Battle Of Gringotts

To say that she had been happy to get Kaydence’s owl a week ago would have been an understatement. She had done just about everything that she could think of to do by herself in the past few weeks. She liked to consider herself to be an independent person, able to support herself and do as she pleased, but after spending the majority of the month mostly alone she knew now that she did need the company of other living souls, even if she could pay her own bills. She had asked to be included in on Kaydence’s meetings; she wanted to be a part of whatever was coming up. Having her social calendar empty was not acceptable in her eyes. Sure, she had been to business meetings and a few parties, but it just wasn’t the same. She didn’t feel the urge to be so horribly bitter to everybody that she met so she didn’t even have the same verbal fights on a daily basis like she had whenever she was in school. Out of the few meetings that she had been able to supervise, the concerns that had been placed on the table were all valid concerns that she herself had been thinking while she had been in waiting. Nobody could say that she wasn’t dedicated; she had waited for three years, waiting to hear anything from Darren, for orders anything. She had given up, with great timing so it seemed. The current one seemed to be going well, she was more than happy to sit back and take notes while Kaydence asked the questions. They always met here before the club opened, she supplied them with drinks, peanuts if they were requested, attractive witches doing stretches on stage, it was a fitting enough atmosphere she thought. As their latest interview winded to a close the man rising, staring a little too long at Jasmine, who was working over her routine on stage, Cammie laughed softly as she walked to the door, rubber necking the entire time. Grabbing her large tan bag off the back of her chair and smoothing the front of her shirt down her torso she headed toward the door of hell, keys in hand. Kaydence didn’t stop as Cammie pushed in the chairs and followed after her. Closing the door behind them, she locked the door and followed her friend onto the elevator, not pausing to check in with the day manager of purgatory as they made their way into the sunlight. The second they stepped into the heat she regretted her choice of clothing, she had worn heeled boots because she was meeting with Kaydence, who looked like a giant next to Cammie in her regular shoes, she had almost a foot worth of height on the petite blond. The fabric of her shirt hung off of one shoulder, blue and white stripes running down the length of her body in blocks. One arm was almost naked while the other hand more fabric on it, she wished that she had worn the thing that she had pulled out of her closet first. She had just assumed that the weather was going to be fairer since they had been having almost constant rain for weeks. She had first thought of wearing a tank top and sandals, but her mind had gotten the better of her. At least she had the sense to wear shorts, those of a light tan color, the air hitting her legs should at least compensate for the heat that her torso was going to take.

“Well that went better than expected,” She didn’t have much of a chance to reply since they were already heading in the direction of one of the half dozen stores they had agreed to go into today. Whenever Kaydence came to a sudden stop, fishing around in her purse, she took the opportunity to walk a few more paces, letting her fingers run over a few hats on a rack placed just outside of one of the stores, the moving on to the scarf rack. Her fingers rested on a rather colorful one, waiting for Kaydence to catch up with her, she shifted the scarves around, looking at the ones that were behind them with interest. She was considering picking out a few to hold up to her clothing and face to get a real feel for the color whenever she head Kaydence mutter to herself. Letting them go, the bits of fabric fell back into place as Kaydence closed the distance between them. “I need to go to Gringotts Nodding once, she left her almost purchases behind and followed the girl to Gringotts, thinking that she was going to need to buy some stilts to keep this pace up all day. Kaydence had been graced with long elegant legs, she had been blessed with the curves, just on a far more minute scale. Kaydence was already half way up the stairs and she didn’t need to tag along every place that she went, they were independent people, she could get her money by herself. “Do you need to go in too?” Shaking her head she replied softly “No, I went inside earlier, I’ll wait here” “Alright, hopefully I’ll be out within a few minutes.” She nodded once, there were a few things that she could think of to do in her absence, but she should stay true to her word, she wouldn’t be inside long after all, the sun on her skin felt wonderful. Running one palm along the length of her other bare arm she smiled, leaning up against the marble railing that lead up into the building for a moment, before stepping forward to people watch. “Don’t even think about cheating. That scarf is mine,” “We’ll see about that” She teased right back. This was what she had been wanting all along, to come back into the light, and have her friends around her. She just needed to find a man to keep her warm in the evenings and she would be all set.

