Know This Girl?

[Alexia Zhefarovich]

Alexia Nightray could feel her mind running several miles per hour. She had initially planned on heading to the elders to talk about her and Alexander entering Hogwarts New Zealand like the rest of the Nightrays but what she had heard wasn't anything she could have prepared for. Moments ago, just when she was about to knock to her grandparents' study, she had heard her father's voice inside along with Aunt Celeste. Madame Red seemed unhappy about something and her father was obviously getting mad while the elders remained silent. Inwardly, Alexia had next to no idea on what should she do. Right now, she had three choices: knock and enter, leave and come back later or eavesdrop. The young girl chose the latter as she was in shock at a name she had not heard off for a long time. "Do you think Elizabeth would be happy about how you're treating Arianna, their only daughter?" her Aunt Celeste told whom she supposed was her father because the man merely spat at her aunt. Her head went in circles as she didn't listen to any more of the topic as she left to decipher the information she just heard.

After a few steps in the corridors of the second floor of the manor, she finally gave up in thinking about the supposed daughter of her aunt alone. "ALEXANDER!" the ten-year-old girl screamed to the air, her voice resounding within the walls of the manor and though she knew she would be reprimanded later on by her father, Alexia knew that this talk with her brother would be more important. She had always believed after all that the only ones who were considered to be worthy of the position of the head of the family was Liam, Rivaille and hopefully her. But now, she finds out that Armin and Rivaille has a sister whom she doesn't know about. What if the girl was more worthy than the three of them? No! She would definitely not allow that to happen but she knew next to nothing about the girl except her name and her connection to the Nightray family. And so, she needed the help of her brother. Hopefully, both of them would be enough to know the truth about the girl named Arianna and the best result she was hoping for was that the girl is not a Nightray and what she heard was merely a figment of her imagination.

 

[Alexander Nightray]

Surrounded by a mess of books and parchments, Alexander Nightray sat in the middle of their study, reading a dust covered book that he had gotten under the the shelf the held most of the information about the entire Nightray family. This particular volume had a lot of pictures and names removed, and as he turned the pages until he saw the section where most of the faces were familiar to him, he heard his sister calling for his name. Even one floor down, the girl's boisterous voice could be heard as loud and clear as if she was standing right next to him. He gently closed the book and tucked them under his arm, not bothered by the fact that the dust would now cling on his white shirt. He tiptoed around the mountain of books that surrounded him. He had been in the study for hours. As soon he had finished eating breakfast, he headed there to continue on his mission to read all the books that their family had before he set off and attend a formal school. The Nightrays owned thousands of books and he was sure that wasn't even done with half of them. He only had a few months left before their father send them off to their new school, so he decided to spend every second he got to reading those books. That is of course, unless someone would need him to do something. Alexander had always been the type to do what he was told, whether he wanted to do them or not. He'd do them even though by doing so, he was sacrificing his own wants.

It didn't take him long before he finally reached the second floor corridor where his sister was waiting. She was in deep thought, which wasn't that surprising. Alexia was always scheming. He knew that despite being one of the youngest members of the Nightray family, Alexia wanted to inherit their grandfather's position and be the next head. Liam and Rivaille had greater chances than she did, first because of their genders, and second, because their grandfathers didn't really favor their father that much. His sister must have known that too as she kept on trying to prove her worth to the elders. Unlike her, Alexander didn't care much about that title. He didn't really care much about anything. He would do as what he was told and when he's not needed, he'd withdraw to his own world. But above all that, he wished to grant his sister's wishes, and thus, despite knowing that her chances were slim, he decided to support her anyway, because despite not really having anything that he wanted for himself, he wanted for his sister to be happy. "I'm here." He stated flatly as he help up his hand. His previously white shirt was now covered with dust. He was sure that he'd be reprimanded later by their father, or even by Alexia should she notice it. "Do you need anything?" He took a few steps until he was by her side. He was a few centimeters taller than she was, but not too much that she had to look up to talk to him.​

 

[Alexia Zhefarovich]

