An active, character-driven Hogwarts experience set in the early 2000s. Unique items, plots, and features. Non-canon; this isn't Harry Potter's story, it's ours.
Post by Reena Ashworth on Feb 2, 2023 7:05:42 GMT 10
There was something oddly calming about watching her younger brother inspect the bear and trapdoor. Eventhough she had been hesitant to show the laboratory to their younger siblings, she could not help but admire the awe in which Kody still managed to see the world around him.
“It did last time,“ she said, yet shrugged. She had no idea what would happen once everyone of them had been recognized by the bear and passed the trapdoor.
Right away Reena noticed the lack of cobwebs, which she was grateful for but also made her suspicious. Inspecting the torches on her way down she wondered if the magic of the laboratory had started to restore itself, having been woken by her and Jaxen during Christmas holidays - or had their mother come down here in the meantime?
Upon entering the laboratory itself, she was certain it had to be the latter.
On the one hand she felt disappointed when she did not see the ghostly figure of her dad lingering where she had last seen it. On the other hand, she was glad she hadn’t lead her younger brother into the shock of a lifetime.
Trying to ignore the cursed chest in the corner, she stepped closer towards the stoppered vial and tried to match the watery black to her memory of the nasty looking potion their mother had downed while at Gringott’s.
It was mind boggling to think their mother had actually come down here and worked on keeping her part of the ‘pact‘ she had made with their dad. So outlandish and foreign, that Reena had trouble believing it, eventhough it was the most likely theory she had at the moment.
Looking more closely at the symbol on the vial, she frowned as she wondered if that meant her mum’s friends had been down here as well. Dad’s instructions had been pretty clear, no information was to be given to anyone outside their family, and bringing them here certainly felt wrong.
She moved on to check whether the soil in the pots was moist, and thus getting some idea of when their mother had last been in here.
She had just carefully put a finger into the pot when Kody asked about the chest and she could no longer ignore its presence, as menacing as ever.
“I don’t know. It isn’t dad’s. And it is cursed. It will hurt you if you touch it or get too close with magic.“
The image of Jaxen being blasted through the room came back as vividly as though it had just happened yesterday.
“I‘ve spoken to the Curse Breaker recruiter on Career‘s Day and she said curses on objects are to protect it against someone. In this case I guess against anyone who tries to open it.“
She glared at it for a while before she stepped closer to see if any of the runes looked like the ones Meek had translated for her from her scrap of parchment.
“Whatever‘s inside must be important or dangerous enough that it is cursed to ward us off as well,“ she said.
Looking at Kody, she smiled softly, despite her warning look. She enjoyed explaining things to him.
The symbol on the stoppered vial Reena inspected was difficult to make out, as if scribbled down in a rush. It wasn't a rune, but some sort of indicator -- to anyone else in the room, it'd look like something far more confusing and difficult to solve. But Reena had seen this sort of thing before, from various potion-making books.
It meant the vial was either an ingredient or a part of a whole. Typically the symbol was used for things that were an "essence" of something. Unfortunately, that was all they had to go by from the label. There were no other written clues.
The soil in the pots felt fresh to Reena. Not so fresh it was damp, but definitely an improvement from the state they were in before. There were a few new ones, too. And there was no doubt they'd been moved around, as the placements just looked a bit odd / illogical -- there were three together on a counter, then one far off in a corner, and so on.
The chest rattled and shook when approached. A few runes were familiar, but some also looked slightly different. There wasn't enough to work with to make a useful comparison -- yet not so different she was completely on the wrong track.
A shimmering, lifelike projection of Marcus appeared behind the island. In Muggle terms, not that they'd know the terminology, it would be like playing a pre-recorded video -- an exact, digital replica of sorts.
There was a pause, in which the figure suddenly became more lifelike. Colours seeped in, but most noticeable was the sudden expression of emotions and the shift in tones. If Muggle terms, it would be like playing a pre-recorded video. For the duration of the message, it was an exact replica of their actual dad.
