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✉ INTERMISSION — a mother's lament ✉
Dear Juniper,
If you are reading this, I am long gone and please don't try to find me.
You are probably wondering where I am or why I left — well, to answer that I'll have to tell you something I have hidden for more than a decade. Telling you through a letter is far better than telling you in person — forgive me, my love, for I am a coward.
I am in hiding. It is what I thought was best for me and for you. The Dark Lord knows about your powers, Juniper. I don't know how or who told him, but he knows. And he is very angry at the fact that I tried hiding you from him—although, you must admit, I don't think I did a good job at it. There is no doubt in my mind that he is looking for me at this very moment while I write this letter. And if he is coming for me, then he is coming for you too.
It is with a heavy heart that I leave this manor forever, and you. 'Coldwell women don't run', this is what your grandmother taught me. It is with deepest shame that I write this letter before I, a Coldwell, go into hiding. What will our ancestors think? What will my mother think? Well, it does not matter anymore, she was never a good mother.
But I am not writing this as a form of complaint or to criticize my mother. I am writing this to redeem myself, if that were possible. My mother never bothered to protect from the Dark, I don't think she ever loved me in the way she ought to. But I love you, even if it may never seem like it. So, I write this letter, as a lament of my broken motherhood.
Juniper, in your power lies the key to the Dark Lord's demise. I always hid this from you because some part of me knew that the day I disclosed this to you, would be the day that I lost you. It is from the love in my heart that I tell you to run, Juniper. Run away from Voldemort and run away from your destiny. Live a simple life as a muggle and then die a quiet death — don't try to be a hero when you were raised to be a villain.
If you don't run, I suspect he will find you eventually. Then it is up to you, my dear — will you serve him? Or will you defy? I don't think your heart is black enough to serve him, if that is any consolation. So, heed my only advice and run. Leave Jude behind, he will thrive within the chaos. All he ever wanted to do was to fight . . . I regret the way I raised him.
Go to your father. I know you do not know him and that is my fault. He left me and I selfishly took you and Jude away from him — I regret that as well. His name his Paul LeBlanc, and last I heard he was living in Manchester. Tell him your name and that I sent you to him — he'll take you in. He knows your situation, Juniper, and he had once desperately tried to take you away from me. He thought I was going to destroy you in some way or another—he may have been right.
I am truly sorry Juniper, that you had to live such an unhappy life. But it came with the family you were born in. I know someday you will understand this, or perhaps you already do.
This is the last you will hear from me, Juniper. I know it is too late to apologise, but I am sorry for everything I did. But I only did it to protect you. I hope you take my advice, Juniper, and I hope you don't meet a horrible end like I probably will. This is what comes from being a Coldwell, Juniper — an early death. Now, I realise, it was never worth it. It was never worth it, and it never will be. One day you will understand.
Love you always,
Adaline Coldwell.
━━━━━━━━━━ a/n: ugh, adaline is so manuplative it actually makes me want to rip her hair out. however, an accurate representation of narcissistic mothers.
