Cursed Ancestors And Clones PV Ana Finished

Anastasia pressed her lips together as she walked to the classroom Ivy had said to meet in. There was more than one on the second floor, but usually, most of them were locked on Sundays, so she had a pretty good idea of which one it was. She'd had a spectacularly eventful week, involving a flaming Hufflepuff, jumping off the owlery, and hexing a first year. Strangely enough, the three things were in fact, unrelated. So much for an uneventful normal first week back at school. Meeting someone who was identical to her hadn't even been the fifth most interesting thing that had happened that week. 

That didn't mean she hadn't been thinking about it constantly. She hadn't been able to get her hands on a Beckett family tree, but she had found a book in the library that had the first several confirmed purebloods in history and traced their lines until about 100 years ago. That would have to work for now, since it was what she had. She was glad for once about her parents making her memorize every one of their relatives for the past several generations. She couldn't list them off the top of her head anymore, but she would certainly recognize one of them if she saw them. 

Entering the designated classroom, she saw Ivy sitting on the floor with what Anastasia assumed was her family tree. When the other girl turned, a chill went down Ana's back. She was definitely not used to that yet. She hadn't decided how she felt about the other girl. She seemed likable enough, but Ana couldn't help but feel uneasy around her. Not that it was her fault, just that Ana highly doubted that their identicality was the universe telling them that they were meant to be besties. Still, despite her uncertainty, she smiled at the younger girl as she entered and pulled out the book she'd found. "That I am," Anastasia said. 

@Anastasia Beckett

Was it strange that Ivy did not find it too alarming when she saw Anastasia anymore? Perhaps. But in one of the many rooms of Bellamy Manor, there was a mirror where you could hold a conversation with your reflection - it was like speaking to your own portrait, which Ivy did at times, a rather strange thing especially when encountering a younger version of yourself, and she found that seeing Anastasia in the corridors was a little like that. When speaking to her, Ivy had to constantly remind herself that the older girl was not her, and therefore would not understand her fully.

Ivy's gaze dropped to the book Anastasia was holding in her hands. It did not look like a family tree, but she understood that it was hard to get your hands on something that was such a prized family possession. Alison had written in the letter that had come with the family tree that it had been extremely difficult, and that had her mother forgotten to lock the bedroom door, she would not have gotten the chance to sneak in and take it from underneath their bed. Ivy decided not to mention the Beckett family tree and moved closer to her family tree.

"This is the Bellamy family tree," she announced airily, waving her hand at the miniature tree. The portraits dangling off the branches squabbled loudly, shouting that she had interrupted their nap, and Ivy had to stop herself from laughing. As she looked down at the branch where her sisters' portraits hung, she hesitated, noting Lillian's empty portrait. Lillian, age 29, had eloped with a Muggle boy five years ago, and after years of no correspondence, she had sent a letter to Hogwarts last September. Ivy had been furious and confused, and their letters had been going back and forth for months now until they had just stopped. Ivy's brow furrowed. Then she remembered what she was here for and turned back to Anastasia, smiling.

"So, we should start at the roots, shouldn't we?" Ivy said. Kneeling down, she craned her neck to look at the portraits assembled there. "Honestly, I think we've got quite a chore ahead of us..." she muttered as one of the portraits demanded that she let them go back to sleep. "Perhaps we ought to take a look at your book and then see if we can match it up to any of the people on here."

Anastasia chuckled a little at the miniature tree of bickering portraits. From what she remembered of hers, it had a similar, although not exactly the same, idea behind it. Every Pureblood family tree was a little different. Ana had once made a joke that each family had to make their tree look different since all of them had the same people on them. Her mother had not appreciated that and she had been scolded for saying something like that. She thought it was funny, and quite frankly, pretty much true.

 There were only so many purebloods, and since most of them only had one or two children, it was a mathematical impossibility for them not to be related at one point or another. It was all kind of gross to Anastasia, and while she understood the importance of marrying someone who was a wizard so that they wouldn't be surprised when a potential child showed signs of magic. Honestly, seeing as wizards were a small enough percentage of the global population, Ana really didn't see the purpose in limiting yourself further. 

