Chapter Text
I could not have been luckier having met one of the most precious people I know in both the wizarding and muggle world. It happened in the summer of 1990, when I was twelve years old and Bella took me all the way to the end of Knockturn Alley for my Hogwarts necessities at the approaching of my first year. You might wonder why I was doing my school shopping at this age, when most Hogwarts kids get their letter at the age of eleven. You might also wonder why I was accompanied by a fugitive. It’s quite a long story. Bellatrix hid in the shadows of the alley in her cloak, and although my aunt was quite a character, she now looked timid and alert. It was not because we were in Knockturn Alley – one of the most dangerous wizarding roads in England - but because Bella has been hunted by aurors for as long as I can remember. She handed me a small bag, heavy with coins.
“It’s Lucius’ money, so be sure to spend all of it. And be back within two hours or I’ll leave without you. I’ll be in the White Wyvern, it’s halfway Knockturn, but with a wand you’ll be fine. Remember practice?”
“Yes, aunt Bella.
“And hurry, Lia.”
Without further notion, she disappeared into the crowd, being let through by the grim-looking witches and wizards that were hanging around the end of Knockturn Alley. I turned my back on them and rapidly walked into Diagon Alley. No wasting any time on fending off creepy people. I blinked against the sudden light, which reflected on the wet cobbles from the rain last night. It was still early, but the shopping street was already packed with children and their parents, all on the same mission as me. I reached for the Hogwarts letter in my pocket. It was still there. I’d never been here on my own, except for when Narcissa had accidentally forgotten me at Twilfitt & Tattings once, when having her expensive robes tailored. But that was a very long time ago and I was usually never allowed to go anywhere on my own. I couldn’t choose where to go first, so I picked the item on top of my list, which happened to be a wand. Once arrived at Ollivander’s wand shop, I saw a girl and her parents through the glass. They looked very busy, and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to enter. Suddenly they came out, arguing.
“You should have chosen the first one, I don’t care how much it costs!” Spoke the father. He was wearing a high hat and grew a moustache with twisted ends, which made him look like he was from a different century.
“We don’t choose our wands, darling, you know that. If you’re too weak for –”
“Mother, please.” The girl sighed, lowering her eyes.
“How about we buy you some nice robes, so we can make up our minds?” The mother said, patting the frail girl awkwardly on the back.
They walked past without noticing me and I quickly stepped aside, pushing through the heavy door. Although there had just been clients inside, mister Ollivander was nowhere to be seen. This slightly annoyed me, because I had lots of things to do within two hours.
“Ahem,” I announced myself.
Ollivander appeared from behind his counter, as if he had been hiding from me.
“Eh, hello! I was just doing some stock– Well, well, in all those years I did not think I would see another Black in my shop. With whom do I have the honour?”
“Uhm, Thalia, sir.”
“Thalia Black, yes.”
He nodded with a smile as if he remembered me from a long time ago, and disappeared into the back. I didn’t quite know what to do with myself, so I folded my hands together, just how Narcissa taught me, in an attempt to not touch anything I wasn’t supposed to. Fortunately, he was back soon with a set of three wands.
“You must belong to one of these, I presume. Wands are often genetically, or fate decided.” He gestured over the small collection in front of me. “Let’s begin, which one would you like to try first?”
Without a single thought, I picked the one most left. It was a black wand, probably ebony, engraved with silver.
“Can I?” I asked.
Before Ollivander could answer, a storm gathered around me, and an invisible scream built in the raging air. I quickly put the staff down again. The abundant dust settled slowly on the floor.
“That’s quite alright, I didn’t hope it would choose you... That might have been catastrophic.”
“Why is that, if I may ask?”
“Unpredictable, flaring magic, young lady. It certainly fits your character, but not your strengths.”
I didn’t know if to feel offended by his assumption a powerful wand would not be a match for me because it did not ‘fit my strengths’, whatever that meant.
“Try another one.”
The next wand in line was of reddish wood, straighter, and less smooth. It fit perfectly in my hand, but when I flicked it, nothing happened. I tried again, a bit more frantic this time, but it seemed to refuse me in stubborn silence.
“That is certainly interesting. Go on.”
He pointed at the last wand, a dark one that glazed almost black. It was slightly twisted but didn’t have as many decorations as any of the others. My ears turned red. What if none of them were right for me.
“This one, I will mention, is a little difficult to orchestrate, so you mustn’t point it at anything fragile.”
