Second Glances, Second Chances

"Oh nice job," Brian smiled. "You made that look easy. I think you just found a new hobby. I'll teach you how to groom her and feed her and saddle her and you can ride her any time you want. Khaat's mare has been on the mend from a twisted ankle but I'm hoping that she'll be better enough to be ridden again soon."

Robert went up to the house and talked to Khaat who got up from the baby pool with the kids and went into the house promptly. She was only too glad to take care of the paperwork. Robert sat with the kids at the pooside, supervising.

Khaat drew up the paperwork quickly and signed it. It didn't take her long to dress and apparate into the ministry offices to file it and to make it official.

Faith smiled when Brian said she had made it look easy. She sat up straight and puffed out her chest, looking proud of herself, as she watched Robert walk back down the lawns and go over to Khaat. Their little conversation, and then Khaat was off, presumably to go find the paperwork and file it saying that Faith no longer had to go to her dad's house. Faith was having a hard time believing that was real, so she just kind of let it slide for the moment.

Faith carefully held her reins and turned her horse around, lightly tapping her where he had said to do so, and the mare started off in the direction she had chosen. Faith was still a little wobbly in the handling aspect, but it was obvious she was growing more confident in it, as she maneuvered her horse over to a tree, stopped her, pull a stick off, and then came back to Brian, trotting, her whole body bouncing up and down on the horse.

"This is so much fun!" She exclaimed as she trotted past him, turned around, and trotted past again, giggles coming from her like they had never had before. "Look at how fast I'm going!" She called out, going back to the path and tapping her horse a little to go a bit faster. "whoa whoa whoa.." She pulled back on the reins and stopped her mare, turning her horse to look back and wait for Brian.

"Good," Brian smiled. He didn't mind her having a good time. And he was being watchful so that if she made a beginning riding mistake, he could try to prevent her from being hurt. "Thats why we enjoy them," he said.

Khaat went into the records hall and began what she thought was just an ordinary records check. She expected to find, well, nothing. She had believed that her father was muggle. No threat. But--when she found the file, she had to sit down and absorb it. It had been her mother who had been the muggle. Her father was the wizard. And he was in the ministry records for being a werewolf, with a record that wasnt' the cleanest. He was living in the muggle section of London, most likely thinking he was out of reach of Ministry officials. Idiot. Khaat didnt like the idea of trying to confront a werewolf by herself. She knew better. And especially to tell him that custody of his child had been revoked.

She wrote down the address on a slip of paper. It was a congested neighborhood. She would have to be careful. She filed the paperwork and made it official. She and Brian were Faith's legal custodians now under wizarding law. She changed her clothes again--transfiguring them to a pair of black raw silk slacks, a white blouse, and a matching black raw silk tailored blazer. She transfigured her little light mules to tall black heels. Formal. Intimidating. She made sure her hair and makeup were all business. Then she tucked the custody order into her blazer pocket, along with a summons to Department of Law Enforcement to answer questions for assault and battery against a minor. Domestic violence. And a list of other despicable crimes.

She apparated into an alley not far from the Blackburn home. She shivered. A seer's trait. It meant her powers were on overdrive. The stone around her neck was already giving off a very soft green glow that muggles would surely confuse with sunlight and nothing more. But to Khaat it was already warning her that a malicious werewolf was closeby. And she was walking right into it. She slipped the wand up her sleeve so that she could drop it into firing position quickly if it were needed. Then she walked up the steps of to the front door and knocked.

While Faith was having the time of her life riding a horse around the grounds of Khaat's home. Her father wasn't having as much of a good time.

His tracers weren't working.. normally, he could tell every single thing she did, he knew where she was, he knew what she was doing, sometimes even how she was feeling. But they had stopped working. It had gone from her being in some home, and she had been much to happy in that home as it was, and then, nothing. She had simply disappeared, and he was freaking out. Something, or someone, was interfering with his tracers, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get them to come back up. He had been working all night, and no matter what he did, it didn't work.

Sitting in the kitchen of his tiny home in a far of spot in muggle London, Ted Blackburn nursed his coffee in his hands, staring at a piece of paper he had laid in front of him. An equation was written on it in small compact handwriting, and every now and then, he would pick up a pen and write something new on the paper, before taking a sip of his coffee.

The full moon was coming soon, and he was already stressed out enough as it was, there were a few people he needed to take care of that full moon, but with the disappearance of his child from his view, he was getting stressed out. He had kept secret from Faith her entire life that he was actually the wizard in the family. Her mother had run off with a muggle after giving birth to Faith and realizing she would be like her father, and had even suspected that she might be a werewolf from birth, but as it turned out, she had been a normal, wizarding child, and that scared her all the more. So she ran off.

