June 15th 2010, 09:00
The Desrosiers family estate; Rouen, France

It wasn't often that Arianne heard from her parents since she had decided to remain in England. After the many years it had taken them to come to terms with her decision to join the field of academics, it didn't come as a surprise that they had not taken kindly to her subsequent decision of leaving said field of academics. A curt letter had arrived at her window at the ungodly hour of five in the morning, just a few short hours ago, requesting her immediate presence at home to discuss a matter of great delicacy and importance. She'd barely had time to pull some clothes on before having to deal with the matter of finding a portkey. Acquiring a last moment permit had cost her a fortune and bureaucracy was always time consuming...

Obviously she was late. Looking frazzled and barely put together, having closed up the club at two in the morning that same day, Arianne hurried up the marble steps of the ostentatious Desrosiers family chateau. The entrance door was opened before she'd even touched the last step and the warm, wrinkled face of the butler she had grown up with greeted her with a fond smile. Before she even managed to say her hellos, the man inclined his head and ushered her in. "Dans le salon, mam'zelle Arianne" he said, and Aria placed a friendly hand on his shoulder, squeezing softly. "Merci, Louis. Tu m'as manqué" she said hurriedly, already walking towards the spacious drawing room on the ground floor.

"Ce n'est pas possible, Roland! T'as perdu ta tête, ou quoi?!" came the scandalized voice of one of her aunts, and Arianne stopped in her tracks, hand still curled around the door knob. She hadn't realized this would be a family meeting, and taking the room in, at least a few dozen people, looking either grave, insulted or positively horrified, Arianne could only deduce that someone had died and the will had not gone at all the way her family would have wished it to go. She could see her mother, sitting in an armchair, looking absolutely devastated, her aunts and uncles whispering animatedly between them, her father in the middle of them all looking like he was moments away from crumbling under their judgmental gazes. Off to the side, Éloi and their two cousins - Armand the only one absent as he had just returned from Beauxbatons, and she supposed he was off doing whatever teenagers these days were doing when escaping school - were looking highly amused; her favorite and, more recently, most frustrating cousin looking particularly giddy.

They had all stopped and turned to look at her sometime between opening the door and attempting to gauge what could possibly warrant this sort of reactions. She clicked the door shot behind her and tucked her hair behind her ear, walking proudly into the vipers' den; for a room full of the Desrosiers clan could only be called that. "I apologize for my tardiness, as I'm sure you all remember I now reside some thousands miles away" she said icily, eyes going around the room, her expression clearly displeased. She had spoken in English, precisely to underline the fact. Her face then turned to her mother and father, irritated and closed off. "You can't give me--" she started, biting viciously into the words, stopping only to check her wrist watch "--three hours notice and expect me to just drop everything and come running from Britain to France for the appointed hour!" she said with a scowl, shaking her head so her hair cascaded down her back. "However... grave the issue might be" she added delicately with a raised eyebrow and crossed her arms defensively. "What is the issue, if I might ask?"

Her mother then let out a pathetic wail as her dimwitted, parvenu of an aunt rushed to her side to console her and whisper silly nonsense in her ear. Her father looked solemn, but underneath it all, she could tell he was anything but. Was that... shame she could read into his eyes? The rest of her family were averting their gazes, looking highly uncomfortable and the lack of immediate answers, and her parents apparently central position in the issue, was making her feel the slightest bit anxious. Until Éloi cleared his voice and sashayed over to her side, looking just as pleased with himself and amused as before. "Oh, chère cousin, you're in for a bit of a shock" he said, smirking that terrible smirk of his that never preceded anything good. Her eyebrows raised in question, foot tapping nervously, and she felt the urge to bite her nails, which she hadn't done in at least two decades. "Yes, Éloi?" she said, pinched expression and teeth scrunched.

"Well, you see, uncle Roland here dropped something of a bomb on us--"

"Cut the dramatics and wipe that grimace off your face, cousin. It never suited you. Get to the point" she said angrily, feeling like a cornered hurt animal under the pitying gazes of all the jackals and vipers she had been born among. Schadenfreude seemed to be the Desroiers' favorite family pastime. Éloi gave an affronted huff and shook his head, chin tilted high, much like she had a few moments ago. "It appears I have a half-cousin and you--a half-sister, Arianne, dear" he said, drawing his harsh blue eyes to her face, with a disapproving look. And she could take that from the rest of them, but from Éloi? Whatever the bloody hell had happened to him since Albert tightened his leash... "I'm sorry, what?" she said then, her entire body growing stiff, blinking rapidly between him and her father.

"Who knows, you might've even met her at Hogwarts. Even taught her" he added airily, eyes growing wide and a smile taking his entire face, batting his eyelashes at her like she was one of his little games. "Just a wee thing of fourteen. Or was it fifteen years ago, uncle Roland, when you decided to bed your bloody secretary of all things!" he spat venomously, jutting his chin at him and Arianne was afraid he was going to spit at him, like some horrible Italian soap-opera. "Auguste!" came her great uncle's - Éloi's father - booming voice, making a few jump and turning Éloi into a meek, silent little boy with his gaze cast downward and his Adam's apple bobbing dangerously as he turned away.

