The Seer's Tower (Bianca)

[xiulan zhou]

January 31, 2027

Beyond her clients, Xiulan had never expected that her connections to a prophecy she had made would lead her to developing any sort of friendships with anyone, least of all the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the British Ministry of Magic and the leader of the Druids on Hy-Brasil. It was incredibly strange; there was no denying that. Both women were younger than she by about ten years or so, and it seemed highly unlikely—on the face of it—that any of the three of them would manage to cross paths with the others. Xiulan tried not to talk too much about her own past, but that was difficult when, for instance, Bianca Rivera had shown up at her door as completely devastated as she had been in the days after the attack on Hogwarts.

Months had passed since, and Bianca had been out of the country for a visit to her alma mater. Xiulan hoped that it had gone well, of course, but she couldn't say that she had any desire whatsoever to go back to her own alma mater. In fact, she knew that she would be content to go the rest of her life without hearing its name. That aside, Xiulan knew how hard it had been for Bianca to find any time for herself. Regardless of how her visit to Castelobruxo had gone, Xiulan did want to check in with her and make sure that she had some time to relax before being thrust into the stress of the Ministry again. She might not have known everything about Bianca, but she knew that she wasn't always good about acknowledging when she needed to put herself first.

They were both back in her flat, as usual, and back in the wooden chairs in which she normally sat with clients (as opposed to the chairs she'd conjured up to keep Bianca from collapsing from going any farther months before). Zhurong, Xiulan's phoenix, looked far more at home, sitting on a perch in the corner and paying the two women no mind as he preened himself.

With the Chinese New Year a week away, Xiulan found it difficult to believe that it had been over a year since news had begun to surface about Yrisle. They weren't on that subject, though; Xiulan had set out some persimmon cakes that one of her clients had brought her on the table. "These are a speciality from Xi'an," Xiulan commented, "not Beijing or Macao, but they're very good."

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

31 January 2027

It wouldn’t be right to say that everything was perfect – but it was quiet, at least. Not even a year ago, it had felt like there were too many fires to put out at once (both in the metaphorical and literal sense) and Bianca had felt like she was drowning. Like someone had put an insurmountable weight on her shoulders, and then pushed her off a cliff into bottomless waters underneath. Things weren’t perfect, that much was to be sure. Bianca grit her teeth at the thought of Asher Burke walking free among decent society again, an insufferable smirk on his face and no doubt back to his illegal hobbies. Not to mention another important anniversary that had passed – yet another year had gone by and Yrisle still stood as a dark smudge in the distance and a blemish on the quiet sense of calm and security Bianca had been working hard to restore. Ministry resources were limited, and they hadn’t been built for such a long-term quarantine like the one that had been imposed on the island a year ago. It was an open-ended question that still needed solving.

No, things weren’t perfect, but they were better. Bianca had even found the time to visit Brazil, once for her ten-year reunion and again for an alumni tour. That wouldn’t have been possible a year ago, but there was no denying that she needed (and deserved) the vacation time. It had been bizarre, walking among the same corridors she’d memorized over the years – but now as a completely different person. She’d always had a strong sense of self, but that certainty had eroded over the years and it was replaced with a new kind of cautious hope. The knowledge that things could get better, but that came with the certainty that it wouldn’t be easily bought.

But that wasn’t on her mind now. There would always be plenty of time to ponder the mysteries of the universe, but Bianca liked to focus on one thing at a time. It was the same laser-sharp focus that propelled her at work, and grounded her when she was away from the office. And Xiulan deserved her full attention. The Seer was an unexpected friend, one of the few bright lights that had emerged from the disaster of Yrisle. She was quiet, thoughtful, and full of mysterious and hidden depths. Bianca had only gotten the occasional detail over the year of their friendship, and there were still many things that had been left unexplained (like the phoenix perched cozily in his usual corner). The two women sat across from each other, that much was usual, but for once the storm inside of Bianca had quieted and she felt more at peace than she had in a long time.

