The air surrounding the Karageorgiadi estate was cold. A chilly winter breeze hit every now and then, enough to make a shiver run through your back. Compared to the previous day, quiet and hot it was the day before, it was cold. But this wasn’t the only cold thing surrounding the grand estate.

A tall man stood outside the estate, his wand in hand. He looked around every now and then. His gaze was cold and slightly sour. In between his looking, he was casting spells. The tall auror was usually a warm man, especially when he was at the family estate. Especially to his family. You could tell by his face expression he was very worried. If you focused on what spells he cast, they were certain protective spells. And the reason behind his casting was the same reason behind his sour looks.

And Eugenia knew it.

The prophecy delivered by the family member, who was a seer, or in contact with seers or something, had really shaken them all. Despite them having some relative level of fun during Christmas, now the mood surrounding them had changed. Eugenia stood at the house entrance, or exit, from her perspective, trying to think about all the things that happened if the past days. She looked at her father, her expression dropping when she realized he wouldn’t turn around to face her. Maybe he hadn’t even heard her. The Hufflepuff was equally worried, to say, and the certain events that happened in between these days and the moment she was living in currently, had made a great impact on her.

First was the fact that Valentin had come over to their house at Thessaloniki the day before. They had a meaningful conversation. The young girl told him of what had happened, and after all hesitation left her head and heart, she told him the entire plan. To which he agreed to. And he told her about wanting to learn legilimency, wanting to go into the mind of his blood brother, and what had happened between them. He did look bad, but the Greek did do a lot that day. She made the decision to be a Legilimency test subject. She finally told her plan to her parents. She started preparing for the event.

Even if it was just mental preparation, at first.

The Hufflepuff took a deep breath and walked out of the house. She needed to tell something to her father. The day before, her parents had made some changes in her plan. Rather, they forced her to change her plan, if she was to do it with her permission and not get scolded massively once she came back. The first step, to wait in their room after 22:00 (they kind of finalized their plan after Val left), was accepted easily. Then came the more difficult to do part. And the one that was denied. They were to drink some polyjuice that their mother had made. But the wise woman had denied giving her anything from her potion storage. Unlike her, who had specialized in the subject, they didn’t know how to handle potions and their side effects. So, they’d have to be as sneaky as they could.

Next step, go through the secret passages. That was agreed to quickly, as both parents knew the estate very well- the passages were very safe. And then came using the secret room of the house. In front of it stood a great gargoyle, that wouldn’t let you enter unless you stated a specific password, and the reason you visit in an encoded fashion. After making sure that both girls knew the password and how to encrypt their request, the two adults had given in. But they were hesitant on the girls using the flop network. They just thought their daughters had the plan to stay there once the room was mentioned. Eugenia explained that Ifigenia would go to the house of [redacted] [redacted], a friend of the family since a while ago. And by while, the family meant many decades. When her parents questioned where she would go, the girl grimaced for a moment. How was she going to explain it?

But she did. She said she’d go to the house of a friend in Russia, whom she trusted a lot. But they still weren’t sure and she told him they trusted each other mutually, and how he was an adult (17) and was a Durmstrang student. Her mother, who was the one who loved her little girls the most, was the first parent to agree after Eugenia’s explanation, her father soon following. And they promised to send a letter after 2 or 3 days to each girl, saying whether the sisters could come back at all during the break or not.

After this conversation, Eugenia’s head was left swirling. Her parents had trusted them plainly on such a serious issue, well, not even once before. So the smile painted on her face once she heard their agreement was truly genuine.

So that was why she came to her father. Lightly tapping his back, she put on a small smile. She didn’t know if she was trying to comfort her father, comfort herself, or hide all her worries. When her father turned, his eyes were cold, as before. But his expression instantly turned warm once he saw her. So he hadn’t changed that much from all other days. He was just worried about his children. Τι θες Ευγενία μου; What do you want my Eugenia? Ε απλά… Είσαι καλά; Φαίνεσαι κουρασμένος. Και λες και σου έχουμε κάνει κάτι, ξέρω γώ.Yeah just… Are you okay? You seem tired. And as if we’ve do something to you or sorts. A small sigh escaped her eyes and her face turned into a frown. Όχι αγάπη μου. Απλά, όπως κι εσύ, είναι λίγο ανήσυχος. No honey. Just, like you, I’m a bit unsettled. Α. Εντάξει τότε. Σε αφήνω λίγο ήσυχο. Ίσως κι εσύ θες τον χώρο σου. Okay then. I’m leaving you alone for a bit. Maybe you need your space too.

