Chapter Text
You were in your Nonna's lap, looking up at the stars with your Pa sitting beside her. It's been a year since your parents left you at your grandparents' house, quickly bid you goodbye and have not returned since. Though you were just a five-year-old back then, you could comprehend the situation quite well. It was right after all the hushed whispers about the Dark Wizard, Lord Voldemort he proudly revealed himself. Your parents fought for three nights afterwards in hushed whispers, but you heard them anyway. On the fourth day, they packed you and whisked you away to the countryside and left.
This was one of many nights your grandparents took you out. You three were always enjoying the warm summer night outside. Nights like these, your Nonna took a blanket and spread it on the grassy field that surrounded their country mansion. Your Pa always accompanied you to share exciting stories of the stars. On this particular night, he was quiet, though.
"Pa, why aren't you telling any stories today?" you asked with a pout after some time in the quiet of the night.
"Ebony, dear, today I will tell you a story," your Nonna said with a smile your way.
"Really?" you asked with a bit of apprehension. You only ever got your Pa's attention when he was telling you stories about the stars. Other than that, you barely ever saw him since he spent most of his time locked away in his observatory or study.
"Oh, don't fret, little star. This is a great story!" your Pa said with a loving glance at your Nonna. "I can listen to it again and again. Love it every damn time," he said with a small chuckle.
You got excited to hear a story which impressed your Pa so much. You knew he was a hard man to please and never heard him waste time on the same thing repeatedly.
"Then start already, Nonna!" you spurred her on. Both your grandparents chuckled at your impatience.
"Very well, then," your Nonna started...
"A long time ago, there lived two beautiful sisters. Ceres was friendly, positive, and kind, and thus generally loved by everyone. Selene was wise beyond her years and so powerful a witch, she was respected and feared in equal measure. To their terrible luck, their father was a boastful fool, and in one of his many drunken nights, he offended an old Crone on his way home. The old Crone was one of Death's servants, and with her pride hurt, she cursed both of the fool's daughters he so loved to boast about.
"I curse both your daughters, fool. Where one excels, the other will only fail. The kind and positive Ceres will only fall in love with Squibs and fools, and the same fate will befall her children. The wise and powerful Selene will love the most difficult people, and her world will be harsh and unkind thanks to it. Let this be a punishment that goes from mother to daughter for the next 100 generations!"
And as the Crone said, so it happened, and both sisters' hair lost colour and went pale with the weight of the powerful curse on them. From that day onwards, Ceres only ever wanted to marry fools and Squibbs, and Selene got heartbroken and into so many difficult situations, their father finally decided to look for the Crone and ask her forgiveness for his offences in the hope that she would kindly lift her curse."
"I don't understand it, Nonna, why did the Crone curse the girls and not the father who offended her?" you asked, and although your Nonna frowned at the interruption, she stopped her story to answer you. However, your Pa was quicker.
"Because, little star, when you want to truly hurt someone, you do not hurt them, but their closest loved ones."
"Hmm. Are we also cursed since we have white hair?" you asked Nonna innocently, and she gave you a small nod with a sad smile.
You looked at your Pa and carefully nodded your head, though you still didn't understand fully. Your Nonna waited a moment for you to wrap your head around it and then continued.
"So, the father decided to find the Crone, and after some time, he finally did. He begged the Crone to lift the curse she had cast on his daughters and the next 100 generations of his family, but the Crone had a heart of stone. However, as a faithful servant of Death, she decided to send the foolish man to her Master.
"Death is my Master, and only he can reverse such a powerful curse. I can ask him here, and perhaps he will show you mercy."
The father was terrified but so desperate that he agreed, and so the Crone summoned Death himself. Both the father and the Crone told Death their part of the story. Death has longed for the kind Ceres to join him, yet was unable to take away such a sweet girl from the world of the living to the eternal darkness of his kingdom, and so he found a clever solution.
"If you let Ceres become my wife, she will marry no fool or Squibb, but she will eternally be in my service. For such a sacrifice, I should also grant your other daughter, Selene, a blessing. She will still be weighed by difficult and harsh life, but I will grant her and all her descendants a Clear Sight so she is never fooled by men and only picks the right one to bear her burdens with her."
The Crone felt appeased by her Master's proposition, and the father, after some despairing, agreed to the deal with Death to save his daughters from foolishness and misery. As soon as the father got home, where he was greeted by his lovely daughters, Death appeared. As was promised, he gave Selene the Clear Sight, changing her eyes silver-grey; a sign of Death's blessing. Then Death took Ceres as his immortal wife, granting her ethereal beauty and breaking the curse on her and her descendants.
Ceres often lured foolish men to their untimely end to please her eternal husband, and some believe her to be the mother of the first Veelas. Selene got married to a man as difficult as she could find, but he loved her, and she loved him, and they had many children. Same as her, all her daughters had snow-white hair and silver-grey eyes. And so did all the women in her lineage for many generations.
"Nonna, we also have grey eyes, you, Mum and I. Are we cursed like Selene? Does it mean I will not be happy?" you asked fearfully.
"Sylvana, dearest, I told you it's too soon for the little star to understand the story and its implications," your Pa said with a smile, and your Nonna huffed out a breath.
"You always have to have the last word, Zephyr, don't you?" she asked back in what you thought was a serious annoyance and only later in life recognised for what it truly was - teasing. Your Pa grinned at her, silly, and leaned in to peck her cheek.
"Yet you always try to best me!" he said with a full belly laugh, and you were fascinated by how your Nonna's irritated face changed into a loving smile before she turned to you.
"No, dearest, it just means you'll have to get past a few hardships to find your happiness."
You were still a bit worried, but at least you were given hope. You could be happy and loved one day. You would just have to fight for it.