Reena and Jaxen had seen this before, despite not having calling upon him this time via the spell -- but for any younger Ashworths present, this was quite a shock they weren't prepared for.
He was taller than expected, but not towering. Marcus' hair, the same shade and colour as Reena's, was held out of his face by a headband. His blue eyes most matched Kody's -- in fact, they were identical even within expressions. He was dressed in casual pants, and a white button-up shirt with a neat collar -- under dark, exceptionally-tailored robes.
It was him. But also, it wasn't. The figure wasn't Marcus, but it was the closest they had.
'Hello,' he said, smiling at those in his line of view. 'I was summoned by the presence of several Ashworths. I am compelled to remind you that, as this magic is properly tethered here -- if I am needed, simply ask and I shall appear.'
Post by Kody Ashworth on Feb 3, 2023 18:18:50 GMT 10
It wasn't like Kody was going to remember the words Reena had spoken (actually, he had already forgotten...) so she didn't need to worry about him sneaking off to look at this place by himself.
"Oh... Okay!" His gaze lingered on the chest while Reena spoke about it. Despite his cheery tone he was definitely wary of it. Not all magic was good magic -- he had learnt that at school. So he had to be careful he didn't do something to set anything off.
Getting himself or Reena (or anyone else hurt) would be less than ideal.
"Ohh -- that's useful to know." Kody mumbled in agreement, nodding as he finally looked away from the chest and chose to look at something else instead. He chose the pots that Reena had checked on.
"That cursebreaker... Do you think we could ask her for more help or information about dealing with it?" Reena had probably already tried asking all kinds of questions. That was just how awesome she was. Kody would be the kind of person to ask questions here and there, never thinking anything through properly.
He was glad to have a sister like Reena.
Kody looked back at the chest, making a face. He was curious about it but also confused. Why would their dad have something like that? Something so dangerous near them? Did it hold the secret of what had happened to him and their uncle?
The chest shook when Kody took a tentative step towards it and he jumped back, alarmed. "I didn't do anything--"
But it didn't matter because something was happening anyway. Kody's eyes, once again, grew wide when the... Ghost? Of his dad appeared. He gasped and grabbed Reena's arm, tugging on it lightly. "R-Reena!"
He swallowed, nervous and managed to fight the urge to rush forward and hug the ghost (well, he knew it wasn't a Ghost-ghost. Not like the ones at school but it was the easiest way for him to think about this... thing). That was... It had to be...
He looked so much like Reena and those eyes... Kody had seen them staring back at him plenty of times when he looked in the mirror.
"D... D... Dad?" His voice was small and unsure. Kody could feel his eyes watering and he quickly wiped his eyes and looked at Reena. He was confused. He was scared, hurt, happy and sad all at the same time. Had she known about this? Why hadn't she told him that this existed? He could have talked to his dad!
Post by Reena Ashworth on Feb 4, 2023 0:14:30 GMT 10
Her brother's voice sounded rather unbothered by the prospect of being cursed by the chest, but since he had promised not to touch anything dangerous, she trusted him to keep his word. Besides, she found he sometimes made an effort to seem less bothered by things than he actually was. She hoped this was one of those times.
Reena had a hard time focusing on just one thing. She tried to take a look at the books in the corner counter from where she stood to see if any of them might be about runes, as some of the ones on the chest did look familiar to her.
She also tried to put her body between the angry rattling chest and her younger brother, all while in the back of her mind she wondered whether the vial might contain Ashenelle, or something that was about to become viable Ashenelle, Aris Meek had told her it needed to be exposed to a certain magic, so if their mum was trying to continue the research, perhaps she had been in the process of making that.
She was ripped out of her thoughts when Kody tugged on her arm and she turned around to see what he had discovered.
"Oh."
Reena stared into the face of her father, who wasn't really her father and listened to the message in silence.