Alexia had already begun thinking about the different possibilities that was in Armin and Rivaille's family, and certainly one of those possibilities was that they indeed had a sister but what she couldn't understand was why they didn't know her. The young Nightray wasn't at all sure if the said girl was being kept a secret or was already removed from the family, or if any of her cousins knew about the girl named Arianna. Because, if they did, they certainly did a good job of not talking about her Aunt Elizabeth's supposed daughter that she didn't even know a thing about this girl. Thankfully, Alexander did not take too long to arrive just like he always did, he was very dependable in the young girl's eyes. As soon as the boy had asked her if she needed something, Alexia had immediately voiced out her inquiries. "What do you know about Armin and Rivaille's family?" she asked in a tone that clearly meant that he had to tell her everything he knew. Of course, what Alexia knew was only basic knowledge on their family, but if there was anyone who knew something it would be Alexander. He liked to hang around int the library after all. "I know Auntie and Uncle died at the party held a little over nine years ago and that Auntie was favored just like Uncle Mikael was since they were twins," she told her brother like what she knew was some kind of past History lesson that she learned in class. "Is there anything else about them in the family archives or something?" was all she could say to her brother as she was once again deep in thought about what she heard in the study earlier.

Alexia stopped her thoughts about her aunt for a moment, deciding to also gather information about the girl the adults were talking about earlier. After all, if the information couldn't be found on any of Rivaille's family, then there must have been something they could find in connection to the girl. "And do you know anyone with a name of Arianna in the Nightray family?" she asked with seriousness yet a hint of kindness that she only showed to her twin brother. "She could be the same age as us or older but definitely younger than Aunt Celeste," the young girl informed so they could narrow down the search. Of course she wasn't really sure if her estimation was right, but if this Arianna was somehow affiliated with her Aunt Elizabeth, the least age the girl could have was as old as her and Alexander or maybe a few months younger, considering that the assassination happened when we were only about a year old. The young girl once again led her thoughts to halt as she looked at her brother for answers though all she got sight of were his dusted clothes. "What happened to you?!" Alexia reprimanded him. It was not that she was too conscious about health or anything, she merely hated being dirty and included to that was that she didn't want Alexander to be dirty either. "You're all dirtied up! Seriously, come on we'll continue this in my room so you could clean up," she said with a sigh as she grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him to the direction of her room, not giving him any room to decline.

 

[Alexander Nightray]

Like usual, Alexander didn't have to wait long for Alexia to state her reasons for calling out for him. As soon as he got to where she was, she began raising questions about their cousins', Rivaille's and Armin's family. While smart, Alexia would always rely on him when it comes to things that had to do with history and things that required detailed information. After all, while Alexia busied herself with trying to outdo and outperform their cousins, he would spend his time cooped up in their library, reading as much books as he could. He stood silently as he waited for his sister to finish her questions. It would be easier to answer them all at once than to interrupt her, at least, he would have a better idea of what she really wanted to know. All her questions were about their cousins' family and he briefly wondered why she became suddenly interested about it. He didn't really see the need for them to research about people who were not even with them anymore, but if she wanted him to dig information about them, then he would.

The whole manor was quiet and he wondered where the older ones were. They were probably having one of those not so secret meetings again. The adults, especially their father, were not really as discreet as they wanted to be when it comes to information that they deemed were not necessary for the younger ones to know. Alexander, who was not really as interested to what the adults were talking about, would often overhear their conversations even though he didn't really mean to. It was just too easy to sneak and listen to their conversations especially if they would always held the said family meetings in the same room all the time. Perhaps that was the reason why Alexia had suddenly gained interest about their older cousins' family. She must have heard something while the adults were arguing again. He watched his twin calmly and lowered his eyes to the book that was tucked under his arm. It was definitely a book that the adults had wanted to get rid off. Whoever had made the mistake of not being able to get rid of it would surely feel the wrath of their grandparents. Somehow, despite being emotionless most of the time, he felt pity for the poor soul. He was about to tell his twin about it when the girl began shifting her focus away from their Aunt Elizabeth's family to his now dirty shirt. He wasn't able to answer any of her questions as the girl began dragging him towards her room. He could have tell her that it would be better if they went to his room instead of hers, that way, he could change out of his shirt, but he decided that it didn't matter. What mattered at the moment was for him to answer all the questions raised by his twin.

As soon as they entered the girl's room, he quickly sat down on the floor, legs folded under him, and opened the book to the page that he was reading before he left to answer to his sister's wishes. Focused on finding the page that contained the information about their aunt, he had forgotten already that Alexia had ordered him to clean himself up. His eyes were glued to the book, turning page after page until finally, he stopped and pointed at their Aunt's beautiful face. He couldn't really remember her face that clearly as he was barely a year old when the older died. she was indeed pretty, and as he lead his finger down to her name, he wondered whether their mother was as beautiful as she was too. "All of the books about our family talks very little about Rivaille's family. And it rarely contains any picture too. It has a lot of names and photos removed, but this one in particular, has a lot of blank and burnt pages." His voice was still as flat as always and his face remained inexpressive as he pointed to their cousins' smiling faces, or at least, to Armin's smiling one and Rivaille's frowning one. "We have always known that Armin and Rivaille were Aunt Elizabeth's only children, but this book," He stopped, looking up to see whether his sister was following him, "This book suggests otherwise." He then pushed the book towards his twin. With his index finger, he traced the line under their aunt's name down to the name which sounds like the one that his twin was mentioning before. The spot where the girl's face should be was burned and only the first five letters of her name remained. He then withdrew his hand and placed them on his thigh, waiting for his sister to share her thoughts with him.​