She picked up one of the persimmon cakes that Xiulan was describing, eyes intently focused on the treat and not on the quietly smoking Divination artefact on the fireplace mantle (whose use Bianca could only guess at). “It’s sweet,” she commented with approval as she took a bite of the cake and examined it curiously. “I’ve never heard of Xi’an,” Bianca added as an afterthought, eyebrows drawn together in concentration at the thought. Her geography lessons had been somewhat limited to Latin America, and occasionally Europe whenever her professors thought to remember that other parts of the world existed too. A burst of color flew past the window, which reminded Bianca what exactly those rehearsals must be for. “The department’s been preparing security measures for the Lunar New Year festival soon,” she remarked, “Do you celebrate?”

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

January 31, 2027

Bianca commented on the persimmon cake as she took a bite of one, saying that she had never heard of Xi'an. Compared to somewhere like Beijing or Shanghai, it wasn't as prominent, but it was a provincial capital city and one of China's major capitals historically. There wasn't time for a history lesson, though, as Bianca mentioned that her department had been preparing the security measures for the Lunar New Year festival—presumably the one in Horizont Alley, Xiulan thought—and asked her if she celebrated the occasion.

"I do," Xiulan answered, nodding. Her life involved quite a bit of meticulous planning in advance, even more than when Aloysius had been alive, but she had had the street festival on her radar. "I don't celebrate it as much as I used to," she continued, "but I celebrate it, yes." She didn't have a relationship with her parents… or her in-laws, really. It didn't exist in the way that she would have liked. She couldn't travel back to China, for instance, and she didn't mark the new year with any elaborate meals. When it was just her and Zhurong, anything more felt wasteful instead of indicative of prosperity.

"I hope you enjoyed your time in Brazil," Xiulan added, not so much changing the subject off of herself as remembering that she hadn't yet asked Bianca about her trip. Xiulan knew that the younger woman had had an incredibly challenging year and rarely afforded herself any time away from her work. "You look well." For her sake, Xiulan hoped, Bianca had enjoyed her holiday, even though she doubted that Bianca had taken the time to relax. She knew that it was always going to be a hassle to arrange to meet with Bianca, but it was good to see her not looking quite so on edge.

Reminded of it, Xiulan took up her wand and wordlessly summoned a small potion bottle, discreetly consuming its contents. "Calming Draught," she clarified softly, her tone almost apologetic, as her attention returned to Bianca.

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

That had always been the way Bianca’s mind worked. The festival seemed to promise a good time, and that would have been the focus for most people – what their plans were, or learning more about the culture behind the festival. But no, Bianca had always been focused on work and so that was where her mind went – to the security arrangements. Avoiding an incident was the main priority of her department, and it was easily seen in the exhausted faces of her Aurors and in the exasperated eye rolls anytime the festival came up in casual conversation. Most people were looking forward to the event, but Bianca couldn’t wait until the moment she could publicly confirm that there hadn’t been any…er, unsavory fiascos. Everything that had happened over the last year had given her a new distaste for press conferences.

She’d only remembered a moment later that Xiulan probably had her own traditions for Lunar New Year too, even if she rarely left her flat. Her question was somewhat vague, because Bianca ashamedly didn’t know enough about the subject to ask anything more specific. Xiulan gave her a reserved answer, and her face didn’t betray whatever had made her pause before continuing that she did celebrate. “As much as you used to, since you came to London?” Bianca clarified, her eyes sharp and tone blunt as she asked. That was Bianca – she didn’t really have a good bedside manner. And she’d left the issue alone for as long as she’d known Xiulan – coming up on one year – but now that her own crisis had passed…well, it was easier to see that Xiulan’s situation hadn’t really changed in a year. And it was easy to remember the vague danger Xiulan had hinted at too, in their very first conversation. So she’d ask a rude question, if it meant maybe surprising Xiulan into giving a real answer.

Xiulan’s deflection as she asked about her Brazil trip wasn’t so subtle, but Bianca nodded and couldn’t help the slight smile on her face. Merlin knows Xiulan was a good listener, and despite her own tendency to keep secrets…Bianca could admit it was nice to have someone to talk to. And it was nice, over the last several months, to have good news to share instead of just trying to cope with the bad. “I always tried to avoid reminders of home,” she admitted, “But this trip reminded me that I like visiting.” She hadn’t visited Chile since her father’s funeral several years ago, which had been on purpose, even if she hadn’t admitted that during her infrequent calls with her mother. But Brazil had felt like more neutral ground, and she’d actually enjoyed the opportunity to see her old school friends again. It wasn’t so common to see Bianca in a good mood (or at least clearly in a good mood) but that was where she was now. Still, a frown pulled at her lips as Xiulan discreetly took an apparently regular bottle of Calming Draught. Bianca leaned forward in her seat. Maybe it was the fact that her own life didn’t feel like so much of a mess anymore that made her more willing to probe into Xiulan’s. “Did something happen...or is it something about this time of year?” she asked quietly, her eyes lingering on the empty potion bottle.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

