Part I: Reticent

Chapter VI: In Which the Minister Screws Everything Up

Corinna barely processed what happened after that. She remembered McGonagall yelling worse than anything she had ever heard the transfiguration teacher utter. She remembered being dragged into the hospital wing where she saw the brood of Weasleys and Hermione surrounding Harry's bed as she was all but shoved into her own.

She sat there, unmoving as everyone seemed to argue around her. Although she had never met the woman in her life, Mrs. Weasley seemed to have adopted her and was trying to shield her from whatever the adults were discussing. It was almost too much for her to handle, and she wanted nothing more than to press her face into the pillow and force the entire world to fade away.

It was as if her brain had gathered too much information and refused to retain anymore. She heard their voices, but processed and felt nothing about it. She supposed that could be normal. Eventually, she saw Fudge dropped a bag full of galleons on Harry's bed and left unceremoniously. Dumbledore immediately jumped into action to deal with You-Know-Whose return.

Later on, Corinna would find it almost hilarious that she hadn't even realized that the darkest wizard had come back from the dead. That seemed to pale in comparison to everything else she had heard tonight.

"Crouch." Madam Pomfrey had put up some privacy curtains, something she only realized once she was pulled away from her thoughts. "Take this. It will help you get a dreamless sleep. Be sure to drink it all, or else you will end up like Potter."

Without questioning what Madam Pomfrey meant by that, she gladly drained the glass, wanting nothing more than to escape.

Corinna had never felt as lost as she had before in her life, even after all those months of uncertainty. She woke the next morning to the privacy curtains down. She saw Ron and Hermione gathered around Harry's bed, talking in low voices. She tried to remember what happened last night, but she did not remember much after her brother was dealt the dementor's kiss.

No, father. The man she grew up knowing as her brother was her father. She had heard of such a thing happening before when it came to young parents and the grandparents taking them in and lying about the circumstances of their birth. She had read it in some of the novels she liked to read for fun. She never expected that to become her life.

And then there was the mystery that was Bellatrix Lestrange. She was almost afraid to find out about her, especially since Barty made it seem that her loyalty to You-Know-Who was comparable to his. But she found herself in the library, odd as most students wouldn't want to step foot among the dusty volumes once they were done with their exams. She had poured over ancient copies of the Daily Prophet from around the time she was born. She had found a paper from just a few weeks of her being born about how Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black) and her husband, Rudolphus, were arrested and charged for torturing Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom into insanity. Corinna felt like she was going to be sick and quickly put the volumes away, unable to stomach any more information.

The Daily Prophet released the news as to what Bartemius Crouch Jr. had done. Or, at least, what the Ministry claimed to have happened. According to the Prophet, Crouch was working alone in impersonating ex-Auror Alastor Moody, killing Cedric Diggory, and attempting to kill Harry Potter. Him receiving the dementor's kiss before a full trial was a regrettable miscalculation on the Ministry's part but, given what he told Dumbledore and other witnesses, he had given a full confession, even if the Ministry-approved confession was hogwash.

Then there was the mystery of what was going to happen with Corinna once the term ended. The man whom she thought was her father is now dead, the man who was her real father is now in the process of dying a slow and painful death, and the woman who was supposedly her mother was rightfully stuck in Azkaban for the rest of her life. Corinna had no other family.

At least, that is what she had thought.

McGonagall had called her into her office the morning before the end of term feast. She still looked angry, yet determined, given what had happened just a few days prior. "Given what you have just learned, we decided to leave it up to you whether you wanted to have contact with your mother's family."

Just hearing that made Corinna's blood curdle. "I want nothing to do with them," she said firmly.

"Not all of them are Death Eaters, if that is what you are concerned about."

"It's not just that," Corinna said. "I'm just…I'm not ready to suddenly have a new family when this one had just fallen apart."

McGonagall seemed to understand and left it at that. "There is still the problem of you needing a guardian as you are fourteen years old." Corinna decided against correcting McGonagall. Maybe she could pretend that day never happened if she claimed to still be fourteen.

"What about Winky?"

"I'm sorry, I don't believe I heard you correctly," McGonagall said in a tone that implied that she heard Corinna very quickly but was giving her an opening to amend what was said. "Did you just suggest that a house elf could be your guardian?"

"She's the closest thing to a family I have," Corinna explained.

"Even if I did not object to such a thing, the law would never allow it. Winky is not in a right state as she, according to some of the other house elves in our employ, she has been spending all day drinking butterbeer to forget what had transpired in Alastor's office. She is also not your house elf as your erm…as Mr. Crouch had dismissed her last summer. That is not a contract that can be unbroken."

"What do you think I should do?" Corinna asked softly, looking terrified at what the future held for her.

"Do you have any friends you could stay with during the holidays?"

"I can ask around. I should have an answer for you sometime before the end of term."

