Cold Case Set On Fire

Khaat had a bit of a secret that Ekko didn't know. She had been kept at one of James' dens for awhile. In fact, her twins, Daniel and Benjamin, had been born there after she had been kidnapped by James.

Khaat probably knew, better than anyone else in her family, how Ekko probably felt--or at least how disorienting it could be to be swept away underground. Ekko had a way to go if she were going to get past the werewolves and get on with her life.

Khaat did not know Lorcan D'Eath, but his reputation held that he was not exactly a warm, fuzzy father. The rumor mill said that, not by his own doing, he was beginning to be a bit of a father out of necessity. The marriage law had caused him to need to create yet another D'Eath baby, and since Zada apparently was even less of a parent than Lorcan, Lorcan had had to step up, at least as much as he knew how, for this new son. How he would react to a new daughter remained to be seen. Khaat, however, was glad that Ekko had found some warmer people here.

"You're very kind, Ekko, to be okay with a four year old going with you," Khaat said. "Don't be afraid to not let her get underfoot, though."

"I won't," Abbey frowned. "I'm taller than that, Mama." Khaat looked at her momentarily.

"No, no," Robert laughed. "Your mama means don't be a nuisance to Ekko."

"Oh," Abbey said. She looked at Ekko. "I won't nuisance you, Ekko. We'll go get books instead." Robert just shook his head, slightly amused.

"This isn't all about books, Abbey," Kate said. "Ekko needs clothes."

"And jammas!" Abbey nodded. "And stuffs. You needs stuffs too, Ekko."

"Be careful, Ekko," Robert laughed. "You'll have not only the stuff you want but all the stuff a certain four year old thinks you should have, and that can be strange business." He looked at Anabelle. "You did an exceptional job, by the way. was very pleased with your work. Very few apprentices could have done as well. If you choose for it to open doors for you and advance your learning opportunities, then I'm fine with that. You've earned it. Brian and I will be training and sparring tomorrow afternoon. You can certainly join us if your schedule permits it. If you're going to be hanging with him much, you'll need those skills sooner or later."

"I need to be in London about that time," Khaat said to Annabelle. "Perhaps you and Ekko would like to meet when you're finished with your shift at the ministry? Ekko? Would that work for either of you?"

Ekko was amused by the conversation between mother, daughter and grandparents. A laugh managed to slip out of her as she listened to Abbey protest, agree with and suggest things that she was going to need. Ekko wasn't sure what she was going to need at all, she felt like it was going to be more of a thing of wanting rather than needing. In all honesty, she'd gotten used to not having much while in the den, so she wasn't sure saying she needed anything was the best choice of words.

She looked to Hit, who now had a sheepish look on her face, probably from what Robert had just said to her. She looked almost embarrassed to have Robert praising her. Ekko tilted her head to the side, wanting to take in the expression on the older girl's face. It was one she hadn't ever really seen in the year she was with the werewolves, they had always been taken praise with pride, basking in the spotlight they got when being praised.

Dylan definitely did that. Especially when Moira was the one who praised him. A weird feeling toward the memory made Ekko shake her head to get herself back to reality.

Just in time to hear Hit say, "Thank you. I- I'll be more than happy to." with a smile, but in a soft voice. Maybe she just wasn't used to compliments.

Her curiosity was put on hold for a moment when Khaat suggested that she and Hit meet when her shift at the Ministry was over. Ekko almost jumped out of excitement but managed to contain herself, though the eagerness of her nod was more than enough to show how she felt. The excitement in Ekko' eyes caused a soft laugh from Hit and she nodded as well. "That'd be great." she said in addition to her nod.

"Good," Robert said to Anabelle. "Perhaps we can defeat Brian this time."

"Oh, no, no. Get your own apprentice," Brian said. "This one's mine. Besides, you cheated last time."

"Cheated?" Robert frowned, "I did no such thing. I do not need to cheat to best you in a sparring match" Robert saw Brian look at Anabelle and Ekko, loving an opportunity to try to ruffle Robert's feathers a bit.

Robert turned his attentions back to Abbey when he saw she was finished eating and simply playing in her food now. "Abbey, now listen," he said. "If you go this morning, you stay with Gram. Don't wander off. Pay attention. It's important. Okay?"

"If I'm good, I can have more books?" Abbey asked.

"You are going to turn into a book," Robert teased her. She giggled. "I'm sure Gram will let you buy another book or two if you're good."

"Just one?" she frowned. She glanced up at Ekko. "We'll get more than that. Gram likes books." She cast a sideways glance back at Robert. "Even if you don't like books."

"Me?" he laughed out loud. That made others at the table laugh, especially those who knew about Robert's need for an excess of book.

"If you liked books, you should have more," Abbey nodded.

