Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling.
*
CHAPTER LXXX.
The kids received a small, golden vial of liquid one morning.
The small bottle was attached to a string, and the note read:
I wish you all the best of luck.
Love,
Mum
They all knew what it was.
So the four Black siblings wore the Felix Felicis around their necks.
***
Reia and Regulus sat on their bed silently, each absorbed by their own books.
The house was quiet—as it had been for a long while, without the sounds of stomping footsteps or yelling or joyful laughter.
"You sent them the Liquid Luck?" Regulus asked, nudging Reia, and she nodded, slipping a bookmark into the book as she shut it.
"I have one for you, too," She said, pulling out a small golden vial, attached to a string, from her pocket, "You should wear it. I think, in times like these, we all need a little luck," she smiled a bit as she slipped the string over his neck and tucked the Felix Felicis under his shirt.
He smiled back, but it was short-lived as suddenly his expression turned to concern and he asked, "Do you have one, too? You need it, Reia. You should keep it—,"
"I have one," She interjected firmly, shuffling back and laying down on the bed, beckoning for Regulus to do the same.
"Good," He said with a sigh, turning and pressing a kiss to her cheek, "I love you."
"I love you, too," She replied.
"Keep the liquid luck close to you," He advised, his voice quiet.
"I will."
But Reia had only had five vials of it left, and she didn't wear one around her own neck.
***
Caelum went to find his Uncle the next morning, only to discover that Remus was resigning.
"Why are you leaving?" He demanded, "You're an excellent teacher! You can't just leave—,"
"Caelum, you'll all do fine without me here," Remus cut him off firmly, "You're smart. You'll be alright."
"Why are you leaving?" Caelum repeated, his voice calmer and softer, "Please don't leave. Everyone loved your classes!"
"I'm a werewolf, Caelum, and when people find out, they'll kick me out, and I'd prefer to leave on my own terms rather than theirs."
That made Caelum fall silent immediately. He didn't know what to say.
"Your face says it all," Remus sighed with a sad smile, "They'd all be shocked like you are, and while you might be ready to accept it, the parents won't. Nobody wants a werewolf teaching their children."
"But—,"
"No," Remus said, shaking his head and giving his nephew a stern look, "I'll see you, Caelum. Come visit me. Now, run to breakfast, please."
He didn't want to leave, but Remus wasn't leaving him with much of a choice.
"I'll miss you," Caelum said as he dejectedly left the classroom.
"I'll miss you, too, my boy."
***
"Hannah!" Atlas called out, just as his mother was preparing to apparate them out of Platform 9¾.
Reia stopped and sagged a bit, "Could you please just tell me when you'd like to leave, dear? I don't have limitless energy and I don't want to lose all of you."
Hannah Abbott turned around from where she was with her parents and a smile lit up her face, a slight blush rising to her cheeks, "Hey, Atlas."
"I'll see you next year," Atlas said with a half-smile, heat rising to his cheeks, "Write to me. I'll write back. If I remember."
"Right," Hannah said with a giggle, "I'll let you know if anything interesting happens."
Finally, Atlas told his mother he was ready to leave—but then Ariel saw Theodore Nott and waved goodbye and Reia snapped, "You kids!"
"We're sorry for having friends, Mum," Archie said, rolling his eyes playfully.
Reia just sighed tiredly.
***
12 Grimmauld Place had gone from the loneliest place to the busiest place in a matter of hours.
Nobody was used to having Sirius around—but he seemed quite pleased to be there.
Atlas wasn't sure how to interact with him. Ariel and Archie had immediately started avid conversations with him, talking about the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, the common room, the teachers, everything about Gryffindor, really.
Caelum, being who he was, was extraordinarily kind to Sirius after having heard about what had happened.
Atlas, though, wasn't sure how to approach Sirius.
So he stuck with sitting awkwardly by his parents, sometimes chatting with Tonks, who was extremely easy to talk to, and just being quiet most of the time.
None of his friends from school were here, and he didn't really know what to talk to anybody about without awkward silences and pauses.
It was easy to notice the difference in his parents compared to last Summer.
Last Summer, the mood was much lighter. There was the Quidditch World Cup—which did put a damper on things, but didn't ruin the Summer completely.
Now, though, with the Death Eaters back, Regulus had dark circles under his eyes and his usually bright grey eyes were bloodshot.
Atlas and his siblings knew about Regulus' status as a Death Eater, but they also knew of the other role he played, along with their favourite Professor Snape.
Reia's hair had dulled a bit, her energy lacking, and her skin paler than usual.
But they sat by each other, and still managed to smile whenever someone spoke to them, which Atlas admired them so much for.
Atlas knew about the pain that his parents had suffered. The torture Reia had endured while pregnant with he and his brother.
Atlas just wished things could be easier.
Without Death Eaters, or Lord Voldemort, or the Order of the Phoenix.
But of course they couldn't.
When Atlas reached his fourth year and they all returned to Hogwarts, he felt like the whole school was quite tired.
Cedric Diggory had been murdered in the Triwizard Tournament, and the atmosphere of the school had dropped significantly when all the students came back from Summer.
Not to mention, there was one lovely Professor Umbridge in the DADA teacher's position, which was just lovely.
Although she was nicer to Slytherins, but Atlas wasn't sure if that was a good sign.
The other Slytherins seemed to like Umbridge just because of her favouritism.
"Don't you think she's biased?" Atlas asked Blaise and Theodore one morning at breakfast, when they'd gotten there earlier than the others.
"So is everyone else," Blaise shrugged, "Dumbledore's biased towards Gryffindor and he doesn't get hated for it—Potter doesn't get hated for bathing in Dumbledore's love. But when someone is biased towards Slytherin—,"
"Oh, no, then the sky is falling, isn't it?" Theodore scoffed.
"Talking about us?" A voice called out from behind them, and the three turned towards the entrance of the Hall, where Harry, Ron and Hermione stood.
Harry had been the one who had spoken, and he appeared to be in a terrible mood.
As he had been for most of the Summer.
There were dark circles under his eyes and he looked beyond tired.
"We are, yes," Blaise said shamelessly, rolling his eyes, "Is there a problem?"
"You shouldn't be," Hermione said, her tone firm, "It's very rude and unnecessary."
"You're rude and unnecessary," Theodore shot back—jokingly, but Hermione didn't seem to catch his tone.
"Why don't you go ahead and call her a mudblood, too?" Harry snapped, "We thought you were better than this."
As much as Atlas knew that Harry wasn't trying to be rude—that he was under a lot of pressure and he was just being dramatic and misunderstanding, that statement infuriated Atlas.
"Harry," Atlas snapped, "I know you're under a lot of pressure. I know you're angry. But you were the one who said it. Don't go putting words in our mouths."
"I don't know how you can be friends with them, Atlas," Harry said, shaking his head.
"You probably won't ever know," Atlas responded, calming his tone, "Because I'm not just friends with them, I'm one of them. Hiss, hiss, Potter."
As Harry left with Ron and Hermione, Atlas caught sight of Hannah entering the Hall, and went up to greet her, thoughts of Harry forgotten almost immediately.
But before he left, he caught Theodore turning around towards the Gryffindor Table and shooting Ariel a playful wink, which made Ariel's cheeks turn pink.
Perhaps it was best that Atlas didn't find out what that was about.