I looked around and saw nothing that I could be certain of to not have much value, so I pointed it at the door. I swished it in the same heartbeat as the door opening and a girl with long black hair – the girl from earlier, I realised – stepping in. I held my breath, just like Ollivander behind me. I imagined him shrinking behind his counter. The girl closed her eyes tight against the numerous tiny birds that flocked from the tip of my wand, singing. They evaporated when they came into contact with anything solid, like the walls and the ceiling. Some of them got tangled in the girl's long hair. I felt elevated and energised; something that old people might refer to when they’re euphorically speaking of youth. The door shut behind her, and we all took a deep breath.
“Well, cash?”
“Merlin's beard, don’t you look just like one of your father’s cousins. Such a shame what had to happen to him, of course. With which family do you reside now?”
After the incident in Ollivander’s shop, the girl’s parents had arrived and to my relief had nobody mentioned anything about my impulsive wand being pointed at her. After the parents learned that I was from the Noble House of Black, they wanted to get to know me better. Of course.
I looked at my shoes.
“With the Malfoys, ma’am.”
The frail girl’s mother nodded in approval.
“An appropriate wardship. Did I say that you just looked like one of your father’s cousins?”
“Yes, ma, I believe you did,” the little girl said. The ribbon in her hair had slightly shifted, which now caught her mother’s eye. Self-consciously, I looked at the cobbles. The encounter with my wand had not harmed the girl but had blown her hair in tangles.
“Only your eyes are unusual for your family. Almost as green as grass in the shadow, which is funny because that happens to be familiar with us.”
The man with the twisted moustache nodded contemplatively, and his wife’s face glowed in excitement at the prospect of her still wandless daughter going to school with a Black. I knew about their family name, Greengrass, because at home I’d had to learn about all twenty-eight of the Sacred pureblood wizarding families, even the extant ones. They had made their name and money in the wizarding world as lawyer company, once named Greengrass & Whitlock. However, only ‘Greengrass’ remained on the office-windows and business cards since the Whitlocks mysteriously disappeared just before the First Wizarding War.
“And where are they now?”
Miss Greengrass looked around the street, combing the crowd for the Malfoys’ remarkable white locks.
“Oh, they are very busy elsewhere, ma’am. But I am sure I will find them soon.”
I thought it best not to mention to these neat people that my fugitive relative was waiting for me in the White Wyvern tavern, while the Malfoys remained at home.
“The Greengrasses have not had much contact with the Blacks since your grandparents have passed,” Mrs. Greengrass continued, “But other generations have had quite some... business together.”
“What kind of business?”
As I said it, the girl kicked my ankle. I frowned angrily at her.
“Child, don’t raise your voice about such matters. It is in the past.”
Mister Greengrass gave me a warning look and spied around the street. Uncle Lucius always got the same look in his eyes whenever anyone brought up the War. I suspected this ‘business’ between our families must not have been Ministry-approved. We all looked uncomfortably at the ground, and I just wanted to excuse myself when Mister Greengrass said he had to leave to make a collection at Gringotts.
“Well, I should really be –” I began, but Mrs. Greengrass cut me off.
“Why don’t you come with us to Twilfitt & Tattings? They happen to sell Hogwarts robes as well; it would really be a pleasure.”
I hesitantly agreed to look around for a bit, as I had to buy a Hogwarts uniform anyway. It didn’t matter if I bought it at a luxurious shop or somewhere else, and I had my uncle’s money to spend. The lady kept chatting to me about our old family connections and how I must be so grateful to be taken in by someone as nurturing as Narcissa Malfoy. The daughter was quiet in her mother's presence, but I could tell that she wanted to ask me questions as well. I could see the sign of the shop appear above all the heads. It was a thread going through the eye of a needle, which tied and untied itself repeatedly. The shop was painted in olive green and had a floating copper bell that made a funny tingle when we entered. I remembered the smell of the many fabrics varying from wool to satin, from when I had been forced to spend an entire afternoon in here. Mrs. Greengrass led us to the women's section and the racks for 'young ladies' in particular.
“Astoria, this will look nicely on you.”
I observed mother and daughter from the corner of my eye whilst browsing for anything wearable between the all the scratchy lace. Narcissa would love me to try these on. Astoria seemed not to care that her mother picked out her clothes. She only nodded and took the dress her mother handed her. Narcissa liked dressing me up as a child, and she had enough money not to give up on this, even after I ripped or smudged the hundredth dress when playing out in the fields. Lucius had told her to just lock me inside, but she didn't have the heart for it, so I was allowed to wear less colourful and expensive ones from then on. I was older now, but still managed to upset Narcissa with behaviour that doesn’t suit a lady from the House of Black. A look of disapproval went over my face as I found yet another monstrous blouse with a pink lace collar. Luckily, I found the section for Hogwarts uniforms (which were about three times more expensive in this shop than the ones indicated on the list). I paid for my required robes and stepped toward the Greengrass ladies. I was not planning on shopping ugly ornaments with some strangers, and still had a lot of errands to run.