Ana knelt beside the girl, skimming the portraits to see if there were any familiar faces or voices. She doubted it would be quite that easy, but she figured she would at least try. No luck though. She noticed an empty portrait here and there, which was sadly normal for Pureblood family trees. Ana had had a cousin, Amelia, who had been disowned a few years back and Ana honestly had no idea what had ever happened to her. It was a pity since Amelia was probably the only cousin Ana could actually tolerate. "That we do," Anastasia said in response to Ivy noting that this would be quite the task. Anastasia wanted to figure out a way to look 3 generations, or 7 or 10 or 13 since these were important numbers magically, and generally, blood curses or whatever it was they were looking for hit every few generations. At Ivy's suggestion, Anastasia cracked the book. This was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack since they really didn't know what or who they were looking for. It was like looking for a specific needle in a pile of other needles, pins, and hay. This should take a while...

@Anastasia Beckett

Ivy hefted the family tree onto a desk ("I am your great-great-grandmother! Be more careful!" shouted one of the portraits shrilly, which Ivy ignored) and pulled up a chair to sit. "We ought to look for maiden names as well," she commented, to Anastasia. "My mother was a Peyton, and my grandmother was," she consulted the writing underneath the portrait, "a Jamieson."

She leaned over the table to view the book. It was visibly aged, with old pages and ripped edges. Apparently it recorded the first few purebloods and all their descendants. Ivy knew that the Bellamys were one of the oldest pureblood families there was, and so were the Peytons. That fact made it a little easier, although this task was still hard. "Perhaps we should work our way backwards," suggested Ivy. It would be a lot easier to find a great-grandparent on the list and then work back from there. Sure, it would be extremely aggravating as you wouldn't know which one would go back to the ancestor Ivy and Anastasia shared, but it was something.

The Bellamy family tree would only help if their common ancestor was a Bellamy or someone who had married into the family. The Peytons' family tree was stored all the way in Provence, France, her mother's birthplace, and there was no way Ivy could ever get her hands on it - it had been hard enough getting the Bellamy family tree already, and she had to send it back quickly before her parents noticed. "We should get to work."

Ana chuckled slightly at the portrait yelling at Ivy. She wondered exactly who thought it would be a good idea to make wizarding portraits talk. She also was still unclear on the logistics of the portrait. Like was it the person's soul or something? Or just someone's impression of them? She made a mental note to ask a professor about that later and tried to stop getting sidetracked.

"Certainly, my mother's maiden name was Switch, and I think my grandmother's was Oakwood," she told the girl. Listening as the girl suggested working their way backward, Ana nodded. This was an overwhelming task, and she really had no idea what they were looking for. "That sounds as good a place to start as any. Make special note of names that are a number of generations away like 3 or 7 or 10. You know, magically significant numbers."

She couldn't remember if they'd learned about magically significant numbers in first year, but it didn't matter. If Ana had to guess, they would find someone who was maybe 25 or 100 or even 1000 generations away. Generally, blood curses were odd like that. Honestly, if Ana was going to curse someone's line, she would just curse the entire line, not have it skip about like a child on a pogo stick. Hell, if she wanted to do something to someone that was that bad, she would just kill everyone around them and prevent them from having children or marrying. That made so much more sense than the bizarre 'every thirteenth generation shall get mumps' thing. Ana didn't think she would care very much to hear that some random person that she would never actually met would be cursed. Realizing how dark and off-topic her thoughts had gotten, she focused to see what Ivy would say.

Anastasia seemed to take to Ivy's idea and nodded, providing her mother and grandmother's maiden names as well. It should not come as a surprise that Ivy vaguely recognized the surnames - perhaps she would have crossed paths with the Switches or the Oakwoods at one point, or someone else had mentioned it. All pureblood families around the world were socially connected somehow.

Ivy nodded at the suggestion of looking for magical numbers. It seemed to be a consistent pattern among cursed bloodlines. Personally, Ivy wouldn't do something so random and idiotic. If she wanted to hurt someone, she would slowly take away everything they loved until they had nothing, and let them drown in their misery. Was that a little sadistic? Maybe. But unless someone greatly offended her, they were safe, and she was getting off-topic anyway. "Maybe even 13? Oh - and if we get that far, 666. It's meant to be a mark of the devil or something."

Ivy flipped the book to the last page, making sure to be extra careful with the old book. She didn't want one of their only resources to get ripped. "But what kind of curse would we be talking about? I mean, having two people look identical doesn't really faze me that much. Unless..." Her unfinished sentence hung in the air. Unless one of us dies. It was a morbid thought, and Ivy tried to brush it off quickly. Surely not. She took a bundle of parchment and a quill from the pocket of her coat, dipping the quill into the inkpot at the end of the table before writing a title at the top of the page.

