Lost in spells and shadows

Chapter 38: Straying paths

1974

Summer passed with a great speed and every day was more enjoyable than the last. In the first two weeks, Adelaide spent it with her family members, doing various activities together. She swam with her siblings in the lake and flew on the carpet with them. She helped Helena on her baking, Edmund on collecting cool leaves, Elizabeth with painting, and Victoria on her stories. They in turn, also helped her with gaining a healthy relationship with food.

The second week, she got her period, at the age of 14, and it was a great relief for her. She wasn't excited about it because of «maturing» but because it meant that she had finally gained back an appropriate amount of weight and her struggles paid off. When she told her older sisters, they asked her if she knew about «it». Something that made Adelaide confused and made them abhorred. They thought she was joking about (which was not true) and so explaining it to her was Elizabeth's responsibility. The «it» that her friends were talking about some months ago.

"I don't know how mama didn't get to tell you about it." Elizabeth mumbled, her face getting red. She opened her mouth and tried hard but couldn't really form sentences, and so the responsibility went to Victoria.

Victoria, was also the furthest person to explain stuff to her oblivious 14 year old  sister, and let's just say that she left Adelaide a bit traumatised. Not because of explaining in a scary way, but because of being a little bit too straightforward. Adelaide was shaken somewhat after learning the «facts of life».

No way i am letting her explain it to Helena, she would have a heart attack. I will take over explaining this to her, without being too straightforward or crude about it when the time is right.

There were some questions left unanswered, so she got brave enough to ask Lily (because she wasn't as teasing as the rest) and Sarah (since she was sweet and knew a lot about boys) about it, and thankfully they weren't laughing anymore and answered all of her questions patiently, unlike Victoria.

She had gained back most of the weight that she had lost, but that didn't make her gain any meaningful curves. It was clear that her body type was one of those that wouldn't have nice curves. She was more of the lean and slender type, as she had pretty much grew in height and was Victoria's height now.

The third week, was Adelaide's time to visit Lily's home. She was packing her bags, when her father came in her room sitting at the edge of her bed. He looked at her with a bit of worry and started:

"So, did you finish your packing?"

"Almost." Adelaide put two books inside her luggage. She had already finished all her homework, and these books were for much higher magical spells. She put another muggle novel beside it too.
"Well, now I'm totally done. You have something to say, don't you?"

"You're right. I suppose you had caught up with the news these two weeks, about their doings..."

They, were death eaters. They were always mentioned with fear by the wizarding world. Their master, Voldemort, was never really mentioned by name anymore, his crimes so heinous that people would never call him by his name anymore, the name that was an alias itself, Adelaide thought. He was called by the cringe-worthy you-know-who or the-one-who-must-never-be-named. Adelaide whenever talking about him, always called him by his name, finding it ridiculous how people were afraid of his name. She also encouraged those around her to call him by his name.

Nevertheless, they had done such disturbing crimes these past two weeks, that solidified his place as a dark wizard, he was already gaining a legacy of fear and hatred, something that many people said was becoming worse than Grindelwald. They murdered and tortured muggles for fun, brutally and mostly for nor reason, sometimes even the daily prophecy censured some parts of their doings, and only people in the ministry knew the exact details of the crimes. They abducted and tortured wizards and witches just because they could or because they were against them or just because they could assist them in their power-grabbing. The whole thing was out of hand. The ministry, had already warded houses with powerful spells. Their house already had some ancient wards, and more were added by her father and Dumbledore. She, herself, secretly warded the house with ancient charms that many were not familiar with, only Dumbledore knew that.