Home, Sweet Home? on At Home

Giselle Duell

August 27, 2020 7:05 PM

Home, Sweet Home? by Giselle Duell

CW: Nightmarish imagery, spiders

Marissa and Andrew's doorbell chimed and the sound echoed all about Giselle. Her arm was outstretched, finger pressed against the sounding device. The resounding noise wrapped around her, quieting all of the other smaller noises as if it had the authority to keep those others at bay. As it faded, she knew she was being watched. Watched by many, eyes. The door swung open and on the other side was a full-sized heart shaped mirror.

In the mirror she could see herself. She was attired in a silvery, shimmery bodysuit. There were limp threads leading from her wrists, ankles and neck. They led far off into the distance behind her and out of sight. She was also surrounded by eyes. When they saw that she noticed them, the threads leading into the distance became taunt and pulled at her… the eyes narrowed as Giselle fought against them to hold her ground, but they tightened. She waved her knifewand but she was losing feeling in her hands and feet and she was struggling for breath. There was a terrific yank and she was dragged away from the door, the mirror and back into the darkness.

Now she was hanging from the threads, and they were moving her arms and legs like a marionette. “Poor dear,” came the all to familiar sound of Lia’s voice from behind and slightly above her. “You really shouldn’t have done that. What shall we do with you now?” The threads around her neck began to tighten again. “You had been so very useful.” Lia let out a sigh. As Giselle kicked and struggled to breathe.

“Come back home…” The voice drifted past her, another familiar, caring voice. Marissa? It came from the butter knife. With a wave of her arm she severed the strands holding her up and she fell, and fell...

Thick, sticky strands arrested her fall, her arms and legs resisted moving. The more she struggled, the more they wound themselves around her arms, legs, everywhere. She couldn’t move! Then she felt the strands sway, as if something moved upon them. Something big. A slight wave of her knife revealed fragments of her surroundings, long silken strands that seemed to stretch to infinity. Scattered about them were wrapped bundles, a few similar to her but most were much smaller. Somehow she knew that most of the small ones held owls, some were still moving… the inert one closest to her held Archimedes.

“Calm yourself dear, you will only make things worse.” Giselle flinched at Lia’s voice as it whispered in her ear from behind her. The movement of the strands had stopped. “Let me help you.” The coils about her began to tighten, she couldn’t breathe... “We can’t have you getting lost out there, stay here where it is safe.” The voice sent chills down Giselle’s spine, and the knife in her hand pleaded, “Come home again.” It once again sliced through the cords holding her arm, and changed into a hand version of the heart-shaped mirror, revealing the monster behind her.

Lia’s smiling face and torso were attached to a spider’s abdomen. She was easily twice her normal size and her face held the many eyes that had watched her all her life. Her eight spider legs perched delicately on the webs around them while Lia’s hands fastened a noose from the silken strands. The Lia creature’s face turned to a pitying smile and Giselle was now free and faced her former mentor and savior. “This is the thanks I get after all I’ve done for you?” the Lia creature asked with a cruel edge in her voice. “Give it to me, and perhaps your end can be painless.”

The creature wanted the orb that Giselle held in her other hand, but Lia would not have it. Giselle had summoned up a nearly-forgotten fast ally and sent it through the heart mirror and out of the spider’s reach. Enraged the spider pinned her to the web as its master who rode upon its back urged it on to end her. The mirror, a knife once more, was warm in her hand as it’s pleading echoed once more in her ears. After that was pain and confusion and death.

With a gasp and a cry Giselle sat up covered in sweat. Where was she? The nightmarish dream images slid from her mind as she tried to piece things together. She was in a bed, the air smelled.. Vaguely familiar? Those scents were covered by odors that could only come from potions, a variety of them.

There were only soft sounds all around. Except a sound of footsteps approaching! "Accio Wand" she whispered under her breath and hoped for the best. The familiar wooden handle was in her grasp nearly before the words had escaped her lips. It had been close by. A door creaked and she swung the wand to point in that direction. "Who is it?" She demanded in Greek, a hex already forming in her mind.

2 Giselle Duell Home, Sweet Home? 1517 Giselle Duell 1 5

Marissa Duell

August 27, 2020 7:57 PM

Yes, that's where you are now. by Marissa Duell

It had been two days since Marissa had found a dying woman on her doorstep, and she was not entirely sure that her brain had come to terms with the fact she had done so yet. Part of this was because she didn’t even really remember what she was told she had done in response – specifically, in a bizarre and most untimely flashback to her Muggle upbringing, screamed for Andrew to call 911. She did remember her eyes fastening onto the butterknife which seemed to have fallen from Giselle’s hand, and thinking that she had been wondering where that was – odd, the things one’s mind would focus on, and the things it would tune out, in a moment like that. She had always had a neatly matched set of cutlery. How had a knife gone missing?

Apparently, Giselle had taken it with her when she had gone…wherever she had gone. Apparently, Giselle knew how to make Portkeys, and had used the butterknife, of all things, as one. Apparently, Marissa’s butterknife was the only reason her sister-in-law was still alive – well, that, and Andrew having the wit to procure someone who could actually help instead of trying to reach a Muggle ambulance service. There was very little, after all, that 911 could do to help someone who had been struck with some serious, illegal curse in the very moment the Portkey had activated.

She supposed she had now very properly lied to Valentine, because she had consciously decided not to keep her promise to let Val know the moment they knew anything about her aunt’s whereabouts. For at least the first day, it had not seemed entirely certain that Giselle would live, and Marissa didn’t want Val in the same agony of suspense over the issue they were. The Healer said that Giselle was stable now, but she had remained unconscious, and somehow Marissa doubted that was a good sign. She didn’t plan to bring Valentine into it, though, until she had at least a measure of certainty about…anything, really.

For now, she had possibly the sickest person she had ever had on her hands to care for, and she was not sure she had ever really felt the depths of her ineptitude as a witch as much as she did now. Illogical, yes. The spells and potions Giselle needed right now were specialized things, not things for her anyway. But logic didn’t mean much in these situations.

Luckily, action did. Unluckily, action also meant confronting the possibility that at any given time, worst-case scenarios could become realities. Marissa took a moment to brace herself for the possibility that she’d find her sister-in-law dead, then opened the door for the second prescribed temperature check and tilting-potions-down-Giselle’s-throat-without-choking-her – only to jump back in surprise upon finding a wand pointed at her.

“Oh!” she exclaimed in surprise. “It’s okay, it’s okay – it’s Marissa,” she said, then repeated that information in Greek. Giselle had spoken both in rapid succession, but had started with Greek. After years in Greece, with who knew how little contact with other English-speakers, Marissa thought it best not to assume which language Giselle would react better to at the moment. “It’s all okay, you’re safe now,” she added, knowing she wasn’t quite able to imagine what the last thing Giselle might remember would have been but feeling confident it was nothing good. “You’re at home…you’ve been unconscious, though,” she said, crossing the room to Giselle. “Easy, easy….”

16 Marissa Duell Yes, that's where you are now. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

August 29, 2020 6:14 AM

Is that good? by Giselle Duell

Marissa? Safe? Home? These words drifted through Giselle's mind. The voice was right, the tone and accent were right as well. Her wand wavered just a bit, then the hex dissipated from her mind and muscle memory took over. Marissa was at the door of the room. Of her room? How? The attack.. she'd...? The knife.

The surge of adrenaline left her, and she collapsed back into the… her bed. Her hand lost its grip on her wand and it settled on the bed nearby. Emotion welled up inside of her, what had she done? She hadn't meant to... had she? Would she be followed? Could she be followed? Had she doomed Marissa and Andrew... and Valentine? She choked back a sob. She had tried... tried to fix things, to make the right. Lia had... She wanted to curl up into a ball and wish everything away, but she couldn't even do that right now.

