Raven | 𝘙𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 58

"NO!" Alexandra screamed, running forward and falling to her knees at where her grandfather laid on the floor, his pale eyes staring up at the ceiling soullessly. "No... no... this can't be happening..."

Marcellus Starling had never been a caring grandfather to her, but at that moment Alexandra felt as if there was no more air left in the room as she looked down at him breathlessly. She was too in shock that she had even forgotten how to blink.

"Wh-what happened?" Alexandra turned to face Edna, her whole body trembling.

"They — they had warned him this would happen," Edna said between her sobs. "They'd told him to give up — but he had been r-resisting them for too long — s-so they broke in tonight — there — there were five of them! Oh, Miss Starling, I'm so sorry. I-I couldn't do anything to stop them!"

Alexandra couldn't get a grasp of what was going on. So with her tears swelling up in her eyes, she just moved forward to hug Edna, her gaze still fixed on her grandfather.

Five wizards had broken in and killed him... but why? In the letter Mr. Starling had sent her last week, he had said that Alexandra herself was in danger. But then why would he be the one laying here, his heart no longer beating and his eyes no longer seeing?

***

That night, Alexandra and Edna and buried Marcellus Starling with magic in the same graveyard in which he had claimed her parents were all those years. They stood there for what felt like hours before his grave in silence, their tears seeming endless.

"Let's go back inside, Miss Starling," Edna whispered against the silence of the night. "There's... there was something your grandma wanted you to have."

Alexandra's head turned at those words, though her red eyes were burning. So at last she nodded, walking back toward their house with Edna.

     The house seemed more colorless and colder that ever before, silence haunting down the shadowy and eerie rooms and enormous halls.

Before showing Alexandra what she had in mind, Edna made her a warm cup of tea and asked her to drink up. Once she was done and had calmed down slightly more, Edna asked Alexandra to follow her upstairs.

"What is it?" Alexandra asked weakly, losing the strength to speak as she was still filled with shock and sorrow.

"You'll see," Edna muttered, leading Alexandra up toward her grandfather's office.

She opened the door to the large room and walked inside. Alexandra hesitated at first. Throughout the sixteen years that she had lived here, she'd only been inside her grandfather's office twice; once when she was a child, and the other quite recently.

Alexandra waited impatiently for Edna, and was rather surprised when she opened the first drawer of his desk, taking out a golden key from inside it.

     She had seen that golden key before. Many years ago, Alexandra had snuck into her grandfather's office when she was a kid, in search for her Christmas presents, thinking that they were hidden there. But once she had pulled open his desk's drawer, she had found this same golden key.

When she had asked her grandfather what it was, he had replied carelessly, "For something important."

     "All keys are important for something," Alexandra had answered smartly. Her remarks were always too witty for a five-year-old girl. "I was just wondering what it opened."

      Mr. Starling gave her a look and remained quiet for some while before letting the edge of his lips twitch up into a rare smile, before getting to his knees to level up with the little girl.

      "This key is the keeper of many secrets," he had said, watching her face light up with excitement. "Secrets that one day I will tell you. One day, the key will be yours. But I really hope that day doesn't come too soon."

But now, as Edna handed Alexandra the golden key, she knew that the day had finally come.

"What does it open?" Alexandra whispered weakly, her hand slightly trembling as she held on to the key, staring down at it.

"You'll see," said Edna, walking toward the office's wall, where a torch was hanging.

With that, she pulled down the torch and Alexandra gasped when out of nowhere, a door appeared within that same wall.

"There were things that your grandfather wished you to know, Miss Starling," said Edna, while Alexandra was staring at the door in shock. "For years, I was bound to keep his secrets. But now that he's gone... it's time for you to know the truth. No matter how horrible it comes to be."

Alexandra didn't know how much of this shocking truth she could take. But she needed it. She needed to know what had happened to her parents around sixteen years ago.

"I'm ready," Alexandra said firmly, holding the key in her tight grasp.

Once Edna gave her an encouraging nod, Alexandra hesitantly walked toward the door within the wall and put the golden key in, unlocking it. With one last deep and shaky breath, she took the door's handle and pushed it open.

When she looked around, she was faced with a small room, probably the size of a bathroom. Inside the room, there was a shelf full of tiny glass bottles which contained silvery lights that looked like strings.

But the moment Alexandra looked over, it all made sense to her when she sighted a shallow stone basin there, with odd carvings around the edge. A silvery light was coming from the basin's contents, which looked to be filled with some kind of curious liquid.

It was a Pensieve.

Alexandra had read about them before. A pensieve was extremely rare and she had only heard of one person who owned it; Albus Dumbledore. But with the wealth that Marcellus Starling owned, it wasn't too hard to believe that he would have one of these.

Edna then made her way toward the shelf full of little glass bottles which now Alexandra knew contained her grandfather's old memories.

     With that, Edna stretched out and arm and took one of tiny bottles and carried it toward the pensieve. Alexandra watched her carefully, her heart throbbing in her chest.

"Are you sure about this?" Edna asked Alexandra, looking concerned. "It might come as a shock... if you want to wait —"

"No," Alexandra broke her off, trying to remain strong. "I've waited long enough."

Edna looked hesitant at first, but at last she nodded and walked toward the basin and opened the bottle, pouring the silvery lights inside it.

The Pensieve started to light up and Alexandra could now see faded images within it. Knowing exactly what to do, she then held her breath and lowered her head into the basin, ready to discover the truth.