***Sorry about the wait, I had a lot of work to do this weekend***
Ch.2
“I'm fine, really,” I told my mum, pushing her away from me slightly as I slipped on my shoes. I had thrown on strapless cream dress, that had military button details on the bodice. I had on dark brown, lace up combat style boots and slipped on a gold, hinge cuffed bracelet.
“Are you sure. Maybe you should just stay in today,” she said. I knew she was just worried considering there had been two other people that had shown up dead as well in the past few days. I had a feeling she knew something about what was going on, but neither her nor my dad would say anything to me. Ever since I'd seen Gina's body, my parents had become crazy protective of me, but I completely understood why. I hadn't told them how I was really feeling since the death of one of my closest friends, I just couldn't tell them that I was losing myself each day. Besides, if I told them that, I wouldn't be able to sneak off to meet up with the guy none of them knew about.
“I'm perfectly fine, mum, really,” I told her. “I'm just going out to get some fresh air, I'll be fine.”
“Okay, just remember to contact me if anything happens,” she said before leaving the room.
I started heading downstairs after I brushed out my wavy black hair. As I passed my parent's bedroom I couldn't help but listen in to what they were talking about.
“You can tell there's something going on, George, she just won't let me in to help.”
“You didn't want me to help you either, remember. She's a strong girl, Abs, we just have to be there to support her.”
“I know, I know. I'm just so worried that what's going on is going to trigger everything,” my mum whispered. I listened closer, trying to figure out what they were talking about. “They're coming back George and I know that they're going to come after us at some point. They've already killed my mum, cursed our family and tried to kill me, they're going to go after our family now too.”
“No matter what happens, we can fight against them. We can do this, love, I know we can. We aren't going to let them near our family and we aren't going to just sit back and watch. Besides, McGonagall is getting the Order of the Phoenix back together, we'll be fine.”
I started walking away from their room quietly, going downstairs so they wouldn't realize I had been listening in. Although I didn't completely understand what they were talking about, I did understand part of it.
My grandmother had been killed by a group of people that had pretended to be her friends. They went after her because she was able to see into the future, a gift that was passed onto very few people. When they realized that she had sneaked away with Tom Riddle, the man people thought was going to lead them into a dark arts age, they decided that she was standing in the way as well as thought her to be too powerful and killed her when my grandfather gave up the dark arts
My grandfather had been involved in dark magic before this and by seeing the woman he loved more than anything killed, he snapped and the curse was created, forcing him to become Voldemort. Fate and the dark arts have ruled over our family ever since, all because of the group of people that killed my grandmother. Later on they decided that they needed to get rid of my mum for revenge after my grandfather had killed many of their group. My mum fought back and the curse seemed to have gotten a hold of her as well, that was until my dad managed to bring her back from the dark spot she had been in.
Ever since then, it seems that this group has grown in numbers and have now decided that it is time for them to make their entrance into the public eye. Which meant they had to have been the people that had killed Gina. Just the thought of that made my blood boil and hate burst inside of me.
I apparated to our meeting place, knowing I needed to keep my thoughts away from Gina or else I wouldn't be able to fight off the anger and darkness that was fighting to make it's way to the surface.
I caught sight of dark brown hair and knew who it was immediately. I ran and jumped onto his back, holding onto him tightly.
“Hey!” I said, keeping a tight grip on him so I wouldn't fall as a huge smile came to my face. I could feel myself relax while I was around him. He grabbed my legs, making sure I wouldn't fall.
“I was wondering when you would get here.”
“Yeah, my mum was a little nervous about letting me leave, but I managed to get away.”
“Honestly, she has a reason for being nervous. I was nervous after you sent me that letter.” he told me. I got off him and he turned to face me. I took in his dark brown, shaggy hair and dark brown eyes that seemed to look straight through me. I hadn't seen him since last year and there were no words to describe how much I had missed these meetings. “I've really missed you,” he said, a smile coming to his face as he picked me up and spun me around, causing me to squeal.
“I've missed you too,” I told him when he placed me back on the ground.
“Now tell me what's going on,” he said seriously as he sat down on the ground and patted the spot next to him. I sat down, watching as he leaned back and laid down on the ground while watching me as he did so. I leaned back too, laying down on my side.
“I don't even know what's going on. Gina was killed, she was one of my best friends and now she's gone,” I said, flopping onto my back and looking up at the sky. “She didn't deserve to die and now all I can think about is the killing the people who did this to her.” I felt him grab my hand and squeeze it tightly as I talked. “I don't know what's happening to me. I'm losing myself, but I can't do anything about it. My parents are so scared that what happened to my mum is going to happen to me and I know that it is, but I just can't bring myself to tell them.” I felt tears building up as I thought about Gina, my family and the people that have caused all of this. There were so many emotions that were going on inside of me. “I don't think I can keep fighting it any longer.”
I heard him sigh before I was yanked over to him, my head laying on his chest as he ran his fingers through my hair. “I never wanted this to happen. I never thought you'd end up involved. I should have done something...anything.” he continued to mutter as he held me close to him.
“It's not your fault,” I whispered, refusing to move as he continued to play with my hair.
“If I had stood up to them, maybe I could have stopped it. I could have done something to keep this from happening, but I had just tried so hard to stay out of it. I never thought it would go this far.” I lifted my head, looking at him confused.