"I.. I'm sorry Marissa." she whispered with what strength she could muster to her sister-in-law. "I'm so sorry..." An old familiar thought bubbled back up in her brain, one that she on occasion voiced when she was younger, but hadn't for many years now, it still lurked however. The context here was different, but the words were still the same, "This is Andrew's fault." she whispered.

She'd been unconscious? How long? A new wave of panic swept over her largely inert form. Giselle tried to struggle up again, but couldn't. "How long have I been here?" some of the panic finding it's way into her voice, "I should go, get away, run..." her voice trailed off as she wondered where she would run to exactly. There was nothing left for her now, bridges had been burned, after everything that she'd done, Marissa and Andrew wouldn't want her around. She couldn't blame then either. There nothing anywhere.

2 Giselle Duell Is that good? 1517 Giselle Duell 0 5

Marissa Duell

August 29, 2020 9:23 PM

Better than the alternatives I know of. by Marissa Duell

“Shh, shh,” said Marissa soothingly, dismissing the comments about being sorry for something and about something being Andrew’s fault as the products of confusion. She was quite confident, after all, that her husband had not gone off, found his sister, tried to kill her, then returned home just in time to help Marissa save her life. “It's okay, you're okay.”

The next interjections, however, had to be addressed. “You’ve been with us for two days,” she said. “And as for running – well, even if your brother and I hadn’t had more than enough of you doing that, you’re not going to be able to run much of anywhere for a while,” she said. “We aren’t completely sure what curse you were hit with, but it hurt you pretty bad, honey. You’re going to be mostly stuck in this bed for a few days, and it’ll be longer than that before you’re up to much. I was coming in here to give you your meds, actually, which will be a lot easier now that you’re awake. There’s ten of them,” she said with a slight grimace of sympathy. “The Healer said you could start working on eating once you woke up, though, so after you get them all down, I can go fix you some soup if you want.”

She focused her eyes on the little dosage cup as she began measuring out the first potion. “Do you remember anything about what happened?” she asked as she levelled off the dose, then put it on the side table so she could put the cap back on the bottle before she offered the measurer to Giselle. “Here’s the first one, do you need help sitting up a little, or for me to hold it?” She had anticipated charming the pillows to prop Giselle further up, so her wand was on hand if that service was still necessary.

There had, of course, been questions, these past two days, and from people other than Andrew and Marissa. It was somewhat difficult to expect the authorities to believe that one really had no idea how someone on the brink of death-by-dark-magic had come to be in that state, or even exactly how she had come to be on their doorstep, her hand having somehow depressed the doorbell as she’d collapsed. Marissa had had no real answers to any of them, which had been a blessing, in a way – unlikely or not, she knew nothing, had done nothing (except, of course, assist with the mirror, but nobody had asked about that, presumably due to not knowing enough to do so, and so Marissa hadn’t mentioned it). On the other hand, though, her lack of knowledge meant that for one thing – the most important thing – the Healer was operating purely on guesswork, so details might aid in Giselle’s convalescence, and that for another thing, she also had a lack of any information about what kind of fallout they might be looking at, and she did not like that situation at all. Valentine, thank God, was safely far away at school, but Giselle’s re-entry meant that the rest of the family was all here, and if her sister-in-law had just almost literally brought a war to her doorstep, she thought it would be better to know before the enemy reached the gates.

16 Marissa Duell Better than the alternatives I know of. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

August 30, 2020 6:31 PM

I cannot argue with that. by Giselle Duell

Marissa's words floated over Giselle's panicking but immobile form. They seemed to penetrate through as nothing she thought could. They were words from an earlier time, a long forgotten past. They brought out memories of scraped knees and broken things, childish problems that at the time were the end of the world. Many of them made so much worse through the frustration of simply not being able to see like everyone else seemed to be able to do. Those words, and hugs had always eventually made everything better. This... this was different though. Would things be 'okay' again? How long had it been since things had been 'okay'?

Reflexively she found herself relaxing, and gave her sister-in-law the faintest of smiles. "That's what you told me after Andrew tried to teach me to fly a broom." That had gone as well as anyone could have expected. Well, apparently anyone except Andrew anyway. "My brother is an idiot." Then, nearly a whisper, "He may have doomed us all, instead of just me this time. I shouldn't have come back."

Two days? It sounded like Marissa wanted her to stay? Why? She had nothing left to offer them, everything was gone. Not that she'd had much to start with, and now she was just burdening them down more. Marissa was stuck playing nurse and they had to pay for a healer... How was she going to make this all up to them? Assuming of course that terrible things didn't happen. Not like she had much of a choice, Marissa was right, she could barely move her head, she wasn't going anywhere right now. The all to familiar ache in the stomach forced her nod at the suggestion of soup as she sunk farther into their debt.

Remember anything that happened? Yes. Did she want to talk about it? No. But... maybe it could go a little way towards paying off that debt. They should know as well, just in case. She sighed gently as she heard Marissa clattering about quietly with, she assumed, the potions. Without the adrenaline boosting her, she struggled for a moment before finally admitting to herself that sitting-up under her own power wasn't going to happen. "I... I may need help..." she voiced quietly, "Sorry."

The pillows behind her gently lifted her into a sitting position. She was bound and determined to drink the stuff under her own power. She managed to lift her arm and her hand found the potion that Marissa had prepared for her. It smelled vile... and slightly of peppermint. She didn't really like peppermint. Nevertheless, she wrinkled her nose and gulped it down doing her best not to taste it. She didn't succeed, it was terrible and the aftertaste was even worse.

"It was Lia." She began slowly. It hurt to say out loud, but there was no better place to begin. "It was all Lia. She took me in when you abandoned me, she took care of me when everyone else turned against me..." She paused to collect her thoughts for the next stretch. Then they just all began to tumble out. "She.. she killed Archimedes, she stopped the school owls, she started the rumors. She isolated me from everyone!" Saying the words out loud released something in her, tears began to form and run down her cheeks. "She had me dancing like a puppet on strings, I would have done anything for her, I did do things for her. All because of what she'd already done to me. She stole you from me, she stole my life from me and I couldn't see it!"

She turned her face away from Marissa and let the tears soak into the pillow. This wasn't how she was supposed to act, she was supposed to be strong and useful. "Some great diviner I am..."

2 Giselle Duell I cannot argue with that. 1517 Giselle Duell 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 01, 2020 3:33 PM

I would be worried if you did. by Marissa Duell

Marissa started to smile, too, when Giselle mentioned the broom incident. It had not been very entertaining at the time, but in retrospect…Her smile faded again, though, when Giselle continued, insisting again that Andrew had done something which was somehow relevant to the current situation. She did not sound confused now. Dramatic, yes, but not confused.

First, the medication, she thought. Whatever it was, there was nothing to do about it right this moment, and Giselle needed her medication.

“It’s okay,” she said soothingly once again when Giselle apologized for needing help sitting up. She pointed her wand at the pillows, which began to slowly, carefully, raise the younger woman up into a sitting position. She allowed Giselle to take the cup into her own hand, but hovered nearby in case she seemed likely to drop it. The first one, however, went down without any trouble, and so Marissa began to prepare the second one, only to stop as Giselle began to talk about what had happened.

She drew her breath in sharply when she realized the import of it, but her tongue failed her at first. It was difficult to exhale again – difficult both to move, and to stop herself from moving. She wasn’t exactly surprised – she and Andrew had had suspicions, it had looked odd from the beginning – but there was something about having it confirmed. Something that made her want to hide under the bed, and also made her want to go find that woman and –

”Some great diviner I am….”

That snapped her back to reality. She still didn’t know what to say, but she had to say something.

