Back from a long Absence (Open)

Christabelle walked into her old job for the first time in months. She had informed them of her going back to Beauxbatons to be with her mother and finish up her schooling which was easily done for her over the summer. By the end of one month she was already finished with her schooling and graduated. It was such a relief for her to be finished an entire year early and she was happy she didn't have to go back to Hogwarts this year, unlike her sister who had no idea where she had been. She knew eventually she would have to let Abbey know she was back but until then she would just surprise her.

There were lots of people she had to see. Varod, for one. They had a lot of problems when she had left and now that she had everything under control she was ready to take her new job in the German Ministry. She would be working her way up fairly quickly but she knew in time she would be the German Mistress of Magic...It had always been her dream to take after her father who had passed away...murdered by who she believed to be an old enemy of hers.

While she tried to lose herself in her thoughts she flipped through the shelves of books, surprised to see the things she had requested months ago to be added to the shelves. She knew she would enjoy reading them as she didn't have anything but time on her hands. She sighed as she picked up a book rubbing her hand up the spining to it.

Sophia walked through the crowded streets of Diagon Alley looking for something to do seeing how it was the weekend and she needed something to do. As she seen the Black Raven Bookstore she smiled and walked towards the store and opened the door. As the bell tinkled above her head she simply ignored it and walked over towards the books. Browsing through a interesting book she found that she decided to get and read for she needed some new books to read. With her nose buried in the book she found she ran into someone and fell to the ground as her book went flying. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry are you ok?"Sophia asked them softly hoping that they were.

Christabelle wrapped up in her own book that she had just opened and began to read through was knocked to the ground, her book shutting very quickly, never leaving her hand. Hearing the voice she looked up and saw Sophia. It had been a few months since they had last seen each other and Christy had never said the reason she was leaving. She was good at that. Just disappearing.

"So I come back into town and thats how you're gonna treat me? Just knock me down why don't you?" she had a serious face until Soph looked at her and then she started laughing. "I mean really Soph were you that mad at me for leaving?"

Abbey needed something to read. Anything, really. So when she approaced the Black Raven Bookshop in Diagon Alley, she felt relief flood her. See, reading was one of Abbey's passions; you would never find her without a book these days.

She pushed open the door to the shop and found row upon row of shelves filled with amazing, glorious books. Abbey didn't even care that every single one of them was covered with what looked to be a thousand years worth of accumulation of dust; it was just wonderful to be in the presence of so many amazing stories. Abbey found her day immediatly brightened. She wandered around the shelves aimlessly, staring at beautifully illustrated covers and the worn spins of books looking back at her.

Finally reaching the back of the shop, Abbey picked up a book and flipped through the pages, trying to find that one sentence she always looked for that would catch her eye. She plopped down in an old rickety chair and continued peering at the pages.

Christy walked over to the seats seeing a very familiar young red head. She hadn't seen her at all this summer which was horrible considering, that Abbey was her younger sister...even if she was adopted they were family and she had missed her. She dropped her book and ran over to her yelling as she practically jumped on her to hug her, "ABBEY!!!!!" She yelled loudly looking at her.

"I haven't seen you in forever! What in the world did you do all summer!"

Abbey looked up from her book and saw Christy running towards her. "Oh my gosh!!! Christy!!!" she screamed. Some of the other people in the bookstore gave her dirty looks because of her shouting, but Abbey didn't care. She gave Christy a long hug; it felt so nice to see her sister again.

"Well I went to Paris and visited a couple of other places..but enough about me! Where have you been!?" she asked. Abbey hadn't seen Christy in what felt like millions of years when it had really been just a summer.

"Well after I left I pretty much stayed at home after I finished school at Beauxbatons." she said looking at her. "Um I had a miscarriage. Which other than mom you are the first one to know about." she said looking at her. "It was Varod's. But he doesn't know anything about it yet. He thought I was when I left but I kept telling him no." She sighed. "And I've met someone from Durmstrang." she said with a smile.

"But I wanna hear about what all you've been up to. And everyone else. I've been really out of the loop."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Abbey said, patting Christy's hand. It was horrible to hear she had had a miscarriage, but in a very Abbey-esque way, she tried to look at the situation from the positive side; maybe the miscarriage had been for the best. Varod and Christy hadn't even been married anyways. So maybe, just maybe, this guy she had met at Durmstrang would finally be the one Christy would live the rest of her life with. Abbey crossed her fingers mentally, hoping he was. As long as he was nice of course.

Abbey sighed, thinking over her summer. The only really eventful thing that had happened was her trip to Paris where she'd met Andrew. He had been pretty nice, going to lunch with her even though they'd only known each other for about five minutes. "Really the only thing that I did was go to France." Abbey replied. "But mum and dad have really missed you." Hopefully news about her parents, no matter how small, would still bring Christy some cheer.

Dad? she looked at Abbey curiously. "Mum get a boyfriend?" she asked looking at her. She couldn't believe it. Her mother was still pregnant with her little brother that was due within the next month or so...Or had she already had him? Christy couldn't remember. She felt really horrible thinking about her father...Both Abbey and Christy had lost their father's within a few months of each other. She felt it only brought the two of them closer together.

Like Abbey, Christy although depressed about it. looked at her miscarriage as a positive thing. She knew she wasn't ready to be a mother. She could handle it sure but Varod would never be mentally ready to be a father and she felt bad that, that would have been his only chance since he was now a vampire. She secretly hated him for doing that. She couldn't understand for the life of her why he would have done such a thing when they would have had the perfect life together. And now she was torn between chosing something living to be with or necrophilia. She wasn't sure which route to take although she was sure which one would be more socially acceptable.

"Did Mum take you to Beauxbatons?" she asked looking at her curiously.

Abbey nodded. "He's really nice actually. But he'll never compare to..." Abbey found it hard to be able to talk about her first adopted father. He had been kind, gentle, and loving, and had made it extremely easy for her and her younger sister to feel like part of their family. She didn't say anymore on the matter, afraid it might upset Christy. "Anyways, I'm sure you'll like him." Abbey finished, trying to end the subject on a more positive note.

"No, mum didn't take me past Beauxbatons. I wish I could've seen it though." Abbey answered. She'd heard the school was beautiful; it had been one of the spots she had been looking forward the most to visiting. But unfortunately there hadn't been time on their schedule. "What was it like there?" she asked. Stifling a giggle, Abbey wondered if it had been hard for Christy to learn since she wasn't sure if Christy knew French or not. It sure had been difficult enough for Abbey just to order her lunch at one of the cafe's not knowing the language. She could only imagine attending school there and not knowing how to speak it!