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Narcissa B. M. Lestrange (lady_lestrange) wrote in accersitus,
@ 2008-04-03 22:16:00

Entry tags:

*thread-inprogress, alexander lestrange (2020), cygnus black (1974), meda lestrange (2020), narcissa black malfoy lestrange (2020), rabastan lestrange (1974), rabastan lestrange (2020)

A long-awaited arrival; various [NBML, RL, ML, RL, XL, CB]
WHO: Narcissa Black Malfoy Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange the elder, Meda Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange the younger, Xander Lestrange and Cygnus Black
WHERE: Somewhere near the Headmaster's office
WHEN: 24-25 December, 1001; just before the stroke of midnight and on
SUMMARY: Rabastan and Narcissa of the year 2020 arrive and much chaos ensues. IN-PROGRESS thread.
RATING: TBD

"I could almost wish for Albus Dumbledore," Narcissa spat over her shoulder to her husband as they moved away from the office of the current Headmaster. It had been an irregular meeting time, for it was the holidays, but with several days without any word about their children, Rabastan and Narcissa Lestrange had demanded another thorough search of the castle. That had been denied, due to a lack of staff, and Narcissa was livid, as well as highly distraught. Her children were missing and when they were found, for they would be found, she was going to murder the person responsible.

She turned the corner and stopped with a growl, turning back to face Rabastan. "This is-"

But Rabastan was not there. Instead of the corridor she has just moved through to this one, there was a wall. Confused and furious, she drew her wand and rapped sharply on the stone.

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freefamilyman
2008-04-04 02:38 am UTC (link)

Rabastan agreed wholeheartedly. Whatever could be said against Albus Dumbledore, one had to admit that he would never let this carry on for so long as it had. Children, more specifically, his children, were missing, and there was no explanation, none at all. Meda he could have understood, could have even felt a bit better about, because she had a tendency to run off unexpectedly, to find a private place of her own to sort matters out. Though as her father he couldn't pretend to understand it, he always wanted to help her work them out, he did know what it was like to be in a situation that felt overwhelming, maddening, and to want nothing more than to escape. Had Meda alone been gone he would have been worried, but he would have assumed that wherever she was, she was there of her own free will, that she could return if she got hungry or cold or wanted company.

However, with Alexander gone too, the scene in his mind turned from innocent teenage rebellion to something more sinister. Both of them had not just disappeared. Both of them had not wandered off. Someone had his children. Someone was holding them with some sort of motive, perhaps they had even hidden them in the castle, and no one would do what was necessary to find them. He was determined, and he knew his wife was too, to search every part of this castle with a fine toothed comb if that was what it took to find them. Azkaban had taught him that caring for material things, such as money and property, was worthless, but he was proud, and full of love, for this family he and Narcissa had created. The family, specifically his children, were what he credited with making the horrors of that place fade, and they were responsible with making him look younger than he had when he was first released. They gave him his life, and now someone might be taking theirs.

Rabastan turned slightly, and his eyes caught a flash of blonde hair. Was it....

"Meda!" Without hesitation he took several quick, wide strides toward the blonde girl in the window sill, certain it was his daughter now. "Meda Lestrange, you broke the rules." his voice was gruff, but his eyes betrayed the worry he had had for her, the sort of feeling that can only come from a parent concerned about the possibility of losing a child. "You've had your mother and I worried out of our minds."

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missmeda
2008-04-04 03:09 am UTC (link)

Meda Lestrange did have a tendency to run off unexpectedly, as well as somewhat expectedly, and Christmas Eve night in the year one-thousand and one was no except to this. She hadn't taken it as far as she normally did, and had only retreated to the less-used corridor that was the Headmaster's office corridor later years, but was only a strange dead end in this one for the castle here was still adapting to changes. It was quiet here, far from the chaos that was her entire extended family of the present and past... except her parents.

It was Christmas Eve, one of her most favourite holiday events, and they were not here to share in it. What worse, she was certain her younger parents here were less close now than they had been in the first Founder's reality, her maternal grandparents were concerned and unhappy about the time that had stretched between their arrivals, her paternal grandparents never seemed to be in the same room and the same time, even fi their ages were wrong and people who should be getting along by now, such as her younger mother and her aunt, still were tense. Nothing was right here, nothing at all.

