Unsure of how much time she had before any suspicions were raised, Renata stood in the doorway of the root cellar, keeping the wand firmly in her hand as she removed the chains from her wrists and ankles. Unfortunately, the chains had left their marks on her wrists and ankles by rubbing her skin raw where she had been pulling numerous times. Her robes weighed heavy on her body from the water her mother poured over her repeatedly. She was cold, exhausted, and her body was incredibly sore, leaving her to lean outside of the cellar to catch her breath. It was bright outside and she needed a moment for her vision to adjust to the sunlight.
But at the same time, she didn't have a lot of time and she knew that, at the sign of anything going wrong, her parents would return and she was fighting with a wand that wasn't her own. Somehow she needed to get her wand back and as she stood there, healing her wrists, she figured out just exactly what she was going to do.
"Alright, Renata," she coached herself, " look alive."
With the use of the wand, she fixed her robes to appear almost brand new, she fixed her hair from it's horrible "drowned rat" appearance, and she made sure that she was bright-eyed and looked refresh. After all, her parents were practically having her be reset every time she did something wrong, Renata assumed if that was the case, they always restored her to her former "glory" so that she didn't become suspicious of the activity.
Checking out her reflection in a small puddle of water, Renata was satisfied enough that she didn't look like she had been tortured for however long. It would have to do, she needed to get her wand, find Adelmo before any harm came to him, and then she needed to find James and Sirius before they got furthered involved in the mess. They were all outnumbered with eyes and ears practically everywhere in Italy, making the whole country a bit of a danger.
It was probably why James and Renata had been interrupted so quickly, they had barely been given a chance to reconcile or for Renata to remember things properly before she was taken away. The last thing she wanted was for James and Sirius to get her after it had been her fault in the first place that they had all ended in Italy. She had foolishly placed her guard down back in Adelmo's flat when she spotted her mother standing in the kitchen area.
Her concern had been for Enzo at the time, believing that the dog was severely hurt, when in reality, Alcina had only stunned the dog. Everything was calculated to make it look like Renata had done things and left on her own accord. Enzo was planted on the sofa, to make it look like he had been asleep when Adelmo arrived home, meanwhile, she had been forced down at the kitchen table, probably under the Imperius Curse to write down a letter explaining why she had suddenly up and left during the night.
Thankfully, she could tell that the people who truly cared about her, could see right through the lies of the letter, which explained why they were there. It was a rescue trip but a dangerous one and Renata didn't like the idea of James placing himself in danger, especially since it probably took so much for him to leave Harry behind.
Glancing up at the house in the distance, Renata forced a smile on her face to appear cheerful as if nothing was wrong. She hadn't been subjected to torture, she hadn't figured out the dark truth of her family and the surrounding government. Instead, she was part of it and her suppressed memories left her happy and oblivious to everything. Everything was absolutely perfect in Renata Abate's world as she approached the Abate home.
"Mamma! Papà!" she called out as soon as she entered, she kept her voice, somewhat high-pitched as if she were excited about something. "Mamma? Papà?"
At the sound of her voice, she could instantly hear the stir in the household as if they were rushing to see if that was her arrival to challenge them to a fight or if she "all better." Alcina arrived in the doorway first of the living room, and the first thing Renata noticed, was the tight grip of her wand in hand. However, she made it seem that she didn't notice or if she did, she didn't care because she wasn't supposed to be a threat.
"Mamma!" she exclaimed happily, feeling her mother's nerves, there was no hiding that Alcina was nervous around her, which only made Renata smile even more.
"Renata, what are you doing? You're practically jumping around! Why are you so excited?"
Walking over, Renata wrapped her arms around her mother in a hug. "I have reason to be excited, Mamma! You know Davide? Well, he asked me on a date, he wants to take me out for the day!"
Feeding into her mother's expectation about wanting Renata to be with the "perfect man" there was probably no one better than Renata could choose to date in Alcina's mind, then someone who was actually involved with the entire memory process.
"Oh really?" Alcina's fingers loosened around her wand and Renata could feel her relax in her hold. "When did that happen?"
"Well, I was outside messing around with the flowers in the garden, the beds looked a bit dry, and he showed up. You should have seen him, Mamma, he looked so nervous! Almost as if we were school children again. He's so handsome now too, is it alright if I go?"
