Sept. 1: Closed Hearts Make Closed Minds: Natalie

[Ethan Vanderhyde]

▶︎ I won't tell you it's all butterflies and roses...

"Here's one, Tali," Ethan said, pulling his trunk into the free compartment and expecting his sister to follow with her own. While the incoming seventh year was glad to leave their family home after the drawn-out summer months, he was not yet keen to invite the whole of Hogwarts into his affairs, and hoped that he and Natalie would be left alone for some time. The sad state of things was that he felt more comfortable with open conversation here on the train than he did at the house, and they had to talk. And you don't want anyone asking about you and Bronwyn, a snide little voice reminded him as he loaded their trunks onto the shelves overhead. He and his housemate had done well, he thought, in bridging their friendship into a relationship last fall. She was a beautiful girl with a sharp mind, and their families would have been all the better for their union. It fell apart, though, as all of his relationships did, this time because of the entire lack of attraction between them...It was unfortunate, and as far as he knew she was also entering their last year of school unattached, which he had to imagine was as much to the ire of her father as it was to his own.

Glad for a break from that - in person, at least, and the delay of communicating home by owl offered some reprieve - Ethan settled onto the seat, gesturing for his sister to join him. To think that this is where they found themselves now again! His memories of their early train rides together, back in the days when she all but worshiped the ground beneath his feet, were clouded by years of thinly veiled...frustration. Natalie had the mind to achieve, the wit to do well socially, and a way with rebellion that made it more like a banner flying in her wake than a streak on her reputation. He had had to step in from time-to-time to keep her somewhat in line, and sometimes it seemed like she was learning - at least last year she had dated Elliott Thomas, and Ethan could trust the odd pureblood academic to keep his hands to himself - but what had begun over this summer was far more serious than worrying about her dating life.

Sixteen. Sixteen, and she had dropped Divination years ago, all the while knowing full well that the family gift may yet come to life within her. Their mother had been changed upon their return home in June - animated, attentive, as much as she could with her scattered thoughts, her energies focused on her daughter with a precision Ethan scarcely remembered from his childhood. It was a gift to see her happy in her way, present in the house more than she had been in recent years, and he wished it did not come with a cost.

"Tell me plainly, while we have the space," he began, hands clasped between his knees, "is there any truth to what Mother says?"

[Natalie Vanderhyde]

Being back on the train to school was a relief, because it meant a few months away from her mother. For years she’d been desperate for her mother’s attention the way she’d given it to Ethan when she wasn’t locked away. But now she hated it, because her mother was convinced that she had inherited the family gift. She’d been determined to give her private lessons all summer on how to better manage seeing visions of the future. The thing was, Natalie had never had a vision in her life, and she wasn’t expecting to start seeing them anytime soon. As soon as she’d been able to in school she’d dropped Divination, and she’d never looked back. Frankly, seeing as she wasn’t having visions, she’d figured the topic would never come up again. How wrong had she been. She’d spent as much time as she could out of the house this summer, a luxury afforded to her by her job at the Malfoy apothecary.

She followed Ethan into the empty compartment, waiting silently for him to lift her trunk up as he situated his own. Avoiding the house had also meant she’d avoided Ethan this summer, although it was not intentional. She’d wanted to hang around him and Bronwyn, glad that Ethan had spent last year dating one of the Medusas. She loved those girls, and she’d been upset to hear that things had been called off over the summer. She had written to Bronwyn naturally, to find out what had happened. Apparently there was a lack of attraction between them, which Natalie didn’t really understand. At least the focus of her father had been on Ethan this summer after that had happened. It seemed her older brother was skilled at mucking up relationships, not that she’d say that to him anytime soon.

Settling in next to him, she wanted to escape into her own mind, but his words pulled her from that all too quickly. Natalie rolled her eyes, letting a sigh escape her as she sunk down further into her seat, “I think I’m getting a vision now. Yes, it seems like you’re to receive an angry owl from father during the school year.” How could he possibly even think that she wouldn’t have come to him if she’d started having visions like their mother? No, this was all part of the madness of their mother, and she’d hoped to escape it at school this year. “I’m not having visions Ethan, I would have told you if that was the case. I don’t know why Mother thinks I am.”

[Ethan Vanderhyde]

"Funny." Leave it to Natalie to make a mockery out of something as precarious as her situation. Ethan returned her roll of the eyes with a look of his own, scoffing at the first part of her speech, but sobering as she went on. It would be one thing if she was seeing things, and precautions could be sensibly put in place moving forward; she could add Divination back to her course list, she could heed Mother's attempted tutelage, she could learn how to work the gift of Sight into her life instead of having it take control over each and every facet of it. Not that he could envision Natalie living happily within the Estate forever, but maybe she could learn to enjoy it, if she did indeed have visions like their mother. She would be somewhere safe, she would be cared for, she could learn, maybe even continue to avoid having a match dictated...