The streets were busier than she had seen them in quite some time. It seemed almost like things were getting back to normal, of course there was the ever present worry about when the next attack would come in the back of nearly everybody’s minds. Except of course, those who would know by the burning coming from their forearms if something was about to happen, while she may not be inclined to help out any longer, the dozens of meetings that she had sat in on with Kaydence was enough to convince her of that. Darren was no longer the winning team, the Ministry didn’t seem too much better off either, she wasn’t sure who was about to come out on top but he was willing to wait and see, she needed to know. Thankfully, Kaydence had agreed to let her sit in on the meetings so long as she supplied her with a meeting place, what better than a seedy strip club? Pushing her hair over her shoulder, she glanced down at the small silver watch on her arm; it was a delicate thing she had purchased earlier in the week. The day was halfway over, she watched silently as Kaydence ducked into Gringotts, no doubt needing more money. This week had been a slew of business luncheons, shopping trips and light drinking. She wouldn’t have been in the least bit surprised if Kaydence was running a little low on coin, if she hadn’t been saving up for the past few years she would have been as well. It was just lucky for her that business hadn’t dipped too long, and it was fortunate that she was in dire need of a new non-stained wardrobe. The two of them were working to reinvent the term ‘shop till you drop’ turning her body to look up the street in search of more signs bearing the words ‘clearance’ or ‘bargain’ anything of the sort, she wanted to add them to the mental list she was keeping in her head of stores that needed to be hit next. Reaching into the purse that she had just bought yesterday, she felt for her money bag, double checking it’s weight, she had been to Gringotts on her way to meet Kaydence this morning, and didn’t need to pull out any more money. If she did, she was going to spend herself into a hole. She had enough for a few more stores, and dinner this evening. Granted, she could just go back into her bar and eat for free but she was craving something a tad more sophisticated. Perhaps she could even convince Kaydence to join her.

It had been truly fortunate that she had run back into her. Whenever she had been contacted she had assumed that it was some cruel form of a joke meant to ensnare her formulated by Darren, never could she have imagined that Kaydence had been kicked out of her home, nor any of the other horrible things that had happened to her in the past few years. She had kept the details of her own recent past to herself, after meeting with Centara, she had been forced to realize just how insane the whole thing had been, most of all since nobody was putting much faith into Darren’s leadership skills anyway. Looking down into the folds of her purse she delved further looking for her compact mirror and lip gloss, no sense in standing there doing nothing. Pulling it out she lifted the double mirror to her face and snapped open the circle, rubbing on a dollop of gloss and spreading it with her finger, pushing the tube into her pocket and checking the rest of her face for smudges or frizz in her hair. All of the rain that they had been getting over the past month was brutal on her hair. Her skin was normally fair and since she had not been able to acquire any sort of tan, the rain was vexing her most. Glancing into the mirror she spotted somebody coming closer in the mirror. He was a tall brooding type, with thick dark hair. The kind that would have normally been her type, thankful that she was checking, hopefully without his knowledge she looked closer, he was heading her direction but didn’t seem to be looking right at her, he seemed to be looking at Gringotts, which wasn’t uncommon. Then his face came into view, what little color she had in her face left drained away, wishing that she had colored her hair something darker she turned to look him straight in the face, panic bubbled to her throat. She was torn between just waiting for him, hoping that a deep apology and a low bow might excuse something, anything of her behavior. Her fight or flight kicked in, she didn’t have any desire to be cursed for the next hour as penance, she had seen him do it before and she didn’t want to roll around screaming for his pleasure, he holds no more power she whispered to herself, shoving the still open mirror into her bag she grasped the marble railing of Gringotts and ran inside, the heel of her dark brown ankle boots clicking loudly, echoing once she stepped inside of the normally hushed building. Her eyes frantically scanned for her friend, her dark brown locks not coming into her immediate focus. Shit her brain repeated the phrase over and over again in her mind.

