Chapter 31
HERMIONE GRANGER
Cassius Malfoy was a liar. He presented himself as this jolly, uncaring, and suave boy, yet the truth was nothing like that. He was smart, meticulous, and far more caring than he liked to show.
Hermione had been worried about him ever since he had helped expose the treachery of Peter Pettigrew. And that worry had only grown when she had received a letter from Daphne mentioning how Cassius had been disinherited from his family.
She had read up a bit on the pureblood families and their traditions, so she knew just the kind of implications it held, yet much like most of the other things, Cassius had simply shrugged it off like nothing, joking and japing about it with them.
And though the three of them may pretend that it worked, yet she had begun to see through it all, just like Daphne. He had small tells, and she had begun to catch them, like the wait in his response, the crinkling of the skin around his eyes, and the way he smiled.
Sometimes, while conversing with him, she felt herself becoming a detective like Sherlock Holmes, trying to sift through the truths and the half-truths.
A few weeks had passed since her return, and he had given the three of them a lengthy hour-long speech, assuring them that his disinheritance was but a small matter and that he had things handled. He had refused any help from any of them as they entered the last part of their term.
Teachers had already completed their syllabus, and now most of them had even begun their preparations for the finals. After some lengthy conversations with Professor McGonagall, she had decided to give up on Divination and Muggle Studies, choosing to focus all her energies on the rest of the subjects.
The time she gained from it was spent tutoring Harry and Ron, both of whom had begged her to help them prepare for the finals. She had been reluctant to agree, but in the end, she could not find it in herself to refuse Harry, and so she was forced to divide her week into two parts.
She spent half of it with Cassius and his group, while the rest she spent trying to tutor Harry and Ron to help them in their studies.
"Merlin's bollocks!" Ron lashed out as he slapped his book shut with frustration.
"Why the hell did I ever choose Divination?" he sighed, and it was the only subject where she could not help them.
"Because you thought it would be an easy A," she replied as the three of them sat holed up in front of the Common room's fireplace.
"How the hell am I supposed to remember all these symbols and their meanings?" he asked, turning towards Harry, who shrugged.
"I bet runes is a lot easier," he said, making her scoff.
"Do you really think learning old archaic languages would be easier than learning a few symbols and their meanings?" she challenged as his face paled.
"No," he finally realized his mistake and deflated, as Harry added from the side.
"I heard Wood mention that the Professor does not bother much with details," and she rolled her eyes, for she should have expected that.
"He said that you can write anything you want as long as you give yourself a misery-filled future, she will give you a good grade," and Ron's eyes lit up, yet before he could jump away she decided to cut in.
"That may be, but she will not be your examiner for the OWLS," she warned him.
"If you don't study this now, you will have a lot of trouble then," but Harry had done the damage already.
"Who cares about the OWLS? They are years away, we will worry about them when the time comes," he argued, and with that, he leaned back.
"I am just going to relax, and then for the exam, I am simply going to write all the worst kind of predictions I can. I might even see a grim in my cup," and she slapped his wrist with her pen, having learned the habit from Daphne.
"Ouch!" he screamed in pain.
"You are going to study them all, or I will not be helping you anymore in any subject," she warned him as he rubbed his wrist.
"Where did the nice Hermione go?" he called out, and indeed her friendship with Cassius and the rest had changed her, it had made her a bit more assertive and out going.
"Book! Now!" she commanded, as Ron nodded, mouthing out.
"At least I won't have to suffer like this tomorrow," he added, making her frown.
"Why?" she asked, and at her words both Harry and Ron looked at each other.
"Don't tell me you have forgotten?" Ron asked, and nothing clicked.
"What?" she asked, oblivious as Harry finally gave the answer.
"The Finals, Hermione! The Quidditch Finals," and in her worries and troubles, she had completely forgotten about them somehow.
"It's tomorrow?" she asked, and Harry nodded.
"Yeah, Ravenclaw faces Slytherin." Now it made sense why Cassius had rescheduled their meetings this week.
"You completely forgot about it. How does one do that? How does one forget about Quidditch?" Ron added, acting in a perplexed manner, as if it did not make sense at all.
"Your boyfriend's playing that match," and the words seemed to stun both her and Harry as she felt her face flush.
"He is not my boyfriend," she retorted as Ron scoffed.
"Yeah, as if," but he was wrong.
"He is not. We are just friends," she added, and the redhead gave her a look before he added gravely.
"Hermione, you are the smartest witch, but sometimes you can be very dumb," and the words embarrassed her as her face flushed.
"The whole School is cheering for Ravenclaw. It has been years since they won it, and no one really likes the Slytherins," and that was not strange. The Slytherin team had enjoyed a dominance for quite some years now and had only been challenged last year by Gryffindor.
"But the odds aren't in their favor," Ron added, sulking as he added enthusiastically.
"Slytherin got the Firebolt. Those cheaters," but that was not against the rules.
"Maybe, but Cassius is a better flyer. And his broom is no joke either," Harry added.
"But it's not a Firebolt. The Malfoys are wealthy, so why show favouritism to the eldest child? If they can get Draco a Firebolt, why haven't they gotten the other one the same broom? Ron added, looking towards her.
"Because he is no longer even a Malfoy," and much to her surprise, the words had come from Harry, rather than herself, as both her and Ron's heads snapped towards Harry, though for different reasons.
"What?" Ron asked in surprise.
"How?" she asked as Harry blinked rapidly before his eyes widened as he realized what he had just let slip.
.
.
.
