Families Are Never Too Broken
Chapter 1 : Families are never too broken
The summer had started pretty weirdly for the whole gang. For one, Clarke had seen her mother spent more and more time at home, when she used to be always stuck at the hospital. Abby was there almost every day - which was a really big change - and a bit troubling for Clarke. The girl didn't really know what to think about it, or how to explain it, but it did seem like Abby was really trying to make amends and take the first step to mend their broken relationship.
If Clarke was honest with herself, she was welcoming the change; it felt nice, for once, to have her mother take care of her instead of dismissing her like she had been used to. Abby had started to open more about the magic world too, which had been a real game changer for Clarke. Of course, her mom seemed to keep a lot to herself still, but at least they could talk about it sometimes - without going into much details - but it was still something Clarke was firmly holding on to.
Clarke was feeling that, if magic had been the thing that divided them at first, it could also be the ground they would mend fences on; after all, it was a huge part of both their lives and Clarke knew there were still big secrets to be revealed. But for now, it was enough.
Octavia and Raven had noticed the change in their friend as well; Clarke seemed more at peace, sometimes acting more like a child her age instead of an adult, with her mother back in her life. The three of them were currently laying on Clarke's king size bed, trying to plan the rest of their Summer. They had seen Harry a couple times, mostly to give him an excuse to use to escape his house and do his homework. His aunt and uncle had tried to lock away all of his spellbooks and everything that had to do with magic; God forbids someone would discover Harry was some kind of wizard, they had said.
"So, we're meeting everyone in London by the end of the Summer, right?" Octavia asked, folding back one of Hermione's letters to them.
"Yeah" Clarke nodded, putting away a newspaper with a picture of the Weasley Family on the front page, "We still have to go buy some books for next year anyways."
"They look happy" Raven pointed at the picture of the redheads in front of the pyramids, "I'm glad Arthur Weasley won that prize. But who are those two?"
"I think they're Ron's older brothers" Clarke hummed, looking at the two older boys Raven was pointing at. "Charlie and Bill, I think."
"Oh, yes" Raven recognised one of the boys' name, "Charlie's the one we gave Norbert to!"
"I forgot about that" Octavia groaned, now remembering all the trouble they had managed to get in, in only two years of school. Then, Octavia looked towards the window, wondering about her own brother's whearabouts.
"Where's Bellamy?" Clarke gently asked, noticing that her friend's mood had dropped a bit those past couple of weeks.
"I don't know, actually" Octavia sighed, leaning back into the cushions. "He asked me if I wanted to go to Anya Woods' place for the rest of the summer."
"Anya's place?" Clarke frowned, "Are they that close?"
"I don't know, honestly" Octavia shrugged, "But they seem to talk together a lot. He's been receiving quite a number of letters this summer."
"But..." Raven was thinking about something, "Clarke, you'll go to the Meadow soon, right? What am I going to do, if both of you are gone?"
"You can come with me, I told you" Clarke chuckled at her friend's antics. "And O hasn't said yes or not." Then, she looked over at Octavia, who was biting her lower lip. "Or has she...?" Clarke asked.
"I think Bellamy wants to go" Octavia said in a murmur. "He wouldn't fit at the Meadow, you know that" She then told Clarke. "And I don't know if he'll like me being away from him."
"Well, the invitation still stands for the both of you" Clarke answered with a gentle smile, understanding her friend's dilemma but not forcing her hand. Clarke knew it was complicated; they all had allegiances and loyalties laid to different people; but they were sisters first, and they would never be ok, far from each other.
"I can still come with you... Right?" Raven then asked in a low voice, almost timidly - which was not like Raven at all.
"Yeah" Clarke smiled, hugging her friend, "I'm counting on it."
A week later, Clarke was so ready to leave for her cousins' house; despite her mom's best efforts, their relationship wasn't that great - it would take time, Clarke knew, but still - and Clarke was in need of fresh air.
Aska would do great with fresh air, too; as Clarke, he was slowly growing restless in the small house and this neighbourhood where nothing ever happened. Octavia had chosen to join her brother as he had taken up Anya's invitation to her place; and because she didn't want to be alone, Raven had agreed to come along with the brunette.
