Chapter 7
Scorpius's head was filled with questions. He knew that Drake was his second cousin and all that but how did Snape enter the picture and how did Drake find out? But before he could ask Drake, Albus voiced him thought.
"I don't get it. Wasn't Bellatrix married to someone else?" Albus asked.
"Let me finish and it will fill in the gaps," Drake said. "Now, where was I? Oh yes, so Snape had to prove to the great 'Lord V' that he was over Lily. There were very few women in the same rank as Snape. Bellatrix was one of them and according to my mom's diary- and yes, Albus, I will come to the diary part and my mom part soon- was willing to breed pure bloods but when she found out that Snape's dad was a muggle, she gave my mom to an orphanage in Latvia. She was adopted and moved to Finland"
Drake continued after noting the intent looks on his listeners face, "My mom knew nothing of her past but she went to Durmstrang since Finland is close to it. But she was curious about her parents and after the first wizard war in England, all magical beings especially death eaters had to be screened. Well, she found out who her mother was. She obviously was distressed at finding out who her mother was and never bothered about finding out her father since she was sure he would have been a death eater too."
Drake stopped to take a drink of water. Both his friends knew that his mom and dad decided to move back to England just after Drake was born. They also knew that his dad was a muggle and his mom decided to live a muggle lifestyle as well.
"So, what else? I decided to find out who my grandfather was. Sent my blood in and did just that. Found out 8 months ago. Told my parents and they really did not care. But I knew if your dad," pointing to Albus, "found out, I'll pretty much be non accessible to Lily."
"But you broke up with her so why does it matter? Is that why you let the breakup happen? And this still doesn't explain why you're working so much." Scorpius said.
"Well, someone found out and I'm being blackmailed."
"Who's doing that?"
"Some ex-reporter called Rita Skeeter."
Albus and Scorpius gave each other a quick glance that Drake missed.
"So, what do I do?" Asked Drake. " I don't want the whole wizarding world to know about my ancestors sordid past."
"First, who cares? You're keeping this big secret but seriously I don't care who your parents or grandparents are. I'm sure no one else cares about something that happened more than 25 years ago," Albus said. "Second, is this why you broke up with my sister?"
Albus got up angrily. "You broke her heart- over this?"
"You have no idea how difficult it will be for her and me after this comes out. I've seen it."
"Seen what?" Albus asked.
"Seen the way they treat Scorpius," Drake said quietly. "They always whisper behind his back and say the worst things. Scorpius has to act like he can't hear them."
"Stop! I do care about what people say. It hurts me that I have to pay for my father and grandfather's mistakes but there's more to life than worrying about unimportant people. The people who really matter are the ones who don't care about all this and still chooses to be around me. I have Rose," Scorpius said.
"But you were and are still are scared that her parents will never accept you. They might make her choose and then what will happen? She'll choose her parents. Lily will choose her parents."
"Lily? You said Lily," Scorpius said.
"I..I meant Rose," Drake stammered.
"We can't change the past but you need to forget about all this. If this gets out, we'll deal," Albus said. "And Lily would have chosen you. It would have been you, I'm sure." He walked over to Drake and placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezed it before leaving the room.
Drake nodded unsure about Albus's opinion. Scorpius was looking out the window, deep in thought.
"We'll talk in the morning some more," Scorpius said suddenly and walked out.
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Drake woke up from a deep and refreshing sleep. It took him a while to realize where he was. The weird working hours combined with the lack of sleep and stress was making him feel disoriented.
The clock read 8:30 am. Luckily, Drake did not have work or classes today. He was about to laze in bed some more but the smell of fresh coffee was enticing. He rolled out of bed, pulled on his robe and walked out.
"Albus? Scorp?" Drake shouted out.
No one seemed to be there. Drake went over to where the coffee maker was. A small yellow sticky note was stuck on the machine.
It read, "Went out. Drink the coffee. Eggs, Bacon and toast in oven. Meet you for lunch at "The Earl of Sandwich" at Diagon Alley. 1:00 pm."
Drake read the note and threw it in the trash. He opened the oven and took out the plate of breakfast. He placed a warming charm on the plate and sat down at the table with the morning paper.
There was a huge weight lifted of Drake's shoulders. He was ready to tell Rita Skeeter to go to Hell. He was rehearsing different scenarios in his head. Then, his eyes fell on a stack on owls that were in a basket. Another note was on it:
This one read, "Lily's owls." In Scorpius's handwriting
Drake started to read them. This was going to be a long morning.
Ron was staring out the window at a blond boy standing outside his house. The kid had been pacing and walking up and down for the past 20 minutes. Generally, Ron would have either jinxed him or hexed him. But he knew his wife would kill him for hurting their daughter's boyfriend.
"Is he still there?" Asked Hermione.
"Still pacing. Can I please just put a rock in his path? It would just make my day to see him fall. Did I say "day"? I meant week," said Ron to his wife.
"I'm going to ask him to come in and if he does something I don't like, you can jinx him," said Hermione.
Ron looked towards heaven begging God to make his week. He saw his wife walking down their front steps towards Scorpius. He saw them both talking and Scorpius glancing at his watch.
The two of them headed back up the stairs into the house. Scorpius looked uncomfortable and Ron was enjoying watching his squirm.
Hermione introduced Scorpius to Ron and then turned to him. "So, what brings you here? You do know that Rose is at work."
"I know. Albus was supposed to meet me here. He's late and we wanted to ask your professional advice. You know lawyer stuff." Scorpius sounded nervous.
