Darklight Sisters. Taken Away.

Darklight Sisters.

Chapter Two: Discoveries.

"She's coming! Lets get out of here!" said Emily in a desperate whisper to the girl standing over a pile of books a few feet from her. "Come on, she'll catch us! We'll be grounded for life!"

"Not yet...I've almost got them..."

"But C.A. I know you've almost got them! You've been saying that for at least half an hour!"

"Don't worry, Fiona is taking care of that big old rat. By the time when she finally gets rid of that tail, we'll be out of here, carrying our pasts in a folder."

"Well, that's a point. I bet she'll never find out who put that jinx on her. I love Fiona being so good with that old wand. Why don't we ever get our own wands?"

"Maybe because this is an orphan house which depends on charity and donations from people with a family? I mean, if this wasn't supported by that arrogant blondie, we wouldn't even know we are part of the Wizarding World."

"Right. D'you think our families had money?"

"D'you think we should continue having this conversation and look for important documents later?"

"Got the idea. Keep going with that, I'm not very sure about Headmistress Freya being such a moron to not fix her backside in a second. She may be a piece of ham, but she isn't that slow-minded."

"Oh my God!" shouted C.A. over a tall file cabinet, "I've got them!" She held in her hands three folders. She leapt down from the stack of books and gave them to Emily with shaky hands.

"I can't believe it! Now let's run out of this place and find Fiona. Without a doubt, you are the best Carol Anne." Emily hugged her as they walked past the door and into the hall.

"This is the best day of my life!" said Carol Anne, her voice breaking, "Where d' you reckon Fiona is hiding?"

"I'm here. What were you saying about the best day of your life?" interrupted a sweet voice. Coming from behind a statue appeared a short girl dressed in old brown robes, just like Em's and C.A.'s.

"Well, lets just say that now we can find out if there is any possibility of being related with that old rat. I hope we aren't," answered Emily with a grin. She looked a lot prettier when she was happy with her blue eyes shining like diamonds.

"Oh my God! It worked! It finally worked!" laughed Fiona almost falling into Carol Anne's arms, "Our plan has come to an end! Our plan has come to an end!" Emily and Fiona started dancing and hugging each other.

"No it hasn't," Carol Anne cut across them sharply, "...we still have to get out of here, remember? This information will help us nothing inside these walls."

"Oh, don't be such a spoiler, we'll take care about it later!" said Emily, "And about getting out of here...we'd better go to our dorm, somebody, meaning the old rat's sweet little daughter-in-law, can find it very odd that three girls are having a great time outside her office." And after agreeing with her, the three girls ran back to their bedroom, sharing with each other a feeling of peace and relief inside their hearts.

_ _ _ _

The dorm was an ample, old room with a tall ceiling and a few oil lamps hanging over the eleven beds displayed at each side of it. It smelled bad, walls were painted gray, but there were patches of green on them because of humidity and a terrible lack of cleaning. Each bed was covered with a few dirty blankets and a pillow made of dried leaves. There was no glass on the dusty window frames, and sun filtered through the tattered curtains. It was early in the afternoon - almost everybody was out at the yard - so the only people in the dormitory were Emily, Carol Anne, and Fiona, who were sitting together over Fiona's bed, each holding a different folder. The girls were looking at the each other with a frightened expression on her face. Straightening the mattress, Carol Anne spoke first.

"The time has finally come," she said with a dramatic quality lent to her voice, "when we will know why the hell we are living here, and who the hell are the people who left us here. Open your folders at the count of three, and only talk if there's something remarkable about it. When the first one finishes, say it and wait for thso we can discuss them openly. All together!"

"One...two...three!!!" the threesome shouted together. Each girl did as Carol Anne had said, and they had read for a minute or so when Carol Anne jumped in her place and fell off the bed in shock.

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" she whispered in a faint voice, "This can not be! This can not be!"

"What can not be?" helped her Emily getting up again and sitting her next to them.

"Is anything wrong?" said Fiona, barely noticing Carol Anne's expression.

"This isn't my folder! This isn't my folder! I'm not supposed to share a folder!"

"I was actually wondering why yours is thicker than ours," smiled Fiona, finally realizing what was it all about.

"It isn't your folder?" asked Emily, apparently worried, but then added sarcastically, "Or you don't want it to be?"

"My folder is supposed to contain a single file labeled 'McLadden, Carol Anne'," the girl explained to her astonished friends, "but...it contains two files...one is obviously mine, the other is apparently my sister's."

"You don't have a sister," Emily said flatly.

"Now we know she does have one," said Fiona taking the carpet from her friend's hands and taking a look at its pages, "it says here that twin sisters 'McLadden, Carolyne' and 'McLadden, Carol Anne' were left at the gate of this orphanage the night of October 25^th 1981 by a house-elf named Kreacher under his Mistress's orders. The Mistress was a woman named Black, I can't read her first name, it's kind of blurred. It seems that their parents didn't know about this, their signatures aren't here, even though it says that the father was alive, but the mother dead..."

"Why didn't the father keep them...us?" interrupted Carol Anne excitedly.

"Well, I don't know!" answered Fiona, "the only thing I can deduct about your parents is that they weren't very creative for names. I mean, Carole Anne and Carolyne..."

"Oh come on! Continue, what happens next? Did the father ever came for his daughters?" asked Emily getting closer to Fiona and trying to peek on the documents.

"D'you believe he ever came to rescue his daughters...if I am still sitting here?" laughed Carol Anne sarcastically, "I want to know why I don't know my sister, please continue Fiona."

