Take Me to the Edge of Darkness [Sarah]

[Ophelia Mae Teller]

This was it. The moment Ophelia had been subconsciously waiting for since her accident that killed her unborn child. She had always felt that Sarah Oliviera was somehow involved, and then when Dakota was murdered, that solidified her belief. She was infuriated that the woman was not behind bars, but actually WORKING for the Ministry. Ophelia was not a political mind like her father, but she felt that she had enough knowledge to know that murderers like her shouldn’t be allowed out of prison. She had gotten her moment when Felix was distracted during one of her visits to his office; his wife, who he had spontaneously married, was now dead, so it was understandable that his thoughts were elsewhere. She felt guilty for using him like this, but being nice wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. Not this time.

Ophelia stood outside the door leading to Sarah’s flat. On the other side, she imagined the woman lounging on a couch or a chair, no care in the world. And why would she care? She didn’t feel any remorse for eliminating two family members, and she certainly didn’t see Ophelia as much of a threat. Or at least that was the impression Ophie got. She took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly, before raising her first and knocking sharply at the door. She held her breath, listening for movement within the flat to register if Sarah would appear at any moment from behind the door. Nothing; she heard absolutely nothing. She knocked again, louder this time, but still no answer. She turned her first and POUNDED on the door; if Sarah was asleep, she’d definitely hear her. While there was no answer at the door, a neighbor popped out and looked grumpy. He let Ophelia know that the woman who lived there wasn’t home, and Ophie deflated. She had hyped herself up for confronting Sarah about her involvement in the miscarriage, and now she wasn’t even home. How would she summon up the courage to do this again?

Sighing, Ophelia turned and left the hallway, going down the stairs and exiting the building into the cloudy gray London afternoon. As she pulled the door shut, she tensed. Something in the back of her mind was causing her to feel more…alert. Whipping around, Ophelia saw the reason: Sarah Oliviera was standing right there in front of her. “You,” she whispered softly.

sarah jane oliveira

[sarah jane oliveira]

There was nothing at all unusual about the fact that Sarah was at home at her flat. If she wasn't doing something for work or running errands, she was probably there. It was a bore, but life in Magical Interpol wasn't what it had been while working at Club Indigo. Besides, her flat, though sparsely decorated, was far nicer than a prison cell in Azkaban, not to mention having a bathroom with a proper door obscuring the toilet.

It was unusual, however, for her to receive visitors—maybe one of her parents on rare occasion but not Evelyn while she was at Beauxbatons. The sound of the knock at the door had made her suspect Ares, and Sarah stood up from where she had been sitting on her pleather sofa. The knock had turned into someone who sounded as though they were prepared to knock the door down to get inside. Hearing no one announce their presence, as Sarah was sure Ares would have done, she ignored it. If Ares were there, she didn't want to deal with him, but she did want confirmation if he had shown up.

The next best thing was to Disapparate from inside her own flat and outside a short distance, hopefully just enough to catch Ares by surprise. Nothing dangerous, nothing illegal… It wouldn't be painful, just clever. Sarah took up her wand and Apparated outside, knowing that the sound wouldn't come as any surprise to her neighbors. She didn't exactly live in Mayfair.

Walking back to her flat, even though she'd just left it, it wasn't Ares whom she saw. No, lo and behold, it was Ophelia Teller. And she had just managed to sneak up on her. It was almost like old times!

"You," she said softly.

"You were looking for me?" Sarah kept her wand hidden and smiled at Ophelia, the horseshoe-shaped piece of jewelry in her smiley piercing glinting. Ophelia didn't seem scared, not entirely. She would have to play things safe.

Ophelia Mae Teller

[Ophelia Mae Teller]

Ophelia was momentarily speechless when Sarah surprised her, again. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to do; she had expected the woman not to be home, perhaps break in and take a look. That made her look bad though, and the idea seemed horrible now that it was replaying in her mind. But this was a chance. A chance to confront Sarah for causing her miscarriage, for removing her memories for it, and for Dakota’s death.

“Yes, I was,” she confirmed, proud that her voice wasn’t shaking yet. She relaxed her posture, but crossed her arms in front of her. She knew Sarah didn’t take her seriously, and a part of her didn’t blame her. Ophelia was a ball of sunshine and kindness, and it had been over a year since the incident. Sarah was now working for the Ministry, which honestly shocked her. She didn’t think someone like Sarah Oliviera was what the Ministry was looking for. Then again, this was why she was so against a career path in government in the first place.

