"Fascinating, huh?" Hermione asked Harry as they walked out of
class. She slung her bag over her shoulder.
"What?" Harry asked dumbly, still staring after Liberty as they
walked out of Potions.
"The impossibility of love potions?" Hermione pushed, apparently
beating around the bush.
"Hermione, spill it." Ron snapped with an air of impatience.
"That Liberty girl has got my nerves worked up. The nerve of Snape, pairing me
with HER! She did all her work without letting me take a peep!"
"Yeah, yeah.. Love potions.. Fascinating.." Harry muttered,
distracted.
"And the eggs come from what animal?" Hermione asked with a sly
smile.
"Ashwinders. I actually had to pay attention to Snape to find
that out." Ron pouted.
"Ashwinders- Lay eggs.. Fascinating.." Harry said again.. With
the looks of a headache and a dream happening at the same time.
"Ashwinders- Aren't those the things that made your summer
miserable Harry? Because of the Floo powder in the fire, the Ashwinders laid
eggs in your fire and they were bursting out all over your house? The Dursleys
nearly killed you AND made you pay the bill for the exterminator- Not only to
get him to do the job but to keep him quiet?" Hermione whispered as they walked
past the Slytherins, not being serious at all.
"Miserable.. Floo... Killed.. Exterminator.. Ashwinders..
Fascinating..." Harry ranted.
"What about that wonderful lecture by Snape on the importance of
Floo powder not being used in Muggle fires?" Hermione asked, and Ron looked at
Harry and Hermione like they were from Mars.
"Wonderful lecture by Snape.. Important for Floo to be used in
Muggle fires.." Harry whispered as they reached their Charms class.
"As fascinating as Liberty Black's hair?" Hermione pondered
mockingly, and Ron caught on.
"Harry's nursing a crush!" He sputtered as they entered the
class.
"On whom?" Parvati Patil snapped, angered that someone dared to
make moves on one of her dates, no matter how over that 'situation' might have
been.
"No- no- no- nobody.." Harry stuttered. "It's not a crush! Just a
research project on a certain lost member of my immediate family.. Looking for
relatives to stay with, Parvati.."
Harry shot glares at Ron after this. In the rows below, Liberty
Black giggled in her seat.
"Where's Hermione?" Ron
asked as he sat down next to Harry in the Common Room, playing chess with
Neville. ("It's the only way I'll win, Ron.")
"Off having an intellectual conversation with Libby." Harry
muttered as he moved his king. "Check."
Ron went to the corner where Hermione and Libby were sitting.
Libby was moving her hands animatedly, and Ron leaned in closer to the back of
their sofa to hear better. Libby was saying, "My dad has this secret stash of
cheese puffs, but it's not really secret because my cousins know about it, my
aunts know about it, my uncles know about it, I know about it, and my
junk-food-hating grandmother certainly knows about it, because I've caught her
with orange junk on the ends of her fingers."
Hermione looked confused. "And the moral of that story was?"
Libby groaned. "You Disney people. Always need a moral to change
something!"
Ron was mouthing behind their sofa, "What in bloody hell is going
on?"
"I'm afraid you have us mistaken, Liberty Black! Disney people we're
not! Warner Brothers, maybe!" Hermione mockingly sputtered in fake shock.
Reggie worked vigorously on her project. Her seventh year theses
had to be brilliant- She wanted to be the head of the Ministry of Magic's Hall
of Records- Not only would there be more amazing facts about her country, she
would leave the orphanage forever.
Hermione and Libby would be here any moment. Libby would be a
great help, but, oddly enough, she also was the focus of one section. Or
rather, someone with her name..
Her thoughts were interrupted by a crash caused by two boys, one
with black hair, one with red, and another boy. This one was Seamus Finnigan.
He looked up from the book he was reading, (standing, of course) to observe the
crash, but Reggie caught his eye.
Reggie didn't know him personally, but Libby was always talking
to him about Quidditch.
"Hi. Are you in Gryffindor?" He asked, closing his book.
