Part One / Chapter Twenty-Two
Any other sound that emitted from the common room was quickly softened by Hermione's whines. With her parchments of Ancient Runes, Potions and Herbology tucked under her shoulder, she asked Venus once again.
"How could she have known?"
"I don't know," said Venus, rubbing her temple with one hand and holding Snowflake in the other.
Ron had asked her nearly 28377927273 times before Hermione came up to her. She worried how Constance would react when she found out. If it were possible, she'd trigger the apocalypse. The moment came when Constance burst through the portrait hole and straight toward Venus, Ron and Hermione.
"I'm going to burn her alive," she bellowed. She ran her pink fingernails through her raven-black hair letting out an exasperated sign. "What did she say to you?"
Venus repeated the words Umbridge chirped in her ear earlier that afternoon. Constance's cheeks, already crimsoned, reddened deeper. She spewed out every curse word known to man, some that she swore were American. As soon as her fit was over, she dropped to the ground next to Venus and Ron.
"Hi Constance," Ron naturally gawked. His eyes twinkling with infatuation, Hermione's dimmed immediately.
"Hello Rudolph," she replied staring intently at her nail buds. "I thought I fixed this—Eurgh! I'm headed up to the dorm Vee, I'm going to plan out Umbridge's burial sight."
As it neared midnight, other Gryffindor's departed to their separate dormitories. Where there was incredible amounts of noise turned into cricketing silence. Only Ron, Hermione, Harry and Venus remained in the common room. With the company of Snowflake and Crookshanks, the white and orange kittens curled up, twisted next to one another.
"Ron, have you even checked up on the first-years in the boys dormitory?" asked Venus shuffling through piles of ink-stained parchment.
"They've got brains, don't they?" he said groggily dozing lightly in an armchair. Then he gave a muffled grunt, awoke, looked blearily into the fire and said, "Sirius!"
Venus whipped around; Sirius's untidy dark head was sitting in the fire again.
"Hi," he said, grinning.
"Hi," chorused Venus, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, all four kneeling down upon the hearthrug. Snowflake purred loudly and approached the fire, trying, despite the heat, to put her face close to Sirius's.
"How're things?" said Sirius.
"Not that good," said Harry, as Venus pulled Snowflake back to stop her singeing her whiskers. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams —"
"— or secret Defense Against the Dark Arts groups?" said Sirius. There was a short pause. Troubled, Venus eyed Hermione who looked like she was at a loss for words.
"How did you know about that?" Harry demanded.
"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," said Sirius, grinning still more broadly. "The Hog's Head, I ask you . . ."
"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" said Hermione defensively. "That's always packed with people —"
"— which means you'd have been harder to overhear," said Sirius. "You've got a lot to learn, Hermione."
"What the bloody hell—" said a horrified voice from behind the group.
Venus, Ron, Hermione and Harry's heads snapped to Constance. She was standing at the bottom of the spiral stirs case, skin paled. Her mouth gaped open when she began to stammer.
"I-is that a convicted serial killer's head in the fireplace?"
Venus gulped. "Er — yes."
"Totally not creepy at all," Constance was rooted in her place at the foot of the stairs.
"It's — er," Venus glanced at Hermione for support, "it's a very long, frustrating story." Hermione added.
Venus was in her feet and cautiously walking toward Constance, skin paler than snow. "Just— come. I promise, I'll explain everything, you just can't tell anyone."
"I can't believe I love you this much to agree to this," Constance held into Venus' hand and back to the trio still seated at the fire place. As soon as everyone was settled again, Venus continued.
"Who overheard us?"
Constance was clutching Snowflake so tight, the small cat began to squirm from her grip.
"Mundungus, of course," said Sirius, and when they all looked puzzled he laughed. "He was the witch under the veil."
"Who's Mundungus?" said Venus eyeing her father in the fire. Her question was blown into the breeze as they continued discussing.
"That was Mundungus?" Harry said, stunned. "What was he doing in the Hog's Head?"
"What do you think he was doing?" said Sirius impatiently. "Keeping an eye on you, of course."
"I'm still being followed?" asked Harry angrily.
