LULLABY [Lucrezia]

[Deleted]

▲

July 14th, 2027

Shopping for school supplies had always been an interesting experience, as having easy access to the stores in Diagon and Horizont Alley was invaluable. The only issue over the past several years of schooling was that Lucia and her parents were required to travel to Place Cachée for a number of her yearly books and likewise. She had never thought about why the French stores were unable to ship them to Flourish & Blotts ahead of time until her dad had taken her out earlier in the day. Getting ahead of the crowds was important, especially because she had to be fitted for Hogwarts robes this time around. She was pretty sure that Mrs. Malkin was disappointed that she didn't get to tailor the Beauxbatons uniforms again this year, Lucia noting the difference in tone in her voice from usual. Apparently working with the threads from their French counterpart was a highlight of her summer. At least that was what she had been told as the tailor got her measured for the ridiculously comfy black robes. Where had these been her whole life?

As they were making the rounds to all of the shops, she got excited when the sun started to creep lower in the sky. Pretty soon here the streets would be blanketed in complete shadow, allowing her Nonna to finally travel outside. Lucia wasn't sure what the plan was once night hit, as a good portion of the shops closed down soon after. With only a few weeks of summer left she was really looking forward to utilizing every last second of it. Struggling to stay awake all night long had happened more than once since she got home from school, but it was worth it as long as it wasn't a busy night at the bank. With her dad taking the bags back home, she let herself through the door that led to the flat her Nonna occupied above the blood bank. Every once in a while she ran into the woman that rented out the other room, though it didn't seem like she was back yet today. Apparently she worked at a record studio that represented Camila Calderón. The things she would do to be able to meet her...

lucrezia conti ● 374 ● R.E.M. by MOTHICA

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[lucrezia conti]

July 14, 2027

It was her granddaughter, Lucia, who had been the one to bring up the possibility of her attending Hogwarts, where she felt that it would be better for her after being mistreated by some of her peers at Beauxbatons for being a part-vampire. While Lucrezia wasn't thrilled when she first heard about Lucia's desire to switch schools, she didn't want her to be discriminated against, either. She had to hope that the changes that had been made to Hogwarts over the past year that it had been closed so that it could be rebuilt meant that it would be safer, too.

Fortunately, at least, Lucia's time at Beauxbatons had spared her from the trauma that the children her age who had attended Hogwarts had suffered. She wasn't such a little girl anymore, but that didn't mean that Lucrezia wanted her to have to endure tragedy after tragedy. Still, Lucrezia didn't mind getting to see Lucia more often. It was hard enough as it was, being a vampire and keeping a schedule opposite that of most. She had also heard that students were being given the option to attend Hogwarts only during the day instead of boarding there, and she selfishly hoped that Lucia would be a day student.

Lucrezia was expecting Lucia and had used having her over as an excuse to cook. Although she could technically consume food as she had before her vampirism, it wasn't the same, and there was little point in cooking food for herself that was only going to go to waste. With her granddaughter there, however, half of her responsibility was to ensure that she was fed. On the menu that evening was sanguinaccio dolce, a chocolate pudding ordinarily made with pig's blood. Was it the sort of thing that everyone would desire to eat? Probably not, but the addition of human blood made it ideal for those with vampirism.

Hearing Lucia enter her flat through the door from the blood bank, Lucrezia smiled. Without Yi-seul there, she felt perfectly comfortable speaking in Italian and not English. "Come in, Lucia! I made sanguinaccio dolce. Eat it whilst it's still warm."

@lucia

[Deleted]

▲

Sanguinaccio dolce? Had she heard that correctly? The blood requirement for her wasn't nearly as important as it was for her other family members and yet she couldn't help herself when it was offered in such a manner. Calling it a primal instinct was probably a little too much because she had never had those sorts of urges. It was more like eating candy whenever given the chance, really. Turning down the dessert would not only be offensive to her Nonna - who had spent the time making it specifically for her - but also a little silly because it was free sugar (plus human blood, in this instance). "Really?" she called back from the front entrance in English. Her excitement was immediately uncontainable, shoes yanked off in a hurry despite trying to cling to her feet in their tightly knotted state. She was in a rush to get to the dessert and it would have taken ages to work the laces out from their triple-tie - a result of one of them completely sliding off of her foot earlier in the day whilst shopping. Two more years and then she could use magic outside of school, instantly solving all of her shoelace predicaments.

"This is the best dinner ever!" Lucia claimed as she entered the room. "I won't tell mum about it," she added, zipping her lips for added effect. These were the sorts of things she'd get away with here though. Better blood pops, sweets, and an unlimited amount of time flipping through the vinyl collection. The latter of which was definitely going to be happening tonight. Picking up her spoon as she took her seat, Lucia dipped it gently into the chocolate pudding-like substance. The mouthfeel as it hit her tastebuds was easily one of the most incredible things ever, as it always was. How anyone could eat this using pig's blood was beyond her. She knew she'd never be able to eat it the 'normal' way. Going in for a second scoop, Lucia could only give her grandmother a look of bliss, unable to speak at the moment.

lucrezia conti ● 352 ● Many Things by Odina

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[lucrezia conti]

July 14, 2027

Lucia's excitement for the dessert was clear as she responded to her in a mixture of English and Italian to say that she wouldn't tell her mother about the fact that she had had sanguinaccio dolce for her dinner. There were worse things she could have served her, though, so Lucrezia wasn't worried that Carolina would be too upset with her. Besides, it would give Lucia the blood she needed and then some. In that sense, it was practically healthy. She had to take advantage of the opportunities she got to spoil her granddaughter.

