A normal day

Chase was busy. She had just cleaned up supper, gotten Kitty to bed for her nap, and was busy working on getting things cleaned up in general. It was crazy just how much her family seemed to make messes. Elijah had gone upstairs to his work room shortly after dinner, Fauve and Thierry had gone off too, leaving Chase with Kitty. And of course Kitty was in bed now, sleeping like.. well like a baby. Chase finished cleaning up the front room, when she found a bag full of random Elijah stuff in it. Glancing in it, she took out a few things that belonged to Thierry and Fauve, taking them out and putting them on the couch so that she could get them to them later.

It was crazy just how shortly she was up and about after nearly dying, and having a baby all in the same day. Her appetite hadn't suffered at all, she had got back any lost strength, and she only had to take a few potions in the morning to help bring herself back to normal, but besides that, she WAS normal. Perfectly fine now, her baby was born, she was happily engaged, what could go wrong?

After finishing her picking up, Chase eyed that bag filled with Elijah stuff. It seemed he had gone shopping, and picked up some paint supplies, and other things he would need in his work room. Of course he didn't normally like Chase going in there, but this once? Why not.. nothing wrong with dropping off a bag for him, so picking it up, Chase set off upstairs, passing the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the fun rooms, the work out rooms. It was a big house, and completely beautiful. The sun was dipping below the horizon, so it gave everything a very bright appearance, and Chase could barely see out certain windows it was so bright.

As Chase neared the top of the stairs, She went to Elijah's door, and without knocking pushed it open. "Hey Elijah, found this stuff downstairs, thought you might.. want.. it.." Chase's voice trailed off, as the sun faded below her vision, and she was able to see into the room. She stood stock still, and didn't move, her breath caught in her throat and for several minutes she just stood there, in shock, completely paralyzed. Before she put the bag on the floor, turned on her heel, and marched out of the room.

He had retreated to the studio for peace, not this. There was only one creature Elijah bowed to and that was a woman. They were his goddesses but there was one, one in particular who really needed to have a trip down to the underworld. Anne-Marie was the scourge of the art world. Arnold had once told Elijah that if he could paint her and make her look good then he could paint even the ugliest of people look spectacular. And he did it. To the horror and the amazement of the artists, the gawky teenager who had his bottom lip constantly caught in his lip, the gawky teenager that could barely handle one drink...had made Anne-Marie look...tasteful?

The whole idea was pure madness but he’d gained a stupid amount of respect from them after that. It was at that point that he really entered into the lifestyle he had now...or didn’t as it would seem. The thought made Elijah smile. He was at peace like this; with Chase and the children. It was always what he’d wanted wasn’t it? Elijah laughed out loud and swept out off his chair. He placed the pallet on the table beside the easel and walked over to the cages that held all of the finished paintings. He’d need to shift some of them soon.

Hands slipped around his middle and Elijah’s smile grew. He turned but did not find who he wanted to see; Anne-Marie in his studio with hunger in her eyes. It wasn’t normal hunger though. It was lust. Lust for...for him. Elijah stared quizzically at her and her smirk deepened as her hands dived for the jeans that were slung low on his hips. Elijah pulled out of her grasp and held his hands up, backing away from her towards the west wall. She followed though and had him pinned within seconds. She pried the tops of the jeans open and Elijah grabbed her wrists. He forced her away but, like a boomerang, she returned, throwing herself against him and bringing her leg up between his.

“Anna-” Elijah choked out some sort of warning as her knee pressed into his groin and she merely stared back at him, an innocent look on her piggy little face. “What are you doing?”

“Miss me, Elijah?” She purred, her long nails scraping across the skin on his chest that was exposed. “I know I’ve missed you. Look at you...all grown up. The last time I saw you...you didn’t know a blow-”

“-yes, thank you Anna-Maria...” Elijah spat, his jaw tightening as he felt her touch on his skin once more. Every graze burned like hot coals and Elijah could only do but squirm. He was cornered and his eyes were as large as saucers as he realised the significance of it. Anne-Marie’s intrusive hands found exactly what they were looking for and a strangled cry caught in Elijah’s throat.

