All in the Family

Chapter 119: Occlumency

Frank still felt like he was falling and moving for a very long time even after he felt the cold surface on his face, and pushed himself onto hands and knees.

They were almost in total darkness, only the burn of a blue light leaving streaks across their eyes and slowly dimming to guttural torches in the wall barely illuminated anything. It was just shadows of on top of nothingness, the floor they were on had the exact same depth and shape as the endless black ceiling above. Padfoot was almost indistinguishable except his flashing eyes.

When finally he did get unsteadily to his feet and offered Alice a hand up, their eyes only just dimly took in the doors surrounding them on all sides, and they all huddled closer together in the center. Nobody was going to ask if they should try those out.

Nobody declared where they were for reassurance, but nobody was being attacked either. They just hovered in this endless void until finally the silence became too much. Alice needed a sense of purpose right now, so she took an uneasy breath, and summoned the book to her.

There was no telling which directioned it zoomed from, it just blended in too well with this place. Frank lit the tip of his wand for a better light source than those dusky blue flames, but the chapter title illuminated nothing, they'd never heard of Occlumency.

Regulus frowned in sympathy for Kreacher being found up in the attic after all this time, and wondered if his old elf missed him and was hiding in his favorite spot. Had his parents even mourned his passing, or instead toasted his goodbye as a good one, since he'd died doing exactly what they wanted? Did Sirius even care, or was he still busy mourning Potter and had only mentioned him as a passing thought? Was Kreacher the only one in that place who would even miss him?

He wasn't the only one noticing this detail though, and caught Peter's eyes which were just as worried.

Peter didn't at all like how this was so utterly dismissed by the Sirius in the book, nor how everyone in here just scoffed at his name again and passed over it. He couldn't entirely blame them, after his shrine felt like an extra blow to the back, but his thoughts lingered on Dobby. He may have been the first house-elf they'd heard doing such a thing as going behind their master's back, but that didn't mean he'd be the only one.

Everyone's attention was diverted to the latest development, Snape. Taking private lessons with Harry?!

"Dumbledore's really trying to kill my kid, isn't he?" James asked faintly. His two friends shivered in particular disgust for how pale he suddenly looked in this shadowy place, it really brought up the ghost in him he'd be at the time.

"Oh don't be so dramatic!" Lily rolled her eyes at him, she was even smiling of all things. "This is the kindest thing I've heard Sev do this whole time! He doesn't like being around Harry, but he's taking the time to teach him personally!"

Frank couldn't help but still think her rather naive. After everything they'd heard him doing, she still somehow thought that?

It wasn't just his utter amazement though.

"Don't be daft Evans!" Potter actually snapped at her. "I'm starting to wonder if Occlumency is a poison he's going to slip him or something, how can you even pretend he's still even a decent person after all he's done!"

She riled up in frustration, and to everyone's amazement the two began a bickering round, but one they hadn't seen in quite some time now. The last fight they'd really had was back on the Knight Bus, and he'd believed just as firmly as she had the crimes Sirius had been accused of. A lot had changed since then.

Clearly not enough.

In the meantime they'd been almost passively ignoring each other, even cordial the past few interactions. Whoever would have thought he'd now find himself agreeing with James Potter Lily still needed a reality check.