She felt relieved, that the ... Echo-Dad was still around and apparently summoned easily. At the same time her heart grew heavy as she was reminded about how much she missed him, the real him, and her mind decided that this was the perfect moment to replay the image of Mr. Seabrook toppling over dead into his soup.
She could feel bile rise up to her throat and as she fought it down by clearing her throat, she also had to wipe away some tears of pain - although she wasn't so sure they were from physical pain alone.
When Kody called to the Echo-Dad, his voice uncharacteristically small, she felt her heart break a little for him. She looked between her younger brother and the Echo-Dad, almost mesmerized by their strong resemblence. It was uncanny.
"I'm so sorry," she finally managed to breathe. "I should've told you about him. But I didn't know he would just pop up like that, Jaxen did a spell last time and then..."
She did not like to think back to Jaxen being hurt by the cursed chest.
Reena reached out towards Kody, a feeble attempt to provide him any sort of comfort. Had the Echo-Dad not been summoned by their mere presence, would she have kept him from Kody today? She didn't know. She had been tempted to perform the same spell she had heard Jaxen do but wanting to shelter her younger siblings from heart ache had made her hesitant to do so in the presence of them.
"What kind of magic are you?", she put one hand on the counter beside her for support as she faced the Echo of her dad again. "How much of him are you?"
Last time he had called her 'Sweetheart' and helped her help Jaxen, his face had shown emotions, it had made her wonder. Reena let out a shaky breath, ignoring the urge to run up to the figure and hug him close, wanting him to hold her in turn, gently stroke her hair back and tell her that she was going to be okay.
The books in the corner had nothing relating to runes, from what Reena could make of the covers. Some didn't even have titles, or details were too worn off to make sense of. They looked important, though -- old, perhaps. Certainly more than overdue library books.
Marcus turned to Kody, and an ever-so-familiar smile appeared on his face. Not quite as warm and whole as it would for a real person, but there was still something genuine behind it. An echo of a father's love.
'Hello, Kody,' he said, then glanced to Reena when she asked questions -- yet took in the things she'd said moments before as well. 'Jaxen's spell was to tether my magic to the room. It only needed to be done once. Now I am here, to stay, for as long as this room is standing.'
A frown creased his expression, almost as if he could feel the disappointment of not fully being there for them -- or was it too just an echo?
'I am his essence,' Marcus said. 'Memories, knowledge, and some innermost relevant thoughts. A "living" pensieve, of sorts... woven with instructions and a purpose. He... I was quite proud of it. This kind of magic is beyond extraordinary.'
He glanced round the room at the young Ashworths, then settled back on Kody. Marcus reached for him, cheek or shoulder -- it was hard to tell. A muscle memory, which he stopped short of and turned to Reena again instead.
'I am an imprint of him,' Marcus added. 'A non-corporal copy of the things I wanted to save. For you. Just in case. If you could go back in time to just before he died -- if there is anything you wanted to know, or hear from me... I may have the answer, within the limits of his most current knowledge and memories that were saved.'
Post by Reena Ashworth on Feb 4, 2023 1:24:40 GMT 10
Reena frowned slightly when Echo-Dad explained that he would remain as long as this room was standing. She was probably paranoid but she suddenly feared the demolishing of this room might already be planned by someone and if she wanted to use it she needed to hurry - yet she had no idea where to start.
That, or the essence of their dad, as he had called himself, would outlive them, forgotten by time, until the sun expanded and swallowed the planet and the forgotten laboratory with it in a future so far away, it was beyond her imagination.
"Your purpose is to assist? To complete his, no, your research?", she asked, almost warily.
She knew she needed to remind herself that this was not a real person, although it sort of was the real Marcus. An imprint of him. It was hard to wrap her head around it.
Could the imprint of Marcus, what was woven with instructions, be trusted as much as she would have trusted her real dad?
It wasn't fair. When he said they could ask him anything they wanted to know from before he died, she was very much aware that she was not alone with him right now. Or else she might have asked a rather selfish question.
