Breakthrough
Claudia found the time with Alice's family to be eye-opening. She could finally put a label on what her father was, a Death Eater. She finally understood what it was that Marcus was trying to do. And her mother. Did she know and turned a blind eye to what they were doing? Claudia never felt more ashamed to be an Avery. But she was not just angry with her family; she was angry at herself. For not figuring all of this out earlier, for not following the news properly, and for not pursuing the letter.
She was lying in bed late at night, reading through that day's copy of the Daily Prophet. She read the paper back-to-back every day since she got back from Alice's, looking for any mention of You-Know-Who or of anything that the Ministry was doing to stop him. Yet again, she found nothing. She got to the last page and saw a subscription slip, tore it out and filled out her details. She was determined never to miss anything again.
Claudia made her way down to the hall to leave the subscription slips with the pile of the outgoing post for tomorrow. But the pile was already gone; the house-elf must have taken it. Claudia did not want to raise questions by leaving a solitary letter addressed to the Daily Prophet on a side table in the hall, so she took it down to the kitchen. As she walked through the door, she saw their house-elf burning a stack of papers in the fireplace.
"Sky, what are these?" Claudia asked the house-elf, who turned towards her and gave a slight bow.
She liked Claudia. Not least because Claudia called her Sky, rather than her full name, which was Sklavin. It was a cruel joke on her master's part. Sklavin meant slave in German.
"The master's papers. I burn them for him." Replied Sky.
Claudia's heart started to race. Maybe there was still hope. "Have you seen a letter in a black envelope around Boxing Day?" She asked hopefully.
"The one about the artefact? Master burned that one himself." Sky hurled out.
Then she froze.
She must have realised she said more than she should have done. Claudia knelt in front of her.
"Don't worry Sky. I'll let my father know. He must have forgotten he burned it when he asked me to look for it." Claudia replied.
The relief on Sky's face was palpable. She turned back to the fire and begin to throw more papers in it.
"Just don't mention it to him." Added Claudia.
Sky looked over her shoulder and nodded. She must have known that Claudia has lied to her. But Claudia did not care. She showed her letter at the bottom of the outgoing post pile and run up to her room. She finally had something to go on.
Claudia paced her room until well after midnight. She could not believe her luck. She was trying to remember whether there was anything in the necromancy book about an artefact. She could almost picture the page; there was also a drawing of something that looked like an enormous necklace. That must be it. But she needed the book to be sure. Why did not she take it with her? She slumped on the bed. It will have to wait for another couple of days.
She did not have a chance to speak to Sirius on the Hogwarts Express, nor in the Great Hall. After Regulus' outburst at Christmas, she was sure that he was watching them and did not want to raise any more questions. She waited for Sirius after muggle studies. None of his friends were taking it, so it was always good opportunity to speak to him alone.
"Could I have the book?" She said practically jumping up and down. "I need to see what it says about an artefact… There was a letter." She said without taking a breath.
"Would you mind starting from the beginning?" Asked Sirius, smirking. He had no clue what Claudia was talking about.
"I'll tell you later. When can we meet?" Claudia said. It was not something she wanted to talk about in front of other classmates. They agree to meet the same evening in an abandoned corridor on the fourth floor.
Claudia was half an hour early. She could not concentrate on anything all afternoon. She must have walked the length of the corridor about fifty times before Sirius showed up, the book concealed under his robes. Claudia snatched it from him, dropped to the floor and stuck her nose in the book.
She searched frantically for few minutes. She let out a short scream. Sirius looked completely bemused but did sit down next to her.
"Here. This is it." Said Claudia. She began to read out loud. "Salazar Slytherin was rumoured to possess an artefact that was more powerful and reliable than any other know spell for the creation of the inferi. It has not been seen since Slytherin's death, but it is rumoured to be hidden on the site of Slytherin's private apartments in the Hogwarts Castle."
There was a piece of paper folded in between the pages. Sirius took it out opened it. It was a diagram of an octagonal artefact. In the middle of the artefact sat a core. It looked like a gem shaped into a serpent's head. Around the edges were ancient runes.
Claudia leaned in and they both read the inscription together. Or at least they tried. The text did not appear to be making any sense. Just a random collection of letters and numbers.
Claudia looked up from the page.
