Chapter Text
A disaster. An end.
That’s what this world was now facing. The Calamity they were calling it. How fitting. Great and sudden damage had impacted the wizarding world and those in charge were struggling to repair the massive break in the wall that had ensured their safety for nearly four hundred years.
How were they to come back from this?
Because something had gone wrong. The exposure wasn’t supposed to happen then. Not now. Not yet. So where had they gone wrong? What had gone wrong? There had to be something. A moment. A mistake that had been made and never resolved. And they would find it. It was their duty. Their destiny. They were Fates after all.
The middle sister entered the darkened room and searched for the faces of her siblings but it was evident that she was the first to arrive. This gave her the time to pace back and forth as she tried to recall the events that had led them to where they were. Had there been an event? Could there have been a single moment that had led them to this? Or were there a series of moments? One after the other that had led them to the collapse of the hidden society that had been protected for hundreds of years before. The exposure should not be happening. The world was too divided, too full of hatred.
No, they could not let this happen. Not then, not now.
They wouldn’t let this happen.
It wasn’t long before the others joined her. The eldest arrived first, looking worn and showing her true age as the weight of the situation was shown in the dark shadows under her eyes and the hunch of her shoulders. Given her role in creating the destiny that had been destroyed, it was certainly understandable. Their youngest sister arrived last, as unapologetic as ever. But that was the way she had always been, since the dawn of their time. Inflexible and unapologetic. Once her decision was made, that was it. The end. The finale. But even she, the one with the final say amongst them, was clearly troubled by the situation. Her gaze fell on the great basin in the center of the room and she stared silently at the shimmering liquid that filled it.
“Anyone have any thoughts?” She asked abruptly as she continued to stare into the basin. Images appeared and dissolved just as quickly, depicting the chaos of the world around them.
The eldest released a heavy sigh. “It can’t have been a singular issue, of course. The exposure and disruption at this scale? No. Which means that this calls for something that we’ve never done before. We’re meant to retrace the timeline. Every line connected to the issue will need to be reexamined. Every possibility will have to be considered.”
“Then we have a lot of work to do,” the middle sister murmured with a grim expression. “Best to start with recent events and move backwards.” Her own gaze rose from the basin between them as she looked to the instruments strewn across the room. The spindle and spinning wheel. Her own measuring tool. The shears.
“Don’t pay attention to your own roles.” The eldest spoke once more. “Keep an eye out for any mistake that could have been overlooked by any of us. Nothing is insignificant now.” Another sigh escaped her. She allowed herself a brief moment to close her eyes and inhale deeply before meeting their gaze once more. “So many have died already in the chaos and so many before them had been displaced. We’ll go back a thousand years if it is required. Anything it takes to find where it all went wrong.”
The younger sisters murmured their agreement and called forth the moments in time from the shimmers between them.
A calamity indeed.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
An advantage of existing outside the realm of time was that moments like these could happen quickly. What others considered to be weeks could feel like seconds. And so, as the sisters began to review the start of the Calamity for the third time, they were grateful for their own magic and the magic of those who came before them.
“Tricky little blights, aren’t they? These Unforgivables.” The middle sister claimed with annoyance. “They went unknown for so long. Why show their involvement now with something so disastrous?”
“But it wasn’t intentional.” The eldest informed her as she recalled the images of the two fearful children. Two boys, one as dark as the other was light, clutched an instrument of time between them. “These events led the creator to a greater understanding.” The image dissolved and a new one appeared in its place. “He was desperately searching for something in his research and he found it in those Departments, sharing the information with the Cursed father and the other Unforgivable undesirables in his own pursuit to change things.”
“So we agree?” The youngest asked in a clear tone. “This man, the meddler. The Unspeakable. He is the one to tip the scales? The thread that caused everything to unravel in such a manner?”
“Absolutely.” The eldest agreed. With a wave of her hand a shimmering gray line appeared in the air before them. A thread of memories. “Now we must determine what event it was he fought so hard to change.”
The middle sister pulled a memory from the thread of the man’s life and examined it closely. “He was in love. It was unrequited.”
“The result of another problem, not the major event he looked to overturn.” The youngest answered stiffly as she pulled multiple memories at a time. “A bit of a loner, this one, though the bonds he did make were incredibly strong.”