McGonagall pursed her lips. "I would like an answer before the feast tonight. Dumbledore is planning on honoring Cedric Diggory and I would like this to be sorted out before then."

Corinna found Terry with the other Ravenclaws soaking up the warmth by the Black Lake. It was the first time she had been outside since that night, and the heat seemed to squeeze her chest. Or maybe it was just the nerves that made her entire body feel like she was on fire.

He hadn't noticed her at first. It took a sharp elbow from Mandy for him to look up at Corinna. "Can we talk?" she asked in a small voice.

Terry did not seem like he wanted to, but he grudgingly stood up and walked with Corinna. She thought about going to their spot in the library, but she did not want that spot tainted with what she was about to admit to him. So, instead, they decided to walk along the Black Lake to the other side where there were far fewer students, most of whom were in their own little world.

"First, I just wanted to say that I am sorry for being a shite friend," Corinna began slow when Terry refused to say anything, forcing her to make the first move. "I'm not going to even make any excuses. I was rude and I pushed you away. If I could take it all back, I would. So, I'm…I'm sorry, Terry."

"Okay," he said, not accepting it or forgiven, simply acknowledging that Corinna had said it. She knew that was all she was going to get from him for right now, so she continued.

"You know what happened to my dad," Corinna said, deciding against telling him what really happened. Maybe, someday, there might be a time and a place where they were friends again and she was ready to tell someone else about it. But, for right now, she wanted to keep this information between herself and the four others that heard Barty's unfortunate tail. She wanted even worried about Harry saying anything. She had a feeling he wanted to forget that night just as much as she wanted to. "I don't have any other family, and I am still underage." She swallowed thickly. "I am not asking your parents to take me in. I don't think either of us want that right now." Terry nodded in agreement. "Instead, can I just tell McGonagall that I will be staying with you for the summer? I don't have anyone else I can trust with this."

Terry was silent for a long moment. This was possibly the longest he had ever not said a word. As she debated whether or not she was going to slap him to see if he was still alive, he said, "Where will you go?"

"My house," Corinna answered with a shrug. "It's technically mine now. And my father was a frugal man. He has enough money in his Gringott's vault in order for me to live comfortably until I'm done with school."

Terry looked torn about that, but the confliction in his eyes was apparent. "If I tell my parents about this, they will insist on taking you in. They're just like that."

"Then don't tell them," Corinna said. "Any sort of parcel sent to me from the school will reroute to the house, and McGonagall will trust your parents to take care of me. We all know you come from good people."

It was another pregnant pause before he finally said, "Yeah, alright. But I'm going to insist on you sending me an owl every week, just to make sure you are alive. I'm…I'm not ready to forgive you, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't help you at a time like this."

"It's more than I deserve," Corinna reassured. "And I can't thank you enough, Terry." They were just about to walk around the last bend back towards where his friends were lounging, watching us with a critical eye. She could only guess what they all thought of her. "I'll see you later, Terry."

Corinna could not bring herself to go to the feast that evening. Instead, she focused on packing her trunk. She had shoved her homework and notes from that year into her bag, and she paused when she heard her potions text hit something at the bottom. She dug in and pulled out the velvet box she received on her birthday. She could now guess that Barty had sent it to her, but the crest still eluded her. Knowing the library was now closed for the term, she went over to the pile of books Hermione had not put in her trunk and grabbed one on the subject of the ancient wizarding houses. She already knew that it wasn't the Crouch insignia as it was on a plaque that hung on their mantel. She tried Lestrange, but the rendering in the book did not match. Of course not, Corinna thought bitterly. She wasn't a Lestrange. She would technically be a Black, her mother's maiden name.

She used the index to find the chapter on the Black family and her heart sank when she compared the image in the book to the image on the necklace. It was exactly the same.

She tossed the book back onto Hermione's pile and went over to the window. Someone had opened it to let the evening breeze into the dorm, and the setting sun caused an orange glow to spread across the grounds and created long shadows. She glanced down at the necklace one last time. Without thinking, she threw the necklace as hard as she could and watched it sail passed the spires until it disappeared.

"That's what I think of you, Bellatrix Lestrange," Corinna muttered under her breath before turning to finish her task.

The journey back to London was a muted affair for Corinna. She managed to get a compartment to herself and managed to keep it that way for the entire ride. Of course, it probably had something to do with what Barty had done. She was tainted, and she did not blame anyone for keeping their distance. She wished she could do the same.

As she stepped onto the platform in London, her heart sank when she realized that Mr. Crouch would never be there to pick her up, looking impatient as he had to carve out time from his busy day to do this. He was not there to rush her along so he could take her home and then get back to whatever meeting or task he had scheduled.

For the first time ever, she crossed over the barrier to the muggle side of King's Cross, alone. She exited the train station, alone. She went home to an empty house, alone.