"Of course, of course!" Alcina said and Renata wanted nothing more than to smack her mother down for being so disgusting in nature. It was amazing to see that she had absolutely no problem with messing with the minds of her own children, as long as it meant that she got what she wanted out of it.
But to play up her role, Renata clapped her hands together, her face flushed with red, even though it came across as her being excited about her date, she was really fuming internally.
"I should probably go get ready," Renata told her, " but I can't find my wand. I don't know what I was thinking of heading out to the gardens without it. Would have made a job a whole lot easier, but sometimes I feel like if my head wasn't attached to my body I would leave that somewhere as well."
"No need to worry about that, sweetheart," Alcina said, digging into the pocket of her robes, " I have it. You have such a habit of leaving it lying around, you have to work harder. That's going to end up coming back to bite you one day."
"I know, I know! Especially with my Auror training, I could just see everyone's face if I showed up without my wand because I forgot it somewhere," Renata forcibly laughed as she was granted her wand. She paused for a minute, looking over her wand and contemplating taking her mother out right then and there. However, since her father had yet to show up into the room, she had a sneaking suspicion that he was waiting somewhere to make sure that everything continued to run smoothly.
Not to mention, she needed to buy as much time as possible for her rescue plan to get to Adelmo.
"Is everything alright, Renata?" Alcina's voice rang out in her ears, bringing Renata to look up and see, not concern, but wariness on her expression.
"Yes, Mamma," she answered with a steady nod, " I'm just a little nervous about the date, that's all. I don't want to do anything that would ruin it, you know? I don't have any practice with holding a relationship. I've never been in one before."
Alcina threw her head back with laughter that Renata awkwardly brought herself to share in before her mother's hands grabbed the sides of her face, holding her in place. It was Renata's turn to grip her wand firmly in her hand, in case, Alcina tried to do something to her.
"You don't need to worry about anything, Renata, you are not going to ruin anything," she reassured her as a mother loving would on her daughter's "first date."
It was too bad that Renata knew just how insane her mother and her practices were in reality, that nothing that came out of the woman's mouth was sincere. She was actually going to let Renata go on a date with a man that had been left with the task of altering her memories.
"You are absolutely perfect, so you don't even have reason to be nervous," Alcina continued, " you are going to have a wonderful time, and do you know why?"
"No, Mamma."
"Because I can already hear the wedding bells in the distance!"
"Mamma!" Renata laughed while feeling the sensational burn of vomit in her throat before swallowing to keep it at bay. "Let's just see how the first date goes before you start making wedding plans! Although I think I can hear them too. Where's Adelmo, I can't wait to tell him!"
"You'll have to wait until after your date, Renata, your brother is still at the hospital on shift," Alcina told her.
"Oh, well, I guess I will have to wait then. Alright," she said with a shrug of her shoulders, " I'm going to go change and then head out!"
Kissing her mother's cheek, Renata ran off in the direction of her bedroom, located in the back of the house. She let out a few happy squealing noises to keep up the act that she was just so excited for her date with Davide, although she did laugh, knowing of the true situation. However, she had played it up long enough to know that Adelmo was at work, all she had to do was get to the hospital and get to him first before anyone else could.
And she had to be fast about all of it, the Tongue-Tying Curse would eventually wear off and as soon as it did, she was sure Davide and his brother were going to be screaming in the root cellar until help arrived. When they were found, they would reveal everything and that meant they would be out of time.
Not taking to change as she claimed she would, she did, however, tidy up her appearance further before letting out a call that she was heading out and before there was a response of "good luck" she disapparated from her room.
Her first stop was San Giovanni's Hospital to grab Adelmo and get him to safety.
Walking through the cold corridors, Renata was aware of every Healer, and while they were not all attendees of the academy, she couldn't be sure of who was and who wasn't. If she showed any sign of being out of place, there was no telling if she would be attacked or not. She also didn't want to put Adelmo in any further danger, just knowing that he was back in Florence, back at San Giovanni's meant that their parents had gotten to him.
They had gotten him and he probably had no recollection of St Mungo's or of Sirius for that matter. He was probably beaten like all the times before when he was caught with a man and then they basically hit the reset to turn him into the perfect little son. Renata believed that something had to keep playing a role within the two of them as to why they kept breaking the mould for their parents. She continued to recall memories and it seemed no matter how much Adelmo was beaten or had his memory altered, they couldn't take away what he preferred.
