Madeline Mulciber

“I wouldn’t want to burden you with all that… although a party every night does sound fun.”

Madeline shrugged, “I wouldn’t offer if it was a burden.” Honestly her interaction with the older boy served two conflicting purposes, the first being that she desperately wanted friends, and the second was that she wanted friends that would piss Vale off. Frank seemed to be the type of person her brother wouldn’t really enjoy her being around. “Then why don’t we go have a drink, to formally welcome me to my new,” She raised her hands in an encompassing gesture as that award winning smile graced her lips, trying to think of the proper word for what the school would be for her, “Residence.” That was as emotionally attached as she planned on getting to Hogwarts, because all good things, she had learned, either were taken from her, or she was forced to leave behind.

“Parents and experience… then I’m certainly fucked.”

“I’ll take care of you, Frank.” She laughed, glad for a friendly face in this new school. “We’ll use my father’s money, buy some weed, and have parties everynight.”

“Already? Well, you must be making father proud.” That was a joke, if anything he would have been annoyed. How many times had Vale received howlers shouting at him because of how sloppy he’d been, how if he was to break rules then he should think of the consequences or just eliminate them before taking action. There was always the need to be in control, to think before doing wrong because the only fate worse than failure was to ruin years of family prestige. Appearance was everything, but Vale had never been one to care about what others thought of him; at least not all the time.

His sisters’ homecoming had been a shock. He told himself to pretend it hadn’t happened. Her well being had always been his top priority and her having been away from home, away from the madness that was unravelling around them and within him, was better than getting her sucked in. There were many things he wished to tell her and explain but the young girl he thought he was protecting was no longer there. She was different in ways he couldn’t quite explain but he couldn’t blame her, not after having been away for so long. Still, it was better not to make a fuzz about her being at Hogwarts, not now that he had been second guessing himself, not if it meant that his happiness could place a target on her back. 

A short lived smile lightened his face as he pictured their father’s disappointment, but it died out quickly. “I suspect you don’t like it here much, I know I don’t and I’ve been here for what feels like an eternity.” He commented as his eyes tried to read her. “What got you in detention?” 

Madeline shrugged, not even bothering to attempt a smile at his joke. Her father’s opinions didn’t concern her. His love was conditional and therefore, not worth having, in her opinion. Though, as any child does, she still craved it, instinctively, but she was trying to remedy that. With her brother, however, it was different. Different because she didn’t know if it was so much his love for her that had gone away as it was him. It felt like he had vanished, detached. Like their mother’s death had somehow taken him too. But, this was all a theory. Maybe, his love was conditional too and she just wasn’t ready to accept that., but she had to give him the benefit of the doubt. Even if his distance was hurting her. Vale was her brother, the person she’d grown up with, grown up wanting to be like. The one that understood living two lives, but had been a constant in both of hers until recently. “Father is never proud.” There was no joke to her tone, but no bitterness, either. Just detachment.

Maybe it ran in the family.

The smile that seemed to almost flicker across his face, it was so short lived, spawned hope inside of her, if only for an instant. It was like a spark of the past flashing through to the present. She swallowed the thickness that crept into her throat, livening up, if only slightly through the flash of vulnerability that showed on her features. As quick as it came, however, it disappeared, almost as if a trick of light had caused it. Madeline shrugged, “The court’s still out,” and it was. It majorly depended on him, though, to be honest. All Maddie wanted, if she couldn’t go back to Durmstrang, was to have her brother back. “I used a rowboat to cross the Black Lake when I got off the train.” She explained. The train, the brunette didn’t have to add, that she wasn’t meant to ride in the first place. “I may have enlisted Gabrie’s help in getting me a boat.” Help that the girl wouldn’t have given without a little push in the right direction, but she kind of hoped vale would know that. Hoped that he’d get angry at her for using the methods she did, for risking getting caught. Or that he’d be upset that she didn’t ask him. It really didn’t matter how he reacted, just that he did in a way that showed that he still did care for her. “Apparently, stealing a boat is frowned upon. As is arriving unannounced. They said it was something about a safety issue.” And when she’d told McGonagall, with all the tact of a young pureblood lady, not to get her panties in a twist over such small misunderstandings, she’d all but signed herself up for that detention. Of course, asking about who the dark arts teacher was hadn’t much helped her case, either, which was why she’d done it so early on in her welcome meeting.

“Wow… that’s morbid.” He mused with a sigh. “I guess you have a point. I don’t like to think of it that way though.”

Madeline shrugged, smirking at him. “I’m teasing,” She told him, though, she wasn’t certain if she was or not. “They have standards that they have to teach, unfortunately, real life skills aren’t included. It’s expected that parents and experience will do that.”

