Ortum Infernum [d.m]

Chapter Eighteen

Trigger warnings: Inexplicit descriptions of physical and psychological torture on underage children, graphic descriptions of animals being maimed and killed. Please skip this chapter if you cannot handle the topics mentioned above.

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Sunlight trickled into the spacious room through the ceiling to floor windows. It bathed everything in an ethereal golden glow. Odette sat by the grand piano in silence. Her fingers trailed over the ivory keys, relishing in the familiarity of it under her skin.

She used to spend hours a day in the music room, in front of this very piano. Losing herself to the melodies she could create and forgetting everything else. It was her escape.

Her fingers found the proper keys from muscle memory; her shoulders set back in position, poised. With a deep breath, she began to play.

Soft music was awoken, it filled the room in a careless serenity. Her favourite Muggle piece, River Flows In You, breathed life into the emptiness of the room. With every note that she played, she felt the tension untangle itself from her.

Odette allowed herself to sink into the feeling. Let the music carry her far, far away from here. She tried to conjure up the memories of her childhood, grasping at the tailcoats of the emotions she felt the very first time she had heard the piece and set out to learn it.

She paused when she felt another presence in the room, withdrawing her hands from the keys. Her mother had walked in through the door, a little book in hand and a sheepish look on her beautiful face.

"What a pity. I just came over to enjoy when I heard you playing from the sitting room," Ingrid hummed as she settled into one of the armchairs near the mantelpiece.

Odette gave her mother an apologetic look as she turned around in the seat to face her. Upon noticing her expression, Ingrid smiled softly.

"You always play so beautifully. Especially that song."

She felt her mother study her face and tried her best to keep her emotions guarded. But even without using her legilimency, it was easy for her mother to read people like a book. Above all, her own children.

The older witch crossed the room to where she was seated and lifted her face. Odette gazed into her mother's eyes that were the same shade of brown as hers. "It will be okay, darling."

She nodded her head but felt the weight that she had tried to chase away with the piano sink heavily back into her bones. Odette wondered how it will ever be okay from now on.

"You don't have to go back," Ingrid said in a careful tone as she assessed her. "Your father and I still stand by your grandfather's decision. It's for the best."

Odette bunched up her dress skirt in her hands as she recalled the conversation last night. Her parents were worried about how things were slowly unfolding in Britain, especially after Dumbledore was assassinated.

They think it would be better for her to finish her final year in Beauxbaton where her cousin brothers were attending. France was one of the European countries that was still devoid of Death Eater activities, yet her grandfather protested that it was still too dangerous to send her there.

He thought it was better to have her homeschooled with the best tutors he could employ but Odette insisted on going back.

She felt like returning to Hogwarts was the right thing to do. She was made Head Girl, she had a responsibility to carry out. She had also made a promise to Dumbledore that she would help Harry Potter. Even though Odette had a bad verdict of him after what he had done to Draco last year, she had given her word. And she was not one to forsaken that.