"You are so brave and
quiet I forget you are
suffering."

"Kira!" Aurelia called. They were going to explore the town and she was taking her time getting her coat, getting distracted by ever trinket or painting.

"I'm looking at stuff," she said, taking one last glance at a painting of a Horntail dragon and shutting the door.

"You examined the house yesterday." She hopped down the steps and plunged into the snow and walked down the path onto the main road. She turned her head back to Kira, her hair blowing into her face. The wind had picked up drastically from that morning.

Kira squinted her eyes, looking at the clear sky. "It's going to snow again tonight. Possible blizzard."

She looked to the sky. She had told her about her weird senses of the weather but it still baffled her whenever her predictions came true. Neither of them had any idea why her magic could be linked to the weather but it was.

"Let's be quick then."

Kira caught up to her and the two trudged through the snow until they got further in town, where brooms and spades were sweeping snow off the street. The stores were all magical. Some were potions shops and others were for wizarding books or clothing.

One store had a few trinkets in the window that caught her eye. She stopped, tapping Kira's arm, her eyes not leaving the shop. "Let's check this out."

Kira turned, raising her eyebrows. She leaned forward to gaze at the items and then stood straight, looking for the door. She pushed the door open and a little bell rang. Aurelia followed her in and waved at an old woman who greeted them from behind a counter.

Kira wandered to the back of the store and Aurelia walked to the aisle in front of her. She picked up a set of Russian nesting dolls.

"Careful. That one's cursed," said a voice from behind her. She spun around, the doll still in her hand. It was a skinny man who seemed to be in his forties. "Most of these are."

"Oh," she said, still shocked from his sudden appearance. Cursed? What kind of a small town required a whole shop full of cursed objects? It was something expected in London or Paris, but a small town in the middle-of-nowhere Scotland? "Where did they all come from?"

He shrugged, leaning back on one leg. "All over Scotland." His thick Scottish accent was beginning to show. "There are some pretty cool trinkets around here, though. Some are useful, some are good for a laugh. Some are bad."

"Interesting." She put the doll back on the shelf and her eyes gazed over the rest of the shelf. She turned back to the man. "There's no labels. How would anyone know what they do?"

"Well, we don't get very many customers. Most just ask or test their luck."

She nodded. "Oh, thank you." She turned and walked further down the aisle and found Kira in the next one.

"Ready to go?" She asked. This place made her skin crawl.

She nodded and they walked to the door. The odd man and the old lady were standing at the front counter and the lady waved to stop them. "What brings you two young ladies here?"

"Oh," Kira said. "We're visiting a distant relative." A very distant relative.

The lady nodded, her tone eager. "Well do come tell us about yourselves."

The man chuckled. "Excuse her, we don't get very many visitors. Especially not any British ones."

Despite Kira actually being French, you would never know until she spoke French. Aurelia had lost her Bulgarian accent during her last, and only, year at Hogwarts. Her mother was British, so her accent was never as thick anyway.

"Oh, let me have my fun, Malcolm." The lady chuckled.

"Oh, it's fine, we don't mind," Aurelia said, before Kira could speak. They could find our more about Anna Horne. Something about her wasn't right.

"Who are you two sweets visiting then?"

Kira glanced at Aurelia and back to the lady. "Anna Horne."

"Horne?" Malcolm asked. "Poor woman. She's not right, that one. Gone mad with age."

His mother whacked him on the arm, her expression turned dark. "Don't be so mean, boy. It's wrong to speak ill of the dead."

"Dead?" Kira asked, shock covering her features.

"Oh, yes, I'm certain she passed weeks ago. Did you not know?"

Aurelia shook her head. "Uh, no. How do you know she died?" Anna Horne dead? Something was wrong.

The lady clicked her tongue. "Ministry was here. Went to her house and then Alastair saw them at the graveyard. I think her son found the body. Odd boy, that one."

"Oh, thanks for letting us know." Aurelia smiled and bid them goodbye, leading Kira out the door.