 

[Alexia Zhefarovich]

In all honesty, Alexia did not know much about the history of the Nightray family nor did she try to pry too much into those of it's current main members. Mostly, she only knew what was already common knowledge within the main house like who her cousins were and who there parents are and also about the assassination in the party that occurred a little over nine years ago and though both she and Alexander were too young to remember that event, how could they not know about it when a lot of Nightrays had left them that night, and that included Liam's parents and Armin and Rivaille's as well. Aside from that, Alexia made it a point to not pay too much attention to the members that her father did not introduce her to, because they were either useless to her or their grandparents didn't like them or they were removed from the family. The girl named Arianna that was claimed to be Aunt Elizabeth's daughter was different though for the unknown girl had sparked the curiosity of the ten year old girl. After all, if what she had heard from her Aunt Celeste was true, then the girl wasn't just a relative of the Nightray family, she was a direct member of the Pureblood family and yet she nor Alexander knew nothing about her.

As she sat quietly on the floor in her room, watching Alexander flip through pages of the book she tried to remain silent though she was badly distracted by the dirt currently clinging to his shirt which was annoying her so. If he were not currently trying to answer the questions she had given him earlier, she would have already screamed at him and dragged him to the bathroom to get cleaned and if he refused, though she knew that that was a very, very, very, very rare occurrence, she would personally be the one to give him a bath out of mere annoyance for the dirt. The young girl merely watched her brother continue to search the information she was looking for and she knew she had to be patient cause eventually the young boy would be able to find at least something of worth. Alexia didn't miss the slight flicker in the boy's eyes as he looked at their Aunt Elizabeth's beautiful face and she was quick to recognize why he had that look. She always had that same flicker in her eyes whenever she would look in the mirror after all, whenever she would wonder how their mother looked like. After all, they did not know her appearance and they knew next to nothing about the woman as well considering that it was a sour topic for their father. And whenever she tried to ask the man in the past, she would always get a good scolding and a spank to make her remember to never ask again.

The young girl's eyes glazed over the boy's as he spoke about what he knew about Rivaille's family. And she had to wonder on why a lot of information was kept away from the books. Normally, the family archives would store in as much information as possible after all instead of having only little facts written on them. Though curious, she kept silent as Alexander explained things to her, quite like the way he was quiet whenever she asked stuff. Alexia's gaze moved from her brother's face to that of the pictures within the book he was holding and she noticed that he was right that there were quite a number of charred portions. She nodded her head at her brother as he continued to explain that they only indeed knew that it was only Armin and Rivaille who were the children of their Aunt Elizabeth and her face was inexpressive as her brother pointed out that the book said the opposite. She held the book in her hands and looked at the burned picture and the letters were also nearly tattered though there were letters that one could faintly make out. "So they did have a sister. Her pictures are all burned. What do you think about this?" Alexia asks her brother out of plain curiosity. There were many possibilities concerning the girl after all and it wouldn't hurt to hear her brother's opinion on this though she knew he remained passive for the most part of things. "Father and Aunt Celeste were arguing in Grandfather's study earlier. Auntie was not happy about something concerning this girl and Father was getting angry about it. There's definitely something more to this," she told her brother as her thoughts were once again going wild in her head as she couldn't stop thinking about her supposed cousin that she didn't know until a minute ago.

 

[Alexander Nightray]

Alexander had no idea why his sister would want to learn more about their cousins' family. She rarely did care about anything that had nothing to do about the succession for the next family's head. While she did considered Rivaille as a fierce competition for the title, he didn't see the need for them to dig up about his parents. He knew that their parents were well respected by the family, if not, then the two would not be treated as well as they were treated now. The Nightrays do play favorites after all, and they were definitely not the family who would do someone good because they wanted to. There was always a reason behind their every actions. The same could be said about Alexia. She'd never do this unless she didn't have any good reason. She wouldn't waste her time researching about things that wouldn't help her anyway. At least, he believe she wouldn't. That was why despite not knowing her reasons, he just did what she wanted him to do. He always did follow her wishes after all.