They couldn't stop him from being attracted towards men. He was only filled with the fear of disappointing his parents and forced to believe that it was wrong, but it didn't actually get rid of the feelings. Sort of what they attempted to do to Renata, they wanted her to forget about Harry and James, and while they had almost succeeded, there was something inside of her that grasped for Harry as soon as she saw the boy's photograph.
When she didn't even know James, she felt the pull to help him and comfort him, even at the time when they were in Parma, he was only a mere stranger. But while she argued with him, using Matteo as her translator, everything James told her, she wanted to believe. So there was obviously something that worked against her parents' methods and no matter what they did to alter or suppress, it was never permanent. Somehow, Adelmo and Renata were doing something to fight it without being fully aware, but Renata wasn't sure what that was as of yet.
With every person that she walked by, she offered a smile, pretending as if nothing was wrong and hoping that she would come across Adelmo sooner rather than later. Her worst fear was that he was no longer on shift or he was somewhere where she wouldn't be able to reach him. She stopped a couple of Healers in passing, asking if they knew where he was, but they all had different stories. One of them said he was on lunch, another claimed that he was tending to a patient, Renata didn't know what to believe and she was growing frustrated.
All she wanted to do was scream out her brother's name until he responded but she definitely had a feeling that was going to cause a lot of trouble, which is what she was trying to avoid.
"Come on, Adelmo, where are you?" she whispered under her breath, she was just about to start peering into rooms, no matter how suspicious that looked, she was racing against a clock she couldn't see the countdown.
Yet, as she passed a marked cupboard, she didn't witness it open as she came to a stop, ready to just make a scene. She was about to start calling out her brother's name in order to stir up some trouble, only to be grabbed from the back of her robes and yanked into the cupboard. With not enough time to go for her wand and certainly not enough room to even move her arm that much, she could only jerk it back enough to elbow her attacker in the stomach.
There was an "oomph" sound followed by a whimper, which brought her to turn her head, ready to do it again.
"No, stop, Renata, stop! Please, it's me, it's James-"
She recognised the voice and as she looked over her shoulder, she came to see the familiar and handsome, bespectacled face of James Potter. Still slightly paranoid of everyone she came into contact with, believing it could have very well been a setup to catch her again, she slowly turned to face him. He didn't have a wand in his hand and he kept both hands raised to show that he wasn't a threat to her. Her eyes scanned over his face, looking for any odd imperfections that would give away if it wasn't him.
"Look, you probably don't understand a word of what I'm saying to you right now, I'm not sure what they did to you after you were taken, " he began in a low voice, " but it's me. It's James and I would never hurt you. And...you really don't remember me? Well, I could understand that...after what I did...but Harry, do you remember Harry?"
Reaching into her pocket, Renata could feel James' body became tense as it was pressed against hers. Perhaps he believed that she was going to attack him, although he was hoping he stood a chance since she wasn't screaming out and calling for help. But she could still sense his nerves as she reached into her pocket, but he became confused as she pulled something out and started to unfold it.
It was the photograph of Harry that he had given to her back in Parma, the same photograph that allowed her to recall the memories that her parents tried to take or hide from her, and it allowed her to keep her strength while enduring the torture set upon her by her mother.
James peered down at the photograph, seeing the condition it was in, suffering from water damage and the fact that it was all crumpled up like it had been through hell and back. But he could still see Harry and it was obvious she had made the connection between the photograph and the name. Looking back up at her, he saw a smile develop on her lips that made his heart jump in his chest.
"I remember," she spoke to him in clear English, " I remember Harry and I remember you."
A happy cry escaped from James as he wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tightly in a hug that she gladly returned. The amount of relief she felt just being embraced by him again was something she never wanted to fade, after all, when she had left Harry's birthday party, she had believed that he would never want to see her again. But there he was, he had travelled all the way to her home country to rescue her.
When James pulled away from the hug, he immediately brushed Renata's hair at her face so that she could look at him.
"Ren, I'm so sorry for everything-"
She didn't need another apology coming from him as she grabbed him by the front of the shirt and pulled him into a strong kiss. It caught him off guard initially as he didn't kiss her back right away, but he couldn't resist for long, not that he wanted to in the first place.
"Wait," Renata muttered against his lips as a thought came to her head almost right after he started kissing her back, " if you're here...where's Sirius?"
"Um, about that, Ren..."