“What are you talking about?” I asked him as I saw the anger in his eyes. He looked at me, his eyes softening.
“You can't run away okay. I never thought this would happen. I never thought this involved you,” he told me, grabbing my hands and intertwining our fingers.
“What involves me?”
“Your mother is Abigail Riddle isn't she?” he said. I nodded, surprised that he knew who I was, especially since we had both agreed we wouldn't tell each other who we were.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You have to listen to me very carefully Ivy,” I nodded, not sure what to say anymore as I looked down at the person that had been with me through everything. “I'm sure you already know who the Beelez family was. They were part of the group that teamed up with Jessie, along with some others who thought your grandmother had too much power. One of the Beelez brothers died when they killed your grandmother, but his girlfriend escaped. She was pregnant and had a daughter, my mother.” I began to struggle to get away from him. He flipped over so that I was trapped with the ground behind me. No matter how much I struggled, I couldn't get away from him. His family had been part of the reason my family was now cursed and even though part of me was shouting at me that I was fine, the other part was telling me to run.
Every conversation we had ever had flashed through my mind and I couldn't help the tears that began to flow.
“I'm so sorry, Ivy, I never meant for anything like this to happen. My grandmother wasn't the only one who survived and she ended up marrying another person who was as evil as the others who had attacked your family. They took over the group and began to recruit people to their side. When they passed away, my parents took over. I refused to have any part in it, you have to believe me. I never thought they would actually start hurting people. I never thought they would end up hurting you. I know about the curse and I would never want you to go through that!” I could see he was telling the truth , but I wasn't even sure what to say. I understood why he never told me considering he had no idea who I was, but the internal debate inside of me continued to rage on.
“So who are you really?” I asked him softly, his grip on me loosened.
“Derek Anderson-Beelez.” The two of us stayed where we were as if everything had froze. His eyes were begging me to understand and as much as I wanted to, I couldn't help but remember what his family had done to mine. There was so much hurt, pain and anger going inside of me that I felt ready to explode.
“Could you let go of me now?” I asked him calmly. He watched me for a second before nodding and releasing me. The two of us sat there on the ground just staring at each other, waiting for someone to make some kind of first move.
The internal debate inside of me seemed to stop as my brain made a decision. I bolted up and started running.
“Ivy!” He called from behind me, trying to grab a hold of me. Deciding that it was now or never, I apparated, landing in my backyard, breathing heavy. I lowered myself onto the ground, tears building up in my eyes as everything began to come crashing down. Betrayal seemed to surge through me and there was nothing that could stop me from falling into darkness. I couldn't take it any longer.
Derek was the one of the only people I had ever shown my true self to and now I had found out that he was a member of the family that had originally ruined mine. I told myself that I had to fight off the curse that was threatening to consume me, but there was no way that I could continue to push it away.
“Ivy?” I heard my sister ask from behind me, reaching out and touching my shoulder. “Are you okay?” Lydia sat down next to me on the stairs, moving so that she could hold my hand.
“I'm fine,” I said, biting down the anger that was trying to force itself up. Tears flowed down my face and there was no way I could get them to stop.
“What did he do?” she asked me.
“Who?”
“You know who I'm talking about, Ivy. What did your Mystery Guy do?” she asked me.
“We found out who we really were and I don't know what to do.” I told her. She pulled me into a hug. Honestly, she acted older than she actually was and at this moment I was happy that she did.
“That should be a good thing. You can hang out in public now and then you can date and then you can get married and have adorable kids. This should be great!”
“His family aren't the good guys, Lydia,” I whispered, my tears soaking into her shirt.
“What does that mean?” she asked curiously.
“It means that I shouldn't like him. It means that I should want to be as far away as I can possibly be.”
“And do you?” I shook my head, more tears building up.
“No, I don't and I feel that I'm betraying our family because I just don't!”
“Listen to me very carefully. I know I might be younger than you, but I can have my moments of wisdom too. If you love him Iv, then his family shouldn't mean anything. Dad saw past who mum's family was and in the end he found out that what everyone else thought was completely wrong. Just because his family isn't the best, doesn't mean that that he has to be bad too. Maybe he's one of the good guys and is undercover as one of the bad guys like mum was.”
“I'm not sure what I'm supposed to believe anymore.”
“Come on inside. We can use some of dad's inventions. I've used this dream potion that gives you good dreams once to get rid of my nightmares. I think you might just need to think everything over in a good way instead of looking at everything in a bad way.” She told me.
I stood up, wiping my eyes and following her up to the inventory room. Dad kept a few of each item that him and our uncle created in this room so that Lydia and I could test them all. It was a lot of fun at points, although some of the creations didn't always work the best when we tested them. Mum started to tell dad that he couldn't let us test them after one of the fainting candies made us pass out for almost a whole day.
She grabbed a bottle of Happily Ever After Dream Serum, which was a bright red color. “Just take one drop and you'll be good.”
“Thanks,” I told her taking the bottle and heading to my room. I sat on my bed and took a drop of the serum. It didn't take too long for it to take effect and before I knew it I was passed out on my bed, dreaming of all the amazing summer days I had spent with Derek before he told me who he was. Although I missed those times, I couldn't help but realize that what Lydia had said was true. Sometimes it doesn't matter who someone's family is, sometimes it just matters who that person actually is to you.