But she's seen nothing. 

"Mother thinks you are...because that's what she wants to believe," Ethan ventured, feeling an unfortunate stab of pity and guilt for the odd woman as he rubbed his brow. He could only imagine the hopes she had had about Natalie joining her, in having a daughter to understand her as her husband and son could not. She would have to deal with her disappointment somehow, for Natalie's sake, but Ethan worried that the damage had already been done. With how pleased she had been this summer, she had been more communicative, talking about what was to come in a nearer sense than her usual far-away proclamations. And if their father believed Mother, the estate would never be the same for Natalie.

"I'll speak with the Divination professor, and we'll need to get to the library - the sooner the better," he said quickly. As much as he wanted to trust that their parents would take her word as readily as he did - as much as she could joke, she wouldn't lie to him about this - he simply...didn't have faith that they would. But there was a solution, and they would find one. Ethan had been stuck, however, in thinking things through over the holiday without outside resources. He kept coming back to Veritaserum, but even the truth serum had no place in a court of law, so he doubted it would give them the edge, and it was not likely he could get a hand on it this term, or do so without it costing an arm and a leg... "We need to find a way to prove, beyond a doubt, that you're not seeing anything. Do you understand?"

[Natalie Vanderhyde]

Being at home was suffocating, but being stuck in this conversation with her older brother was too. Maybe not always, but she wanted to be as far away from the idea of visions as possible. There was only one vision she had in life, and that was to break away from everything expected of her next year when Ethan was no longer around to supervise her life. She would be free to do what she wanted, and what she wanted was to try kissing a girl without it getting back to Ethan. She was sixteen, and she hated that she had to worry about something as big as her mother’s delusions when she just wanted to be a teenager. She would think that her older brother would at least understand that, but instead he was giving her one of his classic looks.

“Yeah well, just because she wants to believe it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” Natalie retorted, crossing her arms in front of her. Would her father even believe her if she told him that Athena’s ravings were just madness? If Randolph believed that Natalie was having visions, would he lock her away like he’d done to their mother? Probably. There had to be a reasonable way out of this, she’d been saving all the money she could from her job. If she could work next summer, she’d be able to find a way out. Assuming her father didn’t try and pair her off with someone, and she was silently thankful that Ethan was such a disaster in relationships that she’d been free to do as she pleased.

“You really think that the Divination Professor and the library are going to convince Father I’m not raving mad?” she asked him, sinking down further in her seat. She propped her feet up on the seats across from them, resisting the urge to roll her eyes once more. Of course she understood how serious this was, she’d been the one trapped in rooms with their mother all summer. “How exactly are we supposed to prove it when it’s my word against hers? He shouldn’t believe her in the first place,” she said, closing her eyes to take a deep breath. Maybe the Divination Professor can help, write a letter home about how you don’t have the gift. It was a long shot, but sometimes Ethan did know best. “How are you not attracted to Bronwyn? She’s got great legs - oh, and her arms from Quidditch? Father’s got to be breathing down your neck about this.”

[Ethan Vanderhyde]

"I'm not disagreeing with you, Tali." Ethan sighed, brotherly patience already running thin. Did she think this was fun for him? That he liked having to think about running interference between her and their parents? Did she have any idea how worried he was that they would go about this the wrong way, that things would backfire, that she would wind up in their father's "care" under false pretenses? True, in a way he enjoyed the sense of purpose it gave him, but the stress hardly made that worth it. Mimicking his sister, he stretched his legs out to the opposite seats as the train began to move, thoroughly enough marking the compartment as their own.

"I hate to say it, but I think we need more than your word and hers. He...he makes the calls at home, and he's gotten an inflated image of himself. But I have to believe that he would respect the opinion of an unbiased expert. Or if we could find - some infallible bit of magic, something that would prove you were telling the truth - " Without allowing him into your head, Merlin help us. " - so we could prove her wrong. And you can help by staying away from anyone irrational. Whatever that was with Thomas didn't help your case much. Pureblood or no, he's not exactly relatable." 

