Wake up, Brother (Azrael)

Elena had enough of waiting around and so she found herself hurrying through the castle in the evening. She still had a few hours till curfew, not that she actually cared for that, but it meant having to find someone in the middle of hundreds of students. The reason for her excursion was something that had occurred just a few days prior. At the feast to be precise where she had just been enjoying herself with her friends when her eyes had landed on an older student from Hogwarts. The Ravenclaw boy was not much older than herself and bore a striking resemblance to her own features, except for the darker hair, a fact that had shaken her to the core. 

It had been ten years since Elena’s parents were brutally murdered and her brother had been ripped from her life; such a long time, but she had never been able to forget the horrible night. The way her mother had pushed her into a small closet, kissing her cheek one more time before telling her to be very quiet. Then, the wooden door had shut right in the small girl’s face and hell had broken lose; the horrifying screams of her parents still haunting her to the day.

They had not begged for mercy. No Grindelwald would ever do that, but Elena had been able to watch through the cracks of the door how her parents had been tortured, her father maimed and her mother raped by several men before their attackers had finally killed them and it had darkened her soul more than anything else could have ever done. She had watched all this without even flinching as the shock had been too much for her to cope with at that time, but when she had seen these people turn their wands on her older brother, Elena had not been able to look any more, turning her face away. Like that, she had been sitting in the closet till she had been found and taken to Grindelwald castle, which then became her new home, but the memories of that night kept replying in her mind and she promised to take revenge on whoever had dared to take her family from her.

Now, after all these years, Elena wasn’t a little girl anymore, but a young witch who loved to torture people for the fun of it, barely being thrown off guard by anything, but when she had seen the face of her brother, now also much older, the deep grey eyes had immediately pulled at her heart. Elena had been too shocked to approach him at that time, but now she had waited long enough. The endless corridors filled with endless numbers of students drove her mad and finally she snapped and pulled a young Ravenclaw boy close, her dagger pressing into his back. “Where is Azrael.” She growled into his ear, not in the mood for playing around for once and luckily, the child seemed to catch on quickly, pointing her towards one of the many courtyards.

There he was, standing in the middle of the yard and something in his posture made her halt her steps and observe him for a while. At the feast, he had not seemed to have noticed her which was odd, as she usually stood out quite well in a crowd, but right now, something seemed to bother him and it made her hope that he too had remembered her. “Brother!” Elena called out, her clear voice ringing loudly through the empty yard.

It was dark. So dark. The night sky covered by dark grey clouds; the atmosphere perfectly matching the darkness that had been filling his mind since the feast a few days ago. Something had caught his attention there and had awoken a memory long lost deep in his mind which had been replying again and again, almost driving him insane with the need to know what the hell was going on with him. The biggest problem was that he did not even know what exactly had broken through the dense fog that always surrounded the edge of his consciousness; shielding his past from him. “Or you from your past?” Marius spoke up calmly, though even his normally soothing eyes had a strain in them that told of nights without sleep.

“We have to find out!” Cyn exclaimed angrily, not being used to this feeling of helplessness. She was standing next to her father, watching Seth pace back and forth between them and his twin who shared his growing unease. Out of nowhere, a scream penetrated his mind, coming out of the shadows and piercing his consciousness like a dagger being driven through his heart. The scream was full of anguish and pain; a sound of pure terror which made Corvin cling to Marius in fear and even Cyn inched closer to the older man. “ENOUGH!” Seth’s red eyes were burning with anger and he looked ready to leap into the darkness to silence whoever was screaming there.

“I know that voice…” Azrael said quietly, the female voice pulling painfully at his heart; drawing him closer and closer to the shadows, but they were too dense to make out more than distant shapes. “I know it from before.” He ran a hand through his hair and groaned as a sharp pain went through his head, making the rest of his family wince as well. Before was the term he used in reference to the past he could not remember, the time before his family appeared, and he knew that he should be able to remember the voice. That he should know the woman who was forced to scream in such horror.

A hand on his shoulder made him spin around and stare into red burning eyes. “This has to end, we’re going mad with this shit!” His twin was positively seething and Azrael thanked whoever was watching over him that no other student was around at this time. He really did not need another murder on his hands. “What can we do? I just can’t remember what set all this off! I just know it was during the feast.” He looked pleadingly at his brother, but Seth did not seem to remember any more than he did and just started pacing again.

