✔️ 𝐔𝐍𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐃 → 𝑐.𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

01 | V O I N E S C U

   SCUM. BLOWING AIR out of her nostrils in an contemptuous snort, Anastasia flipped the pages of the newspaper. Karkaroff was found dead. No surprise. It was just a matter of time since Voldemort had returned that Durmstrang's former headmaster would be swiped from this planet. Not a great loss,if you asked Ana. Dirty coward he was. Weak and scared. And oh, had he been desperate the day he appeared in the midst of the night, knocking at her door, pleading for shelter. Ana didn't even blink when she sent him away, didn't hesitate, didn't regret it back then, and neither did she now that she read the headline announcing his ungraceful end.

   Bloody scum, she again thought, flipping through the pages. The war had begun, and it couldn't affect her any less. Not even the Dark Lord himself was stupid enough to bother her. She was slightly curious, if he would have his sad attempt to recruit her. But then again, what could he offer her she couldn't have if she wanted? What she wanted were indeed just three things, and all of them she already got; solitude, revenge, and no being, neither human not whatever to ever dare to bother her.

   Ana wasn't afraid to keep the wolves from her door the same way she did with the weak and worthless sheep. Lately, both of them didn't dare to even set a toe in her lands. This forest was hers, hers alone. Even the birds didn't sing without her permission. Some called this bitterness, she called it control. It was every now and then that someone strayed into her forest. Rarely they made their way back out. Fair to say that Ana didn't like to feel ... disturbed.

   Snapping her fingers, the newspaper in front of her turned to ashes. A swish of her hand and a red wind swayed its remainings into the fireplace, her mind still swirling around Igor Karkaroff, the sad excuse of a wizard. She had to admit that she was fairly impressed he did make it this far. Ever after the Dark Lord's return got public, more and more deaths had appeared in the newspapers. With surprise she acknowledged that Sirius Black had been innocent. A pity they didn't find out before his death.

   It wasn't for June in the year 1997 that Ana found some interesting news. Albus Dumbledore was dead. A shudder ran down her spine for reasons she didn't understand. It had been Dumbledore, who had told the young Anastasia Voinescu that she was doomed, that she was a threat, that her young life was about to end. He didn't waste a minute to overthink his diagnosis, just bringing her to this dreadful hospital in London, locking her up in there, having her wait for a death that never came ...

   Shaking her head to get rid of these mysterious emotion, Ana kept staring at the newspaper, wondering. She didn't have to read the article to know that it had been murder that ended Dumbledore's life. In Ana's opinion this was the end of the war. If there'd been anyone to defeat the Dark Lord, it would have been Dumbledore. Chances for the good — and Ana snorted by the thought of this ridiculous designation of the weak resistance against Voldemort's forces — had utterly died with the old headmaster of Hogwarts school, muggleborns might as well could drown themselves in the sea. Their end was as sure as the sun was about to set for every night, and a satisfied smile appeared on her lips by the thought of herself being one of those, but not even Voldemort himself would try to blow her lights out.

   "You could end this! You could stop him!", Karkaroff had begged, standing in front of her door.

   "But I won't", she had replied, her voice cold and emotionless. Her hand around the doorknob jerked forward, about to slam the door into his face, but his feet shot forward, blocking it.

   "You didn't get this power for nothing! You could end this war! It's your lots he's slaughtering!" He ran his fingers through his dirty, grey hair. "You owe the world! You owe me! I let you go to my school, I —"

   And Ana's eyes had narrowed, red glimming slits glaring at the man in front of her, his despair almost touchable. "I owe this world nothing, Igor. And I owe you nothing. You didn't do this in my favour. No, you thought you could use my powers for your own fortune! Remember, Igor, that sixteen years ago it was you fighting at his side, you slaughtered 'my lots' in his name. You deserve what's coming for you, and I just didn't kill you right now, because you deserve to feel this suffocating fear, you deserve it to run and hide, and finally to be found. Bow to your fate like a man, Professor!"

   "You can't do this! I gave you a home! I gave you shelter!" His face had grown pale, white as a ghost, and he didn't seem to know what to do with his hands. His eyes were begging, never had Ana seen so much fear in anyone's face. And she enjoyed it.

   "Igor, Igor ..." Smiling, Ana had shaken her head. "Nothing will save you. Your death sentence had been written since you got away with all those cruelties you did. You're a coward, Igor, and a liar. Take what's coming for you. This is justice."

   With a flick of her wrist, Karkaroff had been blown off his feet by a flash of red fog, and the door fell shut, glimming red had enlightened the doorframe.

   No, she wouldn't stop this. She wouldn't stop any of this. Because no one had even tried to stop what both the muggle and the wizarding world had done to her back then. She owed nothing to no one. End of story.

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