January 31, 2027

The sharpness of the way in which Bianca asked for clarification from her didn't make Xiulan squirm, but it was the sort of approach that made it very clear that she was conversing with someone who worked in law enforcement. She wasn't avoiding elaboration because she had something to hide. From her perspective, she had said what there was to say. It wasn't done to speak at length about something that she hadn't been asked. But once she was asked, Xiulan nodded again.

There wasn't much that she could do to celebrate the holiday alone. Cleaning or putting up the odd decoration here or there was doable, but it was only to give herself the feeling that she wasn't missing out.

Bianca did become quieter at her bringing up the Calming Draught. Xiulan thought that she seemed more cautious as she asked her if something had happened or if she had taken the potion because of something to do with that time of year. She could speak about it without falling apart, though she appreciated Bianca's concern for her.

Xiulan set the bottle that had held the Calming Draught in it aside. Taking it had become so normal to her that she didn't give it too much thought apart from knowing better than to do so in front of her clients. Bianca, however, wasn't one of her clients. "I'm alright," she reassured Bianca. Although the motion with which she nodded her head was slightly stiff that time, her tone was more relaxed than might have been expected. She wasn't looking to put a damper on things, nor was she looking for pity.

"It can be very hard," Xiulan acknowledged. "It's the most important holiday for Chinese people," she continued. Her voice was still steady, but she paused a bit longer between her sentences. "It's… very family-orientated. Large meals, people traveling from far away to be with family. All of that." She didn't think that those aspects made it too much different from other holidays—in Britain or elsewhere. "I know that I am very lucky, though," she added. "I can't deny that."

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

There were ways to avoid the truth without telling a lie. Merlin, Bianca knew that better than anyone in her line of work. Finding the truth was more of an art than anything else, a careful balance between the dry technicalities of how to eliminate the noise with an instinctive gut feeling that told you whether something was wrong or right. It wasn’t always about the right use of Legilimency or Veritaserum, either. No, it was really about knowing your target and what pushed them to do the things they did. Developing that skillset was imprecise, highly volatile, the kind of thing that kept you on your toes and constantly questioning yourself and the decisions you’d made in the past. But it was also what kept you safe while you were doing your job, and ultimately it kept the community safe too.

It felt strange to apply the same techniques to someone who had become one of her closer friends, but Bianca frowned a little at the casual way Xiulan set aside the Calming Draught. Like it had become a reflex, instead of a conscious action. She was worried, and over the last year that worry had balanced somewhere between a professional consideration (she was quite good at her job, after all), and personal. Bianca wanted to help the Seer, wanted her friend to be able to move on with her life too, but she felt an echo of that same helplessness after watching the cursed fire engulf Hogwarts. So she knew the words ‘I’m alright’ might not be a lie, but they weren’t the full truth either.

Despite the vastly different cultures she and Xiulan came from, there was also a sense of familiarity to it. Family-oriented. Yeah, Bianca knew exactly how it felt to grow up in a society that centered around the family and how each generation could be of service to those who had come before – and then to suddenly be taken away from it and spend your adulthood far away from them. She enjoyed her independence, but couldn’t avoid the guilt that came with the rebellious freedom. Bianca knew her own reasons for not returning to Chile, but Xiulan had never done much more than hint at why she’d left Macau. “But you’ve never gone back to visit them?” she confirmed, feeling a frown tug at her lips for the second time since she’d spotted the Calming Draught. Bianca paused a moment, then asked cautiously, “I’d like to see them. Can we…?” Her gaze shifted to rest significantly on the Pensieve stowed away in a corner of the room. She couldn’t help but think that if she could see, then it might help to understand.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

January 31, 2027

"But you've never gone back to visit them?"

