Chapter Text
“Raven, stay focused!” Andrew yelled at me.
Hanging upside down off my broom during the last practice of the year may not have been the best idea to impress Andrew, the Captain. But it was the last practice of the year, and summer vacation was looming ahead. Beach days, Izzy visiting, and spending time with my parents
I swung back up, grinning, as Izzy laughed beside me. “Come on, Andrew! You know for a fact that it was a fluke that the Horned Serpents won the cup. Let's just have fun today!” I said.
“Yeah, Andrew, don’t be a stick in the mud.” Izzy added after me, batting her eyelashes at the older boy, who blushed in response.
Izzy was my best friend and complete opposite. She was also extremely flirty when she wanted to be. She was the Glinda to my Elphaba, complete with hating each other for the better part of the first semester when we were eleven. Now however, we were inseparable.
“Fine!” Andrew said after a long pause. The team cheered. Soon races began across the pitch: Who was the fastest. Who could do the best stunts. We were so into the moment that none of us noticed the headmistress, Professor Bradley, walking out into the field.
“Raven Lavoie!” Her voice was amplified, echoing through the pitch. We all stopped and looked down. “Please come with me to my office at once.”
Everyone looked at me.
“What does she want?” Izzy asked me.
“I have no idea. I’ll see you back in the room later?” I asked her.
She nodded at me.
I flew down to Professor Bradley and dismounted my broom, propping it over my shoulder as I closed the distance between us.
“What's going on Professor Bradley?” I asked the older woman.
“Not here. We’ll talk in my office,” she said to me, her face unreadable, a mask of forced composure.
She started to walk away and I followed her. A growing sense of unease started to form in the pit of my stomach that grew when I saw Professor Anderson, the charms teacher and my head of house, standing at the castle doors waiting for us.
I followed my two teachers through the castle corridors. Our footsteps seemed to echo loudly throughout the halls. The closer we got to the office, the harder I felt my heart beat against my chest. By the time we got to Bradley's office, my palms were damp.
She held the door open for me and I made my way into the spacious room. I was surprised that there was another person sitting in her office already.
“Please, Raven, have a seat.” Bradley said, conjuring an extra seat for me and for Professor Anderson. Anderson took one of the two seats and Bradley went to go sit at her desk. I stood in the doorway hesitating.
“What's going on?” I asked yet again.
“Raven sit,” Anderson said this time, the tone in his voice not giving any room to argue. I made my way slowly to the seat, looking between the three adults.
“This is Mr. Madison, he is a MACUSA official. He’s here because he has some information for you,” Bradley said, looking at the man who was sitting across from me. Bradley’s hands were clasped tightly on her desk in front of her.
“Miss Lavoie, I’m here to officially inform you of your parents’ death.” He said this in a cool matter of fact tone, like he was reading the morning paper, or checking an item off of his to do list.
I stared at him a moment, a smile starting to form on my face.
“This is a joke, right?” I asked with a nervous laugh. This can’t be real.
“No, your parents' bodies were discovered in your mother’s office at MACUSA,” He said to me, his face emotionless.
The smile on my face started to fall, and I slowly began to lose the sensations in my limbs as the words settled around me.
“Raven, I know your parents' death has come to you as a complete shock, but you have a choice to make,” Bradley was staring across her desk at me.
“Choice?” I asked, my voice hollow, I hardly could hear my own voice.
What choice? I was now alone, I had no family. Also with the laws surrounding magic being so strict in the United States I really had no idea how MACUSA handled orphaned teens. What kind of options were there?
“Yes, there are a few options that we have,” Mr. Madison said to the room.
“Obviously, the best course of action would be to place you with your closest living relative. As of now...” he said, scanning the clipboard he was holding in his hands and flipping through a few pages. “We’re tracing your family tree to see where you can be placed.”
“For the time being, we will line up a wizarding foster family to take you in once your school year is finished.” He paused.
“You will be picked up by a department contact who will bring you to your home. You’ll gather up as many belongings as you care to take with you. Since your parents left no will as far as we are concerned…” He double checked a note on his clip board.
“The house will be put into a freeze until you become of age or until we are able to locate a permanent guardian for you.” He flipped the papers back into place.