"Are you sure?" Clarke had asked Raven a thousand times, wondering how Raven would fit between Anya, Octavia and Bellamy. But Raven had seemed sure of herself, and Octavia looked rather relieved by Raven's presence, so Clarke let it go, happy to be going to her cousins' house, with or without her friends.
They had left the day before and would stay for a week with the Woods, then come home, spend their last week here with Harry. Clarke, wanting more time with her family, had decided she would spent the last two weeks with her cousins and come back in time to go to London for school shopping.
"Alright Aska, I think we have all that we need" Clarke said, closing her suitcase. Along clothes and homework, Clarke had packed a couple of books, one of them gifted by Ron from his travel in Egypt : Creatures of Ancient Time. It told of ancient monsters and animals, legends and myths, the all thing with a lot of beautiful drawings of the creatures.
Clarke was finding that she, herself, was quite good at drawing; her Herbology books and works were always covered in colorful drawings of the plants. She didn't really know what to do with that skill, as they wasn't any professionnal magical artist in the magic world (or rather, she didn't know of any), but it was something she liked to do, to clear her mind.
"Do you have to go so early?" Abby interrupted Clarke's trail of thoughts, standing in Clarke's bedroom's doorway and looking a bit sad.
"Yeah" Clarke murmured, picking her suitcase from her bed and getting it down on the floor. "They're waiting for me."
Abby nodded, knowing that there wasn't much she could do to get Clarke to stay, and accepting that for now, the few moments of peace they had had between them had to be enough. She was thinking herself lucky, even, that Clarke had agreed to spend a couple weeks here with her, instead of spending the entire summer at her cousins'.
"Maybe we can talk more, when you get back...?" Abby suggested.
"Yeah" Clarke breathed out, deciding that she, too, had to take a step forwards if they wanted to mend their relationship. "I'd like that."
"Alright" Abby exhaled, nodding her head and trying to keep her composure at seeing her only daughter want nothing less but to leave this house. "I'll see you soon, then."
Abby started to leave, but then, entered the bedroom, coming to kiss the top of Clarke's hair ; something she hadn't done in years.
"Be safe, Clarke" Abby whispered in her daughter's hair. "I love you."
The next moment, Abby had gone downstairs, leaving a stupefied Clarke alone in her room.
In a whoosh, Clarke was standing at the start of the small path leading up to the Meadow house. She closed her eyes, a light smile on her face, as she was taking in the fresh air, the smell of trees and all the birds singing around her.
Diana had given her the portkey leading to their house, when she had come to Hogwarts to check on her after the Basilisk fight, so Clarke could travel to the Meadow when she wanted. Aska was very happy to be here too; he was already trying to smell everything, impatiently waiting for Clarke to start moving towards the house.
"Come on boy" Clarke chuckled, patting her thigh so Aska would walk by her side, "Let's go."
She hadn't told her cousins when she would arrive; she hadn't known herself until the last couple days, after Raven and Octavia's departures. They had been pretty clear that she could arrive at any time, so Clarke hadn't think useful to write a letter to tell of her arrival.
But of course, the Vinys had to have some kind of alarm, because at the second Clarke had the house in sight, someone was already running towards her with a big smile.
"Clarke! At last!" Jade exclaimed, hugging her cousin hard as she reached her.
"Hi Jade" Clarke laughed, hugging the girl back.
"What took you so long?" Jade frowned - but the tone was clearly light - "I was starting to think you wouldn't show up at all !"
"Not a chance" Clarke answered in a chuckle, "You'd miss me too much."
Jade laughed, taking one of Clarke's bag on her own shoulder as the girls started to walk to the house.
"Did your summer start ok?" Jade wondered.
"Yeah, surprisingly" Clarke answered, "My mom, she's.. trying?"
"That's a good thing, right?"
"I think so, yes" Clarke hummed. "I mean, she hasn't been a mother to me in quite some years now, I just... I guess I didn't think it could change anymore."
"Well, people do change" Jade gently told her. "Maybe all you both need is time."
"Yeah" Clarke murmured. "Maybe."
"You're ok to sleep in Nathalia's room, like last times?" Jade asked, pushing the door open and leading them upstairs.
"Yeah of course" Clarke nodded, "Can't change habits, right?"
