An Explanation
~April 1988~
(Aurelia POV)
“Draco give that back to me right now!” I shouted.
I can’t believe he stole it from my room, my favorite dark green hair ribbon that mum gave me when I was four. I wear it practically every day.
“Come and get it then Aura, you’ll have to catch me first though!”
Great, now he’s running all the way across the manor. I’m practically sprinting after him, but I must have been too late. I find him standing on top of the dining room table, with my precious ribbon in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. I am furious.
“Draco if you cut my ribbon into pieces I swear I will never forgive you! Give it back before mum and dad see this!”
He starts mimicking the motions of cutting my ribbon in half and says,
“Oh boo-hoo, its just a stupid little ribbon, stop getting so worked up about it! It’s not like mum and dad would care any —“
He stops speaking mid sentence, I sense the presence of my father behind me and freeze up.
“Draco, get off of the table. Now.”
He immediately obeys. I know that I’m the one who’s going to get in trouble for all of this though, I always am. Father puts his hand firmly on my shoulder and I flinch. He looks down at me and says,
“Once again Aurelia, you’ve gotten yourself into trouble. Draco, put the ribbon down and go into your room. Aurelia, you will be coming with me.”
And with that, he start practically dragging me by the arm to the living room. I’m scared, he’s been more and more scary lately, I never know what he’s going to do anymore. Where’s mum? She always gets me out of these situations! My brain is swirling as I start to feel more and more panicked. I start trying to break away from his grip but he only holds onto my arm tighter, which prompts me to start kicking and screaming, I need to get away, I don’t want to get hurt, I—
Why did that glass of water knock over on the table? No one is near it? I start only kicking and crying more, and the water that’s now on the floor starts swirling in the air a few feet above where it landed. What the heck? I don’t get this...
Father must have noticed too, because he practically threw me halfway across the room at the sight of it. I barely notice the pain of landing on the hard floor because I’m so confused, what’s happening? I’m uncontrollably sobbing as he starts making harsh steps towards me, I’m trying to move backwards but he picks me up by the arm, and shouts in my face,
“You insolent little child! You never listen and are constantly disobedient! You are such a disgrace to this family!”
Hearing those words starts making me angry, I almost never do anything wrong in the first place! Why doesn’t he understand? He never listens to me and just continues shouting at me while inching closer to my face,
“I don’t know why your mother cares so much for you, if it was up to me you would have been out of here the day you were born!”
That does it, I’m starting to become enraged. Why is it becoming darker outside? He’s still insulting me, and the angrier I’m getting the darker its getting outside. Is that thunder? Am I doing that? I’m confused, sad, and angry all at one, this isn’t good. He notices the changes outside and slowly looks back at me. I angrily lock eyes with him and suddenly his flattened palm meets my face, hard. I instinctively grab my face and cry out in pain. I need to get away. Now. But I can’t, he’s still gripping my arm so tightly that I think its cutting off the circulation. He suddenly shouts at me the loudest he ever has,
“YOU FILTHY HALF-BREED! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT RIGHT NOW!”
Half-breed? What even is that? Before I can think any more on it, I meet the floor once again as he shoves me down to the ground, and I make no time running away from him as fast as I can. I feel my long golden-white hair flying behind me as I sprint for the door, trying to get outside. Suddenly I almost crash into mum, and she tries to hold me to keep me from running away, but I’m faster than she is, and I finally make it outside. I’m safe, still so confused as to what’s happening, but at least I’m out of there.
(Narcissa POV)
I’m walking towards the living room after just hearing Lucius shouting and suddenly seeing the weather change, and Aurelia nearly crashes into me. I see on her face she is clearly upset so I try to take hold of her but she gets away. What the hell is happening? I quickly walk over to Lucius, and say as gently as possible,
“Lucius, why is Aurelia so upset...what happened?”
He practically snarls back at me,
“We should have gotten rid of her Narcissa, I can’t have a disgusting half-breed in this family! Now leave me be before I hit you too.”