The MACUSA official finally met my eyes then and I stared back at him.
How was I supposed to pack up my life and my childhood home to be sent adrift in this world? I slowly nodded at him, because it became clear that he was waiting for a response from me.
“Raven, I know this is a lot to take in, but if it will help things you may be excused from the last few lessons of the term.” Bradley said to me softly.
I realized that Bradley was trying to hold back her own tears. She knew my father, they worked together to help No-Maj students enter into Ilvermorny.
“Your exams are finished so you don't have to worry about that. We will also be excusing Miss Foley, of course, we know she’d want to be with you during this time,” Professor Bradley added, watching me closely. Again I nodded as I felt that's all I could do.
“Well, if that's it then I will be off. We will continue working on finding permanent guardianship for you, but in the meantime enjoy the rest of your school year,” Mr. Madison said.
I gaped at him with my mouth open. How can I enjoy anything without knowing what my future will hold?
“Do you have anything you want to talk about Raven?” Professor Bradley asked me as the door closed behind the official.
“Will I be coming back in the fall?” I asked. I could feel the prickle of tears in my eyes and I dug my nails into my palms, willing myself not to cry.
“I wish I could tell you yes. But as you know, with MACUSA lifting many of the restrictions placed on our world and with more Ilvermorny campuses opening across the country, depending on where you are placed...” She trailed off.
There were three Ilvermorny schools across the country. The original, which I attend, in the mountains of Massachusetts. One on the opposite side of the country in Mount Shaista, California, and the most recent one that had opened in the swampy bayous of Louisiana.
“Oh, I see. Thank you Professor Bradley. I think I need to be alone for a bit,” I said in a small voice.
I understood what she meant. I may not be returning to my school that I have grown to love, the school my mother went to. I stood, walked out of her office, and in a blur, I made my way to my dorm room and fell onto my bed.
§§
“It's not fair! Why can't you stay with us? You have been to my house before and it was never an issue! My parents wouldn't care!” Izzy Foley was saying loudly to me on the last day of school.
We were in our dorm packing. After leaving Professor Bradley's office I sent the professor a note asking her if I could move in with my best friend Elizabeth Foley's family. Then I would be with people that I know and would be able to stay at this Ilvermorny.
“She passed along my request to the MACUSA official and he said no. Apparently you have to have certain certifications that take years to complete to be able to foster an underage witch,” I replied, venom lacing my words. I had let myself feel some hope that my request would be granted.
I should have known better than to get my hopes up.
Izzy must have heard the tone in my voice. She walked around her bed and pulled me into a rib-cracking hug.
“No matter where you go, you will always have me. We'll crow to each other once a week,” She said into my hair as we hugged. I clung to her like she was my last lifeline and if I let go I would drift out into the sea forever. My crow, Midnight who was sitting on his perch, let out a throaty kraa to this.
“Twice a week,” I muttered, pulling away from her. “Let's finish packing.”
Students funneled their way through the narrow halls, Izzy and I made our way to the table for the third year’s to deposit their wands. Since we were not of age, we were not able to bring our wands with us over school breaks. They stayed safe in the school until we returned.
I hesitated at my wand box, not knowing if I'll be returning, but surely they would send me my wand no matter where I went... right? In the end I set it in its box and thought a small goodbye for now.
Our school is located on the highest peak of Mount Greylock and the train is located underground to cut a straight path from the school to Salem. The train ride that usually filled me with excitement and anticipation for the summer was shrouded in a blanket of despair.
Izzy sat next to me with a few other classmates holding my hand and giving me the support she could before we separated in Salem. After arriving in the small witching town it would be another 20 minute train ride to my hometown, Ipswich, MA.
In a blink the train was slowing and we were disembarking; but there were no parents waiting for me at this stop like normal. Izzy got off the train and her parents, as well as one of her older brothers, was waiting.
With the MACUSA growing more and more lenient to the world outside of magic, the schools started to allow No-Maj born children that showed potential for magic were able to come and learn if they wished. Izzy was one of the first No-Maj-borns that had been allowed at Ilvermorny.