"Father?" came her question next, voice wobbly an unsure, making herself uncomfortable with the strangeness of her own tone.  He couldn't even look her in the eyes and she felt hurt and wronged, not because of the affair, however ghastly the issue of sleeping with your own secretary was, but because he hadn't told her. She had a sister? She was in England? At Hogwarts even?! It took everything not to declare the need to sit down, so she swallowed tightly, pursed her lips and turned a dark, angry gaze to her father. "When was this? Was this--the London branch opening? Anne-Anna-whatever the fuck her name might've been?" she said angrily, losing control of herself and causing several gasps and a raised eyebrow from Thierry along with Éloi and Adrien's amused snorts. She was going to hex those two into oblivion when this was dealt with.

"I didn't plan on it, Arianne. I didn't go to London with the thought of having an illegitimate child with my secretary" he said tiredly and she was so angry at him, at his nonplussed response. "Shut up--just shut up. How long have you know?" she stuttered, one hand coming to shield her eyes and rub at her temples. "How long have you known" she then addressed her mother who suddenly stopped whimpering and shone big teary eyes at her. "Oh, Phellie, my child, I just found out. We all just found out. You monster!" she screeched at her father, causing several people to pull back with a disgruntled scowl. She didn't expect reason or a sensible response from her mother, but this was pathetic. Her mother continued to curse her husband in French, getting up out of nowhere and throwing herself at him, claws out, Amandine and Anna barely managing to catch her before she gouged his eyes out.

"Why now?" she said quietly, barely audible over the screaming and and cursing. "WHY NOW?" she boomed, dark and ominously over the lot of them. "She came here... last night. Said she's getting married, expecting a child with her betrothed. He's not fond of the girl" he said quietly, meek as her proud, cold father had never been. "I didn't--I hadn't seen her in years, I only sent her money for the child every month. We don't--I don't know her. My daughter. I didn't want anything to do with them. I regret the whole... affair. I regretted it immediately." He was interrupted by another string of curses from her mother and the chaos started up again. "Sacre bleu, ENOUGH" shook the voice of her grandfather who had been quietly witnessing the entire ordeal with an unreadable expression.

"What now? Does it mean her own mother doesn't want her? What--is our money not good enough anymore?" she tried, a tinge of hysteria in her voice, raising her eyes to her parents, gesticulating widely. "What are we supposed to do?" her voice got lost at the end, swallowing the dryness in her mouth. "The poutain had the gall to say she's raised her for 15 years and now it's our turn to do so" her mother screeched again and Aria couldn't help a small sad gasp at the word she'd used. "Or what" came Thierry's cold input, gaze dark and unflinching. "Or nothing. The trollop went to the press. The evening gazettes will surely have a marvelous night special dedicated to the matter alone" said one of her more distant cousins dryly. Why was he even here? Wasn't he settled in Morocco?

"We'll be the laughing stock of all of France" muttered someone else. Her grandfather then raised to his feet, slowly, leaning heavily into his ornate cane. "Your mother, my dear, wants nothing to do with the child. She refuses to recognize her and I cannot coerce her into doing so. My son-in-law, your father, has no say in the matter or any other family matter from now on" the ancient, stern man declared with finality. "As I understand the girl will be left in the hands of some boarding house, if we do not intervene. While my heart is with you, Mélisande my dear, and I feel for your injustice, there is the matter of how our acquaintances and the public will view our decision to disavow ourselves of the girl's fate" her grandfather said slowly, his blue shining eyes going over the room that suddenly turned stiff and silent.

"Are there, among you, any that would be willing to take the girl in?" he then asked after a moment. Her uncles and aunts all turned towards their spouses, talking in hushed harsh voices and looking at her father with disgust. Aria could see in all their faces that neither would. It would mean making themselves too vulnerable to the scrutiny of the public eye, and Merlin forbid they cocked up their own reputation along with her own family's. "I would. I could take her as my little protege" Éloi's words, tinged with amusement and a soft little giggle, fell like ice upon her ears. Éloi? Entrusted with a child? Her horrified, frozen expression turned to Éloi and he had the gall to wink and smirk at her. Apart from herself and Thierry, none of them knew the sort of things he was capable of. Any child to grow up under his care would end up a grotesque deviant carbon copy of himself. She couldn't wish that on any child, however much she disliked them.

"I'll--I'll take her" she found her mouth talking before even realizing what it was she had meant to say. They all turned to her, surprise and shock in their faces, betrayal on her mother's and something akin to gratitude on her father's. "Éloi is far too young to have a charge of his own and I have experience as a professor" she said more steadily, eyebrows drawn into a disturbed frown and gaze fierce and unwavering. "I'll be her legal guardian until she comes of age. Providing father takes responsibility for her and gives her his name" she continued, proud and cold, looking at her grandfather for approval and not daring to turn her eyes to her parents. The old man smiled something knowing and pleased, as if this had been his plan all along, and nodded solemnly. "As you wish, my dear. The matter is settled then, Arianne will take guardianship of her half-sister and that is that. You might all want to take a bit of a vacation for a week" he said, making it sound like a suggestion, when in fact it was an order. "I hear Peru is lovely this time of year."

"Yes, we wouldn't want the press getting more agitated, would we?" she muttered. "If you'll excuse me, I apparently need to meet with my lawyer. Delightful family meeting, as always" she noted, voice dripping with sharp sarcasm as she turned on her heels and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Dear Circe, what the hell had she just done? She needed to owl Izola immediately.