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Homeschooled because her grandmother did not trust in sending her to the Junior Academy for an upstanding education, as far as she was concerned it was over run by muggles and mudbloods and Thorine was not to associate herself with these. So she taught the girl everything she knew at home. Rosemerta was highly accomplished in potions and the dark arts.
When Thorine’s parents went to fight along side Voldemort, she got left with the family Matriarch Rosemerta Dolohov. Thorine liked her well enough but when word came that Salazare Dolohov was killed on the Hogwarts school grounds and her mother and uncle were captured and sent to Azkaban along with her grandfather. Two things happened. Thorine cried and Thorine was beaten.
Her grandmother saw any show or display of emotion as a weakness and every time thereafter that Thorine showed any, delight in the success of a spell; frustration when a potion went awry; anger when she had chores to do - her grandmother would release the 'canes' three charmed old shikomizues. Her grandfather had returned from his travels many many years ago with these. They were beautiful and very rare. Delicately folded steel of the finest blade concealed within walking sticks.
Rosemerta referred to them as her 'hounds' and when she was not happy with Thorine she unleashed them, literally. First she would be beaten by the three wooden canes and eventually depending on the crime at hand the swords would unsheath themselves and begin whipping her too. The pain was always fierce the damage done was always terrible. But her grandmother was a healer and would leave Thorine suffer first before restoring her granddaughter to her former unblemished, unscarred self.
This went on for many years until Thorine reached the age of 12. The incident of the cat. When her grandmother did not bother to use the 'hounds' but chose instead to punish her herself. It was the first and last time Rosemerta attempted to strike her granddaughter. Thorine may have been no match for the swords and canes but for this elderly woman who had taught her a considerable amount. Thorine was matched well enough . Her displays of emotion had grown less and less as the years progressed. She now felt as cold inside as she looked outside. Her grandmother got one blow in with one of the unsheathed swords. Right across Thorines shoulders. Thorine stood up and stared right at her. She did not cry, she did not shout. The pain was her reward, her controlling of it was her gift back to her grandmother. Rosemerta had looked at her granddaughters face that day and knew she would no longer have to resort to the 'hounds'. Thorine refused to let her heal the scar across her shoulders and though now it is a long thin silvery line across her shoulder blades, it is her only scar and one she wears with pride.
Thorine was pale from lack of sunshine or outdoor pursuits. Her days were taken up studying the lessons her grandmother gave her. She grew taller, thinner and more and more beautiful on the outside. On the inside, any goodness that an innocent child might have was slowly being killed, Thorine was being trained by her grandmother to be one of the best death eaters imaginable. She had a name to carry and the family reputation to uphold. And Thorine knew she would do so, whatever the cost.
When her letter arrived from Hogwarts, Thorine did not beg to attend but told her grandmother that she would be going. The woman refused until a visit from the new headmistress occurred and she was given no choice in the matter. Every child was entitled to proper education. The experience was a shock to her system, she was finally interacting with her peers. She wasn’t sure she liked any at all but befriended a few eventually. Her aloof demeanour set her apart and her bizarre behaviour at times made other students consider her ‘crazy’ – it is rumoured that one particular student likened her to the madness of Bellatrix LeStrange. Whatever events arose afterwards are now unclear but Thorine’s wand was temporarily confiscated and the girl given one entire term of detention.
When she turned 17 years old, on this day like so many of her birthdays she knew her gift from her grandmother would be some advanced spell or hard lesson. The grandmother refused to stop teaching her on the holidays, convinced that Hogwarts taught nothing useful. She raised her body from the bed and padded on bare feet across the wooden floor of her room. Goia their house elf had already been and set the fire to a warming glow. Thorine spread her hands in front and warmed them slightly. Returning to her bed she pulled wand from beneath her pillow, she sat on her bed and flicked her wand in the direction of the dresser then summoned her dress and robes, her stockings and shoes. The underage trace had been lifted from her wand and she felt a strange sense of power as a result. Silently she got dressed; one would never think to look at her that this was her birthday at all. Slowly she made her way downstairs passing their house elf Goia on the stairs. The house elf stopped and bowed to her. The only heir to their line, Goia knew to stay in the good graces of this Dolohov.
“Your Grandmother said to go straight to the parlor Miss” he said in his crackly old voice as he remained bowed.
“Thank you” Thorine said continuing straight there. Her grandmother was seated in a chair at the far end of the room.
“I have a lesson for you today. Take a seat.”
Thorine sat in the chair by the window and looked at her grandmother with an impassive face.
She neither said anything nor was expected too.
“I am going to teach you two things over the next few years you are proficient in all your other subjects but this is extra work. This they would not teach you in Hogwarts. I am going to show you how to clear your mind so another cannot read your thoughts. I am going to teach you how to erase certain thoughts so those trying to read your mind will be fooled by the false memories and feelings you have implanted for them to read. I am going to teach you how to reach deep into someone else’s mind and rip them open, devour them”.
Rosemerta Dolohov watched the pale face of her granddaughter which was unreadable. She had done well with her so far, just this was next and her grandchild would be ready for the world outside and whatever the DE needed her for, for Rosemerta did not believe for one moment that they had all disbanded. Lord Voldemorts believes still ran strong in her and she knew it would with other families. Thorine inclined her head and waited for instruction. None came, her grandmother stared at her and suddenly Thorine’s head felt as if someone was piercing it. Delving deep into her subconscious. Without bidding them, images of her parents, of her with them, of previous classes with her grandmother, of the beatings with the ‘hounds’ all came flooding into her mind. Her hands reached for her head and realized then that all her previous training meant nothing up against this onslaught. Thorine screamed in anger, expecting her grandmother to brandish the shikomizues. But none came. Her grandmother stood up and gave an uncustomary smile.
“That Thorine is Legilimency and you will be an expert at it by the time I am through with you. You will be able to navigate the minds of any powerful person” Her grandmother walked slowly towards her.
Thorine was still seated; her hands fell to her sides. Her head hurt, ached incredibly she watched her grandmother wearily. What else had she in store for her?
“I will teach you this and how to blank your mind and feelings so no-one can do that to you” she told her granddaughter with a sneer across her face.
“You will be a formidable opponent my child, mark my words”….
The old woman never got to teach her, later that day she died alone in her room choking on a chicken bone as their house elf scrubbed in the kitchen and Thorine practiced her lessons. With her death, Thorine was at last free to live a normal life . She had changed considerably from the small girl that had first entered its doors. Her youthful body had grown tall and statuesque; she had a willowy frame and was quite beautiful in her own way. Porcelain features and long blonde hair. She looked like a doll but was any thing but. The woman who had just died had made sure of this. For years she had dedicated her life to teaching her granddaughter every spell and charm imaginable from jinxes to shields, hexes to healing spells and curses. She could perform basic spells and advanced. She could brew potions that would make any alchemist jealous and if the old woman had lived she may have been the greatest Occlumens and Legilimens of her day. Thorine determined however that just because her grandmothers teachings were lost to her, did not mean she would or could never learn them. She would find someone else willing to teach her – it would just be finding such a person. She lives still at the house with her house elf.
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