She found herself frozen in the middle of the entrance way, she knew he would be coming up on her soon, urging her feet to carry herself further, her grip on her bag was turning her knuckles white, the anticipation was killing her, she didn’t know how close he was and didn’t want to turn around and watch him, she felt like a child again. Men didn’t often intimidate her anymore, but she was publicly not aligned with him anymore, meaning that she was his enemy. As she took small steps forward, her eyes scanning each counter individually, she needed to find Kay, and quickly. There were dozens of sets of footsteps all around her, small fingers started to work their way down into her bag, closing around her wand which had been hidden away just in case whenever she felt a hand grasp her with force around her right bicep. Her yelp left her lips, her body jumped and her purse fell, luckily her wand was still in hand. As her body was jerked around she found herself wishing that she was either greatly smaller, so as to slide out of his grip or to have more heft, she didn’t want to be so light, he could throw her around easily. She found herself staring directly into the deep brown eyes of her former leader. The face that she had pledged her loyalty, she was terrified, and yet she wanted to ask him why he had abandoned her, she had a million questions, why had he allowed her to fall. She had been so loyal to him, she had done everything he had asked of her until that night, yet she had been left alone in the dark. She wanted to ask him to make it quick, but not a single word left her lips. She stared into his eyes with muted terror, her arm was starting to loose feeling. He was so angry, she felt him push her backwards, leaving her purse alone to be kicked around by the patrons of Gringotts. She was left cowed by the desks, nobody could see her, she was out of the public eye, he could do anything and they would only hear her scream.

“I will deal with you next.” As soon as he had come, he was gone. He left her on the sidelines with rapidly yellowing skin, making his way off toward Kaydence, she wanted to stop, to jump on his back and bash her wand into his head, yet she was stuck. Her hand had clamped instantly against the spot where he had held on. Her eyes watched helplessly as she followed his footsteps over to where Kaydence stood. She could only imagine the terror that would shortly show on her friends face must have looked something like her own only moments ago. Strange how they could sit calmly plotting a mutiny and yet whenever he was still face to face she was intimidated. There was no doubt that he was a frightening man, wishing that she had been grabbed on the arm with her sleeve to cover up the impression of his hand now wrapping around the span of her skin like a horrible tattoo she left it well enough alone and darted for her purse, it was still where she had dropped it, she could take this chance and run, get out of here for ever and leave Kaydence, but she wasn't going to be afraid anymore. With her body still shaking, she slowly made her way over to the siblings.

Juliet sat on the floor of her vault, sifting through the various contents. It had been virtually eons since she had last cleaned out all of the unneeded items that ended up sitting in her vault when she wasn't sure of what do do with them. Most of them were at least of some value, and of course there were a few that were worth more than her life. What she intended to clean out of her vault were things that she no longer had a purpose for.

She picked up a crystal orb and looked it over, the dust that had become caked onto it floating up into the air and adding to the already stuffy atmosphere. Her nose wrinkled as she tried to hold back a sneeze, attempting to avoid inhaling a rather large dust puff that was floating by her face. Allergies. One of the only things that magic could not seem to rid anyone of permanently. Gratuitously unfortunate as Juliet was willing to pay nearly anything to end the damned things. As the dust puff floated away, Juliet placed the orb into a pile she intended to keep. She stood up and walked to the door of her vault, pulling her wand from her cloak; the dust in the room simply would not do. "Scourgify," she said, her voice echoing in the chamber. As if a tornado appeared in the room, the dust and grime on everything in the room jetted to a central point and disappeared with a pop. "Delightful," she mused to herself as she strode over to a shelf in the back of the vault.

This particular shelf was new in her vault, and full of the items that she dare not keep in her own home. She picked up a vial full of Acromantula venom and shook it about, the liquid contents catching the light and tossing colours in a rather unsettling way. A sealed container next to it held powdered unicorn horn, yet another more devious ingredient in her stock. She was proud of her ability to use these ingredients, but she was not proud that she felt it necessary to own them. Her mother would more than likely wring her neck if she found out what she'd been spending her money on...

Juliet looked at her watch and sighed. Speaking of things her mother would wring her neck for owning, Juliet was due in about 15 minutes to meet a supplier for new Chinese Fireball eggshells, which she had been waiting for over a month to get her hands on. Quality ingredients were getting hard to find, never mind when they were restricted items. Juliet tossed her bag over her shoulder and exited her vault, hopping into the waiting cart. The man would be waiting for her in the lobby, and it always took at least 10 minutes to re-surface from the vaults.