He, however, didn't have to wait long for his sister to reveal her reasons for asking him to dig information about this unknown girl. As he had already guessed, she had overheard another argument that his father had with their aunt. They never seemed to get along. Which wasn't that surprising. Their principles and opinions were far too different from each other. Aunt Celeste was far too different for a Nightray. She's loud, she's insane, or as their father says, and she's far too soft. Everything that a Nightray should not be.But he didn't dislike her. He wouldn't say he liked her either, for he didn't really understand the concept of liking things or even disliking things. He's just neutral about her, the same way that he was neutral about all other things.

He looked at his sister's eyes before he pulled the book again so it was directly in front of him. He really didn't care about this, but he had to satisfy his sister's curiosity and answer her questions. He traced the lines again from their aunt and uncle's names down to the one that his sister was curious about. She did look like one of them, sharing some similar facial characteristics as their cousins. And if the adults had wanted to get rid of this book, then it meant that they were protecting some information that they didn't want to get leaked out. It was highly probable that the girl was in some way or another, associated with the things that the Nightrays had despised or had forbidden to get in contact with. Muggles. She was probably associated with those folks that their family despised so much. He wasn't entirely sure though, so he decided to hold it off until he had gathered enough evidence to support that theory. He didn't want to give his sister any false information that would only harm her.

"Let me look more into it," he answered her plainly, making a mental note to visit their library again and read all the family records to see whether he had missed or forgotten something. "Wouldn't it be much easier if we ask Rivaille?" He knew that his sister would probably snap at him for suggesting such thing. His sister didn't like Rivaille at all so the chances of her ever talking to him were really slim. He, however, thought that it would be much wiser to ask the ones who knew first hand information about this person that they were researching about. And Rivaille never lies, though he would probably not give them a straight answer, at least, he wouldn't lie to them unlike the adults. It was a quicker solution to their problems.​

 

[Alexia Zhefarovich]

Alexia's mind was filled with possibilities of what the girl's relation to the Nightray family was, but now that that question was quickly answered by Alexander she quickly threw the useless information out of her head, though her mind kept on running. With one question answered, more questions arose for the girl's curiosity. After all, she thought she had already known all her important cousins, mostly the ones directly from the Nightray elders and yet there was one girl she didn't know until moments ago. A girl named Arianna, supposedly the sister of Armin and Rivaille. And though the burned pictures should have told her enough that the girl was probably kicked out of the family, she couldn't very well erase the possibility of Arianna being raised in secret in order to inherit the position as family head. And that was something that Alexia wouldn't allow, causing her to want to dig information on the girl. And so she merely watched as her brother gathered the book in his arms and once again looked through the pages. "Tell me if you get something," the girl nodded as she put her index finger to her chin as she continued to contemplate.

Alexia couldn't help but glare lightly at her brother for what she thought was a very foolish suggestion. "I might as well have asked a rock!" the young girl exclaimed as she waved her arms in the air in exasperation. After all, how could he suggest such a thing? If she was ever to talk to the boy, which very rarely occurs, she only gives one-worded replies considering that it was formal events that they were asked to speak to each other by the elders. She couldn't stand the silent boy after all. "And also, they're in Hogwarts and wouldn't be back until the Holidays. Besides, I doubt he'd talk or even reply if we tried owling him. He'll just glare and tell us that it's not our business," she grumbled out before thinking about the facts once again. She already had the feeling that the Arianna girl was older than the twins and so there were still some people who would know about her, because if Alexia guessed right, the girl named Arianna wasn't thrown out while Aunt Elizabeth was still around. "If anyone knew something about this that's not one of those pesky adults, it'd probably be Liam and Aaren. They're the oldest after all," Alexia told her brother as she began to mix possibilities in her head.

After moments of mixing different possible scenarios in her head, Alexia sighed as she explained to her brother what she thought about asking their cousins for information they may or may not know about. "Aaren is just too annoying and I won't dare waste my time talking to her. It'll take ages before I get something because she's just too talkative to give a straight answer immediately," the young girl told her twin as the idea of their older female cousin talking non-stop irritated her to no end. Most of the time, she preferred silence after all and only wanted to deal with minimal noise. Stopping train of thoughts about Aaren, Alexia just grew more irritated thinking about possibilities with Liam. Well, in all honesty she could only see one possibility. "And with Liam. He won't even turn his head!" she told her brother in an irritated tone as she knew she was running out of options. Well, she did consider her other cousins but decided to dismiss it all too quickly. "I seriously doubt Ariadne knows anything. And don't even get me started on Armin," she grumbled out as she laid on the floor, acting like the little kid she was. After all, even if she was told to act prim and proper at all times by her father, she was still ten years old and this was how she was when it was only her and Alexander.