Ted didn't keep pictures of her in the house, he had refused to answer any questions Faith may have had about her, stating simply that she was a witch, just like Faith, and to leave it at that. Ted loved his daughter, and he knew he loved her in ways fathers shouldn't love their daughters. He loved to watch her bleed, loved to watch her cower, or submit to his friends that he brought over. Loved to watch her bed, and cry, and writhe beneath him as he took his pleasure from her in ways fathers shouldn't.

Ted picked up a picture of his Faith, and looked at it with a frown. He had kept the public from knowing how he treated his daughter, in fact, he had made her believe that's how Father's raised their children. And he had meticulously covered her entire body with every type of wound he could think of. He even counted them, while she stood before him, naked, making sure he had covered every bit of her with his marks.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and Ted looked up, frowning. His wand was in his pocket, and he quickly picked up the paper he had been writing on. Shoving it into his pocket, he went to the window, and peeked out, an extremely good-looking woman was standing at the door, and Ted frowned, brushing his long hair back. His eyes were sunken, and he had quite a few visible scars of his own. Anyone who looked could see they were almost like dog bites, he hid them from Faith, but normally he didn't bother to hide the marks that showed he had been in quite a few fights with other Werewolves.

Ted brushed his hair back again, stood up straight, straightened his shirt and at the last moment, unbuckled his belt, she was a good-looking woman, maybe it was one of his friend's relations and he was about to get lucky. Ted grinned and opened the door with a quick gesture. "Why hello there Ma'am.. how may I help you on this fine day?" He asked, his voice was guttural and dark, his eyes flicked over her frame without hesitation, and without hiding it from her, he knew women liked to be looked at, it made them feel special. "Would you like to step inside? It's getting pretty hot out there." He said stepping back and holding the door open for the woman.

The instant the door opened, Khaat's seers senses were shifted into overdrive. She'd grown up knowing that scent all her life almost from birth. This was indeed Blackburn. And she smelled werewolf. In her seers senses, when a werewolf was about to turn or had recently turned, he or she carried a distinctive scent that others didn't seem to pick up unless they were another werewolf. She had always wondered if it was a quality the stone had passed onto her. But the scent always registered to her as something akin to a dirty wet dog, except it had a more foreboding air to it. She was sure. And if she hadn't been, the wizarding photo in his dossier in the Ministry files made a direct match. He was older and more scarred now, but such was the life of a werewolf. New scars came as quickly as clothes went. It was why Remus never put much investment into his wardrobe. A full moon meant the loss of an entire change of clothes if he forgot his wolfsbane.

He had invited her inside. Not a chance, she thought. The stone on her necklace began to glow brighter. A warning for both of them. It wouldn't be long before the light became painful to his cursed eyes. And if he made any advance, then the stone would begin screaming in a shrill, high pitched siren that caused piercing, debilitating pain to the werewolf. Not that the sound and light show didn't bother her either. It did. Sometimes it utterly blinded her and caused temporary decrease in her hearing. And then there had been the one time when a werewolf had tried to take her life. When he made what he thought would be a fatal blow to her, the stone had fired a bright beam of emerald green light and had killed her would be murderer. Instantly. Flamel had covered his bases fairly well

"No thank you, Mr. Blackburn," Khaat said. She kept her voice calm and quiet and professional. Partly because she didn't need him agitated. That would cause him to turn quicker. Agitation always did provoke the transfiguration quicker. And because the neighborhood was filled with muggles. She didn't need them hearing what they were talking about. She left her wand tucked in the right sleeve of her black blazer and, with her left, she drew out her Ministry identification badge. It looked very much like a muggle police detective badge with her identification card on the right side of the black leather bifold, and the silver Ministry Department of Magical Law Enforcement insignia shield mounted on the left. They were purposely being designed that way now so that the wizard Ministry officials could blend in easier with the muggle world when they had to. "My name is Khaat Lupin. I work at the Ministry. This will only take a moment. This is in regards to your daughter."

Ted looked the girl over one more time, before he registered what she was saying. Ministry? She showed him a police badge that had the law enforcement logo for the Ministry on it, and he frowned, leaning against the door frame, watching her carefully with calculating eyes. Probing her with a stare that would have shaken anyone else, but probably Khaat. A stare he had often used on his daughter, and it was obvious why she didn't make eye contact with adults if that was the stare she would get if she did.

"Khaat Lupin? Well if this is true, I must insist you come inside.. I have coffee if you want it." He said, showing her his most winning smile, which was actually rather kind looking, his eyes lit up in almost genuine way, but the cold, calculating look was still there. This same look was easy to see as to why Faith believed he loved her, and cared for her, because he could give her a face of kindness when he wanted to.