Jade smiled; she was glad Clarke was talking about habits here, with her new-found family. The Viny had known about Clarke for a long time; their parents had been very close to Clarke's, so the older girls, like Diana or Nathalia, had brief memories of them hanging out all together. Louison and Andrew Viny couldn't have hid Clarke's existence from them too long before one of the girls questioned it; so they had chosen not to lie about it, but tell them it wasn't time to be reunited.
Of course, everything had changed when Clarke entered Hogwarts - what she wasn't supposed to do, her parents had worked hard on not making it happen - and they all had thought that the girl would be safer with her family around.
"My parents will be back soon" Jade told her cousin as they were putting Clarke's bags in Nathalia's bedroom, located on the last floor of the house. "Timothé should be outside, he's practicing with Thalia. Diana and Iago should be back home soon, too."
"Iago's here?" Clarke questioned, putting away the jacket she had been wearing, the temperature here much warmer than back home.
"Yeah" Jade answered as if it was completely natural, "He always spends his time here. You missed his sister! She usually tags along, but she had to go home early."
Clarke nodded, accepting Jade's explanation as they were going down the stairs; now, she remembered her cousins telling her about Iago spending almost all his time by Diana's side, whether they were at school or on vacation.
"Oh, here they are" Jade pointed to the window as Nathalia and Timothé were walking towards the house, playfully shoving each other. "Look who's here!" Jade said through the kitchen door.
Nathalia and Timothé looked up, their faces lighting up as they saw Clarke standing there; they rushed the last couple meters to the house, directly into their cousin's arms.
"Hi stranger" Nathalia smiled as she hugged Clarke, "How have you been? We missed you!"
"I'm fine" Clarke chuckled, hugging Timothé after her. "I had a couple things to deal with at home before coming here. What about you all?"
"Oh, you know, the usual" Timothé shrugged, "It's been quiet. Except from Thalia constantly kicking my ass at everything and Diana and Iago yelling at each other, that is."
Clarke frowned at the last part of his sentence; and by the look on Nathalia's face, it was probably not something he should have told her.
"Oh, come on" Timothé groaned, "She'll be here a while; she'll witness it soon enough."
Nathalia sighed, having to agree with his younger brother; Diana and Iago were fighting almost every day now. "They've been arguing for some time now" Nathalia explained to Clarke.
"We're not sure why" Jade added, starting to lead the group back to the house, "But I think it has to do with Diana entering Auror's Training."
"Does Iago disagree?" Clarke asked, pushing the kitchen door open and holding it as her cousins were coming in.
"I'm not sure" Nathalia hummed, acting like she really had no idea - but Clarke knew her well and she had learnt to read her cousin's face. Something was up, and Nathalia clearly knew of something they didn't.
They let it drop, though, all of them feeling like it wasn't really their business to meddle with. It was what the three siblings had done so far; trying to jungle between arguments and Diana who wouldn't say a word about it.
"Oh, Clarke, by the way" Timothé changed the subject, "Did you receive your homework from Beauxbâtons? I swear, they really want us to study all summer" He complained, getting his backpack from under the stairs and starting to get his books out.
"I didn't, actually" Clarke said, trying to act like she wasn't surprised. Because she was, in fact, surprised; she had received Hogwarts' homework, but as she had gotten nothing from Beauxbâtons and not a word from Lexa reagarding hypothetical homework, she had assumed the French School of Magic hadn't given any to its students. Which was very wrong, Clarke was now understanding.
"Wait" Jade frowned, sitting down at the living room's table, having grabbed her own homework. "Didn't they send you anything? Anything at all?"
"Nothing" Clarke confirmed, and then, trying to appear cheerful, "And besides, I already have a ton of homework with Hogwarts anyways."
The cousins looked at each other, then shrugged; maybe Clarke was free of any work during the summer because she wasn't a standard Beauxbâtons' students.
"I think that maybe you should ask Lexa about it" Nathalia only said with a gentle smile. "She'll know."
They all settle around the tables, books and papers open as they started to work on their respective homeworks. Some could say doing homework couldn't be considered as "fun" for holidays, but here, in the big living-room of the Meadow house and surrounded by family, Clarke was finding that her mind hadn't been that at peace for a long time. Maybe it was in Nathalia's quiet but firm presence, or maybe in Jade's gentle smiles she would gift her whenever she would look up from her book. Or maybe it was in Timothé's playful attitude, who was constantly trying to break his sisters' focus in any way he could.
