A Sky Made of Ruin

(1979) Back then, the Borough of Islington was an ordinary part of London. At its center sat 14 Ashcroft Row, where Lenora Pemberton lived with her daughter Celeste. The neighbours hardly ever saw Lenora stepping out with Celeste beside her. Next to the people around them, they kept rather quiet. Inside Ashcroft Row, the front door opened onto a long hall lit by gas lamps, with a large chandelier hanging overhead. By description, it had once been a grand entrance, with ornate portraits along the walls and beautiful wallpaper over them. The entry hall was full of serpent decor, and there was even an umbrella stand fashioned from the severed leg of a Troll. Off one side of the hallway sat the dining room, with a long wooden table, chairs, and hanging lights. It also had a cabinet displaying the Black family crest and fine china. A sweeping staircase connected the upper floors of 14 Ashcroft Row to the entrance hall, ending near the back of it. Above the stairs, plaques on the wall showed a row of shrunken house-elf heads. Servants of the Pemberton House who had grown too old to carry a tea tray were beheaded, a custom Celeste's aunt Octavia Pemberton carried on. Celeste is the third child born to Lenora and Gideon Pemberton. Her father died in 1979, not long after her brother Adrian Pemberton was reported dead, and nobody knew how either of them had perished. It was announced only as an unknown death. A few days after New Year's Day, Lenora fixed Celeste's brother's death date, because that was when she first got word of it. With the loss of her son and husband together, Lenora was devastated. She believed Adrian had died for being a death eater. She believed he had wanted out. Lenora had never been a death eater herself. But she agreed with everything Lord Vaelor wanted for the wizarding world. Death Eaters followed Lord Vaelor, the darkest wizard of them all. Lenora thought Vaelor had the right idea, She wanted the wizarding race purified, the rest pushed aside and pure-bloods left in charge. That was why she and Gideon were so proud of Adrian for becoming a death eater, the very thing they had always wanted. Everything fell on Celeste from then on, because she remained the last surviving heir to the Ancient House of Pemberton, one of the most respected families anyone knew. Counted among Great Britain's oldest, richest, and most prominent pure-blood wizarding lines, the Most Ancient House of Pemberton stood among the Ancient Twenty-Four. House of Pemberton carried status and wealth much like the Malfoy and Lestrange families did. Then there was Celeste's brother Cassian. He wanted nothing to do with pureblood beliefs, and he did not want Celeste growing up the way Adrian did. But he could do nothing, no matter how hard he tried. Lenora would never dare let Cassian see his sister, or hand her over. In her eyes and the rest of the family's, Cassian was a disappointment because he rejected the Black family's beliefs on blood purity and had been sorted into Lionmere instead of Addercrest like everyone else from the family who went to Kingsgrave Academy of Sorcery. Lenora had planted that toxic state of mind in Adrian, and Celeste was never supposed to live through that, but by the day he wanted everything to stop, it was already too late. In the Ancient House of Pemberton, blood purity mattered above all else. To them, cleansing the wizarding race meant wiping out Muggle-borns and leaving pure-blood wizards to lead, and that was what they all believed. It was something family taught them: never speak to a muggle-born, or to anyone beneath you. Celeste was in the living room with her toys scattered all around her; a counter curse Lenora had put on them kept them floating in the air and walking about as they played with Celeste. Having a girl pleased Lenora, because she had long wanted someone who would stay true to her noble principle. There had once been a drawing room, exquisite, with large windows looking onto the street before the house, and between the couches stood a fireplace whose light burned brighter than the sun. The lady with a book on her lap held a cigarette in one hand and smoked while she looked over at her daughter. Celeste held a yellow, bolt-shaped toy, trying to fit it into the heart-shaped toy. "Master-" Brindle called, poking his head into the living room.