“Brother!” A new voice chimed in and for a second, Azrael just accepted it as one of his family members to call out for him when he froze, realization hitting him, as he spun around on his heels to come face to face with a beautiful young witch. But it was not her good looks that almost made him keel over, it was the memories that suddenly started flashing up in his mind. A little girl riding on a broom behind young boy. The same little girl hiding behind the same boy from a large Thestral. More and more memories appeared, more and more pictures of the same two little children. Always, the beautiful blond girl with her large blue eyes and the slightly older boy with dark hair and steely grey eyes. Eyes so much like his own.

“What…” For once, even Seth seemed to be at a loss for what to say and together they just watched memory after memory flash up. The pain behind his eyes that always appeared when he tried to think of before made Azrael sink to his knees and his hands started pulling at his hair while pain-filled groans escaped his mouth.

For a few seconds there was absolutely no reaction to her call and Elena, quick to lose her temper, was about to call out again when at last, the boy finally turned to face her. Or spun around as if he expected her to curse him, which would probably fit his reaction much better. Putting a charming smile on her face, Elena stepped forward, ready to embrace her long lost brother when she noticed his expression. The older boy’s face was filled with shock, which she could understand quite well, seeing as she also had been very shocked to find that her beloved brother was still alive after believing him dead for so many years. But beside the shock, there was something else and quickly his eyes filled with confusion and pain, halting her in her steps.
This was not the reaction she had expected and, as rarely as it happened, Elena actually felt hurt that he did not seem willing to come to her. 

He natural defensiveness rose in her chest and her eyes narrowed in anger. “What is it? Found a better family to live with? Am I not good enough to at least get a hello after all these years?” she hissed at him, ready to lash out and actually do curse him when the older student suddenly collapsed with a pained groan. “Azrael!” Elena instinctually rushed forward and fell to her knees beside him, her hands reaching out to support his body.

What was happening? Why was he in pain? Did the people that had taken him all this time ago hurt him? Had he managed to escape or did they force him to live with them? Maybe that was why he was hurting now? Frantically, Elena checked him for any sign of injury, but she could find none which only added to her confusion. “What is wrong, damnit? Speak to me, Azrael!” her shrill voice echoed from the stone walls that surrounded them, but Elena paid no mind to that.

“Azrael? Try to stop thinking about it, focus on my voice, I will guide you…” Marius’ attempt at calming the situation was brutally interrupted by Seth who had leapt forward to drag his brother back to his feet. “WHO THE HELL IS THAT?” he screamed at him, red eyes flashing dangerously and for a split second Azrael was surprised that he wasn’t frothing at the mouth, yet. “That’s not even remotely funny!” Seth snarled and looked up to glare at the blond girl who was now kneeling next to them. “Who is that bitch, Azrael? And why is she calling you brother?” “Does she know you from before?” “Who is she, damnit, TALK TO ME!”

Another groan escaped his mouth and Azrael fell forward as pain exploded behind his eyes. He felt himself withdrawing from the outside world, not knowing if he hit the ground of if the girl had managed to break his fall. “Stop it, we all need to calm down.” “I don’t need to fucking calm down, Marius, I need to know who that is and why my brother has memories of her!” “But you’re screaming isn’t helping, Seth.” “Yeah it really “Shut up, Cyn!” isn’t.” “I’m not talking to you!” “Why do you have to be such a git!” “GIT? Shut the fuck up, you stupid wench!” “Children…” “Please…”

By now, Azrael could barely keep it together. The excruciating pain combined with the screaming in his head was just getting too much and he started to claw at his face, trying to make it all stop. “I don’t get why we can’t remember her! Why is she calling us brother? It doesn’t make any sense! She’s not part of the Horus family and that IS our family, isn’t it?” “I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t, they treated us like crap anyway!” “But why? WHY? IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE!” “I KNOW, ASSHOLE! Calm the fuck down!” “Stop it, children, we need to think “THINK?” “about it.” I don’t need to think about it, I “PLEASE!” Everyone spun around and started at Corvin who was crouched next to Azrael, trying to stop him from tearing off the flesh on his face. “Please, stop.” The little boy had tears in his eyes and looked up at the older people with pleading eyes.

