You'll Be Alright Now Solo Finished

Chelsea, England
West London
July 16th 2019

“I don’t want them here.” 
“They’re your grandchildren, da.” 
“Which makes them your niece and nephew so why don’t either of you take them?!” 
“I don’t want them around our normal children!” 

Raine turned away from the door to her grandfather’s office.  The doctors at St. Mungos had worked hard on her parents and managed to stabilize her mother after healing the internal bleeding in her body, but Martel Sage then fell into a coma and the Healers weren’t sure what brought it about which meant that Raine’s mother had to stay at the hospital until she recovered. That bit of news broke Raine and she fought the Healers to stay with her mother’s prone form, but they sedated the preteen when her accidental magic surged and she accidentally sent a nurse flying down the hall. Her father was unresponsive before they left the hospital; his wounds were severe and his internal organs were shutting down one by one. She heard the nurses talking with one of the Aurors. Seymour Sage didn't make it through their procedures even with magical means of healing him. The news devastated the young twelve-year-old. The news about her mothers wrecked her. When she awoke again sometime later, she was in a guest room in her grandparent's house.

Her muggle grandparents.

For years before Lloyd was born, her parents would take Raine to see her grandparents, and back then she truly loved and adored going to see the older couple. But then her magic manifested and that was the start of her growing distrust and simmering dislike of the two as well as her uncles and aunt.

They were out in the backyard, one windy day, as the family had their bi-monthly get-together, and Raine, along with her cousins, were playing under an old tree in the backyard with the women watching over them. A large gust of wind blew through the backyard and one of the tree branches in the old tree broke off and crashed down to the ground, about to land on top of Raine's youngest cousin. Raine, of course, saw the tree as it came down and screamed, racing to her cousin with her hands stretched out, causing her magic to burst through her hands and blow the falling branch away next to her terrified cousin. Everyone stood silent and in shock until a scream of "Get away from my son!" came from across the yard. Raine had never seen her aunt so angry before and she ran to her own mother to get away from the furious woman. Accusations sounded and it wasn't long before Raine was taken back to her father's car and they drove home. All Raine remembered seeing after that day was the look to utter disgust and contempt on her father's family's faces as they left the house. She knew that they didn't care for her, especially when they thought she tried to kill her younger cousin.

So why were she and Lloyd there now? Why weren't they placed with her mother's family; a family of witches and wizards?

"If only Seymour hadn't married that alien wench then he wouldn't have gotten himself..." the words of her youngest aunt, Lisannia, came through the hardwood door before it was cut off by a sob. Raine inhaled deeply and walked away through the house back to the room where Lloyd was still sleeping. As she made her way through the living room the fireplace, lit up in a bright green without a warning, causing the twelve-year-old to jump back and fall onto the couch behind her. The fireplace shouldn't work here. Muggle fireplaces weren't connected to the Floo Network...or they shouldn't be at least. But here it was, blazing a bright green flame. And there she was- a young, elegant yet strict looking young woman possibly in her late twenties or early thirties- standing in the dying embers of the fireplace that a minute ago wasn't even lit, waving her wand about her head to knock the soot off of her person. Her hair was long and braided down to her waist and her manicured nails shone in the dim lighting of the room. But all for the seemingly strict energy exuding off of her, the woman was dressed in a regular designed shirt and a pair of blue jeans flaired at the bottom near her black short boots. For a witch, it was surprising that she wasn't wearing robes. Raine stared at the woman in front of her, ready to run to her brother and protect him if this woman was a threat to them at all, but the woman just stared back at her curiously.

Tilting her head, the woman opened her mouth and asked, "Are you Raine? Raine Titania Sage?"

Eyes wide, Raine continued to stare, but she replied, "That depends, are you going to kill her when you find her?"

The woman blinked owlishly before a chuckle left her lips as she shook her head. "No, child, I am not a killer, especially of children." Before Raine could blink, the woman was standing in front of her and the girl wondered when did the older woman move from in front of the fireplace? She swallowed the lump in her throat as the witch knealt down in front of her, seeming trying to examine her like a speciman. Then the tears welled up in the woman's eyes and she reached out to grab Raine in a vice-like hug. Raine gasped and tried to get out of the grip but was held tightly against the other woman's chest, unable to dislodge herself.