Xiulan knew how it must have sounded. She was her parents' only child, and therefore responsible for looking after them as they aged. It went against so many of the cultural values with which she had been raised, and it was a good thing that Bianca wasn't Chinese to understand the depth of it.

"I'd like to see them," Bianca added. Xiulan realized then that her attention had been drawn to the Pensieve that she kept. "Can we…?"

Having nothing against that, Xiulan nodded, clearing some space and then summoning the Pensieve over so that it sat upon the table in between the two of them. The persimmon cakes safely off to the side, she picked up her wand and moved to extract a memory for Bianca to see what her parents looked like.

Without realizing that she had erroneously pulled the wrong memory in her haste, Xiulan deposited the wispy silver strand into the Pensieve. Instead of something of her parents, the abuse and neglect that she had suffered while at the Lin Sòng, the school that they had sent her to attend, were on display. It hadn't been their fault. The people who had sold her and her parents on it made it out to be some sort of Penglai-like place. It had been anything but. She had trusted that she would be safe there, but she wasn't.

Thin as a rail and pinned to the ground, the scene that played out was one that could be described only as grievous and unwarranted torture, both physical and psychological. The memory then ceased as Xiulan entered into a trance, slamming her head against the floor and losing consciousness entirely. What had come after that was unknown to her, too.

It wasn't something, in other words, that she would have shown to anyone without taking serious precautions. Physically, she couldn't speak about her former school except in positive terms, and she had never figured out an adequate way around that restriction that had been placed on her so many years before.

"In Chinese culture, it's not as common to show affection," Xiulan commented to Bianca to provide her with some context in case she viewed her parents as unnecessarily cold. That wasn't to say that people didn't show affection at all, but it didn't happen in the same ways as in many other cultures. Her parents were distant in a way that hadn't fully registered with her until she became an adult, though they had never known how she had been treated while away at school.

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Family was never easy to talk about, and Bianca winced a little at the hypocrisy of her question. She’d been avoiding a visit to her own mother for ages, and she had no plans to visit Chile in the near future. That was always how it had been since her father’s death and the horrifying circumstances that had played into it. In a storybook, Bianca supposed it would all have gone differently. It would have said – after her father was buried and her brother disappeared into the wind, Bianca and her mother only had each other and they’d realized that all their differences hadn’t meant much after all, leading to the kind of close relationship where one simply couldn’t get by without the other. But Merlin, she’d learned the hard way that life wasn’t a story. In reality, the chasm between them had only gotten bigger. Her mother had never been able to look past her distrust of magic, and Bianca had stopped hoping for anything different.

She didn’t know the circumstances that had led to Xiulan’s hasty departure from her own family, but Bianca knew very well how it was possible to love them but keep your distance. As Xiulan teased out a memory from her wand and let it swirl into the Pensieve, Bianca gazed thoughtfully at the faintly glowing basin. It was probably one of the most underrated inventions of the magical world, something most wizards never thought twice about until the moment they chose to use it. But she supposed the people who would value it the most were people like her. Haunted by ghosts. Unable to go back, so keeping the past alive in the only way they could. She wondered idly what memory Xiulan would choose first. A special occasion – some lunar festival of the past. Or maybe she’d just choose an everyday memory – cooking with her mother, an early morning with her husband. Xiulan had always seemed like the kind of woman that would value the little moments of peaceful silence, more than anything else.

But Bianca’s brow furrowed at the scene that swirled into action in the basin. It wasn’t a domestic family scene, nor did it feature crowds of people in motion or a charged air of excitement during a ceremony or a festival. No, everything about this scene was wrong. Xiulan was easy to identify, being the central focus of the memory – looking as thin as a bowtruckle, her skin sallow with exhaustion and a sense of hopeless defeat. The other figures in the scene were around the same age, wearing identical robes and expressions on their faces. Students, maybe. And yes, there was a taller figure – some kind of professor, maybe, but certainly the authority in the room.