Feeling excessively sorry for herself, she sat perched in a windowsill, wanting to change it all. "I just wish my parents, my parents from my time, were here," she pleaded to the castle, knowing it would do no good, for it hadn't before, and that rubbish about wishes being granted on Christmas Eve, the night purported to be when animals could freely talk, was probably just rubbish.

And then the man appeared and spoke her name. She had seen him simply pop soundlessly into the corridor, otherwise she never would have believed Rabastan Lestrange from her right time was standing there. Her mouth dropped open, then closed, then dropped open again.

"I did it," she whispered, blinking at him owlishly before a smile started to slowly creep across her face. "I did it. I wished you here ohmydearsweetmelrinandhissparklypantsDADDY!" With a rapturous scream of joy that likely echoed along the corridor, one that had built quickly in the insensible jumbled rush of her words, she tumbled out of the windowsill, thankfully to the inside of the building rather than the outside, stumbled to regain her footing and then threw herself at Rabastan.

On the other side of the wall, Narcissa had tried a number of counters to enchantments before determining what was between her and her husband was indeed an actual wall. Was this some sort of trap? Was the the same that had befallen her children?

She spun, wand up and sense on alert, searching the space she was confined to and realizing she was not entirely boxed in. While she was reluctant to stray far from this wall, knowing Rabastan would likely be trying to reach her, she did move forward slightly to peer around a new bend. As she did, she spotted Alexander, or rather, a boy she was certain was her son from the back.

Calling out his name she rushed to him and then, not even allowing the boy in front of her to turn fully around, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close into her faintly perfumed embrace, pressing frantic kisses to his temple and face, tears blurring her vision slightly. Dear Salazar, had he grown since she last saw him? Granted, it was not as long ago as many as she and Rabastan rarely let a whole term go by without some reason to see their children at school, but he did feel taller.

"Oh, my darling, my little Xander," she murmured, some part of her faintly realizing she could very well be embarrassing her near-grown son, but ultimately not caring as she near-smothered him in tearful kisses of relief.

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freefamilyman
2008-04-04 04:56 am UTC (link)

Rabastan frowned, slightly confused, as he had no idea what she was talking about when she said that she had wished him here, but the important thing was that he and Narcissa had found Meda, and he had to believe that Alexander was soon to follow. Everything would be alright, he reasoned, because they would be together as they were supposed to be.

He lifted Meda into his arms, giving her the sort of hug that left her feet dangling a few inches off of the floor and allowed him to half hobble with her in a slow circle.

And that was the end of any sort of untainted elation. "Narcissa?" He didn't set Meda down just yet, instead he held her close. What manner of trickery was this? Where had she gone, why she was just there and...was that wall in a different spot? Impossible, he thought to himself, absolutely impossible. "Narcissa?" Finally he set her feet back on the ground, though he kept her close, with his arm around her shoulders and her pressed close to his side. Something was certainly going on, and he had a wife and child missing, he wasn't about to lose the other one. "Stay close, hmm, you owe me for not following the rules earlier, Meme." He drew his wand, taking a few more steps closer to the wall. "Narcissa! Alexander?" His heart was hammering, and he felt as though the walls were closing in. This had to be some sort of nightmare, it had to be. Fate couldn't have given him such a family only to steal it from him one member at a time. Rabastan wouldn't allow it. If he had to turn every single inch of this castle upside down and disassemble it himself, he would. He wouldn't accept this.

On the other side of the room, another Rabastan Lestrange was quite surprised. He didn't have a chance to get a good look at the woman who all but attacked him, hugging him and kissing him and then she was crying and kissing him more. He almost pulled away, but didn't at the last moment. The poor woman was mistaken, and...

"Oh, my darling, my little Xander..."

Oh, so that explained it then. This had to be Narcissa Black Malfoy Lestrange, thinking that she had reunited with her son. He felt bad foreven thinking about pulling away before, because he knew how it felt to miss the people back home, and he didn't even have children to miss, not the way that she did. "Mrs. Lestrange, Xander's here, he is, but I'm not him."He pulled back slightly, but just far enough so that if she tried, if she wiped her eyes, she could see who he was.

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missmeda
2008-04-04 05:24 am UTC (link)

Meda hugged Rabastan back with all the force of a stranglehold, kissing his cheek repeatedly and babbling nonsensically as tears dropped to her cheeks. This was amazing, absolutely amazing and it would fix everything. It would. She was certain of it.

