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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Sept 6, 2010 22:05:46 GMT -5
(Because I'd like to get this moving again)
For a full day after Danica's disappearance, Aurelia slept as heavily as one who was unconscious. Madam Pomfrey, worried about the woman's state of mind when she was brought in, was a little too generous with the sleeping potions, and Aurelia slept on. It was just as well, because there was no good news for her. No one had found her, no one knew what had happened, and their leads were almost non-existent. It looked hopeless, and each second that ticked by seemed to make it even more so. Aurelia could not afford to lose any more hope.
Her sleep, however, was not dreamless. Perhaps it was because she was so very close to her daughter, Aurelia kept dreaming that she was with Danica, that she could see where she was and what was happening to her. It was so strong that she almost felt as though she were feeling what Dani was feeling... the terror, the pain, the desperate hope that someone would find her soon.
But she was always just out of reach, Aurelia just couldn't grab hold... Couldn't pull her safely into her arms.
At these times, she whimpered softly in her sleep, but otherwise there was no reaction from her. It wasn't until nearly 24 hours had passed that Aurelia's eyelids began to flutter.
"Dani?" she whispered.
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Post by Henri Gillet on Sept 7, 2010 14:48:42 GMT -5
As promised, Henri stayed with Aurelia as she slept. He found it hard to sleep while his mind was continuously moving. At some point, he was able to find sleep, although his dreams were choppy and he couldn't what he dreamed at all. When he awoke, he was still beside Aurelia but she was asleep. He was thankful for the Madam Pomfrey being able to give her a potion to help her sleep. Goodness knew she needed it, and Henri only hoped that while they were there, that Dani was okay. She was a strong, brave little girl, and he refused to allow himself to think any differently.
He was rubbing the back of Aurelia's hand with his thumb when she finally started to move. Henri wasn't sure if she was still asleep, or if she was slowly waking up, but he did feel his heart break again when she called her little girl's name and she wasn't there.
"Shh," he said still rubbing the back her of hand gently.
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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Sept 8, 2010 23:42:17 GMT -5
A single tear trickled from the corner of Aurelia's eye and tumbled down the side of her face and into her hair. Two days ago, she couldn't have imagined that she wouldn't have been happy to hear Henri's voice. But as she blinked weakly at him and he tried to hush her, she knew that the news wasn't good. Dani wasn't back. She wasn't here. At that moment, Aurelia was sure she would have given everything she had, or done absolutely anything if only she could hear her little girl's voice right now.
Aurelia still felt exhausted, but she couldn't believe that she had let herself lie here like this while Dani was in danger. Time was wasting.
She tried to sit up, but found that she was still very weak, and her head seemed to spin with the sudden movement. She quickly fell back down onto her pillow.
"Is there any word?" she whispered desperately, seizing Henri's hand. "How long have I been sleeping?"
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Post by Henri Gillet on Sept 9, 2010 15:23:02 GMT -5
"Take it easy," he said softly as she tried to sit up. Henri felt even more helpless when Aurelia asked if he had heard anything. His heart fell to his feet once again. The answer to her question was written in his facial expression.
He squeezed her hand. "I haven't heard anything yet but I know that they're still looking." That was the truth. He knew that they would have let him know if they had stopped looking, and he hadn't heard anything at all.
"You've been asleep for a little bit," he said chosing his words carefully. Henri wasn't exactly sure what Aurelia's reaction would be if she had known she had slept for an entire day. "You need to rest a little more, to get your strength back."
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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Sept 10, 2010 17:48:59 GMT -5
"No!" Aurelia cried desperately, shaking her head wildly as she tried again to sit up. "No... I don't need to rest! I've rested enough... What I need is to get my daughter back! I've wasted so much time already... she could be halfway across the world by now... Or she could be.... she could be..."
Aurelia couldn't bring herself to say the word. She refused to believe it. Danica had to be all right. She had to be alive. Aurelia didn't know what she would do otherwise. The prospect of living in a world without her little girl, her beautiful ray of sunshine, sounded so bleak and horrible, that Aurelia couldn't allow herself to even consider it. Dani had to be all right, there was just no other way around it. Besides, Aurelia was quite certain that she would know if Dani was dead, in the way that a mother just knows that her child needs food or comfort.
She finally pulled herself into a sitting position and began to kick off her blankets. "You must have a plan, right? Somewhere we can begin searching? I was thinking, they would probably go somewhere isolated, where it would be harder to find her..."
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Post by Henri Gillet on Sept 11, 2010 19:49:38 GMT -5
"Dani is going to be fine," Henri said firmly. "No matter where she is, she is going to be fine." He stood up from his chair and put his hands on Aurelia's shoulders. He could not really imagine what was going on in Aurelia's head.
"Look at me," he said as she tried to get out of the bed. Henri had to make sure he looked after Aurelia's well being. He wished that he could be two different people. One person that was out looking for Dani, and another person who was watching out her Aurelia.
"That thought has crossed my mind. I know that the MLE would be looking in places like that. They're doing the best they can right now. We have to make sure you have your strength back before anything."