"Oh, you have his eyes. I'm so sorry, little one. No one should lose their parent at such a young age, and not due to some stupid drunk Muggle driving recklessly."

Pausing in her struggles, Raine pulled back far enough to look at the woman fully. "Who...who are you? How do you know my dad?"

The woman smiled gently and stood up from her knealt posistion to address the little girl. "I'm not surprised that you don't know about me, but the two of us will get to know each other soon enough. Your brother and I will be in my care until your mother recovers. My name is Silvia. I'm your father's older sister born four years before him. You haven't heard of me because I was pretty much removed from this family when my magic surfaced. I ran away to a friend's house when I was twelve and never looked back. They also never came looking for me...except for your father. He always seemed to find me when he became independant and we kept in touch. You may call me any variation of my name so long as you put auntie in front of it. Respect goes a long way, my dear." Silvia patted Raine's cheek before moving through the living room to where the raised voices of the other Sage family members were. "Why don't you go gather your brother and your belongings while I go make my grand re-entrance to my loving family. Once the yelling begins, we'll be heading over to my place out of the city."

Raine watched her aunt leave and wondered what the hell was going on. Her life was being torn apart, mended, and pulled in every direction possible that she was getting dizzy. Sure enough, the loud sounds of her relative yelling throughout the house hit Raine's ears and she gathered herself enough to go up the stairs to the guest room and collect her things. Lloyd was awake and sniffling that his sister left him and he held out his arms for her to carry him. But now the girl was faced with a dilema. How could she carry her trunk and her brother?

"Allow me to help," the voice of her aunt came from the doorway. With a flick of her wand, Raine's trunk shrunk and Silvia placed it inside of her pocket. The trio made their way back down into the living room, passing by the locked doors of her grandfather's study that were being banged on no doubt by her uncles. It wouldn't be long before the door crashed under pressure.

"Where are we going to go?"

"Well, I'll take your brother while you take a handful of Floo Powder. I'm sure you know how to work the network. I want you to go to the Leaky Cauldron and wait for me there. We will travel to my place after meeting up with my daughter. She's not much older than you."

Raine suddenly found herself without her brother in her arms and with a bag of Floo Powder shoved in her face. Swallowing the second lump that formed in her throat, the girl grabbed a handful of the powder and stepped into the fireplace. Raine worried her lip, wondering if this was the correct thing to do. Honestly, she would rather be anywhere but with her father's family, but this woman claimed that she was her father's family, just a sibling she had never met. Lloyd seemed to take to the older woman immediately, almost as if knew she wouldn't harm them and Raine figured that she could trust her baby brother's instincts. They were pretty good with feeling out a person's negative energy, right?

Either way, it didn't matter. Raine wanted to be away from this house and if her brother trusted their "aunt" then so would she. For now. Taking a deep breath, Raine dropped the powder and called out "The Leaky Cauldron!" The green flamed engulfed her immediately and before she was pulled away from her grandparent's living room, she still wondered how and when it was ever connected to the network, she saw her angry relatives charge into the living room.

Spilling out onto a hard wood floor, Raine coughed hard, trying to clear her throat from the soot she accidentally inhaled. Remembering that her aunt and brother were right behind her, or should have been right behind her, the girl moved to the side, still coughing to dislodged the lingering soot. Sure enough, her aunt gracefully walked out of the fireplace, a smile on her face that said a lot more happened after Raine left than what the girl thought had happened. Lloyd's face was sitting in the crook of Silvia's neck and he held onto her tightly as the older woman rubbed his back.

"Right then, shall we be off? I promise that you and your brother will have the utmost care and love at my home, Raine dear. And soon, your mother will wake up and you'll be home with her."

"You promise?" Raine asked, sounding much younger and vulnerable in that moment than she ever had before.

Silvia looked at the girl sadly. "No, I can't make that promise. But it is my hope that she will make a full recovery. You'll be alright now."

Raine sighed and nodded. Hope. That was what everyone had to hold onto in times such as these. Hope would be what Raine held onto as well. For her, Lloyd, and their mother.