4. Lost and found
Next morning Hannah went to Flora's house, to give the message sent by Neville, that Ricardo had been sorted to Gryffindor house and Lia to Ravenclaw. They seemed both happy and excited.
They both were doing well. Besides, nobody had shown any kind of prejudice against them regarding their family origin, or because they were foreigners. Flora and Felipe were relieved to know this.
The fact that Neville had to sleep in the school for few days a week upset Hannah. Flora offered to help her neighbor in such times or whenever necessary, "Neighbors are like relatives in times of difficulty."
Felipe and Yan went out to look for a place to open The Lan, the computing equipment shop and the training school. They spent the whole morning at it while Flora stayed at home, amused with the garden. She thought that once she knew how to use magic, lunch would be ready in like, seconds! An hour later she remembered that she had yet to buy all the ingredients. So, she changed and went out, without asking Hannah their address. Being a small village, she believed that if she got lost trying to find a grocery store, it would be a good opportunity to get to know the local businesses. Taking her purse and her wand, that practically felt like a part of her, even if she couldn't use it much, she made her way out.
She walked in the opposite direction from where they had arrived the day before because she wanted to see the rest of the small street. It was a residential street, no different from any others she had lived in for the last 37 years.
But.. that street ended in a field. So, she came back along the same way to try her luck on the opposite end of it. She was about to turn its corner, when she saw Harry Potter leaving the post-office.
Taking a deep breath, she walked towards him.
"Good morning, Mr. Potter, I didn't expect to meet you here."
"Actually, I didn't expect to come to Hogwarts today, either. I just came from there. Prof. McGonagall asked me to address the inaugural class of Defense Against the Dark Arts to introduce the new teacher, my friend Viktor Krum. Nevertheless, I never thought that it'd be now in the first term itself."
"I'm going to market to do some shopping for lunch".
"May I join you?"
"Ah, well, yes. Felipe and I have already settled down here. We got a house next to the Longbottons'. It would be a pleasure to have you and Ginny over for a cup of tea ... and…"
"Is there anything you would like to ask me?"
"Yes, actually, there are two things: first; thank you for your statement to the Daily Prophet. Second my aunt Narcissa told me that I have another aunt, Andromeda. I've never met my biological parents, and I'm not even sorry for it. In fact, I believe it was best like that. But I'd like to know the rest of the family, and to know their history ... Do you know her? I thought you did, since you know all the rest of it ... As far as I can understand, this aunt Andromeda belonged to the good part of the family."
"Yes, I know your aunt Andromeda. Her husband was…" Harry stopped speaking abruptly. "Well, I don't know if you want to know ... I wouldn't upset you..."
"Please, go on. You'd never bother me."
"Well, um… Her husband was persecuted and killed for being Muggle-born. I believe the rest of the story will be even more shocking to you. Are you sure you want to hear it?"
"Surely, just some more horror practiced by my parents, right? ... Why not?"
"In the Hogwarts battle, your mother ... It's very strange to imagine that Bellatrix was someone's mother..."
"I haven't chosen her to be my mother, nor Voldemort to be my father. I haven't asked to be born either... But I must know. I want to understand things."
"Okay, okay. Bellatrix dueled against her own niece, Andromeda's daughter, my godson's mother, Nymphadora Tonks Lupin."
"Her own niece? What kind of a person was Bellatrix? Was she that heartless?"
"At the time she was obsessed with Voldemort. Everything he believed was law for her. She didn't spare anybody, much less those who opposed the regime that Voldemort was implanting." (Harry found it better not to confirm what was obvious: Bellatrix was heartless.)
Flora put her hand on her mouth in surprise, eyes wide-open. Then placing her hand to her chest she asked "How horrible! Please go on."
"Andromeda married Ted Tonks, a Muggle-born. That in itself was already an offence to the family. Her daughter, Nymphadora, married a werewolf, Remus Lupin, and both fought Voldemort openly. They were members of an organization called the Order of the Phoenix. As far as I can remember, I've already told you about my godfather, Sirius Black, also killed by Bellatrix, who was her cousin ... Even having the same blood wouldn't stop Bellatrix, she couldn't care less for blood bonds." Harry explained, in a bit of scornful way.
"What do you mean?"