“You know that’s not how that works,” she said, as gently as she could, trying to keep as much of the tension as possible out of her voice. She knew she didn’t completely succeed in removing it and reached out to stroke Giselle’s hair, her hand shaking slightly. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry….I can’t imagine how you must be feeling.” She had experienced small betrayals in her life, but that woman had clearly set herself up as the only person in the world Giselle could trust, after what had happened. After what that woman had made happen. “It’s not your fault, though. It’s not your fault at all. You were just a little girl,” she assured her sister-in-law. “The only person to blame is Lia. She…she’s the one who cursed you?”

16 Marissa Duell I would be worried if you did. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

September 01, 2020 6:11 PM

So, you're not worried now? by Giselle Duell

"That's not how Seeing works." Giselle sniffed, correcting her sister-in-law. She grimaced after the words tumbled out. That had been rude, now Lia would... No, not Lia, not anymore. Marissa would... what? "I'm sorry. It's just..." she sighed and tried to dry her face as best she could without moving more than necessary. Maybe offering an explanation would help? "Seeing comes and goes on a whim, the school's special 'Seer' curriculum tried to explain the phenomena, but there is only so much anyone knows on that subject."

She tried to sink back into the pillows as they held her up, "Divinations on the other hand are the school's specialty. Really it's just magical investigations... and I never even considered investigating the situation... well, until I decided to come back here." The last line came out much quieter, and she stiffened at Marissa's touch. Was she going to..? No, this was Marissa, and her voice came out almost crying herself?

A weight she hadn't realized was there loosened from around Giselle's heart at Marissa's words. Was it really not her fault? So many things had been her fault for the past... years... according to... Lia. She allowed herself to nod in agreement with Marissa. It was Lia's fault... all of it... most of it. Her sister-in-law's question was at the crux of it. "I.. I don't know." she faltered, "She was there, but she wasn't alone. There was another that she had brought me to... to decide what to do with me. He seemed to have something to do with everything as well." She shuddered at the memory, "I did not care for their ideas, things got... heated and confusing." She looked guiltily in the direction of Marissa's voice. "I got my wand, felt pain like nothing else, and must have touched Andrew's knife."

She found her wand on the bed where she'd dropped it, and waved it in the summoning motion, "Accio note." There was a rustling sound from nearby and a wrinkled and crumpled piece of paper flew into her hand. "An owl brought me this a few days after I left. Your knife was wrapped up with it." She held it out to Marissa. "Your husband can be an insufferable jerk sometimes." There may just have been the hint of a smile on the corner of her mouth as she said it."

Giselle,
We don't know why you disappeared on us, but we need to believe it is important. Please come back when you are done with whatever it is you need to do. Otherwise I'm going to be stuck here with two very distraught females and I may need to hunt you down myself just to make them happy again. I made this for you when you are ready to return. Don't tell anyone. You may recognize it, it didn't help you find your way around the house when you first arrived, but now it'll show you the way back home.

Andrew

P.S. Don't tell Marissa I took her knife.

2 Giselle Duell So, you're not worried now? 1517 Giselle Duell 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 02, 2020 2:19 PM

I wouldn't go that far yet. by Marissa Duell

Not how Seeing worked. Divinations were different. Yes, she should have remembered that – though from what she recalled from Sonora, divining was hardly foolproof either. Plus, it was still beyond unfair for Giselle to blame herself for not thinking to investigate the situation. She’d been the victim in this, even more than Marissa and Andrew and Val had been, and Marissa would be damned if she was going to let her think otherwise.

She shuddered, too, at the description of the accomplice. That phrase usually had a fairly specific connotation, in English – one that implied that it wouldn’t have mattered much if Giselle had liked whatever ideas had been presented to her or not. And that said ideas had probably been very, very bad ones. A man’s voice was easy enough to distinguish from a woman’s, so whichever one of them had attacked Giselle must have done it nonverbally; had the intention been for her to live, Marissa wondered, or…? She knew most curses could be worked non-verbally, but were less powerful that way – one reason it was fortunate Marissa rarely found herself in positions where she needed to use a lot of offensive or defensive spells, as her jinxes and hexes were weak enough if she screamed them, never mind tried to pull them off non-verbally. Most people, though, weren’t as limited as she was, and especially not most of those who would do something like this. It was odd. Along with everything else –

It took her mind a moment to catch up with the last part of what Giselle had said, but once it did, she frowned slightly. “Andrew’s…?” she asked, finding this an odd way to describe it. It was just part of the cutlery set. Marissa wasn’t sure she’d really think of the cutlery as specifically belonging to either of them. Her eyebrows began to rise, though, as Giselle summoned a note and continued speaking, and then she began to frown more severely as she read over the paper after Giselle handed it to her.

“Well,” she said calmly when she finished reading. “So much for that secret, it seems.” She put it down and resumed preparing Giselle’s second potion. “Potion two,” she said, offering the cup again.

Beneath the surface, she could tell she was angry. For one thing, she did not appreciate the remark about distraught females. Realistically, she knew that she would more likely have been a hindrance than a help in going to Greece to look for Giselle, but…she reminded herself that it might have been meant as a humorous remark, but her sense of humor was rather strained these days. For another, she did not appreciate not being told things at all, much less someone else being told to keep things from her. It was one thing to somewhat curate information for Valentine, because Valentine was twelve years old. It was, she thought, quite another to do that with her.

This isn’t helpful. She is Andrew’s sister – this is worse for him than you. Even if there was a point to being offended about it – which there isn’t, when it’s probably why Giselle survived – then it would be incredibly selfish to bother with that.

“You kept saying something was Andrew’s fault, and something about doom,” she said, as neutrally as possible. “Is there anything there that I need to know?”

16 Marissa Duell I wouldn't go that far yet. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

September 02, 2020 8:24 PM

Should I be worried? by Giselle Duell

One did not need to me a master sleuth to hear the change in Marissa's voice and determine what it meant. Giselle was familiar with that tone. It was the one that meant she had done something terrible, and would pay for it later. Lia has used it whenever there had been other people around. She could only assume Marissa was waiting until she was well enough to get out of bed. Correcting the older woman had been a mistake, it had been disrespectful. She shrank back into the pillows a bit.

So Giselle took to offered potion. It smelled worse than the first one. She gulped it down without complaint. It tasted worse as well. "Thank-you." She murmured quietly. "I'm sorry." Maybe she could fix whatever she had done. Not likely, she'd shown up here uninvited, made demands of them to indulge her whims, used their daughter, and now had shown up again and forced them to nurse her back to life. Then, on top of all that, she'd insulted Marissa's husband.

Not to mention that she may have… Marissa's next question interrupted her train of thought. She certainly didn't sound happy, and the younger woman wilted back into the pillows a little more. If Andrew had just not sent that knife, or if she'd thrown it away, she wouldn't be in this position. "Yes, maybe?" She said quietly with a tremor of uncertainty. "If Lia or the man figure out where I am…" she started, but her face froze for a moment.

"The door is safe." She announced in a resolute voice, then shook her head as if clearing cobwebs. "What?"

Another moment later, the doorbell rang out again through the house.

2 Giselle Duell Should I be worried? 1517 Giselle Duell 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 03, 2020 9:47 AM

I'll...get back to you on that. by Marissa Duell

Marissa was not trained in body language or anything like that, but it did not take a Seer or a genius to figure out what Giselle’s shrinking back into her pillows meant. She sighed when the younger woman apologized to her, a wave of guilt going over her.

“No, I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t be thinking about that – the important thing is that you got home, and it looks like that wouldn’t have happened if your brother hadn’t done that. I just wish he’d told me…and that you hadn’t left without telling us where you were going, but what’s done is done now. Now we just need to get you better, and we’ll work out anything else that needs working out after that.” She fussed with the bottles on the bedside table. “Do you want a sip of water before you try to get any more of these down?” she asked.

