Chapter 9
The days turned into weeks. After what happened in Potions, everyone gave Ahsoka a wide birthe. Dumbledore had brought in the previous Potions Professor, Horace Slughorn, to teach in Snape's absence. A week later, all of the students were severely disappointed when Snape came back from the hospital.
Angrier than ever. And a grudge against Ahsoka, specifically.
Snape would bully and berate her any chance he got, which in turn would only make Ahsoka prank him. Which would cause him to increase in his bullying. It was a never ending cycle.
It all came to a head, five days later.
Ahsoka yawned and stretched as she slowly woke up. Rolling over, she gently dislodged the many soft and fluffy animals that had been cuddling with her throughout the night. Sitting up, Ahsoka checked her watch. Sighing, she stood up and made her way down to the great hall, lest she go without breakfast.
Entering the great hall, Ahsoka couldn't help but notice that it was quieter than normal. Too quiet. Keeping her eyes peeled for anything as she sat down, Ahsoka eyed her classmate out of the corner of her eyes. Two things she noticed were first, everyone was staring at her. Nothing new there, she was used to it. The second and strange part of it was the fact that everyone had the morning edition of the Daily Prophet in their hands as they stared at her.
Wondering what was going on, Ahsoka would have asked for a copy, but as everyone was avoiding her she couldn't. She couldn't even ask Fred and George, because they had already left to get ready for their classes.
As the day went on, the whisperings constantly grated on Ahsoka's nerves. She heard the people muttering to each other, sounding like chittering grasshoppers that would suddenly go silent whenever she entered the room. Ahsoka could hear that people were talking, but she could never make out what they were saying. Until…
They were back in the Potion's classroom. And Snape was back at it.
"Does Man-Bat ever quit? Does he ever shut up?" Ahsoka thought tiredly, as Snape had gone into yet another rant about her father. Doodling in her notebook, only half listening by this point. Ahsoka's attention wavering in and out of what Snape was yelling.
"Shouldn't he be giving us a lecture on the potion that we'll be making this week?" Ahsoka wondered to herself.
"-just like your father! Lazy, arrogant! I suppose that you think that you can do whatever you want too, and the whole world will just bow down before you?" Snape scoffed, "Innocent my ass!" Snape snarled.
That got Ahsoka's attention. Looking up, she noticed that Snape was practically foaming at the mouth.
"Huh? Man-Bat says, 'what'?" Ahsoka said quickly, almost blending her words together.
This brought Snape up short. His brows creased, "What?"
Ahsoka smirked as she looked down at her notebook again, "Nothing."
Snickers were heard, scattered around the room. Snape looked around at all of the snickering students. He could feel his head pounding, and his blood pressure rising. A vein on his forehead pulsed and throbbed.
Taking a deep breath, Snape turned away from the students and said in a restrained voice, "Class dismissed."
He strode out of the classroom and into his private quarters. Pulling the bottle of Calming Draught off the shelf along with a bottle of firewhiskey.
He thought that this would be a good time to self medicate.
Snape spent the next couple of hours sitting in front of his fireplace, nurturing the bottle of firewhiskey, as he calmed down. When he finally convinced himself that murder was not an option, he got up, and went went to talk to Albus.
Watching where he stepped even more than he usually did, he climbed to the seventh floor where the Headmaster's office is. It took twice as long, but he finally made it.
Sitting across from the houty touty himself, Snape glared at both of them.
"Can I help you with something, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, concerned. He could smell the whiskey five feet away.
"I can't teach her anymore." Snape groused.
"Excuse me? Who?"
Snape takes a swig of whiskey. "Zonko. I can't teach her anymore."
"Why?"
Snape growled, as he went into a rant about how Zonko was disrespectful, among many other things. After fifteen minutes Snape concluded, "I can not teach Zonko any more. She is worse than her father. She is no longer welcome in my class. If I see her in my class, I will kick her out."
"Severus-"
"No!" Snape said, he grip tightening on the bottle. "You're going to have to find someone else to teach that…" Snape struggled for a moment to find the word he wanted in his intoxication. "Brat! Someone else is going to teach that brat, because I'm not doing it anymore!"
"Severus, why don't you go get some rest? I'm sure that you'll feel better in the morning."
Snape stood up, wobbling a little from standing up too quickly, before marching off to his quarters. Dumbledore watched him go, a frown pulling at his face.
Ahsoka couldn't take it any longer. After the last class of the day, she pulled Harry, Ron and Hermione into an unused classroom. Closing the door, she stared at the three of them, arms folded across her chest as she blocked the exit.
"Okay, what is going on?" Ahsoka asked seriously.
Hermione took the two steps it took to stand in front of Ahsoka. Handing over the newspaper that Ahsoka had seen everyone reading, she finally got her chance to read it for herself. She didn't have to look far, because it was written all over the front page. Her eyes flickering right and left, widening slowly as they traveled down the page.
Looking up, Ahsoka stared off into space for a moment. She knew that the others were talking, but she couldn't quite hear them. All she heard was muffled voices. Someone shook her, dragging her back down to earth, so to speak. Giving her head a shake, Ahsoka looked at the other third years.
"Well…that explains a lot." She said, stunned.
"So," Ron said, a smile starting to stretch across his face. "Did you really knock Sirius Black out with a blow dart to his butt?"
Ahsoka shrugged, "It was the largest target."
Ron snorted, while Hermione giggled. Harry however, finally couldn't take it any longer. He burst out, "Did you read the part where it mentioned my parents?"
"Yeah." Ahsoka nodded. "I read that. I also saw that your parents had made Sirius your godfather."
