Dear Arkansas Daughter
Tara was confused. Why were there so many references to generic elder gods but nothing about specific ones like Yig and Gloriana. And why did her family name keep getting mentioned in relation to them? Tara kept reading. She hoped that the others were having more luck.
“Hey Lover. How are you going?” Willow asked as she wound her arms around Tara’s shoulders.
“Nothing on Yig or Gloriana or time travel. You?”
Willow shook her head and moved around to sit at the table beside Tara.
“I have found mention of the McClays, the McIntyres and the Lovits though.”
“I recognise your surname, but not the others?” Willow asked, curious to find out more. Tara never talked about her family or much about her past if she could avoid it.
“Remember how my da believed that women in our family were cursed? Well it turns out he was half right. A couple of hundred years ago a group of mad puritans decided to run experiments on their daughters to make them more godly. You know, pure, docile, obedient. Someone found a book which they believed to be the work of god and used it to banish the demons which existed in the five young women they had chosen.” Tara paused, and rifled through her notes. “I’m paraphrasing but essentially the text I found read : Five shall be chosen. Five is the number ordained by god. Five is the number of purity, of obedience, of faith, of charity, of chastity. Five it shall be. One for each point to welcome in the lord's spirit and guidance.”
“They used a pentagram?” Willow said, astonished. “That sounds really dodgy.”
“I reckon this branch had no idea about witchcraft or the associated symbols of their era and had been conned by an aspiring witch as channels for more power.” Tara mused
“What happened to the young girls?”
“The accounts vary but it seems that whatever was summoned possessed all girls but in different ways. One went mad hearing voices and following instructions to set fire to various buildings. The town leaders had her hung for arson. Another seduced a young minister and his wife. She had at least one child by them before being hounded out of town for adultery. There’s no record of where she went. A third stabbed all the men in her household and was hanged for murder. The last two married local men - Jediah McClay and Silas Lovit - and had kids. By the end of the third generation all the families were so inter-married they had formed their own clan with set rituals, regular witch burnings, and repression of females.” Tara looked up at Willow, her eyes sad.
“How many left in the clan? Does it say?” Willow asked, resting her head on Tara’s shoulder.
“At last count, which in this case was 1965, the were 27 people across the original 5 families. I know that of those five only three still lived in the same Arkansas county by 1990 and I was one of six girls in my generation. I’m sure there are countless hundreds of others scattered across the states if not the world, and if the magic is random then there are undoubtedly a couple hundred witches and demons still out there.”
Willow kissed Tara on the cheek. “And you are the very best of all girls - witch or demon.”
Tara turned, smiled, and captured Willow's mouth with her own. “Thank you” she murmured and they ignored the past, present and future for a little while.
——
They were still ignoring the world when Sirius bounced up to them, Remus following at a much more sedate pace with his arms full of books and parchment.
“It seems as though their research was nearly as exciting as ours?” He whispered so loudly Willow broke their current kiss with a giggle.
“It’s been a while since we made out in a library.” She said unapologetically grinning up at Sirius who had perched on the edge of the desk. She looked back at Tara “Do you remember the first time we got caught by Giles?”
Tara laughed. “He was mortified.”
“By two girls kissing?” Sirius asked
“No. By the fact we were doing it in the demonology section with books all over the floor.”
“Where did he find you the next time?” Sirius ventured
“Conspiracy theories. This time we made sure all the books were away before we got settled in for a lengthy session.”
“Couldn’t you just have gone home?”
“Sure. But where’s the fun in that.” Willow replied.
“Why use the dorm when there was a broom closet free?” Remus asked Sirius with a straight face.
“Good point,” Sirius agreed. “We couldn’t use the library. Dark corners tended to be occupied by the scarier books. Or Slytherins.” He shuddered “You didn’t want to interact with either of them when feeling horny. Broom closets were much safer.”
Smiling at the thought of seventeen year old Remus and Sirius making out supervised by a mop and bucket, Tara gathered up her notes while Willow put the reading materials on to the trolley designated ‘for reshelving only.’ Remus shrank his pile of books and pocketed them. He’d return the books later when their visitors had gone home.
It was a pleasant journey back to the flat. Sirius and Remus had offered to apparate the other two, but the evening was still rain free so they caught trains instead. James walked in five minutes later still smiling faintly.
“Hi Honey. I’m home.” He called as he let himself in.
“In the living room.” Came the chorus.
“You look happy.” Sirius observed “Who’d you shag?”
James fought down the blush threatening to rise past his collar. He had actually been fantasizing how he would shag Regulus if he ever got the chance to do so again, but there was no way in any world he’d admit that to Sirius. From the shit eating grin on Remus’s face, James figured Remus already knew where his thoughts had been. “No one.” James said in a mildly offended tone instead. “I went to see the dinosaurs. I love dinosaurs. So much cooler than dragons.”
“That’s because they’re less likely to rip you to pieces.” Sirius grinned. “Personally I prefer dragons. Much more of a challenge.”