The moment she said something about his daughter though, Ted straightened up, and looked genuinely concerned. "Is she alright? What's wrong?" He asked, his eyes showing real concern, and worry, he did care of his daughter, albeit in a weird, strange, different way.

"She's better now," Khaat said. "The Ministry has uncovered her injuries. The bruises, the burns, the 'internal injuries.' And we have irrefutable truth who caused it." She was playing a very dangerous hand this time. she had her father's gift to lay a stonefaced expression to not betray herself if she needed to. "You surely knew that she could not attend Hogwarts and not have those sorts of extensive injuries be unnoticed. When they were uncovered, she was sent for medical treatment and she submitted to an interview under veritaserum in order to insure her truthfulness. She identified you under veritaserum. She told us what you did to her.

"From your records, I am quite sure that you are aware that such conduct is against our laws." She drew forth the paperwork and opened the folded forms and handed them to him. "This is an immediate court order that revokes your legal custody of your daughter and makes her a ward of the Ministry. She will not be allowed to return to your care. You are ordered to appear at hearing before the Wizengamot at 9 am on Wednesday morning. If you fail to appear, you will be arrested for contempt of court and remanded to Azkaban to await your hearing on multiple charges of assault and battery and abuse--the maximum sentence of which could well total 60 years or better if served consecutively.

"You might consider bringing someone to represent you to this hearing, Mr. Blackburn. I do believe, in this case, it might be prudent."

Ted's face grew dark as Khaat spoke, his eyes traveling across her face and body before landing on her eyes. "Are you meaning to tell me.. that that.. that SCHOOL has everyone believing that I would HURT my daughter?!" He said, his face dark. "They have obviously enchanted her!" He exclaimed, a look of almost genuine anger, and sadness, and fear. "She is always happy to come home Mrs. Lupin. I have never, not ONCE laid hands on my daughter! I don't know what bullshit that school is feeding you, but it's WRONG. And how dare you use that kind of potion on her without my consent! Okay yes, I lied to her, I'm the wizard of the family, and her mother was the witch who left us.

Ted glared at Khaat, his eyes wild. "They are hurting my daughter, and you think you can come barging in here and try and tell me that you are taking her away from me?! So you can do what? Experiments on her?! You going to turn her into some wild beast? You want her to become like me so you can study her!? Is that what you want with my daughter?" Ted was growing more and more agitated, and you could see some of the hair on his neck was actually starting to grow longer. "I WILL Be at that court hearing Mrs. Lupin. You better F*** believe it." He said angrily, and slammed the door shut as he walked inside, hair growing on his hands that was JUST visible to Khaat as the door closed.

Khaat saw Blackburn trying to transfigure. If he could do this in broad daylight, then he too was a follower of Fenrir's. The stone in her necklace clearly didn't like him and saw him as a threat. As he began to transfigure, the stone around her neck began to start to shriek in a high pitched siren that was loud enough to alert every blooming wizard within miles, and as he closed the door, it fired a green beam through the window of the house, aiming straight at him. She hadnt' grabbed the stone in her fist in time before it fired. The beam hadn't been, surely, strong enough to kill him, but it sure had been strong enough to wound him. She hadn't intended for that to happen. Didn't want to aggravate. But the stone had a mind of its own. Enchanted items always did. And Blackburn had been one step away from being a threat.

The fear rose in her throat. A thousand thoughts raced through her head at once, causing her to stand frozen on the doorstep.

Ted felt his skin begin to crawl, and his heart was racing. He stumbled to try and pull the blinds down on the front door, before he spun around, and was about to race into the house, when suddenly something hit him with the force of what felt like a thousand trains. He could feel the force of it hit his back, and he was sent sprawling. He was completely winded for a very long moment. Just laying there, his hands flat on the floor, his legs off to one side as his chest rose and fell heavily. Finally though, it was like something snapped inside of him.

Quickly, he rose to his feet, and without another moment's hesitation, transformed completely, it took less then two seconds, and he stood there, a huge, overgrown wolf, his hair was an odd auburn color, with long dark streaks of pure red running through it. He turned his gaze on Khaat and fixed her with an ice glare, his eyes were bright blue, almost too blue, and they stared directly at Khaat, the intelligence making it obvious that he knew who she was, what she wanted, and what he wanted as well.

Without another thought, he took a step forward, froze, and sniffed the air, then he let out an ear piercing howl, and in one large leap, flung himself at the door, knocking it down, and flying straight at Khaat.