Power of Three (Invite Only)

Tala knelt in the cold bedroom she had been allowed inside the castle her sightless eyes listening to the whispers of the dead. Pressing her finger tips together she saw images flashing through her mind, with a gasp she came back to reality "The Angel has met with the lady" she said to her dire wolf rem. The wolf looked at her quizzically as she got to her feet and picked up her cane. She wore a flowing tattered dress and she forgone shoes as usual. Sliding her black robe over her thin shoulders she said "Stay here my love" kissing her wolf's nose she left the dungeon room and began her way down the halls. Pulling her hood up it obscured her features, her black clothing letting her become one with the dancing candlelight.

Tala had sensed her siblings the moment she was within reach of them, her gifts showing her who they were but also advising against revealing herself. Now was the time to tell them who she was...now that Elena and Azrael were family she would be too...she hoped.

Stepping through a passage way she slipped onto the grounds and followed her instincts searching for Elena's energy. She knew the other girl atleast, in class all professors referred to her as Tala Verlac and few knew her true identity as a grindelwald.

Drawing close to the trees she felt it there the familer tug of Elena's presence. She approached soundlessly then paused "Elena Grindelwald" she said her sister's name easily her thick romani styled accent rolling her words.

Elena smiled. A true and warm smile that was so very rare for her, but ever since she had be reunited with her long lost brother, it could be found more often on her pale face. They had started to spend more time together, talking about all the things they had missed in each other's lives and he had even told her about his little secret, so few people knew about. This had only strengthened Elena's will to look out for her brother, even if she was the younger of the two, but he was family, the only family she had left next to Amelia.
 
They had started to meet by the forest, the dark atmosphere making her feel more at home than any other place at Hogwarts could do. All the cheerfulness was quite hard to bear and more than once she had to fight the urge to just wipe the stupid grin of the little children’s faces. Azrael, who was so very different from her, proved to be just what she needed to find some peace. To find the calmness to deal with all this.
 
Right now, she was sitting under a tree at the edge of the forest, waiting for her brother to come and join her as he always did. As usual, Azrael was a little late, probably due to his voices keeping him busy, but Elena did not mind and instead enjoyed the silence with closed eyes. Suddenly, a voice spoke up and she immediately tensed and reached for her wand, blue eyes snapping open to face an older girl. She relaxed slightly when she noticed a fellow Wolfclaw student, though kept her wand close, as she did not know her very well. "Yes?" she just asked, not in the mood for idle chit-chat.

"Well met Miss Grindelwald" she said moving closer but leaving enough distance between them that she wouldnt spook her sister. "forgive me for my bluntness but...do you know who i am?" she lowered her hood her opaque eyes looking at her as if she could see but staring dead ahead.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Elena pursed her lips and sighed, as obviously the other girl wouldn't just vanish as she wanted her to. "Yes, of course I know who you are, we shared a few classes together, remember?" she remarked sarcastically. She might not care much for people that were not friends or family, but that did not mean that she did not pay attention to what went on around her.

Her heart pounded and she took a steadying breath, how did one go about claiming relations to someone? She did not know, clutching her cane in both hands wrapping around the ornate top her knuckles whitening, she swallowed hard though outwardly remaining composed "My name..my name is not Tala Verlac" she said "My name is Tala Elif Grindelwald....your mother...do you recall she was with child..? she told you she lost the child..and she did but the child was taken...I was taken..Elena..I am your sister"

Elena could not help but lean forward slightly as curiousity took over at the other girl's mysterious behavior. Even back at school, the Wolfen had always given off the air of being different somehow, but Elena had not really placed much importance on that before. But now, that she was obviously trying to tell her something, it caught her interest. While the older girl seemed to search for words, Elena rose to her feet so they were standing right in front of each other. "What?" her voice sounded like the lash of a whip, but this came so unexpected that she could not help herself. Anger quickly took over shock at the daring of someone claiming to be a Grindelwald. Had her family not suffered enough already? Elena was about to put her wand to some good use when the girl kept on talking about her mother. It was only a distant memory, as she had only five when her parents died, but Elena did remember her parents talking of a still-born child. A young girl that had been taking from them before it was really there. Could it really be that her older sister was still alive? "But how?" Elena stumbled back in shock and leaned against the tree, her face draining of all colour. "How could you be alive?"

"That is a mystery to me as it is you" she replied though she was only one year Elena's senior she suddenly grew weary and moved to sit down on a rock and lowered her hood. "I died and was burried by a church, one night a year after my birth and death a sister of the holy order was treading above my resting place and heard the cries of a child. Hurriedly my casket was raised and within they found me alive as if i had lived all that time beneath the cold earth" she had never told anyone her orign and it made her soul feel lighter to share it "in fear of me the church kept me on there grounds refusing to tell my living relatives that i too existed. Before long i was moved to live with the sisterhood and there I grew up where my gifts became legend and within the cold chamber walls of my room never allowed to venture out of doors."

