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chapter fifteen
"A FROSTY BITE"
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The air had a frosty bite to it the next Hogsmeade weekend. Emilia had tried her best to keep warm, admittedly hiding her pyjama tee under a jumper and a coat and a woolly scarf. It was mid-November and you could feel it in the air; and, not to mention, it had gotten to that part of the month where some were already creeping up with the big holidays being celebrated the month following.
A couple of students passed her, talking about Dinah's father in hushed tones. Em rolled her eyes. She was this close to snapping back, but she thought that might make matters worse somehow.
She hurried ahead of a large group of fifth-years to get into The Three Broomsticks. She was already looking forward to getting this over with, and she'd rather not have to wait for a mass of teenagers to find a table big enough for their entire party, whilst blocking the doorway. Call her mean, but she couldn't be arsed waiting around for them. Whatever, who cares.
Her godfather was sitting at a table in the corner, far away from most of the Hogwarts students laughing and chatting with their friends, and facing the opposite direction. As Em walked past, she heard a few of the conversations slip into discussions about Rupert Salvatore and Augustus Monarda. She hurried up her pace and sat at the table, where her godfather was nursing a goblet of Butterbeer.
"A lot has happened since we last spoke," said Capulet.
Em said, "You could say that, yeah."
"I wanted to ask you, in person, about what you're planning to do once you've finished school," Capulet told her. Immediately, Em had the response of anyone asked this question, and felt complete dread, even if she had a slight inkling of what she'd like to do. That question brought terror, even to the brave. "I'll be able to help, whatever you're doing... Have you considering my friend's business?"
"Actually," said Em, and she saw her godfather brighten up for the wrong reason. He must've thought she was about to say, actually, I have, in regards to his friend's business. She really wasn't. "I was thinking about re-opening Grandma's old fashion house."
"You've always been good at dressmaking, I suppose..." Capulet frowned. Em raised an eyebrow. He looked unhappy. She felt uneasy. "I thought you would've liked working for my friend... You see, he wants to help us, he wants to make our world a better place."
Em almost explained that, once she had enough profit, she would begin donating a large sum of it to help those affected by Voldemort, but before she could, her godfather was talking again. "You know, I always thought you were the best out of your siblings," he said. She tried her best not to raise an eyebrow, or show any sign of what she was thinking. You're not supposed to think that? You're not supposed to have a favourite? "At least let me help you out. I can loan you more than enough money, I can find the right employees..."
"Um, that would be nice," said Emilia. "Dinah said she'd help out, though. But Carmilla wants to study medicine, she's been dead-set on that for years, and I bet she's going to be great as a Healer, or a muggle doctor—"
"Muggle?" said Capulet. Emilia nodded. She looked behind him, where she could see Sirius and the rest of the marauders sitting at a table. Sirius was frowning at her and her godfather, and Em wanted to somehow stop him without casting Capulet's attention onto it. "Of course, that one is the mud—?"
"Muggleborn," said Em. "She's a muggleborn."
"Meaning she has dirty blood," said Capulet.
"Well, you know what?" said Em. Don't say it don't say it don't say it. "Our family has helped mass murderers, our family has skinned animals for clothing, our family ditches any sign of loyalty if we could get into trouble for it, our family dumps their children on someone else's doorstep. I think that qualifies as dirty blood, right?"
She could see the anger rising on her godfather's face. Why couldn't she have kept quiet? Why did she have to keep on talking? Why did she sabotage herself like this? "Don't you ever say that again," said Capulet.
She remembered why her siblings feared him. She felt like the entire room was darkening and the only light was dark red and looming over her godfather. He wasn't shouting, he wasn't raising his voice. This was a public space still. But, the way his voice was filled with anger despite being so still and quiet...
"All right, sorry," said Em.
"We were having a nice conversation, weren't we?" said Capulet. Emilia nodded slowly. She looked over at Sirius, and she regretted it instantly. He would think that was her looking somewhat scared because believe her, she was very thankful her godfather wouldn't dare do anything in public. "How about we return to that?"
"My friends!" said Emilia. "Yeah, um, I don't think Melanie would help, either, because she's planning to study creatures, you know, like Newt Scamander..."
As soon as his name came out of her mouth, she regretted it.
The Salvatores didn't just dislike Newt Scamander. It was almost agreed that their entire family, ever since The Incident, had been born with hatred towards the man laced into their blood. Em figured that this wasn't the case anymore because she didn't care enough to hate him that passionately, but, everyone else did. Capulet especially.
Even though Capulet clearly despised his father, if he had the opportunity to murder Newt Scamander, he would take it in a heartbeat. Because, back in the twenties', there had been a moment where Rupert might've been helping Grindelwald again, and, when Rupert tried to escape, once they caught Grindelwald again, Newt Scamander almost stopped him.