Too? Oh god, no, he hit Aurelia. I start quickly walking towards the door, hoping she is still outside. I make it outside and see no sight of my daughter, so I start walking towards the lake, she does like to go there a lot. As I get closer to the water, I see her unmistakable head of wavy light hair, softly blowing in the wind that suddenly formed. I can see she’s still silently crying by the shuddering of her shoulders as I walk up behind her.
“Aurelia, what happened sweetheart?”
I bend down next to her and softly touch her hair, hoping she will at least confide in me. She meekly says,
“Mum, what’s a half-breed?”
Oh god, this cannot be happening. The moment she says it I’m met with her saddened, but still piercing, light blue eyes. I instantly feel her sadness, I have to tell her, I don’t have a choice now.
“Aurelia, before you were born a woman came to your father and I, telling us that...”
My words trailed off as I noticed something odd, the water seemed to start moving in conjunction with her breathing. I just hoped that this wouldn’t be happening so soon, but its better that she knows what she truly is, so I continue,
“The woman told us that one of our children was chosen to be half-Veela, and Aurelia, that child is you. You’re not completely human, you were chosen to carry on the Veela legacy.”
She looks at me quizzically, and then suddenly with anger. The clouds start darkening again, the wind picks up, a patch of water in the lake begins to swirl up in the air...she shouts,
“Why didn’t you tell me before?! This is why father hates me and you never even told me until now! I...I...”
She collapses into my arms, and lets out a scream like I’ve never heard. As she does, the wind and water that was picked up starts circling around us, I’m in disbelief and at a complete loss for words, the only thing I can do is just hold my daughter. As she starts to calm down, so does the water and the wind.
A few long moments later, I spot Draco walking towards us, holding something that looks like Aurelia’s hair ribbon. He gently sits next to her and gives her a hug, its such a sweet sight. He says to her,
“I’m sorry I stole your hair ribbon, Aura. I know how much you like it and I shouldn’t have taken it, here, Ill give it to mum so she can put it back in your hair.”
He hands me the hair ribbon and I reach over to give him a kiss on the forehead. I know I’ll have to explain all of this to him too. I tie back some of Aurelia’s hair and she sweetly smiles at me. I take them both by the hand and walk them back inside the house. Once we make it back inside I put Aurelia in her room, and take Draco to his, so that I can explain all of this to him.
A few moments later, after explaining to Draco that his sister is, well, different, I also have to explain to him the importance of keeping it a secret.
“Draco, the most important part of this is that you never tell anyone about it. No matter what. It could threaten the life of your sister if you do. I hope you understand that.”
He looks a bit confused, but understanding of what is happening. He says that he promises to keep it a secret, no matter what. As he says those words I hear a loud pop in the living room and Immediately know who it is. Bella. No no no, I didn’t even think about this. No matter how hard we try to keep it secret, she is still a powerful legilimens, she will know.
She always knows.
I walk into the living room to greet her, saying,
“Bella! What a surprise to see you here, let me go get the kids so they can see you.”
Its making me nervous that she is visiting more and more often, she will know, I can’t even bear to think of what could happen to Aurelia if she does. Bella is capable of unspeakable things. I quickly walk back to Draco’s room and tell him to go say hello to his Auntie Bella, then make my way to Aurelia’s room.
(Aurelia POV)
Mum suddenly walks into my room, just as I was staring at the blue flowers outside my window, and shuts the door. She kneels down to my level and says,
“Aurelia, all of this you’re finally learning about yourself must be kept secret, especially from certain people. One of those people is your Aunt Bella, you cannot let her know in any way what you are, understand?”
She sounds really worried, I understand keeping secret, but why mention Auntie Bella?
“Why are you saying this now mum? Why secret from her, isn’t she family?”
“Aurelia I can’t explain this to you right now, but please just promise that you will keep it secret?”
I’m a bit confused, but I tell her I promise. She then tells me that Auntie Bella is here, I get it now. She quickly straightens up my dress and hair, then takes me by the hand into the living room. As I walk out there I see Draco already talking to Auntie Bella, she spots me and I suddenly feel a wave of worry, but I cant let her see that. I smile and say,
“Hello Auntie Bella, its very nice to see you!”
She smiles at me and looks at me up and down analytically, I’m internally starting to panic, I feel like she knows.