A/N: So Originally I wanted to give you all two chapters tonight, but the next one still requires heavy editing that I couldn't get done tonight due to Etsy business. If you don't know I run a Wax melt/Candle company that specializes in Fandom scents (I.E. Harry Potter) so I had to get that done today.
No matter. I really liked using this chapter to show the direction the story will be following. I've said it before, I'll say it again, everything in the story matters and everything comes full circle. As always my dear loves, You know I love talking to you in the comments, and I love hearing your theories and predictions.
Happy New Year!
Love and Wheezes
Val
A simple job interview turned out to be more than what Elodie Expected. Will all be as easy as it seems? Or is there something more to the way Sirius looks at her?
~Elodie's POV~
I fiddled with the sleeve of my jumper as I sat in the lobby of the Department of Mysteries. I'd opted for layers today, both to prepare for the cold I remember it being, and to try and hide Guppy a bit. I wanted to actually tell my employer I was pregnant in my own words, not surprise him with it. Minerva hadn't told me too much about Brian Thineus. She said I'd know everything I needed to once I sat down for a meeting.
There wasn't too much preparing I could do before coming in, though I thought bringing in my school records and letters of recommendation would be a good place to start. Women walked by dressed in casual clothing, jeans, and t-shirt under their blazers, making me feel completely overdressed. Though the sounds of their heels clicking on the floor filled the air with a calming sound. A rhythmic sound.
"Mrs. Weasley-Potter?" The receptionist called, pulling my attention back to her. "Brian will see you now," She said with a smile and gestured to the office door behind her.
I stood up, grabbing my bag and my file before walking behind her. "Thank you," I said in a well-mannered form. I entered the office and saw a woman, dressed in high waisted brown trousers with a flowy white top tucked in. I tried to control my face; Minerva hadn't mentioned that Brian was a beautiful, icy haired woman.
"Good morning Mrs. Potter. Or do you prefer Weasley-Potter? We're all on a first name basis here," She asked.
"Weasley-Potter is preferred. My surname is rather mouthful, but Elodie works just as well," I told her as I shook her hand before taking a seat in the chair she gestured to.
"Yes, I see you made a requested name change just before your nuptials. Congratulations on both counts," She said with a warm smile. "Public record, I have to review everyone who I consider for employment before I allow them in. But you've already been here if I'm not mistaken?" She said, closing my file.
"Uhm, yes. That was a bit of a misunderstanding," I said, fearing that I already had made a terrible first impression.
She moved to sit at the front of her desk, leaning back on it casually. "You helped put eleven death eaters in Azkaban. I'd hardly call that a misunderstanding," She said as I let out a breath. "Public record. Now I am looking for someone to assist me on day-to-day tasks. Someone that I can groom to take over the department one day."
"Right, I've brought this for you," I said opening up my file and seeing that Fred had slipped in a spare piece of parchment that said, 'Good Luck'. I grabbed the papers behind it as I bit back a smile. "Even though my examinations were incomplete, I still managed to finish my schooling a year early, with top marks in the N.E.W.T.S that I did complete. And you'll also find that I have letters of Recommendation from nearly all of my professors," I explained nervously.
"Wonderful, I'll give that a look over. But Elodie," She said, stopping my inner thoughts in their tracks. "Breath," She said with a little laugh, to which I joined in. "No need to be nervous. I know you're an excellent student, and a highly gifted witch, which is to be expected, given your additional gifts," She said a bit lower than before. "Based on everything your professors have to say about you, there isn't anything you can't accomplish once you've set your mind to it," She said, tucking the documents I handed to her in with the rest of my file. My life, all tucked away into a manila folder. "Now, the only thing that does concern me is that you didn't finish the Potions portion of your exams," She said.
Fuck. Why did I know that would have been an issue? I was supposed to be taking it when I'd gone on my rescue mission to London. And since I'd decided not to return after that, it was coming around to bite me in the rear end now. Snape would never agree to let me take it now. Not when so much time has passed since the end of exams.
"I am not anything if not open to compromise. Would you be willing to go back and take the appropriate lessons needed to complete your exam at the end of the term? I'd be more than willing to work it into your schedule so you would have the days to go to Hogwarts to take your classes. We can even connect the Floo in your office to give you access if Dumbledore approves, which I don't see why he wouldn't," She said, giving me the option on a silver platter. I'd be a fool not to take it. All I'd have to do was endure Snape about twice a week.
"I'd have my own office?" Was all I could manage to think of.
