3. The truth
"Remus?" Kingsley asked.
"Yes, of course. Sirius, come on, let's go somewhere else. I need to explain."
Sirius was too stunned to argue, so he let Remus take his arm and lead him out of the kitchen.
"Can I come too?" Tonks asked.
Remus hesitated, but Kingsley nodded and gestured for her to follow her husband and her cousin.
Remus led them to Sirius' study, down the hall from the kitchen. It was a rather dark room with thick velvet curtains in the windows, which faced the small, overgrown garden. Sirius went to his desk, but he didn't sit down. He placed his hands on the worn, dark surface and put his weight on them as he leaned forward. Remus opened the cupboard he knew was full fire whiskey and even muggle vodka. As he searched for sufficiently clean glasses, he heard a thud.
"You idiot!" his wife hissed to Sirius and slapped his shoulder again. She found her voice and continued. "You were a true Black in there, cousin! Old aunt Walburga would have been proud of you."
Sirius turned around and raised his hand to protect himself.
"What?! What did I do? Why are you blaming me? It's the bloody minister, that Bendel woman you should go after. Stop hitting me!"
"I'll deal with her later, but you, you, you … You least nobel, but certainly the most ancient heir to the house of Black," she finished more calmly.
"Tonks," Remus said tentatively. "Even I don't fully understand your anger right now. Sirius knew nothing about it. I've tried to reach him all day to fill him in, but he chose not to be available today." An annoyed look at Sirius.
"Not that!" Tonks roared at her husband. "But in seconds he laughed at the suggestion of marrying one of the most talented and beautiful witches we know. Then he threw in some less than flattering epithets about her. If I remember he used the words 'distasteful and revolting.' He speaks as a true Black. Phineas will never leave his portrait in this house again, he'll be so proud."
"For fuck's sake, Nymphadora, shut up," Sirius snapped at her. "I laughed out of surprise and shock, and I feel I might start do that again any second. And I didn't call Hermione 'revolting'…"
"Oh, yes you did! You heard him, Remus. Didn't he…"
"I said 'Shut up!' Now listen. I find the idea distasteful and, yes, even revolting from her point of view. I find Hermione as smart and beautiful as everyone else does, but the Ministry wants her to marry me. I'm the revolting part of the idea. I'm too old, too anti-social, I've spent twelve years in Azkaban and from that experience I'm not the sanest person around. I've been dead, for fuck's sake. Do you want me to continue? I'm easily depressed, I drink too much, I've never had a job in my life. Why in the name of Merlin would the Ministry ask anyone to marry me? Least of all Hermione, she is what the muggles would call a princess. No one is good enough for her. That prat Weasley hurt her when he broke off with her, and I wanted to strangle him, or at least castrate him. After that she went out with that Bulgarian Quidditch player and, after that, the other one, the British, what's his name? Puddlemere United's keeper?"
"Oliver Wood," Remus supplied.
"Yes, him. And even though none of them could ever match Hermione in brains, talent or grace, any of them would be better than and this old, spent, broken man who sometimes seriously consider spending the rest of his life as Padfoot. The only ones I could even imagine Hermione with would be Harry and the remaining Weasley twin, and both of them see her as their sister. And are involved with others."
He leaned back towards his desk, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. The muscles in his jaw shivered. Tonks looked embarrassed and placed a hand on his arm.
"I'm sorry, Sirius. I misunderstood. Sometimes you just look too much of a Black. And that laugh-when-shocked is rather unnerving. Hermione took it personally, though."
"Shit! Poor girl. No, she can't have. She knows I adore her."
"She didn't run out in anger, she was crying. Would you like me to go to her?"
"Yes!" Sirius said.
"No, stay," Remus said at the same time. "Well, yes of course you should, but, as I'm about to explain, there is more to this than meets the eye. I'll fill you in completely tonight, darling, but what you need to know, before you find Hermione, is that this plan is crucial. Both Kingsley and I really want Hermione to marry Sirius. It's a question of her safety. But, please go find her and set her perspective right. Don't say anything about her safety, just pretend you somehow agree with the marriage law. You might even convince her that married life is a good thing," he finished with a wink.
"It is, Remus," Tonks said quietly. She then put her arms around Sirius and whispered in his ear. "I really am sorry, you know. You just look so much like your father, I sometimes expect aunt Walburga to stand next to you and promt even more ghastliness to come out of your mouth. I know you are a good person. Hermione could do a lot worse. If Remus and Kingsley have more information you'd better listen and do whatever it takes to keep her safe."
She left the room and closed the door quietly behind her.
"Here." Remus handed Sirius a glass with amber liquid. His hand shook slightly. "And sit." He gestured towards one of the armchairs next to the dusty curtains.
Sirius sat and peeked out through the small gap. The garden bathed in sunshine and the strong light made it look even more neglected than usual. He felt uneasy and avoided looking at Remus.