"I see," Robert said, having a hard time stifling laughter. "Go get your coat if you're going along, young lady. And wash that pancake syrup off your face." She bounced up and dashed upstairs, looking forward to going anywhere with the older girls. "I swear she's four going on eight," he said.

"You'll need a winter jacket this morning, Ekko," Marcus said. "I laid one out in the living room for you. I think it should fit. I adjusted it a bit for you. Did you have any issue with porting last night when you came?" He understood how some wizards, particularly younger ones had a bit of a difficulty adjusting to porting, so it seemed to be worth asking the question.

Ekko liked Hit's laugh. It was soft and gentle, it sounded like it was one that didn't get air time often. She'd noticed since they'd gotten back from the den that Hit's expression always had some kind of sadness in it and she wondered why. She didn't think it was something she should just waltz up and ask about, but she figured it might be something she could find out little by little if she was around the older girl often.

"She definitely is very mature for her age." Hit observed with a smile on her face. She glanced over at Ekko, who'd been staring at her for a little while now. "What's wrong? Is there something on my face?" she asked, her smile fading.

Ekko nodded. "A smile." She responded, tilting her head to the side. "I like it. You should smile more." The innocent sentence made Hit blush and she lowered her head to hide the embarrassment. A lot of people told her that, but the fact that even a ten year old said it (in the most innocent way possible too) was pretty embarrassing.

"I- I'll try." she said softly. She looked up to see Ekko grinning widely before she turned her attention to the person speaking to her.

"Oh, thank you." Ekko smiled at Marcus. "Um, no. I don't think so. I felt fine." she added, putting her index finger on her lips in thought.

When breakfast was over, Robert got his suitcoat and put it on and straightened his tie. Brian knew Robert's routine of getting ready to leave for the Ministry much too well, and he had remembered that Robert had intended to allow Anabelle to be part of the meeting with Lorcan D'Eath about Ekko. After all, she had been responsible for her rescue.

"Anabelle," Brian said, "if you're ready, we'll go with Robert this morning and then I'll drop you off at Hogwarts when we're done. I've got a note for you to give to your head of house that thanks Hogwarts for its kindness in allowing you to be out all night with us."

"And we should get ready to go shopping," Kate smiled at Ekko. Kate went to the closet and got her own winter coat out and brought back the jacket that Marcus had gotten out for Ekko. "Abbey? Are you coming?" Kate called.

Abbey came downstairs with her pink wool pea coat with the black buttons. "'Kota's jealous," Abbey sighed.

"We'll make it up to her," Kate said, soothingly.

"Don't worry about Dakota, Sweetheart," Khaat said. "Angus is making sugar cookies today. She can help him, and besides, it's her turn to pick out the shapes and the colors of the icing and the sprinkles."

"Then they're gonna all be purple," Abbey shook her head, as if all purple cookies were silly.

"That's okay," Khaat laughed. "That will make her feel better. Where are your mittens?"

"Dunno," Abbey shrugged.

"Accio mittens!" Khaat called, using wandless magic, and the fuzzy black mittens with the embroidered pink kitties came to Khaat, who handed them to Abbey. Khaat helped Abbey button her coat. "Now, you heard what Papa said," Khaat reminded her. "Stay with Gram and Ekko. Don't wander off..."

"I need monies, Mama," Abbey was completely distracted by her empty coat pockets.

"You're not listening," Khaat said.

"But I got no monies," Abbey said. Robert reached into his pocked and got out a few coins and handed them to Abbey. "Will that buy fudge, Papa?"

"Fudge? Well, if Gram takes you to Honeydukes, then, yes, it should. If you stop buy Uncle Michael's, he'll give you fudge."

"That's because he steals it," Abbey said.

"Not exactly, my dear," Robert laughed. "He has an account."

"That's when they keep a list of what you steal, isn't it?"

"Well," he paused. Maybe at 4, she didn't need a lengthy explanation. "Close enough, I guess. I'll explain it to you when you're older."

With her coat fastened, Abbey went over to Ekko. "You like Honeydukes? If Gram takes us there, we can get tons and tons of candy."

"Maybe just one ton," Kate teased them. "Ekko, do you mind taking Abbey's hand while we port?"

Robert looked at Brian and Anabelle. "Are you two coming with me or would you like to port in by yourselves?"

She'd honestly been under the impression that she would be going back to Hogwarts as soon as breakfast was done, but if she wasn't then there was something else of importance that needed to be done. Merlin, was she glad she would be able to be there for whatever it was.

But she also remembered she still had that Charms assignment she needed to hand in. Hopefully she'd be back at the castle before the class so she could hand it in and not peeve off Professor Poliakoff. He seemed like a really nice guy, but she vaguely remembered him being kind of an arse during his last year of Hogwarts, when she was a second or third year. It wasn't like she interacted with him at all but those kinds of traits in people stuck out to her.