She let out a little chuckle as she nodded. "Yes, with a salary I believe will keep you very well satisfied, and once you get into the swing of things, you could request an assistant to help with your research and workload," She said. I was waiting for the catch, bigger than just returning to school for my mastery. There had to be something else.
"Brilliant. Yes, of course, I wouldn't mind," I said firmly so she would know it wasn't something I was agreeing to just for the sake of having a job.
"Excellent, now I should warn you, there is a mountain of paperwork you'll need to sign so we can hire you on. For security purposes. Our department is the only in the entire ministry that requires all employees to undergo extensive background checks as well as an interview with our full time Legilimens under Veritaserum. Again, for security. He's also on staff as a full-time healer if you should choose to see him regularly. A service that a great number of our department utilizes," she said, listing off everything that would need to be handled before my offer was set in stone. I was just so happy I still had a career placement. "Mrs. Weasley-Potter, I should warn you, for the purpose of the utmost transparency, this isn't necessarily the easiest department to be a part of. Sometimes, we see and hear things, that tend to linger, people find things about themselves, that are best not found. Are you absolutely certain you want to go through with this?" She asked.
"I have nothing to hide that you probably don't already have in that file of yours," I said honestly. "Except maybe one thing."
***
I sat in the dining room at Sirius and Remus's house, passing around bowls. Fred and George were still at the shop, the rest of the Weasley's were more than likely at the Burrow. The four of us were catching up on what I had missed over the last few days. You'd think the way they were excited to see me again, we'd been gone for a month, traveling over the country, and not just down the road.
"It probably has something to do with your animagus form being a dog. Right?" Harry said to Sirius as they told be more about how Sirius and Cat weren't getting along.
"No, Cat isn't actually a cat, that's just the form he's taken," I said to a surprised Harry, who needed further explanation. "Well, now we know who wasn't paying attention in History of magic. See Familiars are different from pets. They're a form of spiritual entity that are bonded to a witch's soul. They provide protection and can help during certain charms and rituals. Similar to a house elf, who remains loyal to the house they serve, Familiars remain loyal to the witch they are bonded to. They eat and sleep, but they exist only because their witch does. My familiar didn't find me until the veil shielding my dark magic was lifted. Now one of those souls he's served, lives within Sirius. So, Cat is trying to form a bond, even though you keep casting him aside," I said, directing the last part at Sirius, who sat to my left, at the head of the table.
"Well, if he wasn't so bloody loud, and intrusive," Sirius said as he handed me a bowl of carrots. "All I asked was for him to show me his true form and give me a bit of a fight."
"Really? Cause he showed me the way you levitated him and refused to let him sleep at your feet," I said in a very matter of fact tone of voice. "No matter, I already hung up the lever over our floo so I can take him home with me tonight," I said and felt Cat move to sit on top of my feet under the table as a small glimmer shot across Sirius' eyes. He would miss him.
"Are you going to finally decide to go for quidditch now that you'll be at the castle another year?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"I'll go out for quidditch when you can take twelve OWL's and turn them all into NEWTS," I said back, earning myself a deadpan expression from him, much to my delight.
"Oh, how did your interview go?" Remus asked, casually changing the subject.
"More like a conversation," I answered as I dug into what was clearly takeout, but they'd poured into bowls to make it appear as if they'd cooked. "It seemed as though my boss already knew my entire life story before I even walked into the room."
"Who's that?" Sirius asked, Chewing on his chicken.
"Mmm, Brian Thineus, she's the head of the Department of Mysteries," I said. There was a clanking sound of the both of them abruptly putting their setting against the table. I looked up to see they were both staring at me, my words meaning more to them than it did to me. "What?" I asked.
"Brian Thineus..." Sirius said, stuttering as he spoke.
"She was our year in school, a Muggle born Slytherin if I remember correctly. Made her a bit of an outcast in her own house, but..." Remus added.
"So what? You knew her?" I asked, failing to see the point.
"Everyone knew her. Now that was a truly wonky one. Had it bad for your dad, till a rumor went around that it was actually Snape she fancied. Bleh," Sirius said with a joking look on his face as he recalled his time at school.
"Woah!"
"Gross!" Harry and I said back-to-back in reaction to his statement.
There was a thinness to his words. As if he was thinking about what he actually wanted to say, instead of how he remembered the way things actually were. Almost as if he were hiding something. I discreetly reached my hand forward to see if I could just take a peek into his mind to see why he was holding back, but before I could touch him, he pulled his hand away moving to stroke my head instead. Giving me affection, but purposely avoiding any contact that may let me into his head.
