Curiosity Kill The Cat... solo

December 13th

Illowy,
You certainly are quite a scrappy one, aren't you? You've certainly inherited the famous Magnard Temper. You're mother used to be the same way. She once said to me, "What doesn't kill me better run." she would never back down from a fight. I suppose she isn't like that now. You are so much like her though, it amazes me. Keep your wit about you though, child. A temper like that is bound to lead to trouble if you let it get ahead of you.

You're a fighter, Lily. You always have been.

I will see you soon.

-D.F.

The train ride home had been excruciatingly long. There was so much uncertainty around the idea of going home for the holiday, but in spite of her cousin's invitation to join him and her aunt and uncle, she felt the need to be home. There were answers she needed to search for. Illowy had sent a letter home to inform her mother she'd decided to come home, but of course there was no answer. By this point, she didn't expect them anymore.

It was so uncomfortable, the sudden distance between herself and her mother ever since Kyle's secret had become known. Her mother seemed so troubled and upset about it, but refused to talk about it. Not even to her own sister. Frankly, it worried the girl. The only time she felt even a slight connection to her mother anymore had been over the summer when her mother would help her practice advanced spells for class, but that was the only time she could get her mother to say more then a handful of words to her in one go. Since starting back to school, she hadn't received one letter; though she knew her mother was getting them since whenever she requested something from home, it was promptly sent, but never with a note.

The only letters she'd received were from the strange sender D.F. of whom she still had no idea who that was. However, he seemed to know an awful lot about her. Short memories about her past, recent events happening in her life, details about her mother and her family... it was beyond unnerving. It only egged her curiosity on though.

When she did finally arrive home, she dropped her bag in the front hall, "Mum? Are ye home?" she called, wandering about the downstairs level and into the kitchen. Her question was promptly answered by the note stuck to the refrigerator door.

Emergency at work. There is food in the fridge and I picked up some of your favorite snack. I will be home as soon as I can.
-Mummy

How convenient.

Illowy snatched the note from the fridge door with a roll of her eyes before tossing it away in the bin, "I'll just expect you'll be avoiding me all holiday..." she muttered to herself.

Every time she came home to this house... it felt less and less like home. Like being in a stranger's house where all her personal belongings and life memories happened to be. They had lived here for as long as Illowy could remember, and as far as she knew, she'd never lived anywhere else. Then again... she'd never asked otherwise. There were a lot of questions Illowy never asked, and she couldn't answer why she hadn't. Had she always lived here? Had anyone else ever lived with them... many of her earliest memories were a haze.

Chewing on her lip, Illowy took a bottle of water from the fridge and started towards her mother's study. Naturally, she'd been in there before, but she'd never thought to look around. The doors slid apart easily as she entered the room. The walls were lined with floor to ceiling shelves, each crammed with books, though some shelves held drawers and cabinets to hold various other things. She took a deep breath before sitting down at her mother's desk; it was a heavy wood, old and artistically carved. Her mother always did have a fondness for beautiful things.

Illowy wasn't entirely sure what she was doing as she began pulling drawers open, sifting through the various documents. There was nothing terribly interesting until she came upon a worn yellow packet envelop. Taking it into her hands, the girl laid it on top of the desk.

Important Documents; Fillin
Corrected, Finalized, Forgotten

It was easy to recognize her mother's handwriting. It was her quick, angry/upset sort of handwriting nonetheless. Bending back the brass prongs that held the thick envelope closed, Illowy slid the entire contents of the packet onto the desk. Paperwork, documents, newspaper clippings, photographs, letters... Illowy started with the photographs. It was easy to recognize her mother in several of them, some she saw herself in as a baby or a small child. However, the common factor in each photo was the inclusion of a strange man she didn't recognize. She even checked the back of a couple and all that was written were the dates or locations.

Pushing assumptions away, Illowy chose to move on.

Placing the pictures aside, the girl started going through the documents. The more she read, the more she started piecing together a lost part of her life, and a hidden part of her mother's life.

Marriage license - legitimizing the union of Rose Sybil Magnard and Desmond Eli Fillin
A birth certificate - Born April 5th, 2007 Illowy Sage Fillin. Mother Rose Fillin. Father Desmond Fillin. Godmother Katlin Derook. Godfather Sean Derook.

Then came a lengthy amount of court documents Illowy had no hope of understanding.

Divorce papers.
Documents changing the surnames of Rose Sybil Fillin and Illowy Sage Fillin to Magnard

The girl sat back in the chair, taking a long moment to try to process what she'd just read. Her mother had been married. She'd had a father, whom she could only assume now was the man she saw in the photos... but that all looked so happy. What had happened?

The girl then picked up the newspaper clippings.

On the evening of August the 4th, a wizarding family was attacked in their country cottage in Ireland by a rogue pack of Werewolves. Inside of the house were two aurorers, a secretary for the Ministry of Magic, and her young daughter. The family was getting settled in for the night when they were attacked. Thankfully, the aurorers were able to hold off the werewolves until help was able to arrive. No one was seriously injured.

The leader of the pack was later identified as Desmond Fillin; of whom's family was who was attacked. Fillin stated in court that he was not aware that it was his own family who was inside the cabin. Fillin was later sentenced to life in Azkaban for attempted murder. Court sentences has yet to be announced for the others in the pack who participated in the attack. No motivation behind the attack has been released yet.

As she poured over each word, it was like recalling a memory... recalling a nightmare. One she'd had endlessly since the incident over the summer. She remembered that night.

She remembered her aunt and uncle in the love seat together. She remembered her mother chatting while she laid by the fire, bathed and ready for bed. She remembered Hell coming through the door of that quite summer cottage. The snarls, the screaming and yelling. The pure chaos as Illowy, barely a child of five, tried to escape it. The piercing blue eyes that bared into her before the largest of the beasts lunged. It had been her mother who cast Depulso, tossing the girl as far away from the monster as she could before casting Accio which swept the girl back again into her mother arms...

Every painful moment of that night reeled through her mind... so many memories that had been locked away in some deep vault were suddenly swimming to the surface of her mind.

The room suddenly felt so hot, the collar of her jumper was tight. Dropping the papers back on the desk, the girl quickly tugged the garment off, tossing it aside before reaching for her water bottle, taking a long drink and trying to pull her wit about her once more. One had to admit it was a lot for one young witch to process.

Raking her thin fingers through her hair, the girl stood from the desk, hurriedly gathering everything back up to settle back in the envelope and sealing it back with the brass prongs laid flat and tight. Hugging the packet to her chest and snatching up her water and jumper, the girl hurried out of the suddenly overbearing and oppressive room.

This was too much.
Too much to know.
Too much to remember.