She wondered what made him change so much. It was definitely for the better. Though he did always have this troubled look on his face that made her curious.

Getting lost in her thoughts was the last thing she should be doing right now. Anabelle nodded, "Okay. I'm all set." She told Brian.

Ekko seemed excited to go shopping, though she wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to do. Her mother had always been the one who did the actual shopping while Ekko merely watched her and commented on colors. "Sure thing." Ekko said, nodding at Kate and reaching out to take Abbey's hand.

The sensation of having someone else's hand in her own was strange. The last time she'd done that was just days before she was rescued with Dylan, when it was really crowded on the street and he was forced to take her hand so she wouldn't get lost. A sad look flashed on her face. She shook her head and replaced it with a smile.

Hit shrugged, "Either way works." She decided Brian should decide which way they'd get to the Ministry.

Brian looked at Anabelle and shrugged carelessly. Porting was just porting, not a major development.

"We might as well go with him," Brian said, suspecting that he intended to let Anabelle be part of the conversation with Lorcan D'Eath. Well, that ought to take away any expectation she might have had that a Ministry job was happy business--if she had that expectation at all.

Brian took Robert's arm, motioning to Anabelle to take hold, and Robert ported to the Ministry, to his outer office. He let go of Brian, motioning Brian and Anabelle to follow him into his office. He stopped at his secretary's desk where the night clerk was winding up her shift before his daytime secretary came in.

"Send for Lorcan D'Eath for me," he told his secretary. "Ask him to come see me at his earliest convenience, and let me know as soon as you get a response. Oh, and send an update to the Headmaster to let him know I have not forgotten about Anabelle, and beg his indulgence just awhile longer." She nodded as he went into the office.

"You tea is on, Minister, but your bloody teapot bit me again," she called after him, irritated. "I keep telling you it doesn't like me."

"Nonsense. Teapots don't think like that. Show it who's in charge, that's all," he called back to her. He saw the teapot on the hearth.

"No more biting," he told the teapot sternly.

"Well, that ought to just about take care of it, shouldn't it?" Brain shook his head, rolling his eyes. The teapot blew a puff of steam in Robert's face.

"Cheeky," Robert frowned. "So, here's the plan I have for this morning, unless D'Eath derails me," Robert said to Anabelle and Brian, motioning them to sit. "Oh, help yourselves to the tea. Anyway, I expect I'll send an owl to D'Eath, and he'll either come straight away because the vampire in him has an aversion to sunlight. Or he'll blow me off because as a Death Eater he won't want to acknowledge me and he'll come when he's damned good and ready. Either way, we need to look at what might be best with little Miss Ekko right now."

"I thought you discussed that with Ekko," Brian said.

"We did," Robert said. "However, Death Eaters are a very traditional lot. They claim what they believe, by heritage, is theirs--offspring especially. Do I think he'll claim her? Without a doubt. I also expect him to want that exchange to be today. And, if rumors about him are true, she'll be turned over to the house elves before lunch. I would feel remiss as a healer, as a father, and as a Minister to simply hand her over blindly with no regard to her...."

"If you think he's going to be..." Brian began.

"Do not misread me. She'll be given every luxury his wealth can afford, I'm fairly certain."

"Well that seems to be scarcely what she needs or wants," Brian said.

"And that's part of the reason I'm bringing you in on this, Anabelle," Robert said, looking at her. "She's young and she's afraid and hurting, and obviously disoriented--all understandable. However, let us not overlook at the risk here. He's a vampire, and a werewolf pack took his child with the apparent intent of turning her or killing her. And they killed the child's mother. That is perfect fodder for that age old fiery vampire temper...."

"And the age old werewolf/vampire feuding," Brian groaned. "Just what we need is magical creature carnage. Crap."

"Exactly. I would like to prevent a war, but right now, I see it as a real risk. I am exploring a number of ways to head them off but, Anabelle, I cannot overlook the possibility that perhaps if you befriend Ekko, it will serve more than one purpose. First and by far the most important, it would be excellent for her. She needs a reason to anchor in the possibility that her life can be a positive thing again. The second reason is that she might be able to put a proverbial bug in her father's ear about making some peace. Perhaps--if the spirit so moves her. I'm not looking to exploit her. I am looking to not have any reason for James Blood to want to come after more people. Is that anything that you think you might be able to do?"

(Okay, I'm at over 700 words. Can I just pick up Ekko in the next post? And--do we want Lorcan's conversation with them to be in this thread or a separate one?)

(Yeah, that's fine. And that's entirely up to you, but I think a separate thread might be better because there's so much going on in this one now.)