“You know you like it, Elijah...” She hissed in his ear as Elijah slipped a little against the wall. “I remember you...the sweet little golden boy that everyone loved and the artists hated because you could make me look good. A brave feat, sweetheart. But I remember you, so pure yet so scarred. You were so innocent yet you bore the brunt of every burden in your life. You carried it on your shoulders even then and now...here you are today...and here I am...” Anne-Marie pulled her head away and looked at him directly in his eyes, straight into his soul. “..and...I’m sorry.”

“What-”

At that moment, the door swung open and Elijah looked like a deer caught in headlights. Chase.

As soon as the redhead disappeared, Anne-Marie retracted her hand and Elijah stumbled out of the alcove she’d forced him into.

“Chase! Chase! Come back please! That wasn’t- nothing happened! Chase please! You have to listen to me! Chase?” But as he found her again, a horrifying prospect washed over Eli. What if...what if this time she wouldn’t listen? What if this time...she didn't want to forgive him? "Chase, you have to understand...that's Anne-Marie she's...she didn't...I didn't...Chase please!"

"...and...I'm sorry."

This was it. She had had enough of it. Her doubts were confirmed, and the little devil on her shoulder was jumping for joy and happiness, because it had been right. It had been telling her from day one that Elijah was a no good manwhore, everyone told her that he was bad, and she had somehow thought that she could CHANGE him? Well apparently she was wrong. She was always wrong, wrong in her life, wrong in his life, she didn't belong, and it took that one glimpse of the life he actually led, to finally make her realize it.

Some girl was in his studio.. the studio he barely let HER in... in his studio, her hand down his pants, the look of pleasure on his face was enough to show her that he hadn't changed. Nothing about him was changed, he could SAY he was.. but in his heart, he would never be a loving father, a caring husband, he just didn't do that. It wasn't Elijah Krum. So Chase was in her room, having locked it as soon as she entered, she went about to throwing everything she owned into a couple of suitcases.

It wasn't much, and most of it was maternity clothes still, her Hogwarts robes, and her books and things, but it filled two suitcases neatly. After her stuff was out of the closet, Chase opened the door and went to Kitty's room, but on the way, she stopped in on Fauve and Thierry. "Kids... grab your things.. get a suitcase and the necessities.. we're leaving.." She said and then walked away, her voice strained, tears caught, half suspended between full out sobs, and numbness.

Gathering Kitty's belongings, she soon had all of her stuff and Kitty in her car and outside. "I don't care what it was Elijah Krum.." She said in a slow shaky breath. "But I've had it.. I have HAD IT! I thought I could change you, I thought that having your own daughter, a family that LOVED You, would be enough.. but I was wrong, you will always be the selfish manwhore I met on the train at the beginning of the year!" She said and ushered Fauve and Thierry into the car, Kitty already strapped into her car seat.

"They don't deserve to be in a family that has the likes of you in it.. How can you expect to take care of children when you can't even keep your family separate from your lovers? You at least owe them a little bit of faithfulness. But hah.. if I wanted someone to be faithful to me.. I should have married a Gryffindor." She said and put her sunglasses on over her green eyes, hiding the tears that were welling there from him. Before she left though, she took his ring off and threw it on the ground, before getting into the car and starting it up.

She wasn’t listening. She wasn’t listening. She wasn’t listening.

Elijah followed Chase through the house desperately, pleading with her as he went. Every word fell on deaf ears though and Elijah could only do but watch as she rounded up the children and began to lead them outside. Thierry knew. The way he looked at him clenched Elijah’s heart. He knew that something had happened – that Elijah had done something wrong. Fauve was blissfully ignorant, as she should have been. Elijah didn’t know what he could say. He didn’t know what words could put it right. But words couldn’t put it right could they? He was a fool for thinking they would.

“Chase please! I wouldn’t do that to you! Not now! Not after everything that happened! I didn’t want that! What she was doing...couldn’t you see? I...Chase please!”

