Liberté Foncée

CHAPTER TWO: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

"'Afternoon," Mark said to his brother, studying him with a frown. Ayden stifled a yawn and nodded by way of morning greeting. Mark scowled. "What in the devil's name were you doing last night?" he said as Ayden sat down and started to pour a bowl of cereal.

"Did we already go through this yesterday?" Ayden asked with a sigh.

"We didn't go through anything. You were lucky Vi was there. So where were you?"

"What does it matter? I'm home, I'm safe, isn't that all that's important?" Ayden asked innocently, a smirk playing over his features.

Mark glowered at him. "It's not funny. You keep disappearing like that and one day you're going to get hurt. I won't know where you are and what'll I do then, eh? How do you think Violet would react? She'd go ballistic."

Ayden squirmed slightly in his chair, his smirk disappearing. Making Mark fret was one thing. His brother could be quite funny when he was worried. But making Vi anxious was something Ayden didn't like doing if he could help it. Violet could get very up tight and she could very literally lose it if it looked as though something had happened to either Mark or Ayden.

Violet worried too much about them.

No, that was wrong.

Violet worried too much, period.

YEAR 2022

"Do you remember her at all?"

So long ago, I don't remember when

"No. Leave me alone."

"Nothing? You don't remember anything at all?"

"I said leave me alone, Libby."

"Oh, c'mon, Erik, can't you just try to remember? Please?"

"I told you to leave me alone!"

Libby sprang back as though her brother had slapped her. Seeing her frightened brown eyes, Erik softened slightly. "Look, Libs, I don't remember. Okay? I was only four when she died."

That's when they say I lost my only friend

Libby looked away and played with a lock of her fiery red hair. "I was only one when Mum and Dad died," she said quietly. "I remember them."

"You do?" Erik asked. His jaw dropped.

"Yes," Libby bit her lip. "At least I think I remember. They argued a lot, but they loved each other..." Erik nodded, and Libby went on. "I remember... once at Christmas, I think... Mum put on some Christmas carols and Dad picked me up out of my cradle... started dancing with me..."

"You really remember that?"

Libby nodded.

Well they said she died easy of a broken heart disease

"Wow." There was a pause. Erik bit his lip. "I guess I remember Marie... a bit... But not much. Just scattered things, you know? I remember us tossing around an old Quaffle that didn't hover any more one time... it was the day you were born. Dad took Mum to the hospital and left us with Aunt Gin."

He frowned slightly, trying to remember more. "Most of what I remember is what I heard at her funeral. They said the usual stuff - how her life had been taken too soon and all that. But I really didn't know what death was back then, you know? Aunt Gin asked me if I understood that Marie was dead and... and I nodded and started crying because everyone else was... then I asked her if Marie'd be out to play on Saturday."

As I listened through the cemetery trees

"It must've been terrible for her mother..." Libby said thoughtfully.

"How would you know?" Erik asked spitefully.

"Aunt Gin told me what happened to Marie's body." Libby said quietly.

Erik suddenly felt sick. "C'mon, Libs, let's go home." he said. A shiver ran up his spine and a chill spread from the inside of him out.

"Erik?" Libby asked hesitantly.

"What?"

"Can you take me to see her grave? Marie's, I mean?"

"Libs, I - "

"You know where it is," Libby pestered. "Right by Mum and Dad's, I've seen it. And Uncle Charlie told me it was hers."

Erik sighed. "Libby, I really don't feel up to it right now."

"Please?" Libby begged.

"What's with this sudden interest in my old friend anyway?" Erik asked, scowling.

"I - I found a picture of you and her... when you were little..." Libby admitted.

Erik felt uncertain. Then, out of the blue, like a second personality making up his mind - or maybe it was his guardian angel, a Miss Marie Easton - he felt like he needed to take Libby to the cemetery. More for himself than for her, really. He needed to prove to himself that he could face the spot that he'd avoided all his life...

*

"There," Erik said hesitantly, pointing to a gravestone with the name engraved in it. "That's where Marie is," he said heavily. Marie...

Libby looked transfixed. She stared at the marble grave marker with the sculpture of the angel above it, and the name etched sharply in the now slightly grey-white stone.

Erik looked away.

He remembered...

Everyone around him was dressed in black. Erik saw people he knew, and a few he didn't. Marie's mother was standing beside his Aunt Gin, who had tears in her eyes and Libby in her arms. The two women were talking quietly, and Aunt Gin was comforting Mrs. Easton.

