Seeking the key of the Lock family history

It was weekend and the library was quiet and abandoned by almost everyone. The exceptions being the librarian and Amy. Initially she had wanted to spend some time with Raghnall, but he was busy practising martial arts along with a big part of the rest of the rebels. So Amy had decided to dive into the library books, this time she was looking into the school history. It's past students to be more exact, hoping to find out more about her family history.
After having closed the fifth book without finding even one mentioning of her either one of her family name, or her mothers maiden name. She rubbed her tired eyes and decided to go ask the one person she knew could tell her more about her family history. After putting the books back where she had found them she made the walk over to Maudre's office.

Maudre was in her office at the time, fortunatly for Amy. She was actually also doing a bit of studying of the past, though she was inspired by a different trigger; the Cruxix that'd been traveling with the rebels, Florance, and Maudre had been good friends some long time ago. They'd met again, only just now (yesterday), completely on accident and not at all expecting to find each other here.

After a lot of catching up, Florance had excused herself with the promise that they would continue their catching up soon. Now Maudre was roaming around her office, looking for anything that might contain memories of the good old days.

In that sense, Amy couldn't have thought of a better time to go digging into the past; if anyone would have something on her family, it would be Maudre, and in the current situation she even had almost everything probably relevent out already.

With a light knock on the door Amy, but as usual by now she didn't wait for an answer and just cracked the door a little to see for herself if Maurde was present. She smiled a little when she saw that she was in and opened the door a little further.
"Hey," she said a slightly hessitant, "I'm not interrupting anything, am I? Because I was kinda hoping that you would mind telling me more about my or well our family history?"

Maudre looked up from an big, old-looking book a little startled, but as she saw it was Amy she smiled at her; "hello dear. O no, not at all. I'm actually digging into history a bit myself."

She put the book on her desk, still opened so she wouldn't lose the page, and turned to Amy once more; "well... what would you like to know?"

Amy smiled and came in when Maudre said that she wasn't interupting. She looked a little curious at the book that Maurde had just put open on the desk.
"Pretty much anything," she answered, "I've been going through books in the library, but I couldn't find a single mentioning of anybody with Lock as a family name. Or my mothers maiden name Stirling for that matter... Did the family name change over time? Or did recent past family members not enter into the school...?"

"Ah," Maudre said, nodding slowly, a thoughtful look on her face. Then, after a moment of pondering she mused:
"well yes, I guess that would make sense..."

She turned back to Amy; "well... your parents aren't magically gifted are they? Neither your father or your mother?"

((sorry als dit een beetje een crap-post is, maar Amy stelt me toch wel erg moeilijke vragen zo vroeg sochtends XD))

((Het was niet zo vroeg 's ochtends ))

Amy nodded when Maudre checked if neither of her parents where magically gifted.
"That's true," she answered, "but does that mean that I'm the first in multipule generations that is capable of magic again?"

Maudre nodded slowly; “it’s possible, yes. At least, it’s rare but sometimes the gift of magic does skip certain generations… though the longest gap to my knowledge has been two generations.” She fell silent for a moment, then sighed; “finding out what exactly happened there might prove one hell of a project.”

She walked over to the window, staring out for a moment in thought. Then she turned to Amy once again; “perhaps I should explain a little about how family trees and de heritability of magic works before we look any further?” she suggested with a smile.

“You may already know this, but women are more prone to the magical gift than men. I’d say it’s about a 7 to 3 distribution. Even within magical families, it’s far less likely that men inherit the magical abilities of their mother – to be complete, I should add that there’s no difference in magical strength between men and woman… though I do sometimes insinuate that to the grumpy old m- I mean, the other school board members, when I feel like yanking their chain,” she added with a cheeky grin.

She went on in a more serious tone again: “anyway, because women are more likely to continue the family’s magical line, magical families have the custom of passing on the woman’s last name in marriage, rather than the man’s name – otherwise there’d be practically no long-lasting magical family name. So for starters, that’s something you should consider when looking into your family tree.”

Amy listened curiously to what Maudre was telling her. Somehow she had always known the blessing and curse of magic was more often for women then for men. She had no idea how she knew that though, just a feeling in a away.
"I think I need to write a letter to my parents..." she had always just assumed Lock was her fathers family name, but then again it could be her mothers family name. She needed to have it double checked before she could really look into her family history.
"What was our family like when you where my age?" she then asked Maurde, wanting to learn whatever she could about her family even if it was just about one generation.

Maudre nodded agreeingly when Amy said she should write to her parents. It would probably save them a lot of time if they knew a little more details.