A duel occurred, Rupert lost his left hand and his wife Marisol fashioned one made of gold. It was incredibly tacky. But, because of that, the family loathed Newt Scamander. And, to be honest, Em understood. They had to look at that awful replacement hand every Christmas.
"If she wants to be anything like that bastard—"
"Isn't this a surprise!"
Em's eyes widened. Sirius smiled at her, pulled up a chair, and sat at their table. She could see her godfather frowning intently. If she was being truthful, she didn't know if her godfather was confused, or if he was trying to scare Sirius away. Either way, Sirius was still smiling.
"So, um," said Em. "This is Sirius."
"I didn't think you'd be here," said Sirius. Em forced a smile, but her focus had turned to how her godfather was reacting. This didn't feel good. She knew Sirius meant well, however, she knew that her godfather was already pissed off, and this could make it even worse. "You're Em's godfather?"
Capulet looked like he wished he had Medusa's ability to turn people to stone. "I am Emilia Elodie's godfather, yes," he said. He turned to Emilia and looked mildly disgusted. "And this is your friend?"
Emilia managed to say, "Yep," but, her voice had gone up a couple of octaves, and she looked like she was in a lot of pain. She was. This was wrong. She felt the bad kind of butterflies, the ones that swarmed when she felt nervous because she knew something was about to go wrong.
"Well, Em, I was thinking about going back to school early, and finish off some homework," said Sirius. Em raised an eyebrow. Since when did he do homework? And, then, it clicked. Bless. "You know, that essay for Transfiguration?"
"The really long one?" asked Em.
Sirius looked at her for a minute, before he said, "Yes, Em, the long one." He frowned at her. "Have you started it yet?"
"No, um, I've been busy with other subjects," said Em. This felt incredibly forced. It was incredibly forced. She hoped that the frown on her godfather's face was because he was annoyed about the Newt Scamander thing, not because he had caught onto this excuse. But, regardless, Em turned to him and smiled. "Um, Uncle Capulet, is it all right if I—?"
"We will speak during your next Hogsmeade trip, yes?" said Capulet. Em nodded, and she could see Sirius already moving to stand up. "I'll see you then. I look forward to it."
"I'll see you then," said Emilia. She winced and she left the table along with Sirius, who looked proud of himself. As soon as they were out of her uncle's earshot, she let out, "That was awful! How did he buy that?"
"The important thing is that you're away from him," said Sirius. "God, he's fucking terrible! He's killed someone, hasn't he? He looks like he's killed someone."
Em shrugged. "Probably has. He had a weird job," she said. She smiled at him, shoving her hands into the pockets of her coat. "You didn't need to do that, but, thanks."
"I'm the lucky one, I've gotten rid of my family," he told her. He stepped closer to her, and although she didn't make any effort to add some distance, she felt aware of her godfather's presence, even if he wasn't facing their way. "You looked scared. I couldn't help it."
"Well, I appreciate it," said Em. He moved closer, and she smirked up at him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Not that much, Black."
"You're evil."
Em shrugged. "I should go and find my friends," she said. Her eyebrows rose slightly as she added, "I'll see you later?"
"Oh, well, it depends," said Sirius. Em looked at him in surprise as he ran his fingers through his hair. "You know, I'm very busy."
"With what?" she said. "You don't do homework?"
"Yeah, I do!" he said. She frowned back at him. "Sometimes!"
"Well, maybe it's a good thing I won't see you later," said Em. She began to step back, moving closer to the door. "You know, with all of the homework you should be doing."
Sirius rolled his eyes, and he moved to hold onto her hand. "I'll see you later, yeah?" he said.
"I thought you were busy?"
"I got the dates in my diary mixed up. Tonight's fine."
"You're a loser."
"You're adorable."
"OK, then."
***
Em began to wonder about this business her godfather was helping a couple steps out of the pub; the decision to sleuth occurred as she passed the last of the shops, and began walking up the path that led back to school. It was only half-one by this point, and typically, students tended to stay in Hogsmeade for a little longer before they returned to school, candy canes and Dungbombs in separate hands.
She decided to check if the library had old newspapers, and work from that, but before she could, Carmilla ran up to her, looking tired and worried.
"Dinah's been sent to the hospital wing—"
"She what?"
"It's nothing serious!" said Carmilla, putting her hand on her heart as she tried to catch her breath.
Em frowned. "Then why did you run?"
"Well—" Carmilla frowned. "I don't know! But she's in the hospital wing. You know she was going to catch up with some lessons she missed with Slughorn, and one potion went wrong and now she's getting her hair re-grown, or whatever."
"She's bald?"
"No! It was a joke. Some potion splashed onto her skin and it started to turn bright blue, so she went to see Madam Pomfrey, naturally."