"No, I'm a Ravenclaw. Why do you ask?" Reggie wondered aloud,
closing all her notes in her book. She did not want a Gryffindor close to Libby
to find out about the research information.
"Sorry, I've just seen you in a lot of my classes.. Fifth year
too?" Seamus asked, taking a seat next to her, despite Reggie's silent
protests.
"Yes.. Why?" Reggie asked, uneasy.
"Sorry, I think you look nice. And Ravenclaw usually means
personality AND brains. You've met the three needs of Seamus Finnigan." He said
cockily. Reggie knew he was joking, but he was starting to get on her nerves..
If Libby and Hermione to walk in, what would they think?
"Two questions- Do you always refer to yourself in the third
person, and are you always this annoying?" She asked as she went back to her
Potions assignment.
"One answer, one question- Only around a girl I like, and will
you help me out with our Potions homework?" He asked, trying to make her look
up. He failed.
"I'm busy waiting on somebody for my seventh year theses. Would
you mind getting lost?" She gave him a cold stare.
"In your eyes? I already have." Seamus said with sincerity,
something Reggie thought he wasn't used to.
"That line was so stupid Malfoy would use it. If you don't mind,
and even if you do, I have some studying to do.. So.. Until you grow up, I don't
have time for your immature antics." She said coolly, finishing her Potions
essay in record time.
"Fine, fine.. But you'll be seeing me again, Reggie.." He said as
suavely as he could, taking his book and leaving.
"What are we doing here, Ron?"
"I have suspicions about that Liberty girl, and, apparently, so
does Reggie. I sent Liberty on a wild goose chase so that Reggie will spill to
Hermione what she suspects. Harry, even you wouldn't have thought of that."
"You are so paranoid, Ron.."
"Shh! Here she comes!"
Sure enough, Hermione slid into the seat Seamus had just
occupied. "Libby couldn't make it. Family emergency."
"That's kind of good, because, look at this.. I didn't take a
good look at it, but Liberty was mentioned." Reggie said, and slowly, three
books slid out from the bookshelf behind them.
Harry and Ron peeped
through the gap in the books as Hermione read aloud from the Daily Prophet
back-issues to Reggie.
"Sirius and Nadia Black have miraculously bore two healthy
half-Veelas. Why so amazing? One of them is a boy. It is a well-known fact that
male Veelas are very rare, reducing the numbers of pure Veelas everywhere.
James Godric Black was born four hours before his sister, half-Veela Liberty
Isabella Black on this lovely Friday the 13th, October 1980..."
Reggie gasped loudly after Hermione trailed off. The noise
covered up Ron's small gasp behind the bookshelves.
"Calm down, Reg. First of all, Black is a common last name.
Second, Libby's name is Liberty Nadia Gemini Jacqueline Bella Black, her
initials are L.N.G.J.B.B. Sirius's daughter's initials are L.I.B. Third, Libby
was born on Halloween, 1980, that's over two weeks after Sirius's daughter was
born. Plus, wouldn't there be a twin with Libby? Huh?" Hermione said, calmly
and rationally as always.
Reggie stopped hyperventilating for a moment to notice another
issue of the Daily Prophet. "Both mother and child died on this dreary
Halloween morning and the private services are to be held in Godric's Hollow.
Nadia Black, wife to Sirius Black and mother to both the child that died (James
Godric Black, b. just eighteen days prior to today) and his twin, Liberty
Isabella Black, was one of the last pure Veelas left in France. Her son was one
of the last males ever to have Veela blood, historians prove. Mr. Black is
moving his daughter to beautiful northern California in the United States while
he finishes up his wife's estate. Everything of hers, she being the last
survivor of the great Bourbon Veela massacre, will go to her infant daughter.
Eulogies by Lily Evans-Potter, James Potter and Remus Lupin are among the many
to be at the funeral."
"Let's not jump to conclusions." Hermione said loudly as Harry
whispered the exact same thing to Ron. Ron and Reggie still had their
suspicions, but the four left quietly and separately. Reggie and Hermione never
knew the other two were there.