"As Kingsley's Senior Undersecretary I know almost as much as he does about our administration. Presently I'm mostly working as a liaison officer between the Ministry and the werewolf population and that takes almost all my time. I don't think I've seen Kingsley more than four times since Christmas. However, yesterday he came into my office and informed me about Ms Bendel's ideas. The same things he told the Order just now. He didn't have that list though; Bendel didn't give it to him until this morning. But yesterday she had informed him about that the suggestions would be well researched, she mentioned Harry and Ginny as an example, and appropriate."
"So my name next to Hermione's is just a typo? Is that what you're saying?"
"No. I put it there. Or I convinced Kingsley to make Bendel to put it there."
"Are you out of your fucking mind?"
"Wait. Please keep your trap shut 'til I've finished."
Sirius nodded and refilled his glass.
"Kingsley called me into his office this morning. Bendel had just sent him the list. He acted a bit strange, but I didn't pay attention to that, I guess I found it reasonable considering this whole business. It would be a huge change in our community with all these arranged marriages."
"Not really. I come from a long line of arranged marriages, many pure-bloods do. Not the Potter's perhaps, even though Lily was the first not-pure-blood to marry into that family. They didn't mind her blood status, though, like my parents would have if I brought home a girl with even a drop of not-magic blood in her veins. I could trick them with Veela girls but it was so difficult for me to keep a straight head with one of those around. Oh, Merlin, I feel I am about to start laughing again." He took a large gulp of fire whiskey and pressed his lips together.
"Yes, I know about the history of arranged marriages, but they were never of this extent. We are talking about 200 arranged marriages that the Social Welfare department wants to register before the end of the year. Anyway, Kingsley gave me the list and smiled. He used the same words as in the kitchen just now. 'Matches made in heaven.' I didn't pay attention to him, but started reading and yes, he was right. I mean, who could handle Alice and Frank's son better than Miss Lovegood? And Angelina and George. There were, of course, also names of people I don't really know. When I got towards the end of the list I started to feel really positive about the whole idea, and wasn't really interested in finishing my reading. I was just about to put the list down and congratulate Kingsley on his choice of minister for Social Welfare, when I saw a smudge among the names. One line, with two names, where my eyes couldn't really find a good focus. Somehow I was still a tiny bit curious, so I took it to the window and tried really hard. Maybe it was a question of pride. We don't really want to admit that we are getting on in years and far-sightedness is definitely a sign of age. In the sunlight I could read the blurry line. It read Hermione Granger and Rodolphus Lestrange."
"What?!" Sirius sprayed his friend with a mouthful of Ogden's as he went from pale to paler. "Lestrange? He's older than I am, but worst of all, he is mad. He's a sadist, a lunatic, a flaming danger to every living thing."
"I know. And I wasn't even upset. I can't remember how I thought, I was just happy I could make out the scribble, but somewhere in my mind I realised I was under a spell. I focused so hard to clear my head. You mentioned Veelas. This was similar. I left the list on the desk and stepped out of Kingsley's office, and felt a little better. Kingsley was just sitting there, petting one of the barn owls. Didn't seem to have a care in the world. I went to find Bob McGonagall, Minerva's nephew. He's Head of the Committee on Experimental Charms, began his career as an auror, and he's really good at detecting dark magic. I explained the situation quickly and he went back with me. He didn't step into the office, but he nodded, as if he could feel the spells. Then he muttered some counter-spells. Not just Finite Incantatem, but some I've never heard before. The whole room went ice cold and the list crackled like bad muggle electricity. Then some smoke rose from the parchment and everything went back to normal. Bob checked Kingsley and me for traces of spells or curses, and he found a mild, but unusual version of an Imperio curse in both of us. It seemed to have come from the list, from the blurry line."
"A written curse? I've never heard about that before. Curses in objects, yes, but never what you describe."
"Neither have I. Bob, on the other hand, had. When they went through the Carrows' rooms at Hogwarts they found research in this area. It would work like a forwarded secret enclosed in the Fidelius Charm, if you are the Secret-Keeper you can share the secret via a written message. But very little has been researched in this field. Bob compiled a list of counter-spells, right after the war, to protect the officers working with the Department of Magical Artefacts. They went through such piles of objects when clearing out houses of dead Death Eaters, and to be better safe than sorry, they used a standard collection of counter-spells as soon as they came across anything new. Sometimes objects reacted just like the list in Kingsley's office."
"Kreacher," Siruis mumbled and the house-elf appeared immediately. "I need some butterbeer. I mustn't get drunk today. Not yet. And make some sandwiches too." The house-elf bowed without a word. "Please," Sirius added, and Kreacher was gone.
"Well, to continue. Bob stayed with us to make sure we didn't slip under any other spells. We listed the main questions: Who is behind the spell around Hermione's name, which made everyone who read it want to skip that line? Is it the Social Welfare minister or is she also a puppet? And why Hermione? And to what purpose? Since the minister has been to clear on that these are suggestions, not commands, what would happen if Hermione refused? Which she would, of course."
"I'll marry her this afternoon and move to the west coast of Ireland," Sirius muttered. "I'll hire some goblins and start a whiskey brewery."
A/N: You'd better give some feedback and reviews if you want me to keep posting.
K