Return From The Veil
Chapter 13 – The Tale of the Three Brothers
The muggles who had been cursed were moved to St. Mungo's while the ministry attempted to trace where they came from. Kingsley decided to organize an international press conference to appeal for the magical communities to make inquiries into their muggles neighbours and friends and report any suspicious disappearances. He wouldn't tell them the real reason and opted to say that there had been threats made to the muggle communities and it would be in everyone's best interests to squash these before the dark wizards got any traction in the magical world. While this was happening, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Sirius, Fred, Remus, Tonks, James, and Lily assembled in the den to hear to the contents of the journal.
Picking the book up from the mantle place, Hermione faced the assembled group. "The Peverells lived here in Godric's Hollow around the fifteenth century. Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus were actually quite young when this whole thing happened, only a year or two of Hogwarts. Antioch was studying wandlore, Cadmus intended to be a potioneer, and Ignotus wanted to be a Charms master."
"Hang on I thought you said that they were probably necromancers," Ron interjected.
"I thought so," Hermione nodded. "Turned out, I over analyzed things a bit. Beedle apparently took a few liberties when he wrote the story. The truth is that the Peverell brothers had no interest in necromancy until their father Briarus died."
"How did he die?" James asked.
"He was murdered. The Peverells were very wealthy and would give to others but one man, Malum, had been asking the family for a lot of money. Briarus always refused because Malum was a drunk and knew he would just squander it. One night, the brothers weren't home, Malum, intoxicated and angry, just showed up and demanded that Briarus give even more gold. Obviously the man said no and Malum killed him right outside his house then just left. Ignotus writes about how his mother had been laying out dinner when Briarus went to answer the door. She didn't know who was there or realize anything was wrong until she checked to see what was taking him so long and found him dead on the threshold. Accordingly to the journal, she was never the same again."
"That's just horrible," Lily gripped James's hand.
"What's worse is that there was no concrete proof that Malum had done it. Obviously once he sobered up, he wasn't going to admit to murder. A lot of the potions and techniques we use to gain confessions didn't exist."
"So they let that murderer off?" Remus demanded.
"Hang on a second," Fred's eyebrows knit together. "If his mother didn't know and she was in the house, how did Ignotus? You said he wasn't there."
"I'm getting there Fred. So with their mother so affected and their father dead, the brothers turned all their energy towards trying to bring their father back. They convinced themselves that if they could bring Briarus back from the dead, then everything would be okay again. The closest thing anyone had ever heard about surviving death had been Horcruxes. With that in mind, they began to look into the process behind the magic and how people might regain form after that experience. They also looked into the Death Veil, Ignotus was able to get permission to study it because of his Charms mastery. Necromancy had been outlawed and if he or his brothers were caught, they'd be in serious trouble. No Azkaban at the time means no long term prison, they'd either lose all their family's money and possessions or be put to death."
"Where were people held before Azkaban?" Sirius wondered.
"At the Ministry," Harry supplied the answer. "They had a small number of holding cells just underneath the courts. Sentences only ranged from 6 to 30 days given the limited space. What?" he asked at the raised eyebrows, "I am head of the Auror Department."
"As I was saying," Hermione smiled a bit. "The consequences would be severe and it took them years to gather enough information. Ignotus removed almost everything about how they did it but what he did say was that Antioch crafted the wand himself, his first and only one, with the most powerful of materials to handle the magic. Cadmus made the stone which isn't actually stone but a type of potion held in stasis inside a gem he took from the family vault. Ignotus made the cloak and it was done first because not only was it used for the purpose of the necromancy but to also help his brothers gather what they needed. We'll probably never know how they did it but we do know that it worked."
"They brought their father back?" Tonks' jaw dropped.
"Yes and no," Hermione admitted. "They thought they did initially, their father came through alright but something happened. They decided to close the veil before they were caught but the moment they did, their father disappeared." The entire room sat up straighter. Hermione just continued, "They realized that they had to keep the veil open to have their father but the problem was that they wouldn't be able to hide it and it could spell trouble if the authorities caught on to them. There were already rumours circulating about their activities. They might have been able to disguise their father but they couldn't explain the veil. They tried to make the best of it at first, opening the veil occasionally to see their father but it was taking a toll on the family. Their mother became even more depressed and the emotional stress was hard but still none of them could accept that he wasn't supposed to be with them."
"Then what happened?" Harry frowned.
"Their father told them how he died but there was literally nothing they could do. Antioch was furious; he took the elder wand and killed Malum but got drunk himself and boasted about his prized possession leading to him being killed and the wand stolen. This meant they'd never be able to form the veil again. Losing her husband and son proved too much and their mother wasted away not long after. Cadmus took all of this hard but was finally driven over the edge by the loss of his fiancée. He stole the ring and ran off to the family cottage in the woods. He was able to be with her again but without the power of the wand, it was a pale imitation at best. Just like the story says, he killed himself to join her in the afterlife. Ignotus was the only one left and took it upon himself to end the madness. He decided not go after the wand and made the stone in a ring. He would later pass it off as a wedding gift to a cousin. The cloak he decided wasn't so harmful an heirloom and kept it for his own child. There was still the matter of those rumours about what he and his brothers had done so he gave the story to Beedle the Bard to hopefully act as a cautionary tale. When he died, he asked to have a marker here but he was actually buried with his family in a plot somewhere else."
"So this means…" James swallowed, "we can't stay?"
"I'm sorry," Hermione whimpered. "This is my fault. I'm so, so, so sorry." Unable to look at any of them, she ran from the room before bursting into tears.
A/N: Hey guys, this was a hard chapter to write but we are coming to the end and now I need your opinion. I have two endings on hand for this, 1) fairy-tale ending where it's all happy and sunshine again or 2) a more realistic ending that's more bittersweet, which one? VOTE NOW! ENJOY! R&R PLZ!