Jumping off of the cart and back onto solid, unmoving ground, Juliet thanked the goblin in the cart, who merely nodded and gave a quiet grunt as he put the cart back into gear and sped away. Shaking her head, she pulled a small sack of several Galleons out of her pocket and made her way to a set of pillars near the entrance to all of the vaults. After examining the product, she handed the man the money, and he promptly disappeared from her sight, into the shadows and most likely out of the building before she blinked. She tucked the red and silver powder carefully into her bag, padding it with a sweater. Merlin help her if it spilled in her purse.

She began to make her way to the doors behind the pillars of Gringotts Bank, feeling that shadow was probably her friend when one had the amount of illegal contraband that she did. Times not to draw attention to yourself include... It wasn't until a low, angry voice reached her ears that she stopped herself. Peering past the pillar before her, only fifteen feet from her was Kaydence Morgan and a man she could not name, but certainly recognized. The scene was clearly not one of jovial reunion, that much was clear. Following Kaydence's gaze across the room, her eyes widened when they fell on a blonde woman, writhing on the floor in what was undoubtedly agony.

Juliet's hand moved to her mouth in a split second to smother the gasp that attempted to escape. This was not a good place to be right now, and she sincerely doubted that she would make it out of Gringotts fully intact if she didn't draw her wand very, very soon. A trembling hand reached into her robes, drawing her wand silently as she drew in a steadying breath. Eeeeasy girl, she thought to herself. Nothing we haven't done before... Thoughts of the Minister's Ball invaded her mind and her stomach churned. She and Kaydence had never been friends, per se, but they had at least been cordial in school. That, and her wholehearted desire for self-preservation, were more than enough reason to have her wand at the ready. She wouldn't walk away from someone when they were in trouble.

She drew another steadying breath and settled against the pillar, listening silently. It was time to wait.

Her pace was slow, she didn’t want to intrude upon the meeting, but the fact that he was so close to her, just few feet away from where she was currently standing, she wanted to curse him, she could have done so easily from this distance, but wanted to get her hands on him, it would have been much more satisfying, she wanted to burn his skin from her body. She had so many questions, bubbling up to her tongue; she wanted to know why he had sent her to that house, why he hadn’t been there for her whenever she needed him. A good leader would have helped her, repaid her for the years of loyalty, the effort that she had put forth to train new followers, so much of her own blood, sweat, and tears had gone into serving him, only to be cast aside like a used toy. It was unacceptable; she was worth so much more than that. She may be small, but she was powerful. She wanted nothing more than to confront him, shake him, and pound her fists into his broad chest. She had loved him, not in a romantic way but like an older brother, even as a father figure and he had left her just like her own father had. Kicked her while she was down. Her pace quickened, the fury in her eyes evident, she felt so much more alive than any amount of drinking or shopping could cause her to be. She wanted nothing more than to be even, to bring about the same scars onto his own body. She knew that Kaydence was telling her no, to just leave him alone, to save herself. She was pleading with her large blue eyes, her face petrified but she couldn’t stop. Her body was taking over, her brain was shutting down. She didn’t see the tiny girl, or the ball go rolling into Darren’s foot, she didn’t care to know what was going to happen to her, or how the tiny girl would no doubt be scarred for life if somehow she did manage to blow the man into millions of tiny bits. Her arm was a dark shade of purple by now, pulsing with every step but she could no longer feel the pain.

She didn’t even make it all the way to him, Kaydence was going to have to fend for herself now, and she hoped that she was going to be able to, one moment she was almost jogging toward the siblings, the next, she could feel her head cracking against the granite floors of Gringotts, and she could see nothing. Instantly, fear and claustrophobia setting in. There was nothing, the world was dark, her eyes felt like they were bleeding, like tiny knives were stabbing into her head, her bag fell once again, her wand landing silently onto of it, her hands flew to her face, her blood curdling scream left her lips no doubt bringing about the attention of half the building. The pain wasn’t stopping, it was worse than just being blind, it was dredging up her past, The childhood that she had been running away from her entire life. She had no time to feel if her hair was turning red from her own blood, even if she hadn’t been cursed, it was likely that her vision was going to be foggy from the blow she had took. What had he done? Why couldn’t she see? Loud whimpers left her mouth, only they didn’t sound like her voice, she didn’t know whose voice it was, but it sounded like they were in agony. Her fingers clawed at her face willing to see something, anything, even grey shadows against the total abyss. Nothing she was doing would do anything to lessen the pain, Merlin why wasn’t it going away?