“It was a pleasure meeting you both, Mrs. Greengrass, but I must really go. Narcissa must be worried by now.”
“Oh, do not fret, child. We would very much like to meet her as well. It has been a long time. Maybe she could join us when my husband has returned?”
I tried to hide that I was getting annoyed. I turned to the girl Astoria.
“Let’s see what kind of skirts they have in the back.”
Before her mother could object, I took her wrist and pulled her to the back of the shop where we hid, crouching behind the racks.
“Is your mother always this talkative?”
Astoria’s eyes got big.
“What does that mean?”
I shrugged.
“You just haven’t said much yourself.”
Astoria turned red and got up whilst dusting off her white leggings at the knees. I pulled her sleeve.
“Where are you going?”
“Nowhere, leave me alone.”
Something about her stiffness and orderliness was getting on my nerves.
“Are you going to tell your mommy?”
“Tell my mommy that half of your relatives are either insane or blood-traitors? I don’t care that our families had dinner a few times, I will not let you bring our status down. Your legacy is over.”
I hissed at her, and she stumbled backwards into a rack with fur coats. Before she could say anything else, I snuck past her mother and left the shop in a hurry.
Getting my books was easy, as everything on the list could be found at Flourish & Blotts. However, I also needed a set of phials, dropper bottles, and surprisingly, a shovel. Those were a lot harder to scrape together, and when I was finally finished, I saw on my watch that I only had five more minutes to find Bella. I rushed to Knockturn Alley, carrying most of my purchased stuff in my shoulder bag and a few books that fit into the cauldron. I blended in with some rich women in velvet cloaks, who appeared to be shopping for dark artefacts. Sometimes, Knockturn Alley was a little less dangerous, and people – other than thieves and beggars – walked around to spend money on exclusive antiques or a certain type of mushroom. Above the green hat of the woman before me, I could make out the sign with the white dragon breathing flames: the White Wyvern. I separated from the group and quickly stepped into the little tavern. The place was very dimly lit, and it took my eyes a while to get used to the darkness. The bell clattered sharply, but the sound soon muted in the thick air, which made for a sad announcement of my arrival. A cloud of smoke hung above some bent necks of the people at the bar, whispering to each other, but Bellatrix was nowhere to be seen. I was exactly on time (to my honest surprise), so she might not have arrived yet, or maybe she had already gone. Besides, now that I could see better, the pub was a total mess. Some chairs were lying on the ground, and I saw a servant boy wipe glass from the floor. The bartender was tapping butterbeer with a strange colour and looked my way when the door behind me opened again. He had a gash on his cheek, which exposed itself in the brief light. I stumbled upon the person who had just entered.
“Sorry, I –”.
My face went numb. Of course, I immediately recognised the man that was standing in front of me. I’d seen his face in the newspapers a couple times, and many more in my nightmares.
“Sorry love, you’re in my way. What is a young lass like you doing here anyway, huh? Go on, go home.”
He gently shoved me out the door with one hand, the other leaning on his walking stick. I looked up and down the alley, there was no one to be seen. Everyone hid from the auror that had just entered the tavern. I ran across the street into the first shop I could find and slammed the door behind me. I closed my eyes and pressed the cauldron with books against my chest. Anywhere in Knockturn Alley was safer than near that man. The air in my throat felt too thin and my knees were buckling. What if he would come after me as soon as he realised who I was? No, of course not. Bella. He was after Bella.
“C’mon gal, was’ gotcha scared like that?”
I opened my eyes. An old person – I could not make out if they were a man or woman –stood behind the counter, and around me were various cages with... bats.
“Fledermaus and Tanna bats ‘n skins, what can I do for yeh?”
“I am, uhm... waiting for someone.” Who will never come because they are preoccupied with being arrested.
“Ah, do they wanna make a purchase?”
“Uhm, no.”
“Tha’s a shaime, tsssk. A real shaime. No purchase, no Knuts ‘n Sickles for me.” The shopkeeper fiddled with the latch of a cage that was occupied by a bat as unfriendly as it was big.