He flinched as she hurled the ring at him. He watched the silver sparkle in the late-night sun and he sucked a breath in as it hit the ground, disappearing amongst the pebbles. He brought his head back up and stepped forward, his foot unknowingly covering the ring. The significance of that had she noticed, however inadvertent it was, meant a lot. He heard the ring chink and Elijah lifted his foot. He looked down and crouched to pick the ring up. It widened in size upon recognising his touch and he stepped closer to the car, holding it between his index finger and his thumb. His last plead.

“Please don’t leave Chase. We can fix this. I’ll make you see...I love you...don’t...don’t leave me.”

And despite his anguish, the irony was that this was all playing out before someone who was amused by their suffering.

Elijah was just the asshole every person she had ever met had said he would be. "Not after everything that happened? Don't you think I know what you did while I was pregnant Elijah Krum? I know WHO you did that's for sure.. I know that not all of them were even FEMALE... is there something so dreadfully wrong with me, that I can't even make you happy without you going off for another girl. How long has she been staying up in that studio of yours? I'm tired of feeling like the last resort, the mistake.." Chase was getting dangerous now, and with that she pulled the car out of park and into drive.

"I saw what happened, and I know that nothing you say will change that! I'm taking Fauve and Thierry.. and I'll let you see them, but you will never lay eyes on my daughter again!" She said and hit the gas pedal, a loud squeal of tires, and the last final cries of Kitty as she was awoken, only to be soothed quickly by Thierry, as Chase sped off down the road, fumbling for her phone and hitting speed dial as she drove away from Elijah, away from the house, and away from the memory of what she had just seen.

And like that, just as she blew into his life, she blew out again. Red spots began to appear in his vision and Elijah whirled around, staring at the house, searching for the studio. Anguish turned to pure, unadulterated fury as he stormed towards the set of French doors that would have taken him into the lower levels of the studio. She’d driven off with his children. HIS children. Never mind about Katherine for a second. Fauve and Thierry were his. She had no right. She had no more right than Vivienne and Giselle had and they were their natural mothers!

Elijah didn’t waste time on the doors. He took his wand from his pocket and just blasted them straight off of the hinges. He watched with nonchalance as the doors hit the sprawling shelves and he continued to watch as they fell down. It was like an avalanche of paper, pencils, books, paint – every tool he needed for his works fell to the tiled floor and he just watched. He watched and he did not move until he heard Anne-Marie’s scream. There was a smash upstairs too and Elijah bypassed it all. He Apparated.

In hindsight it probably wasn’t the best thing to have done at the time but he appeared before her, every limb intact and his eyebrows still attached to his face. His wand flew up under her chin and she tensed up, backing against one of the walls. Elijah followed and the roles were reversed; just in slightly different ways. He wouldn’t touch her; ever. He hadn’t before and he certainly wasn’t going to now. But perhaps it would teach her a lesson. Then again, she’d gotten what she’d wanted hadn’t she? She’d gotten exactly what she’d wanted and now...she was going to pay for it.

“Tell me why you did that,” Elijah breathed, applying more pressure. She bit her lip and Elijah growled. “TELL ME! WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO HURT ME like that, Anna!? WHY!? TELL ME OR SO HELP ME I’ll-” He raged as the tip of his wand began to glow a dangerous emerald colour.

“-WHAT!? You'll do what!? Elijah Krum you and I both know you’ll never lay a hand on me let alone a wand. She was nothing to you! Just another set of breasts with nothing up top; and that bastard...well, she’s just another mistake isn’t she? Easily remedied-”

“SHUT UP!” Elijah pulled his hand back and pushed her away, sending her down to the floor. “SHE WAS MORE THAN THAT! You’re just another set of breasts with nothing up top! That’s you that’s not Chase! Anna...we’re meant to be friends...why would you do that? WHY!?”