“We need to discuss the events that took place before I miscarried,” Ophelia continued briskly, as if they had met up with this exact purpose. “I know it was you who removed my memories of what happened, and why I woke up with my unborn child dead.” Her voice shook, and her fists clenched. “I want you to admit it to me,” she finally finished. She glared at Sarah expectantly, hoping her message was crystal clear.

sarah jane oliveira

[sarah jane oliveira]

Ophelia probably liked to think that she could come across as threatening, but she didn't in the slightest. Sarah had dealt with people who were actually threatening and thought that she could be threatening when necessary herself. But Ophelia? She was all bark and no bite, as the saying went, and that bark was more like a constant yapping from something small enough to fit in an old woman's handbag. She seemed to be playing her role well enough that maybe the people over at the Phoenix Theatre would call her in to audition for their next stage production, but Sarah wasn't fooled.

Did she really think that it was wise of her to accuse her of something of which she had no memory?

It had been quite a while since then. Sarah hadn't been the one pushed down the stairs, but even she couldn't remember every detail of what had happened. She'd been in prison since and had done plenty for Elaine Dupree's cause. What she had done to Ophelia Teller was all the way at the back of her mind, covered in cobwebs and dust. She hadn't exactly kept Ophelia's memories of the attack in nice little vials for her to retrieve, either. What was done was done.

If Ophelia was still so torn up over it, she could find a nice bloke somewhere who would love and cherish her for the rest of her days—or whatever fantasy it was that she still had in her head about Dakoda after so long. Sarah didn't really care, provided that Ophelia got out of her hair. Besides, the orphanage probably had ended up with a few babies with dead parents because of the Purifiers. She could always adopt one of them.

"Why don't we go inside?" Sarah suggested, as though she were really being a gracious host. "Better not to risk breaking wizarding secrecy." Working for Magical Interpol, she technically had a duty to uphold the Statute of Secrecy anyway.

Ophelia Mae Teller

[Ophelia Mae Teller]

Ophelia knew Sarah wasn’t even remotely threatened by her. She had known Heleen would be right when it came to that. Sarah was a different breed than her, and not just because she was a werewolf. Dakota had been too, and he had treated her very well. She also knew that Koda wasn’t coming back; he was as dead as their unborn daughter was. “My daughter deserved better than this,” she said quietly, more to herself than to Sarah. How could she make Sarah understand that what she did owed an explanation? Sarah was a mother herself, how could she so recklessly endanger her own unborn niece?

“Do you really think I’m falling for that?” Ophelia asked sarcastically, laughing once. Had Sarah really thought she was that gullible? The answer, of course, was yes, but Ophelia was not the same person she had been two years ago. Not anymore. “So you can take care of me away from prying eyes?” She shook her head, stubbornly staying where she was. “I won’t whip out my wand or anything, but I don’t trust you,” she confirmed, knowing Sarah probably figured that the trust level between them was below zero. There was no way she was going anywhere with Sarah alone. Not again. “Why did you do it? Not Dakota, but our daughter? What had she done to you to deserve to die?”  she asked, a note of pleading in her voice. "Please Sarah you have a son.  What if someone took him permanently from you?" she added, hoping to appeal to that one sliver of humanity left in the woman in front of her.

sarah jane oliveira

[sarah jane oliveira]

"Do you really think I’m falling for that?" Ophelia wanted to know, laughing in a way that Sarah was surprised to hear had come from her. It was a cynical sort of laugh, not a laugh that said that she found it funny. "So you can take care of me away from prying eyes?"

Although Sarah raised an eyebrow at Ophelia's distrust, she knew that it wasn't unwarranted. If she didn't have a job to keep, she might have done something else. The Sarah who had worked at Club Indigo would have, certainly. She wasn't really a different person than she had been then—not completely—but she had far more to lose by, say, torturing someone than before. She had a tendency to act on impulse, but Ophelia hadn't pushed her over the edge. Not by a long shot.

She watched as Ophelia chose not to move and shrugged her shoulders in reply. At least Ophelia had the courtesy (if one could call it that) to mention that she wouldn't take her wand out to use it against her. That was sweet, Sarah thought, mockingly. At least Ophelia openly said that she didn't trust her. Hearing that was almost a compliment.

"Why did you do it? Not Dakoda, but our daughter? What had she done to you to deserve to die?" Sarah listened halfheartedly, but Ophelia's further appeals to her on the basis of her motherhood only went so far. From the perspective of nearly anyone other than herself, Sarah knew, Ophelia was far more suited to being a mother than she was. She had that sort of personality, too; she was that sort of… smiley person who seemed to radiate sunshine and rainbows and butterflies.

