked her
- I’m really sorry! - she said with a voice of someone who never spoke before in her life
- Don’t worry honey, do you need help? -
- Do you know when the next ferry leaves? - She finally wiped her mouth.
- About now, to Paris, is there where you headed to…? She paused to give her time to say her name.
- Cecilia, and I think that’s where i’m headed now, what about you?-
- I’m Vanya , I’m from Paris , so i’m going back home, do you have a place to stay there?- she asked curious.
- No, but I don’t want to bother you…-
- Nonsense, I live in a house too big just for me, you will be my guest- She interrupted Cecilia before she could complete her sentence.
Cecilia didn’t argue, she did need a place to stay, her savings could get her to the end of her pregnancy but once the baby was born she would need to find a job. But when she reached the final weeks her worry was not getting to raise her baby, she got weak, thin and frail, even with Vanya helping her, the pregnancy seemed to suck life out of her.
On the first of january of 1929 a daughter was born, and a mother died. Cecilia Renné Boucher was named after her late mother by Vanya, the woman who would raise her as Cecilia would want: in a religious household. That was until she noticed that Cecilia was not ordinary child, she made lights flicker, she broke glass with only a look and the for her horror she could speak to snakes like they were her friends. Vanya knew that little girl was coursed, and she felt almost relieved when she came home and the 8 year old girl was gone .
For Cecilia that was the beginning of a life she would thrive. For Tom that would be the reminder of the Gaunt’s lingering legacy.
Playlist:
i want you to love me - fiona apple
me and my husband-mitski
once more to see you- mitski
california - lana del rey
os this happiness- lana del rey
come to me- bjork
play dead- bjork
england made me - black box recorder
i’m your man - leonard cohen
love crime - siouxsie
this mess we’re in- pj harvey
a place called home - pj harvey
just - radiohead
dagger- slowdive
forget her - jeff buckley
doll parts - hole
violet - hole
gutless - hole
say yes - eliott smith
lived in bars - cat power