“But I want to buy something!” I made a wide gesture at the leathery shadows in the cages. I forced a grin. “I’m very interested in bats, you see. Tell me, do they carry post as well as owls?”
“Bettah! Battah! Ahahah.”
I forced a laugh from the pit of my stomach, which felt like emptying itself. Not because of the bats, although some of them looked (and smelled) more dead than alive. The auror just across the street was going to take Bella away just the way my father was taken away once. To Azkaban. I shuddered. If he hadn't already taken her, judging by the state of the pub when I came in a minute ago.
“C’mon, c’mon.”
They gestured for me to come behind the counter and look at various types and sizes of bats. The shopkeeper was actually very nice once I showed interest in their collection.
“Da ones that look dead, are, actually. We sell leathers too, we do. Dey jus’ haven’ been skinned jus’ yet.”
I noticed a single hair growing steadily from the shopkeeper’s chin while they spoke.
“Interesting choice to keep those in the front of the shop,” I dared to mention.
They looked at me uncomprehendingly and proceeded to show me around until we had reached the back where the bats indeed looked a lot livelier.
I spent about an hour at the shop, learning how to tame and train bats, how their sonar navigation worked and much more, until someone came in. I had been listening with half an ear, but jumped at the sound of the door. It was not the scary man with the big coat, walking stick and magical eye, but a familiar figure. Locks of white and black between the black bats, searching for a sign of me.
“Cissa!”
I ran into her arms, and she embraced me softly. She then held me at armlength and the serious look on her face deepened.
“Bella has been arrested, my dear. It happened this afternoon.”
Narcissa kissed me on the head, her hands covering my ears where the blood roared as I started crying. I hadn't cried in a long time. Not since Lucius had hit me once for practising spells from ‘Muse of the Darkest Arts’ which Bella had secretly given me during one of her visits. Was this how I was going to lose my family one by one? Aurors with scars and spinning eyes, invading our house and persecuting us one by one. Narcissa told me it was a false memory, but I often dreamt of my father screaming and a lot of ceramic breaking in the kitchen, a few weeks before I was taken in by the Malfoys. I had only been about three years old when he was arrested in Godric’s Hollow, so my memory of the auror invasion and my father's screams could not have been real.
Narcissa looked at the bat I had chosen with minor disgust, but paid for it without saying a word. I knew Lucius would never allow a bat in the house, but I think both Narcissa and I were too shocked to worry about it. She kissed my head one more time and helped me carry my things. We walked in silence through Knockturn Alley. The street started to look normal again, like there hadn’t just been a team of aurors to dig through cafeterias in search of my aunt. Business went on as usual. She took me to Borgin&Burkes, where we used a direct portkey to Malfoy Manor, otherwise used to transport large pieces of antiquary. Everything happened in a haze. We appeared in the big hall, which had just been cleaned. I looked at our deformed silhouettes in the shining marble. Cissa snapped her fingers, at which Dobby, our house elf, appeared. He took the cauldron from Narcissa, and the cage with the bat from my limp hand, which he could barely keep above the ground. I wanted to take the cage back from him, but he had already waddled off, puffing softly.
“You just go on to your room, dear. Start packing your clothes already.”
I nodded. Nodded diffidently like the girl Astoria had done. Would her family also worry about aurors turning up at their doorstep? Narcissa watched me go up the stairs and then left to the guest hall. A white-blonde head disappeared quickly behind the banister at the top of the stairs. I reached the top and looked down on little Draco, crouching down behind the wooden stair bars. He was actually only two years younger than me, but he'd always be little to me. He looked up.
“Is she really gone?”
I bit my lip.
“Yeah.”
“But we won’t have to go, too. Right?”
He looked away to hide his emotions.
“Daddy always says they won’t come after us anymore. And he works at the Ministry, so they can’t just take him!”
“No, they won't come for us. It’s gonna be fine, I promise.”
The promise was to reassure myself as well as my little cousin. Lucius and Narcissa always told me that we were good people, that we would not have to worry as long as we just kept quiet. Even inside the manor, no one was allowed to speak of the War, or what happened with my father. As if making each other forget, would make the Ministry forget. That Bella had to hide from the aurors was because she had been too loud, been too rebellious. The War had been a silent one, and she was now arrested for her brutality during it. Whatever she did must have been as bad as what my father did, but I did not want to think about him now. Could Bella have done something as horrible? Something in me told me that she could, unlike her sister Narcissa. But she was... Bella. I sighed to release the tension in my chest and ruffled Draco's hair. He was left alone as I went upstairs, and I heard the door of his room shut carefully.
