TW: Mentions of abuse (nothing graphic)

Knock, knock, knock.

Paper noises came from inside the office. Ben breathed in sharply when he heard footsteps approaching the door, and tried to stay calm as he waited for his father's eyes to meet his own.

"Benjamin," he spoke when he opened the door. "What do you want?"

"I would like to talk to you, father."

Sébastian stared at his son for a couple of seconds, wondering what he was up to. But Ben was giving him an innocent and peaceful look, without the characteristic mischief spark in his eyes.

"Come in."

He stepped into the office, with Sébastian closing the door behind him, and went to sit on the chair in front of his father's desk, which was filled with unorganised pieces of parchment, envelopes and quills.

He looked around at the books on Sébastian's shelves, and considered asking him to lend him some, because he had read pretty much every single one he owned, but the man then sat on his desk, fixing his light blue eyes on him in a way that made him too nervous to ask.

"Tell me," he said, though it sounded more like an order.

Ben cleared his throat. "So... These first weeks of holidays I've been thinking about what you and mother said about my- friends, Harry, Ron and Hermione. And Neville."

Sébastian raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Continue."

"Well, I've finally understood why you didn't want me to relate to people like them. Our family has stayed clean and pure for centuries, and it would be such a pity to ruin it just because of some... friends."

He took a deep breath and shifted in his seat. "However, I must admit that I've enjoyed every single minute I've spent with them these two years, apart from the moments in which we almost died, which has been quite a lot of times, actually... But the point is that, if it wasn't for the fact that they are, well, who they are, I would've liked to keep being friends with them."

"But you decide to keep your family's honour, I hope?"

"Yes, father," he deadpanned. "There's some things that matter much more than others. And I'm not willing to be the one to tarnish my family's legacy."

He was feeling very dirty. Pronouncing those words made him sick; as though they were a poison that rotted his insides. He felt a strong need to talk to his friends, and to tell them how much he needed and appreciated them.

"Apparently that's your older sister's job, now..."

Ben's heart gave a jolt, and he gaped at his father, wishing he would explain what he had meant, though he could already feel Sébastian wasn't going to. He wondered if he was talking about Steve.

"Do you really mean what you've said, Benjamin?"

"Of course."

And then something very odd happened. Sébastian got up from his desk, walked over to Ben, helped him up from the chair, and pulled him into a hug.

He didn't have the slightest idea of how to react to that. It felt like he had frozen there, being held by a father who had never seemed to have the slightest interest in being affectionate with him.

He would have liked to say something, but he didn't know what. And besides, he had the feeling that the words wouldn't have come out even if he wanted them to.

So he simply waited for his father to stop hugging him, pretending he didn't notice an itch in his eyes, which were in danger of spilling tears. As the man pulled away from his son, looking into his face, Ben noticed that his eyes were extremely bright, and that made the lump in his throat worse.

"Oh, Ben..." he whispered, resting his hands on Ben's shoulders. "You have no idea of how happy you have made me with this... Your mother is not going to believe it when she finds out..."

Once again, he didn't know what to say.

Was all of this really going to be that easy? Did he really believe his words, after all those years of arguments?

"You know, I always had hope for you," Sébastian told him, and sniffed loudly. "Your mother always said there was no hope for you to realise that you were wrong. But I told her there was, that you are a smart boy and that you would soon understand."

"Thank you."

The man gave him a smile, and Ben was suddenly hit by a very strong feeling of guilt. His father seemed to be genuinely happy with him, something that hadn't happened in years, and for a moment, just a single second, he wished he had actually meant what he said.

He wished he had done something to make his father proud, and that all of this wasn't just because of a lie.

"Father," he called.

"Yes?"

"Can you sign my Hogsmeade form?"

———————————————

Friday 30th July 1993

Hello Harry!

It worked! I talked to him a couple of weeks ago, and he seemed to believe me. It was very weird, and I had to say a couple of things I didn't want to, but Father was very happy, and so was Mother.

I would've told you three before, but I thought it was better to wait before sending you a letter, in case they were suspicious of me and checked the mail. I sent Cedric a couple of owls last week, and my parents didn't even know who I was talking to, so it's all fine and I think it's safe to send you this now.

I'm still going to send this while they're sleeping, just in case.

By the way, don't think I've forgotten about your birthday!

I hope this arrives on time, because I'm sending you a little gift and it would be quite ridiculous if you got it after your birthday. Anyways, if you open the package, you'll find a necklace with some kind of small stone. It's got a specific name but I've forgotten, so I'll just call it stone.

It's a magical one that transforms temporarily into whatever you need. For example, let's say you need a quill and you don't have one, so you take the necklace, you whisper 'Quill' (as clearly as possible), and then it turns into a quill for half an hour.

I don't know if you'll ever use it, but I hope you like it!

Best wishes,

Ben Walker.

Right when he had finished writing the letter, the sound of a door closing reached Ben's ears, startling him. He froze for a second, waiting for any other noises, but there was only silence, so he simply went back to putting the folded letter into the envelope in which he had already written his friend's name and everything else necessary to send the letter.

He opened the door as silently as he could, and stepped onto the corridor without putting his shoes on to avoid making any unnecessary noises.

"What are you doing, traitor boy?" sneered a screeching voice from behind him.

Ben's heart skipped a beat, and then he realised that the voice didn't belong to any of his relatives... that were alive.

"Shut it, Great Uncle Terence, you've been dead for like half a century," he grumbled, glaring at the portrait of a middle-aged man.