Here, no one was expecting anything of her; they all just needed her to be herself. To be just a kid, nothing more.
And to Clarke, that was something completely new.
Night was beginning to settle over the Meadow; the cousins had called it a day on their homework, and were now laying down on the living-room's carpet, as the Viny were showing Clarke pictures of them as little kids.
"Oh, this one is fun" Jade chuckled, then getting the picture out of the album and shoving it in her brother's face, "It's when you were so upset you couldn't use your magic you made rain fall !"
"What?" Clarke exclaims, laughing at Timothé, who clearly didn't look very happy that his sister would expose him this way.
"When we started to work on Griffin magic, Tim was still very little" Nathalia explained, "So it was hard at first. One day, he got so upset he lost it and made it rain."
"Impressive" Clarke hummed, looking at the picture of a little Timothé, who wasn't probably more than 5 or 6 years old, lips twisted upside down, looking ready to cry, as it was eavily raining around him.
"Yeah" Jade chuckled. Then, as they were going through other pictures, the front door opened. They all looked up; but none of them had the time to say or do anything, as Diana and Iago were storming into the house, clearly in another argument.
"I can't believe you lied to me!" Diana shouted at Iago as she was angrily throwing her coat on a chair, holding up a letter to Iago's face. "When were going to tell me about it if I hadn't find the letter? In class?"
"Diane, come on..." Iago tried to calm her down; but it didn't work, and Diana got upstairs, climbing the stairs two by two; the whole house heard the bedroom's door bang as it closed. Iago sighed; then, he realised he wasn't alone in the room, and turned over where Clarke and the stunned cousins were looking at him, waiting for something to happen.
"Oh, I didn't know you were here, guys" Iago said, his voice gentle and apologetic. "Hello, Clarke. I am glad to see you decided to join us."
"Hi, Iago" Clarke breathed out, still a bit stunned by what they had just witnessed. Clarke had never seen Diana that angry; and as she wasn't sure what the argument was, it was making it all even more confusing.
"What is Diana talking about?" Nathalia frowned, getting up from the floor.
Iago hesitated a couple seconds; looking up to the stairs and the first floor where Diana had probably gone to her bedroom to work out her anger. Then, looking back at all of them - his cousins, who still knew nothing about it, except Nathalia - he decided it wouldn't be serving anyone to keep lying.
"I applied for Auror Training" He told them.
"And...?" Nathalia asked, already sensing the reason why her sister had gotten so upset.
"And I got in."
The cousins stayed silent for a few moments; this was new, all so new. They already knew Diana had gotten in as well; two new recruits, the same year? It was unheard of. The Auror Institutes ony recruited a few people, and not every year. It was very very rare, so to have two students to enter on the same year...
"Is this why Diana is upset?" Jade asked, not sure she really understood everything.
"I didn't tell her that I was applying" Iago sighed. "It was a last minute decision, and I didn't think I would get in anyways, so I didn't tell her."
"Oh" Timothé chuckled, now understanding why his big sister was so upset. "Never hide something from her."
"Yeah, well" Iago dryly snorted, "Too late for that."
Then, he looked to the stairs again, pondering whether he should go find her or leave her space to brood and come down from her anger.
"You should check on her" Nathalia offered him, having guessed what he was thinking about. "It's Diana."
And as if it was justification enough for how to act, Iago nodded, going up the stairs.
"Well, the couple weeks are going to be fun" Jade chuckled.
"You have no idea" Nathalia sighed. "Come on, let's go outside for a bit."
The four cousins got out of the house - Aska already looking sideways at Clarke, having sensed that he would probably disagree with what Clarke was about to be doing - to enjoy the few hours of sunlight left.
As Nathalia was giving her cousin and siblings their brooms, Aska saw that he was right; he barked, making Clarke laugh. He hated Quidditch.
Up in her room, Diana was pacing, fuming about what she had just discovered. How dared he? They had talked so many times about it, had so many arguments about her appliance for the program over the last couple years. Fought against her parents, as Iago agreed with them every. damn. time. And lie to her, on top of it !