“Fuck it!” Seth leapt forward and pulled his twin’s hands away from his bloodied face, pinning his arms behind his back. “Snap out of it!” he stared right into his brother’s pained eyes and shook him lightly. “We’re sorry, Azrael, we’re sorry.” Cyn whispered again and again, fear making her voice slightly shrill. “We need to calm down and figure out what’s going on here.” “Agreed.” Corvin was still crying and looking between his brothers with a frightened expression on his small face. “She’s my sister.” The words were spoken in a quiet voice, breaking at the last word, but Azrael could barely believe it himself. He just knew in his heart that it was the truth and he had always been better off trusting his heart than his head.

“Thanks, brother.” Seth rolled his eyes and dried off the blood, even if it was only in his mind. In the real world which his consciousness had left a few minutes ago, he was still bleeding heavily from the scratched he had inflicted upon himself. “Sister? But how? I know you have a few siblings, but she’s not one of them.” “My real sister. I…” Azrael whimpered softly as the piercing pain in his head, but went on to explain. “I just know she’s my real sister and the woman we heard screaming earlier …” The other four instinctually moved closer to him. “…she’s my mother.”

It was quickly becoming apparent that her brother was in no position to answer her repeated questions of what was wrong with him, so Elena pulled out her wand and levitated him to the soft grass a few feet away. It was still warm from the hot summer day and a better place for him to lie than the hard stone floor. She sighed and looked around, casting a few spells to keep people away from them before turning back to her brother.

He looked awful! Shaking, pale with cold sweat appearing on his forehead and now he started scratching his face, tearing open his skin enough to make blood pour out of the wounds. “Damn it!” Elena reached out to prevent him from further hurting himself, but he was much too strong for her, so she bound his hands behind his back to still his self-harming movements. Just then did she sit back on her heels to stare down at his face which was tight with pain. “Damn it, Azrael, what’s going on with you?” Elena wondered out loud and reached out to gently caress his face, cleaning the blood away from it.

He seemed to be completely trapped in his own world of pain and anguish and she did not know how to help. She leaned closer to hear what he was muttering under his breath and her eyes went wide with shock when she caught the silent plea. “She’s my sister.” He said and Elena quickly started to speak again. “Yes, I am. Elena! Come on, brother, you haven’t forgotten about me, have you?” she spoke quickly, trying to pull him back from whatever place he was lost in.

Suddenly, her brother started to talk about their mother and Elena pulled back as if he had slapped her, as the memory of her mother’s loving face came up in her mind. She shook her head to chase it away, but it was hard to vanish it from her thoughts. But then her mother’s gentle voice echoed through her mind and Elena pulled Azrael’s head into her lap, caressing his sweaty hair, as she started to sing a song her mother used to sing to them when they were children.

Pain. So much pain. Azrael was locked in a world of darkness and anguish, not even able to feel the connection to his family any longer, but he couldn’t even summon any fear about that, as he was filled with too much distress. It was isolating him from the only people that had ever cared for him, the only family he ever knew and the blackness that surrounded him was too think to see anything. His body felt cold. Like ice that had filled his veins, slowing down his heartbeat to a barely audible drumming sound in his chest.

He was floating in this dark, cold place, engulfed by pain and helplessness that made him cry out for his family when suddenly a soft voice managed to penetrate his closed off mind. A voice that he did not recognize, but the song it was singing touched something deep in his heart, pushing away the cold till he was surrounded by a comfortable warmth. Almost as if someone had embraced him in their arms and a memory that had been burrowed for a long time flashed up in his mind; a memory of a young woman holding a little child in her arms, singing to it, the same song that someone was now singing to him and suddenly he remembered.

Azrael’s eyes snapped open to stare up at the beautiful girl from before, but this time he knew who she was. “Elena.” His little sister, his angel he had always been looking out for till everything went to hell ten years ago. Now he could remember what had happened, how his parents had been brutally murdered in front of his eyes before some unknown spell had been cast on him to block his memories.  “You’re … you found me.” Azrael reached out to touch his sister’s cheek, not able to pull his eyes away from her sweet face.

The darkness had vanished from his mind, completely, no shadows were surrounding his consciousness anymore for the first time in ten years and his family seemed quite unnerved by that new situation. “Unnerved? I think that word fits it quite well.” Marius agreed, still looking around in confusion, staring at all the unknown memories. “I can’t believe you forgot all that, Azrael. I mean seriously? You have a beautiful sister, damn it!” Cyn chimed in and punched his shoulder lightly. “I like your sister, she seems nice.” “Yes she does, Corvin.” “And she’s damn hot, pity she’s your sister.” Cyn leered at her brother who didn’t even spare her a glance, still gazing at Elena.