And then she let out another shriek of glee when he spoke her mother's name. "Mum? Mum is here too? THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER!" she yelled, throwing her arms tightly around his torso, as he had adjusted their positions. There would be no need to make Meda keep close – in fact, prying her off of him would be quite a feat.

However, by the way he was standing and looking around, she knew she needed to explain, and fast, before he worried more.

"Dad. Dad. DadDadDad." Once she was certain she had his attention, she gave him her most charming smile. "We're not where you think you are. Sort of. I mean, we are at Hogwarts. Just not our Hogwarts." This was not going as well as it had always sounded in her head when she imagined explaining everything to them. "We've... well, Dad, we've been pulled to the past. That's where I went, then Xander, and now you and Mum, so see I didn't break the rules, I've never actually left Hogwarts, not once the whole time I've been gone!"

Xander would probably have been better at explaining this, she decided on second-later reflection.

Instantly mortified for mistaking one of her son's schoolmates for him, but also immediately relieved this one seemed to know where Alexander was, Narcissa moved to stand back from, wiping at her eyes with one hand as she kept the other on his arm.

"I apologize, I thought you were my son from behind, but you said-"

And then she frozen. Before her stood her husband, only not. It was as though she were staring straight back into the past. And it was impossible.

The hand on his arm tightened, giving him no chance to escape from her, nor draw his wand, for a second later, his other arm was in her grasp. Though he had several inches on height on her, it was far from a disadvantages as even with her hands occupied, she could still deal him a painful punishment for this. Could, but would not. It, however, did not top her from looking as though a hex were only seconds away.

"Who are you and what manner of enchantment is this?" she demanded. The only thing saving this person from experiencing the tip of her wand against his throat was the fact that she could never draw her wand on someone who looked like Rabastan Lestrange. It was her one exploitable weakness, realized in not only someone donning the guise of Rabastan but of Alexander or Meda as well.

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freefamilyman
2008-04-04 07:03 am UTC (link)

Rabastan frowned, not really certain what it was that Meda was talking about. She was going on about things like being in the past and not leaving Hogwarts (which wasn't possible at all when he had watched them turn the grounds upside down) and they didn't make sense. That, however, could wait, until he figured out what was going on and where Narcissa had gone and where Xander was hiding. He couldn't believe that they were in another time or anything as preposterous as that. Rabastan was a very logical man when it came to things like this, and even if it meant he had to ignore the way that he could feel his pulse pounding in his temples and focus on every detail of this place to find them, he would.

"That's nice, Meme." he said distractedly, one hand holding tightly around her and the other going out to touch the wall. Damn whatever was going on for addling Meda's memory, for taking his wife and firstborn...damn it all. He let his hand push harder against the wall, so that he was almost trying to push through it, but it didn't go anywhere.

And then he remembered something Meda had said earlier. "Xander? He's here?" That was a start. He had seen Narcissa just a few moments ago, likely he could still find her, and if she knew where Xander was, perhaps they could all be reunited quite quickly.

"Dad?"

Rabastan turned sharply, nearly toppling both him and Meda in his desire to turn so quickly. "Alexander!" His son just blinked at him for a moment, as though he thought his father were an illusion, and then Xander began walking swiftly toward them.

"Meda?" Xander asked quietly. "Is that really him? Mum...is Mum here too?" he wasn't talking to his father, not yet ready to believe that he was here, and on today of all days. Happy Christmas indeed!

The younger version of Alexander Lestrange's father was currently feeling as though he was caught between a rock and a hard place. Narcissa was gripping his arm hard enough to make it quite uncomfortable. "Narcissa, I think you should sit down" Rabastan could remember how hard it had been for him to transition to this time, and likely it would be even harder for her as she tried to look for even more relatives than he did.

"I am Rabastan Lestrange, I swear it to you. You should recognize me, if what Meda and Alexander have been telling me is right. Now, if you'll give me five minutes, if you'll sit with me for five minutes and let me explain, you'll know as well, and, what's more, if I know Meda or Xander, they'll soon stumble in to find us. Five minutes, Narcissa, me, and you'll know everything."