Then, a quiet knock on the door broke through her trails of thoughts.
"Go away" She huffed.
"You know I won't" Iago only answered, pushing the door open and closing it behind him. "I'm sorry."
"You're sorry" Diana dryly snorted, "Yeah, I bet."
Iago only stood there, leaving space for her cousin to get whatever she needed to get out from her chest. He knew her cousin well - even from before they even knew they were related - so he knew it wouldn't work if he was to try and defend himself now.
"I can't believe this" Diana lashed out, "And I can't believe you didn't even think to tell me!"
“It happened quickly, Diane” Iago stayed very calm in front of his upset cousin.
“You knew I wanted to apply to the program; you disagreed about it with me, even siding with my parents about it!” Diana bit, now very angry.
“It isn’t about sides…” Iago tried to talk; but Diana was too angry and wouldn’t let him.
“You’re a hypocrite, Iago!” Diana added, “For months I talked to you about it, and not once, not once you said a word about you wanting to apply too. I thought you didn’t even want to continue your studies after graduating!”
“And I didn’t!” Iago insisted.
“They why? Why on Earth would you apply for Auror?” Diana threw her hands in the air, infuriated.
There was a pause in the conversation; a floating moment, so heavy you could almost touch the thick air. Then, Iago exhaled.
“Because you would.” Iago finally confessed in a low voice; it sounded like a confession, something that had been on his chest for quite some time. Like something he had tried to hide for as long as possible.
It made Diana pause in her anger, not having expected that.
“What?”
“I tried to dissuade you” Iago said in a murmur. “I tried to keep you from applying. But you wouldn’t listen, you wouldn’t change your mind…”
“I don’t see what it has to do with your appliance…” Diana answered; although a part of her already knew what he was going to say next. A part of her was already fearing that she was right.
“You wanted to pursue a path that was the most dangerous path you could have chosen” Iago sighed as he started to walk into the room – like he was always doing when he was speaking about difficult matters. “I couldn’t accept that you would risk your life every day.”
“So you decided you would risk your life too? For what?” Diana dryly snorted, now very lost about what her cousin was trying to tell her. “For competition?”
“I decided I would risk my life to protect you!” Iago corrected, now getting upset too.
And then, Diana understood. She understood why Iago had tried so hard to keep her from applying to Auror Training without ever telling her real reasons why she shouldn’t; why he had grown sadder and sadder as the year passed by; why he had seemed more at peace since Diana had received her confirmation letter. Iago had received the exact same one.
“Iago…” Diana breathed out, getting closer to her cousin as her fingers were burning to touch him. Everything between them was so confusing; the overthinking was slowly killing their relationship, no matter what they were doing about it.
“I know, I know” Iago nodded his head, knowing exactly what Diana was thinking about; he was feeling all the same. “I know we can't anymore. But I will never accept you putting yourself at risk. I won’t ever stand by and watch that without doing anything about it. Ever.”
“You should have told me anyways” Diana weakly protested, “Because now it’s me that finds myself unable to do anything about it. I hate it, Iago. I hate this.”
And she did hate it; her heart was breaking for what seemed to be the hundredth time in this year alone. Everything felt so impossible.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you” Iago softly apologized. “But I wouldn’t survive, Diane. I wouldn’t survive if something happened to you.”
“And you think I would?” Diana said in disbelief, “You think I don’t care that now you’re going to put your life at risk as well? Iago, I’ll die if something happens to you. I’ll never forgive myself.”
“Well, let’s say nothing will happen to neither of us, alright?” Iago said, squeezing his cousin’s hand.
Diana squeezed back, letting a shaky sigh out.
"Iago, I..." Diana started; but then, stopped talking. She wouldn't know what to say to make it better, anyways.
"I know" He told her with eyes he hoped were reassuring. "I wish things were different, too."
Giving up on her restraints, Diana let herself lean on her cousin's torso, her physical need of him too strong and herself now too weak to fight it. Without saying a word, he embraced her with his long and slim arms, shielding them from the world for a couple minutes.
But then, it was time to let go. This was something they couldn't have anymore.
"Come on" Iago was the one brave enough to break their bubble. "They are waiting downstairs. Clarke is here" He added.
Diana looked up, letting go of him and frowning. In her anger, she hadn't even see her cousin in the living-room with her siblings.