Mrs. Foley, after hugging her daughter, took me into her arms. “I am so sorry about your parents Raven.”
I held on to Izzy’s for a long moment before pulling away.
“Please send a crow to Izzy if you need anything from us. And hopefully whoever you end up with will allow you to come and stay with us over the summer. I will even talk to them if necessary.” She said to me as Izzy stood behind her mother nodding her head viciously.
“Thank you.” I said to her and move to give Izzy one more hug.
Once we broke apart I grabbed my suitcase and made my way to my next train. It felt like only moments later I was stepping on to the Ipswich train station platform. There, in very expensive black suits, stood a man and a woman holding up a sign with my last name across it.
“Miss Lavoie?” The woman asked as I approached.
“Yes,” I sighed, wishing I could be someone else.
“We're here to help you pack up your home for storage, gather the things you'd like to keep, and see to it that you get to your new home,” The MACUSA agent said to me in a matter of fact tone.
Packing my entire life away was easier than I had realized it was going to be.
The MACUSA officials explained to me that I could take as much as I wanted, but we were on a deadline to get on the road.
“We’ve set up a small storage unit for you, if you need it.” the woman said to me. “Pack as much as you’d like to keep, once we seal the house, you can’t get back in until you’re of age.”
My body ran cold at her words, and I didn’t realize I was twirling the ends of my hair viciously until I felt a few strands tug loose.
I dragged a few boxes into my room, charmed to expand as I placed my belongings into them.
I really didn’t need much. My school things were already packed.
But now I needed to decide what part of my life I wanted to keep with me for the next four years, and what parts I could leave behind until I turned seventeen, and that’s if I was able to come back right when I became of age.
I started with my photo albums, books and a good portion of my favorite DVDs, one that I could watch a million times and never get tired of. I threw all my clothes into two boxes haphazardly. I grabbed from the end of my bed the crochet blanket my mom made two years ago, my favorite pillow, and a few other knickknacks that I didn’t think I could leave behind.
On my desk I paused at a jar, picking it up carefully in my hand. Jagged chunks of sea glass from midnight blue to clouded white shifted as I held the container. Pieces that I had collected over the years while searching the shoreline with my parents.
My parents… my breath caught in my throat a moment and I forgot to breathe. Sucking in a shallow breath, I set the jar down.
Everything was packed into five large boxes. In a smaller, more easily accessible backpack I put my laptop, iPod, and the savings I had accumulated over the years. The rest of my things were to stay where they were, until I returned.
The MACUSA officials had gone room to room while I was packing, placing anti dusting charms, and preservation charms on everything. The bigger furniture, they waved their wands over, and white sheets flew from the tips, landing softly, making the room look as though it was filled with ghosts.
“These sheets are enchanted,” He said, turning to me as I watched him.
“None of the furniture will wear over time, nor will any dirt, dust, or bugs be able to get under,” He said with a light tone, as if it made everything better.
My room was the final room to be sealed. One officer waved her wand, and my five boxes disappeared, knowing that with as little as I packed. I probably wouldn’t need that storage unit they have for me.
The three of us made our way out of the house.
“Okay Miss Lavoie, we will be placing your house under a Safehold Charm,” the woman official explained to me.
“This will completely seal your house, no one can get inside but you, once you're of age.” she tapped the door handle. It glowed a bright yellow.
“Put your wand hand to the handle,” she instructed me.
The moment my hand curled around the handle, I tried to jerk back. It was hot to the touch, but I couldn’t remove my hand, and it grew hotter, but before I could say a word, it went from fire hot to ice cold within moments, and I was able to pull my hand away.
I was surprised that there weren't any blisters on my hands from the heat of the handle.
“Once you open the door when you return, all the storage and preservation charms in the house will also lift.” She gave the handle a tug, but the door would not budge, she nodded satisfied.
She turned to leave, the male official already sitting in the SUV, the back already loaded with my boxes. I stood, my heart in my throat, my eyes dry, wide but unseeing, as I stared at the handle.
“Miss Lavoie,” the woman called, I jumped.
I gave myself a small shake, and forced my legs to move.
Taking out my iPod, I stuck the earpieces in and turned away from the only home I knew and stepped unwillingly toward the unknown.