She went still, wondering if they would get to wait until after Giselle was well to deal with all the issues that might need working out, after the comments about Lia and the man. When Giselle froze suddenly and more dramatically than she had, Marissa leaned forward to offer comfort and assurances that they were not going to let anything happen to her, but before she could, Giselle spoke and made no sense.

“The…door?” she said, bewildered, when Giselle followed her cryptic remark with seeming as puzzled as Marissa. “I hope the door is safe, yes. It’s locked and charmed….” She froze, too, a suspicion coming to mind – and then the doorbell rang and made her flinch (she was beginning to consider replacing that thing) as the suspicion was all but confirmed by that event.

“I hope you’re right about the door,” she said. She stood slowly and poured another potion. “Here’s your strength potion – drink it and then keep your wand in your hand. I’ll tell you that it’s me when I come back – just in case,” she said. “I’m sure it’s okay, but – well, you know me,” she added, forcing a smile onto her face to try to force one into her voice. She thought it almost worked. “I’m always worrying about something.”

Outside the room, she hesitated for a long moment, wondering if she should do something that never would have occurred to her a few months ago – specifically, going into her bedroom and getting the gun she’d inherited from her mother. Her mother had insisted every woman needed to know how to shoot, but Marissa had only done so a few times in her life. She wasn’t even sure she remembered where the half-empty box of bullets which had come along with the thing were…Perhaps she hadn’t been worried enough after all. Hopefully, it wasn’t the day that bit her too hard, and that her pitiful magical defense skills would be enough to at least let her grab something heavy or sharp if there was a threat severe enough to warrant that kind of thing.

She held her wand tightly as she started to open the door a fraction against the chain, but her grip somehow intensified further when she realized she didn’t recognize the first person out there, a witch. “I’m sorry,” she began to say. “Can I…”

The polite phrase died in her mouth as her eyes fell on the wizard also outside the door. This one, she recognized – dimly for one second, then all at once. “Esy,” she said, startled into Greek. She didn’t know if she had used the correct formation for saying ‘you’ in shock, it had been a long time, but she had only ever seen this wizard in Greece. “Kathigitis Mellontheiki. Giati…eseis edo?” she managed, and flushed as she realized she’d asked Professor Mellontheiki ‘why you here’ instead of ‘why are you here.’ Or at least, she hoped she hadn’t mangled it much further than that. She should have studied Greek more in the past few months, another point where she hadn’t been prepared…She watched him warily, not removing the chain off her door yet.

16 Marissa Duell I'll...get back to you on that. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

September 03, 2020 6:01 PM

Okay, any tips in the meantime? by Giselle Duell

Marissa sounded a little more like herself again... and she was apologizing for some reason. Giselle gave her sister-in-law a small, hopeful smile. She thought about saying more, maybe interjecting some commentary on Andrew's bad behavior, but she still wasn't entirely sure where everything stood yet. Marissa had been angelic to her for the time she had been here, making their lives more difficult. Now she seemed thankful that she was back again. Almost as if Marissa wanted to be burdened with a poor lost soul like her who had nothing going for her.

The doorbell sent a chill down Giselle's spine. They had found her. They were here, but the door was safe? Her Sight had seen it, so... it was safe? Marissa got up to go investigate, and she couldn't do anything but lay here, helpless. There were some more bottle noises and then Marissa handed her another potion. Her strength potion. She wasn't convinced it would do enough, but she gulped it down anyway. That one actually wasn't to bad flavor-wise, it wasn't good, but it wasn't bad. It didn't have that dreaded peppermint in it thankfully. She picked up her wand again, and swished it about a bit weakly, but enough to get a picture of the room again. She gave Marissa a worried smile, "It should be safe."

Once her sister-in-law was out of the room Giselle set about casting one of her more complicated charms that she'd picked up along the way. This one she may have found from one of the old books in the school's library. It was a book up 'Unhelpful Charms' or something like that. It was a bit complicated to cast, but it would amplify the caster's hearing in the direction their wand was pointed. It had the 'unhelpful' side effect of doing terrible things to the caster's vision however for the next few hours afterwards. Strange, but Giselle had never noticed that side effect.

She could hear Marissa waiting outside. Thinking perhaps? Planning? Was Andrew home? Giselle hadn't heard anyone else around the house. She moved to the front door and Giselle heard the door click open. Her initial question seemed routine enough, no screaming or anything. That was a good sign. Then another chill ran down her spine as Marissa started speaking in Greek. Professor Mellontheiki?

Auror Eleni Floros rang the doorbell to the residence and waited patiently. She gave a glance to her traveling companion, Professor Mellontheiki. He seemed to be having difficulty in standing still. The larger older man wouldn't stop adjusting his robes, his hat, his hair, cleaning his glasses. He looked as nervous as a boy waiting on his first date. She sighed inwardly and rolled her eyes. Then she eyed the door in front of her again. No answer yet, was there something going on inside? There were lights on, someone must be home. Then she heard footsteps and the door cracked open. Auror Floros noticed the chain was still attached. She approved.

A woman's face appeared in the crack left by the door. She looked, worried, but thankfully it was the face she had expected to see according to the files they had. She smiled the practiced 'friendly' smile that one in this line of work soon mastered. Before she could introduce herself though, the woman's gaze fell upon her companion. That worried look gave way to something else. She inwardly cringed at the smattering of Greek that tumbled out of the woman's mouth. However her smiled turned a little more genuine at the sentiment of the statement.

The professor was taken aback and seemed to be floundering for words. As much as that sight pleased her soul, she decided to step in to save him. "Am I right in thinking that you are Mrs. Duell?" She asked in heavily accented English. The woman in front of her had some knowledge of the Greek language, but English was her primary one and Elani didn't get to practice her own English very often. This would be good. "I am Auror Elani Floros, and you already seem to know Professor Mellontheiki." She extracted her identification for the woman to examine. "We are here to talk about a Ms. Giselle Duell, may we come in?"

2 Giselle Duell Okay, any tips in the meantime? 1517 Giselle Duell 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 03, 2020 6:55 PM

Keep calm and carry on. by Marissa Duell

The woman knew her name. Marissa stopped trying to stare a hole through Mellontheiki long enough to be polite while she answered. “The only one I know,” she said.

There was no point in lying. Only so much point in fudging and obfuscating, she suspected. They had to know a great deal or they wouldn’t be here at all. She simultaneously regretted letting them know she spoke some Greek and was relieved that she had spoken it so badly – they might assume she could understand less than she really could, if they thought to speak in Greek to shut her out of what they said to each other.

“We’ve met before,” she said when it was observed that she knew the professor. “Nice to meet you, though, Auror Floros,” she added politely. It was not, in her opinion, a lie, despite her increased alarm at finding a Greek auror on her doorstep. Good manners had only a passing and coincidental relationship with the truth, at least sometimes. “Ah – “ but Floros was already offering her documentation to look at. “Just what I was about to ask about,” she said with an attempt at a smile. “Sorry, but my husband would never let me hear the end of it if I just let people in the house….”

Marissa had to sound out words on the document to herself in places – it had been a long while since she had read Greek, and the letters, individually, seemed to have stuck better than the things they made – but she thought it looked genuine enough. She moved her lips near-soundlessly while trying to discreetly point her wand at the papers, checking for signs of magical concealment or deception. There were none, but – it was her casting the spell. Who knew if there was really nothing there, or if it was all just that Marissa was barely a witch at all?

The door is safe, Giselle had said. Here was a novel experience – seeing on a practical level just how much she trusted her sister-in-law’s gift. She had known it was reliable enough from Andrew’s reaction, years ago, when Giselle had somehow Seen what had happened to their parents as a child, but it was still with a great deal of reluctance that Marissa unchained the door and allowed them inside. “Come in,” she said, a bit stiffly, gesturing toward the living room. “Would you like some coffee or tea?”