There was no dinner that night. Probably because Narcissa did not want to show herself, but I had no appetite either way. Dobby brought some food to my room, but I told him to eat it himself.
“But Lady Thalia must really eat. Dobby knows Miss has had a bad day. Is there anything Dobby can do for Miss?”
I snorted. ‘Bad day’ was quite an understatement for losing yet another family member to the only place on earth that must truly feel like hell. I shook my head.
“It’s alright Dobby, how about you just go and get some rest.”
“Oh, no! Dobby can’t, Miss. The Master ordered Dobby to dispose of the bat in the–”
His face abruptly turned even more colourless than usual, and he quickly covered his mouth with his long fingers.
“Oh! Naughty Dobby! Lady Thalia was not supposed to know!”
His bulging eyes sought for something to punish himself with, but I grabbed him by the pillowcase before he would ravage my room. Again. Narcissa’s or Lucius’ orders were of higher priority than mine, and if my requests conflicted theirs, he would explode.
“Why don’t I come with you to help you with that, while in the meantime you do something for me, huh?”
He seemed to consider that and nodded, after which I let go of him. We tiptoed downstairs, past Draco’s room, to the kitchen. The bat was indeed stored there, on top of the low table where the food was otherwise prepared by Dobby. I had to agree that this was not a very hygienic solution. The bat itself was mildly unhappy, but still very much alive and well. I took the cage and held it up to my face. It had intelligent looking eyes that glimmered in the candlelight.
“D’you reckon it’s a boy or a girl?” I whispered to Dobby.
“– no less his daughter, even if she does get sorted into Slytherin!”
I almost dropped the cage as I turned around, startled. Lucius’ voice suddenly echoed through the halls, reaching the kitchen, where I (as I now realised) had forgotten to close the door. The doors in the manor were hexed with soundproof spells, so that barely any sound could pollute another room, even a heated conversation like this one. Now, the doors from the dining room were flung open, letting through a striding Lucius with Narcissa in his wake. I could see them through the opening in the double doors, but quickly stepped out of sight, pulling Dobby with me. The bat flapped its wings against the iron bars, regaining its balance.
“You forget she is my blood nonetheless,” Narcissa whisper shouted. “She’s the last one carrying my maiden-name. It is my duty to care about her, even if –”
“Oh, please. Your inbred family has been extant in the male line since your insubordinate little cousin ran off. Your precious Regulus could never have been a sufficient heir anyways, so he saved you the disappointment by disappearing. When would you get over your family obsession?”
Narcissa scoffed in disbelief at her husband’s disdain.
“Obsession. Lucius, dear, hear yourself. Aren't you just as ‘obsessed’ with blood?”
Lucius sighed.
“Sending her there is a mistake, I have said it before. She’ll ask questions, she’ll become mutinous, and she’ll turn into her father. What will you do then? You can’t break –”
“I thought you wanted her away,” Narcissa said. “That she was a waste of space. If you don't want me to homeschool her, where should we send her?”
“Durmstrang is exemplary. We will not go over this discussion again.”
“If it’s truly undeniable that she inherited my cou–”
The word 'cousin' got stuck in her throat. It was blood treason to still regard disowned ones as family.
“Her father’s attitude, Durmstrang won’t change her either.”
‘Perhaps. Even Azkaban can certainly not change your messed up sister after all.”
I could not actually hear Narcissa gasp, but I imagined she did at this insult. Dobby squeezed my hand really hard. The strikes from metal on marble carried away the mental image I had of Lucius. Leaving a defeated Narcissa in the welcoming hall. Beside me, Dobby was barely able to breathe by carrying the humiliation and pain of his Mistress. And probably the foresight of his beating when the Master found out he had overheard all this. I would not be beaten. I was supposed to be upstairs, deaf to this argument, Dobby wasn’t. Narcissa knew he would be in the basement or on the ground floor, and as soon as she realised her house elf had heard her be humiliated, he would be in trouble. I felt really bad for him and wished there was something I could do. House elves were never respected by wizards, especially pureblood ones, but I personally didn't really get the hatred. Dobby was a little dumb, but he was helpful and attentive. I didn’t see how those qualities could be disregarded in the way my aunt and uncle dismissed him every single day. I held my breath to hear Narcissa’s footsteps, and I was fairly certain they were leading upstairs. I knelt before Dobby and held him by the arms.
“You didn’t hear any of that, alright? Just go to the basement and get some sleep. I’ll take care of the bat.”
