Family Trip to Romania

Khaat listened to the arrangments that were necessary to transfer keys, etc., and agreed. The minister promised that Miseria's parents would be ready for burial in 2 days and that the local funeral home would be responsible for assisting in the funeral, but assured them it would be an all wizarding staff attending to their needs and helping to get Miseria's parents buried in the local cemetary in the Manson family mausoleum. He told them that the funeral home had been owned by wizarding families for hundreds of years. That was reassuring for Khaat. The minister magically conjured copies of the papers they had signed and gave copies both to Miseria and to Khaat and returned the copies of the wills to Khaat. That seemed to conclude what they needed to do here.

Khaat thanked the men for their help and left the ministry offices, motioning Miseria to come with her. She went down the stairs and stepped back out into the snow. Just as she did, she heard the crack of a wand being fired, and she pushed Miseria down into a snowbank to shield her, covering her with her own body, drawing her wand. She shifted off of Miseria and asked, "Are you alright? Get your wand ready. We are under attack."

"Protego!"Khaat shouted, raising her shield. "Raise your shield, Miseria!" Khaat said. "Expelliarmus!" Khaat fired at a deatheater who was marching towards them. It fired the wand out of his hand. She saw two death eaters behind him. So--three against two. Still workable. Still survivable. "Expelliarmus!" She fired at the death eater not hit yet by either Miseria or herself.

Khaat watched one of the Death Eaters fall face down in the snow. "Good shot, Miz!" Khaat didn't realize she had given Miseria a nickname until it was out of her mouth. "Incarcerous!" She fired at the leader. Ropes came out of nowhere, tied him tightly until he fell face down in the snow. "Get that last one, Miz!" She grabbed Miseria's other hand and pulled herself and MIseria to their feet, shielding Miseria behind her.

Khaat aimed her wand at him. "I suggest you answer her question, or I will kill you," she said coldly. She knew she would not have killed the young, foolish student, but she needed his older wizard companions to believe he had no choice. "I was told to!" His young voice squeaked and cracked.

"Then you take a message back to Lucius Malfoy!" she ordered firmly, "There IS no prophesy!" She reached in her bag and threw the empty prophesy ball at him. "Take him that and get out of here!" She looked at his heavily bleeding wounds from Miseria's sectumsempra. "Vulnera Sanantur!" Khaat fired the healing spell at him. Saying it once would only slow down the bleeding but would not stop it. "Get yourself to a healer or you will die very soon, "Khaat said. "Finite!" Khaat fired at him once more and reversed Miseria's spell. The young man rose, unsteadily to his feet and ran off. "We need to get out of here right now. Run!" Khaat kept hold of Miseria's hand and tugged at it to get her to come with her--now.

Khaat held tight to Miseria's hand as they ran back for the safety of the house. Khaat didn't let go until they were inside and she had locked the door. Then she let go and looked at Miseria. One of her first duels, and she had done very well. "I am very proud of you, "Khaat smiled, "You could not have done better. Very well done, indeed! And I guess I'm a mom now!" Khaat smiled, very satisfied and happy. She took her coat off and hung it up with a simple wave of her hand. She used wandless magic to begin a batch of cutout sugar cookies mixing on their own. The cookie cutters marched out of the drawer, and Khaat examined them. "You--Reindeer, cat, dog, bird, dragonfly, ladybug. You will be enough, thank you." The rest of the cookie cutters returned to the drawer obediently. "There, that's done, "Khaat smiled. "Nothing like a batch of magical sugar cookies to brighten the day." "Now about dinner tonight--Accio!" she summoned a chicken from the cold food storage, along with carrots, potatoes, herbs, spices, and onions. They began preparing themselves for fitting into a large roaster pan for the oven, and a teakettle prepared itself for heating water for tea. "I will slow cook those for tonight's dinner," Khaat said. "We have some time for ourselves now, it seems, until tea is ready. Are you sure you weren't hurt? And is there something you'd like to do now?"