Lost And Found

A TRIP TO RUSSIA

The Librarian of the Wizarding Library of Russia looked at the young British couple sitting in a corner of the History section.

They were deep in research for almost two hours now. The librarian, Mr Smirnov never saw them before. He was a curious man and friendly by nature.

So, he approached the young couple and cleared his throat. The young couple looked up at him in question.

"Hello, I am Boris Smirnov. I am the librarian here", he said extending his hand.

"Oh, Hello", said the young man shaking his hand, "I am Dra-.... Oummffff...!!!!"

He was cut off in mid sentence, as the large tome slipped from his companion's hand and landed on his foot.

"Oh, Mark... I am so so sorry, darling... How could I drop that.... I... Are you okay? Mark? Let me see...", the woman said. She pointed her wand at his right foot where the tome hit and murmured a spell, "There, are you feeling better."

The guy nodded and tentatively massaged his foot.

"It's okay now. Thank you, darling", he said with a weak smile, his face still red from the aftermath of the sudden pain. Then he turned at Mr Smirnov in slight embarassment, "Mr Smirnov, it's a pleasure to meet you. I am Mark Braxton. This is my wife, Mrs Braxton."

"Mr Braxton. Mrs Braxton. I am extremely sorry for the interruption and uhhh... the accident caused by it. I actually came to welcome you to this place and see what happened! I hope you are feeling well now, sir?"

"Yes. I'm better now. Thank you."

"Please have a seat, Mr Smirnov", added Mrs Braxton.

"Thank you. So.... Tell me, is there any way I can help you with your research?"

"Well, we are writing papers on the effects of Pureblood inbreeding on magic and wizarding society", Mrs Braxton said, "So we are looking into the old wizarding families all over the Europe. Studying them thoroughly along with the historical events, the games of power..."

Mr Smirnov let out a humorless chuckle, "You don't need to dig much deep then. Just a lesson of very recent history about Grindelwald or Voldemort would tell you everything on how the prejudice of purity can run havoc."

Nobody spoke for a few moments. Each of them had their fair share of nightmares about those dark times.

Mrs Braxton broke the silence first.

"We were looking into this family, quite interesting. Can you tell us more about them? What was the name again... Let me see... umm... Vasyutin."

There was a sound of sharp intake of breath. It was Mr Smirnov.

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Such a tragedy...", he said.

"Do you mean the death of the daughter, Lyubov Vasyutin along with her newborn baby?"

"That and other things..."

"Did she die in childbirth?"

Mr Smirnov shook his head and said, "She was murdered, along with her newborn baby out of wedlock."

"Holy Merlin! Who would do that!"

"His insane brother, apparently."

"What!"

"Yes. Novokov Vasyutin, in one hand a genius and on the other, criminally insane."

At that moment, a grumpy old witch interrupted the conversation. Totally ignoring the couple, she told something to the Librarian in Russian.