He looked around himself, seeing his many uncles, his grandparents, strangers...

Most of the people he could see were crying.

Erik felt the tears well up in his own eyes, though he wasn't sure why. Why were all these people so sad? It didn't make sense to him...

Suddenly, he was running. He darted out of the graveyard, and heard people calling him to come back, but he didn't stop. The cries quieted, and Erik crouched behind the bushes just outside the cemetery gates.

"Erik? Erik?" Erik snapped out of his chance.

"What?" he asked Libby, startled.

"Are you okay?" Libby asked, frowning.

"Yeah, Libs, fine. Why don't you go check on Mum and Dad's graves while we're here, eh? I'll be over in a minute."

Libby nodded, and obediently headed to one of the neighboring plots of land, casting glances back at her brother, a worried look on her face.

Erik stared at the grave a moment longer, and flashed years back...

He wiped the tears out of his eyes and looked around himself. No one had followed him out of the graveyard. He leaned his back against a large tree. The bark felt rough. He turned, and grasped the lowest branch, which was just within his reach and pulled himself upwards, and into the tree...

"You coming?" Libby called. Her voice sounded too loud in the quiet of the cemetery, broken only by the gentle chirping of birds and buzzing of bees in the summer air.

"Yeah..." Erik said quietly. "I'm coming."

As he and Libby headed out of the graveyard, Erik shot a glance back at the double grave Libby had been standing at.

He couldn't read the words engraved in the headstones, but he knew his parents names rested there, as surely as his parents rested beneath the earth before each of the graves.

If he squinted, he could make out the words, but just barely. Or maybe he couldn't make them out at all, and just knew them so well it seemed like he could see them...

Here lie Ronald and Hermione Weasley...

*

YEAR 2012

"Marie! Marie!" Anxious cries rang out across the darkening landscape. The echoes of the nervous voices repeated themselves across the moors; Marie...Marie...Marie...

The sky was a black-grey color. Dark clouds blanketed the world. The sun struggled through in breaks in the clouds, a blazing orange, almost blood red color. The world was quiet except for the fading echoes...

"Marie!" the last call was almost a wail of anguish and fear.

There was no answer. The little girl did not come running home, perhaps with a bouquet of wildflowers that she had been picking and had not heard her mother's desperate cries.

Suddenly, hoarse yells and high-pitched screams filled the crisp night.

Andrea Easton whirled around, half hoping to see her daughter sprinting home, and instead felt a scream rising in her own throat.

There, among the dark clouds and blazing sun, a glittering green skull had been embossed on the heavens. The snake protruding from the skull's mouth reared its head and more screams came.

Andrea shrieked as the something abruptly fell from the sky and at her feet.

The lifeless eyes of Marie Easton stared at her. The blond locks of hair that her mother had taken special care every morning to secure in two pigtails were stained with blood. The child's mouth was open in a scream that could no longer be heard. Her blue eyes were glazed with terror. Marie's once-pink Muggle tee shirt was soaked with her own blood.

Andrea gave a second scream of agony and fell to her knees beside her murdered daughter and her husband and sons came running to her side.

High above them in the now black sky, the emerald green skull twinkled among the clouds - a sinister moon to mark the end of the day.

*

YEAR 2112

"Where are you going?"

Ayden cursed silently and stopped dead at the door. He loved his brother, but Mark could be a real pain sometimes. "Out," he said firmly, not turning around to face the older boy.

"When are you going to be back?" Mark asked suspiciously.

"Later," Ayden replied coolly. He wished Violet was there to get Mark off his back. His brother just got so protective at times...

"Just be back before it's too late, will you?" Mark asked bitterly.

"Sure," Ayden replied, hand on the doorknob, already turning it.

"Ayden," Mark's voice had suddenly softened.

"Yeah?" Ayden still didn't turn around.

"Take care of yourself, will you? For God's sake, if you won't do it for me, do it for Vi,"

Ayden remained motionless for a few moments, then opened the door and stepped out of the apartment.

He didn't say a word.

*

The four of them had agreed to meet at Alena's that night, partly because she seemed to be the only one with a family that wouldn't say anything about her bringing three friends over.

Ayden discovered that he wasn't (as he had thought he would be, thanks to Mark's questioning) the last to arrive at Alena's home. Mrs. West welcomed him in graciously, looking a little surprised.