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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Sept 20, 2010 23:57:52 GMT -5
Aurelia's eyes were filled with desperation. "No. I will have my strength back when I have my daughter back, don't you understand that? I can't rest... I can't just lie here and hope that someone will find her! I have to be there... she needs me now, and I can't let her down. Please, Henri.... you must understand. She is my life. Where ever she is... whomever has her... I would trade places with her in a heartbeat. As long as she is safe. And she's not, so I have to be out there, looking...."
She was gripping his arm as she spoke, and her grip became tighter with each word, until her nails seemed to sink into his flesh. Realizing what she was doing at last, she let go abruptly and bit down on her bottom lip, drawing blood.
"If he had her...." she said, assuming that Henri would know she was referring to Pavel, "If he had her.... wouldn't we have heard something by now? A ransom note or something?"
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Post by Henri Gillet on Sept 21, 2010 5:46:30 GMT -5
"Je comprends," he said not flinching when Aurelia's grip became tighter. "We'll figure out what happened, okay? We'll go help look too, but you have to promise me that you will take a small break at some point. Running yourself out is not going to help her." That was mainly the auror side of Henri talking. He was concerned about Aurelia's well being, however.
Henri put a hand on her cheek very gently. "If he had her, he is probably doing it to make you go insane. You ran away and he wants you back. Maybe he's doing it without a note yet, so that he knows that you are looking for her and he'll probably do whatever to get you to go to him."
He didn't want anything to happen to Aurelia, nor Dani. If they ended up with Pavel, Henri was going to have to fight twice as hard to get them back. He lost her once, he wasn't going to do it again.
"And if he is the one that took her, he will deal with the consequences." Henri's voice became low and in a way, angry. He locked eyes with her again and his expression softened. "We'll get her back, okay?"
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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Sept 26, 2010 0:28:56 GMT -5
Aurelia sighed tiredly, and pulled herself into a sitting position. She knew, deep down, that he was right; that she needed to take care of herself for Dani's sake. But she really wanted to fight for her daughter, to find the person who had taken her--and she was sure it was Pavel--and wring his neck.
"How can he want me back? she said, shaking her head. "He never loved me. I know he didn't. He couldn't have. He couldn't have hit me the way he did if he loved me. And why has he taken so long to find us? I just...." She sighed again, running a hand through her hair. "If he didn't take her, I don't want to know who did...."
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Post by Henri Gillet on Sept 27, 2010 9:15:26 GMT -5
Henri placed both of his hands on either side of Aurelia's face. "It doesn't have to be out of love that he wants you back," he said honestly. "But I'm not going to let him have you or Dani again." It didn't make any sense to Henri for anyone else to take Dani, but then again nothing in the world really made sense anymore. He wasn't even thinking about anyone else now. He was trying to connect the puzzle pieces, and the only thing that made a picture out of the pieces was Pavel. Maybe he was wrong, but he hoped that he wasn't.
"She'll be back and he will get what he deserves." At that moment, Henri's head hurt for a moment. A small memory of Aurelia telling him about Pavel popped into his head. He remembered that she was afraid of him in a way, and he also remembered the small promise he made her before. He wouldn't let Pavel take her away from him.
"I'm sorry I couldn't hold my promise to you last time, but now is a different time. There will not be any memory charms and I will hold onto you this time, and Dani as well. She will be back."
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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Sept 30, 2010 22:47:31 GMT -5
Aurelia didn't know what invisible force had brought him back into her life at this moment, when she needed him so badly, but she was beyond grateful. As desperate and desolate as she felt not knowing where her baby was, at least she had him, like an anchor that she could cling to. Without him, she might have done something stupid or desperate to get Dani back.
She flung her arms around him and pressed her tear-streaked face against his warm shoulder. She had take care of herself and Dani by herself for so long that it felt good to know that she could let him carry some of the burden for her. If only she could just lose herself in his arms right now.... but she couldn't. Finding Dani was her #1 priority.
"What can we do? We have to be able to do something. I can't just sit here."
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Post by Henri Gillet on Oct 1, 2010 18:08:14 GMT -5
Once she put her arms around him, Henri returned the gesture. He placed his cheek on Aurelia's head and he started to stroke her hair gently.
"I know you can't just sit here," he said softly. Henri was unsure of what they could really do to go look for Dani. He wasn't quite sure where they should go look. After all, he didn't want to put Aurelia in danger either. Maybe he was selfish, but he didn't want her to disappear from him again. Henri didn't mind the fact that she had Dani. He really liked the little girl and if he was able to see more of her, the better.
"We could go check hospitals if you like, just to see if they have seen anyone that looks like Dani. Someone might have found her, and I imagine that would be one of the first places that someone would take her if they found her." That was the only answer he could think of. It would be something that they could do at the moment.
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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Oct 3, 2010 23:00:19 GMT -5
Aurelia sighed. This really was impossible, wasn't it? Dani could be anywhere by now. Looking for her was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But she had to try, and she was willing to do anything.
"OK," she agreed. It wasn't quite what she wanted to do... she didn't want Dani to be in the hospital. But it was possible that she could have wound up there... and if she had, maybe that meant she was safe. It was worth a try. "Maybe we could talk to the muggle police, too, and report her missing there, too. If Pavel took her, she won't be in a magical area, she'll be in a muggle area."