Then Amy asked what her family was like when she was young. She frowned a little puzzled and asked in reply: "how young? And what do you mean exactly, when you ask what it was like?"

"Like when you where a student here?" Amy asked in response to the first question rather fast. About the second one she had to think for a few moments on how to best put to words what she had meant.
"Well were your parents and siblings gifted?" she started of, "And I overheard someone say that the school should be only for those of noble standing again. Was our family of noble standing? And if so what happened...?"

Maudre couldn't help but chuckle; "my, that's a LONG time ago!" she mused.

The next question didn't seem to amuse her though. She scraped her throat before awnsering, at which time her pet phoenix – which was looking rather old and dull at the moment – joined them. He flew down and took its place at the end of Maudre’s desk, where a branch-like, curly decoration formed a nice extremity for it to sit on. Maudre smiled at the creature and stroked it over its head once gently before replying:

“Well yes... in the old days the magic school - the entire magic community actually, was far more restrictive. Only humans with magical powers were allowed to be taught magic, and then even only the rich. My family wasn't rich, but we were one of the oldest lines of wizards and witches known, which was probably the only reason why I was ever let in here..." She had a dark look on her face as she spoke of it, though her expression brightened as she grinned; "helping bring that system down I must still consider one of my greatest victories."

She turned more serious again as she continued about her family; "both my father and my mother were magically gifted. I had one older sister who was magically gifter and one younger sister who wasn't." She frowned once again, though it was sad this time, frustrated too maybe.
She looked at Amy with a stern expression; "in those days, the high and mighty of the magical world had decided that people with no magical power were of no use to them. Even though they were perfectly fine, perfectly normal people they would sometimes be treated as if they should be pittied, or avoided... as if they were somewhat less than everyone else."

She turned her gaze out the window, wrapping her arms over each other. "As I said, my younger sister had no magical gift. And though we refused to treat her any less for it, the rest of the community didn't share our 'leanient attitude', as they so sarcastically called it. When she was old enough, she left home for the human cities."

Maudre sighed, still sad but ending in a smile as she turned to Amy; "I think it might be possible she was your great-great-etc-great grandmother...?"

Amy smiled when Maudre chuckled and said that it was a long time since she had first attended the school. She tilted her head a little when the phoenix flew in through the window, wondering if Maudre had called it or if it came in on it's own.
Her smile because slightly awestruck when Maudre told her that they where from one of the oldest known lines of witches and wizards. She hadn't really expected her family to have been noble ones, there would have been more recorded history if that where the case. When she heard that in the 'old days' people who weren't capable of magic where pitied and avoided her smile dissapeared. It stung a little that the community that she was born into had ones been almost as bad as the king's 'anti nonhuman' law.
"Who knows..." she mused when Maudre said that her younger sister may have been her great to the something grandmother.
"Where did you live?" she then asked, "Before you moved into the castle. Does the house still exist?"

Maudre shook her head; "no. Even though we were in high standing, we weren't at all rich. So as soon as all the children had moved out, my parents sold the mansion.
My older sister could've saved the mansion but she didn't. She married her way back into health, but broke with us shortly after that; her husband was very much in line with the then current norm that non-magical people should be treated like freaks. He didn't want her to have anything more to do with us - us people who wanted magical and non-magical people to live amongst eachother normally - or so I heard... And she parted from us without another word. The mansion was torn down a couple of years later."

Amy couldn't help but feel and probably look a little dissapointed when Maudre said that the mansion she had grew up in had been torn down. She would have liked to visit it, if it had still been standing, though she wasn't sure why.
"So your older sister cut off all contact because of her rich husband and your younger sister moved away so to be more excepted as a person..." she sumed up for herself, depressing her a little. She had hoped for a happier story, but then again this was real life and not a fairy tale.
"Why didn't you get married?"
It was a bold question, or assumption really, but Amy hoped that it wasn't too bold. She was still curious to Maudre's time as student here.

At that, a grin returned to Maudre's face. "I wasn't meant for marriage, I think. Not to any of the old sods that proposed anyway."

"That and despite my great potion-making skills, I couldn't cook a meal to save my life. Men seemed to think that really important at the time." At that last, she didn't make it entirely sure whether she was joking or not.

It was a relief to Amy to see Maudre grinning again, despite the boldness of her question, or maybe even because of it.
Somehow a part of her was surprised to hear that she couldn't cook to save her life. Her mother hadn't let her leave the house before she was certain she could cook at least as good as her. But then again Amy had also enheritated her love for cooking from her mother.
"So what was it like here for you," she then asked, "when you where a student, I mean."