Once the discussion turned towards Quidditch, it was impossible to turn it back. And so, after an hour-long explanation from herself about Cassius's disinheritance, the red-head's impression of the younger twin had changed even more than before.
Still, her mind kept going back to the fact that Harry seemed aware of the whole thing as well. Cassius's disinheritance was no secret. She knew for herself that the topic had been mentioned in gossip a bit, but it was not something that would have reached Harry's ears easily.
"So, you know about Cassius's disinheritance as well?" she said as Ron went on to meet with Dean and the rest to prepare for the game tomorrow.
Harry nodded guiltily as he took a bite of chocolate.
"Yes, Sirius told me about it," and that was a surprise.
"And who told him?" and at that, Harry shrugged.
"Dumbledore," and the Headmaster was the head of the Wizengamot, and, given the crisis at the Ministry, held a great deal of power in his hands.
"Sirius is his uncle in a way," and Harry nodded.
"Yes. He was a cousin to his mother before he was kicked out of the family himself, and he did mention that this was his fault. But he plans to make up for it," and she had an idea about how he was involved in all of it.
And speaking of Sirius, the man had finally left St.Mungos and was trying to rebuild his life.
"How is he, Sirius?" she asked, and Harry's face lit up. It always did at the mention of his godfather.
"Good. Very good, he writes to me every other day. I have told him about you and Ron, and he is very excited to meet you both." It was beneficial for Harry to have a responsible adult in his life, although the latter part could be debated when it came to Sirius Black.
"You are staying with him," and at that, Harry's face shifted as he shook his head.
"No, at least not for a month. Dumbledore's insistent that I spend at least a month with the Dursleys," and there was something more to it than that, yet it seemed to her that he did not wish to say, so she did not ask.
"But after that, Sirius will come and take me, and then I will spend the rest of the Summer with him. He plans to ask Ron's and your parents to join us as well. He mentioned a surprise," and she was excited.
"That is generous of him, but I doubt my parents would agree. Both of them have their jobs," and Harry nodded.
"Still, he wanted you to write out their address so he could come and meet them," she said, and he nodded.
"I will write it down," he said, thanking her as he offered her some of his chocolate. Yet she shook her head.
"You know what? I am in the mood for something hot," she said after the chilling nights. As she looked out the window and saw the snow covering everything, her desire grew even more.
"We could ask the twins," Harry suggested, and they could, but she remembered something that Cassius and her friends had told her.
"Oddment, bring me a cup of tea," she voiced out, and yet, much to her dismay, nothing happened.
"What was that, Harry asked?" looking at her strangely.
"Nothing, just a little prank that my friend..." Yet, before she could say anything else, she nearly screamed as two cups of tea appeared right in front of her.
"What the...." yet she stopped herself as she saw that it was just some tea.
"It worked. But How?"
0000
AMELIA BONES
A few weeks had passed since she had received the offer from Tonks' enigmatic client, and Amelia had spent nearly every waking moment thinking about it. Despite Fudge's incompetence, the man still held a commanding lead over her, and if she were to have any chance of taking him out, she needed to win over the moderates.
She had tried to talk to the Grey faction, hoping to make them see reason, yet in the end, her abrupt action against Malfoy had done her more harm than good in the long term, as the people saw it more as vengeance rather than justice.
And perhaps it was.
Perhaps she really had let her rage blind her for a moment, and now, as she sat in her office, she knew that time was running out. If she were to shift course and try to bring about the change that both she and her brother had once hoped to bring, she needed to act at once.
She needed her actions to be seen as justice rather than vengeance.
"So, do you think I should accept it?" she asked, and though it was a rarity to see Sirius Black being serious, the man was quiet for a time as he sat opposite to her, contemplating her offer.
"Well, I don't know what to say," and Edgar had been a freeing to both him and James, both of them had served under him as Aurors for some time, and so he was amongst the few who shared her pain.
"If it were me, I wouldn't take it," and the words seemed to surprise her as he met her eyes.
"But the smart choice would be to take it," she said, and that made her frown.
"But you said you wouldn't take it," the grey-eyed man said, and he nodded.
"I did, but when have you ever known me to be a smart man," and he finally cracked as he began to chuckle at the jape while she shook her head, exasperated at receiving the same answer from the fifth person she had sought.
"But what about certainty? What do we even know about this strange client of his and their intentions?" that was what worried her more, and yet, much to her surprise, Sirius waved it away.
"I wouldn't worry about that much," he said, and the time at St. Mungo's had done him a great deal of good. Although he was still a bit pale, he was beginning to look like the Auror and Sirius she remembered him to be.
"Why?" she asked, a bit surprised by his words. She had an inkling that this client and Sirius's benefactor were the same people, though she wondered what their connection to Sirius was.
"You can trust them," he assured her as he looked into her eyes.
"You know them," she asked as he evaded her eyes.
"Maybe," and before she could say anything, he quickly.
"And you would have to kill me to speak anymore, but the most I can say is that you can trust them," and that was reassuring.
"If you say so," she said, and then leaned back, closing her eyes.
"Do you think it really was him?" she asked.
"Who?"
"Malfoy. The one who killed Edgar," she elaborated as silence took over the room, until the answer came in a whisper.
"Edgar was one of the best Aurors I knew. To think that he could be killed by someone of Malfoy's calibre..." and he shook his head, as he gave his final verdict.
"No....
.
.
.
A few days later, Ted Tonks sat exactly where Sirius Black sat a few days back as Amelia Bones looked the man in the eye and spoke the damning words.
"I accept your offer." The seasoned lawyer nodded.
"Good. Let us now discuss the specifics..."
0000
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