“Clare!” Katie hissed, shaking her gently. “Clare, get up! We were supposed to be out of bed five minutes ago.”
Clare groaned softly and rolled over on her bed. “Go away, Jane.”
“No, it’s Katie. You need to get up now, or else the Ashwoods will be furious.”
Opening her eyes, Clare realized where she was. For a brief moment, she had been back with Jane at Langley Village.
“Who’s Jane?” Katie asked as Clare got out of bed and dressed.
“My little sister. She was too young to be taken by Gagnon, so she’s still at my old village. My parents are both Muggles so they were never taken to the village. Just the two of us lived together, and now she’s alone.” Clare explained all this as they began walking towards the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
“I have“” Katie paused abruptly, swallowing once before continuing, ““ had a younger sister. She was murdered by Death Eaters during a raid on our village a year before I came here.”
Clare didn’t know how to respond. She knew exactly what those raids were like. There had been one at Langley three months before she left. The Death Eaters had stormed though the streets, barging into the shacks at random. Sometimes the Muggle-borns were killed and sometimes only tortured. That day, Clare and Jane had been huddled in the corner and hoped they would be spared.
No Death Eaters had come inside their home, but that hadn’t kept the noise out.
“Move, you scum.”
“Crucio!”
“Mudblood, foul waste of magic.”
“Avada Kedavra!”
Clank! They had reached the kitchen, and the sound of Katie grabbing a metal frying pan pulled Clare from her thoughts. Rubbing her arms where goose bumps had erupted, she glanced at Katie; sadness was etched in the older girl’s face.
“Your sister, what was her name?” Clare asked quietly.
“Hannah. Her name was Hannah.”
“I’m so sorry,” Clare said, knowing it didn’t help at all, and wondering what it would be like to lose Jane. Looking around the kitchen, Clare wondered if she already had.
---
After breakfast had been served, Clare was given a clean set of grey robes and allowed a chance to shower. Dusting the downstairs and preparing lunch followed, and as the afternoon gave way to evening, Mr. and Mrs. Ashwood announced they were to attend a party at the Lestranges’ home that night. Gavin, they said, was not to come with them, as he was too young for the gathering.
Before the elder Ashwoods left, Katie and Clare were called in to help Mrs. Ashwood get ready.
“Katie, lay out the cream gown, and Clare, come here and help me pin my hair.”
Clare moved to where Mrs. Ashwood was sitting in front of her vanity, and began to pull the woman’s black hair into a twist. When she had nearly finished, the small look of surprise on Mrs. Ashwood’s face did not escape Clare, and led her to believe that it had not been expected for her to know how to fix her matron’s hair. At this, Clare smiled slightly. The reason behind her knowledge came from years of fixing Jane’s hair to entertain her on long, lonely days. No toys of any sort were allowed in the village, and with no parents, it had been up to Clare to take care of Jane.
“Will that do, ma’am?” Clare asked, pinning the final strand of hair into place.
Mrs. Ashwood eyed herself in the mirror critically. “Yes, I suppose it will.” Then she stood and moved to where Katie was waiting to help her into the lovely dress.
A few minutes later, they escorted her to the foyer where Mr. Ashwood was waiting.
“You looking stunning, ma’am,” Katie said when they had reached the hall.
Mrs. Ashwood made no reply to this and made her way to stand next to her husband. “Ready, Robert?”
“Yes, we can Apparate in a moment.” He turned to face Clare and Katie. “You two, I expect you to serve dinner to our son, and to help him unpack his trunk from Hogwarts. He arrived home only two days ago, you know, and nothing has been done about unloading his things yet.”
“Yes, sir,” Katie and Clare replied in unison.
“I believe that’s all,” Mr. Ashwood concluded briskly. “We’ll return at midnight and expect one of you up to help us in.”
With that, he offered his arm to his wife, and a popping sound echoed through the hall, leaving Katie and Clare alone.
---
Ten minutes later, Clare wasn’t so sure she had gotten the better end of the deal after all. Katie had offered to cook and wait up for the Ashwoods if Clare would help Gavin. She had been happy to agree, as she didn’t care all that much for cooking.
But now, standing in Gavin’s room, she rather wished she was surrounded by pots and pans instead of reminders of the life she could have had. Books and Quidditch posters and potion ingredients littered the room, as if to mock Clare of the things she had never been allowed.
She spared one jealous glance at Gavin, who was perched on his bed reading a spell book, his mouth soundlessly forming the incantations. He hadn’t even acknowledged Clare when she had entered the room.
Knowing it would do no good to dwell on what she could never have, Clare returned to her work. She was a few feet away from the bed, transferring various items from his trunk into the drawers and removing robes to be washed the next day. Clare had just set a spare quill on Gavin’s dresser when something caught her eye “ his wand.
Clare paused; although she had seen wands before “ mostly used against her “ she had never been allowed one of her own. The closest she had come was at Langley Village. A few of the older Muggle-borns had managed to smuggle wands into their village with help from sympathetic pure-bloods, and had given lessons secretly. It hadn’t been much, but Clare had learned a few basic spells that she could use if she ever acquired a wand.
As she stared at the thin piece of wood, she had to keep herself from picking it up. Of all the things Clare wished for, a wand was what she wanted most. When Harry Potter had been defeated, Clare had been eleven and due to start Hogwarts the next month. But then the Death Eaters had taken over, and in the middle of a hot August night, Clare and Jane had been taken from their beds. Their parents being Muggles, were left unconscious and beaten in their home, and Clare had not seen them since.
The Death Eaters had taken them to Shady Spires and left eleven-year-old Clare to care for four-year-old Jane in their decrepit shack.
“Can I help you with something?” Gavin asked scathingly.
Clare started. Upon seeing his wand, she had frozen in place, not continuing her job. “Oh, I’m sorry. Your “ I “ The wand“”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a wand before?” Gavin stood up from his bed and moved towards her.
“Of course I have,” Clare snapped. “Sir,” she added belatedly.
Gavin merely raised his eyebrows at her indignant response, and then said, “Do you know any magic, then?”
Clare hesitated before answering. Legally, she wasn’t allowed to know any spells, but she knew a few basic and defensive ones, and wasn’t sure if her lie would be noticeable. “I know a little, sir,” Clare admitted finally.
“I see,” Gavin said, smirking. He silently Summoned his wand and then pointed it at the dresser in front of her.
“Incendio!” he said, and the entire armoire burst into flames.
Clare gasped and stepped back. Gavin looked entirely nonplussed and merely stared at Clare disinterestedly, twirling his wand.
“Aguamenti!” Clare cried, grabbing the wand from Gavin instinctively, hoping she had remembered the spell correctly.
A jet of water shot from the oak wand and quickly extinguished the flames. Gavin took the wand back without a word and repaired the damage to the dresser with a flick.
“Impressive,” Gavin said. “I wasn’t expecting you to react that quickly.”
There was a pause. Clare was attempting to control her anger at Gavin’s lack of sense. What was he trying to do?
“Dinner’s ready!” Katie’s voice traveled up the stairs and into the room, interrupting the silence.
Gavin turned and began to walk out of the room immediately. He paused in the doorway and looked back at Clare. “Finish the unpacking before coming down. And I wouldn’t recommend getting distracted again.” He smirked and then disappeared from sight.
Left standing alone with the faint smell of burning wood hovering around her, Clare decided Katie had easily gotten the better deal.
The Promise of Hope by solemnlyswear_x
Chapter Notes: More background on Clare has been included in this chapter, so I hope that clears all questions up! =D Thanks again to my beta!