"Yeah, you are," said Sirius, "and just as well, isn't it, if the first thing you're going to do on your weekend off is organize an illegal defense group."
But he looked neither angry nor worried; on the contrary, he was looking at Harry with distinct pride.
"Why was Dung hiding from us?" asked Ron, sounding disappointed. "We'd've liked to've seen him."
"He was banned from the Hog's Head twenty years ago," said Sirius, "and that barman's got a long memory. We lost Moody's spare Invisibility Cloak when Sturgis was arrested, so Dung's been dressing as a witch a lot lately. . . Oh, Ron! You're mother told me to inform you that if you take part in any illegal defense training, you won't see daylight until you're 18. . . So."
"That's quite harsh," Venus whispered to herself. Holding Snowflake in her arms, Constance said, "Kind of sounds like my Grandmother."
"So you want me to say I'm not going to take part in the defense group?" Harry muttered finally after minutes of uncomfortable silence.
"Me? Certainly not!" said Sirius, looking surprised. "I think it's an excellent idea!"
"You do?" said Harry.
"Of course I do!" said Sirius. "D'you think your father and I would've lain down and taken orders from an old hag like Umbridge?"
"But — last term all you did was tell me to be careful and not take risks —" Harry began, but Sirius interrupted him. "— Last year all the evidence was that someone inside Hogwarts was trying to kill you, Harry!" said Sirius impatiently. "This year we know that there's someone outside Hogwarts who'd like to kill us all, so I think learning to defend yourselves properly is a very good idea!"
"And if we do get expelled?" Hermione asked, a quizzical look on her face.
"Hermione, this whole thing was your idea!" said Venus, staring at her.
"I know it was. . . . I just wondered what Sirius thought," she said, shrugging.
"Well, better expelled and able to defend yourselves than sitting safely in school without a clue," said Sirius. "So, how are you organizing this group? Where are you meeting?"
"Well, that's a bit of a problem now," said Harry. "Dunno where we're going to be able to go. . . ."
"How about the Shrieking Shack?" suggested Sirius.
"Hey, that's an idea!" said Ron excitedly, but Hermione made a skeptical noise and all four of them looked at her, Sirius's head turning in the flames.
"Well, Sirius, it's just that there were only four of you meeting in the Shrieking Shack when you were at school," said Hermione, "But there are twenty-eight of us and none of us is an Animagus, so we wouldn't need so much an Invisibility Cloak as an Invisibility Marquee —"
"You guys met?" asked Venus. "When?"
"Ven—"
"Just answer the question," she demanded. Her voice boomed so loud it made Snowflake scamper hastily from her arms and up the girl's dormitory steps.
"Third year." He answered. His dark face simmered softly in the fire. His grin twitched into a frown watching Venus grow angrier with him.
She felt pent up anger boil inside her and begin to coarse through her veins. "Wow," she scoffed getting up to her feet. "Just—wow."
"Don't be angry— Venus, sweetheart—"
"Don't call me Sweetheart. It's mind boggling how suddenly you wanted to start acting like a father out of the blue. Last time I was in the same room with you, I left bleeding. So yes. I'm angry and I'm frustrated, but I didn't question you because I wanted my father back."
Sirius hesitated to answer when Hermione gave a horrified gasp and leapt to her feet, still staring at the fire. A hand had appeared amongst the flames, groping as though to catch hold of something; a stubby, short-fingered hand covered in ugly old-fashioned rings. . . . The five of them ran for it; at the door of the girls' dormitory Venus looked back. Umbridge's hand was still making snatching movements amongst the flames, as though she knew exactly where Sirius's hair had been moments before and was determined to seize it. Constance yanked her by the wrist and toward their dorm room.
She quietly shut the door of her dorm trying not to wake the other girls up.
"I should've went back to bed," Constance whimpered, still clutching onto Snowflake in her arms
Venus dashed to her bed and hid under her covers. Guilt wrenched in Venus' gut, but a great deal of satisfaction arose after what she'd said. He should know, he should regret what he did that summer night in 12 Grimmauld Place.
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【 AUTHORS NOTE! 】:
Feel bad Sirius 🙄🖕🏼.