But they weren’t stepping in like a professor always had during Dueling Club or scuffles in the corridor between classes – and Bianca assumed that she must be seeing something of the sort (it had to be the only explanation), and she jerked forward urgently to steal a better glance of a young Xiulan slowly losing consciousness. As the memory faded to black, Bianca was left staring at the bowl before her gaze sharply redirected to Xiulan. She’d seen scenes like that before, but never in a good context. An interrogation of an abuser, a gentle probing of a victim’s mind before an arrest. “Where was that? What happened to you?” Bianca demanded, completely ignoring Xiulan’s idle comment about Chinese culture as if to prepare her before moving to a different memory. But Bianca couldn’t pretend that she hadn’t just seen a snapshot of a torture, and her hands curled into fists at the thought. She'd learned how to stomach seeing the worst at work, but it had never lessened the indignant outrage that Bianca could so easily slip into. She'd never been good at letting things go.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

January 31, 2027

"Where was that? What happened to you?"

The reaction that Bianca had to the memory that she had put into the Pensieve wasn't what Xiulan expected it would be. Bianca's demeanor could be intense at times, but her questioning went beyond that. Even without looking into the memory itself, Xiulan realized that she had shared something with Bianca that she hadn't intended. It wasn't hard to piece together what it must have been, and Xiulan felt as though she might be sick. The memory that she had put into the Pensieve was undoubtedly one of her worst.

Admitting that she had made a mistake was wholly necessary yet mortifying. Bianca had witnessed her trauma without so much as a warning. She had gone into it with no context whatsoever. It must have made it that much more of a shock. Though Bianca was in law enforcement, making sure she knew ahead of time was the least she could have done to protect her well-being. Her ability to satisfy Bianca's curiosity about her past was limited, though, and Xiulan knew it.

"The Lin Sòng. It is an excellent school." Xiulan's words and intonation were at odds with her pained expression and mannerisms. Her tone of voice was forcefully cheerful, as though a wand were being pointed at her throat. It wasn't just about outwitting the enchantments that made her unable to speak the truth about her school days. It was more cumbersome than could be accomplished in a normal conversation, but that wasn't the major hurdle. The truths that she needed to reveal weren't something that could be taken lightly. If she were thought to be making false accusations related to anything close to what had happened to her, it wouldn't be good.

She managed to summon a piece of parchment, a quill, and ink, writing something on the parchment. What she explained in writing was more than she really wanted to, but she knew that Bianca would have additional questions if she didn't go ahead and clarify what she could. Moving her hand quickly so as not to delay the conversation, Xiulan hoped that her writing was clear enough.

THE LIN SÒNG.

I can't talk about it except in positive terms. This is how it always has been. My parents don't know. We were sold a lie.

Once she had finished writing, Xiulan turned the paper so that Bianca could read it.

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

It was a horrifyingly sharp juxtaposition between subjects. For a moment, they’d been talking about families and complicated pasts. That seemed to be a familiar subject for most wizarding families – who hadn’t suffered as a result of the last twenty years of magical history? And that was setting aside the more common tensions, the complicated but everyday dynamics of family life that created lifelong baggage and interesting family reunions. Bianca had her own experiences with that, a plethora of stories with the moral ‘it’s complicated’ to share about her own family. She was sure Xiulan did too, and she’d been ready to see signs of that. Signs of whatever had led Xiulan to avoid seeing her own family even on a holiday like the special lunar ceremony coming up.

But they’d moved sharply into a much darker, more sinister field. A world that Bianca had seen from the fringes, from the occasional clash as a result of her job. She hadn’t been prepared to see her friend stuck in the middle of it, a memory of suffering and trauma that overtook whatever else was in the Pensieve and demanded to be seen. Bianca felt the tense set of her shoulders and curled fists as she stared at Xiulan, indignation written across her face as she demanded to know what she’d just seen. It was every bit the righteous fury of a law enforcement officer that saw the pain of the world and wanted to do their part to eradicate it.

So that made Xiulan’s easy – and mechanical, and stiff, and wrong – answer that much harder to hear. “Don’t,” Bianca said firmly. She didn’t want to hear a lie, or an excuse, or whatever this was. Not from Xiulan, who she’d begun to consider a close friend. Certainly someone who’d come to know an awful lot about Bianca since she’d started to visit, and certainly an important source of advice for the constant nagging problems of her life. No, Xiulan was a friend and beyond the professional need Bianca desperately wanted to tackle anything that had caused her pain like that. She raised an eyebrow as Xiulan summoned quill and an inkpot, and began to scribble words on parchment.

