"We should have talked about it before he died. But you were away so often, and it was hardly a discussion we could have at an Order meeting, was it? Never tell me that James did not trust you. He trusted all of us, and look where that got him." Sirius cleared his throat, turning away to covertly wipe a few tears. It was obvious now. Sirius may have survived prison without physical scars, but not without mental ones. Looking over his friend again, it was clear in the tense arch of his shoulders and the madness in his eyes.
"I guess I was madder at you than I had thought," Sirius said. "I've had twelve years to hold grudges I guess. I think I should leave now." Remus nodded. He wanted to say something but wasn't sure what could possibly make things better.
"Congrats on your freedom, Sirius," he murmured, and they parted ways.
...
Dolores Umbridge was acting… well, Jasmine did not want to be rude, but honestly, she didn't even know how to phrase it nicer than absolutely insane. Over the past week, she'd grown sickly and pale, faint tremors moving through her hands. If Yaxley did not know the woman so well, she would have assumed she'd gotten ahold of some drugs. But Dolores was the type to alert the aurors if she even got a whiff of someone using Quixlan's Pepper-Up formula (a perfectly legal, mild stimulant) at work. But either she was huffing Fae Dust or she'd been hiding a serious illness for most of the year.
Either way, her increasingly old-fashioned and unpopular decisions regarding her Educational Degrees were really starting to cause trouble. Jasmine Yaxley had pried a decree enabling corporeal punishment out of the hands of Argus Filch just a few days prior. She'd gone immediately to Dolores, but the woman only giggled and declared that it was perfectly legal all the while shaking and murmuring about shadows and cupboards and other nonsense. The Minister had signed off on all of Umbridge's actions, but legality and morality were not the same and it would ruin everything if it got out that they allowed such a thing. She made a quiet notion to have Filch removed, but it was looking like nothing would be done about Dolores.
"Has Fudge gotten back to you yet?" Hermapheous questioned.
"He's not going to help," Jasper insisted again. "It will make the Ministry look bad if he recalls her now. We've only just finished our proposal. If we go into negotiations with the Board of Governors with one member gone because she's bloody lost it, then all of this will be for nothing. Hell, Fudge'll probably sack us too."
"So we stand by and do nothing? It hurts the Ministry worse if it gets out that the Minister has sanctioned spanking children!"
"She wouldn't dare touch any of the pureblood children, it's very unlikely that things would become a scandal," Hermapheous said in an assuring voice. Jasmine threw up her arms in frustration.
"Jas, calm down. It's not our place to disagree with the Minister. Please drop it."
She sighed. That was the crux of it, wasn't it? Their world did not take well to change, to questions, to differences. If their group wanted any chance of getting Hogwarts back up to muster, they had to stay in their lane. But Jasmine could not strike the feeling that letting this continue was going to blow up in their faces.
...
"I don't fucking understand it! How could he possibly have thought I would kill my brother!" Sirius was crying, which was extremely awkward since he was an adult and Alabasandria did not think it would be appropriate to offer him some ice cream.
Nodding and humming were working wonders but it would not last forever. He threw himself on the couch and looked over towards her with his very sad eyes. "Do I seem like the type of guy to kill my brother?"
"No, you are unhealthily loyal to your friends and Harry to the point of codependency. It makes no sense to me that people genuinely thought you would have betrayed the Potters."
He laughed. Of course, none of the people who had known him for years had sided with him, but the emotionless necromancer had. A lot of people had sent him letters since the news had broken, mostly heartfelt words about how happy they were to have been proven wrong. It was all empty words. He sniffled and reached for the bottle of alcohol, but Alabasandria kicked it away. He had already consumed more than enough.
"Do you have any family?" He asked her suddenly.
"No."
"Oh come on, you've heard more than your fair share of my problems. I barely know anything about you. Why don't you have any family? Are they dead? How old are you anyway?"
"All my fellow Adamses are long dead. I was born and raised in Egypt, where my mother was from. My father was from the British branch of Adams and left to go help in what was becoming an all-out war against the Dark Arts and he died shortly thereafter. My mother also died a few years after that. This was all a good few hundred years ago, give or take some hundreds."
"Is it necromancy-religion taboo to ask how old you are?" He asked lightheartedly.
"It's rude to ask any lady that in general."
"Fine! Well, you're aging gracefully," he said with a laugh. "Glacially, even. Since I have to assume you were born in the time of Merlin."
"Oh Hades, no, I'm not that old!"
"I would hate to live forever," he sighed, thinking it over. "What's the point if you don't have people to spend eternity with? It sounds more like a curse than a blessing."
"Necromancers are usually weaned off any need for companionship quite early. As long as you keep busy, eternity isn't too bad."
"So all necromancers act like you?"
"The ones that managed to stay alive for more than a few years, yes."
"What about Harry? He really loves you, ya know."
She wrinkled her nose at the thought.
"What do you expect me to say? I know he does. If he was smart, he wouldn't. Every single problem he's caused is because of his affection for others, it clouds his judgment."
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/InfinityWeaver
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon