Children of Sin

Chapter 9

June 18th, 1992.

"Are you alright Maman?" Laylas asked her mother nervously, "you don't look very well."

Layla was right. Larissa's eyes were bloodshot, deep bags had formed beneath them, and her hair and makeup were a mess. She looked as if she hadn't slept a wink.

"I'll be alright," Larissa responded, flicking her wand. Immediately, her appearance returned to some semblance of presentable.

"You'll have to teach me how to do that," Layla begged her mother, "it seems so useful."

"All in good time," Larissa flicked her wand again, and breakfast began cooking itself, "go wake your brothers please."

"Yes Maman," Layla nodded, and rushed off to do as she was told.

"What do you want?" a groggy Damian groaned as he awoke to a loud knock at his door.

"Maman said to come for breakfast," Layla responded form behind the door, "can you please wake Victor as well?"

"Sure sis," Damian dragged himself out of bed, "wake up Vic. Maman says it's time for breakfast."

"Coming," Victor got out of bed slowly, "you go ahead. I'll be there soon."

"It's so strange to see them so domestic," Mary whispered to Marlene, "seeing how devastated they'd been the night before. It's rather unsettling, isn't it?"

"I see your point," Marlene agreed, eying the people in the vision warily, "I'm not sure the serenity will last long though."

"What are we going to do?" Damian tentatively breaks the silence at the table. No one at the table has much of an answer. Nicholas and Perenelle had dropped a crushing blow to them only a night before. It was normal that they hadn't finished processing yet.

"I think we'll cancel our Amazon vacation," Larissa finally spoke, laying her fork down gracefully, "and use the time to make memories with your grandparents. I'll find a nice ride, and we'll take your grandparents on a nice road or well, flying, trip around the continent. Perhaps we'll go meet with some of their old friends. I want us to make the most of it. There's no use using the short time we have left angry."

"I like the sound of that," Layla perked up slightly, "we can even make fun scrapbooks."

"Excellent idea, darling," Larissa praised, "now, let's get you three back to school. I'll inform your grandparents myself later today."

After eating breakfast, the four head to the car to drive back to Beauxbatons. As soon as they arrived at the gates of Beauxbatons, Larissa turned to her children to impart words of wisdom.

"Don't let this whole thing ruin your last days of school," she instructed them, "have fun with your friends. We'll be seeing each other in less than a week. Until then, live freely."

"Yes Maman," the three agreed, and Larissa parked the car in the front of the school. As Larissa watched her children head back inside, she felt a pair of eyes burning the back of her head.

"Homenium Revelio," she whispered, using verbal magic to not alert the stalker to her true abilities. The spell revealed a human standing fifteen feet behind her, at a fountain. Larissa turned around, and her children's professor, Leopold Arquette, was standing there. Surprised at being caught, the man sheepishly waved her over.

"I think I might be right," Lyra sing songed into Daniel's ear, "what do you have to say for yourself?"

"It could be curiosity," Daniel defends his point, "the man's expressed an interest in the kids as well. Perhaps he's just going to ask her flat out."