Surprisingly, Great Uncle Terence did shut it.

So Ben went downstairs and walked into the kitchen without any other interruption. Until he opened the door, and found Alycia sitting at the counter in the darkness, her left sleeve rolled up and holding a damp cloth with her right hand.

As soon as he stepped inside, she pulled the sleeve down, and turned to face the fridge next to her.

"Alycia?" called Ben, eyebrows furrowed.

"What'd you want?" she asked, in a trembling voice.

"What happened?" he asked back, trying to approach his sister. "Are you hurt?"

"No," she answered, moving further away from him.

He took another step towards her. "Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I was thirsty."

"Was your arm thirsty, too?"

She turned to look directly at him, for the first time in a really long time, and Ben was hit by a painful realisation. Alycia was already eight. She was tall enough to climb onto the counter without any help, her voice was slightly deeper, and she didn't act like Ben was her hero anymore.

Instead, she didn't even bother to talk to him. She spent the whole day in her room, without making any noise, and when it was time to have meals together, the whole family was in absolute silence.

It wasn't like they usually had long conversations at the table, because their parents and Audrey preferred eating in silence, but Ben would always let out casual comments to light up the situation and make Alycia giggle.

But now it wasn't like that, because Alycia was mad at him for some reason he wasn't aware of. It had already been a year, and he hadn't managed to fix this. It wasn't because he hadn't tried, of course. Last summer, he had tried to talk to her at least a hundred times, and then, when he was at Hogwarts, he had sent her around fifty letters throughout the year, hoping she would finally answer to any of them, but she didn't.

"Leave me alone," she muttered.

"No," he stated, in an uncommon sharp voice. "I'm not going to leave you alone, because you're my younger sister, and you've been ignoring me for absolutely no reason for a whole bloody year. And I know there's an explanation as to why you suddenly hate me, there must be!"

Alycia stared at him, wide-eyed, and Ben instantly regretted being so harsh.

"I'm s-s-sorry," the girl whispered, looking down at her feet. "It wasn't my choice."

"What do you mean?" he frowned, anger slowly turning into worry.

"Mother and F-Fa... Father," she mumbled. Ben pursed his lips, but allowed her to continue. "Last year, after what happened on Christmas, they wanted to keep me away from you, because they said you were a bad influence."

He frowned again.

"And I said it wasn't true, that you were the best brother I could ever have. But then you s... stopped sending letters f-for a whole year, and I thought you had f... forgotten about me."

"What?" he interrupted her. "I didn't stop sending you letters- I sent you a lot of letters, especially last year!"

"They made me think you didn't, by taking the letters. I thought you were mad at me," explained Alycia in a hushed voice, sending quick glances towards the door, as if she was scared someone would come in. "But then I found them this morning, inside a drawer in F-Father's office."

"Why were you looking inside Father's office?"

"Because Mother took from me the pin you gave me on your f-fir... the day you left to Hogwarts, so I thought she might've hid it there."

"She's awful at hiding things."

Alycia nodded in agreement. "It was on the f-first drawer on his desk. And then I found the letters. I was very angry, and then mother f... found me there and-"

Ben didn't need to hear her say it to know what had happened afterwards. His heart was beating stronger than ever, and he could feel blood pounding in his ears.

"Let me see it, please," he said, voice a mere whisper as he tried not to sound as angry as he felt.

Alycia was hesitant, but slowly lifted up her sleeve, and he saw it. A large cut on the side of the arm, away from where the veins are most prominent, because she could've bled out if it had been otherwise.

"I'm going to take you away from here," he stated. "Audrey told me she'd help us once she was of age, but we can't wait another entire year." 

Alycia blinked. "What?"

"You can't stay here for any longer. I need to find a way for us to leave this hell, then we'll run away and never come back. Perhaps Grandmother Jacqueline can help us, she's probably the only one in our family who doesn't care that much about all this pureblood bullshit."

"She won't risk getting in trouble with Mother and F-Father, or with Grandfather August," said Alycia. "There's nothing to do."

"Then I won't go to Hogwarts this year," stated Ben, very seriously.

"Don't be s-s-s-stupid, why would you do that?"

"I'll stay here, so I can protect you."

Alycia shook her head slowly. "Ben, she did this to me today. You were here, you just didn't notice."

Strangely enough, that sensation cut deeper than if she had physically struck him in the gut.

It was true, Alycia had been hurt that same day, probably just one floor below where he had been reading without worrying about anything. He could've ran to protect his younger sister from their mother, to shout at her and throw something at her, or to put the blame on himself so Katherine wouldn't do anything to the girl; whatever he had to do to stop that monster from hurting Alycia.

But he didn't do any of those things, because he hadn't noticed. He didn't hear anything, but that was really possibly due to how good Katherine was at silencing spells. Alycia could've been crying and shouting her lungs off, but nobody would've heard a thing.

"I'm sorry, Alycia," he muttered, voice trembling. He took a couple of hesitant steps to approach the girl, who suddenly wrapped her arms around him, and he hugged her back. "I won't let them hurt you anymore... I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry for ignoring you," she stuttered, and then sniffled rather loudly.

"It's alright..." he kissed the top of her head. "Please promise me you'll stay out of trouble. Please. Don't argue with them, just do what they say. At least until I find us a way out of here, okay?"

"Okay, I promise," said Alycia, and Ben could feel she was actually going to do as he said. "I love you."

"I love you too, Alycia."

A/N: i love alycia so much, she's my baby :)