That settled, she thought carefully about what to say on the subject they were apparently here to discuss. “So,” she said, taking a seat herself. “Why do you want to talk about my sister-in-law?”

There was a strong temptation to add a dry remark about how it should be unnecessary, with a Seer and diviner of the professor’s caliber right there by her side, but Marissa had been trained from birth to be deferential to authority. These two could easily push her past that conditioning, she suspected, but for now, it seemed better not to be the first one to go hostile. It was hard, though. So hard not to slip in just one barbed comment about how o kathigitis could probably tell Auror Floros far more about Giselle than any member of her family could at this point, or….

16 Marissa Duell Keep calm and carry on. 147 0 5

Eleni Floros

September 04, 2020 4:36 PM

That is usually sound advice by Eleni Floros

Auror Floros smiled approvingly as Mrs. Duell examined the identification. If she wasn't mistaken, the woman also attempted to find any magical residue on the papers. So far this was going well. She hadn't lied to them yet, or even tried to make things difficult. Mrs. Duell was being appropriately cautious, but cooperative.

Once she was satisfied, she opened the door for them. Eleni strode inside and began taking in the details of the place. The professor shelled in behind her. The house was a traditional american house, nothing caught the auror's eye as strange or out of place. There was a fair amount of muggle things about, but from her research, the Duells were not far removed from the Muggles.

"Do you have any Sideritis tea?" Professor Mellontheiki asked in Greek. He'd taken a seat on one of the chairs in the room and was fidgeting with his hat, which he had removed. The man looked more nervous than he had outside, but she guessed he was doing his best to hide it. Elani couldn't blame him, and yet she felt no sympathy for the man either.

"I am fine, thank you Mrs. Duell." The auror responded. As she settled herself in one of the other chairs. Mrs. Duell then got right to the point, she was beginning to like this woman. "I take it that Mr. Duell isn't home?" She assumed as much from Mrs. Duell's statement at the door, and his lack of appearance at their arrival. As such, she continued on without really waiting for confirmation. "Unfortunately, our schedule is rather tight, so you will need to relay this to him yourself."

She paused and looked at Kathigitis. "Umm… yes." He coughed and tried to look Marissa in the eye. He failed. With a heavy sigh he looked instead at the floor. "Mrs. Duell, I am sorry." The weight burdening him seemed to lift, just a bit as he spoke those words. His gaze began to slowly raise to meet Marissa. "I'm here on behalf of the school to apologize for what happened to Giselle, and yourselves." The nervousness in his expression had given way to a forlorn look. "I cannot begin to try and explain what has happened, save that the former deputy-headmistress had us all deceived." He rubbed his face with his hands. "Frankly, if it were not for your sister-in-law, we would still.." He trailed off and looked at the Auror, Eleni held her own impassive expression. This part was all his responsibility, he could deal with it.

Apparently he got the message. He sighed and continued, "The faculty and myself have decided to find her and, offer her what apologies, thanks and reparations we can." Now he managed to look Mrs. Duell in the eyes, "Have you seen or heard from her at all? The best information we could gather leads us here."

2 Eleni Floros That is usually sound advice 0 Eleni Floros 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 04, 2020 8:36 PM

I'm not sure how well I can apply it right now. by Marissa Duell

“No,” said Marissa when asked about a specific kind of tea. “We never kept many things that reminded us of Greece around the house after we settled back here,” she added, assuming Floros would translate for her if the professor could not understand her. “I’d always get so upset whenever I thought about the place – though I could never figure out why….”

Was it a low blow? Probably. Did she care? She did not.

She did not bother trying to hide her skepticism when they said they had something to say to Andrew, but that they weren’t going to wait for him to turn up to do so. “I see,” she said neutrally in response to hearing that they wanted her to relay their message to him. “I’m sure he’ll be back any moment, but go on.”

Had Mellontheiki said almost anything else, Marissa’s main source of surprise would have been hearing him speak English. As it was, the content was far more shocking.

He was sorry. Or rather, the school was sorry. Marissa stared at him, almost expressionless.

“I suppose your leads would lead you here,” she said finally, in a voice now openly tight with anger. “Though I’m surprised you came. You were apparently happy enough to believe Lia Persefoni before when she gave you the idea that Giselle’s family was happy enough to all but forget the fact of her existence. Despite her being almost all the family my husband has in the world.” She shook her head incredulously. “You owe me apologies,” she said. “But what you allowed to happen to Andrew and Giselle on your watch – the hell with your schedule. You ought to be groveling on your knees to both of them. Especially Giselle.” She looked over at Floros. “And may I ask what your involvement in this situation is?” she asked, as politely as she could. The other witch had, after all, not actually done anything offensive toward her. Yet. "I wasn’t aware that the headmasters of schools normally required Auror escorts, even when they’re out apologizing for gross negligence.”

She felt badly almost as soon as she said that, of course. Anyone could be tricked or fooled by someone sufficiently dangerous and clever, and for all she knew, the man had been drugged or bewitched. Perhaps an apology was owed. Perhaps. Right now, however, was not the moment she was going to give it.

16 Marissa Duell I'm not sure how well I can apply it right now. 147 0 5

Eleni Floros

September 05, 2020 2:05 PM

That's understandable, but can you try? by Eleni Floros

Auror Floros watched as the professor visibly cringed at Mrs. Duell's response to his tea request. She couldn't help but smirk just very faintly. It was all she could do to remain outwardly impassive as Mrs. Duell tore into him. The man practically shriveled up before her, and considering his normal pompous attitude, it was a sight to see.

He was nodding along with the fury that spewed forth from the woman and trying to regain his verbal footing. However, being knocked soundly off the English script he had practiced, the best he was getting out was fragments of disjointed apologetic Greek phrases interspersed with excuses of bewichment and befuddlement.

Then Mrs. Duell turned her attention upon her. Eleni supposed that was inevitable, and she decided she did not want to suffer the same fate as the headmaster. There was definitely still plenty of righteous anger burning behind those eyes. "No, that is not a normal procedure." Although, she thought, he might need one. "I am here for a similar reason, but a different angle. I am also seeking your sister-in-law." The Auror had been hoping that Mrs. Duell would let something slip about Giselle's location, but she hadn't, yet.

"We have been investigating a rather serious, but limited leak in the SoS. It was Ms. Duell who, as far as we know, unknowingly gave us the break we needed. Unfortunately, two days ago something happened and we only arrived on the scene in time to see her get hit with a serious curse and vanish." She gave Mrs. Duell an inquisitive look, "Most likely by way of an unlicensed portkey."

She relaxed a bit, "We cleaned up the mess that remained, and closed that case. Lia Persefoni is in some serious trouble." She let out a quiet sigh. "Your sister-in-law is the last loose end of the case, if what we have heard from our other sources is accurate," she paused and gave a slight nod towards the headmaster, "Her testimony would make it impossible for Persefoni to harm anyone ever again." She paused again, mainly for effect, "We need to find her first, assuming she survived."

2 Eleni Floros That's understandable, but can you try? 0 Eleni Floros 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 05, 2020 4:48 PM

I do take pride in my self-control. by Marissa Duell

So. They knew, but they didn’t Know. Or at least, if Floros was telling the truth, she didn’t actually know that Giselle was here. Which meant Marissa could, in theory, lie and deny any knowledge of her sister-in-law’s current location and whether or not she was alive…and then possibly allow Lia Persefoni to worm her way out of whatever she had gotten involved with, go unpunished for the attempted murder, and possibly come here to try to finish the job. Possibly when, like now, Andrew was out, leaving Giselle with no real assistance to speak of in a fight, given that Marissa was…herself. Possibly, even, when Valentine was home….