§§
There were only three weeks until the start of the school year and I had just been moved into another home. If I stayed here, I’d go to the Ilvermorny campus in Louisiana.
I laid on my temporary bed, not even bothering to listen to my music or read a book, and pondered if it was worth trying to unpack. Before I could make any decision there was a knock on my door.
“Raven,” Mr. Woods said to me. “You have a few visitors.”
My eye brows pulled together.
I have been here a day and have spent it sulking in this room. How could I have a visitor? Who'd want to see me? I stared at him, not willing to move.
Clearly unimpressed, he rolled his eyes and motioned with his hand for me to follow.
Mrs. Wood was already sitting in the kitchen across from four people. One clearly was a MACUSA official, another very official looking woman, and two women who were casually dressed. The older one had short hair that was streaked with silver. The second had chocolate brown hair that fell in the same waves as mine along her back.
“Oh my,” the older woman said. “You're the spitting image of Charlotte at that age.”
“She definitely has the family hair color and complexion,” the younger woman echoed. Both women spoke with a British accent.
“Hello, Miss Lavoie. I'm Robin Baxton from the Ministry of Magic located in London, England. I am here with Mrs. Ruth Burton and her daughter, Ms. Clary Burton. We believe, with tracing your family tree, these women are your remaining family. On your mother’s side.”
“I am Mr. Johnson with the MACUSA Miss Lavoie, would you be willing to give us a blood sample? To be sure they are your family we'd like to perform a blood potion.” I looked to the official that spoke and then to the women.
Family? My heart started pounding in my ears.
“Okay,” I said nodding, my voice airy with what sounded like hope.
“Okay,” Mr. Johnson repeated, he stood and clapped his hands together. With a wave of his wand a vial appeared on the table, “All you ladies will need to do is give your finger a small prick and place three drops of blood into this vial. We will need blood from Miss Lavoie and Mrs. Burton.¨
The older woman clambered to her feet and took the pin from the wizard and pricked her finger. She placed it over the vial and drip, drip, drip went her blood.
I took the second pin that was being held out to her and mimicked the woman, pricking my finger and dropping three drops of blood into the vial.
“Now we wait a moment, If the color stays red, we do not have a match, but if it turns violet” Mr Johnson trailed off.
Everyone waited in a hush. The two bloods swirled around each other and very slowly the vial turned to a vivid violet color.
“So... that means we're related? How?” I asked stupidly, sliding into one of the kitchen chairs, my legs felt like jello.
“Well,” Ruth began, “I lived in America in the early 1940s with my family, my parents and my sister, Charlotte. I fell in love with a wonderful No-Maj man, but the law would not allow us to marry, so we moved to a place where we could be together. England.”
“Grandma Lottie was your sister?” I asked. I thought back to when I was little, I remembered grandma Lottie as the older woman who read me fairy tales and told me stories of magical lore. She had passed before I had turned seven.
“Yes, Clary is your mothers cousin, so that makes her your first cousin once removed.” Ruth nodded at her daughter.
“I'm so glad to meet you again Raven. We met once when you were a tiny baby when I came to the States for a visit. I had always meant to come back, but...” Clary trailed off.
“Why didn’t you ever come back?” I asked suspiciously.
I was trying to buy myself more time as I pieced together this confusing family tree. Ok, so if Grandma Lottie was this older woman's sister, that made her my moms Aunt. So Clary and my mom were then cousins, wouldn’t she just be a cousin to me as well…why is this so confusing? Who came up with these rules anyways?
Clary and Ruth exchanged glances.
“Let’s just say there were… harsh circumstances that affected our means of communication until recently,” Clary said, obviously choosing her words carefully, tossing her long hair over her shoulder.
Looking at her I could see more similarities between her and my mother, nothing that looked exactly the same, but you can tell they are related. “So what does this mean for me now that I have officially found family?”
The two government officials looked at each other.
“This is tricky,” Mr Johnson said. “You have been raised in and started school in America. For you to officially move with your aunt and cousin, you need to leave the country and international immigration for witches is difficult, especially when one is so young.”