The girl had wanted to tell him more. But she couldn’t. She though her father was already worried enough. No reason to burden him with more of her nonsense.

Just before she left, she felt a soft kiss on her head. She looked up, her father looking a little sad. She couldn’t even mutter “I’m sorry”. She only looked at him once and walked away. The man returned to his work, but changed. He’d look back at the entrance as Eugenia walked away, meeting her eyes multiple times. He was trying to tell her to let off her weight on him. But the girl stayed silent despite meeting his eyes as she looked back. She didn’t mean to. She wanted him to be happy.

But not everything works as you wish Eugenia.

—————————————————————————————•—————————————————————————————

The Greek girl was in her room inside the estate. Having dragged her sister behind her, she slammed the door and sat down on the bed. Her head hurt. Her world was spinning, turning upside down. Just existing hurt at this point. Had she taken on such a huge responsibility? One that she couldn’t ever fulfil? Just because she was a little kid, nothing more than a twelve year old child? But then, why had her parents trusted her? And even if they just did it because they wanted a responsible daughter, why had Valentin done it? Just to lie to her? No he wouldn’t. She wouldn’t trust him if he did.

She got up pretty soon and looked around. Grabbing a sheet of paper, the girl sat down and wrote a quick letter.

Kazan, Russia
Schnell Estate
Valentin Schnell

Whoever this may concern,

If a person arrives unexpectedly at your doorstep or another part of your house on New Years’, don’t panic. That will be me. I’m in dire need of coming to this estate, so don’t be afraid. I mean no harm. If you want explanations, I shall give you. I speak Russian, this isn’t the work of a translator. This arrival has been agreed upon, and isn’t trespassing. So if you are a person, living with Valentin and get this letter, don’t panic either. He knows I’m coming. And even if he isn’t there currently, please do not be afraid. He has given me permission to come. I’m not there to request anything other than a place to stay until term begins anew.

Best regards,
E.M.K

PS: If you want, show me the letter so that you truly know it’s me. Εις το επανειδήν See you in the future

The girl looked at the letter once, checking for any errors, or any additions she wanted to make. She wasn’t really that comfortable with writing things in Russian, but she hoped her calligraphy was legible. Her sister had already fetched an envelope in time, as if they had some perfect co ordination. The Hufflepuff put the letter inside, closed it, and sealed it with a wax seal, her own little crest on top. It was basically a design made by the letters of her full name. But she counted it as a crest.

Giving it to one of the family owls, she turned back to her sister. The two worked in silence, as they each packed their own bags. Eugenia’s trunk and school stuff had been sent to her parents’ friends, the same ones who would have Ifigenia come over for refuge. Eugenia’s side of the issue was a bit more complicated. But she knew she loved her sister more than anything in this world. So obviously, she was going to do anything to ensure they survived.

She looked around for a minute. Seeing her face in a mirror, her eyes reflected meeting her own gaze, she looked at herself. She looked tired. And was tired. The pain in her chest only grew. She had promised Irina they would be there for each other. But the Russian had explicitly told her not to contact her during the holidays. That her mother and brother were mean to her. And that her mother would get paranoid if a stranger to her entered the house. Even if her children knew them. Or just one child.

She now had one, sole hope. One sole pain to bear. Her own. That of survival. But didn’t it feel unbearable? Painful, crushing you down each chance it gets? Making you feel like survival is just impossible without others? But no, they could have still done it alone. The final version of the plan was one that they didn’t need any extra help or resources to fulfil other than floo powder, which was a thing you could get admittedly very easily. And it was easy to steal too, either way.

Yes, they could survive on their own. And the young badger said that over and over in her head, as she went mechanically through the rest of the day’s motions. Eating lunch, some time to rest in which she didn’t really rest, and everything that continued. She was silent, thinking of all the things that could happen, all the ways she could possibly improve her plans, all the ways she could explain the situation once at the Schnell Estate. She walked mechanically and only listened with half an ear, lost in her thoughts.