Maudre looked at Amy for a moment, with a hint of surprise in her eyes. Despite being a big and important member of the magic community and the school (or perhaps because of it) she rarely was asked personal questions like this. Why wasn't she married, or [what her student life had been like...?[/i]

She had to think for a moment before she could awnser; those days were so far behind her it almost felt like trying to remmeber a dream after waking up.
When she did remember a slightly awkward expression came to her face; "I spent a lot of time studying, I remember that much."

She pondered it a moment longer; "things were a lot stricter though. Teachers were definetly in higher standing then than they are now, and students knew better than to cross them - being 'disciplined' did really mean something different then, than it does now. There was this kindoff attitude that students should feel very happy and honoured that they had the oppertunity to study magic here, so student rights weren't that much of a concept yet. The school was also smaller - of course - as a lot less people were alowed. I think that there were only... maybe a 100 students here when I arrived. Also, the stables were still in use then, as it was quite normal for people of higher standing - meaning pretty much all the students and staff - to own a horse or something of the sort."

She pondered it for a couple of moments longer; "in a lot of ways though, it was like it is now to be a student here. You had friends, and *ahum* less-than-friends, classes and homework..."

She looked at Amy a little questioningly, not sure whether to go on (or where to go on, if Amy wanted her to).

Amy couldn't help but grin a little when Maudre told her that she had spend most of her time studying. It made her feel connect to her in a way. It also made her wish she had had the change to get to know more relatives.
She couldn't really imagine the school only housing a hundred students. And she didn't even wanted to imagine what it must have been like without student rights. A part of her wondered what it must have been like to been surrounded by people of noble standing and or rich families while not being from either yourself. But a different question had bubbled itself up into her mind.
"You said that our family is one of the oldest known lines of witches and wizards," she said thoughtfully, "do you know how old our family line is then?"

Maudre didn't have to think about this awnser for long; it was a question she frequently ran in against.

Before she was an accomplished witch, she constantly was made feel like she had something to prove. At first it was some of her more snobby fellow-students that demanded to know of her what made her so special that she could study at the Magic School despite not being of noble blood. Several teachers didn't differ from them much, so again she had to explain about her family. Even afterwards, when she was an adult peers and colleges still seemed intriged to know about her family.

"It's not entirely sure how old our family is," Maudre replied to Amy, "but we go at least 6000 years back. Perhaps we're older, that's not entirely certain. There was a great war somewhere 6000 years ago, you see, and most if not everything from before that time is either destroyed or lost."

Maudre sighed; "and when I was young - don't ask me why - the magic community seemed to really cherish old magical families, probably according to the same dent logic that they excluded people without magical gifts. Either way, we are one of the oldest magical families, a shared first place along with two or three others."

This information left Amy awestruck. She was, possibly/probably, the youngest witch in a bloodline that was possibly over 6000 years old. It suddenly made her feel very insignificant. But that should also mean that when she would find the right family name to research on she should be capable of finding something.
"So it doesn't really makes a different to be from a very old line or whether you are more or less the first in a new line...?" she asked then thought a moment longer and curiously asked, "Who are the other families? And let me guess Sameea from one of the lines right?"

Maudre shrugged; "it doesn't matter much anyway. It's still considering a status thing, sortoff, but in practise it accounts for little."

She looked down for a moment, then back at Amy and added; "I suppose it depends on who you're talking to. Most people nowadays, especially young people, won't think any different of someone from an old family than someone from a young family. Older people might still think it important."

Maudre's experession brightened up, and she chuckled as Amy pulled a face and asked if Sameea's family was an old family as well. "Well yes, the White family is very old too."

Maudre hessitated for a moment, then asked; "do you even know my last name?"

Amy couldn't help but roll her eyes a little when Maudre confirmed that Sameea was from on old family. No doubt did Sameea think it important to be from an old family because it adds status to her being.
She did frown for a confused moment when Maudre asked if she knew her last name. A few moment past and she suddenly realised that she had never heard Maudre's last name. Ever since she had discovered that they where related she had more or less asumed that they had the same last name.
"I thought that it was Lock..." she answered a little confused still, "Like mine..."

Maudre chuckled, then jokingly warned Amy; "don't break your head over it if you can't remember it straight away. Some haven't been able to get it right ever, even after several decades...! Anyway, my family name is Declausura. Maudre Winnifred Griselda Declausura."

She paused there for a second, then dryly added; "you might understand why I prefer to go through life as just 'Maudre'."

'Declausura...' Amy thought, it sounded familiar. It took her a few moments before she could place it with the right language. Having learned so many new ones thanks earth magic.
"Of lock..." she said when she had finally placed it, "It's latin... right? But yeah I understand why you prefer just going by Maudre."