"He's not in my custody, is he?" Sarah pointed out about her son as soon as she could get a word in. She wasn't entirely certain that what she felt for Sebastian was "love", but she did want custody of him. He was her son; she'd given birth to him. He was hers, and she knew that she ought to have had more of a say in his life than Ares had. He hadn't been the one to carry the pregnancy.

Of course Sarah wanted to rectify the situation with her parents' and Ares's custody over Sebastian instead of her, but that was a rant for another time and not something that Ophelia needed to hear, anyway. Whatever had gotten into her since they had last seen each other, Ophelia seemed to be positioning herself as a challenge. She was nothing that Sarah couldn't handle, though.

Ophelia Mae Teller

[Ophelia Mae Teller]

Ophelia’s eyes narrowed. “No, but word on the street is you’re hoping that will change soon won’t it?” she asked, her face as straight as an arrow. Sarah always knew more than she should, so Ophie knew in order to get on her level, she had to think the way the other woman though. Gather information that would be useful in the future. It made her grimace inside a little to think like this, but she had come too far now to back down.

“So I’m asking you again, mother to mother. You gave birth to a son, he is yours, regardless of who is raising him. I’m guessing from your current battle, you want to change that, so I have to believe you somewhat understand the bond between a mother and her child.” Ophelia crossed her arms in front of her stomach. “Look. Whatever happened between you and your brother, that’s your business. You have known him far longer than I ever could have, and I will not lie to you and say Koda told me everything about your relationship….though he told me some,” she told Sarah.

“I just want to know why. Why, out of all the lives you have and could have taken, did you take HERS. Your NIECE. I know that may not mean much to you but she never did anything to you - why did she deserve to die? And….and why did you leave me alive??” There it was. The tiny fact that had been nagging at Ophelia since her miscarriage. Even though Sarah had wiped her memory, it did not erase that one had survived and one had not. Why didn’t she just finish her off when she killed her unborn child? She wasn’t sure she really wanted the answer - but there was no going back now.

sarah jane oliveira

[sarah jane oliveira]

Ophelia knew that she was hoping to regain custody of Sebastian, and she didn't make a secret of it. Sarah hadn't made a secret of it, either, though she knew that she was better off not going around and bad-mouthing Ares Lestrange. Anything that could get back to bite her, figuratively speaking, was something to avoid. She had never had a reputation for being good or for playing by the rules of everyone else's games, but she could turn herself into a stable parent for her son.

It was this angle that Ophelia took in her approach to speaking with her then, as she openly stated. She was appealing to her from one mother to another, she said. Whatever had happened between her and Dakoda, Ophelia acknowledged, was their business. At the same time, though, Ophelia demanded to know why it was that she had killed her unborn daughter but left her alive when she had attacked her.

In hindsight, Sarah thought to herself, she probably should have killed Ophelia off when she'd had the chance to do it. Then, Ophelia wouldn't have had any opportunities to put the pieces together and make her way back to her. And that answer that Ophelia wanted from her? She had wanted to make Ophelia suffer, and killing Dakoda's offspring in one fell swoop was too easy not to pass up. That was all there was to it. The Killing Curse wouldn't have done anything but kill her and the child without any pain, and it wasn't as though Ophelia's daughter was going to miss anything either way. She wouldn't even notice.

Sarah was incredibly tempted to ask if she'd rather go and join her little girl. If Ophelia wanted to go that route, Sarah knew that she could do that without any assistance from her. That wouldn't matter to her anymore. It was clear that her end goal had worked, at least to the extent of causing Ophelia a great deal of suffering. She might not have been supposed to find out that she had been the one behind it, but she guessed she couldn't always have everything her way. "Accidentally" driving someone to madness? Well, oops.

Discussing that subject at length outside was bound to attract attention from Muggles, and Sarah was sure that that was part of Ophelia's strategy. If she could make her admit to having done anything, then someone would probably try to get involved. Explaining to the non-magical authorities why two women were in an argument over something that was almost certainly criminal in their eyes, too, would be… quite something.

"I'm sorry, Ophelia," Sarah told Ophelia plainly, her voice calm in contrast to Ophelia's apparent anger. She could be the bigger person, at least on the face of it. "It's obvious I've made a mistake."

Ophelia Mae Teller