Challenged Love

Chapter 20

Mine and my father's conversation continued in the quiet library.

"Do you have any other questions?" he inquired gently, ready to answer any question I may throw at him.

"Well, just one." I took a deep breath, preparing myself for whatever response he may give. "Did they ever figure out who did this to you and mum?"

I sensed that there was much he intended to say, but he debated with himself whether or not he should. Perhaps that meant he knew something or he just knew I was going to ask sooner or later.

He brought his voice down lower. "Do you remember the night before we received the mark?"

I could not tell if he was dodging the question or not. "A little too much. That was the last night I had you and mum."

I could see his eyes becoming watery under the lens of his glasses. He then continued to fill in the pieces of the story that I could not define as a kid. He explained to me how the Normans, Robbie and Jane, had been acting rather strange and lying about their whereabouts. According to them, they had just gotten a new job which required them to travel around a lot, leaving Kasper with my parents for several weeks at a time. That explains why I remember a long period of time during my childhood where me and Kasper were always together. Then, a letter was sent to my parent's house the day before receiving the mark with the words "Alas, Voldemort will be the one you serve" with a sketch of the Dark Mark drawn at the bottom. There was no indication of who the letter was sent from, but my father had suspicions that it was from the Normans. He says that the reason was because he recognized Jane's handwriting and that he had already been growing suspicious of their "job" since the Normans could never give full details as to what they were doing or where they were going. He simply had a hard time believing that their "job" was top secret. However, my mother adamantly refused to believe such a horror that her own sister was involved with Death Eaters, but despite her doubts, my father drove to the Norman's house in attempts to confront them about the letter. When he got there, however, only Kasper was there. Robbie and Jane had actually left three days before, which is why I remember Kasper coming home with my father that day.

"You know, Robbie was one of the Death Eaters during the first Wizarding War," my dad told me.

"I had no idea, I confessed, astonished to say the least.

That meant Kasper's dad already had the mark before that night in the abandoned house. Although, now that I do think back to those days, Robbie had always been standoffish. I also cannot remember him ever wearing short sleeved shirts. At least now I know why.

"Then how come Jane married him?"

"I wish I knew," my dad remarked. "She also never really like your mother."

"But how? That's her sister?"

"Again, I can't put my finger on it. Florence has been nothing but sweet to her sister. Jane Norman has always been different anyways, but Florence supported her through everything- even when she married a Death Eater who supposedly 'abandoned his ways'-"

"Are you going to say what I think you are going to say?"

"Just let me finish the rest of the story, sweetheart."

"The Normans Imperioed you all those years, didn't they?"