Prolong
You never think of how it’ll feel to lose all that you know; the familia ties that you grew custom too just one day snapping. My memories mostly consist of going to my cousins' homes and playing in their backyards or all of us playing on the street. We didn’t have to worry much about our safety being that the only people who lived down this cobblestone street were family members. Everyone knew everyone, either they were blood related, or they were marriage related; either way we kids were in no harm outside. I lived with my grandparents, Dmitry Lipovsky V and Vera Lipovsky in our ancestral house. The house was passed down from 4 previous generations. The outside exteriors weren't like any England homes you would see. It didn’t have wooden boards making up a simple white painted house, not this house was made from wooden oak found in the forest during the winter. The structure was more cabin like than house like, but that was the style for all the homes down my street. There were shields on every house that was made in Mother Russian and the shields were the only way for someone from the outside to know who we are. A skull sitting on top of a horrible looking snake decorated the metal. In every home there was a sitting room right when you enter the home; a fireplace would sometimes be lit. A dining room would be across from the sitting room, made easy for those who like to host parties. Down a smooth stone hallway would be a door to the left and staircase to the right. The small door held the kitchen with the simple necessaries from olden times. The staircase would lead up to the bedrooms; most homes were magik to expand with new arrivals. It wasn’t fancy compared to most pure blood families, but we wanted to keep our heritage as much as we could.
The Lipovsky family originated from Russia, only moving to England in the early 1900’s; by then we were tied to dark magic. My blood line on both sides practiced dark magic from necromancers to shadow bending. When the Dark Lord came to rise and was looking for pure blood families to support his cause my great great grandfather, Dmitry Lipovsky III, was the first to sign up. He vowed this loyalty to the Dark Lord and even vowed that any generation born with the Lipovsky blood would bear the Death eater mark. Generation after generation, cousin after cousin; they would all have the mark on their left arm once. My family quickly became the most respected and noble pure blood alongside some other families. We were the family with the most connection to dark magic that anyone could control. Some of my cousins can bring back their dead pets at the young age of 5. I could control shadows from age 5 and learned how to use them for other scents.
When my mam became pregnant with me a marriage was quickly thrown together. You see in my family, and I believe in most pure blood families, arranged marriages were the only options. Men much older would marry young women and sometimes it would be within the family. A few of my older cousins who are already married told me how they got with their partners. The females would say that their parents sat them down and told them how they needed to continue the blood line and how in this world women had no say in any matter. The men would say that they were told a similar story but one with being in charge. The end result would be that the child was betrothed whoever the parent wanted. Most marriages were a means for purpose, some were continuing bloodline; mine was to hide a secret.
My mam side of the family was pure blood and with the same rules as my papa. The only difference was that my mam had a little bit more freedom than what most females were allowed. She was allowed to attend school and receive a proper education; she had friends from both genders, and she was allowed to dress however she liked within reason of course. This was how my mam came to meet my papa, being able to mingle with the opposite was frowned upon in our culture, but my mam didn’t care; she was just having fun. Well one thing led to another and poof I was made. When my grandparents on both sides found out they quickly agreed to a marriage that would hide the fact that I was outside of wedlock. My babushka from my papa side was one to bring up the idea and was the main one supporting the marriage. She worked too hard “for some shalava to ruin my sweet boy life”. Surprisingly enough my parents were actually soulmates when they met, but our culture had taught us that soulmates weren’t a thing to think about.
The day that my family left everything we knew behind was a day I wouldn’t forget. We were all sitting around at the stone made table that held candles in the middle for light, the decoration in the place was rustic and could be seen as old from the first glance. The wooden chairs weren’t the greatest especially during the wintertime. The sitting room fireplace was lit with flames burning log after log. Outside there was snow covering the ground during darkness sooner rather than later.
My babushka sat at the head of the table, my dedushka died a couple of years ago leaving her as head of house. It would usually go to my father being that he was an only child, but my baba said he wasn’t ready and that if he could make a mistake like making me than who knows what he could make.
“Anna sit up straight, don’t slouch,not good for posture. Also take that ugly thing out of nose right now!” barked her order. I grew used to them at this point seeing as I was the mistake. Most of the adults treated me like a burden and sometimes that would rub off on their children, but family is family, and we needed friends where we could find them.
“Baba I am not slouching and I’m not taking my piercing out for the last time.” Most children in our group showed the elder respect and that wasn’t respect at all.
“Dmitry see what your child is saying. Control her or she’ll have hard time in future marriage.” My baba started looking for potential husbands when I turned 13; that was my birthday present from her. Announcing to the whole family that I was available for marriage. She hasn’t found a good match yet, but the search won’t keep going, it’ll have to stop at some point.
“Mam Anna is only 16, they don’t need a marriage yet.” My papa was my biggest defender when it came to the whole marriage stuff. He understood the fear that came from marrying young and with someone you barely knew. My mam couldn’t voice her opinion like my papa could, she was the one that ruined my papa's chance at being arranged to a good pure blooded girl.
“Nonsense, her cousins got married how younger than she is right now, I see no problem. What I do see is that she keeps getting more metal in her face.” That comment went to my mam. Apparently, my mam was to be by my side at all times to make sure I don’t do anything stupid to ruin the family name.
“Mrs. Lipovsky I can’t be by their side 24/7 every day, they're growing up and finding themselves.” My mam was still in her ways like when she was a teenager. No matter what happened afterwards she made it clear to my papa that this marriage was equal, not divided. My papa was a sucker for my mam bravery and agreed with her on most things.
“Control you shalava Dmitry.” Baba said it like she was speaking about the weather. Nobody at the table said anything after that, only the silence remained.
“We’re leaving tonight mam and we’re never coming back.” My papa was a man of few actions, mainly just following what is command of him, but this was new.
“Oh really? Where would you go Dmitry, you have nothing without this family, nothing!” I never heard my baba scream before; yes, I heard her yell, but this was different. This was betrayal to her; this is shame to her. If her only son left, then the family would know that there were creaks in the foundation. We were looked at like celebrities in our family, but we were royalties to everyone outside.
“That doesn’t concern you now. We will be leaving now seeing that we are not wanted here anymore.” My papa got up well saying this, a look of determination on his face. We made the decision as a family that if we wanted to survive this world, we needed to leave this behind. Pure blood doesn’t mean anything, but a title and titles can be broken.
“Good leave then! At least now I won’t have those two as family anymore.” My wiped my tears from my cheeks when I rushed to the dining room. My mam was behind with a hand on the small of back pushing me along. My papa led the way to the entrance where our coats and boots lay.
When we got outside the snow started covering our head; I finally broke. My mam couldn’t do much in comforting me being that we needed to go before word could spread. My mam just simply held my right hand while my papa held the other. We walked along the street, no one was out at this time and in this weather, so we didn’t worry about any cars.
“I want to go to Hogwarts, and I want new friends.” I made my declaration very clear and plain in the dead of night to my parents. I wanted freedom, I wanted to make my own choices without thinking how this would look to the family. I wanted a life worth living for and not just existing in.
“Okay, maybe you’ll get to see Stellara and Rigelia there as well.” My mam spoke quietly into the night, a small smile drawn on her face.