 

[Alexander Nightray]

As expected, Alexia wasn't pleased with his suggestion. He shouldn't have bothered suggesting it, but it was the truth. Everything would be much easier if they just write a letter and ask their cousin about it. After all, if their guesses were right, this girl was Rivaille's sister. He would know. The book that he had wasn't enough to satisfy his sister's curiosity, and he certainly didn't like failing her. For as much as he didn't really care about anything, he does try to fulfill the tasks assigned to him. And with this one, he wasn't doing much. The ten year old just stared at his twin sister, his expression an opposite of her own. Most people would at least show a slight reaction at being glared at, but the young Nightray merely adjusted his shirt and shifted on his seat, without batting an eyelash at his sister's reaction.

He closed the book gently and placed it on his lap. He let his sister rant about the reasons why she couldn't ask any of their cousins for the information that she was looking for. Honestly, he agreed with her. The Nightray children were not particularly close. They preferred to stick with their siblings instead of making small talks with other family members. It was only during family reunions, or parties did they had to act and pretend to like each other. He was different though, for while he didn't really like them, he didn't dislike them either. He was fine with them. But not his sister. She viewed everyone as competition. Especially Liam and Rivaille, which made him shook his head a bit. It was probably better if he didn't suggest asking Rivaille. Alexia didn't like Rivaille, and though he understood that it was because she wanted to be the next head and wanted their grandparents to favour her, he couldn't understand why she had to have so much anger in her. Most of his cousins does. It was the one thing that he couldn't possibly understand. Anger was the missing element in his personality.

The ten year old nodded his head as his sister finished talking, signifying that he was indeed listening to her even if he didn't utter a single word since she started her rant. "Not Armin," he stated flatly. Armin would never be a good source of information. You will never know whether he was telling the truth or not. It would be safe to assume that he was lying twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. He wasn't trustworthy at all. He stood up and placed the book on top of his sister's dresser. He then sat on his sister's bed, elbows on his thighs and his chin resting on his palm. He looked down to his sister who as lying down the floor like the kid that she was supposed to be. Their father would get angry at her actions, but he decided that it didn't matter as he wasn't around to see it anyway. He waited for his sister's further orders. He was quite hungry and he was yet to get out of his dirty clothes, but if his sister had further instructions for him, then food and a clean shirt could wait.​

 

[Alexia Zhefarovich]

Of course Alexia wasn't pleased with her brother's suggestion. While it was true that they and their cousins lived together before going off to Hogwarts and while they were on vacation, each were not particularly close. Everyone had a cold demeanor after all. Well, maybe except Aaren and Ariadne of whom were considered disappointments by her father and sometimes, their grandparents as well. She was even surprised that they weren't disowned by the Nightray yet. Well, Ariadne was acceptable, it might have been thanks to Uncle Mikael's past influence to the family after all, though Aaren was a different case. Alexia really was annoyed by that little happy-go-lucky pest. But in truth, she was merely jealous by the attention Uncle Edward and Aunt Francesca were showering her with. She and Alexander never got that after all. Well, it was worse for her than Alexander though she knew not why was that. Their father would not turn his head at her after all, unless she did something wrong and she needed to be scolded, reprimanded and punished. And so, thus her current stature and personality. Trying to be the perfect daughter though in the very back of her mind sparked a thought that she will never be perfect in his eyes.

The young girl had not noticed that she had blanked out on Alexander while she lay on the floor thanks to her many thoughts. While most of the time, her thoughts were merely on scheming, she still had personal thoughts as well. She wondered if Alexander noticed though. Propping herself up into a sitting position, she looked over to her bed only to find her brother sitting there, dressed in dirty clothes. She frowned lightly at this before the grandfather clock in the hallway, just outside her room sounded, indicating the time. "Clean up and get yourself something to eat," the girl shrugged out when she heard the slight rumbling of her brother's stomach after the clock had chimed. "I've got etiquette lessons thanks to Father again. You know where to find me or just come by my room later if you get some information," Alexia mumbled as she cleared the rumples on her dress before she headed to the door and gave one final glance to her brother before heading to one of her horrible classes with one of the most horrible teachers. Courtesy of her father of course.

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F I N I S H E D​