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missmeda
2008-04-04 07:39 am UTC (link)

It was a good thing that Xander had shown up, as far as all were concerned, as Meda knew what that 'that's nice, Meme' meant and either option, that he wasn't quite paying attention or he thought perhaps she was feverish, was not good.

"Yes!" Meda cried, grinning at Xander gleefully as she hugged Rabastan harder. "It's him, it is, he's come back to get us finally and Mum is here. She is!" And then she paused, and looked up at Rabastan, eyes widening a bit. "Where was Mum when you saw her last, Dad?"

What if... no. NO. Her mother was here, she had to be. They had to have come together. They did come together.

Narcissa was not swayed by his insistence, no matter how artful it was, not when her children had been missing and now her husband was and people were appearing looking like him from years and years ago. She glared at him fiercely, not relenting one bit. How dare someone play this sort of prank or elaborate deception? Had he tried this on her children? Given what he was saying, he likely had, which only made her more furious.

"What sort of fool do you take me for? If you wished to try and impersonate my husband, perhaps you should have chosen an age slightly closer to his own," she hissed, having made no move to release him at all. "Say what you wish to say, but do it quickly before I decide keeping you alive is not worth my time." Her fingers tightened on his arms. "And if so much as one hair is missing from my children's heads, you will pay dearly for it"

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markedbastan
2008-04-05 03:40 am UTC (link)

Xander's stomach churned when he realized from the grief stricken look on his father's face and the the worried one on Meda's. No. Absolutely not. His mother was around her somewhere, because she and his father were like a set, they were never really complete without the other, and he and Meda had both been far too long without their parents. It was one thing to be an independent young man, to nearly be grown, but another to be old enough to not need one's parents. Xander never wanted to be THAT old. He couldn't imagine life without his parents, he was old enough to know that they weren't perfect, but they were his parents, and he could imagine no better parents. It was novel and nice to have the younger set of them here now, but he wanted his Mum now. She was the wisest, strongest, most wonderful mother in the world, and he wanted to talk to her about so much that she had missed. Dad was here, and that was nice, but that was just half of what he needed. He needed them both.

Rabastan pointed toward the wall. "She was over there." he hit his hand hard against the wall, then ran his wand across it, searching for some manner of enchantment there. "I'll get on the other side of it." he said more to himself than to them. "No doubt she's stumbled on some secret passageway and is looking for you there, Xander." he gave his son a worried look. "Meda was telling me something about where you two might have been for the last few days." he tried to say the words vaguely, to hide the fact that he was very much concerned for his daughter. She was mistaken, confused, perhaps even feverish, with all this talk about time travel and leaving but not leaving the grounds, and he didn't have the focus to think about it now. His first priority was to reunite them, and then he was going to get to the bottom of this,and make certain they were all well, both in body and mind.

Xander groaned. Damned time traveling and his parents being separated at the moment. He wanted to hug his father, to greet him, but it was just so... surreal to think that their father was here without their mother. Thankfully, his father took the initiative, pulling him in with a one armed hug.

"I'm sorry, I just assumed that you were with your mother, and she's alone somewhere. I didn't even get a chance to tell you how much I've missed you both, and to threaten you with your life if you should ever do this again. Now...back to finding your mother." First, Rabastan reminded himself, he had to reunite them. Everything else was secondary.

The younger Rabastan's jaw clenched. He had no idea what it was that came over him, perhaps it was some sort of strange paternal surge, but suddenly he was angry. She was confused, yes, but he wouldn't harm one hair on Meda or Xander's heads, not now, not ever. "Now listen to me." he said sternly. "I offered you an explanation, I am offering you to help find your children, I'm offering to do everything but tie your shoes, and if you'll just TAKE my help you'll find out that I am indeed, Rabastan Lestrange, and that I would never do anything to harm either Meda or Alexander. I've watched over them and protected them since they came here, and I'll continue to do so until the date that we find a way out of here."

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missmeda
2008-04-05 04:05 am UTC (link)

Meda made a face. "Trust me, Dad, we aren't going to do this "again" because we didn't do it the first time!" she said, then took his hand and yanked him down the corridor. "The Founders did. Or, the Founders in the other reality, not these ones, these ones are really responsible about having people here from the future, they've not let us mix with the students from this time, but they still make sure we get lessons and all the other things we need. I think you and Mum will like them, since it's not their fault we're here and I should really stop now and let you process that, huh? Yeah."

