✓ | Constellations; Fred Weasley [Book One]

Chapter 17

Confessions

As she had promised, Venus sneaked some food out of the kitchen to give to her father. Now that the map was with Remus, she could only hope that he did not realise what she was doing. Given the fact that only her and Sirius knew about the latter's innocence at the time, she would have been labelled as a traitor for sure. This time, she had not been able to spend much time with her father since it was nearly time for dinner, and if she was late, she would have to answer questions about her whereabouts and she preferred to avoid it.

It was not long everyone had stuffed their face with food, that she found herself in the Gryffindor common room. Ron, Hermione and Harry were sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace. The trio seemed quite tensed. Venus did not interfere. Instead, she quietly followed the twins and Lee up to their room. The first time she had snuck in there, a few nasty rumours were spread. The boys and her had tracked down the person that started the rumours. It had turned out to be Tyler Scott, a Gryffindor in their year, who had started it out of spite since Venus had rejected him. He had been the victim of one of the quartet's best pranks. It was safe to say the boy would not do anything as such ever again.

"My Queen, if you would be as kind to tell us the reason of our last minute gathering here," George said as each of the best friends took a seat on the four poster beds in the room.

"My fellow Knights, we have gathered here today as I have some news of utmost importance to announce," the girl drawled on dramatically. The boys looked at her expectantly. None of them had an idea of what she was about to say and everyone was in suspense. Venus closed her eyes and took a deep breath, hoping not to receive any negative reactions, although she knew that was highly unlikely because her father was viewed as a criminal.

"Sirius Black is my father," she stated calmly.

"Black is your what?" Lee asked, his mouth agape and eyes as wide as saucers. He muttered an 'ouch' when George's pillow hit him on his face.

"But your last na-" Lee started but was interrupted when another pillow smacked onto his face.

"So?" Fred asked, "How does that change anything?"

"It doesn't? You don't hate me?" Venus did not know where the insecurity was coming from, since she has never been this way. She was a strong willed, confident girl. Seeing her insecure, the boys moved from their beds, over to her and pulled her in a group hug.

"Why would we hate you? Being Black's daughter doesn't change you. You're still you," George said. Venus smiled softly at the boys. She wanted to tell them more, about her father's innocence but the probability of a negative reaction at that was high since everyone believed that Sirius tried to kill Ron after the last time he got in the Gryffindor Tower. Still, Venus did not want to lie to the boys anymore. Not telling them the whole truth would only make them more suspiscious of her.

"Actually, there's more to it. I don't know if you'll believe me but I swear I am not lying. My father, he is innocent," the girl said. This time everyone was taken aback.

"But he tried to kill Ron," Fred exclaimed and Venus winced at that.

"He didn't. He tried to kill the rat."

"Scabbers? What does that rat have to do with this?" George asked.

"Everything. It's not just any rat, boys. It's an animagus by the name of Peter Pettigrew. He was the one who had killed all those muggles on Halloween 1981. He's the reason Harry's parents and my mum is dead. He bloody framed my father for everything."

"Well that is one hell of news," Lee said. This time Fred was the one who hit him with a pillow. Venus giggled, happy that she had been insecure and afraid for nothing.

"How have I never noticed Peter Pettigrew next to Ron's bed for the past three years?" George held out the map, showing the rest of them. 

"To be fair, none of us ever did. I only noticed that awhile ago," Venus admitted.

"We'll help you to prove your pop's innocence," Lee said.

"Yes, we just have to convince Ron to give us the rat," Fred told him.

"He's bloody attached to it," George added.

"It's fine boys. Do not fret. My father said he had a plan and he did not want me to get involved." Venus smiled at them and decided to change the topic.

"So what is our next prank and who is our next victim?" The girl asked.

"Malfoy," the twins said simultaneously.

"Of course, the git tried to scare Harry in the last match, didn't he?" Venus asked. She had not attended the match but she did hear about it afterwards, that Draco and his two friends had dressed up as Dementors and had tried to scare Harry so that Gryffindor would not win.

"So what are we going to do?" Lee asked.

"Let's scare him," she stated, the corners of her lips tugging into a devilish smirk.

After discussing their plans, Venus had not gone back to the Ravenclaw Tower. They were all tired and the girl did not feel like walking down two floors and then going up again, through the spiral staircase to reach her common room. Like numerous times before, she took the spare bed to herself and fell asleep, hoping to wake up quite early so she could sneak back in her dorm, unnoticed.