The whole school was on edge, except V. She was too busy trying to figure out a way to let Adrian down easy and get revenge on Nina Dickens. No one messes with a Slytherin and gets away with it. Everyone moved around in groups and rarely went out, which was something that V made sure to take advantage of.
Thankfully, nothing had happened between V and Adrian since Hallowe'en but that was probably just Adrian giving her some space as a lot had just happened to her.
It was a Saturday and Christmas was nearing fast. Christmas wasn't all that merry for her on a usual basis, back in the orphanage all the children would grab onto all the delicious roast before V could even lay a finger on anything and the only present that they got was a candy cane as that was all that Miss Atterberry could afford. Remus, who felt deep pity for her gave her books that explained the magical world to muggleborns as she was certainly raised like one.
At Hogwarts she would normally have no friends to spend Christmas with as they tended to go home over the Christmas holidays and she'd spend the whole festive season studying. The bright side of Christmas at Hogwarts for her was having the castle and common room virtually to herself.
V made her way to the library but for different reasons then usual today, she wanted to find some information on her mother as Remus refused to be anything but brief about this mysterious woman.
V walked into the oddly quiet library and started looking for information on Marlene McKinnon. She was aware of the cautious stares that she received from the few students in the library but she wasn't going to let that prevent her from doing what she originally wanted to do.
Eventually, as she looked through some old files, she found an old Daily Prophet's clipping with the title 'McKinnon Family Murder.' Immediately she felt the color drain from her face. No wonder Remus refused to get into details but V was too curious to put down the article so she began to read it.
The magical community has been disturbed by yet another mass murder, but this time it's the entire McKinnon family. There is no doubt that it was done by the Dark Lord himself judging by the brutality of it all and his recent threats to towards the family's daughter, Marlene McKinnon. The bodies were found all mangled throughout the family's home in Godric's Hollow the morning after Valentine's Day indicating that the Dark Lord won't even show mercy on a day that symbolizes love.
The father, Oscar McKinnon was found first at the doorstep with no injuries found on his body but was quite obviously struck with the death curse. Then Darina McKinnon was found in the kitchen clutching onto her 2 youngest children, Samuel and Eden who are ages 12 and 7. They were in the same state as Oscar. One of the investigators stated that the want of the protection of Darina's children was still quite clear in her lifeless eyes, bringing regret to the Auror's who could have prevented the dreadful event.
The last member to be found was Marlene, who was supposedly meant to be looking after her 2 year old daughter, Vindemiatrix Black but thankfully, the 2 year old was not present at the crime scene. Marlene was found sprawled across their staircase as if she had been pushed down the stairs. This seemed to cause a fracture in her skull and internal bleeding around the brain. She had the phrase 'Quixotic Creature' indented (presumably by a slashing curse) just above her chest with red rose petals sprawled across the steps around her. Many are confused for why the Dark Lord may commit an act like that but they are certain that he didn't do it as an act of love.
On Valentine's Day evening, a few hours before the tragic incident, Marlene had supposedly handed her daughter to her partner Sirius Black and disappeared without an explanation. Investigators suggest that she knew that something like this was going to happen hence why she did so but are baffled for why she went to her family home.
Sirius and many of Marlene's friends were too distraught for questioning except for James Potter who stated, "She and her family will be remembered."
The McKinnon family had always been outspoken about their opinions against the dark lord and dark magic...
But before V could finish, someone interrupted her thoughts.
"Mia," Someone called out from the side of the aisle. There was only one person that called V that name and that was George.
She whipped her head around to find the tall red head walking towards her. V immediately flipped the article over and lowered it, waving at him with a soft edge to her actions. She seemed slightly more pale than usual and was shivering a little causing George to frown.
"Hi." She said weakly.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, didn't think that I was that scary..."
"Well, have you looked in the mirror recently?"
George quirked his eyebrows at this but kept his signature playful smile all the same. "Ouch."
V attempted a smile but it didn't come out anything like she hoped for. George was growing more and more concerned as he looked at her and then noticed a piece of parchment in her hand.