The thought that leapt to mind was that she’d kill the woman herself, with her bare hands, if she so much as glanced at Valentine, but realistically, she doubted she’d live long enough to do that if it did some to such a situation. All the righteous rage and maternal instincts in the world meant very little when a witch or wizard of any real power could kill her with two words before she took two steps in their direction. She was very, very ill-equipped for a life with the sort of stakes hers had recently had in it.

She tried to think. It seemed the Greek government owed Giselle more thanks than anything – if Floros was telling the truth. Which made them far more likely to make some kind of bargain involving testifying against Lia than to prosecute her over the portkey issue. If they could even prove the Portkey issue. Why had she not kept that note? Hopefully Giselle had put it away, but how could she know prior to going in that room, possibly with these two hovering at her heels? Was it clear enough, anyway, to prove anything? What was even the penalty for an unlicensed portkey? It was probably worse for one to commute between countries than within one, but it seemed like the kind of thing reasonably likely only to carry fines….

“I can’t say I know about portkeys,” she said. Technically, she thought, this was not a lie. She could not, in good conscience, speak on the subject. Since even most native English speakers would miss the technicalities hidden in the colloquialism, she had very little concern about getting called out on that one. “Or anything like that. All I know is that two days ago I opened my front door and found my sister-in-law in a heap in front of it.”

The appeal to emotion and perhaps justice being made did not affect her much - she felt what the effect was supposed to be, but refused to let herself be swayed by it - but she still couldn't see much of a way out of admitting that much. Unless the whole family was to go on the run, which did not seem, on the whole, like a very good idea, she didn’t think she would be able to get away with lying about it. Healers had been involved, and they had involved other people. It might take Floros ten minutes of chatter to find these things out. That would make things worse for all of them, if she tried to cover up now. She crossed her arms in front of her.

“She was alive – barely. She finally regained consciousness earlier, but it’s going to be quite a while before she’s fit to go testify in Greece, assuming she even knows anything of any use to you. She’s still very sick, and you will not upset her. As far as I can tell, you have no evidence Giselle committed any crime, and she’s a United States citizen.” Well, she was. Probably. She had been born here, and as far as Marissa knew, that carried the same implications in the American wizarding world as it did in the rest of the country – and therefore, a lot of paperwork, paperwork nobody reasonable would deal with unless they thought Giselle was a serial killer or the like. “It’s entirely her choice to speak to you or not, am I clear?”

There was an art to looking firm, forcing herself to look someone else in the eye as an equal despite her lack of magical ability. She suspected that growing up outside the magical world had a lot to do with her pulling it off. She was always acutely aware, around other witches and wizards, that they could wipe the floor with her, but she had grown up in a position of relative privilege in the Muggle world, and early childhood had a strong affect on a person’s demeanor. Her mother had been on the boards of three charities when Marissa had been in that phase of her life. Unless they were willing to try to magic the information out of her, she was not even going to tell them Giselle was actually in the house without assurances being made to those effects.

16 Marissa Duell I do take pride in my self-control. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

September 05, 2020 7:07 PM

It has served you well. by Giselle Duell

"I'll do it." The feeble voice came from the doorway where Giselle had propped herself. Her arms hung limply at her sides, but her hand still clasped her wand. The young woman was breathing heavily, and beads of perspiration showed on her skin and soaked into the light nightgown she was wearing.

It had been a difficult journey, from the bedroom to the living room, nearly impossible. However she knew she was going to have to make it as soon as she had heard the introductions at the front door. Slowly creeping the distance had been hard enough, thank goodness for that strength potion, but doing so while maintaining the listening charm until she was close enough to not need it had been truly difficult. She had made it though, she was here. She was not going to let Lia get away with this.

"I will tell you whatever you want to know." She repeated, still showing clear signs of exertion. "But, not today, and it will happen here." She paused to catch her breath and her knees gave way. She slid down the doorframe to sit on the floor. "I will not be returning to Greece again. Ever."

Auror Floros's voice met Giselle's ears, "I understand Ms. Duell. That will be fine. Thank-you." There had been relief in her voice. "Please just let me know when you are ready, or if there is anything we can do."

"Yes, please tell us…" Headmaster Mellontheiki overly anxious Greek offer was cut off as Giselle turned her sightless eyes to glare at the man. She knew they bothered people which is why she ordinarily wore her mirrored glasses. However, she hadn't bothered to locate them before leaving her room. A shame.

"We will speak with you another time." She stated flatley in clear Greek so that there would be no mistake. It was easier to talk now a bit since she didn't have to worry about standing. Still, she took a deep breath and weakly waved her wand to refresh her image of the room. Turning to her sister-in-law she continued in tired English. "Marissa, can you see them out? They have a schedule to keep and I think I should return to bed."

2 Giselle Duell It has served you well. 1517 Giselle Duell 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 06, 2020 9:16 PM

It's a useful talent sometimes. by Marissa Duell

Marissa’s unyielding demeanor did not last long, but it was not due to anything said or done by her guests. Instead, it collapsed all at once upon hearing the feeble comment from the door; she jumped, visibly startled, and whirled around to see her sister-in-law somehow on her feet.

“Giselle!” she gasped, and immediately started to rush toward the younger woman’s side. Before she could get there, though, Giselle apparently reached the ends of her strength. Hardly missing a beat, she too knelt, waving her wand vaguely toward the sofa; one proper pillow and a few throw pillows unsteadily wavered their ways over to her, though as soon as they arrived, she realized she wasn’t quite sure what to do with them…

No matter. The important part was being where she could prevent Giselle from hitting her head if she fainted – and where she could quickly put herself between Giselle and the Greeks, if needed. A small part of her, past all the concern, couldn’t help but admire the sheer determination which must have been necessary to get Giselle so far, and the boldness with which the other witch addressed their not-entirely-welcome visitors. It was an impressively imperious tone, for someone wearing a nightgown and currently lacking the ability to rise from the floor.

“Yes, you should,” she said when Giselle suggested returning to bed. She arranged the pillows behind Giselle. “I’m putting pillows behind you, try to lay down instead if you feel like you’re going to faint…”

She wanted to just tell the Greeks that there were no charms on her house to prevent them from remembering anything, much less the location of the door they had come through not five minutes previously, and then focus on Giselle. Bad manners, but, well, they were well past caring about that. They were not, however, past being concerned with making sure Auror Floros and the professor left and stayed gone. “Do not move,” she ordered her sister-in-law, though she doubted that Giselle had the capability to do so now almost as much as she doubted that a mere order would have stopped Giselle from doing as she pleased if she had been even a bit healthier. “I’ll be right back.”

Reluctantly, she stood and gestured for their guests to follow her. She led them back out of her living room and down the hallway, turning to face them at the door without opening it.

“I apologize if I was too harsh,” she said, her eyes resting on the professor for a moment before she added, “to either of you, but especially you, Kathigitis. I’ve never dealt with anything like this before, but I’ve read enough to know Dark magic can…cause a lot of confusion. If that’s what happened.” She once again removed the locks on the door and then looked at the Auror. “I’m sorry I was difficult with you – with all this happening, it’s hard to trust anyone but my family, till I’m sure about them. Good luck with…sorting everything out, both of you,” she added, ushering them out and waiting to see them go before hurrying back to help Giselle back to bed.

16 Marissa Duell It's a useful talent sometimes. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

September 07, 2020 5:19 AM

I am glad you have it. by Giselle Duell

Giselle woke with a start, and soon relaxed back into the bed again. She remembered the headmaster and the auror coming, then going, and Marissa helping her back to her bed... that hadn't been a dream, had it? They had been here, right? Things were... okay? "Marissa?" she whispered quietly. She hated feeling so helpless, so indebted, such a burden. It had been her whole life so far. That had been the one think Lia had done for her, she had felt useful. She could run errands, she could assist Lia with her work, she... now also realized why Auror Floros wanted to talk to her aside from the human rights violations. The headmaster accompanying her was to drive the point home.

