Haunted by Nightmares

[Esmerelda Lazuli]

Sometime after midnight, Esmerelda finally fell into a restless slumber. Having to contend with her husband's lurking ghost and the Death Eaters' lack of action, she hadn't been able to sleep well recently. She also hadn't had any letters from her daughter at Hogwarts New Zealand for far too long: sure, they hadn't exactly been on good terms lately, but ignoring each other would never lead to reconciliation.

Being able to sleep, it turned out, was worse. Esmerelda plunged out of wakefulness and straight into a setting she lived in every day, at a scene that she never wanted to remember. Her own living room, on the night of her husband's death.
Esmerelda was in her usual green velvet armchair by the fireplace, but she was too agitated to lean back into it as she normally did. This was it. Tonight, she would murder Lorenzo Lazuli. Tonight she would take her place among the Death Eaters.

Lorenzo had been away on some sort of assignment. They'd told their seven-year-old daughter that he was sick in hospital, and too contagious for her to visit. It would be a natural assumption that he'd died of natural causes. Lapis, the girl in question, was upstairs in her bedroom, fast asleep. Lorenzo had just returned, and was now taking a shower. Soon, soon he'd come downstairs. Soon he'd die.

 

[Lorenzo Lazuli]

Lorenzo Lazuli (who for the purposes of this Role Play will function as a figment of his widow's imagination) turned off the shower, put his unassuming black robes on again, and padded on silent feet along the upstairs corridor. He was finally home again, and it felt wonderful. Lorenzo slid round the door of his daughter's darkened bedroom, and kissed the sleeping child on her cheek. Lapis Lazuli smiled in her slumber, but did not stir. Lorenzo smiled with her, looking forward to the look on her face when she woke up and discovered he'd come home 'from hospital'. Even after seven years with the girl in his life, he still viewed her as a miracle.

Still smiling vaguely, Lorenzo went back out into the corridor, and started down the stairs. He was almost equally eager to spend time with his wife, despite the fact that they had been growing apart lately. Now, he vowed, he would put things right between them. And soon, very soon, he would tell her everything. Everything he'd realised about the Death Eaters, all the little niggling doubts about the morals of what they were doing, about the future, about what would happen to Lapis when it all went wrong. And it would go wrong- he was sure of that now. But he wouldn't say anything tonight.

As Lorenzo reached the bottom of the staircase, however, the sight he found at the bottom changed everything. What?

 

[Esmerelda Lazuli]

Esmerelda had heard Lorenzo coming down the stairs and was out of her chair in a flash. She stood at the foot of the staircase, and pointed a trembling wand at her husband.

Rippling emotions coursed through her. Relief, that after weeks of waiting she could finally commit the foul deed. Anxiety. Excitement. And, though she would never confess it, fear. She had wanted this for so long, but was her husband a fair price? What if it went wrong tonight? What if it went right?
"Lorenzo," she said finally, speaking softly, not wanting to awaken their daughter from her peaceful slumber, "I know the truth."

Her body tossed and turned in the lonely bed, caught in the grip of the ensuing nightmare. Deep within her, Esmerelda knew what happened next. She had suppressed the memory for so long, speaking of it only to Cassandra, not even mentioning the dreadful truth to her own daughter. But now, trapped in her own mind, she could not escape it.

 

[Lorenzo Lazuli]

"What truth?" Lorenzo was getting worried now, but he figured that playing innocent was the best way to go. After all, it could not be what he thought it was. It could be something simple and harmless that she was talking about. But deep inside, he knew it wasn't. His wife was upset. She was interested in the Dark Arts. She was threatening him. What else could it be? The Death Eaters must have contacted her.

 

[Esmerelda Lazuli]

Esmerelda shook her head, would have laughed if it wasn't so serious. Lorenzo had this way of pretending that problems didn't exist.
She spoke softly; "You know what I mean. You've become a Muggle-lover." Esmerelda spat the phrase as if it was poisonous. "One of the Death Eaters told me you've been obstructing their plans recently. He told me . . ."

Esmerelda was a fervent believer in the Death Eaters' cause. For almost as long as she could remember, she had desired to join them, much to the surprise of her conservative family. When she'd discovered that Lorenzo was one . . . And now, to find that he'd turned traitor? It was almost more than she could bear. So when that man had come to see her, Esmerelda knew what she must do.

 

[Lorenzo Lazuli]

“What did he say? He told you that if you killed me, you could join the Death Eaters, didn’t he? Es, don’t listen. Please, let me explain.” Lorenzo spoke in a whisper, with what he felt to be a perverse desire to let his daughter sleep through the drama below. He knew that Esmerelda would never accept the truths he'd realised, but he had to try, didn't he? He had to hope that something he said would stick in her mind to follow and haunt her day and night until she might repent.

Even that small chance would never come. As Lorenzo opened his mouth to speak, his wife shook her head. He closed it again, and stood there as if frozen, unable to move from the fear and hopelesness brought about by his own beloved.

 

[Esmerelda Lazuli]

Esmerelda shook her head. She wouldn't allow Lorenzo to worm his way out of this predicament as she'd seen him do with countless other allegations. She raised her wand arm higher, ashamed to notice that her hand was trembling. Then, she murmured those fateful words: "Avada kedavra!"

The flash of green light sustained perfect clarity, even in her dream. And Esmerelda remembered that moment being dreamlike, even in reality. A long moment when time seemed to stop, just for an instant, as Lorenzo collapsed. His body rolled down the stairs to land spreadeagled at her feet, but he was dead before he touched the ground.

Esmerelda woke up.