Casting Xander an abashed look, Meda looked back up at Rabastan with wide-eyes, as if suddenly expecting the area in the vicinity of his brain to erupt in fireworks or flames. She didn't, however, ceased in pulling him further down the corridor away form the wall. "Stupid unfinished castle, we have to go around the long way to get to Mum." And they would. Because her mother was here, she had to be. Meda wouldn't accept anything less than that.

While Narcissa might not draw her wand on this person, there was only so far that one could push the Lady Lestrange's infamous Black temper before she snapped, and snap she did as she let go of one of his arms to deal him a stinging slap across the face.

"You reprehensible little bastard," she hissed, yanking him closer with the other hand, for though she could not glare down at him, her fierce upward look could be said to be far more intimidating. "How dare you speak to me like that? Tell me, immediately, what is going on here and where my children are or you can absolutely guarantee that the words you just spoke will be you very last."

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markedbastan
2008-04-05 05:57 am UTC (link)

"We'll talk about it later, Meme, the important thing right now is finding your Mum." He leaned down, kissing her forehead quickly before casting Xander a worried look. Alexander looked worried as well, but Rabastan had no way of knowing that his son was worried that he was taking this all just a bit too well. Rabastan was worried for his daughter's mental health, but he knew that could be fixed later. For now he was more worried about Narcissa's immediate physical health.

"So if this castle is unfinished, Meda, how would one go about getting to the other side of this wall?" Rabastan emphasized the word 'is,' as he honestly didn't believe that the castle was any bet more unfinished than it had been just an hour ago when he was talking with the school officials. It was just a matter of the damned wall looking as though it were in the wrong place, that was all.

Gasping at the way the sharp slap made his head spin, literally made stars dance before his eyes, Rabastan's eyes narrowed. What the hell was his future self thinking? Yes, the Narcissa of his time was nice, and good with Meda and Xander, but this person, slapping him when he was only pointing out the facts, was infuriating. He never wanted to marry THIS particular Narcissa Malfoy.

"You want to know? FINE. The founders have transported us all back a thousand years. And I've been here for your children for MONTHS. I've been their father, I sat by Meda's bedside when she was ill, I learned about the 'rules' that you two have for her and I've watched over your son and your daughter. It's been FIVE MONTHS for Meda, three for Xander. They call me their father and I do what's necessary to keep them safe, I even promised to do whatever I could to bring YOU here. So here you are. You've went back in time, through no fault of my own because I could not figure out how to get you here, you're minutes away from being reunited with your children if you'll calm down so that they don't get upset at seeing you assault their father, and I'm sure they'd hate that. I asked you for five minutes, and I'll ask again. Give me five minutes to go through all of this and then it will make more sense."

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missmeda
2008-04-05 12:40 pm UTC (link)

Meda, however, wasn't surprised despite expecting a bad reaction. If anyone could take this well, it would be her father. He had survived wars and horrible places and all sorts of things, coming back to the past wouldn't faze him for long! Looking up at Rabastan with that well-known look of glowing adoration, she grinned and led him further down the corridor and around a bend that would take them around and back toward the front of the castle.

"They didn't need a headmaster's office yet," she explained cheerfully, "since they all have their own offices in this time, and so they haven't made the castle in this part like the castle in our time. No one comes here," well, except Meda when getting away from everyone, "for them to start making it that way yet, so we have to go around here," she said, pointing ahead, "and back to the front of the castle, then come back here from the other direction. Then we'll find Mum!"

They had to, they just had to find her.

Once they had made than convoluted journey back to a spot a few feet from where they had been, they likely would find Narcissa, but it was debatable if they would find the younger Rabastan as well. For now, however, she had been struck momentarily silent by the sheer audacity of his 'explanation'. Did he think she would relent simply because he had an excellent imagination?

"That is what you wish your story to me to be?" she asked, eyebrows high on her forehead, for the moment no longer as definite as . "that we are all in the far distant past, that my children have been here for months? What sort of – never mind. It does not matter what you thought you would gain by lying. You have, in fact, gained nothing. Take me to my children immediately," she ordered, turning him toward the only path away from the wall that stood between her and Rabastan. If she found the children, it would be easier to keep them together to go back to find Rabastan.