"He'd been sick for the past two years, nearly on the brink of death when I left." Giselle reasoned aloud. "Lia had been making potions to make him better. I'd been helping her." The familiar task replayed out through her memory. Lia would need some odd ingredient for the headmaster's potion and she'd sent Giselle out to the shop to get it. Coincidentally, the shop keeper was deaf and dumb so Lia would give her a note and some money to give him. He'd take the note and money and give her Lia's order in return. It all seemed so perfectly ordinary. Now though...

She couldn't identify that 'shop keeper', she never heard his voice nor got a good scan of his face. She never had cause to investigate the notes or the packaged orders. And now, after it stopped, the headmaster was well again. He was coming to see them, he was apologizing to Marissa and to her when she was the one that had been working to kill him. How many other seemingly innocent errands that she had run for Lia were for nefarious purposes? "I almost killed him. How do I make up for that?"

Then, turning her head slightly towards her sister-in-law, "How do I even repay you and Andrew? After all of the misery I've brought down upon this house, and the burden I've been to you. I have nothing left to give you." She thought sullenly for a few moments, "Once I'm better, I guess I could cook, clean and run errands for you." It was essentially what she had been doing since graduation for Lia. She grimaced slightly, "My cooking isn't that good though, and Lia was always shouting about my poor cleaning abilities."

2 Giselle Duell I am glad you have it. 1517 Giselle Duell 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 08, 2020 7:21 PM

I just wish it could have done more to protect you. by Marissa Duell

Marissa had not, to her mild pride, panicked when Giselle had lost consciousness again, but she had thought about it. Objectively, she knew it was not her fault that Giselle had somehow gotten out of bed against all expectations, or even that the Greeks had come to disturb them. Emotionally, it was another matter entirely, one that involved Giselle dying of the strain and both Andrew and Marissa agreeing it was somehow Marissa’s fault….

“Hey, there you are,” she said, relieved, when her name was whispered. “It’s okay, everything’s okay.”

Maybe, she thought, if she said it over and over again enough times, it would somehow become true.

Her breath caught when she realized who ‘he’ was, and what Giselle meant, talking about how she had ‘helped’ Lia. Had she known…? Surely not. No matter how emotionally dependent Giselle had gotten on Lia, Marissa couldn’t imagine the little girl she’d helped bring up knowingly helping someone commit murder. Plus, Floros would almost surely have sung a different tune if she had thought that, and the headmaster hadn’t looked too close to death to her, so….

Later. Another thing to deal with later. She had other things to do right now.

“You don’t owe us anything,” she said. “When you’re better, of course, you can help around the house how you can – but no more than the rest of us do. You’re family, not the maid.” She felt a squeeze at her heart at the mention of Lia shouting at Giselle about her efforts. Another thing they were going to need to discuss was therapy, she thought, once they were through the worst of the physical problems here. “As for the professor…you didn’t know. You thought she was trying to heal him. You trusted her. Once the legal matters are settled, you can tell him that you’re sorry that you accidentally made things worse for him – because you were manipulated – but she used you and hurt you just like she did him. That wasn’t your fault, honey.” She had a feeling she was going to use that phrase to death in the next few months, but there was nothing for it. Common sense alone said Giselle wasn’t going to unlearn the mental habits of years in a few days. Even the most casual knowledge of pop psychology, or a first-year college psychology class, would practically scream that fact. “I’d say you could help him out by filling the staff vacancy he’s gonna have now, but I think Delphi really isn’t the place for you now. At least not for a while. Which probably rules out doing divination investigations for Auror Floros too,” she contemplated. “Still. You’ll find plenty of good things to do - in the world, not just for the professor - once you’re better, and I don’t want you to worry about anything until then.”

16 Marissa Duell I just wish it could have done more to protect you. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

September 09, 2020 7:15 AM

It has done more for me than you may believe. by Giselle Duell

"You don't owe us anything."

The words caught in Giselle's ears and rang though her mind.

"You're family, not the maid."

Some strange feeling was welling up inside Giselle again. She had felt it when she had been here before on occasion. It was big and made her want to cry and grab onto someone. It had torn through her when they had completed the mirror ritual, and it had made her leave. It made her stagger out of bed to confront their visitors. Now it was back again, and she was finally ready to accept Marissa's naming of it. It was belonging, it was having family again, it was the acknowledgement of all that had been taken from her. It took nearly all she had to keep from bursting out into tears again, instead she sniffed quietly and nodded along as she talked about the professor.

She was not a little girl anymore, she was a grown woman. Yet something about being under Marissa's care just made her feel like a child again. Was her brain trying to pick up where it had left off at thirteen? Was it just trying to eliminate the past seven years from existence? She had to admit, there was an appeal to that idea. All that horrible loneliness and pain, just forgotten, tossed into the void. That couldn't happen though, well it could, there were spells just for such a thing but she couldn't let it happen. For one thing, she had to tell the auror all about it. For another, she had learned a lot of things at the school, and if she wanted to be useful, she was going to need to use those things.

Giselle shook her head violently at Marissa's suggestion of taking over Lia's position in Delphi. "No." Came out more firmly than she may have intended. "I don't want to go back there again, to the school or to Greece as a whole. I..." her voice faltered again as her expression became uncertainly hopeful and she finished the statement quieter, "I like it here."

"Sister, that's not going to happen." she paused, she had meant to use the term with the slang 'girl with whom I am reasonably close' meaning but suddenly realized that it had a deeper meaning. Marissa wasn't her 'aunt' as she had usually thought of her in the days before school. Marissa was her sister-in-law technically, but now she was just her sister. Giselle couldn't help but smile at the thought. She had family again. "Assuming the past is behind us, and present is filled with me laying in bed doing nothing, I've got nothing else to do but worry about the future... and maybe do some paperwork."

The idea seemed to invigorate her, she began to think about what all she'd done in school, "So, what could I do with my life? My best class was Diviniations. Potions, Charms and History of Magic were okay," she grimaced, "Transfigurations wasn't... good. I didn't take the Creatures or Herbology electives." Lia hadn't thought they'd be relevant, and that identifying plants or creatures based on visual cues such as coloration would work all that well for her. She sighed, "I don't want to travel." She thought about the long years of missing out, she wanted to be with her family again.

2 Giselle Duell It has done more for me than you may believe. 1517 Giselle Duell 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 09, 2020 2:09 PM

I'm glad, assuming it's good things. by Marissa Duell

Marissa smiled, her eyes suspiciously bright and prickly around the edges, when Giselle said she liked it here. “Well, that’s good,” she said. “Because we like you being here. Val’s going to be over the moon…we promised her we’d let her know as soon as we knew anything about where you were, I hope you don’t mind if I write her this evening.”

Divination, Potions, Charms and History of Magic. Not a bad line-up, as far as Marissa could tell, though of course she didn’t have Giselle’s actual marks right in front of her now…. “You also have a leg up on some people because you’re bilingual. You might have to get more schooling, though, if you want to do anything with History of Magic,” said Marissa. “There’s more flexibility with charms and potions maybe…I hadn’t really started looking into career paths for Seers before…everything happened,” she admitted. “So I’ll have to hit the owl-order catalogues soon, see what we can get going there.”

She looked at her hands for a moment. “Ideally I’d like something that kept you close to us – we’ve lost so much time already. Selfish of me, of course. You should do whatever makes you happy. But definitely make sure it’s something that lets you take some time off at Christmas and in the summer, Valentine might have all our heads on a pike if you’re always working when she’s out of school,” she added jokingly. “I don’t know what the qualifications are for doing anything with that, actually – teaching divination. Or if you’d be interested in that. Did they ever give you any career counseling at Delphi?” she asked. “I know it didn’t exist at Sonora until I went to my Head of House once.”