Ivy was beginning to realise what an overwhelming task this would be. There were hundreds of thousands of pureblood families in the world - this was worse than looking for a needle in a haystack, it was like looking for a specific needle in a tower of needles. "It just had to be our ancestor, right?"

Ana nodded at the younger girl's reply. It was good to see that her doppelganger was fairly bright. Ana didn't know what she would do if there was someone who looked exactly like her running around the school and being a complete moron. So far, the girl seemed fairly similar to her, which was unnerving, but rather comforting. It meant she wouldn't have to be on overdrive to bully the first years to keep her reputation.

At the girl's question of what kind of curse, Ana was again comforted. It sounded as though this girl was a tad more optimistic than she was. It was nice to know that they weren't carbon copies of one another. Now that would be creepy, and Ana would just have to dispose of the other copy. She was glad that she wouldn't have to resort to murder just yet. Good Lord, she had a dark sense of humor...

"Let's just say that, at least in my studies, having a doppelganger isn't a sign of long life and prosperity," Ana said with a mirthless chuckle. She pulled out her own parchment and quill. Bloody hell, what a tedious task. She chewed her lip. She laughed again at the girl's comment. Unlike her previous laughs, this was a real laugh, not a sarcastic one.

"Considering how utterly tragic my luck is, it's really not that surprising," Ana said, as though it was a funny joke and not her life. Honestly, if she actually considered her rubbish luck, it would rather ruin her mood, and she didn't feel like being sad at the moment. Glancing back that the other girl after a moment of working, Ana decided that, seeing as they were identical and were probably going to be seeing quite a bit of each other as this project continued, they probably ought to know each other a bit better. "It's occurred to me that I know next to nothing about you other than you're fabulously good looking and we're probably related. So, tell me a bit about you?"

The task was tedious, and Ana was in fact legitimately interested in getting to know the girl. She hoped the other girl wouldn't be too weirded out by Ana's uncharacteristic familiarity. Somehow, they were more than strangers, and Anastasia was inclined to keep someone who looked so much like her on her good side. Whether or not Ivy had realized it, Ana had already concluded that one could utterly destroy the other's life if they set their mind to it.

Reducio

Sobs, I'm so sorry I took so long and I don't even have a beautiful mood board for you.

@Anastasia Beckett

If 'tell me about yourself' had been asked by anyone else, Ivy would have snapped back and told them that they were being too intrusive. She had done so plenty of times in the past, after all. But there was something that connected Ivy with Ana, something that made them more than just acquaintances or strangers.

"Alright," Ivy agreed. "I live in the countryside of Sussex. I have two sisters, a horse, and... um... I like ballet?" How did people even talk to each other? Ugh, screw it.

"My older sister got herself disowned because she ran away with a Muggle," here her eyes flickered up to the ceiling briefly, "and essentially broke our family." Ivy was really bad at this. "What about you? Any disowned family members of your own?"

What was that? Disowned family members were a touchy topic with most purebloods and rarely spoken about. Ivy's cheeks turned red as the portraits on the tree began to squabble and she began to write down names aggressively.

"Do you play any instruments? I play the violin and piano." She was changing the subject, just in case Ana didn't feel comfortable answering the previous question. She wouldn't force her to talk about any disowned family members - Ivy wasn't that tactless.

Ana was rather glad that it seemed as though Ivy found this all as strange as she did. Normally, Ana wouldn't just tell people to tell her about themselves, since a) she wasn't actually that interested in most other people, and b) she always knew all the important gossip, so she assumed that if she didn't already know something about someone, then it couldn't be that important. The fact that the other girl did ballet shouldn't have been quite as unnerving as it was. Practically all of the pureblood girls she knew did ballet. Still, the similarities between the two just weirded Ana out.

When Ivy switched to disowned family members, Ana arched an amused eyebrow. That was certainly ripping the bandaid off. Still, since there was something tying the girls together, she supposed it wasn't completely unwarranted. "I do, actually. I'm sure there are plenty of others that I don't know about, but my cousin, Amelia was disowned a few years ago. She, among other things, became a muggle-born activist and I think had a muggle-born boyfriend," Ana said. She honestly had no idea what had happened to Amelia, since she hadn't heard from her in the over five years since she'd disappeared.

"Oh, I play violin and piano as well! I prefer singing though, Ana replied, just in case Ivy didn't actually want to talk about disowned family members. God, pureblood parents really just wanted all of their daughters to fill the same mold, didn't they? Ana was sure she could predict several of Ivy's answers based on her own life. That was probably why she was so unnerved by their resemblance.