That this could be the last day with some normalcy. Before it all went insane. And flipped upside down. Again. It had flipped when they moved to England. It hadn’t flipped when her sister was born, rather when her grandfather was murdered. Then, it flipped again when she learned she was no pure blood. And it flipped again all the times she had to keep it a secret. It flipped again with the Hogsmeade disaster and its aftermath.

It seemed that life wanted to barge into 2025, somersaulting Eugenia’s journey in the world.

She wasn’t willing to follow the somersault. But she had to. Because if she even wanted to taste 2025 in the slightest of ways, she’d have to do it. Otherwise, she had no chance of surviving. Those were her thoughts as she fell on her bed late at night, her brain refusing to shut off. The hours would hold on, passing as slowly as possible. But it gave Eugenia time to think. And prepare emotionally for the pain of losing reality.

OOC Info: This is a Solo/PV thread, meaning that later on in the story, certain people are allowed to post in the topic. Since this is very crucial to Eugenia’s storylines, I’m not letting any other person join.

Pings: @Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood as Valentin Schnell , @Matthew Campbell as Nikolai Volkov

You two will be courtesy tagged along the way of the solo, so that you know when you can post. If you do not wish to post in this thread, feel free to owl me stating that you don’t want to participate. Also, whether this letter ever reaches you, is up to you. So is if you respond or not.

When the next morning finally arrived, the weather hadn’t changed the slightest.

The Karageorgiadi heiress woke up much earlier than intended, at six in the morning, even if she slept half past midnight the evening before. Yet she wasn’t tired, all of her senses supercharged after she had realised that she could be attacked at any possible moment. Nobody had woken up at the time, so the girl went to the estate’s library and sat on the floor. It was no surprise that her sister arrived at the place some half hour later. The girls seemed to have around the same sleep schedule, or at least a similar one. Silently, Eugenia read a huge tome called ‘Practice of Legilimency’. It was a much lesser known book, but one that you’d find at all times in the shelves.

She knew very well she didn’t have the mental capacities to attempt such a thing yet. She was twelve for heaven’s sake, how could she even think of attempting to enter a person’s mind. Making a mental note to ask Valentin if he wanted it, she looked outside for a minute and put the book back in its shelf. Eugenia walked around sheepishly for the next hour, wondering about a very big number of things. Including her escape plan.

It was an understatement to say they had just planned a route. The truth was that the two sisters had skimmed practically the entire Smyrnidi library and the pile of ideas they had in their mind combined. Coming up with such an intricate plan was very difficult, so the fact that they had even taking initiative was a thing of its own. They weren’t going to stay under the simple ‘protection of family’ anymore, because the numbers have no strength. A nagging feeling inside her told her that this was about her grandmother and her true identity.

But really, how could anyone else know? Though, if you thought about it, it was really easy. A kid could easily stumble across this box in the attic and have questions raised in their mind, of course they could. And what if they never told gran about it? And kept it a secret. But not to help the family. To turn it against them.

Really, this thing was no pleasant thought. Now, this was where the hole in her plan was. If there was even a single family member in their attackers, then they were done for. Because they wouldn’t have been able to enter in the room if they weren’t part of the lineage one way or another. The prospects of being discovered in there were possibly deadly; should they be trapped in there, they were toast. Currently, they had no other option but hope, fingers crossed, that there was no such thing going on. But if there was…

Well, it was lucky Ifigenia was no Legilimens, or all of Eugenia’s secrets would be spilled. But her sister wouldn’t mind that much since they had been sharing their little secrets for a while. But it still hurt to tell her deepest secrets. Her body ached. With the pain she held. Could she keep her secrets sealed shut? Maybe. Or maybe not. Who knew, after all? She had no information by anyone else, so no idea.

The hours dragged on and eventually, Eugenia needed to get back on track. But she was different. Much different. More than jumpy and shaky. She seemed to be going through the motions of everyday life mechanically. She was eating with her eyes on the bowl. Not her family. The two sisters kept inside the house. They didn’t go outside. The truth was, they were scared.

