Connected By Magic

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Jealous of the Cracked Dream

Pandora

The visit to the Fleeting manor back in Poland had not been pleasant to say the least.

Pandora had fought with her mother again; this time Sofia had found an old daguerreotype of her ex-girlfriend - Andy. Andy jackdaw had been a muggle and had a sweet, bright smile that could light up a room. Andy had lived in the muggle village that resided close to the Fleeting manor but moved away to live in Sweden with her family. Pandora's mother found it atrocious that a pure-blooded witch had been kissing a girl and at that a muggle. The photo depicted Andy kissing Pandoras cheek and Pandora smiling like an idiot with lipstick smudged on her lips. Her mother had screamed and spat in Pandoras face, Sofia's dogs as if sensing her anger started to howl for their master furiously. Stating that she was disgusting and how dare she come back here after she had abandoned her marriage. Soon the accusations escalated to violence.

It had started with a hex, a simple laceration aimed at Pandora's legs. The pain was hot yet simultaneously cold as the pink flesh of her thighs were exposed to the frosty breeze. The slices revealed the insides of her leg, Pandora thought it looked like chicken. Her plain black skirt shredded and pieces of fabric now lay on the floor.

The dining room had been frigid when Pandora had arrived, the dining room was always cold. The manor's wards allowed Pandora to apparate straight into the building even if her mother was threatening disowning her. The room was decorated with a large mahogany table and a momentous, marble fireplace that burned with floating ash. There was no rug on the floor only solid, expensive wood. The Fleeting family portrait hung above the fireplace, the painting version of herself was looking away from the violence, hiding her 10-year-old head in the crook of her brother's torso. The atmosphere reminded Pandora of a graveyard, grey and held unpleasant memories of the dead, or in her case her own family.

Thick crimson blood soaked her tights as Pandora's mind retracted from reality. The sound of her mother's hounds barking became distant, like she was underwater, drowning in her pain. It was like an outer body experience, watching as her mother hauled another curse at her material body. Pandora distracted herself with her thoughts. The thoughts of nothing just black, empty nothing. She had welcomed the delightful diversion from the torture. It close enough to safe she would get.

Then her mother hadn't liked the fact Pandora hadn't reacted to the supposed pain. Sofia tried again this time going in with the torture curse. It was brutal, the sting of the curse spasmed every nerve in Pandora's body, like hot knifes digging under her skin and tearing at it, like her bones were being broken and reformed in a matter of seconds. The agony of the curse was like an old friend, perched on her shoulder, sitting opposite was anger. Like her devil and angel. The familiarity of it made her blood boil with rage as a scream shredded her throat. That one had hurt. Sofia had an irritated look in her eye as the shrieks of her only daughter filled her house and yet another spell was cast on Pandora.

"Silencio."

Pandora's mouth was still open and the pain still tore through her body, but no sound was produced as a result. Pandora had been deprived of her own voice.

Pandora collapsed onto her knees and reopened the gashes on her legs. Tears fell from her eyes silently as her mother marveled in the agony. Soon the pain transformed into a dreamless sleep of twitching limbs and viscous blood.

Sometimes Pandora wished she had never been born. Not to the Fleeting family anyway. When she had awoken, she had found herself still laying in the pool of dried blood in the dining room. Pandora only just noticed her brother and mother sat at opposite sides of the large mahogany table eating breakfast as the youngest Fleeting stumbled out of the manor and apparated to outside Hogwarts wards. Her mother had apparently cast the reversal spell as when Pandora had found her wand in her white chemise and apparated, her screams woke the hounds. She had hoped not to apparate back in such a state, but Pandora could no longer stand the dismal aura that surrounded the Fleeting house.