"Naturally," said Em. She frowned at Carmilla, and then took hold of her hand, pulling her back in the direction she had most likely run from. The same amount of gazes followed her, and she knew that, behind her, conversations and thoughts were discussing her grandfather and her best friend's father, and the murder that occurred.
She didn't like it. She didn't like the way that some newspaper had informed everyone about every detail in her family's history, she didn't like how people genuinely criticised the fact that she was still best friends with Dinah, like nothing had changed.
Things had changed. Both knew that. Emilia had gone from the one in their group that had others fight her battles for her, to the one leading the army. Gone were the days where Emilia struggled to keep up with the stuff regarding Voldemort and the Death Eaters — she didn't know all of that, she knew there was more to learn, but she was trying her hardest to understand what was going on. She was technically an adult, she should be aware of the world around her.
They reached the hospital wing. Dinah was sitting in one of the beds, the pillow pushed up against the headboard so she could sit comfortably. Melanie sat beside her, brows furrowed.
"It's not your fault—" Melanie paused, looking up at Em and Carmilla. "Oh, fantastic! I was going to sneak into the kitchens and get some cake, or something, but I didn't want to leave Di on her own... Anyway, Dinah, considering what's happened, it's not your fault that you're a little distracted! This could happen to anyone."
"But it happened to me," said Dinah. "He wouldn't want me acting so weak and pathetic! I shouldn't be acting like this, I should be strong through this, I should feel capable to defend myself and my family from everyone that keeps on talking about it, when it has nothing to do with them!"
Em and Carmilla exchanged a look, before Em sat down on the hospital bed. "There's no point beating yourself up because of this," said Em. "You're going to be upset, that's expected. Like, you've essentially lost him for the rest of his life, so it's fine that you're grieving. That's OK. It's OK to upset about this. It's OK to deal with this like that, if that's what helps later. What isn't OK, however, is you being hard on yourself for it."
Dinah's eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry my dad killed your grandfather," she said, and immediately, Emilia pulled her into a hug. Dinah put her head onto Emilia's shoulder. Very quickly, Emilia could hear Dinah crying, as she said, "I feel so guilty for it, Em, I'm so sorry—"
"It isn't your fault," said Emilia. "He did something wrong, and now he's serving a sentence because of it. That's what's supposed to happen, Di. He's supposed to sit and feel guilty, but you don't! I don't care that your dad murdered my grandfather. Someone killed him, but I'm not going to blame you for something your relative did. You don't blame me for the shit my family's done. It's the same thing."
Em pulled away, and stood up, letting Carmilla sit down and comfort Dinah. Carmilla was the best out of the four at comforting people. Em didn't know why, but she was.
Dinah wiped the last of her tears away, and she let out a half-sob, half-laugh. "At least Slughorn will be nicer now," she said. "I can probably get away with homework."
"And if he isn't," said Carmilla. She nodded at Melanie. "Well, you know what she'll do."
"These hands were made for pulling hair out and messing up hairlines," said Melanie, looking rather proud of herself. Dinah laughed, which was something Em hadn't heard in a while. She missed it.
Melanie began to promise Dinah that she'd help her catch up with schoolwork, when Em saw Remus walk into the hospital wing. Evidently, he saw her, and she walked away from her friends to speak to him. They were friends, right? She figured they were somewhat friends. She had made out with his best friend on more than one occasion. She had given him a tattoo. Surely, they're friends? At least a little?
"Fancy seeing you here," said Em.
"I could say the same," he told her. "I'm here often, actually. Once a month... Thankfully, it's over the weekend this month, so I don't have to miss any school."
Emilia began to wonder. Lottie had some fascination with the stars and the way that they aligned... "You'll probably get a nice view of the full moon if you're here," she said. Remus' eyes widened, and he froze. Emilia frowned for a second, and then she realised. Oh, OK. She then remembered that she was still frowning, and if she had jumped to the right conclusion, she wasn't being particularly nice. "I'm going to get some food from the kitchens. I'll find some chocolate or something."
Remus smiled. "I love chocolate."
"You see?" she said, tapping her forehead. "I'm a Seer."
He laughed, and she returned to her friends. Dinah's mood had drastically improved, Em supposed, considering she was now laughing with her head on Carmilla's shoulder.
"Hey, Mel?"
"Yeah, Em?"
"I'll come to the kitchens with you," said Em. Melanie smiled at her, walking to her side and linking arms with hers. "You know what they say. Four hands hold more cake than two."
"No one says that," said Melanie.
"Well, they should," said Em. "It's very true."
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i hope you enjoyed! i apologise for the lack of updates because i got my exam results on thursday and i was stressing leading up to them and i played a lot of sims to get through it lol sorry
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