"It says here, 'McLadden, Carolyne was adopted by a foreign, Muggle couple on November 1981. She was taken to live in the American Continent. Neither the house-elf nor its Mistress were present during the examinations for the baby's adoption.' So your sister lives in another continent, but you were never adopted. I supposed that when somebody comes to adopt a baby and this baby has an immediate relative remaining with him/her at the orphanage, the adopters are advised to take both kids so there will be no problems or confusions in the future. Why didn't they take you?"

"Dunno, maybe she's prettier than me."

"She can't be prettier than you, you are identical twins. Besides, here's a contract in which the adopters agree with every term in Wizarding law, but they aren't supposed to...oh my God! This adoption was illegal!"

"What do you mean, 'illegal'?" questioned Emily, who was very interested in the situation.

"You know I've read some of the books in the 'Library' (if you can call it that, being a dark room with piles of books scattered through the floor) that talk about laws. In one of them, 'Magical Law for Beginners' it says that Muggles aren't allowed to adopt children from the Wizarding world unless they remain living in the country where the adoption was made and/or continue being part or at least being communicated with the Wizarding world. Now look at the contract!" explained Fiona showing them a piece of parchment written in cursive letter with dark ink.

Adoption Form.

# 21031

Date: November 11^th 1981.

Orphanage Administrator in Charge: Freya Galliser.

Terms for Magical Adoption:

+ The environment in which the baby will be raised was approved by Ministry representatives .

+ The adopters read and agreed with Magical Decree # 812 about Adoptions.

+ The adopters have knowledge about The Statute of Secrecy.

+ The adopters have been interviewed and approved by Ministry representatives .

Baby's Name: McLadden, Carolyne.

Baby's Age: Approximately 13 months, birthday unknown.

Adopters:

Father: Araiza, José Manuel, age 30.

Mother: Araiza, María Catalina age 29.

In Agreement with every single term for magical adoption, the adopters sign in confirmation of their wish to raise a wizard/witch baby.

José M. Araiza

M. Catalina Araiza

Freya Galliser

"Obviously, this isn't right!" exclaimed Fiona staring at her friends' expressions, which let her know they didn't understand the problem. "Look, Carol Anne, your sister was adopted in a hurry. I can say that because there isn't a Ministry of Magic signature or seal in this document. There wasn't time for Ministry representatives to check out the adopters, which takes months. And this is dated less than a month after your appearance!"

"So you are trying to say that wherever my sister is, she is living a life that isn't legal?"

"Something like that, I mean, not that she's a criminal, bu we can not know if her parents are actually who they say they are. We don't know why they took her if they weren't living here. We don't know why they didn't take you with her. We don't know a lot of things."

"Enough about me! What does it say in yours?" said Carol Anne enthusiastically, "There must be something important."

"In mine," started Emily, smiling, "it is written that my parents were a pureblooded witch and a Muggle murdered by Death Eaters. I was at that moment hiding inside a cupboard, that's why I'm alive. I was found by Ministry Auror Alastor Moody and brought to the orphanage one rainy morning of January 1981. Apparently I was going to live with my mother's aunt, a squib named Arabella, but she wasn't approved by Ministry representatives because she looked like an old bat and was always surrounded by cats. She is actually living in Little Whinging, Surrey."

"That's something!" laughed Fiona, "Let me read mine complete, I didn't get through the second line before we started checking out Carol Anne's." She started whispering as she read the first paragraph of the piece of parchment she held in her hands. Suddenly, her face was darkened by a sad expression on her eyes.

"What's wrong?" asked her Emily.

"My...my mother was... a Death Eater...she was convicted by Ministry officials... and was sent to Azkaban... she never got there. And about my father...it isn't quite amusing...he was murdered by his own wife...both pureblooded...she never killed me...because I was taken away from her the night she killed my father. Her last name is Bode, sister of an 'unspeakable'...who wouldn't admit me in his house...for I was the 'cause' of his sister's fate."

"His sister's fate...he's nuts! How could you be the cause of that damn woman serving You-Know-Who?" Carol Anne interrupted.

"I don't have the slightest idea. Maybe she got married when she was pregnant and then she met other Death Eaters and got convinced that in this way she could protect me. I guess she didn't think the consequences if she got caught."

The girls sat silent for a long period of time, thinking about their destroyed families and the people who let them go without struggling for them: Carol Anne was abandoned her father, but he never tried to get her and her sister back home with him; Emily was singled out by Voldemort's servants and then Ministry people didn't let her go with the only relative she had and that only tried once to adopt the baby, not improving and trying again; finally there was Fiona, who was taken away from her mother, a Voldemort servant, after she murdered her husband, then the baby's uncle refused to take care of his niece because of the mother's actions.

The three girls had thought that morning that knowing the exact reasons which led them to live in an orphan house would make them happy and would help them find their real families if there were still living members of them. Now they were more confused than at the beginning of their investigation, for now they knew there were people remaining, but that none of them was able or wanted the responsibility of taking them home. Sunset came and with it more girls turned into the dormitory, getting ready for dinner and looking desperately for books, parchment, ink and quills to finish their homework before midnight, or next morning they would arrive late to their History of Magic Monday lessons. Here and there were girls whispering about summer vacations and why they always consisted on just one lesson every morning and the whole day for doing almost nothing.

"Aren't you coming? It's Sunday, remember Lisa cooks cheesecakes tonight!" told one small girl to Emily.

"We'll go in a minute Sophie," answered Emily, and after Sophie had ran away, she added to her friends in a whisper, "maybe this will be our last cheesecake night here. We need to hurry up with our plan."