Beauxbatons Academy of Magic

"Ooo... I would love to see this spell..."  Raven grins.

"You will be I need Crest to be close to do it."

"My my, I hope this is soon!  I am a very impatient person..."

Later that night, Crest arrived on the scene. He had heard of the systematic attacks on his kinsmen and naturally his suspicions went straight to Raven. Her pathological hate against his family made her the prime suspect and he knew where he'd find her. 

In her domain.

Raven sees Crest and smirks, looking as if she was expecting him.  "Hello, Crest... What brings you here?"

"Dispense with the pleasantries. Tell me where they are!"

OOC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bYZDHMWwt0

Raven laughs, "Oh, you mean your brothers?  Why don't you stop wasting your time and actually try to find them?"

"I intend to..." He gripped her arms and force it back to a point where a little more pressure could snap them. "You're going to tell me exactly where they are."

"Refusal is unwise."

Raven laughs, "Oh, now that wouldn't be any fun!  You're a Strayer, you have heightened senses... Why not follow the sounds of their struggle for breath?"

"Struggle for breath?"

He throws her aside as he starts to listen in on anything.

A ways away, Artemis, Artisan, and McKenna are hidden in a giant field of thorny and spiky bushes.  They're spread out and stunned, unable to move.

Crest dove toward into the field, trying to maneuver through the spikes to get to his family. 

Helm approaches Raven from behind., "Ready?"

"Since forever!  Do it!"

"Very good then... hold on a minute..." Helm began to step forward toward his cousin on the opposite end of the spectrum and phased through the thorns as Crest reached his family.

"Crest..."

The serious strayer looked over and scowled at Helm, "You..."

"Such scorn... and here I thought you'd do anything to have me back in your life. I was your greatest regret for years. The day that I died... do you remember it?"

Crest of course remembered it, the day not only his cousin but Steven Strayer as well died. And it was this preserving of the memory that Helm was banking on!

"Effunde frameam dolore!" With this casting, Crest's world around him crumbled and cracked, dissolving in a world of stars and light. When the blinding light finally abated, Crest found himself...

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back as a young boy, Helm next to him the same age. As well as Descole, the auror he came to hate for many years. They were on the mission, the one that would scar and define Crest forever. The ground, not a a speck of dirt was out of sorts from how it was. The clouds in the same formations. He was in the middle of the fighting, fighting to get to Helm. 

All at once, his thoughts of the present withered like a flower in winter and all that mattered to him was saving his cousin. 

However it was here where the critical divergence took place.

Helm had won his battle.

"We did it Steve!" Helm smiled boyishly at his cousin, "Now let's head back and maybe we'll be in time to rig old man Progenitor's quill to explode!"

Crest was enticed by the offer, he smiled and ran to his cousin to join him in the merry mischeif. But then he stopped.

He stopped and stood there.

Crest's wand was at his side, and slowly elevated with his arm at his cousin. "Reducto."

Helm flew back a bit, the fear on his face making Crest shiver in place... but he had to do this, it was his mission. 

"Steven! What are you doing?! Steven it's me! Helm!" Helm stared into his cousin's dead lifeless eyes in piteous begging. He wanted desperate to see Crest laugh or smile not this... cold ice hearted being that was before him. 

Helm stood up, and tried to back away from the edge of the cliff he was standing near when he looked at Crest again... who once more uttered...

"I'm sorry... reducto!"

With this, Helm, the man who was like a third brother to Crest, flew off the cliff. His scream was a melody of such a horror that it gripped Crest's soul like arms that traveled into his ears and squeezed his heart.

 And then... a thud. A sickening final thud.

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Crest, now back into the present, found himself on the ground, shivering in fright over what he now saw as his past. His true memory was forgotten of the event, replaced by this terrifying nightmare that he was in fact the killer his great grandfather had tried to forge him into. 

"Helm... I..." His voice quivered and shook like a contained earthquake, the boy had never been so visibly shattered and emotionally compromised in his life. "I'm so sorry!!!"

Raven watches this and grins, enjoying every second of Crest's anguish.

"it is done... at last, it is done..." Helm breathed a breath of fresh air.

"So what are you going to do now, then?"

"Right now, I merely wish to make up for lost time... you may do as you will with his brothers... but... spare McKenna..."

"Right... And what about his pet?  She'll know something's wrong..."

"Don't worry about that.. Let me worry about that..."

"I'm quite curious, though! She DOES have a major influence on him, after all..."

"I'm aware of this, and I have cause to believe she can join my new Strayer family... one of unity and love, as a family should be..."

"And you're going to make them Death Eaters?"

"Eventually perhaps... I'll have to see where things go. Things like this require the proper pacing..."

Raven laughs, "I bet you won't make it that far!"