The film over Brian's eyes was lifted and he was standing back in the common room. Brian glared at his friend. How could she intrude on his mind like that? She had no right to look at his memory. They both knew it was just common courtesy not to see into other peoples' minds even though they could. They where probably the only people to pass through the school doors who could do legilimency.
Susanna was looking back at him. Her face showed an expression of shock. The worst part of her face that made Brian's hart turn, even through his anger, was that her face was wet with tears. Her voice was horse from shock and only came out as a whisper.
"I'm so sorry, Brian. I had no idea."
"What part of 'I don't want to tell you' don't you understand?" Brian's temper was rising quickly.
"Brian I didn't know."
"And that's the way I wanted it!" yelling back at his tearful friend. He felt betrayed. His best friend intruded on his only sanctuary. "There are some memories worth keeping to yourself. But I can't even keep that to myself anymore. "
Brian looked at Susanna and Susanna looked at Brian. Neither of them wanted to turn there eyes from the other and neither dared to invade the others mind.
The tense silent was interrupted by a tapping noise at the window. The two of them turned their gases to the window where a brown owl was tapping on the window with a letter clamped in its beak. Brian walked over to the window and let the owl fly in. The owl was waiting for Brian to give him his arm to perch on but after a moment the owl got impatient and just dropped the letter in front of Brian and took off out the open window.
Brian slammed the window shut, scooped up the letter, and tore it open. Susanna stood with her hands on the back of a chair to wait for what Brain had to say about the letter.
Brain read the letter in silent but his face said a lot. Susanna didn't need legilimency to tell her something was wrong. Brian's blue eyes where large with concern. His mouth was slightly open, silently mouthing the letter. Susanna waited patiently next to the chair for Brian's response. He walked back to the couch with the letter and sat down slowly. Susanna watch as Brian's mood suddenly went from scarred to infuriated.
Brian's anger got the best of him. His chest heaved with angered breath and his hands shock ravenously as he stood up. He crumpled the letter into a ball and through it in the black and red ashes. Red sparks flew from the fire as the letter started to smoke. Brian shook his head and drove his fist on the stone wall. He didn't stop there. He kicked and thrashed out at the wall, yelling, "No! No! NO! IT ISN'T TRUE!"
"Brian!" Susanna ran to Brian to stop his rage. She grabbed his wrists to stop him from bruising himself any further. He resisted her for a moment but looked at her through his sorrowful eyes and let his guard down. He allowed her to guide him to the couch next to the smoldering letter. Brian shook his head letter started to flame. His lip was trembling as they watched the letter become ashes.
Susanna was about to ask but Brian answered her question before she could get the words out of her mouth.
"He killed her."
"What!" Susanna was shocked. Whatever answer she had anticipated, that was not it. "Who? Who was killed?"
"My mother. Brian killed her. My drunken muggle father killed my mother on one of his drunken rages." Brian's voice creaked as a single tear fell from his blue eyes.
"What! Oh Brian I'm…"
"Don't call me that!" Brian snapped, "I'm not going by a murder's name. Especially my father's. I use to take pride having my fathers name when I was younger but now I'm ashamed to be his son."
"Then what? A-boy-no-longer-named-Brian is very lengthy." Brian was in no mood for Susanna's sarcasm so he hid his face in his hands to hide another tear.
The moments passed when Brian hid his tear filled face. He didn't want to show weakness in front of his dearest friend. Susanna put her arms around him to comfort him the best she could but it was not the same as a mother's love.
Brian just lost the one person that would hold him at night when he was scared and supported him when he got his acceptance letter to Hogwarts. His whole world seemed to be crashing down on his shoulders with the loss of his mother.
Suddenly, Susanna sat up strait. Her arms fell from Brian's shoulders as she picked up a broken quill from a nearby table. Now it was Brian's turn to read her face. Her pressed lips and focused eyes told Brian that she had a crazy idea. As Susanna took a discarded bit of parchment off the floor Brian explained the letter to her. It was better to tell her now rather than later.