"Are you able to learn new information?", she asked. "Was mum in here, cleaning up and working while we were at school? What is she working on?"
She pointed her chin towards the vial. "You weren't made with such a potion, were you?", she asked, suddenly alarmed by the word 'essence'. Surely their mum wasn't trying to capture her own essence the same way their dad had?
No. Surely not.
She was not entirely convinced and tried to ignore the thought. She briefly looked at Kody before looking back at their Echo-Dad.
"Before dad died, he took me to Diagon Alley and bought me a beginner's potion's book for children, was that before or after you, this imprint was made? There was a memory connected to my book that I could see with the help of some sort of memory potion... Did you plant it there because you knew mum would need help?"
She wanted to ask about the pact her parents had made, wanted to ask about Conrad and about what kind of illness had made Jaxen so sick back when she was four years old, but she could not quite bring herself to, not in the presence of Kody, who might have his own questions for the dad he likely can't even remember.
'My purpose is fill in some blanks. To be here, when he could not. There was so much to teach you, and time was not on our side to do that efficiently,' Marcus corrected her, then glanced at some torn scrolls.'My research... there are gaps in my knowledge on this. Those instructions are outside of my power.'
Reena had a lot to ask, and some of it quite complex. The magic took a moment to process, sorting through the available information and matching memories to her words.
'I am able to retain relevant information you share, but I cannot think for myself. Everything I am is the past, retained -- nothing new or outside of him,'Marcus explained, giving Reena a mild sympathetic look that would have meant more with a real person's expression rather than an echo. 'And only what he chose to save.'
He then frowned, pausing to reconsider.
'Except, perhaps, as the overseer of this room,' Marcus added. 'I do retain a sense of presence or disturbance; your mother has not set foot inside this room since I was tethered here. It only allows access, with the proper keys, to myself and each of you.'
He glanced at the vial, and shook his head in confirmation that no such vial was used to make the imprint -- yet the expression was also clear unfamiliarity with what it contained or where it came from.
'I recall that trip to Diagon Alley in its simplest form. For whatever reason, he didn't preserve much of that day,'Marcus answered, attention solely on Reena as the one asking the questions. 'Those things... they weren't done with the belief that your mother would need that kind of help. Plans were in place. Most didn't go as intended. Something happened sooner than anticipated.'
Post by Reena Ashworth on Feb 4, 2023 23:52:38 GMT 10
Reena relaxed slightly when Echo-Dad corrected her perception of his purpose. In the message that had played out for them at Christmas, her dad had seemed rather anxious about his research and Meek's quick hush-hushing her on the topic had made her worry.
So Echo-Dad was probably more like a replacement dad.
A replacement dad that couldn't think for himself. Well, he was just an imprint after all.
She relaxed more when he assured her he had not been created with such a potion. Her relaxing was rather short-lived however when he said their mum had not been in here.
"But it looks like someone's been down here," she insisted. "Or did the room clean itself up and put that vial there, moving all those pots around?"
She moved towards the nearest pot and, after staring at it for a few heart beats, dug into the soil to find out what kind of seeds might have been planted in there. She had found some herself last time and taken them, but had yet to plant them as she had forgotten them in her room when they had been running late for the train back to Hogwarts last time.
Reena looked back up at her Echo-Dad, when he sad the last part.
She hadn't been surprised that the visit to Diagon Alley was not properly saved in this imprint and she was aware that there was a pact, which probably were the 'plans' mentioned, but the last part she hadn't expected.
"What happened sooner? Something with mum?", she asked.
Suddenly remembering that she wasn't alone, she looked towards Kody, already regretting she had asked. It most likely was nothing pleasant and her younger brothers had already enough to stomach today.
She was just wondering how Echo-Dad would know what kind of help their mother needed in the present, if he couldn't see past this room and their mother hadn't been down here (or so he said, but who else would have the key and be let through by the bear?).