“Yes, lady Thalia.”
The poor thing shivered in his dingy pillowcase. His bare feet padded softly on the cold floor as he carried on to the basement like I told him to.
I fed the bat some mashed figs I found, and hummed a song that Bella had sung to me when I was smaller. The creature closed its eyes and rocked a bit, hanging there upside down. I did not want to dispose of it, but I knew Lucius hated the beasts and Narcissa wouldn't like it because owls were more traditional. After a while, I snuck out of the back door into the kitchen garden. It had grown dark outside, but not enough for stars just yet. The small path was still hard to follow in the gloom, so I walked at a slow pace until I reached the little fence. Behind the small gate spread the fields of Wiltshire. I wondered if Dobby ever had the same urge as I did, to run away on those fields to wherever. Maybe if he was picking seasonings from the garden or something, but I'd only ever seen him do so with his head low, unaware of the wide freedom spreading at his dirty feet. The bat certainly heard the freedom of the sky ring in its ears, as it flapped against the cage in desperation. It felt like my aunt and uncle knew about my thoughts and longings to run away. Why would they think I wouldn’t make it into Slytherin? Why were they afraid that I would be like my father? I fiddled with my necklace, deep in thought. If Lucius had allowed me to go to Hogwarts last year, I would have known which House I was in already. When my Hogwarts letter had arrived last summer when I was eleven, I was very excited, but Lucius thought it was best to make me wait until Draco was ready to go to a wizarding school as well. And he preferred Durmstrang. The fact that this was an all-boys school did not seem to matter. “You behave like a boyish brat, then you shall be treated like one,” he had said. Now I wondered if he was scared for my boyish behaviour or that my behaviour that reminded him of my father.
The reason the Malfoys didn’t speak of my parents, was because they were both a disgrace to our family. My existence was initially just as much of a shameful secret; child of a disowned one, and an unmarried woman that betrayed her family like my father had betrayed us. But I got a second chance with Bellatrix and Narcissa when I was given up by my mother. They raised me like their own. Because they believed that I could be better. That I wasn’t a Gryffindor, or a blood-traitor.
Before today, I had been very excited to go to Hogwarts. To finally meet kids around my age besides Draco, see a little more of the world than this marble estate. Before, I hadn’t been afraid of what might happen to me out there. What people would think of me and my family. But now, I wasn't so sure that I knew what I would be dealing with at Hogwarts. Astoria Greengrass had also been someone from a similar family of mine, a similar class. But at Hogwarts there would be half-bloods, too, mudbloods even! I had always been taught to hate that kind of people, but I didn't know what they would be like if I were to really meet them.
My thoughts wandered off for a bit as I kept walking. Then I suddenly thought: Would dad have ran on the fields at night? Away from his parents, with a grin on his face. How selfish he must have been to run from his family. I stopped in my tracks. My fingers had wrapped themselves around the amulet on my chest; the only thing I had of my parents. The bat made a screeching sound. It sent chills over my spine. I wish I knew why he ran, if he’d just felt the same thing in his chest sometimes. I opened the latch and held up the cage to the stars that were taking their spots in the night sky. The bat struggled out of its home and remembered how to fly. Within a few seconds, it was absorbed by the darkness. I sat there for a while, looking at the stars and listening to the crickets and insects all around. When I got cold, I returned home. I regretted not having eaten my dinner.
While I walked towards the lights of the house, two talking shadows apparated a few meters behind me to the far right. I abruptly stood still and turned around. I could barely make them out in the dark, but they could possibly see me in the far light of the manor that weakly spread over the field.
“I don’t want to–” shrieked one of the silhouettes, significantly smaller than the other.
“If you’d rather be in a muggle orphanage, that is possible to arrange,” a man spoke, with a stern and sneering voice.
The boy stayed silent while the man started off towards the manor. I could swear that the boy looked straight at me, but I must have stood too far for him to decide if I was there or not. He eventually ran after the man, saying things that were carried away from me by sudden wind. I started running ahead of them, around the manor to the main entrance. Would the man be of the Ministry? Before turning the corner of the house, I looked back. They were definitely heading for the manor. I mean, there wasn't much else they could be here for, but still.
The enormous doors were difficult to silently close, and in a panic, I left them ajar, and quickly snuck up the stairs. I had just reached the attic, when I heard the doorbell; rung in pure formality, since the doors were already open, and a bit later the guests coming inside. No eavesdropping this time, only hiding under the blankets in my room.