“I will kill them.” Four heads snapped around to stare at Seth who’s eyes were burning even more coldly than usual; the icy fire in them looking like fresh blood. “What the hell are you talking about now, Seth? Elena? Why would you want to hurt her? She “Not her!” … huh?” Seth shot her a glare and shook his head. “The Horus Family. I will wipe them out. One by one. And don’t even try to stop me.” His hands clenched into fists as if he was imagining wrapping them around these people’s necks and for once no one seemed to be inclined to argue. “Are you kidding me? I will claw out their fucking eyes before you rip them apart, Seth.” “I will not hold you back, son, they deserve only your worst.”

Azrael wasn’t able to talk, as a feeling of anger had erupted in his chest, so full of hatred and loathing and the need to hurt something, to destroy was almost overwhelming. Something he had never felt before, only knowing it from his twin who was positively gloating by now. “Of course I am. I am already good enough, but together with you, brother mine? We will make them beg for death!” Seth’s grin was frightening in its intensity and Cyn cheered happily for her brothers. “We will.” Azrael’s grey eyes focused back on Elena.

Amelia was quite skillful when it came to not losing her students. Well, that was until Elena, Marcus and Sophie entered her school. Magali was quite okay, but the other three children were driving her crazy and she often wondered why not just kill them. Then she usualy realized that pissing off Traveller queen isn't the best idea if she likes her position and so she went to kill some muggles instead. But even killing muggles was hard in UK. So, just like usualy, she went to look after one of the devilish trio. This time it was Elena.

"Elena?! Elena Lucie Grindelwald! Is there any particular reason, why you are not with the rest of your schoolmates, when I have a speech?!" she hissed while her heels loudly announced her presence in hall of Hogwarts castle, when she stopped, seeing her descendant and heir kneeling by some older boy. Not that she was against fun, but she really wasn't in a mood to chase Elena around Hogwarts because of some boy. "I thought you are dating Amatus at this moment," she pointed out, apparently amused. "Or is there anything else I should know?" she asked, giving the boy icy stare.

Elena was about to go mad, not being used to waiting for something she so desperately wanted and now there was nothing she wanted more than her brother finally recognizing her, taking her into his arms to tell her that he was back and not about to be taken from her again. She thought back to how her parents had always told them to stick together because even if the world fell apart, family would be the one thing to fall back on, the one thing to trust.
 
When at last the familiar grey eyes focused on her, she almost wept in relief, though of course a Grindelwald would not cry, so she just bent down to kiss his forehead. "Yes, I found you. You're home now, brother. You're home. I got you back." she whispered against his cheek, taking a deep breath to control herself again. Something was wrong with him, Elena could feel it in her heart and even the joy of having him back could not disguise that fact. This was only proved when he seemed to fall back into his mind for several minutes before coming back to her. "What do you mean? What will we do, Azrael?" she asked him, confusion colouring her words when suddenly, she heard a familiar voice and looked up at her headmistress.

For a moment, Elena did not know what to say. The shock of finding her brother still too deep for her to find back to her usual playful nature and so she just stared at her anchestor. Finally, she found her voice back. "It's Azrael, Miss Amelia! They... " she broke off and looked back down at the boy who was still lying in her lap. "I found him."

The bright blue eyes that stared down at him were slightly wet and Azrael wanted to reach out and comfort his sister, to pull her into his arms just to reassure himself that she was actually real, that he had truly found his family, or part of it at least. But his body was still weak from the breakdown he had suffered from, so he just smiled weakly at his sister. "She seems relieved." "Like us, I'd guess." Cyn and Seth immediately started talking again, obviously having less trouble with getting over what just transpired.

He cursed himself for being foolish enough to speak out loud and quickly tried to think of something to explain his words to her. "Why cover it up, Azrael? She's your sister. If you can tell that sl...that girlfriend of yours about us why not your own bloody sister?" his twin started to rant, but he just shook his head. He really did not want to scare Elena off after he just found her. "She's from Wolfclaw, brother, I doubt she'll be easily scared off." "For once, I actually agree with the git, tell her, she'll "I agree as well, son, you understand should really See, I told you tell her. so." STOP!" Squeezing shut his eyes, Azrael groaned and rolled to his side, clutching at his head in pain.