It all started with a dream. Ifigenia was sleeping. And she woke up at 4 o clock. Just like Eugenia had, when she had seen the chain bundles. Of course, her sister was no seer. But the dream she had shared with Eugenia was very, very unsettling. And it didn’t feel like a simple, ordinary nightmare. It felt as if it was another reality, a dream reality. Because this dream was connected to their escape. Or rather, it’s potential failure.

The day had come and almost gone. Ten o clock. Two hours to midnight. The girls were in their rooms, when they heard screams. They were in. Grabbing their bags, the two girls rushed out of the room and into the passage. But before they could do anything, they saw green flashes. The resistance was failing, they were ambushed early. No matter how much they ran, the young girls couldn’t reach the other end. But at last, the never ending hallway had a light at its end. It felt like the light at the end of this tunnel was in reach.

But they were simply falling into a trap. When they pushed open the doorway, they were met with an odd sight. The room wasn’t closed. There was a door. And it was slightly ajar. Looking once around, Eugenia grabbed her sister’s hand and went to retreat. Before she could, she felt a wand on her neck. The pressure was grand. She didn’t dare move. A glance shot at her sister. She had a wand on her neck too.

And the eight year old was sent flying on a wall. Thick ropes wrapped around Eugenia’s entire body. And she looked up. The perpetrator was there. A distant uncle. Who had betrayed them.

This dream of her sister kept being repeated in her mind. She wouldn’t notice when others asked her questions. She was oblivious to speech other than her sister. And even if she had asked her one too many times if she was okay, Eugenia wasn’t satisfied. She didn’t need her sister ‘just fine’. If her sister wasn’t safe, she wasn’t going to shut up. She wasn’t going to stop asking. For now.

Even if she was super tired, she didn’t fall asleep. At noon, she had the opportunity to take a nap. But how could she, when her life was at stake? Of course, screaming could probably wake her up. Would they have enough time though? Sitting on her bed, she looked outside her window, clouds in the sky, fog covering almost everything. Words kept swarming her mind in larger numbers than before. Other than her thoughts, her sister’s dream, was an add on of her parents’ suggestions and Valentin’s comments.

Then were remarks from her friends. And acquaintances. And everything in between. It was a great and awful thing, that her brain couldn’t forget. It hurt. And as the hours tagged on, she looked outside, past the fog, imagining Hogwarts and her life before that. It was hard now. But she had to survive, her sister had to survive.

And the young girl waited with Ifigenia in quiet. For a scream. A spell. For pain.

And everything in between.

OOC Info: This is a Solo/PV thread, meaning that later on in the story, certain people are allowed to post in the topic. Since this is very crucial to Eugenia’s storylines, I’m not letting any other person join.

Pings: @Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood as Valentin Schnell , @Matthew Campbell as Nikolai Volk’a

You two will be courtesy tagged along the way of the solo, so that you know when you can post. This is a shorter post than before, I’m hitting writer’s block. I think that after the next post, Eugenia will be at the Manor, so prepare yourselves! In the meanwhile, indulge in Eugenia lore!

Eugenia Karageorgiadi ended up waiting for a very long time by the windowsill. The minutes dragged on as time lost all its meaning. Looking around suspiciously, the girl tried to let her guard down a bit. Her sister’s prodding had absolutely no results: she wasn’t falling asleep until she knew that the two of them, especially Ifigenia, were safe and sound.

So the evening passed. Despite having barely slept at night and being quite subdued earlier, the young badger now felt very energised, as if she had been sleeping all day. Maybe it was the adrenaline, flowing in her blood like it was the plasma itself. Or it was just a simple survival instinct, engraved in man’s nature since the dawn of humanity. Nevertheless, the girl barely took her eyes off of her sister, or stopped focusing her hearing on all possible sounds.

The hours did seem to drag on. Each gave way to the next, and a new flood of concern and worry overtaking the girl. Her head, not much freer of the world’s comments, was in great pain. Eugenia would look outside as if she was expecting something- no, someone. She was unreadable however, the expression on her face being something displayed for perhaps the first time. She’d sit very cautiously near the door as the predicted time of the attack came closer and closer to the present, trying to gauge any possible sign or signal to run.