'Sorry', she mouthed at her younger brother with a sympathetic smile. It was easy for her to forget her surroundings and fall into a tunnel vision once she had commited to something. And she was rather committed to finding out the truth about this whole matter.
Post by Ezra Ashworth on Feb 5, 2023 10:22:25 GMT 10
Ezra listened as Reena dropped a giant pile of information on their heads, his eyes grew wider and his hold on his legs grew tighter the more she shared. It.. was a lot.
Falls from grace? A traitor? Murder?! Secrets and mysteries, unknowns all over the place.
Ezra was not sure how being told actual information had managed to make everything seem even more mysterious to him. Maybe it had to do with all of the sudden information about their dads that had been dropped that year making them more real in his head.
Conrad and Marcus were no longer just.. things that made people sad. They were actual people who had held them and loved them. They were their dads, as foreign as that word still seemed to him.
His and his siblings' dads.. And they had been killed. Who would do that? Why would someone kill them? How could they? Ezra did not understand.
He vaguely heard his brother and sister talk further, words caught about the secret lab that he wanted to be so excited about. But it seemed like his brain had got stuck on the thought of murder instead, it not wanting to accept such a thing so easily.
It was on autopilot that he followed his siblings from the bedroom all the way to the garden and then into a place that he had not seen before. His need to be around his siblings was strong enough that he did not miss out on the secret lab at least.
Something that he could appreciate once his brain had finally stopped repeating the m-word. The shocking appearance of a ghost helped to speed that along.
Though.. It did not quite seem like a ghost that he was used to. They had ghosts at school but what had appeared in the lab seemed different. So maybe not a ghost. Not a ghost and familiar somehow.
Ezra blinked and looked between the Not-Ghost’s face and Kody. Had the lab summoned an older Kody somehow? He did not know that was possible. That was so-
Oh. Not older-Kody then. It was apparently Marcus, but also it wasn’t somehow? The explanation mainly went over his head. He may have liked learning, but at the end of the day he was barely twelve, some things were too complex for him to grasp yet. Magic of the level that his uncle had achieved was apparently one of them.
Ezra could not help but wonder if Conrad had left behind anything like his brother had. Had he thought of his children like Uncle Marcus had his?
Not that Ezra would have known where Conrad could have left anything anyway. Where had the man even lived? As strange as the thought was to him, Ezra did not think the brothers had lived together.
Maybe Not-Uncle-Marcus would know. He wanted to ask but a look at Kody's face and watery eyes had him pausing instead. That was Kody's dad, kind of, right there. And Reena's, and Jaxen's. Maybe they deserved time with the imprint more.
So as Reena rattled off questions and got responses that he did not really understand, Ezra crept towards the cabinets. He peered into the open drawers in the hopes that they would offer him anything that he could actually understand. Anything that would help him to make sense of the confusion that summer had turned into.
He eyed the cabinet doors too, then glanced around to check on his siblings before he reached to attempt to open one. He had seen Reena dig through a plant pot so, in his mind, that meant that touching things was perfectly fine.
'Since your last visit, I'm the only one who has been here,' Marcus said, though gave the area a thorough glance. 'Magic works in mysterious ways.'
Reena's digging through the pot's soil didn't reveal anything of interest. Nothing had been planted yet, and the soil just felt like soil.
Despite previous words of not having any thoughts of its own, there was an odd sense of hesitation in his answering Reena's question. More than once, he glanced at Ezra was it wasn't strong enough to clearly decipher what was behind it. Wariness? Sympathy? Conflicting thoughts or emotions?
It was unusual enough that Ezra's presence had the opposite effect on the cursed chest nearby. It rattled and threatened anyone else in the room, but for Ezra it calmed and seemed to want to draw him closer. Its magic subtly beckoned him.
'Conrad,' Marcus finally said. 'He grew... impatient. He'd become obsessed with my research, and his intentions concerned us. We underestimated how far he'd go.'