"This is why he needs the copy from Hogwarts Library. Because of the diagram. It does not look like it's part of the book." She sighed. "That's what Marcus is looking for. I'm sure of it." Added Claudia.
"Do you know any idea why?" Asked Sirius. There were sitting so close to each other that there was no point lying. Sirius would know instantly.
"I do." Claudia said slowly, doing her best to avoid his eye. She began fidgeting with the hem of her cardigan.
Sirius' spoke again.
"Are you going to tell me?" He asked.
She still was not sure. If she wanted to tell him now was her chance. But she did not know how he would react. Whether he would tell anyone else. She was ashamed of her family and did not want Sirius to judge her. She liked his company and did not want him to stop speaking her.
Claudia took a deep breath. She finally summoned courage to ask the question that has been bothering her for months.
"Why are you helping me?" She asked, looking up at Sirius. She wanted the truth.
"Testing me, eh? Fine." Sirius smirked. "Because I'm bored. Finding this thing looks like it should be a blast." He added.
He put on a good show, but Claudia knew that there was more to it. She rolled her eyes a little.
"Be honest." She said.
Uncharacteristically, Sirius looked a bit uncomfortable.
"Saw through that one?" He asked.
"I've been lying to people my whole life. Takes one to know one." Claudia said, poking Sirius with her elbow. "Now, stop joking around and tell me the truth!"
He took a deep breath.
"I hate what your brother stands for. The pure-blood mania. My family are the same. I think it's about time I started doing something about it." He said.
There was not a hint of irony in his voice. He was being sincere.
"When did you realise you were different?" Asked Claudia.
Sirius leaned back against a wall. He thought about it for a while.
"I had a difficult childhood. I got into the habit of rejecting anything that my parents put in front of me. This pure-blood nonsense was just a part of it. I hated it before I even understood it." He whispered.
"Sounds stupid, I know." He added, attempting to laugh. But neither of then really thought it was funny.
Claudia shook her head. "It doesn't sound stupid at all. Not to me." She said. The kindness in her voice took her by surprise.
"Is this what's driving you too?" Asked Sirius.
It was Claudia's turn to be honest.
"Not really. I realised how wrong it was much later than I'd like to admit." She said, before continuing. "I don't know if you remember, I had a fair bit of trouble keeping up when I first arrived at Hogwarts. Suddenly, all these muggle-born and half-blood students were better than me. That wasn't how it was supposed to be. I was an Avery."
She laughed uncomfortably but continued.
"I started to question it all. It really doesn't make any sense, when you think about it for a bit. How could every pure-blood be better than every muggle-born? Or superior to every single muggle? Some muggles are inspiring! And some pure-bloods, well, are not." Claudia paused.
"And then there were my friends. The only people that were kind to me then and didn't laugh behind my back. Not a single one of them is a pure-blood... The other Slytherins only started talking to me when I got my wand fixed. Even your brother…" She did not finish that sentence.
Sirius grimaced. She clearly struck a chord when she mentioned Regulus.
"My dear brother. My parents would do anything for him to be the heir. He is just like them." He said, sounding disgusted.
"He isn't that bad. Sometimes..." Replied Claudia. She though carefully about what to say next.
"Sometimes, I think he just wants to be your friend." She said, quietly.
Sirius looked like he wanted to object but sighed instead.
"I know..." He paused. "I just can't. My whole life I've been told to be more like him. To follow his example. To be a better son. Whatever I did was never good enough." Sirius muttered.
"But it's not his…" Said Claudia, but Sirius interrupted her.
"I know it's not his fault. But I just can't." He said.
Claudia was not expecting Sirius to open up to her. But was beginning to understand why he was trying to help her. She decided to tell him the truth.
She took a deep breath.
"My father is a Death Eater." She said quietly.
Sirius did not say anything. He was looking at her with utmost concentration. A little frown appearing on his forehead.
"And Marcus is trying to become one. I did some digging over Christmas. They are acting on You-Know-Who's orders, trying to find this artefact. He's going to use it to build an army. To take over the Ministry." She added. Claudia was shaking. She had no idea how he was going to react.
Sirius let out a whistle.
"And I though my family were bad. Are you sure?" He asked.
Claudia gave him the briefest of smiles and nodded.
"Positive. We have to find the artefact first." She whispered.
Sirius grinned. His usual demeanour was back. He was relishing the challenge.