"The letter was from half a dozen people from the Ministry. Magical Law Informant, Obliviator Headquarters and a few others. My father is a muggle so he couldn't defend himself against my mother so he snapped her wand before he…" Another set of silent tears rolled down his face. He whipped them away and watched Susanna on the floor crawling around. He continued, hoping that she didn't see him cry.
"Because he is a muggle, he can not be punished by the Ministry but he was married to a witch so he has a right to keep his memory of magic. The Ministry pushed the muggle's investigation as much as they could but it will take some time before he is put to justice in the muggle law."
Susanna continued searching and after a few minutes, she found a forgotten inkwell and stood up, rather pleased with her find.
"So in other words," Brian was not sure he could say it but he did, "the Ministry is going to do nothing more."
The inkwell fell from Susanna's hands with a thump. The lid flew off and it started dripping black ink on the floor.
"Nothing?" Susanna was mortified, "Nothing at all? But your Mum was amazing. It was because of her that we met. Remember on the platform. I lost my cat and she found it and introduced us. But nothing? My Dad is in the Ministry. He works with the Minister of Magic. Maybe he can help. "
"The father that refused to talk to you for three months because you where put in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin?"
"Well, yes but I can't help that I have a racist pureblood family. My Dad, my brother, everyone in my family is like that. It just goes with the Prince family, I guess. Enough about my family's problems. Watch this!" Susanna looked down at the spilt ink.
"Brian, can I barrow your wand? Mine is up in my dormitory."
Brian merely nodded as he pasted her his wand. She waved it and the spilt ink was cleaned. She handed him his wand back and he watched her tare the parchment in five squares. On each square she wrote a different lowercase letter; an l, two n's, a b, and an a. She scrambled and unscrambled and flipped them upside down to get u's instead of n's and the b to get p's and q's. Brian took an interest in Susanna's game and watched her for a few minutes until she scratched out one of the n's and replaced it with an s. The letters spelled out a-l-b-u-s.
"There." Susanna announced proudly. "Your new name. Taken from 'a-boy-no-longer-named' changed and rearranged the first letters to give you a new name; Albus. Now you don't have to keep your fathers name. "
For the first time all night Brian smiled. "Albus." He pondered the new name for a minute, seeing how it felt to be said out loud. It felt strong, noble and wise. "I like it. Now I am Albus Percival, that's my father's father's name, Wulfric, that's my mother's father's name, Brian Dumbledore."
Susanna hugged her friend and smiled back at him. "Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. It's a name fit for any warlock."
Albus and Susanna walk to the stairs leading to their separate dormitories hand in hand. Before departing for the night they hugged one more time and went up the separate stairs. Albus was half way up the stairs when Susanna ran up behind him.
"Would you like me to tell Aberforth? I mean, if you want help breaking the news to him I can help. He is only seven. It might be hard for him to accept."
"It said in my letter that he is staying with my aunt down at Hogsmeade." Albus responded, "I think that the Ministry would have given a letter to my aunt before we go to her pub on Saturday. I will go down and talk to them if you would like to come."
"Oh Albus, by the way, today is Friday. We have no classes tomorrow so the Charms test isn't tomorrow. That's why it was so easy to tell you where lying. Anyway, tomorrow I will go with you to the Hog's Head to tell your brother if you don't mind me going."
"Not at all. It's gust hard to think that she's gone." Albus's eyes fell to the floor holding back more tears.
"Albus look at me," Susanna said, "I want you to know that I will always, always be there for you. No matter what. You are now a new man and you can start over by trusting me. Trust me with all your hart and mind." Albus looked up and his blue eyes met her black eyes and with that look he knew it was the utter truth.
AN: Tada! Only the epilogue to go! FYI, Susanna is Snape's whatever relative you want. The point is is that they are related. Did you understand my anagram or am I just crazy?