"You're not the only one relieved to leave home," Ethan quipped, smile short-lived as he decided to let her in on the truth of the matter. The school would know soon enough, and it was only right that she knew before the rest. It hadn't been easy to let Bronwyn go - but she was one of the only true friends he had, and had the tables been turned, he trusted that she would have done the same for him. She was lucky to have a chance at something that would not only be approved of by their circle, but also make her happy. Did it really matter that he found himself, once again, in his father's crosshairs? He'd spent enough time there over the years to know how to handle it. The senior Vanderhyde had better things to do than to try and arrange the continuation of their family line in the way he saw fit, and the obsession was worrisome - but it was his seventh year, he was off to school for the last time, and his father's reach couldn't extend that far. "Truth? Bronwyn has real feelings for someone else. But if Father knew that? He would've gotten the families involved in some sort of ridiculous bidding war, tried to bankrupt the Blacks for stealing her from us. We thought it was best to part ways how we did, and hold the line firmly."

[Natalie Vanderhyde]

“I know, I know,” she said quietly, closing her eyes as the train started to move. Ethan was always on her side, even when she was in the wrong, and she couldn’t ask for more from her older brother. As difficult as it was sometimes to conform to the path laid before her, Ethan let her rebel a little without getting involved. Something that their father was incapable of doing, of letting things lie. Her brother’s help was the best bet she had of getting away from the delusions of their mother. Even if his ideas seemed like they wouldn’t be helpful. What help could the divination teacher really provide, other than confirmation that Natalie didn’t seem to have the gift? Would that information really persuade her father not to lock her away when she graduated from school?

“You really think you’re in a place to give me dating advice?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. Perhaps dating Elliot was a little weird, they didn’t have much in common. But he was sweet and polite and it had been a nice break from the boys in her house. She had known that Elliot was someone that both her brother and father would want to disapprove of, but he was a pureblood, and that got rid of the only valid reason the two of them had for her not to date him. Although apparently his being unrelatable was enough reason for Ethan to scold her. “If it makes you feel better, I’ve sworn off of dating this year. I figure watching your disaster of a dating life is bad enough.”

Natalie turned to look at him as he spoke of being relieved to leave home. As if leaving home was enough of an escape from their family, who wouldn’t hesitate to send owl after owl telling their children whom they could and couldn’t be talking to. Bronwyn had been a smart match for her brother, and she listened with half-hearted interest as he started talking about his split from her. “Wait, Bronwyn has feelings for Regulus? Please say it’s him and not Sirius because that would be a disaster. Father certainly would have tried to take on the Blacks if he knew.”

[Ethan Vanderhyde]

"Ouch, touché."

He really didn't have a leg to stand on, but at least all of his matches had made some kind of sense - for their families, and as themselves. Thomas and Lovegood and the others his sister chose to spend time with, even if they were from upstanding families, were unintelligible. There was one in every family - one only had to compare Bronwyn and her cousin to know as much - and, unfortunately, Natalie's class was chalk full of the ones. So, to be fair, maybe her choices weren't all Natalie's fault, even if she was trying to make his and their father's lives more difficult by them. There were so few good options for her here, really. Ethan had had hopes for Crouch, but from what he could tell, they were determined to just be friends. "That does make me feel better," Ethan quipped back with the hint of a grin. Who knew how long it would last, but maybe she really would be content with her friends this year, instead of seeking something else. Had he not the pressure to do differently... "If nothing else, at least my failures provide enough gossip to keep you entertained."

Leaving home for school was not enough. At the end of this year, Ethan would join his father at work and, if the senior Vanderhyde had anything to say about it, his after-hours work as well. He knew what his future held, and he'd be lucky if he even felt like the choice of neighborhood of his first flat was his own. But he hadn't yet given up hope for Natalie to have something different, and as such, his concern was still piqued, they hadn't had any aha's, any solutions to the problem of her "abilities" and their parents. There was no way she would agree to up and leave for her last year of school, was there? Could he get her into a program at Beauxbatons, just to get her out of their reach? Something prestigious that would set her apart from the other pureblood girls, they could come up with some sort of excuse to their parents, some once-in-a-lifetime opportunity... 

He had to laugh, at least, as Tali surely jested. "If I have to lose her to one of them, you can bet your last galleon - I wouldn't have lost out to Sirius." Bronwyn was no fool, and even though she used both her heart and her head to make this decision, she'd never be so lovestruck and blinded as to go after someone disowned. Even if she had, perhaps, been interested in the second son before he became the heir - at least her parents had no reason not to approve, now. And, Ethan now had the heir to the Black fortune owing him a favor. Even if he was for the match, wanting his friends to find happiness together, a true rarity - he could have dug in his heels. That would have been wise, if not kind. But he couldn't afford to be truly altruistic, no? Regulus owed him one, and all he had to do was wait. "You have to have noticed, he's always at her heels," he continued with a bemused chuckle. "She wouldn't have allowed it if she didn't enjoy the attention from him."