➥COMPLETED
Nova Black hadn't thought she would ever set a toe behind those thick castle walls she had fought to forget about during the past thirteen years, but here she was at Plattform 9¾, staring at the scarlet train in front of her with wobbly k...
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REMUS' WAND was still pointed at the small box, that now lay still on Dumbledore's desk, eyed suspiciously by not only Nova and the headmaster, but also the Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Snape.
"Well", said Remus, after the small package still didn't show a sign of anything being not utterly normal with it, "it's free from curses and spells. Not a spark of Dark Magic."
"Why again did you think that Sirius Black sent this to you?", asked McGonagall, eyes fixating Nova, who tried to stand her glance without blinking.
"It was delivered anonymous", said Nova.
"Like Harry's broom", Remus added, also not mentioning the small note that had been with the box.
"Maybe you just have a secret admirer", the tiny Professor Flitwick said in an amused voice that had Nova's cheeks flush pink, that did even increase when Remus handed her back the box.
"For all we know", said Dumbledore, "we can only assume that opening the package is safe. Your privacy in all honesty, Nova, but I ask you to open the box during our presence, just in case we have overseen something."
With a knot forming in her throat, Nova nodded, though she would have given anything to not have all the teachers watch her. She knew what the box withheld, and to be utterly honest, she didn't even want to open it. Part of her past lay buried under layers of paper and carton, and Nova wanted it to remain as it was.
"Now, Nova, would you please?"
The headmaster had other plans, and Nova knew that they wouldn't let her walk out of this office with the box still closed. Snape already wore this satisfied grimace on his pale face.
"Maybe Black doesn't want us to know what is inside, because she does already know", he assumed, and Nova shot him a sharp glare.
He wasn't wrong, though, but nothing what he could imagine would be revealed. With shaking fingers she unraveled the thin layer of parchment. Blue velvet sent shivers up the skin of her arm just by brushing it with her bare fingertips, reminding her of what it had felt like to be confronted with this for the first time. She hadn't been older than seventeen ...
Nova did what they expected her to do, so with her eyes closed and inhaling a deep breath, she opened the blue little box, before her eyelids fluttered open again.
There was another note, but with a different handwriting this time. Not as edgy as her brother's, but smooth and floating, readable without much effort, and she touched it without lifting it, fearing to see what was underneath. Instead she read the words over and over again.
» If by my life or death I could save you, I swear I will.
Remember the nights will always be ours.
Love, J. «
And Nova finally found the strength to take the note aside, her vision blurred by tears brimming in the corner of her eyes, when she looked down upon the silver sparkling little piece of jewelry. The note slipped through her fingers, slowly floating towards the ground, but Nova didn't much pay attention to it. Forgotten were the people circling her and watching her every move, as her fingertips met the cold metal of a crescent moon shaped ring. A small diamond sat just inches above the moon, shining like a little star.
Remember the nights will always be ours —
"J.?", Professor McGonagall's voice suddenly crashed through the silence, and Nova quickly closed the box. "Who is J.?"
"Jonathan."
It wasn't Nova's voice to answer this question, and the more she was surprised when she looked up and her eyes connected with Remus'.
"Jonathan?", McGonagall echoed Remus' statement as a question, one of her thin eyebrows lifted. "Jonathan, as in ..."
"Jonathan Potter", Remus voice sounded once more, his eyes still locked with Nova's, and the silence returned. This time, though, it couldn't be banned so easily.
•✧•
"NOVA BLACK had been promised to Rabastan Lestrange", Remus explained a while later, after Nova had left the headmaster's office behind. "One of those arranged marriages. Her father had settled the date on the day of her graduation. Sirius had been out of his mind back then. He tried to get Nova out of there several times, but she had declined. Fear, as we had assumed." He made a pause and rubbed the back of his head, as he exchanged looks with his colleagues and Dumbledore. "I don't exactly know what has happened back then. By this time, I had been underground for a long time. When I returned, it had been impossible to contact anyone. James and Lily had gone into hiding. Sirius and Peter were mistrusting me. Marlene and Dorcas were already dead. Most of the Order was. And those who weren't, they had gone into hiding."
"Jonathan fell the night before Lily and James had lost their lives", said Dumbledore. "I'm not even sure if James ever heard about his brother's death, before he followed him. Johnathan Potter's murder unfortunately wasn't the last crime Rabastan Lestrange could commit, before he was sentenced and sent to Azkaban."
"Frank and Alice", McGonagall said, swallowing thickly, as she nodded. "But what does all of this have to do with Miss Black?"
"Jonathan and Nova were secretly in love", said Remus, ignoring the bitter taste on his tongue. "Jonathan did everything to save Nova, but just like when Sirius tried, Nova didn't want to be saved. She begged Jonathan to stay away from her, but he never gave up on her." Again he paused, remembering the note. "Rabastan must have found out."
"Of course he did", Snape scoffed. "When Rabastan Lestrange left Hogwarts, he didn't leave without making sure the right people had an eye on his future wife. Potter wasn't really subtle around her, after Rabastan was gone, as I had heard."
"And all those years we have wondered ...", Professor McGonagall said, sadness drenching her voice.
Remus shook his head as flashbacks of the war invaded his thoughts; as if he could get rid of them as easy as that ...
"She declined his proposal", he explained to give his mind something different to work with. "She chose the life with Rabastan."
"Trying to keep Jonathan safe", Dumbledore concluded, and Remus nodded, his heart heavier than ever before.
