"A Slytherin Black Sheep"
Chapter One: The Letter
Egypt,
July 29, 1995
Edana Rosier placed her reading glasses in their case and poured herself a goblet of palm wine as she contemplated the letter in front of her. It amazed her how such a small thing could so easily upset her world. She drummed her fingers on the mahogany surface of her desk for a moment. It was a habit she had picked up from one of the American wizards, Burns, though it drove her to distraction when he did it.
The letter had been brought to her by one of the staff house elves, with that delivery she could be confident that the letter contained no unpleasant hexes. The Egyptian Ministry of Magic had only last year dismantled a fairly sizable dark arts cult and security was still quite tight.
The letter was written on parchment, not the heavy and durable papyrus favored locally, and her name was printed neatly in ordinary enough black ink. She did not recognize the handwriting.
Finally she sliced open the letter. Inside was another piece of parchment covered in more black ink and a color photograph. It was pictured the Dark Mark hovering over a small cottage, and from the style and quality of the photograph it had to have been taken recently. Edana shivered, turning her eyes from the picture to the letter.
Dear Ms. Rosier,
You may or may not be aware of recent events here at home, but Lord Voldemort has returned. Three nights ago, Death Eaters were narrowly prevented from stealing a crate of Egyptian artifacts excavated by Muggle archeologists from the British Museum. These artifacts appear to be charmed, and your name was mentioned as an expert in such antiquities. If you can assist in the examination of such artifacts, please respond by return owl.
Sincerly,
Albus Dumbledore
Edana read the letter twice more. The last thing she wanted was to return to England. She fled the country upon her graduation from Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, determined to put the past behind her and carve out a niche for herself in a place where no one recognized her surname. She turned her interest and skill with charms into a successful career with the Wizarding Archeological Society identifying, analyzing and dating the charms used on the numerous tombs in the area around the Valley of the Kings.
Just the other day her pet theory had been proven correct by one of her rivals had made it all the sweeter. All Edana wanted to do was savor her victory and complete the last bit of work left on the Muggle-repelling charms used on Imhotep's tomb and immerse herself in a new project. Certainly she had never foreseen a trip to England in her immediate future.
"The Dark Lord has returned." Edana chided herself for being selfish. As much as she dreaded a return to England, the letter reminded her that in the minds of most English wizards the name Rosier equaled Death Eater. Her stained family name always bothered her, perhaps she should see this as an opportunity to restore a degree of dignity and integrity to the name Rosier.
She located a blank roll of papyrus and composed a brief response. Then she wrote to her superiors at W.A.S., she was certain there would be no difficulty in obtaining time off. She had not left the country in eight years and had holiday time stockpiled.
She sent the letter to England with her screech owl, Strix, and delivered the holiday request in person. As anticipated, her superiors granted her request and wished her a lovely time.
A week later Edana climbed off her broom in front of her family home, wincing as she did. She hated port keys and had never been able to pass the apparation test, so broom travel was her primary travel option even if it was uncomfortable on long journeys. Once she righted her wind rumpled hair and clothing, she surveyed her environment with no small feeling of deja vu.
The house on Vivienne Lane was exactly as she remembered it: a three story brick affair built during the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth. Large stone dragons guarded the doorway. They were charmed to growl at intruders, but were motionless and mute for the moment.
Edana had to undo the layers of security charms set upon the house eight years earlier. Finally, exhausted, she was able to slide the key into the lock and open the massive oak front door, which bore the family coat of arms, and enter the house. Unoccupied for the better part of a decade, save for the two house elves, the dwelling was as quiet as the interior of the tombs she had worked on.
Thanks to the house elves the furniture was free of dust and the floors gleamed with recent polishing. Edana took off her shoes, a habit acquired in Egypt to avoid tracking in sand, and hung her cloak up on one of the ornamental brass pegs near the door. As with the outside, the inside appeared just as it had been eight years earlier.
The overall effect of the house was one of worn opulence. Only an expert would recognize the significance of the painters and sculptors hired by past generations to immortalize their images. An antiquarian might note the value of the entry way carpet or that the dagger in the glass case in the library room once belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw herself, as it bore her Eagle emblem and had been inherited by a granddaughter who married into the Rosier family. To any observer the place was a veritable museum of priceless antiques, however a discerning eye could see that anything of more modern purchase quite obviously lacked the high quality standard among the older items.
The house was a testament to the once powerful Rosier family. The Rosiers were one of the few ancient pure-blood families without a hint of involvement in the Dark Arts. Their wealth came from shrewd investment and marrying well dowered witches. Both the reputation and fortune were shattered in the late eighteenth century by the promising union of Octavius Rosier and Lucinda Malfoy. The Lucinda's brother had been arrested for brokering Dark Arts objects as a way of supplementing the meager inheritance left to him as the second son. Desperate to save his own neck, he gave the Ministry the names of the handful of customers he either knew or who were foolish enough to use their actual names in their dealings with him. However that was not enough to placate the Aurors and Malfoy began to supply other names, including that of his wealthy and respected brother-in-law.
No evidence was ever unearthed, aside from Malfoy's testimony, but most of the Rosier fortune was drained by the ensuing legal battle which dragged on for the better part of a decade. Three times Octavius was imprisoned in Azkaban and released before the case against him was dismissed on a technicality, but by then the dementors had succeeded in driving him insane and he committed suicide less than a year later. That he was never formally cleared led many in the wizarding community to believe the charges against Octavious were true.
Ironically the tarnished family reputation led future generations to abandon the anti-Dark Arts precepts of their ancestors. Octavious and Lucinda's son Evan, for whom Edana's brother was named, was rumored to have murdered the uncle who accused his father though nothing could be proven.
Edana had once consulted the massive oil painting of Lucinda in her ivory betrothal robes that hung in the library to determine her opinion on that particular rumor. Lucinda was a beautiful woman with waist length dark hair and pewter gray eyes that missed nothing. While she was quiet helpful in finding books, Lucinda flatly refused to even consider the question Edana asked her.
In Lucinda's day the house might have appeared a trifle severe, but the slightly worn furniture, sun faded silks and carpets gave the place a certain hominess, or it least it seemed to Edana.
Her comparison of the house as she remembered it and as it appeared now was interrupted by the arrival of the two family house elves. When she decided to leave England, she had tried to free them, but Squeaky and Tuffy begged her not to do so and she kept them on to keep the house in order.
"Welcome back Miss Edana!" Squeaky exclaimed.
Deja vu struck her again. Squeaky had said just that, in exactly the same tone everything she return from for the summer from Hogwarts.
"Thank you Squeaky. The house looks wonderful."
"We was not aware you were back, Miss Edana." Tuffy began apologetically and Edana mentally kicked herself for not owling them.
"Its no matter. I doubt I will stay overnight. I just wanted to see the house again."
The two house elves departed, leaving Edana once again to her thoughts and memories.