It was worth it, one hundred percent. Lucia looked as though she had ascended to some higher plane of existence as she took up a spoonful of the pudding and then another. Lucrezia waited, just watching as Lucia savored the taste of the dessert. She had to wonder, too, what her parents had been feeding her; she acted as though she hadn't eaten anything all day.

Sitting down across from Lucia, Lucrezia began to eat her own serving of the pudding. Including human blood made it taste far better, in her opinion, though she knew that she would need to send the leftovers home with Lucia. Risking having Yi-seul mistake it for regular chocolate wouldn't be good. Even with pig's blood, as it was normally, that was something that not everyone would care to consume. As a non-vampire living with a full vampire decades older than she, Yi-seul was open-minded, of course, but maybe not that open-minded.

"How was your shopping trip? Did you buy everything you need?" Lucrezia asked Lucia in English. Being in such close proximity to most of the shops that sold the school supplies Lucia likely needed for Hogwarts meant that it wouldn't be difficult at all to exchange purchases or buy something else before the start of the school year for the students at MAGIC, the new division of Hogwarts that Lucia would be attending.

@lucia

[Deleted]

▲

The third scoop was just as intoxicating as the first two, and she knew she had to be careful not to overdose on the chocolate and blood combination. She had seen small kids devouring Fortescue ice cream and having a similar reaction that she was currently indulging herself in, and they always went on a sugar fueled bender immediately after. Trying to simultaneously chew, swallow, and prevent herself from diving into her fourth spoonful, she nodded her head as she was asked about the shopping. “Eberyfing but muh robes,” she said through her full mouth, swallowing it all immediately after she finished speaking. “Everything but my robes,” Lucia repeated. “Mrs. Malkin has to tailor them, but she said we were early enough that they should be done by Friday.” And then hopefully no more alterations would need to be made. Despite being comfortable and enjoying the time talking to the seamstress or her kids (who were finally going to be her classmates!), the grumbling about missing out on the Beauxbatons uniform did get a little annoying. Comfort over style, after all. There was very little one could do in those stuffy blue things, despite how much her former French classmates liked to talk about them.

“Trading in all of my textbooks for the ones Hogwarts wants was annoying though. The girl that worked at Flourish & Blotts didn’t know what to do with them at all,” Lucia added, mildly annoyed by that as well. She had no idea what the secondary market for used French schoolbooks was, but she was sure if they put them on the shelf some curious witch or wizard would purchase them. Books were like vinyl and CDs. Sort of. The right person found value in them whether or not they were actually worth anything. She knew because she liked collecting both. Which reminded her…“Do you think we have time to look through your records before you have to go to work? There were a few I saw the other day that I wanted to listen to.”

lucrezia conti ● 341 ● Deus In Absentia by Ghost

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[lucrezia conti]

July 14, 2027

Lucia spoke with her mouth full of sanguinaccio dolce, and Lucrezia wasn't able to get a word in to tell her that she really didn't have to devour it all right that second. She had, as she clarified once she swallowed her food, purchased everything but her school robes, which still needed to be tailored.

Unfortunately, trading in her textbooks had been "annoying", Lucia informed her, because the girl working at the bookshop apparently hadn't known what to do with the books from Beauxbatons. Lucrezia sighed slightly as she continued to eat her own serving of the pudding. That was one of the problems with young people, she thought to herself; they didn't bother to use their brains. It wasn't Lucia she was worried about, though. She was concerned about the employee she'd had to deal with who hadn't had the sense to ship the books to some other store in France if they wouldn't be expected to sell there in London. Someone else would still need them, after all, if not at Hogwarts.

"Do you think we have time to look through your records before you have to go to work?" Lucia then asked, apparently not so worried about the book situation. "There were a few I saw the other day that I wanted to listen to."

"Of course," Lucrezia nodded. The music she had was definitely "oldies" by her granddaughter's standards, but she liked that Lucia enjoyed it, too. Being able to play the music that she had grown up listening to as a non-magical person didn't change that she had lost the life that she had once had, but it gave her daughter and then her granddaughter a link to who she was before she had become a vampire.

There were plenty of technologies that didn't work in the magical world without being enchanted—whether legally or illegally—because electricity, in particular, and magic didn't mix very well. Record players, however, had made the jump to the magical world long before the telephone.

"What do you want to listen to?" Lucrezia asked, wondering what had piqued Lucia's interest. "The Beatles?"

@lucia