Bianca leaned over the hastily scrawled words and ran her fingers over the cryptic message. She processed the deeper implications in silence for a few moments, the hint of some sinister group that seemed to prey on young children. It made her blood boil to think of the possibility of other victims. Finally she glanced back up at Xiulan, and tried to take a calming breath. “I’m sorry,” she said, wincing at how hollow the words rang. “I need to…to see more. To understand. Who are they? Why does this stop you from seeing your family anymore?”

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

January 31, 2027

Bianca had seen more than Xiulan had wanted her to see already. She couldn't change that she had taken the wrong memory from her mind and placed it in the Pensieve. She had made a mistake, but she had to live with it. The memory she had shared by accident had been one of many like it; it wasn't particularly unique, brutal though it was. It didn't fundamentally change anything, either. It didn't change who Xiulan was because she had already experienced it, but she knew as soon as Bianca first interrupted her that it had affected how she saw her.

Xiulan knew that Bianca had no reason to apologize to her. She hadn't been responsible for any of what had happened to her in her youth. She hadn't even requested that memory; she had wanted to see something related to her parents. If anyone needed to be apologizing, Xiulan thought, it was she and not Bianca.

As much as Xiulan expected Bianca to complete her thought by saying that she needed to step out of the room after what she had seen in the Pensieve, she said something entirely different: She wanted to see more. Xiulan wasn't sure why anyone would want to see any of the torture that she had experienced unless they were just as sadistic as the people who had caused her so much pain. From what she knew of Bianca, she had a hard exterior, but she wasn't a sadist.

"To understand," Bianca then emphasized, and Xiulan was sure that something must have been lost in the transfer of her memory from her mind to the Pensieve. She knew that she hadn't written much on the parchment paper that she had summoned over in an attempt to clarify the situation for Bianca, but elaborating upon what had happened at the Lin Sòng wasn't something that Xiulan had been asked to do by anyone, least of all the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. "Who are they?" asked Bianca then. "Why does this stop you from seeing your family anymore?"

In response to Bianca's questions, Xiulan motioned with her hand for her to wait. She didn't know how much she would be able to communicate what she wanted to say verbally, and it wasn't worth contradicting herself over and over again. Instead, she summoned over another piece of parchment on which to write and proceeded to do so without another word. She could have written an essay on the spot, but she tried to take it one step at a time. To avoid any confusion, Xiulan numbered her responses to the two questions Bianca had just asked her. Even though they must have seemed to be related, they weren't. Bianca had only seen part of the story.

1. They were the teachers and some students. We were encouraged to harm each other there. It was a way to test our limits. My Inner Eye made me a target. If I were to come out with those allegations, I wouldn't be believed.

2. My former school isn't the reason I can't see my family. I can speak about that.

Satisfied with the answers that she had provided Bianca on paper, Xiulan knew that she would have no trouble speaking about the second point, at least as it related to enchantments. The emotional impact that it had on her was a different matter, but she steeled herself as much as she could.

She passed the second note across to Bianca, giving her time to read what she had written before feeling comfortable with the thought of opening her mouth to speak again.

"Aloysius didn't 'die'," Xiulan explained, her voice strained. Though her husband was undoubtedly deceased, she was making a point about the semantics of his death. He hadn't just passed away in his sleep or succumbed to some illness in a hospital bed. Either of those would have been more peaceful than the truth. "He was murdered by officials from the Chinese Ministry whilst they tried to arrest him." When she first met Bianca, Xiulan had told her that she considered herself to be living in exile, and her stance on the matter hadn't changed since then. It was for her safety that she hadn't seen her parents. It was possibly for their safety, too.

"I came to London with the help of friends," Xiulan added. "I've been here"—in the city as well as in her flat, for the most part—"ever since."

Her life wasn't what it once had been, and Xiulan was sure that Bianca had begun to see that. She didn't want to live as though she had been imprisoned, but she had done what felt safest to her, even if it wasn't always logical. Being confined to her flat, where she had her belongings and Zhurong, was far better than being confined to a room in a hospital or a prison cell.

"Please," Xiulan implored Bianca quietly, "don't repeat any of this to anyone." She didn't need any of that to turn into the latest gossip; she had lost face already.