Her head was still pounding. It was as if someone was pushing a rock inside her mind, trying to take her brain out and make her feel pain. The Badger didn’t leave the door at all. She still stayed there. She was paranoid. Her sister would come to her side, trying to hear too. But often, the eight-year-old would pace back and forth in the room anxiously. Neither of them slept that afternoon and neither of them succumbed to tiredness later on. Even if they were exhausted, there was a thing picking them up. Telling them “get yourselves together.” “You must survive”.

And quite frankly, they were happy that certain feeling actually existed.

The clock began to strike midnight. Eugenia’s insides tensed up, she felt a knot in her chest; it was rising. The two sisters silently counted the ticks of the clock. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Eugenia tried to breathe, but it seemed she just couldn’t. She felt energised, yet paralysed. Truth was, she hadn’t ever felt that before. The ticks kept going.

Seven. Eight. Nine. Her grip around her wand tightened, as the tissues of her body loosened slightly. She tried to take a deep breath and eyed her sister. She looked desolate.

Ten. Eleven. And finally, Twelve. A beat passed. A small moment of quiet. But not a safe quiet. The air felt thick for a moment. And just then, as if a storm had an arrived, she heard a scream from outside.

The young girl grabbed her Enchanted Satchel, the one she had prepared overnight, and her sister’s hand. She muttered a hushed “let’s go”, and cracked open the door. The game for life had begun. And unfortunately, she didn’t know who would win.

Ducking down and crouching, the two girl headed to the door of the secret passages. Having “trained” for a long time on which floorboards to step in order to make no noise, they walked on silently. They hadn’t managed to cross but a few meters, when the voices and screaming got louder. Ifigenia looked kind of helplessly at her sister, but Eugenia only frowned and called her over. They were making slow progress, trying to observe their surroundings as they went.

The careful walking proved to be beneficial for the two girls. Something hit a vase near them, and they covered their heads. No, they were not hit, but glass vase parts were scattered literally everywhere. That meant they had to be extra careful not to step on glass. And so they were. Suddenly, Ifigenia let out a quiet squeal. But this time, the light came towards them. Going out of the way, the two girls weren’t as protected as they were before. Both of them smashed, thankfully not audibly, onto the house’s wall.

Just then, Eugenia felt a searing pain in her right arm and leg. She gazed down and saw a small cut on the back of her hand and a piece of glass in her thigh. She took it out quickly, almost not thinking at all. She lifted her trousers, and saw there were no more little pieces stuck inside. They were still stinging, and blood still dripped slowly out of the wounds. Eugenia though ignored it. She flashed an “I’m okay” at her sister, and the two went on.

Since they were close to the door, Eugenia managed to grab the doorknob and shove the key into the hole. She turned it once, and they were both in the passages.

Quietly closing the door behind her, Ifigenia breathed a sigh of relief. Eugenia bent down to check on her leg again. There wasn’t a lot of blood, and the pain was still bearable, so she’d wait until later. Truth was, she knew no healing spells and their path was solitary for now. But perhaps she could get help once she arrived at the manor… Well, correction, if she did.

Ifigenia beaconed to her and she got up. Since the heiress remembered the way much better than her sister, she led the way. Eugenia couldn’t run, so she expected complaints from her sister about being slow. But there was nothing. Perhaps Ifigenia had seen it. No time to think. Lead the way Eugie.

The passages were long. Time again dragged on slowly, despite the adrenaline running through her veins. Her right side hurting, she walked down the passages like it was a piece of cake. Yes, having perfect memories often hurt her, but it was still something incredibly valuable in situations where it required memorising things. They had no map on them, they had barely enough room in their bags for clothes, some water, a few important objects that were to be safe kept, and Eugenia, who had the Satchel, her Silver Arrow; she had been given the broom for her name day.

True, she could have gotten a map, but even if she had room, (which she did) she had no will to sit and read it. They had to run. There wasn’t much time to be lost.

So the girls made their way down the spiralling passages of the manor.

It had taken them two minutes to get to the door. 00:02 in the passages. Then, the estimated time to reach the door they wanted was 8 minutes. Eugenia tried to stick to that schedule as much as possible. There was no time to lose, she repeated to herself over and over again. And then, it was a bit difficult doing it without casting anything. Who knew if they could be tracked down just then.