"Do you think we should tell someone about this?" Asked Claudia.
"Like a teacher?" Sirius asked sarcastically.
"No. Not like a teacher. Like the Ministry. I'm sure they would want to know." Replied Claudia.
"And you think they would believe us?" Sirius scoffed. "Doesn't your father work there? I imagine they're all in his pocket." He said.
Claudia knew he was right. This was something she needed to do by herself. Find the artefact and destroy it.
Sirius interrupted her train of thought. "At least you don't have to worry about what to do with the book anymore. Just take the diagram out and put it back."
That was not a bad idea. Marcus would not suspect that somebody else was on the same trail but would be missing a key piece of the puzzle. Then she remembered something.
"It still mentions Slytherin's private apartments. I don't think they'll be that hard to find." She said, glumly.
Sirius grinned and rummaged through his bag.
"That could be easily fixed." He said, as he took out a case with ink and some instruments. "Where should we send him?" He asked.
Claudia's eyes narrowed. "What are these?" She asked.
"Well, if you forge something using magic, most wizards would be able to reverse the spell." Said Sirius. "But… If you forge it the muggle way, they'll be stumped."
Claudia could hardly believe her eyes. "You forge much?" She asked.
Sirius laughed. "Here and there. Do you really think the letters that McGonagall gets are from my parents?"
Claudia was now laughing too. She was glad Sirius was helping her. She could not imagine any of her other friends being quite this useful. She thought for a bit.
"Let's send Marcus up the tallest tower that Hogwarts got. He could use the exercise." Claudia smirked.
Sirius smiled and started scrubbing up the relevant passage. It took him barely twenty minutes to replace the reference to the Slytherin's apartments with one to the Astronomy Tower.
"That's done." He said cheerfully, handing his handywork to Claudia to look over.
"Brilliant. You can't tell. At all." She said, completely in awe.
"I'll take it back to the restricted section tonight." Said Sirius, concealing the book in his bag.
"Thanks. And I'll start looking for Slytherin's apartments." Claudia replied, looking at her watch. It looked like they missed dinner.
"Have you told anyone else about this?" Asked Sirius.
Claudia shook her head.
"Alice knows my father is a Death Eater, but not about the artefact." She said.
"Why not? I thought you were close?" Asked Sirius.
"We are. But she'll try to stop me. Tell me it's dangerous… There is no time for that." Claudia muttered.
Sirius sniggered. "She sounds just like one of my friends. I take it you want me to keep this from them?" He asked.
Claudia nodded. "Do you think they'll get suspicious?" She asked.
Sirius shook his head. "It'll be fine. They'll just assume I'm sneaking around with some girl."
He was not wrong. That's what everyone would assume.
"As long as they don't think that the girl is me." She said with a smile. She really did not want to join the army of Sirius' girlfriends.
They reached the end of the corridor and emerged into the grand staircase. They went their separate ways without another word.
Few days later, Claudia was sitting alone at breakfast. She was waiting for the Daily Prophet to arrive. She was getting impatient. She wanted to see what news Mr Adler was talking about. The owl was finally here.
Claudia unwrapped the newspaper and saw immediately that today was the day of big news. "NEW MINISTER OF MAGIC" screamed the front page. She skimmed the article. Harold Minchum was proud to call himself a hardliner. Fight against You-Know-Who was going to be a priority. Greater security at Azkaban prison. New powers for aurors. Stepped up surveillance. Claudia's eyes settled on the last paragraph.
"Anyone with information about You-Know-Who's activities is obliged to inform the Ministry. Non-compliance to be punishable by law."
That included Claudia. Maybe she should contact the Ministry after all. What if they found out what she was up to and send her to Azkaban?! She began to think about the best way of approaching it. Maybe she could write to Mr Adler; he would know what to do.
Intuitively, she turned to the next page. She saw another picture of Harold Minchum. He was standing next to Claudia's father, welcoming a delegation from France. They were all smiles. Below it run a quote, her father was delighted by Mr Minchum's appointment. He was the right man for the job.
Claudia's heart sank.
Sirius was right, as long as her father was around, there was no point telling anyone at the Ministry. Who would believe a fourteen-year-old over the great Frederic Avery? For now, she was in this alone.
Or nearly alone, she remembered as she saw Sirius and his friends walking into the Great Hall.