“Incredibly intelligent, as expected. The invention was always expected, though not to that degree. Never to that degree.” The eldest reviewed the memories of the man’s younger self as he was immersed so far in the depths of his own research that he repeatedly forgot everyday tasks to care for himself or connect with those around him.
“No strong blood ties. If anything he’s adverse to those. So where’s the desperation coming from?”
The middle sister hummed in response to the youngest as she pulled the string of memories apart. “There was something … love ties … love magic even.”
The youngest shook her head. “The romantic love was never reciprocated.”
“But it should have been.” The eldest said suddenly with a frown. She glanced back at the spinning wheel before turning back to the tangle of memories that her sister continued to review. “The entire debacle started with his meddling in his research but that was to be expected. He was meant to be studious but there multiples intended to relieve him of the pursuit. Distract him, slow the progress.” The image appeared of a young woman smiling at the man from over a book of her own. The image dissolved into a dark cloud.
“He closed himself off to her.” The middle sister responded with a heartbroken tone.
“Obviously, Sis, but why?” The youngest questioned angrily as she shoved her out of the way to take full view of the memory threads spinning before them. She paused with a face darkened in confusion. “This line … and this line here. One so closely threaded with the meddler and yet it was cut rather abruptly.”
The eldest turned to pull another image from the shimmering basin. Another young woman’s image emerged with the memory threads readily available. “A life that ended unusually young and in such an unfortunate way.” Memory threads of the young woman and man grew larger and burned brightly. “Such a close bond. Yes, Sis, I believe you were right about it being for the pursuit of love, just not the kind you immediately imagined.”
Sis, the middle sister, beamed at the acknowledgment while the youngest only rolled her eyes. “That’s all very well, Clo, but one simple death can’t be what led to these events, to this level of damage.”
“Why can’t it?” Sis answered in defense of her own conclusion.
The eldest was silent as the two younger sisters argued with the other. Her focus was elsewhere, lost among the strings that were threaded together tightly and burning brightly for a brief moment of time, even after being joined by others. In fact, they only seemed to shine brighter when the other threads made their connection. Memories swirled and disappeared as she tried to process if what had gone wrong was indeed among these threads of life. What had happened to create such a strong ripple in time that the very shrouds of protection had begun to unravel? It was certainly possible. Mistakes had slipped from their hands before, through never, ever to such a scale as this one. So it was possible. Clo leaned in to examine the memories more closely. Her body ached in protest. Just how long had they really been doing this? The meddling that the boys had done that led to the Calamity had certainly done far more damage than they had ever intended.
A glimpse of something in the memories caught her attention, startling her from her thoughts.
“Sisters, look here. Do you see? See these lines here?”
Her younger sisters leaned in closely. “How interesting. The power these lines would have had while entwined.”
“The potential is there.” The youngest agreed. “It should have been there.”
Clo nodded excitedly in agreement. They were close. So close. “And this line? See how it burns with potential if only it had not been cut too soon?”
Sis looked at the others with an expression mixed with both understanding and guilt but the others ignored her show of remorse. Instead, the youngest of the three leaned in to examine the life thread on her own.
“It’s connection to the time meddler … it’s strong.” She paused. “Could this be the one? A wrong turn, an early death? Could this really be what had brought about the time meddlers and the Calamity that ultimately followed?”
The eldest nodded. “I believe so. Look, Atro.” She gestured back to the memories that were hovering directly above the shimmering basin before falling back into the wisps of lifelines. The three then all leaned in to peer at the images that had formed in the murky fog above the swirling threads of time. Two young individuals embraced warmly, comforting one another in a time of great sorrow. The figures swirled to show a new image, a new day. The one individual, a dark haired man now far older, stood alone as he glanced down at the grave marker before him. The pain he held radiated outwards from him for the sisters to feel. Yes, the two held a great deal of potential between them. Indeed. It was a bond that, when broken, could cause permanent and debilitating damage to the other.
It was a time marker for the start of the Calamity.
The sisters all looked to the other. They knew what had to be done, what must be done. But in changing the past for the better, they would also create a number of risks that had the potential to be far more dark and difficult than they had ever seen before.
The eldest of the three released another sigh as she stared down at the images of love and friendship that continue to swirl before them. It was what had to be done. It was a risk they had to take.
These threads. They were destined for far more. Destined for much greater.