16 Marissa Duell I'm glad, assuming it's good things. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

September 09, 2020 7:46 PM

You do nothing but good. by Giselle Duell

There was a happiness is Marissa's voice. It sounded good after all of the worry, concern, frustration, and controlled anger. She couldn't resist a smile as well. It sounded like Marissa actually wanted her around. "Poor Val," she replied, "I can't imagine how she took it." Valentine had grown up so much when she had met the eleven year old again at break. Yet she could still identify the same traits that had dominated her personality as a four-year old.

She considered Marissa's statement about writing to her daughter. "Hearing her squeal in surprise at break when you introduced me was fantastic." Giselle commented with a small grin, "But, she may not ever let us live it down if we did that again… as tempting as it may be." She thought again about that reunion and had to add, "Let her know I could use one of her hugs again."

Giselle listened to her sister-in-law think out loud for a bit. "I guess we will at the very least need to get my school records from Professor Mellontheiki if we are starting a job hunt." She squirmed a little after Marissa's comment about Seer careers. From the way Dephi had handled their special Seer Program, everyone wanted one, but no one actually trusted them. The Sight came on it's own whim and usually wasn't understood until it was to late. It was a strange power that people wanted, but didn't actually know what to do with.

She moved her hand a bit until she found Marissa's, and grasped them weakly. "I think I'm finally starting to find happiness again. It has been a long time since I've felt it. I'll stay around as long as you want me."

Giselle nearly laughed out loud at Marissa's suggestion of career counseling. "You had a nicer head of house than I did. You've met mine, her name is Lia and I've recently learned that she's not a very nice person. Her career thoughts for me were maid, cook, innocent courier, and unintentional poisoner." Still Marissa's other comments had gotten her thinking. Teaching? Maybe, academia was really the only world she knew. She had done a little at the school after graduating, she'd stood in for Lia on occasion. It hadn't been terrible. How fun would it be to teach with Valentine in her class?

A smile crept across her lips, "Maybe, I don't suppose you know if Sonora is looking for a Divination professor, do you?"

2 Giselle Duell You do nothing but good. 1517 Giselle Duell 0 5

Marissa Duell

September 10, 2020 10:12 AM

I'm only human, but I do my best. by Marissa Duell

“She was pretty upset,” admitted Marissa when Giselle said she couldn’t imagine how Val had taken it. “But she was more worried about you than anything, and absolutely determined we were going to get you back. She wanted to try to use the mirror again, even. You won her over pretty good, I’d say,” she said with a smile.

She smiled more gently, too, at the comment about Val’s hug. “I will,” she promised.

“You might be here a while, then,” she warned her sister-in-law when Giselle said she’d stay as long as they wanted her, squeezing the younger woman’s hands in return. “We’ll probably have our ups and downs, getting to know each other again, but we all want you here.”

She had to chuckle at Giselle’s characterization of Lia’s ideas for Giselle’s career. Was it good that Giselle could make a sort of joke about it? It seemed like it should be a good thing, her being able to see some form of humor in the situation…as long as she didn’t use it to deflect from dealing with the issues. They had to be so careful….

“Not exactly the career choices I’d think were the best for you, no,” she said.

Had the thought of Giselle teaching at Sonora ever entered her head when she had been talking? She had had teaching, she supposed, or something to do with the schools, in mind when she had mentioned ensuring Giselle could spend time with Valentine on the holidays…Sonora was not, of course, exactly nearby for Andrew and Marissa, but it would be quite close by for Valentine, and teachers could, as far as she knew, leave campus, pop home for supper on birthdays or whatnot…It would be an elegant solution to the problem of giving Giselle the benefits of independence and making her own living while still maintaining a strong connection to the family while they rebuilt their relationships. If, of course, the school needed such a teacher.

“I don’t know off the top of my head,” she said, “but I can find out. I kind of got to know her Head of House when we were arranging Val’s birthday party – I couldn’t just let her not have a nice birthday her first year away – and I’m about ninety-nine percent sure the Charms teacher played Quidditch with me and Andrew back in the day." She felt a rush of something like pleasure at feeling well-connected, able to make things happen, able to help her loved ones. "I can find out.”

16 Marissa Duell I'm only human, but I do my best. 147 0 5

Giselle Duell

September 12, 2020 3:29 PM

You are a super powerful witch, even if your strengths may not lie in your magic by Giselle Duell

Giselle smiled a little, "I am sorry for that... leaving like that. I just... I had to confirm it for myself, I had to," she paused, searching for the words, "try to fix things? Plus, if what I had seen was right, which it was," she grimaced, "staying would have only put you all in danger." It wouldn't have been much longer before Lia had begun to hunt her down, and she suspected that would have gone poorly all around. "You and Andrew knew enough theory to use the mirror, I was wondering if you would. Valentine can't help with it anymore though. You'll need to find another unsuspecting eleven-year old if you want to use it again."

"I'm okay with with ups and downs, just so you do..." n't leave me again. It had sounded a bit like a joke in her head, but as it started coming out of her mouth it send a deep seated surge of panic through her system. They wouldn't, would they? They wouldn't forget again? No! some small rational part of her mind screamed over everything else. It was over, that was done with, things were okay now. She just had to not mess up and make them want to get rid of her after all. Again. She tried to smile and cover it up, "don't... umm... want me to do a lot of baking." Yeah, that should work. Baking was hard when you didn't know what you were doing and couldn't see things, right?

Marissa laughed a little. That was good, she liked that sound. Marissa's laughter was wonderful, not counting break with Val, she hadn't heard actual good laughter in... a long time. She wanted to hear more of it. Unfortunately, she was no comedian.

Giselle nodded her head along with Marissa's talk about her school connections. Which reminded her about Valentine's birthday. She had gotten a few notes while she had been back in Greece, but she'd burned them all and sent the owls away as fast as she could, after receiving Andrew's letter. She didn't want to leave any trace leading back anywhere if things went poorly. Things had gone rather poorly. "That would be wonderful, thank-you." She made another mental note of yet something else she would have to pay back to her sister-in-law. That was getting to be a really long list.

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Marissa Duell

September 17, 2020 7:55 PM

We all can only do the best we can with what we have. by Marissa Duell

“Eleven,” said Marissa. “So specific. At this rate, I’m going to regret never taking arithmancy.”

She didn’t know what she was saying, really, and bit her lip. “I wish you had at least said – something we could make sense of,” she admitted, “but I understand why you didn’t, I guess. It’s just been a bad situation all around for all of us.” To put it mildly, but especially for Giselle. That was the thing that she reminded herself of when she wanted to be exasperated with Giselle for vanishing like that – to her and Andrew, Giselle had been an important part of their lives one day, and then suddenly had been again, without an awareness of a break. To Giselle, though, it had been years and years of thinking she’d been betrayed. It was to be expected that she was going to take a while to get used to having a family again. They had to be patient with her, and remember the facts of the situation.

It was easy to do when Giselle almost smoothly covered for a slip. Marissa felt as though her heart broke a little at that, though she put a smile on her face to make sure her voice wouldn’t sound too sad.

“Absolutely no…baking requests,” she said, guessing at what Giselle might have meant to say before she had changed directions. “Promise.”

Marissa nodded when thanked, though Giselle couldn’t see her. “You’re welcome,” she said. “I’ll do my best – and if that doesn’t work out, then we’ll think of something else. But first, we have to get you well enough to get out of bed without fainting,” she added firmly.

16 Marissa Duell We all can only do the best we can with what we have. 147 0 5