“And here I was thinking you preferred wolves “ Remus said, completely failing in his effort to pout.
Sirius blew him a kiss in response.
James laughed and settled himself into the surprisingly comfortable orange armchair. “So what did you discover while I was off admiring fossils?” he asked taking the mug of tea Willow handed him.
“That the Watchers know very little about the wizarding world.” Said Sirius
“They really really like tracking demons and vampires, but werewolves are largely left to their own devices,” Willow added.
“And so we should be” ‘Remus rumbled
“Anything on time travel and elder gods?” James asked
“There have been instances of time travel, though how and why were not as important to record as when and where. Last incident I read was someone in 1965 went back to 1937 to try and assassinate Hitler and prevent World War Two. It didn’t work and he was shot by the Germans in 1941.” Tara said
“Nothing else?”
“I found one were a history buff goes back to 1603 to meet Shakespeare and find out what Elizabeth Tudor really said on her deathbed. That was in 1963. He made it back to his own time, wrote that Shakespeare was a tosser, Liz’s court a nightmare, and everyone stank. And that was it.” Willow laughed. “I wonder what Shakespeare would think if he read the one line he got as a footnote in someone’s journal.”
“That was better than us. We found many references to opening and closing demon portals. Apparently there are multiple planes of demons which denotes their power level and abilities. My favourites are a race of demon who do interpretive dance as a form of torture, and another group who force everyone to sing all the time.” Sirius said grinning.
Willow and Tara shook their heads. “What they failed to write was that you’re forced to sing your innermost thoughts and desires as well as what you wanted to say. It's Creepy.” Willow explained.
“Causes loads of disruption and chaos. Almost destroyed us as well. I didn’t like it at all.” Tara added.
The room fell silent. James wondered what it would be like to hear Regulus’s innermost thoughts and desires. Then decided that it was probably better if he didn’t. If Sirius was anything to go by, the younger man had even more darkness to overcome before he reached any level of healthy. James sighed to himself. In another life he would happily take Regulus home and spend all the time they had filling him with joy and love and sunshine to wipe away the darkness and damage caused by his family and the war. ‘It’s a nice dream, but only a dream.’ He thought as he got pulled back to reality.
“So we’re no closer to returning you home than we were this morning.” Sirius said somewhat forlornly
“Reinforcements?” Remus asked.
“Pandora?” Tara suggested
“Is she back?” James asked although he’d figured she must be if he saw Regulus today.
“Don’t know.” Willie said. “Why don’t we all meet for lunch tomorrow and see if we can come up with some more ideas. Maybe Pandora will be back and able to help.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Agreed Sirius. “In the meantime, I’m starving, anyone for fish and chips?”
“That’s so English.” Willow laughed and looked at Tara who grinned “We’re in.”
——
The night passed uneventfully. James even managed to sleep well and awoke full of energy. Judging by the sounds coming from down the hall, so did Sirius and Remus. James grinned and cast a silencing spell on their room. As loud, and long, as their bedroom activities could be, it always made James happy to know that two of his favourite people in the world were so madly in love and in lust with each other. With that in mind James decided he was going for a run. It had been too long and it wasn’t like he was going to get any other form of exercise for a while. Plus he had quidditch trials in January. It was time to get his life back on track.
Sweaty and satisfied, James returned to the flat to find Remus cooking and Sirius watching with a contented smile humming along to a small radio which was playing the latest hits.
“There you are.” Sirius sang “Where have you been and why are you so sweaty?”
“Went for a run. Now going for a shower.” James replied “Try to leave something for me. It smells fantastic.”
“I’ll try.” Sirus and Remus chorused.
‘Hungry.’ Rumbled the wolf. “No guarantees.” Remus added.
James laughed. He didn’t mind. He could always make his own breakfast later. Or lunch when the girls arrived.
——
As James contemplated his next meal, Regulus was pushing his breakfast around his plate. He’d decided against taking some of Pandora’s sleeping draught, and as a result his sleep had been plagued with nightmares. He’d gone from trying to tear his skin apart to remove claws that were pulling him down into frozen water, to dreaming he was being buried alive covered in rocks and molten lava, before waking up screaming, covered in sweat, lungs burning, and with scratch marks all along his arms and torso. He’d tried to shower but it was impossible to stay in longer than absolutely necessary. Now his eggs and toast had gone cold. He let out a frustrated sigh, got up and threw the whole lot in the bin. At least the coffee was hot.
Regulus finished his second mug for the morning and picked up the list he had made upon his return from the cottage. His visit to the museum had proven to be more fruitful than he’d expected. Seeing James there had been a distraction but also a reminder of the path he had chosen. Next, a visit to the Bank of London and stock exchange. Most British wizards used one of the local Gringotts bank branches and ignored the muggle financial world. As soon as he’d been old enough to visit London on his own, Regulus had opened several muggle accounts across different banks using his own personal fortune. Now they were earning interest with the occasional deposit and withdrawal to keep them active A back up plan if everything went horribly . wrong