Kira stood outside the shop, her features carved out in worry. "If Anna Horne is dead, who is in that house?"

"Let's find the graveyard. See if it's true."

"And if it is?"

"We pretend nothing's wrong, and leave tonight."

~~~

After walking through the town, they found an old man who pointed them in the direction of the graveyard and after wandering through the winding back alleys of the town they stumbled upon the cemetery. It had a large black gate with the fence the spanned the perimeter of the area. It was a large cemetery, and from the overgrown and old gravestone in the front, it was clear that it had been there for a long time.

Dhara Horne might even be amongst the dead. It was possible. Despite the wearing down of the stone she could make out the date 1553 on one of the gravestones. A century after Dhara, but this town was had been around long before her.

She turned to Kira. "This is going to take a while."

She gazed around and ended on a point at the far right corner. She pointed at it. "We start there. Those look to be the newest."

"What if she's buried near other Horne family members?"

"Then we look for a group of mismatched graves, new and old."

She looked around and saw a mausoleum in the center of the cemetery. "What about the mausoleum?" It had a symbol on the front above the door. The portrait in the pub meant that Dhara Horne was an important figure. If her grave had to be any of these, it would be in there.

Kira nodded. "Yes, it must be for an important family."

They moved forward through the graves and as they got closer they tried to make out the symbol.  "It's some sort of crest."

Kira stopped. "Wait, it looks familiar. Are those flowers?"

She looked at the indents. It was a bouquet of flowers, that looked to consist of the type of lily flower and a rose or a carnation. It was surrounded by what looked like lavender circling it. "Yes."

"This is where we'll find Anna Horne's grave. Possible Dhara Horne too."

"How do you know?"

She pointed up at it. "You know those teacups she gave us yesterday? They had the same flowers. Lilies, roses, and heather. At first I thought it was lavender but later I found some things around the house that had the Horne family crest on it. It's this."

"Oh." This was why Kira was the observer between the two of them. She connected things that no one else saw.

"Let's go then." She waved her hand and the door opened, the heavy stone scarping against the floor. Inside was a single stone casket and a stairwell that led underground.

She moved forward and read the name on the plaque. "Dhara Horne."

"Reckon she was the first one buried here?"

"If not, she was definitely the most important one."

Another wave of her hand, Kira sent a beam of light down the stairs that left smaller balls of light that floated high in the air in regular intervals. She had figured that spell out when she was bored at work.

Kira walked down first and at the bottom of the stairs it opened up to a large room with rows and rows of crypts. Some were empty, but most had coffins. Each occupied one had a plaque with the deceased's name and a short message.

Aurelia looked around. "You go left, I'll look right."

Kira nodded and wandered towards the left, a ball of light levitating above her hand. Not blessed with the power she had, Aurelia took out her wand and with a flick of her wrist it lit up. She waved the wand over each plaque, reading over each name.

She reached the end and found two coffins that stood out to her.

"Isla Horne,  a loving sister and daughter."  But it was not the name that stood out, it was the dates. "1936-1960."  She looked to the next casket. "Anna Horne, a beloved mother and friend. 1904-1982." Her heart was pounding in her chest, a chill coursing through her bones. Anna Horne was dead.

"Kira!"

"Yes?"

"I found her." Her throat was dry.

Kira jogged towards her and stopped, holding her own light onto the casket.

"The old woman was right. She died this year."

She stayed silent.

"And she had a daughter." She moved her light to Isla Horne's casket. "She died when she was 24. And she had a brother, maybe more. But they haven't died." There were no other caskets further than this one. Unless they were buried elsewhere, they were still alive.

"So, who's pretending to be Anna Horne?"

Aurelia did not answer. Whoever it was, had to be doing it for a reason and it could not be for a good one. One question stood out over all the ones flying around her mind. What was so important about her that someone was trying to be her?

What role did they play in this ruse?

________________________________________

What are your thoughts on this chapter?

How are you liking Aurelia?

Do you like the dual POV's? Would you prefer if the chapters began with the name of the person or are you able to tell?

– walkingmasterpiece xx