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fearedpatriarch
2008-04-06 06:26 am UTC (link)

"Yes, Meda, we'll find your Mum." Rabastan rubbed her back absently in a comforting way, though his mind was far from easy. This whole business made no sense at all, how his children could be gone for days and then show up in plain sight, how the castle could have changed itself, and that wasn't even considering Meda's babble about time change and the founders doing something to bring them all here. Perhaps this was some sort of belated April fools day joke. Perhaps his children were going to have a laugh at his expense later, but he knew for a fact that the terror Narcissa had shared with him since the news of their children's disappearance came out was genuine, so she was a target of the prank too if indeed there had been one. That alone was almost inexcusable.

"Yes, let's go find them." Rabastan growled, ready to show Narcissa to her children and prove that he had been right. He imagined that she'd feel like a right fool when he was able to introduce her to her children and they could tell her how kind he had been to them. He had literally stood in as their father for months and it infuriated him that Narcissa Black LESTRANGE, the woman who evidentally shared his last name and the one he would go on to fall in love with and marry, was so....adamant when it came to disagreeing with him.

They were moving down the hallway when Cygnus Black came around the corner, giving them both a perplexed look. Cygnus was searching his mind, trying to figure out if the person with Rabastan was one that he knew. She looked a bit like Druella, so perhaps she was part of his wife's extended family, but then, he also was almost certain he saw a bit of himself in her. Could she be his daughter? Was she the mother that Alexander and Meda had been going on about missing for so long?

"Rabastan, who's this that you have with you?"

Rabastan swallowed uncomfortably, unsure of how to make introductions between a father and daughter. "Hello, Cygnus. This is Nar...well your daughter, Narcissa, Meda and Xander's Mum. Mrs B--Lestrange," Rabastan's jaw clenched in annoyance, both at having to remember to call her by his own last name as well as frustration at her earlier anger. "I'm sure you recognize Cygnus Black."

Well, Cygnus thought, his eyes sweeping over her to look at the way that his youngest girl had grown up. That certainly settled that. He studied her with a sort of reserve for a moment, waiting on her to make the first move. He knew that newcomers here were often startled and easily confused, so he stayed put in an effort to not make things harder on her.

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patriarche
2008-04-08 02:58 am UTC (link)

Meda was far from daft, really quite intelligent about some things, but even were she not the sharpest individual, she still knew when she was being successfully placated as though she were unwell. That it was her father frustrated her, despite trying to remind herself this was new for him and quite a lot to process, because he always listened to her. He was one of the few people who didn't dismiss her for one reason or another. She didn't like this new change.

"You don't believe me, do you?' she asked Rabastan as she continued to lead them through the castle, glancing with a frown at Xander as they approached another corner leading back to the Entrance Hall. "Ask Xander, he'll tell you the same thing! Tell him, Xander! Tell him-"

"Meda Lestrange, I swear upon all I hold dear that if you disappear like that again I will lock you away in the dormitories," a voice all but growled, and then the owner of said voice appeared around that corner. Frederick was far from pleased and that displeased look contrasted quite highly from his usual set expression. "Your grandmothers, all three of them, are quite worried about you, to say nothing of-"

Meda gaped at him as he came to a sudden halt in front of them. This was... well, this was not very good, even if her explanation had just suddenly been giving much more credence. "Oh, bloody hell," she swore.

Once the boy before her had started in the right direction, Narcissa had done so as well, but she had not released him entirely. One hand was still firmly gripping his upper arm, as she was unwilling to let him slip off. If he could bring her to Alexander and Meda, then she would permit it and find a way to stop whatever continued trap he had in mind.

And then her father appeared before her.

In meeting this boy who looked like a younger version of Rabastan, the separation of the two was far easier because she had just seen her husband a moment before. But the man now standing before her she had not seen since he had died - not in the flesh, at least, but there were still the portraits, and this man could have been that portrait brought to life. Most jarringly of all, he all but fit with the boy, as though the two had been ripped out of the same time together and brought before her.

A few steps and she could reach out to touch him, reach out and feel the warmth of skin and the beat of pulse of her beloved father. For some strange reason, it was that thought that came first, not the suspicion of a moment ago, a thought born in shock and confusion and even hope.

"Papa?" she said in an uncharacteristically high squeak, then, though fainting was something she had never been led to do before, usually of a much stronger constitution and disposition, her eyes seemed to lose focus and she quietly crumpled.