She started asking Ayden various questions, about his family, heritage, etc., before Alena and Rayne showed up to rescue him and led him to the den.

"Does she do that to all your friends?" Ayden asked, flopping into a chair.

Alena grinned. "Mostly. Whenever anyone comes over here, she can't believe it. A living, breathing friend knocking on the door! How amazing!" her voice was dripping with sarcasm. "I don't have too many friends," she added.

"You're lucky we got you out of there before her mum got into asking about your sexuality," Rayne informed Ayden.

"I didn't need that," he confirmed, groaning. "I really didn't need that."

"That's your problem, isn't it?"

Ayden opened his mouth to reply, but Alena, sensing an argument coming on, interrupted them. "Do either of you know where Shane is?"

"No idea," Ayden replied, glancing at his watch. "He's late though."

"No kidding," Rayne retorted.

*

Shane almost made it to the front door without anyone noticing him.

"Where are you going?" Jack barked.

Shane silently cursed. "I'm getting together with some friends," he said through gritted teeth. He hated Jack questioning his every move; watching over him like a hawk, ready to swoop down at any given moment...

"Friends?" Jack snorted as though he doubted it.

"Yes," Shane resisted the urge to add, 'Is something wrong with your hearing?' which would have most certainly gotten him in serious trouble.

He was starting to think that Jack was going to keep interrogating him for the rest of the night, and he very well might have had the phone not rang at that moment. Shane picked it up. "Gimme Morris," a voice on the other end grunted. Shane handed the receiver to Jack, and while the man barked into the phone, he slipped out of the door, trying not to think of what Jack'd do to him that night when he got home.

*

"Where were you?" Rayne asked the second Shane managed to peel away from Mrs. West and made it to the den.

"Jack stopped me," Shane said, scowling. Alena and Rayne both looked at him curiously, but Ayden's expression darkened, and he let a stream of curses flow.

"Are we missing something here?" Rayne asked, frowning.

"His mum's boyfriend," Ayden replied promptly, still looking irritated. "And a first rate bastard if I ever met one."

Shane cracked a grin. "Not a bad description."

"So you two know each other well from before all this?" Alena wanted to know.

"Right," Ayden confirmed. "From school."

"We were together all through primary school," Shane added. "And now, too."

Ever since Voldemort had started his greatest reign of terror back in the year of 2012, which he had begun with the capture and destruction of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the only option for magical education that could take place for children not from long lines of wealthy purebloods was the series of small thirty-person school houses that were scattered across the continent. There were risks in attending them, of course. The schoolhouses mostly taught Muggle Born children, and many had been attacked over the years.

Most parents or guardians from magical decent tried to educate children at home, but some - like Shane's mother and Mark - couldn't manage it, and had to send kids to school outside the home.

The conversation turned away from school after a while and ended up with a discussion on Quidditch and whether the rumors that the World Cup might be canceled that year because of Voldemort were true.

*

Ayden walked home with Rayne, who lived only a few blocks away from him. They were silent for the better part of the walk, each thinking their separate thoughts. The sky above them had that strange effect where the sun is setting, glowing like a fiery orb, shinning through breaks in the darkened clouds which were different shades of dark grey and black.

The same sky had watched over the countryside the night Marie Easton had died.

A chill swept through the evening air. Suddenly, Rayne spoke. "Do you think it was a good idea?" she asked quietly. "What all four of us did yesterday, I mean..."

"It depends on what you consider a good idea," Ayden said thoughtfully. "My brother would go insane if he knew what happened. He's the real protective type. Probably afraid I'd get a disease or something."

"I think that... well... it's a good thing. I think it'd be harder to betray someone if you've got their blood running through you. It's a weird way of thinking, but it makes sense to me," he glanced at her.

"Makes sense to me," Rayne said after a moment of consideration, and smiled. She looked up, and stopped walking. "This is me," she said, nodding to the house to her left. "I'll see you later."

"'Night, Rayne," Ayden called over his shoulder as he headed down the street.

He walked home considering what he and Rayne had been discussing, thinking that in a way, it was all true.

Ayden unlocked the door to the apartment he and Mark shared.

He stopped, frozen in his tracks as the door swung open.

The room had been ransacked.

Chairs had been overturned and end tables thrown aside...

...and in the center of the room, were Mark and Violet's bodies.