"In trouble with the law, are we?" Ron could hardly contain his glee.
Hermione gave Ron an angry look. She turned to Sccorpius and said, "Sit down, Scorpius. I'm sure Albus will be here any minute and Ron- Get our guest a drink."
Ron walked out to follow his wife's instructions while Hermione was studying her visitor. Scorpius was definitely his father's child, a handsomer version though. His hair was a darker blond but he had the same nose and the color of his eyes was the same shade of grey as his father. He was taller and broader than Hermione had expected.
The doorbell rang and Albus walked in. "Hello. It's me! Albus!"
"In here," Hermione said loudly to her nephew.
"Aunt Hermoine," Albus said as he walked over and kissed his aunt on both cheeks. He looked over at Scorpius as he sat down next to Hermione, "Sorry I took long."
"So, what's going on?" Hermione asked them.
"We need to get your professional opinion for a friend. But I think we need a little privacy." Albus said.
"Sure. We can go to my office," Hermione said. Just then Ron walked in with drinks for his guests. Albus and his uncle made small talk about work and Hogwarts before Ron announced that he had to get ready for a muggle game called golf.
After Ron left the room, Hermione rose to lead the way to her office. She was gracious in her manner and it seemed like every movement she made was calculated and precise. Her hair was usually tied up into a French loop. Her makeup was minimal yet enhanced her beautiful features.
The office was behind a bookshelf that opened as they neared it. The office was cozy. It had loads of books arranged neatly in bookshelves made of dark wood. The floor was covered in plush dark blue carpets and lambskin rugs.
Hermione indicated a comfortable beige sofa for them to sit on while she sat opposite them in another sofa of the same kind.
"So what kind of trouble are you boys in?" Hermione asked cutting to the chase.
"Not us!" Scorpius was quick to defend himself to the mother of his girlfriend.
Albus rolled his eyes and narrated the whole story to his aunt without mentioning any names except those of Rita Skeeter. He was hoping that his aunt's dislike of her would help them.
Hermione Granger-Weasley listened intently to the entire story, without any interruptions. After which, she stood up and said, " this is not a matter I would take too seriously. Tell your friend to stop being giving in to Rita," she spat out the name without holding back her distain, "she'll print it. Your friend will take a little heat for a few days. The matter will blow over and life will be back to normal." Hermione said matter-of-factly.
Hermione rose to indicate that the meeting was over but Albus quickly said, "We know and that's what we told him but this death eater did a lot of horrible things. After Scorpius and I did a lot of research, we realized it's not a small matter."
"Unless this death eater was as hated as Dolohov I don't foresee a problem and as far as I know only one of the top 10 death eaters had children," Hermione said, as she looked intently at Scorpius whose skin became flushed. "And," she continued, "he wasn't as bad at the other nine, who were evil and I do use that term mildly." Lucius Malfoy and Draco Malfoy had redeemed themselves by helping out Harry at the end but socially, they were still at odds with other wizards who were glad to do business with them but refused to sit at the same table at meal time.
Scorpius rose and stood directly in front of Hermione. " "As far as you know" being the operative phrase in that sentence."
"Do you mean to tell me that this is the grandchild of one of the worst death eaters that the wizarding world has ever seen, had the time to actually have a child and keep it a secret?" Hermione said in disbelief.
"It's true. We double checked," Albus said, " Everything fits. We checked this person's whereabouts. The child being taken via floo by Voldermont's henchman, Peter Pettigrew from St. Mungo's to Latvia. The child's adoption. Everything is in this file as well as all the blood work to prove it." Albus took the file from his jacket and showed it to her.
Hermione reached for the file but Albus pulled it away from her. "I can't show it to you unless you promise to keep this between us and try to help our friend out."
Scorpius seemed uncomfortable and sat back down next to Albus as Hermione started to pace the room. After a while, she looked up. "Fine. I'll be discreet but Ron will have to be told I refuse to hide this from him."
"No. Mr. Weasley will tell Mr. Potter and we would like to avoid that," Scorpius said adamantly.
"I'm guessing the Carrows, Dolohov are out. Since I think my hatred of them is more than that of Harry's," Hermione said.
"I understand if you say "No", we can contact someone else." Scorpius said as he started to get up.
"No. I'll do it and won't tell Ron- for now. But I will let you know when I decide to tell him," Hermione said as she took the file from Albus. She walked over to her desk and sat on a chair. She opened the file and started to read. Her face was a blank. Albus and Scorpius got up and started to look around the room. It was plastered with various newspaper clippings around the time that Lord Voldemort was finally defeated.
Hermione finally lifted her head and cleared his throat to show that she was done. Albus and Scorpius walked over and stood in front of her desk.
"This is a shock. I never knew that Bellatrix had a child. There was no indication of any humanness in her." Hermione got up and pulled a book from a shelf behind her. "I'll deal with that reporter. Tell Drake that this won't come out in public but eventually I will tell Ron and Harry."
Albus nodded. "We understand," he said
Scorpius smiled and said, " Thank you. We appreciate it."
The two boys quickly left the office and into the living room and out the door. They, fortunately, did not run into Ron. They went to Diagon Alley to meet up with Drake and tell him everything. He won't be pleased to find out what they had done but they had no choice in the matter. It was either this or continuing to see Drake being blackmailed.
Thanks for the reviews. I hope you all are enjoying the story. Sorry, I took so long to update!
