Children of Sin

Chapter 6

"It seems that my children have had to be brave," Larissa mumbled to herself, "and I'm partially to blame."

Andrea couldn't bear looking at the girl who had once been her daughter. She felt horrible, despite knowing she had done what she needed for the purity of their family. She had done the right thing, so why was she feeling so guilty?

"Welcome to your very first potions class," Monsieur Leopold welcomed class 1E into the potions room, "we'll go around the room and list your names."

"Tristan Blanchar"

"Diane Roussel"

"Léon Belmont"

Victor waited patiently for his turn to say his name. He wanted to move on from introductions as soon as possible. He was excited to see how the potions lesson would begin. He wasn't lying when he told his siblings he though Monsieur Leopold was charming. He just had an air about him that made Victor excited for potions, one of his better subjects.

"Alaina Laurent" the girl in front of him said, and all eyes turned to him.

"Victor Greengrass," Victor confidently announced, not ashamed in the slightest. It was always Damian who got hurt when the children at the playground or at primary would spit back the trash their parents were spewing about them. As they got a bit older, it was always Damian who was bullied the most, having a rather soft hearted nature. Surprising most who would meet her, Layla was also deeply sensitive person at heart. She clothed herself in fierceness to try and frighten off the insulters, but too many a time had he and Damian had to hold their little sister as she sobbed her heart out.

His mother always was a subject of controversy no matter where they lived. They'd moved to many places, his mother trying to escape her reputation. Yet one way or the other, people always found out that they were fatherless. That their mother was a single mom of three children. Any time she tried to make friends, she was shunned by the social circles surrounding her. No one wanted to speak to a supposed prostitute.

Victor remembers asking his mother why she remained in France at all. She wasn't French at all, but a British witch. If the people here were so bad, why remain in a foreign country? Victor remembers the bitter and haunted look his mother gave him that day. It was of a woman who had truly suffered.

"Victor my love," she had told him that day, "if you think what they tell us here is bad, then you've been mistaken. The magical community there is vicious to those that they don't like. Women who have children out of wedlock are most definitely included in that.  England is smaller than France by a fair amount, so it's much easier to hide, especially when they don't know you. In England, the entirety of the magical community shunned me. I was a pureblood girl who had committed the grave sin of getting pregnant. They labelled me as a blood traitor, which especially in those times, was practically death sentence."

"A deserved one at that," Elladora Lestrange rolled her eyes, "these are the consequences of her actions. I hardly see a reason for pity."

"I don't recall asking for it," Larissa quietly rebutted, shocking her siblings. The Larissa that they knew was never this feisty.

"Why you insolent wench!" Elladora Lestrange screeched, "why, I ought to curse you real well."

"Are you really going to threaten me in a room full of aurors?" Larissa gestured to the aurors in the room, who in the commotion, had unsheathed their wands. Elladora growled, before reluctantly sitting back in her seat.

"I didn't know you had it in you," Gideon Prewett laughed, "you always were a quiet one."

"Perhaps I'm tired of it all," Larissa says, voice cold, "tired of my future being broadcasted to complete and utter strangers."