Hit wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about this entire thing. There were a lot of different emotions going through her right now regarding Ekko. The younger girl seemed like she was okay, even though she had just had something traumatic happen to her, but Hit knew what it was like to tough things out because she didn't want to seem like anything was affecting her.

She assumed that was what Ekko was trying to do now.

She nodded at Robert. Befriending Ekko was probably the best course of action for her to take, given how similar they seemed to be. The only problem was that she still seemed very keen on seeing Dylan again and she knew that it would cause a problem between the two of them if her desire to see the ginger boy grew too much. Hit bit her lip at the thought. She supposed she'd have to tackle that hurdle when she got there. "If she takes enough to me, I'll gladly do it." she responded.

The only other thing she was concerned with was Ekko's father. She'd heard from Damitrius that Lorcan wasn't the best at the whole parenting thing (though she did mention he'd gotten better at it because of the newest addition to the D'Eath family) and Hit didn't know how that would work with a ten year old like Ekko who had so much trauma. Ekko needed an attentive father to ge through something like that.

At the very least, Damitrius was living in D'Eath Manor with the rest of them so if Ekko really had to go there, she could count on Dami to keep an eye on Ekko and keep her safe. She would be more at ease if Ekko could remain with the Lupins though, at least until she was old enough to go to Hogwarts. Which would be that fall, if she wasn't mistaken.

"Her older sister would be able to help us out, too, I think. Damitrius doesn't like the whole vampire/werewolf conflict, so.." she stopped for a second. "Anyways, Damitrius is basically an activist for that stuff and she lives with their father so there's that."

Kate ported the three of them into Diagon Alley. The hustle and bustle of the day had not entirely started yet, so she was glad there was some bit of calm before the storm of daily activity.

"Lovely," Kate said, satisfied. "Now, then. Stay close, both of you. Things will get busier. Ekko, my dear, let's go find you some new clothes. This way." She led the way down the street a couple of doors to Madam Malkins, opened the shop door to let the girls go in front of her.

"Take your time," she said. "I should think you will want several pairs of pants--perhaps some jeans--some tops, perhaps a sweater or two or a hoodie. Whatever you think you might wear." Abbey dashed ahead of them to a rounder of crocheted spring sweaters. "Ekko, look!" she said, pointing out one with fringe. "It's all stringy!"

"Abbey, it looks like the new printed jeans arrived," Kate said. "Do you still want a flowered pair?"

"Can I?" she asked, excitedly.

"See if there is a pair you like."

Meanwhile, Robert was listening to Anabelle.

"Good," he said, satisfied. "I do not want you to feel as though you need to stage something to befriend her. You two did seem to get on fairly well. I do not want her adjustment to be any more difficult than necessary. I do not know if she has had any means of putting any sort of resolve or closure to her mother's death. I do want to make sure she has had a chance to deal with that, if I can, before D'Eath insists on a reunification."

"That seems to be more than a bit difficult," Brian said.

"Do you trust D'Eath to do it? If she has had a chance to heal about it, then I shall not reopen it for her."

"You don't like him much, do you?"

"I don't think there is much to like," Robert said. He looked at Anabelle. "It does sound like your friends, Damitrius and his sister, are a fair sight different than their father, though. That is good news indeed. Are you close to either of them?"

Ekko stared at everything in the shop, almost in awe. Dylan had never brought her to any place like this. She supposed she couldn't be mad at him about it, though, since he was supposed to keep her hidden a lot of the time. Even if they'd gotten somewhat close before she was rescued, Dylan had no obligations to her besides what Moira told him to do.

The thought made her sad. It meant that Dylan really never did care about her.

It probably wasn't a good idea for her to keep thinking like that. She'd never get over being at the den this way and she knew she had to, it was the only way to adapt to being well.. anywhere else. Unless she went back, somehow. But she couldn't do that, from what everyone else had been telling her. She'd get killed. Ekko didn't want that.

Was this what being traumatized means?

Still, it didn't change the fact that she didn't know exactly what she was supposed to pick out for herself. So instead, she decided to pay more attention to Abbey, maybe watching the younger girl would give her more of an idea of what she was supposed to do. Shopping didn't seem like it was going to be her thing.

At least Kate had given her the basics of the things she might need. "Abbey, help me pick some things out?" she asked the younger girl.

"I used to be close to Damitrius, she's a couple of years older than me, though, so she graduated already." Hit explained. "I don't get to speak with her often anymore, but I'm sure that I can get in touch with her soon, so I can at least talk with her about taking care of Ekko when she gets to D'Eath Manor." she added. Hit knew that Damitrius would be okay with that, and that meant that it would be easier to see Ekko if she ever wanted to.

Of course, Hit knew very little about Lorcan D'Eath, so she didn't know if he would even be opposed to her visiting Ekko from time to time.