She sat up and Elijah turned his gaze back to her. It was then he noticed the blood trickling down her chin and that sort of broke him and his tirade. He sank to his knees and took her chin in his hand. She watched him with wary eyes as he began to heal the damage he’d caused. “I hit the side of the table,” she whispered gently. Elijah ignored her and she sighed. She pulled her chin out of his grasp and avoided his gaze. “About a week ago...a guy came up to me. He says, ‘here you go love, got a nice quick money-maker for you.’” She took a deep breath before continuing. “So I says to him... ‘alright then, what is it?’ Then he shuffles his feet a bit, sends me a smirk just like yours and he says, ‘get rid of Krum’s girlie and I’ll pay you big’.”

“How big?” Elijah prompted, his wand poised.

“Ten grand,” Anne-Marie sniffed. Elijah rolled his eyes.

“What are you doing, Anna? You know you come to me. If you want clothes you come to me. If you want food you come to me. If you want a f-cking roof over your head then you bloody well come to me. You know if you wanted ten grand then I’d give it to you! I don’t question that because I trust you. Or, well, I did. Who was he?”

“Who?” Anne-Marie asked, distracted from all the nodding when Elijah listed the things she knew he’d willingly give her.

“The guy.” Anna bit her lip and avoided Elijah’s gaze. “Anna for goodness sake...you need to tell me.”

“Why? So you can go and kill him?” she shot back. “Could you really kill your own uncle, Elijah? Really?”

“What?” Elijah’s breath caught in his throat and Anne-Marie smiled a little.

“Yeah, your own uncle, babe. Stef-”

“AVADA KEDAVRA!”

Anne-Marie’s voice died in her throat and Elijah froze as he watched the light die in her eyes. Her head tipped forward and she fell into his arms. Elijah looked up, in search of the source and as he did so he was clipped around the side of the head but a smooth, flat surface. Elijah was thrown away from Anne-Marie and he rolled over, gasping for air that had been shot from his lungs. He looked around blearily and met the eerily familiar gaze of his uncle. Stefan Krum the third.

“Uncle Stefan?” The whisper sounded foreign to Elijah’s ears. “Why? Why would you do that? How could you kill her? How- HOW COULD YOU HAVE HER DO THAT!”

“Oh do shut up, boy. As if your happiness – or hers for that matter – matters to me.”

Elijah’s eyes darted back to Anna, her golden hair splayed out across the floor, blood staining her chin and her eyes wide and soulless. “Why would you kill her? What motivates someone to-”

“-Kill? Well, your motivation to kill was love wasn’t it? Dear little Alice...murdered so abruptly and for seemingly no reason. No one can get through those wards, Marina said. They’re impenetrable, Viktor said. But think of the off chance that there is a wizard in the area, one willing to take down the wards just to see your pretty little face when she’s murdered right in front of you. Oh it was delightful. Truly satisfying. And then there was your mother, way before Alice. Splendid, splendid girl. Far too innocent, though. She was rather like you in many ways. She had your spirit but that is flimsy and breakable. And it was. I didn’t envision her living but she’s dead now, problem sorted. That was a fun day out. And now there’s you. I don’t need to spend time with that ridiculous little bint that you call ‘sister’. She’s capable of ruining her own life. So are you but here you are...starting to make good out of something wholly disagreeable. Then I just had to go and ruin it, kill probably the only female in the world you haven’t deflowered and as far as the whole world is concerned, in eleven years time, Elijah Krum’s bastard is going to be attending Hogwarts. It’s thrilling. I wonder what the headlines will be like. I pity her really, having to grow up with that stupid little redhead. ‘Oh, I loved you. I thought that would be enough. Woe is me.’ She’s so pathetic it’s funny.”

Elijah’s whole world came crashing down around him in those minutes. He couldn’t think, he could barely breathe and his heart was thundering against his ribcage as if it wanted to break out.

“W-why?”

“Merlin, you’re as articulate as your mother. Why – I don’t know? Its fun, I hate you. Now, any last words?”

“Oh what? So now you’re going to kill me? Is that it? Thanks for that mate!” Elijah spat.

Stefan smirked. “No, that would be much, much to boring. I’m going to do this!” His wand came down and he shouted, “OBLIVIATE!” before turning around and shouting “INCENDIO!” at the art work. And then, he Apparated, leaving Elijah unconscious beside the corpse of Lady Anna-Maria.