"It's going to be ok" Iago offered her in a voice barely loud enough to be heard. "We'll make it through."
Weakly, Diana nodded; then, breathing hard through her nose to bring her composure back, they started to make their way downstairs.
Dinner went surprisingly ok. Diana apologized to Clarke for not having greet her properly the first time; which was already forgotten by Clarke. Louison and Andrew, the Vinys' parents, were happily surprised that Clarke was here at last; even Iago and Diana seemed a bit more cheerful.
Now that everyone knew Iago would be beginning Auror Training, they talked about it a bit, the Viny parents even looking a bit reassured now that they knew their daughter wouldn't do it on her own. Andrew then told them a couple stories from his time at the Academy - unlike Diana and Iago who would go to the French one, he had attended the British one. He revealed that Jake, Clarke's father, had applied to the Academy as well, back in their days, but his training had been cut short by the War.
It came as a surprise for Clarke, who knew little to nothing about her own parents' magical history; although by now, she was starting to feel used to it. She cherished every new information about her parents, as small as it could be. She knew the Viny had spent some years beside her parents, but even they seemed shy to talk about it. Almost as if they had kept their relationships a secret for so long that they were finding it difficult to break the seal of secrecy now.
Then, dinner was over; Andrew, Diana and Iago were talking in the living-room about their training. Nathalia and Jade were debating about the best Quidditch strategy in a rainstorm - discussion Timothé quickly brushed over, saying that all he had to do was stop the rain around him as he was moving.
Clarke stayed in a kitchen, helping Louison do the dishes; both women knew magic could do it, but Louison had always liked to do things the muggle way and Clarke was finding it reminded her of home.
As she was drying the freshly rinced-off plates, Louison asked Clarke about the beginning of the summer. Clarke hadn't much to say, if she was honest; except the fact that for the first time in a long time, she had spent a bit more time with her mother.
"Don't be too hard on her, Clarke" Louison gently told her, passing her glasses to wipe.
"You called her" Clarke stated, remembering Louison was the reason why her mom had come to fetch her at the strain station back home, after the end of class. "When Diana yold you what had happened in Hogwarts, you called my mom."
"I did" Louison hummed, drying her hands and putting a pot full of water to boil on the gas cooker for tea. "if it had happened to one of my daughers, I would have want your mom to do the same. You may not believe it, but Abby and I were very close, once."
"Once?" Clarke questioned.
"Before all this" Louison explained. "Your father was one of my favorite cousins when we were younger, did you know that? We used to hang out together a lot during holidays and family reunions. But of course one day he brought this new shiny girl from England with him" The woman chuckled. "Abigail, your mother. After that, we had no choice but to accept her in our family."
"I imagine Dad wouldn't have had it any other way" Clarke smiled, remembering her dad's stubbornness - which she seemed to have inheritated of, actually.
"Oh, he was adamant about her" Louison agreed, "And at first we weren't that sure of her. But as years went by... She grew out to be one of my closest friends."
"What changed?" Clarke asked. She didn't really know if she actually wanted an answer to this question; but she was too curious not to ask.
"Your parents made choices to protect you" Louison sighed, "And at the time, we all chose differently for our children, to protect them as we saw fit. We never expected... " She paused, thinking about the best way to explain it without having to go much into details. "We couldn't have imagined the best way to protect you was to tear you apart from each other. We didn't know it would last that long, or that it would mark the end of the family."
"But it wasn't" Clarke offered in a tiny voice. "Right? Me being here kind of proves it."
"Yes" Louison agreed with a smile, "It does."
The woman paused, getting the pot with boiling water out of the gas and filling cups with tea for everyone.
Families can have hard times" She then murmured to her niece, looking at Diana, Iago and the rest of her children mimicking throwing spells at each other just for fun. "But they can never be too broken. If you want to fix your relationship to your mother... There is still time."
Clarke nodded, suddenly grateful to have Louison in her life. The woman gestured with a smile to join everyone in the living-room while she would bring the hot cut of tea.
Joining her cousins, Clarke surprised herself with thinking that maybe, her parents had chosen well back then, if they had managed to protect her long enough for her to be reunited with the family like this. Maybe indeed, families were never too broken.