"Who would ever fancy Snape?" Harry said, not giving us the proper attention.
I looked at Sirius, who had his eyes fixed on his plate. I never told him that I knew about the extensive bullying, or that my mum was actually friends with him in their youth. Maybe he thought it was still a secret that they were keeping.
"You'd be surprised," Remus said as he continued eating. "Are you going back to the train station tonight?" He asked Harry, changing the subject quickly.
I waited for another moment where I could catch him off guard. All I needed was a moment to have a look and quickly search for what I needed. If I started casting Legilimency Charms, it would make it completely obvious, and I was trying to give him a least a bit of privacy.
"Do you need any help moving things over?" Remus asked at the door of my bedroom.
"No, I think I got just about all of it," I told him as I shrunk my suitcase down and slipped it into my bag. I took a seat on the bed and looked at the framed photos on the dresser. "Part of me wishes we'd had more time," I said honestly.
"Nonsense," Remus said as he took a seat next to me. "You can't put your life on hold while everyone else catches up to where you've been. Besides, we're just a short crack away." I leaned my head on his shoulder as he placed an arm around me. There was no denying he was right, it's not like I couldn't stop by as often as I wanted.
"Why was Sirius acting strange tonight?" I asked, hoping he would be honest with me.
"Padfoot is always strange," Remus said quickly. He wasn't wrong there. "The full moon is coming up, and he worries. Not to mention you're not under our watchful eye anymore, you're going back into the world. You wouldn't know it because he hides it relatively well, but he spends most of his time worrying about all of us, ways to make sure we're all safe, doing anything he can to feel as though he's doing enough."
"He can't spend his entire life thinking about everyone else," I said, summoning a photo we'd taken last Christmas at Grimmauld Place.
"Funny...he says the same about you," He answered, holding onto the other side of the frame. "We do what you can with what we know. After his upbringing, and then the time in Azkaban, he knows how to stay safe. So now he's projecting. Give it time," He said and gave my shoulders a squeeze. "He'll settle down."
"It's gotten worse though. Since...." I said, dancing around the subject.
"We tried to do some digging. To see what the side effects could be, from you two coming back," He said hesitantly.
"Right. And?" I asked.
"There isn't any. And I don't mean to say it's inconclusive. Elodie there isn't a single thing to tell us what to expect. Not to mention the fact that he isn't the most talkative on the subject. All he ever says is that the voice in his head has a tendency to be a bit perverse," He said.
I didn't think it would be a good idea to tell him about how my nightmares had gotten worse on a few occasions. I wasn't starting at the same place Sirius was. Perhaps Percy was right. I'd already been wonky, there wasn't any way to undo it now.
"Is he..." I asked hesitantly. "Is he having nightmares?" Remus pulled back to look at me attentively. So, it was true. Sirius was more connected to me than I thought. "It's the loneliness... creeping in. The feeling of almost being gone, and at peace... but then getting dragged back. It's like a permanent darkness... taking over. It— it almost makes your heart feel cold."
He was quiet for a long time, just watching me sit, unphased. "How long?" he asked, breaking his silence.
"They started when Cedric died. They've changed, but the feeling... It's always the same," I said meekly. "I don't regret it. I would never regret it. But— Sometimes I just wonder if I did what was right. Is that why? Why, he was barely able to look at me tonight?"
"Brian Thineus had a reputation in school. Not just for being wonky, but... For dealing in secrets. Both her own, and those of everyone around her. If she knows about you, she might see you as someone that she could pass those secrets onto," He said quietly.
"Why would I care about the ongoings... of schoolyard taunts?" I asked, frankly.
"Some secrets are best kept behind locked doors. Just... be on your guard," He said and gave me a pat on the knee.
Something about the way they were both acting hadn't sat right with me. I thought we were past keeping secrets from each other. Then again, I also didn't think I'd have gotten married and have a child on the way. We make plans, they change, and then they change again. It was proving to be true. In the moment it wasn't terrible, it was having a sonderful moment of perspective, when I could really see the picture as a whole that I realized just how much had changed.
I walked through my front door and was greeted by the homely smell of lavender and roses. It was still a bit early for Fred and George to be home, so I opted to unpack my belongings and take a nap on the sofa in my office while Cat explored the house. It wasn't terribly long after shutting my eyes before I was sleeping. Dreaming of fog. Fog, cobblestone, and the other side, as she began calling to me again.
Come away...
Unshackle yourself...
Let your magic run free...
You belong to the darkness...