Still, none of that mattered as the fifth year saw the back of her brother’s head peeking above the cushion of a chair. Excitement filled her, but she hesitated for a moment. Had this been a mistake? Should she have stayed in Durmstrang where her friends were? Because as much as she missed Vale, she had left the other half of herself behind  without a fight, and followed him, on the orders of their father, when it seemed that he didn’t want his sister around. Maybe she should have put up a fight. But, she knew coming to Hogwarts after Vale left would only be worse than coming when he was still there. “Hello, brother,” She said, as if she was greeting a distant cousin that she’d only met once or twice before in her life. Not long ago, she’d have embraced her brother, spoken to him in what felt like was a language of their own, made up of inside jokes woven together with a closeness that only siblings could have. But that had changed when their mother had died. It wasn’t quite immediate, but not long after, Maddie had felt like she’d lost her brother, as well. And honestly, her father wasn’t much of a comfort to her. That’s when she found her family in Durmstrang, forge from former friends and those that had, in the past, made the people that had made her brother’s blood boil. Like her boyfriend. Tensely, she sat down across from him, ice resting on her features as she looked at him from the corner of her eyes. I miss you, she thought, but didn’t say it. Instead she went with, “I got detention,” and waited for the response. (@vmulciber​)

“Oh…” Remus replied with a nod, remaining quiet as he realized that he had in fact never seen the girl before. Her question then confirmed his suspicion. “Name’s Remus, and yeah I’m kind of in a quadruple marriage to them. You’re new here?” 

“Quadruple? Who’s the fourth? Black’s hair?” She quipped, before holding out her hand to him. A friend of Sirius Black’s could be an attention grabber in the worst way possible, which was just the way she liked it. “I’m Madeline. It’s nice to meet you Remus. And, yes, I arrived yesterday.”

Madeline stepped off the train and onto the platform of the Hogsmeade station. Orginally, she was meant to floo in to Hogsmeade that evening and be accompanied by the Head Master to the castle, where she’d be introduced to the staff, and have the weekend to adjust to the current curriculum that was being taught to her new classmates. But, Madeline had an idea of her own, as she often did about these things. She wanted to ride the train. It wasn’t that she wanted the epic experience of her first train ride to Hogwarts, nor that she wanted to cause trouble, which, admittedly, the fifteen year old did want to do; it was simply that Madeline Mulciber wanted to see how her brother would react. This was the first of many things she planned to do in the following weeks and months to gain her elder brother’s attention. It was unclear to her if he still even cared or not, especially since their mother had passed and he’d let them be separated so he could attend this precious brick ruins. 

Friends that she’d grown up with had told her stories of the boat ride they’d taken over the black lake to get to the castle on their first night. Gabrielle Nott had told her in detail about the beauty that suddenly appeared, like light breaking through the mist to guide the way back home. Of course, the first year at the time hadn’t used such language, but that’s how it had developed over the years. Not that Madeline and Gabrielle were close anymore. School had separated them, and then it was like the other girl was frozen in the naiveness of that first year, even five years later. Madeline had to much going on with two separate lives to do more than tolerate that. Still, though, she’d known that she could ask the girl to send a boat out on the lake, with a little persuasion from a carefully crafted friendship bracelet that may or may not have had a hint of dark magic woven into it’s threads. It would break before the night was through, falling from the girl’s wrist in the middle of the night, if it went as planned, and then disintegrate, like it’d never existed in the first place. Gabrielle was too goody-goody to break the rules on her own, and the bracelet simply provided a little extra push to complete the task.

Madeline wanted what she wanted. And she didn’t mind playing games to get it.

It took her only a few moments to get to the edge of the lake, and another to load herself and her belongings into the small dingy, if that was even what the little rowboat should be called. Boats weren’t Maddie’s thing. Then, she set across, waving her wand to make the oars guide her across the mirroring water. It was still cold enough in the spring that the water was dark and hyper reflective, the perfect picture of what lay ahead was only marred by the ripples from her little ship. 

The ideas of how the castle would reveal itself to the new student could never live up to the reality of crossing the water that late afternoon. The ruins she’d thought so distastefully of since they’d stolen her brother from her disappeared, replaced by a glorious castle perforating the dusk’s hues of golden and orange. Little flames danced in the fading light’s wake, like stars bidding her to navigate by their directions and into this foreign place.

The privacy of the boat was the only moment that she’d allow herself to gape at the new life that laid before her. She’d left behind half of herself at Durmstrang, and unloaded the other half of herself out of the boat that evening.

“Welcome to Hogwarts,” A voice cut through the enchantment of her entrance and came from the direction of the stone steps. And with a sparkle emerging from behind a pair of halfmoon spectacles, the Headmaster smiled at the girl