"What's that?" George asked pointing at the parchment.
"Nothing," She said flipping it over and glimpsing at the words, "Just an article." She replied.
"'McKinnon Family Murder'" George read aloud. "What are you reading that for?"
V went silent looking down at her mother's name on the page and feeling a sense of coldness wash over her causing for her to shiver. She had no idea for how to respond to his words.
"Mia?" He persisted.
"Uh... It's all related to my mother, I just wanted to find out about her." V replied.
"Sorry if this is rude, but isn't your mother, you know...?"
"Uh yea, the article is precisely related to her."
George looked down at the article and saw a photo of a family of 5. They all had friendly looks on their face as they stared back at him. One of the member's was particularly pretty and had hair that was the exact same shade and texture as V's. Just at that moment, George realized who that woman was, V's mother.
He looked over to her with an apologetic expression while V shook her head.
"It doesn't matter, I don't even know her." V said quickly.
V didn't get a chance to know her personally but she did care, she cared a lot. This was her mother, her life had always been completely surrounded by the fact that her father was a mass murderer but no one had said anything about her mother. And she had just found out that her mother had been murdered by lord Voldemort. All this time she thought it might have been her fathers doings but she was wrong, really wrong.
When that fact dawned on V she felt a surge of emotion run through her, mainly anger, not towards lord Voldemort like she should have but towards everyone who had kept this from her. She felt angry that everyone bullied her because she had a terrible father but no one showed the slightest compassion towards her for her mother. She felt angry that Remus only had the courage to tell her what her mother's name was and she was so angry that her mother had been basically forgotten in everyone's minds.
However that anger translated to sadness in V's tangled mind.
"Excuse me." she said as she turned away and walk towards the exit of the library.
As soon as she reached the exit, she began running down the halls, off into some side halls that people barely used even when the school wasn't completely frightened of moving around. George had ran after her as soon as she reached the exit, but that was a little too late as he had already lost her.
But as he looked about, calling her name, he saw the article that she was holding onto down a side hall. He walked over to it and picked it up. He felt bad for reading over it as it was like an intrusion of her privacy but he wanted to understand what really got to Mia.
When he finished reading the first part of it, he already felt terrible for her and just then he heard a loud gulp. He walked further down the hall calling out her name and when he turned a corner, he found her. But she truly looked miserable, she was faced leaning against the wall while tears were pouring down her face as she tried to gulp them back. George hated this, he hated it very much.
V looked up at him and tried her best to wipe her tears away but it was like the rain, they kept on pouring.
"I'm sorry, you didn't need to see me like this." She said.
George didn't say anything, instead he pulled her into a big hug while she did a very odd mixture of laughing and crying, both very loudly. laughing at the weakness of herself and crying from the sad information she had just absorbed
"Re-really George, you c-can go away, this is a t-terrible moment for me." She said between sobs.
"Mia, I'm not going to go away if this is a terrible moment for you, I'm going to be here for you." George replied.
V went quiet all of a sudden then simply embraced the hug realizing that she was craving something like this. It was a sweet feeling, a feeling that she had only experienced a couple of times in her life. They stayed like that for a long time until V felt as though she could fall asleep right there. Then she pulled away and wiped all the excess tears away from her eyes.
"I need to go." V said.
"You don't have to do these sorts of things by yourself, I'm always here if you need me."
"Right, but the thing is, that's life. If you can't pull yourself out of its mess then you're not strong enough for it." V said and without another word she took the article and disappeared down the hall.
George didn't chase after her this time, he just let her be. She wasn't the average girl that needed a hero to pull her through the troubles of life, she was much too ambitious and brave for that and this was why George smirked as she walked out of sight.
She was insane, but beautifully insane.
I wanted to create a picture of V as a strong, independent girl and questioned the crying scene but I realized she would be pretty heartless if she didn't cry. So make this a reminder that it is important to cry sometimes and that doesn't necessarily make you weak ;-) Feel free to give me any feed back and vote, comment share, It is much appreciated!