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

There was a certain magic to childhood that always died when the real world showed its true colors. As a kid, it had been easy to believe that everything worked itself out. The good guys always won out against the bad guys and everyone lived happily ever after. It was a simplistic view of the world, but one that had always been reinforced by her father assuring little Bianca that the system worked – that justice existed and could be achieved (if there were people willing to fight for it). Maybe her career choice had been a little naïve, maybe she hadn’t understood the full implications of what a career in Law Enforcement would mean, but Bianca operated for a long time that actions mattered.

It had been a tough pill to swallow to learn that that wasn’t always the case. The world was a complicated place, and it felt like every drop of good that could be achieved was always outweighed by a sea of moral gray ambiguity and outright sin. Criminals got away with it, officials stayed in power through less-than-legitimate methods, and there was nobody out there to punish them for it (no, not punish – exact justice. But it was easy to blur the lines in your own head). Sometimes her case files stayed open, despite every effort to find some form of justice for the victim. Sometimes corruption and depravity were allowed to continue, if only because the other side held all the cards in their hands. Bianca had always prided herself on her arrest rate as an Auror, but it came with a little asterisk (*another Dark wizard gone, but there will always be ten more out there and they’ll live much better and longer than the people they take advantage of).

Saying she’d learned to live with it wouldn’t be quite the right way to phrase it, but Bianca had been forced to accept her own limitations in the subject. Sometimes wanting it hard enough wasn’t enough. So she felt the familiar sense of outrage bubble up inside her as Xiulan scribbled her hopeless message across a piece of parchment, even as Bianca knew there wasn’t anything she could do about it – either as a Law Enforcement official or as a friend. She pursed her lips as she read about the twisted torture Xiulan had been put through as a result of her Seer abilities, and the thought that this school might (and probably was) still in operation.

“Merlin’s beard,” Bianca muttered, a little disgusted at the thought of a Ministry acting so blatantly outside the scope of its mandate as Xiulan explained the circumstances around her husband’s death. She looked around at the lavish flat, with the doubtlessly expensive Divination artifacts strewn about and the phoenix (the phoenix!) dozily perched in the corner. “So you’ve created a prison for yourself instead of letting them do it for you,” she continued lowly, even if the muted tone did little to hide the outrage (and slight judgment) in her voice. Bianca didn’t ask another question about the school – since Xiulan had established that there was some sort of magic that prevented her from discussing it – but she’d said Aloysius’s death was unrelated.

She blinked herself out of her deep thoughts at Xiulan’s quiet request. “It won’t leave this room,” Bianca promised, even as she fixed Xiulan with an intense look, “But it must be exhausting to live like this all the time. I can’t do anything for you over there, but I do have some authority here.” It was certainly true enough that nobody tried to cross her while she was watching – that was just the reputation she’d gotten over the years. And it pained her to think of Xiulan, alone in her flat, with these living memories that clearly hadn’t lost any of their vividity over the years. The Seer deserved so much more than that – at the very least, the ability to wander around the streets of London without fear of retribution or violence.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

January 31, 2027

Xiulan knew even before she had divulged anything that Bianca wouldn't brush off what she had been through. She recognized that her approach might have been overly cautious and that it wasn't something that anyone would want for themselves, but it had kept her safe. She wasn't hiding away anywhere near as much as she could have been in theory, either. Luckily, there had been nothing to suggest that she needed to take such measures. Living amongst Muggles provided her with a barrier against anyone in the magical world who might want to harm her. Would she have tried to do things differently in hindsight? Maybe, but it was hard to say.

The life that she led before she had closed herself off to the world hadn't been immoral or anything of that sort, but it had been tiring enough that Xiulan knew that she couldn't possibly sustain it without Aloysius there to support her, either. To her clients, the majority of them didn't know any different. She dressed well and wore makeup nearly all the time, so there wasn't any reason to suspect that anything was unusual about her lifestyle.

It wasn't worth causing some big diplomatic dispute, Xiulan thought as Bianca mentioned the authority that she had as a Ministry official. She was fortunate to have Bianca on her side, but she didn't want her to do anything rash unnecessarily.

"I'm safe here. That's what matters to me," Xiulan told Bianca, making sure not to sound curt. She couldn't deny that she had built an unlikely support system around herself over time, from the High Druid of Hy-Brasil to Bianca, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Where she could, she was continuing to pay forward the kindness of others. She had an orphaned young woman whom she was supporting through the remainder of her schooling at Beauxbatons. In relation to that, she had gone as far as France, even, which once had felt unthinkable to her.

