Have you met VANYA NOVIKOV? SHE turned TWENTY-SEVEN on MAY 15TH, is a PUREBLOOD and is currently RODOLPHUS LESTRANGE’S ASSISSTANT. I heard they are NEUTRAL and attended DURMSTRANG. Don’t they look an awful lot like ANGELA SARAFYAN? They are played by VIRA [ she/they | est ]
From the day she was born, Vanya was cursed to live a life where nothing but pain and suffering would engulf her. While she was never made aware of her birth Mother’s whereabouts or name, she was made very familiar with her Father’s preference for cruelty. He ruled the house with an iron fist, and brought women home nightly to quench his own lusts.
After one particular woman became close to Vanya by reading her stories and even buying her a doll, her Father made swift work of her. Vanya awoke to the smell of blood and the sight of torn flesh being strewn across her bedroom. The image was burned into her mind, and was often used to punish her when she did anything her Father remotely found distasteful.
Vanya had no real idea how it happened, but a spark of her fear caused the curtains in her room to set fire. Soon, she was being sent off to Durmstrang, where she assumed her Father had made a deal with someone to permit her to attend such a school. She came from a poor family, and she arrived with nothing to her name but the single doll that the woman in her nightmares had gifted to her.
When some students had made it a point of bullying her for her lack of supplies, she was surprised to find one boy that stood up for her. He shared his things with her, and after two months, she woke up to see he had asked his own Family to provide her with what she needed. Through all of that, Vanya hadn’t even spoken a word to him. She learned his name was Igor, and she had started to communicate with him through notes.
She became like a new limb to the boy, being everywhere he was and only separating when it came time for bed. He even took to calling her Vanny, which she didn’t mind, as it was the first time someone had spoken to her like she mattered. When they had time free, she was even learning Japanese from him, which led to him finally hearing her voice.
But, her speaking would always be short lived. Like clockwork, Vanya would open up and begin to talk, and then she would return home. By the time Igor saw her again, she would revert back to her mute state, barely making eye contact with her friend as he’d do his best to coax her back into feeling safe once more. This was always the cycle, and she often wondered why he put up with the situation when it was so much of a hassle.
Eventually, she couldn’t hide behind him at all. He was leaving to be an Auror, and Vanya saw herself face to face with her Father. Only now, she had a wand, and he had a new found goal to break her beyond any repair. She knew he hated Igor, and he would do his best to make her forget about the man. The letters that were being sent to her were burned at first, but she assumed Igor had learned fast and made it so the letters would only reveal themselves if she spoke a spell in Japanese.
She kept in contact with him. Her letters weren’t long, and soon, she woke up to see worse visions above her bed. Blood and gore that threatened sweetly to engulf her. Whispers that told her she wasn’t worth anyone’s care, and she believed them. The only thing she never did believe was that Igor would leave her as well.
The man was too stubborn to leave anything alone. Eventually, Vanya had made her own system of telling what was a trick from her Father and what was real. A system that was slowly failing her, and one that made her send out a final letter asking for help. She didn’t expect for it to work, but she woke up to feeling someone petting her hair and it felt familiar. Seeing Igor, and seeing more blood, her panic bloomed.
But the panic was washed away when she realized why there was blood. She didn’t feel anything when she saw her Father’s lifeless body, but she did feel lost. There was nowhere else for her to go, and she had considered allowing herself to die. Dying sounded nice, and while she was eager for it, she realized Igor would never let her follow through with such an idea.
Seeing his life in England made her curl into herself more. Vanya spoke to no one but him, and refused to sleep alone unless she knew he was there. But being alone would never help her heal, and she was soon thrown into a job much against her will. Someone that Igor knew through some group he was a part of; one that left him with what she thought was a rather tacky tattoo.
Vanya fought tooth and nail against it, only to lose and reluctantly accept the job. Her life wasn’t worth much in her eyes, but it meant the world to her only friend. For now, in spite of so many people picking sides around her, she remains neutral. She remains haunted.
Killing her Father did little to remove the hold he had on her. And, in time, that grip would rear its ugly head for anyone near Vanya to see.