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Post by Henri Gillet on Oct 4, 2010 11:35:35 GMT -5
"Il y aura toujours l'espoir," he responded. "There will always be hope. We will find her soon, I have that feeling." Henri pulled back from Aurelia a little and ran his thumb over her cheek. "We can make a trip to several different muggle police stations and put in the missing child report, and then we can go to different hospitals on the way to make sure they look out for her too."
He stood up and grabbed Aurelia's hand. "If we're going to go, I think we should go now since it's early. We'll have all day to look, although if you start feeling tired, you let me know, d'accord?"
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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Oct 5, 2010 0:25:04 GMT -5
Aurelia started to relax just a little bit. This was what she needed. She needed to have a plan, just something that she could do to make her feel like she had some control over this situation. She needed to do something, and this was as good a plan as any other. The icy block of fear in her chest began to ease a little, enough to let her breathe naturally.
She nodded, a slightly hopeful look on her face now. Thank Merlin Henri was here. Aurelia wasn't sure she would have been able to hold herself together on her own through this.
"OK," she said, pulling back the blankets. "Can we go now?"
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Post by Henri Gillet on Oct 7, 2010 6:23:46 GMT -5
Seeing Aurelia have some sort of hopeful look, that made things a little better. Henri didn't know what they were going to do if Pavel was going to want any sort of ransom. Maybe they could just take Danica away from whoever had her and then just get out of there. For the time being, he pushed his thoughts away from the fact that there could be sort of a conflict to get Danica back. Right now, finding her was more important.
Henri leaned in and kissed Aurelia's head before she stood up. "Let's go see what we can do."
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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Oct 10, 2010 0:13:12 GMT -5
Aurelia swung her legs over the side of the bed and pulled herself to her feet. The rest had apparently done her some good, because she was able to stand easily. There was still a gnawing pain in her stomach, but she was certain that she would not be able to eat anything in her current state. She was just too worried about Dani.
They were both already dressed in muggle clothes, so they would be fine to meet with muggles. As far as Aurelia was concerned, that meant they were ready to go.
"Why don't we start with the muggle areas close to Ambrosia? Maybe the MLE officers already spoke to the police there, but it still couldn't hurt, right?"
Just then, however, before they could move, an owl tapped on the window pane just next to Aurelia's bed. She glanced at Henri for a moment, then walked over to let the bird inside. The owl nipped at her fingers as she attempted to remove the note from its leg.
Unrolling the note, Aurelia read the words:
I have our daughter
come back home, and she won't be in any harm
bring anybody with you, Aurielia
and I'll kill her
don't doubt what I can do
Will send more information later.
She let out a soft cry and let the note slip from her fingers.
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Post by Henri Gillet on Oct 11, 2010 5:46:45 GMT -5
"That would be a place to start," he started but he didn't finish his thought process as an owl came to the window. Henri looked confusedly at the window, then back to Aurelia. Why would there be an owl coming?
Quietly Henri watched Aurelia as she read the note, and as he watched her facial expressions, his heart dropped. Picking up the note as soon as she dropped it, he read the note quickly. Anger started to build and Henri set his jaw tight clenching onto the paper, causing it to wrinkle on the sides.
He looked back to Aurelia. "We'll find her, and Pavel will not kill her. I promise." Henri wanted to pace but instead, he put his arm around Aurelia. "Come on, we've got to start somewhere. If he's going to send more information later, then that still gives us a little time to still look."
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Post by Aurelia Krizova on Oct 14, 2010 23:41:15 GMT -5
Aurelia nodded slowly, a complex mixture of emotions bubbling inside her. The first, and most powerful, was a profound relief. At least now, they knew that Dani was alive. And they knew who had taken her. That was some definite information, and it helped narrow things down considerably. The worst feeling in the world had been not knowing... not knowing if her baby was alive, not knowing who had taken her, or why they had taken her. Now they knew these things... It gave them something to work with.
Of course, she also felt an intense rage directed at Pavel. He was such a coward.... kidnapping his own daughter (maybe) just to try and get her to come back? If he had really wanted her, he could have just come to her. Of course, she would have said no... But that wasn't the point. He tried to force her to come back by taking Dani... It was monstrous.
But as she raised her eyes to Henri's, a strong determination overcame her, and her jaw set. "If he thinks I am going back to him, he's out of his mind. We'll find Dani, somehow. He can't just show up after 8 years and expect me to go back to him, especially this way."
She gripped Henri's hand and squeezed it tight. "We should show this note to the MLE officers working on the case. then we'll start our own investigation."
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Post by Henri Gillet on Oct 17, 2010 21:16:39 GMT -5
The determination that Aurelia had about her daughter helped Henri's anger not get the best of him. Dani was most important to this whole ordeal and she was going to be found. He nodded and returned the squeeze of Aurelia's hand.
"We can just use floo to go to the Ministry. I think that we can use a fireplace around here, or if you feel more comfortable, we can go outside the school grounds and then apparate there." Henri was trying to settle his mind that continued to turn with possibilities of where they could start looking.
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