He frowned, staring at the floor for a moment to process -- and as a way of reflecting the memory of that; the frustration, the concern, and of course the way that hindsight always presented a clearer picture in the end. Time had been against them in more ways than one.
'Hello, Ezra.' He turned to the youngest Ashworth, emphasising that he was acknowledged and welcomed too. He also had permission to be there, after all. 'Never doubt that your dad loved you and your sister. The first thing anyone learned when meeting Conrad was how proud he was to be your dad. I need you to know that.'
The drawers didn't offer Ezra much worth seeing -- mostly old bits of parchment too dusty or aged or stained to make sense of. He did come across a drawing of their family, clearly done by a pair of young and inexperience hands. Its colour had faded a little, but it included all of them: their grandparents, Marcus, Conrad, and Aubrey, then each of the kids. Kody's name sat messily in the corner, indicating he was its artist.
A few of the drawers were jammed shut, and several of them locked. The rest were empty.
When he opened the cabinet door, Ezra discovered a stack of parchment schoolbooks. Conrad and Marcus' names were on the covers, in various neatness or skill level of handwriting. There were at least ten of them. A thin one, tucked near the very back, had Aubrey's name on it. Her maiden name was too smudged to make out. There were a few scrolls as well, bound with silky ribbons.
Post by Ezra Ashworth on Feb 6, 2023 14:48:38 GMT 10
Ezra was disappointed that the drawers did not hold the secrets of the universe. Well, unless the secrets of the universe were too aged to read. Which would probably make sense, the universe had to at least be older than Hogwarts and that was already super old.
No, the only thing of immediate interest that he could see was a drawing that he carefully set down on the countertop once he had realised what it was. He thought that maybe Kody would like to see that, that his dad had kept his drawing safe. Ezra hoped that would make his older brother happy.
His attention was soon taken away from the drawing though by his next discovery. Old school books sounded like a fascinating find to him. He could not help but to reach and pull the first one he saw out of its dark home.
Ezra opened his mouth ready to ask Reena about them - the part of him that believed his older siblings knew almost everything still very much alive - only to blink in shock as he heard his dad's name said instead.
Conrad had done something? Was to blame for something from the sound of the imprint's words. But what? What had he done? Ezra had no idea, he knew so little about the man. Should he be worried? Upset that something was being blamed on his parent? He didn't know, he only felt confused.
Oh. Not-Uncle-Marcus was talking to him too.
He turned to face the figure, the school book clutched to his chest as he did so.
“Hi! Er.. Uncle Marcus?” he said, not quite sure what to call the imprint. It was his uncle but also not? Weird. Ezra decided that calling him ‘Not-Uncle’ out loud might be rude, and he did not want to upset it. So just ‘Uncle’ was probably best, right?
He was soon distracted from what the right way to address the imprint was as he caught the rest of his words.
“Con- Dad-.. He was proud of us?” Ezra looked down at the book he had cradled and the name that was written on it as if it would help him to wrap his mind around what the imprint had said.
Maybe Not-Uncle had meant it to be a comfort, but Ezra found it upsetting. There was a man who had been so proud to be his dad apparently, and Ezra had repaid that with no memory of him. Was that fair?
Would he still be proud of him? Even though it felt like he forgot to think about him more than he remembered? Or would that just make the man sad? Or mad?
Ezra did not know and he didn’t like it.
“I don’t-..But why?” he finally asked with a shake of his head. He had only been a baby. What was there to actually be proud of there?
It was confusing, upsetting, and he was not sure he wanted to dwell on it any longer. Instead his eyes darted around for a distraction, forgetting the books that he had found even though he still had one in his arms.
His eyes were drawn instead to the chest. Though he had spied it several times out of the corner of his eye, this time he focused completely and was not willing to look away. Maybe that was his need for a distraction from his thoughts, or maybe it was magic. He did not know, nor did he really think about it.