Thus, he did not notice anyone approaching, not even speaking, till his sister started to talk and he quickly pushed himself to a standing position, swaying slightly as vertigo almost made him throw up, but his grey eyes somehow managed to focus on the woman in front of them. "Who the hell...!" "Isn't that this headmistress from Wolfclaw?" "She looks scary." Once again, Azrael was about to tell them all to shut up when for once his twin did it for him, silencing the others with a glare. “Let’s wait and see what she wants from us.” Seth suggested and Azrael had to agree with that and so he just stood behind his sister, glancing suspiciously at the woman.

Amelia expected a lot. Almost everything. But not a brother. Taking a couple of slow circles around Elena and the boy, she observed their similarities. He could easily be a Grindelwald. It was obvious and undeniable. "And what is you brother doing here, at this school and without the family name?" she asked curiously and darkly, being very sure there is no Grindelwald in evidence of Hogwarts school. She wasn't sure if it was the fact someone is intruding into family issues again or the fact somebody actually dared to kidnap and possibly raise Grindelwald under different name, knowing there was Amelia around. Because it was impossible not to know about Amelia. She was a legend in her family and in Czechia. She was feared. And she liked to protect what was hers. Despite the fact she never really kept in touch with the family, she was there. They could call her in need. And nobody really dared to do anything to them until that night.

Spinning around at the sound of Azrael stirring, Elena reached out to steady his still unstable body to prevent him from injuring himself, but her brother seemed to be able to focus again and was now staring at her ancestor in a slightly suspicious way. Not that she could blame him. Amelia Grindelwald was not someone to be messed with. At the woman's question, Elena slowly turned to her, her face twisted in hatred and loathing of the purest kind. "They stole him! They took my brother from out family!" she hissed, blue eyes flashing with barely suppressed anger. Not for the first time in her life did Elena want to take revenge on whoever had done all this to her family ten years ago, but for the first time, she actually had a name. And she wanted to destroy them, for good. "First, they murdered our parents, and then they took my brother from me." she said in a deadly tone.

"Who is this?" Why does she even care?" "She seems dangerous!" Voices exploded in his head and Azrael shook his head while Elena talked to her headmistress. "I think I know about her..." he muttered to himself, unaware that he was indeed speaking out loud, at least loud enough for his sister to hear. Sister ... this was all so new to him, but at the same time Azrael had the feeling to have know the blond girl all his life. "Well actually you have known her all your life, you just were not aware of it, son." "Smart-arse!" Cyn slapped her brother's arm to shut him up, but their father did not truly seem upset.

Moving forward a little, Azrael reached out and put his hand on his sister's shoulder to calm her down a bit even though he also felt the anger in his heart, rising to strike out at the people that had destroyed their family. Raising his gaze to the woman, Azrael locked eyes with her and spoke up. "I did not know. They made me forget everything about my parents, my sister, my whole family!" his voice which had started out quiet, rose with his anger till he was almost spitting out the words.

Amelia stepped closer to Elena and the boy, curiosity in her eyes. "Did they now?" she said, but not really asked the question, as blood appeared in her eyes, turning her face vampirish. Who knew at least a little about Amelia, knew also that she had perfect selfcontrol, which meant she almost never showed herself in her real form, as a vampire. She did that only when she was very hungry, or very angry. She took another step closer, taking the boy's face into her hand, forcing him to look into her eyes. In purpose she used more strenght than she should, because if he was even slightly Grindelwald, he would most likely attack imidiately, if she didn't show him she was much stronger. "And what do you suggest we should do about it?" Amelia asked when she finished staring at Azrael, got up and looked at Elena.

Elena's whole body was buzzing with anger, but now that her ancestor was here, it was slowly joined by lust. The lust to kill and to cause destruction to those that had crossed her family so horribly. She glanced at her brother to see how he would react to the vampire showing her true self, but did not really worry. Any Grindelwald could stand their own ground and she knew the same spirit that was part of her burned in her brother. Raising her darkly glinting eyes to Amelia, Elena smiled sweetly. "I think we should pay them a visit just like they did to us ten years ago." she said softly, but her voice was ice cold.