Time management skills did their work. They arrived just on time outside the room. 00:10. Perfect. Eugenia opened the door slowly, just like before, and they were out of the passages. They could hear no voices, no screams. Was this a dream? No. Were they followed? Also no. There were no footsteps echoing in the dark. There was nothing telling her it was wrong. So they’d just proceed as if there was no suspicion. Yeah?

They were on the other side of the manor. This was it. The last strand of this very quickly improvised plan. The Karageorgiadi heiress walked up to the door and spoke quietly, aiming her words to the gargoyle guarding the room. Βοήθα το αίμα, μην κρατάς το ψέμα. Help the blood, don’t keep the lie. The gargoyle, upon hearing her words, stepped aside. And they were finally in.

Eugenia looked around once. She wished she knew some odd quirky spell to detect human presence, but she was a mere second year. A roaring fire stood in front of them, burning eternally in a large walnut fireplace. She took a deep breath and opened her satchel. Not that far inside was a small pouch. The girl clutched it in her hand and pulled it out, closing the satchel shut. She took another deep breath.

It was paring time.

Perhaps the last time she would ever see her sister.

She wrapped little Ifigenia in a tight hug and a kiss on the head. Θυμίσου τι πρέπει να πεις και να κανείς μόλις φτάσεις. Και σε παρακαλώ, πραγματικά, μείνε ασφαλής. Remember what you need to say once you get there. And please, really, stay safe. She looked up and took another deep breath, stifling a torrent of words and tears threatening to leave her. The pain, both physical and psychological was immense. But she had to let her go. If they were at the same house, chances were they were not safe at all. She had to.

Opening the little pouch, Eugenia dropped some of the floo powder, just the amount needed, into her sister’s hand. And after a very short goodbye, she watched her sister walk into the flames and speak the name of [REDACTED]’s house address. She kept telling herself it was the only way and that they had to stick to the plan. Now, she could only hope.

Hope that her sister remembered all that she needed to say correctly. Hope that [REDACTED] would actually believe her sister, even if she was not even old enough to go to Hogwarts. She only hoped she wouldn’t just get kicked out. She could only hope her parents were alive and relatively unharmed. She could only hope the house wasn’t going to get destroyed. She could only hope all this running hadn’t been pointless.

A throbbing sensation in her thigh brought her back to her senses. To reality. She poured a little amount of powder in her hands and walked towards the ember flames. She checked her watch. 00:14. Just on time. The schedule was working. It was about time to go to the Schnell Manor. This was the last step. Eugenia left the ember flames spring around her and she declared her destination. Schnell Estate, Kazan Russia! She’d never ever forget that odd, whirling feeling that soon enveloped her.

—————————————————————————————•—————————————————————————————

Coughing slightly, Eugenia walked out of another, unfamiliar fireplace. She let her satchel down and bent to her feet, still clutching her wand. It felt warm in her hands, a warmth that had nothing to do with fire. Her clothes were smothered with ash from the fire, which she desperately tried to clean. Looking around the room, she recognised no thing at all. An eerie quiet rang in the air. Her entire body hurt and she was shaking. Not from the cold. But from the shock.

The young Greek sunk on the floor before looking back up. She could only make the outline of a dark figure in the distance. The realisation hit her like cold water. She was in the estate. She had made it. The pain in her left side reminded her she was very much alive and awake. This was not a dream.

She didn’t scream. She just took a deep breath and a small fragment of sound escaped her mouth. Please help me. She had gone through hell coming here. She just hoped it wasn’t her imagination. That she had really made it. And she was safe. Finally.

OOC Info: This is a Solo/PV thread, meaning that later on in the story, certain people are allowed to post in the topic. Since this is very crucial to Eugenia’s storylines, I’m not letting any other person join.

Pings: @Aida Mòrsgor-Ama Ellwood as Valentin Schnell , @Matthew Campbell as Nikolai Volk’a

Well, ‘it’s about time for you to post! Now, the thread is entering its PV stage, since Eugenia has arrived to the Estate. I have OOC consent from the authors of Val and Nik to say that Eugenia arrived at the manor and was greeted by either of them/Sergei (she saw a figure in the distance when she arrived).

I am giving Valentin and Nikolai’s authors explicit permission to lightly godmod Eugenia doing some basic tasks, such as following you around.

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