He didn’t think about moving closer either actually, yet he managed to drift that way anyway. He stopped right in front of it, his head tilted to the side in confusion.
Reena had said something about a chest. Was that this chest, he wondered. What was it that she had said?
"Ree, what's this?" he asked as he reached a hand towards it. "It feels.. I don't know." Not scary.
Post by Reena Ashworth on Feb 6, 2023 15:48:19 GMT 10
“Does mum even know about this room?“, she murmured while dropping the seed-less dirt back into the pot.
Reena frowned at the odd alignment of the pots one more time. What was the point of moving them this way if they were empty.
If it had been the magic of the room, and she still wasn’t convinced, it did not only work mysteriously but also somewhat pointlessly. Seemed more like the work of a person to her.
Reena was confused when Echo-Dad hesitated to answer her next question. For something that couldn’t think for itself and was supposed to fill in the blanks, this sure felt like pulling teeth. It was mildly frustrating.
But at least it was still talking and not shushing her or shutting itself in his room- although she supposed he already was shut in his room.
“Conrad‘s intentions?“, she repeated slowly.
She wanted to follow up with a question, but stopped and looked at her feet instead when Echo-Dad addressed Ezra to assure him he had been loved by his dad. Perhaps it wasn’t the time to ask about what Conrad might have done to their mum, not with Ezra in the room.
“The real you assured me that Conrad was good though,“, she muttered, almost as if trying to convince herself.
Hm?
She turned around when Ezra asked for her - and immediately felt her heart sink into her stomach. She shouldn’t have moved away from that cursed chest, she should have kept herself between that thing and her brothers.
She stared in horror as her youngest brother reached out his hand. Her fluttering heart and scared mind made her miss the fact that the chest behaved differently.
She had seen what it could do to a fifteen year old boy, she did not want to find out what it would do to a twelve year old.
'Call us whatever feels right to you, Ezra,' Marcus said. 'And yes, he was proud. Your first smile... all those milestones were celebrated. You and your sister brought him so much joy. Just as all of you have done the same for me. We are proud of each of you because we love you.'
Marcus turned to Reena, and nodded.
'Your mother knows it exists; she's the genius behind its planning and spell design, but she has not set foot inside,' he said, glancing round once again. 'I tried to convince her, but she insisted on being barred. On not knowing. She even tried to curse herself, to protect the Ashworth secrets -- to protect all of you.'
Nothing further was said, as focus went to Ezra and his hand reaching for the chest. Reena's words echoed in the room, but didn't deter him in time. As Ezra's touched the chest, a powerful shimmer of magic rippled over it -- then extended up his arm, and covering him entirely. It also acted as a barrier, so no one could touch him during the process.
Then it faded. Ezra was completely unharmed. If anything, the magic felt familiar in a way that hit an emotional nerve; it was like a warm embrace of someone who cared about him with their entire being. He had no way of describing it, other than that it had to have been his father's magic -- some echo of Conrad, and his love, imbued in whatever enchanted the chest.
But it was gone now, faded into the wind. The chest was no longer enchanted on the outside, and thus could be touched or interacted with. It was still and ordinary.
Post by Kody Ashworth on Feb 7, 2023 1:07:17 GMT 10
Reena apologized and Kody wasn't mad at her, not really. It was just -- well a shock. A lot to take in. This was their Dad? Kind of. Kody stared, eyes big as the Not-Dad spoke to him. He didn't know how close Not-Dad was to Real-Dad but judging from Reena's own reactions to it, it had to be close... Right?
His mouth felt so dry and there was a weird knot in his stomach. He vaguely listened as Reena addressed Not-Dad, asking some questions that seemed very important but it was all white-noise to Kody. He was focused on trying not to cry and trying not to freak out about the whole Not-Dad situation. The Not-Ghost-Dad. Would a real ghost have been any better...?
Maybe.