“Actually, her age makes it easier.” Robin Baxton said glaring at Mr. Johnson. “She is not of age and the transition should run smoothly. The Ministry would be willing to give her dual citizenship until she’s of age and an additional three years to decide if she'd like to stay in England or move back to the States. We are willing to compromise.”
There was silence in the room.
“Raven, what do you want to do?” Ruth asked, breaking the silence. “This is your country, your home. It's a lot to ask anyone to leave.”
Everyone turned to me. I sat silently, my thoughts turning over in my head. Thinking of Izzy and how much I already missed her, but knowing I’d see her again and that our friendship could survive the distance, I finally spoke. “Mom said family is important. I thought I had lost all my family. Then to find out I do have some left...I can't give that up.”
The two women beamed at me with tears in their eyes. They both got up and came around the table to hug me. I was sandwiched between them and it was the first time since my parents died that I imagined I could be happy again.
★
“Raven, how about you gather your stuff together?” Clary looked down at the fourteen year old girl who was sitting in the chair after releasing her from the hug. Clary marveled at how genetics work. She looked so much like her Aunt Charlotte, so much her mother Anna. She also had the signature family chocolate hair color.
“Okay,” Raven said, looking at the two women again and turned and went back into the house.
“Now that Raven is out of the room. What happened to my cousin and her husband?” Clary demanded, snapping at the MACUSA official that was sitting at the table.
“I am not at liberty to tell you,” Mr. Johnson said to her, the jolly tone he had been using while Raven was in the room disappearing and a more businesslike voice emerging.
“Excuse me? How am I to help this girl grieve if she has no answers. I demand answers.” Clary snapped, staring at the man.
“It is classified information. I don’t know, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.” He said firmly. Clary and her mother exchanged glances. There was something they were keeping from them. Something that would make the MACUSA look very bad.
“Fine. What did you do with the bodies? It has been, what, at least six weeks?” Ruth asked, looking to the hallway to where Raven retreated to the room she was staying in.
“Well there was no will, and there was no family to reach at the time. The MACUSA took the liberty to have the bodies cremated.” The official shifted in his seat.
There was silence in the room at Mr. Johnson's words and the air grew thick. From what Clary had been told by her ministry liaison, Raven was taken from Ilvermorny, brought to her home to pack up her things, and then right to her first foster family.
“Raven was able to say goodbye to her parents, right? You allowed her to see the bodies before cremation, I hope?” Clary asked through gritted teeth. Everyone was looking at the MACUSA official.
“No. We didn't think that would be necessary.” Mr. Johnson said a bit uneasily, under the glare of Ruth and Clary.
“Not necessary!?”
“How could you do that to this poor child?”
“How could she ever get closure?”
Angry voices were talking over each other. Not only was Clary and Ruth yelling at this egregious man, but so was Raven's foster mother, her husband looking too stunned with this information to speak. As did Robin Baxton. Mrs Wood and her husband were previously sitting in silence listening to their conversation with rapture. What had this government told them about the situation?
“Silence!” Robin Baxton stood, holding both arms out to get the attention of the yelling women. “Let us not forget that Raven is due back at any moment. I luckily had the foresight to cast a silencing charm on the doorway, so she hasn’t heard anything, yet, but you all need to calm down. Raven’s wellbeing is our main priority right now.”
The room once again fell to silence. Ruth was the first to recover.
“Where are my niece's ashes?” She asked, her voice cracking on the last word.
“They are in safe keeping at MACUSA .” Mr. Woods scoffed at the words that Mr. Johnson said, looking doubtful.
“When will we be able to retrieve them?” Ruth asked, her voice weary.
“Raven may retrieve them when she is of age. When, or if, a will is discovered.” Mr. Johnson stated.
“That’s completely unacceptable,” Robin Baxton, who was sitting down now, stood once again. Both hands flat on the table. She looked like she wanted to curse Mr. Johnson with every fiber of her being. “You will give this poor family their relatives' ashes. This is not a negotiation.”
Before anything else could be said Raven returned through the doorway.
“Is everything okay?” She asked, her eyes darted to one tense face to the next..
“Yes, everything will be fine,” Clary said to Raven, even though she wasn’t entirely sure that was true.