"The term pure-blood stands for those wizards that have come from a wizarding lineage for centuries. Your father, Tom Riddle, was the son of a witch and a Muggle father - of course he used to omit this information – people like him are considered half-blood. The Black family had this obsession with pure blood, so Andromeda and Nymphadora's marriages looked offensive to them. But, my godfather didn't have such prejudices despite being a Black. Therefore, he left his family home and moved in with my father's family while he attended school. Besides that, he was also the first Black to be sorted into Gryffindor, which also brought him into clashes with his family, all of whom had been sorted into Slytherin."
"The blood, always the blood ... It is unbelievable that the only thing that binds me to these people is the blood. Something that ultimately has no value for me... How can I be their daughter if we have nothing in common? I've always known that blood didn't say anything about the person, but even then, I always had a kind of romantic notion about who my biological parents were. I didn't look like my foster parents at all… Actually my Brazilian parents were my real family, because they raised me, gave me their love and made of me the person I am today. Although we both were of European descent, our features were completely different. I spent my childhood dreaming of a mother who had my face and of a father that was desperately looking for me and was sorry for having given me up for adoption ... I used to dream like that then. But now, I know I have Tom Marvolo Riddle's features, and that my body and hair are like Bellatrix Black Lestrange's, unfortunately. I also know that I've inherited my wizarding powers from them, but I can't recognize them as my parents. But still, I can't live without trying to know more about them. A piqued curiosity may be a terrible flaw, but perhaps that is my best quality." Flora said.
Harry smiled and looked deeply in her eyes. Flora, without meaning to, saw the image of a young man with colored hair next to a lady that reminded her of Narcissa. She apologized knowing that he realized what she had just done. He smiled again since he knew that it was his fault that he had been careless.
"Who is the young man with colored hair?"
"Your second cousin, Nymphadora's son."
"The lady might be Andromeda, his Grandma."
"That's right. You do it like few others do. So very subtly... Almost imperceptibly.
"Sorry, I don't do it on purpose most of the times. After I discovered how to peek into a person's mind, it's difficult to avoid doing it. You looked so directly into my eyes that it was… like, automatic. Sorry again, I know it's not polite to go around reading people's minds."
"And can you do the opposite? I mean, can you avoid it?"
"I think no one has ever tried to break into my mind. Would you like to be the first?"
The two stopped in the middle of the street, Harry facing her. He was a good legilimens as well as a good occlument. With great difficulty he had learned to control the closing of his mind so that he could sift out only the bit of information he wished to disclose.
A few minutes later, Harry threw his hands up in the air and gave up. He wasn't able to extract any bit of information from those beautiful eyes. She asked him to try again. This time she won't try to dodge it, she said. So he again peered deeply into those blue eyes, not noticing Felipe's arrival exactly at the moment when an image had begun to form in his mind.
"What's the game?" Felipe asked both of them.
Flora withdrew from Harry's eyes, kissed her son and hugged her husband.
"Hi, my dears. I didn't even see you two coming. It's just that Harry was trying to read my mind. You know, he's trying to use legilimens against me." Then she realized it, so she apologized again, "Oh, sorry, to call you like that, Harry. In Brazil people are usually called by their first names."
Smiling, Felipe said, "She is always so spontaneous. I hope it doesn't bother you, Mr. Potter."
And turning to his wife, he continued, "Where are you going?"
"Oh! I was just looking for a market, but ended up bumping into Harry Potter. I think I got lost in conversation."
"Yes, I think you ended up getting a bit lost in the conversation all right, because the market was three blocks behind." Felipe replied somewhat uneasily.
Flora then realized that Felipe didn't like her to move about the new village with a man either of them barely knew. Felipe wasn't usually jealous; but, he was careful. Flora skillfully managed to change the course of their conversation.
"And have you found a good place to settle our business?"
Harry pretended to get interested in it, but his mind was elsewhere, he was still thinking about Flora's enigmatic eyes.
"Hannah suggested that we set up a computing shop and give computer courses here since the wizarding folks need to update their ways of communicating." Flora said to Harry, "Since Felipe is a teacher in this very field, we thought it would be a good idea ... Well, I'll leave you now, as I still have to go to the market, well before lunch becomes dinner..." she added. "So, until some other day, Harry. Yan, come with me, won't you?" She kissed her husband and smiling, said good-bye,.
Her son went with her to market, and kept on babbling away about some vacant building they had found next to a bar called the Hog's Head….