Suddenly he felt incredibly shy. Kody dropped his gaze from Not-Dad's and looked at his feet instead. When the Not-Dad addressed him all he managed was a tiny "H-Hi."
He even forgot that Ezra was there with them until he started moving around and talking to Not-Dad as well. Kody looked up, his cheeks burning. He felt a bit weird that Ezra got to talk to his Not-Dad before him but that was his fault for holding back. His angry quickly ebbed away because Ezra hadn't done anything wrong. Kody knew that.
Instead, he tried to focus on the here and now again. He frowned as Not-Dad talked about their uncle, Ezra's dad and wondered if he was reading too much into what his Not-Dad said. But from the tone of voice and the words used... He had a bad feeling that Conrad had done something wrong. He reached out to offer his hand to Ezra but it was too late.
His younger brother was already moving towards the chest.
"Wait!" Kody called out the same time his sister did. He had wanted to warn him but he also wasn't an idiot. He noticed how the chest reacted differently to Ezra and this made him hang back, giving Reena a confused and concerned look.
That didn't seem normal.
"Ezzie, just go slow. Be careful." Kody sighed, stepping up behind the younger boy but keeping a safe distance. Kody wasn't entirely certain how the chest would react to him being too close to it, even if he wasn't entirely thrilled about Ezra facing it alone. He had to trust that it wasn't going to harm him.
Their Not-Dad would have said otherwise, right?
So instead he stood behind Ezra, a shadow, and waited to see what would happen next. At least if something did attempt to harm Ezra, he was within arm's reach and Kody could snatch him back again.
Post by Reena Ashworth on Feb 7, 2023 2:01:50 GMT 10
Her mother, the genius.
Had she not met the real Aubrey Ashworth that day in Gringott's, she might have believed Echo-Dad was telling lies. But it was plausible for the woman she had been in her father's vault with to have built a room like this. And just perhaps, if it was her mother's magic in here, it might just make sense that the pots were moved around seemingly at random, herbology and the care of plants being not something her mother seemed to enjoy much.
"Knowledge is dangerous," she summed up what her mother had told her and Jaxen on Christmas day. She hadn't understood it then, and she still would not say she did, but the thought of her mother cursing herself to forget made her feel week in her legs.
"Has mum succeeded and that's why...?", she asked almost inaudibly.
Maybe she shouldn't have told her brothers after all, if to shield them from knowledge was to shield them from harm.
But of course, that was before the harrowing experience of watching Ezra touch the chest that had sent Jaxen flying through the room when they had first discovered the laboratory.
Her heart was pounding heavily in her chest and she could hear her blood rushing through her ears as she closed the distance between her and her younger brothers.
Nothing had happened to Ezra. In fact, he appeared to have broken the curse on the chest.
"Don't scare me like that!", she tried to sound stern but her lips broke into a smile that betrayed just how relieved she was that her youngest was okay.
She had no idea what she would have done if he hadn't been. She would have never been able to look Jaxen in the eye again, that was for sure.
Reena put one hand on her wand, just to feel safe as she nodded in agreement with Kody. Slow and careful, it looked safe enough for Ezra to go ahead and open the chest.
"If it feels unsafe to you in any way, you tell me, okay, Ezzie?"
She looked at the runes again. The chest looked like a normal chest now, although she still eyed it warily and opted not to touch it.
Was that rune the same as Aris Meek had told her meant 'blood'? She was not entirely sure.
But if it was, and Ezra's touch had opened it, and the curse had been protecting against her, Jaxen and Kody but not against Ezra...
Had uncle Conrad put the chest in here?
She hadn't been aware that he had known about this place. In fact, she had been under the impression that the lab had been kept secret from her uncle. Had he also been the one who had destroyed the lab and research?
Had he somehow come here before he and his brother had gone to the Ministry, gotten in without her parents knowing?
If it hadn't been her mother, then that seemed the next best plausible theory. Even though it seemed hardly possible to her.
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