She was seven again, her ribs were still aching from where he kicked her, it hurt to breath, she wasn’t physically able to stand. The world was so dark. He didn’t allow her to turn on any lights in the house, she had been scared of the dark since infancy, but this was the worst. All she was allowed was a bucket of bleach. She had to use the corners of her dress to protect her hands from having to scrub with her bare knuckles. She didn’t like the blisters that the chemicals would leave on her hands, they hurt too much whenever they ruptured. Her had no idea what her face looked like, and the last time that she had brushed her hair. Marlon was away at boarding school, things always got worse whenever he was away. She hated cleaning with bleach almost as much as she hated pulling things from the oven without oven mitts. She was locked there for hours, with just the fumes of the bleach and her raw, bleeding skin. He was likely asleep, he wouldn’t allow her to leave the broom closet until he woke up, or until the company he had left. She had no idea what time it was, she was forced to cry in silence. She wanted to cry now, she wanted to wrap her arms around her frail body and rock back and forth in attempts to get some sort of comfort that she knew she wasn’t going to get from anybody else. She didn’t like the dark. That was where he…she could picture him, swinging open the door to the tiny closest she called home, his large silhouette shining in the darkness, the light behind him hurting her eyes and making him seem only that more intimidating. She had no choice but to watch as he came closer to her, stooping over and grasping handfuls of her dirty hair, balling it into his fist and forcing her to stand, but her legs were so weak, she was shaking like a leaf. He tossed her into the corner, another bruise was added to her body from the corner of the bucket, she was forced to sit in the spilt bleach, and yet still he advanced. Another softer scream left her lips, pleading. She didn’t want to see anymore, she didn’t want to relive it. She could feel tears burning down her cheeks, which was a strange comfort, because it meant that her eyes were still intact she managed to roll over, wanting to get away, she wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear she was terrified.

Yet, as quickly as it had come, it was gone. There was no waiting, she vision was just back, and she could see everything around her in crystal clear clarity. Her hands probed her face just to be sure, grasping her personal belongings she stumbled into a sitting position, scrambling backward against the countertops, sure that a goblin was leaning over to look at her, bringing her knees up she wanted to stop shaking. This was not the first time that she had been cursed by Darren, and no doubt it wasn’t going to be the last, not by a long shot. She was grateful, it had only been temporary, he was giving her a warning. One that she really ought to obey and get the hell out of dodge as soon as possible. She watched in muted terror as Kaydence was slammed up against the pillar, she didn’t dare move to see if she could spot the source of the banging coming from outside of the building. Her body wouldn’t stop shaking, the tears wouldn’t stop falling. As crazy as it was, she wondered if there was something that Darren still saw in her, some way that she could still be useful. She was still angry with him, and wanted an explanation but the fact that his curse hadn’t been permanent must mean that he still cared about her at least a ,little bit. Her eyes were wide, darting around the bank to see if there was anybody coming to help her. She tried to slow her breathing.

There was nobody, nobody was coming to help her; nobody was coming to help Kaydence. Everything seemed frozen, like they were inside of a movie and the world was moving in slow motion. Did they know who Darren was? Had he revealed himself in the short time that she had been handicapped? Her nails were digging into the skin of her palms her hands were balled so tight; it was the ball all over again. Staring around the room now, even some of the players were the same, Kaydence, Darren and herself. She could see another dark haired girl from school that she didn’t know the face of, and who knew who else was fated to be here today. Shouldn’t the ministry be stepping in right about now? Shouldn’t the Auror’s be descending and coming to rescue everybody? Or was the Ministry really as incompetent as she wanted to believe? Perhaps the Minister had abandoned them, in which case there was no force left to oppose Darren except Kaydence, Herself and the few people that were allying themselves with the woman. This thought gave her enough strength to stand, but slowly, regretting the choice of heels for only a moment. Luckily she was used to them and once she got to her feet, was able to stand steadily with the help of her hand grasping onto the ledge of the desk. She dropped her purse on the desk; she wasn’t going to need it anymore. Grasping her compact in one hand and her wand in the order, she threw the tiny, circular mirror directly at the back of Darren’s head, this time her hurt would be evident, he would not be able to ignore it. Her face still streaked with tears she took one step toward him, not daring to attempt to shoot a curse in his direction, he was going to be angry enough as it was.