kneel | Tom Riddle

𝟐𝟔

26| sickness

Benilda Dolohov Vevrain grew up in a very particular household, or at least it was different from most people. While the majority of wizardry families grew up with love and affection, Benilda never truly met those sentiments. Her father, Marcius Dolohov, was the minister of magic for long years, and not a particularly good one. Her mother, however, never worked a day in her life, living with the money her husband made and the fortune she inherited from her family. Sharing her parents' attention with six more siblings meant that Benilda barely got her parents to listen to her most of the time. Despite that, she never failed to praise her parents and thank them repeatedly for the education they gave her.

That being said, it was not hard to realize Benilda had always followed her parents' principles and valued blood purity above everything. When she left Hogwarts, the eighteen years old witch didn't waste time and married a wizard ten years older than her, by the name of Balthasar Vevrain, a wealthy wizard who worked in the ministry with her father and belonged to one of the most important families in the wizarding world. It was not love at first sight, but they got along pretty well all their life.

For years and years, Benilda tried to get pregnant, but she couldn't, making everyone doubt her fertility. After all, it was rather odd a witch couldn't get pregnant. However, when the witch was twenty-seven, she finally got pregnant with a boy. On the day he was born, the whole family was uncommonly happy. But everything changed soon when the baby died within his first hour. It's not necessary to explain the whole family was devastated, for the boy with his father's name didn't live long.

After being heartbroken for years, the witch finally managed to get pregnant again. This time it wasn't a boy, it was Seraphina Vevrain, who came to the world two days before the year 1927 started. The Vevrains weren't as happy as they were when their first son was born, since they wished to have a boy, named after his father and would inherit the family fortune. What a shame when a girl was born and one rather strange.

Seraphina was, indeed, a strange kid, who couldn't stay quiet for more than five minutes and wouldn't behave at social events. The couple did everything they could trying to tame the girl, but she wouldn't rest or listen to her parents when they were scolding her.

Sixteen years later, nothing changed to her parents' disappointment. She was still an agitated girl, never shutting her mouth around anyone and talking back to her parents whenever she had the chance. They never tolerated that kind of behavior, but there was nothing they could do to stop her. They tried everything, they really did, from physical violence to the cruelest spells, but the witch was naturally damaged.

So when Benilda Vevrain looked at the window and saw Oswald, her house-elf, arriving with Abraxas, who had Seraphina on his arms, and a boy she didn't know, she almost laughed with pure happiness. Was her daughter... asleep? She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw her daughter actually quiet, so she thanked Merlin a thousand times before hearing a knock on the door.

With a simple wave of her hand, the door opened and Oswald stepped inside with the three students. Benilda automatically showed a fake welcoming smile at the sight of the visitors. Oswald bowed before leaving them in the living room with his mistress.

"Good afternoon," she said, her lips still curved in happiness when her daughter didn't say anything, for she was still sleeping on Abraxas' arms, "Abraxas, how have you been doing?" She asked the boy almost kindly.

"I'm alright, Mrs. Vevrain. But your daughter-" she didn't let him finish his sentence before she started talking to Leo.