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fearedpatriarch
2008-04-08 03:28 am UTC (link)

Rabastan sighed. The last thing that he needed was to try to convince his daughter that while her story was outlandish, that he would always be on her side, always believe her. He didn't believe everything, of course, but he believed in Meda, and in his mind that was better. However, what he was about to say was lost when he heard the voice he had not heard since he was a boy, when he saw his father's face.

Not letting go of Meda, he walked closer, eyes going wide. This...this had to be some sort of odd dream. An illusion, perhaps. He got closer and closer and tapped Frederick on the shoulder, though he had been expecting his finger to pass straight through the "apparition." "Father..." he gasped.

"Bloody hell," Xander said, echoing his sister's thought. "Dad, he's real, I swear he is, just stop trying to poke holes in him."

Cygnus rushed forward, though there was simply no way for him to get to Narcissa fast enough. She was going to fall, to bust her head open, and then he would never know what had happened in her time. Part of him wanted to know everything, and part of him wanted to know nothing at all. He knew he was going to die, knew many of the details, but Narcissa would know everything, things she had shielded her family from, and he wanted to know. He wanted to know so that he could protect them all.

Luckily, however, Rabastan caught Narcissa before she hit the ground, cradling her gently and lowering her slowly the rest of the way.

"Gentle with her, boy." Cygnus hissed, though Rabastan had been nothing but gentle. This was his baby girl, after all, there was no such thing as too gentle. "Narcissa?" One hand reached out, shaking her shoulder. "Narcissa, wake up."

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patriarche
2008-04-08 04:18 am UTC (link)

Frederick, however, had not moved. It was not hard to determine who this man was, for even had Alexander and Meda been with him, Rabastan looked surprisingly like Frederick's own father, like himself even. What was hard to stomach was that this was the man who had gone to Azkaban because he had died and been unable to stop it from occurring, the signs of that time clear to him, however healthy his son appeared to be now. The age, however, was the one thing he had expected the most but was also shocked by the greatest. It was certainly disorienting to see one's child older than one's self.

When Rabastan finally prodded him in the shoulder, he snapped out of his reverie. "Yes, and quite solid," he said gruffly, still taking in this older version of Rabastan, noting now the changes both bad and good. It would not do to lament woefully on the changes Azkaban had brought to his younger son when the man before him was far from sickly and ravaged. He, however, had still not moved, waiting for further reaction from Rabastan.

Head lolling against the younger Rabastan's shoulder, Narcissa's moment of unconsciousness was not long, but waking from it was a slow process, her shocked mind initially sluggish. It was the face before her that brought clarity to her sharply as, for a moment, she grabbed for something to ground her. That found in the arm wrapped around her, an arm familiar to her subconscious even if she was not paying the younger Rabastan any mind at the moment, she stared at Cygnus.

"Papa?" Once more she said it in question, but this time it was soft and raspy, disbelief without the shrillness of her initial shock. She reached out, unknowingly mirroring her husband's actions elsewhere in the castle as she sought to verify this man was no figment of her imagination. When her fingers touched the warmth of his jaw with a butterfly-light brush, a strangled noise came from her.

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fearedpatriarch
2008-04-08 05:15 am UTC (link)

"Father..." Rabastan let out a huge breath of relief, not knowing exactly how such reunion should go. This was his father, and he was a grown man with nearly grown children of his own, but this man had died and yet here he was, alive and well and just as capable and gruff as ever. "It's nice to see you again." He stood there awkwardly, until his own son broke the tension.

"Dad, don't just stand there! You and Mum have been missing your parents for years and now..."

"Parents?" Rabastan's eyes widened, looking at his father in disbelief. "Mother is here too then?"

"Yes." Cygnus spoke the word gently, his mouth forming a slow, reassuring smile. "Yes, Narcissa, it's me." He studied her face for a moment, looking with pride at the way that Narcissa had grown. She looked a good deal like her mother, he decided, which was a compliment to both women, as two more capable, classically pretty females could not be found. "Are you feeling alright?" The question was so mundane to ask someone who was about to find out that the world had gone back in time (or at least, their world had) thousands of years, that other complications had arose, but it seemed the only thing fitting to ask someone who had just fained dead away.

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