A Legacy of Pain: Rising from the Ashes

Chapter 7: A Complicated Return

Last Time: Elizabeth discovered that Anne was able to see and hear the energies she had extracted wit her spell. AFter a short discussion she sent the brunette back o the party so that she could speak with Nyxia. While speaking with the young Gaunt she learned the child had cast the cruciatus curse, thinking that Annie would want to learn it, and that the child had had it used on her prior. She saw so much of herself in the little witch ad decided then and there to do her best to help Nyxia not to become a monster like herself or the girl's family. Back t the party Ominis opened all of his gifts, thanking Poppy especially for her thoughtful gift of a verbal time piece. After all the other gifts Nyxia gave him a golden locket from their father. Later that evening, Lizzy pulled Anne aside and took her to Isidora's old home to check if the brunette could see the ancient magic mirror leading to the Undercroft. When she couldn't, Elizabeth surmised that Anne somehow had gotten an incomplete form of her abilities and decided to test more in the future, promising Anne that she would help her but to keep it a secret for the moment. Later that night, back at home, Lizzy went into her study and consumed the energies she had extracted from the rabbit while telling herself that she was doing so to better understand her spell and help Anne.

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Elizabeth anxiously rotated the ring on her finger while rubbing the yellow gemstone gently with her thumb as she stared out the window of the carriage. The sight of her reflection in the window with both sides of her face now framed by streaks of dark purple locks only served to make her feel worse as she focused on the lack of information regarding Poppy's location coming through the ring. For the past few days the ravenclaw had been able to focus on preparations, like sending a letter to Albie to double the order she had made several weeks ago, making trips to Feldcroft with Annie, or helping her sister get ready for school. Now that they were on their way to the train station though... There was little to distract her from remembering the conversation she had had with Poppy the day after Ominis' party.

As Elizabeth had expected; the hufflepuff had been far from pleased when the ravenclaw revealed that she had consumed more of the energies drawn out with her spell. While the young couple had gotten slightly heated before and Poppy had, rightfully so, been angry or upset with her in the past; this had been their first real argument. And it had been an awful one. Lizzy had never seen her loveable badger so upset; the only other time that was even close had been when she found Poppy in Ollivanders after what had happened with Rookwood. The auburn and purple haired witch had attempted to explain herself and stated she was experimenting for Anne; yet that had only made the brunette angrier and more concerned.

After a long and very heated discussion Poppy had finally sighed with an anguished look upon her face before telling Lizzy she needed some space and time to think things over before turning off the tracker on her ring in front of the ravenclaw and departing. That had been on the twenty fifth of August. And now that it was the first of September; Lizzy had only received one short reply to her letters, stating that they would see each other on the train, since. The fact that Poppy had seemingly kept her ring inactive the whole time without speaking to her had left the ravenclaw a nervous wreck as she tried to force her mind to focus on anything but what was bothering her.

Still staring out the window of the carriage vacantly; Elizabeth was soon torn from her thoughts at the sound of her father's loud and exasperated voice calling her name. "M-My apologies Father." She stated with a forced smile upon her lips while turning to look at the older blonde man. "My thoughts were elsewhere. Is there something I can do for you?" Beside her she felt Annie shift as a gentle, small hand took her own.

In the seat across from his daughters, Nathaniel held a complex expression which Elizabeth thought was a mixture of sadness and irritation. "Elizabeth, are you certain you are alright? I called your name several times before you responded..." When she simply continued to smile at him her father looked more concerned, yet decided not to press the issue. "Regardless, it appears we have arrived at the station. Are you girls ready?" He asked while Evelyn, who was showing much more clearly now that she was roughly halfway through her pregnancy, watched her eldest daughter closely.