"I'll never have my life in Macao again," Xiulan then acknowledged. "But I'm comfortable." She wasn't in need of money, and she had connections to get just about anything else she needed. "I am," she reassured Bianca, just in case Bianca thought that it was another instance of her not being able to say what she really wanted to say aloud. "That wouldn't be possible without other people, though. I know that, and I…" Her voice trailed a bit as she blinked. Xiulan wasn't trying to get emotional while sharing her thoughts, but that was easier said than done. She had to work to keep herself composed, and she ultimately failed there, becoming noticeably choked up. "I am… profoundly grateful to know people like you who are so selfless."

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Merlin, she hated being powerless. It was that little itch in her head, that reminder that she couldn’t do anything, and it seemed to visit her in all the weakest moments of her life. Lying on the cold dark street of south London while she waited for it all to end, the phone call from her mom that sent her entire world lurching sideways, watching the Fiendfyre devour Hogwarts while a stream of students pushed past her and Purifiers ran free across the castle…Bianca felt an echo of it now in her chest as Xiulan told her story, warned her that there wasn’t anything to be done, hinted at the dozens of lives that had been wrapped up in this and still were.

It made her wonder what this was all for, sometimes. If nothing could be done, if the world was going to keep turning despite all her best efforts. But it took a special stubbornness to keep pushing, and Bianca saw it often enough in the Aurors and Hit Wizards who stayed focused on the mission despite all the signs telling them to give up. And she saw a different sort of stubbornness in Xiulan now, who’d built a new life for herself and seemed intent on finding peace and quiet. It was different from what Bianca would do, who’d never been able to let a thing go in her life, but…she respected it, all the same. It took bravery and fortitude to make the decision to keep surviving, even after tragedy.

Xiulan had always stayed cool and calm, and the hints of emotion that broke through her mask now…it was different. It betrayed just how deep her scars ran, the emotions that might always be lurking just under the surface. Bianca had never been the type to seek physical comfort, and even in her darkest moments she seemed to shy away from the thought of a hug. After Hogwarts, when she’d answered Xiulan’s letter to acknowledge her birthday and broken down from the unprocessed trauma she’d been keeping buried deep…yeah, she’d avoided the comfort of a hug. It was too intimate, showed too much vulnerability for someone who always needed to be strong.

But something about Xiulan’s final words pierced straight through Bianca and the reminder that everyone was a little damaged. And that lightening the burden meant sharing it. She didn’t speak immediately but wrapped her arms around Xiulan instead. “You’ll always have me,” Bianca said roughly, trying to beat back the surge of emotion that had hit her too. “And I can’t promise to always have answers, but I’ll try to be what you need.” She didn’t need to say out-loud how much she’d come to value her visits with Xiulan. Having a safe place to go, to sit down and talk through things or just stay in a comfortable silence away from the noise of everything else. It was strange to think that a cursory visit about a prophecy had transformed into something much deeper (more vulnerable, with no expectations), but it was exactly the sort of dynamic that she’d been missing for a long time. And Bianca was fiercely determined to do anything she could for Xiulan, protect her however much she was able.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

January 31, 2027

The reassurance she received from Bianca that she would continue to have her support, and particularly the hug that Bianca gave her, made Xiulan feel that maybe she wasn't losing her mind. Maybe she wouldn't regret having opened up about what felt like a past life. She brought her lips together in a small smile in spite of her tears, grateful that she had been able to explain herself more fully to someone else without doing so in a way that would put herself in danger.

Even with Bianca's promises, Xiulan knew that she would never be able to have a life without some intrusions. Her Inner Eye wasn't going anywhere. Everything would never be as polished as she portrayed it to be on the outside looking in. She had to keep it that way for her own safety and financial security, considering that she had to keep her clients to ensure that she could continue to make money off of her abilities.

Xiulan, though, wasn't sure that she could express her thanks in any way that was remotely adequate. She fought the instinct to pull herself together immediately, but she managed to do so well enough to speak without her crying interfering. "Thank you. No one has all the answers. Not even a Seer."

Bianca Alia Rivera