"I am your sister." The words kept replying in her head and suddenly, Elena could understand how her brother had felt when she told him the truth about their relation. She stared blankly at the older girl, struggling with the new information and once again, she did not know whether to cry with sadness about the years lost between them, smile with happiness of having her sister back, or screaming in anger at whoever was responsible for this mess. What Tala told her, shocked her beyond anything she had ever heard and Elena sank to her knees beside her. "Merlin..." she breathed, unable to form a coherent sentence. Dead. Burried. And yet quite alive if she really spoke the truth and for some reason, Elena did not have the slightest doubt about it. Even for Grindelwald standard it was almost too horrible to believe. At last, Elena raised her eyes to her sister's face, looking over the pale features to see if she could find any resemblence between them. "Why ... why did you not try to approach me before? Why now?" she asked quietly, mostly because this was something she could comprehend better than what else she had just been told and her mind needed the time to catch up.

Sliding to the ground beside her she dropped her cane and reached out to her, her pale fingers gently tracing elena's face she knew what she looked like but now she could touch the vision in her mind, now she truly saw her. Running her finger down the girl's jaw line she smiled "mother's strong jaw" she murmored lost in thought her fingers brushed along Elena's brow "Father's brow.." she had seen so many images she knew them by heart "you are blonde like our grandmother.." she said a hand dropping to her hair.."our faces..similar but i am thinner boned..i am like a bird..and you are like a piece of art."

She sighed as she rested her hands on her shoulders and rand them down her arms taking Elena's hands "I wanted to tell you but i did not want to hurt you..i was bound by oaths to remain far till you reunited with dear Azrael"

Elena closed her eyes to the gentle touch of her sister's fingers on her face. It felt quite odd and had her skin tickling slightly, but she held still, needing the contact as much as the other girl seemed to. Memories of her parents had paled in her mind over the last ten years and even though she still had pictures of them, Elena sometimes found it had to picture them in her mind and found herself appreciating her sister for pointing out the similarities between her and her family. At last, she reopened her eyes and glanced at her sister, a girl she had looked at quite often at school but never actually seen. Elena smiled sadly and held tight to her sister's hands before leaning in to gently kiss her cheek. "I am so glad that I found you both. It's been hard not to have any real family, though I know of the three of us I probably had the closest thing to a family." she thought of Grindelwald castle and the childhood she had spent there with Sophie and the others. Her siblings did not have such pleasant company.

"NO WAY!" Azrael stumbled slightly from the loud noise of his sister's shriek and shot her a glare which, as usual, she simply ignored. He had been doing so well to just block her and his twin's banter out for a few minutes, so he did not even know the cause for her sudden exclamation. "I tell you, it's really not my fault now is it?" "It's just not the truth, you don't even have the slightest clue, you git!" Seth burst out in insane laughter and Azrael frowned in confusion. "Could someone update me on what's even going on here? I'm trying to appear normal to anyone who's watching, you know?" he said, though the only ones who seemed to pay him any mind were Marius and Corvin. "Seth is of the opinion that Elena liked him better than Cyn which of course she disagrees with." they quickly told him, though their voices were hard to be heard over the hollering of the other two.

Azrael rubbed the bridge of his nose, tension radiating off him in waves as he left the castle and made his way to the forest where he was to meet his sister. "Tell him that he's wrong! She never would like "The hell she would!" him more than me. We're sisters after all!" "You're much too annoying for even another girl, Cyn, "I'm not even talking to you!" just give up!" "SHUT IT!" A pair of red and blue eyes snapped around to face the grey orbs that glared at them. "Can't you give it a break? If you care so much, we can talk to her about it right now, but at least let me focus till we're there, so I won't break my neck by tripping over some root, okay?" he half-ordered, half-pleaded. Ever since finding out about Elena, about his past, he had been haunted by nightmares. Horrible visions of his mother being raped and his father brutally maimed by people he had called family for ten years. Anger, hatred and dead cold hatred filled him each time, much to the pleasure of Seth who could convince him to go out for a "hunt" as he called it. Actually it was just, them looking for some innocent victim to disembowel in the most gruesome way. "And how satisfying it is, isn't it?" Azrael simply chose to ignore his twin's demented grin in favor of keeping his eyes ahead to look for his sister.

It did not take him long to spy her, standing at their usual meeting point, earlier than him as usual. What did surprise him was that she had company. Some other girl, definitely not from Hogwarts, so probably someone from her own school and he slowed down his steps to approach them more slowly. Even from afar it wasn't hard to miss the distraught expression on his sister's face and it immediately set him on the edge. "Just get rid of her" Seth snarled and moved forward to push Azrael closer to them, but Marius quickly blocked their path. "Wait. They don't seem to be fighting. See? They are talking quite calmly." he said thoughtfully and Azrael nodded, relaxing slightly as he drew closer to the two girls. "Elena? What is going on?" he asked calmly, as he came to a stop behind his sister, suspiciously glancing at the other girl.