"Yeah." Harry stood in slight shock. He's known for eight hours, but he was still processing it all.
"You know what that means Harry?" Ahsoka asked.
Harry snapped out of it, and looked at her. Ahsoka repeated what she said. Shaking his head, Harry said, "No, what does that mean?"
"That means that we're siblings." Ahsoka said, smiling. A smile began to form on Harry's face. "That means that you're my brother."
There was a beat of silence. "You know," Harry said slowly, "I've always wanted a sibling."
Throwing her arm across Harry's shoulders, Ahsoka led the three of them out of the classroom and back to the common room. Talking and laughing the whole way.
"You know, if Malfoy ever messes with you, I'll prank his ass back into the Jurassic Era. See how he likes the dinosaurs." Ahsoka told Harry as they approached the Fat Lady. "And I don't just mean Malfoy either. If anybody messes with you, I've got your back."
Harry smiled in gratitude, "thanks Ahsoka."
They stopped just a few steps into the common room. The entire house was there, quietly standing. Setting their nerves on edge.
Katie Bell stepped forward, nervously playing with her hands, she said, "Hey Ahsoka. We," she gestured to the rest of Gryffindor house behind her. "Wanted to apologize, and say that we are so sorry for what we said, and the way we treated you when we thought that your dad was a Death Eater. Can you forgive us?"
Ahsoka and her friends stared at them. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George because they were somewhat shocked that the whole house would do this. Also because, they've never seen them do this before in the past.
However, Ahsoka on the other hand… What they don't know, or what they are just beginning to understand, is that Ahsoka is one very petty bitch.
She stares at them blankly for a solid minute. Everyone begins to shift, waiting for her to say something. Anything. After a minute of silence, they would have gladly preferred her yelling and screaming at them over this.
Ahsoka takes a step forward. The whole room nervously takes a step back. She takes another step, then another. Slowly, but surely, a path forms in the middle of the common room. Ahsoka travels through the path that her housemates created until she has reached the stairs leading to the girls dormitories.
Once at the top, Ahsoka quietly calls down for the whole room to hear, "Don't mess with a Black."
Snape woke up with a hangover. Laying there for a moment, wondering if any of it was worth it. Before hoisting himself up with a groan. Rubbing his temples to try and alleviate the thumping migraine. Reaching into his bedside table, he pulled out a vial of hangover relief potion. Which he was quick to swallow. Sighing through his nose as his hangover, and with it his migraine, disappeared.
After breakfast, Severus annoyingly finds himself summoned to Albus' office. Sweeping through the corridors, and up the staircases, he enters the large circular room with a much clearer head than he had the day before.
"Ah, Severus. Thank you for coming." Albus set a stack of parchment to the side.
"What is this about Albus? I have a class in a few minutes."
"Please sit." Albus gestured to one of the seats opposite him.
"I'd rather stand, if you please." Severus said, his face slightly pinched.
Albus sighed, straightening more parchment. "Right, anyway. I wanted to make sure you were all right."
"...Are you sure that was your reason? Or did you want to try to talk me out of my decision to never teach Miss Zonko ever again?"
Dumbledore chuckled slightly, "Nothing ever gets past you." he sighed, as he ceased his movements. "Severus, I know that you do not like Miss Zonko. Least of all her father Sirius, but that was all in the past. Don't let the past dictate your actions now. You and Mr Black haven't been students here in almost twenty years. You need to move on, and grow from those experiences."
Severus glared at Albus throughout his whole speech. At the end of it, ground his teeth, before saying, "If I see Zonko in my class, I will kick her out."
Then he turned on his heel, and strode out of the office. His black robes billowing out behind him like a cape in the wind.
Dumbledore sighed, and slumped in his seat. He was really hoping for a different outcome. Not that he didn't expect a different one, but he did hope. Pulling a fresh sheaf of parchment towards him, he dipped his quill into the inkpot, and composed a carefully worded letter. One can never be too careful.
Turning to Fawks, he held out the letter. "My friend, would you deliver this letter for me?"
Getting an agreeable chirp from the phoenix, Dumbledore, smiling, handed the letter over. Giving the address, he watched his faithful companion disappear in a column of fire.
You would think that after such a big investigation, and then trial, all of the press coverage, that Amelia Bones and her Aurors would catch a break.
NOPE!
They were back in the office, hard at work. There were other crimes that needed to be solved, and criminals that needed to be caught. Not to mention that there was always the matter of Death Eaters, and Voldemort. Not that Fudge would ever acknowledge that there was a problem.
*cough* Idiot. *cough*
Therefore she was… not surprised but she did jump, at the arrival of Dumbledore's phoenix Fawks.
Fawks perched on Amelia's desk, stretching out his neck with the letter clamped in his beak. Slowly reaching out, Bones took the letter in a slight daze. It wasn't every day that you had a phoenix, of all things, delivering your mail to you. Taking the letter, the phoenix, who Amelia believes Dumbledore calls Fawks, chirped once, then vanished in a column of flame. When the office was free of fiery birds, Amelia opened the letter. Her mouth screwed up at the opening of the letter.
Doesn't that old man ever use anyone's titles?
The letter sat limply in her hands as she thought.
Time to "bite the bullet" as the muggles say.
Tucking the letter into her pocket, Bones then reached into a locked drawer in her desk. Pulling out Ahsoka's letter, Bones stared at it, before sighing and standing up. Tucking it into her other inside robe pocket, Amelia gathered her things, told her secretary she was going out. And then she left.
Standing outside of the apartment, Amelia checked to make sure she had the right address, she mentally pushed herself to climb the steps to the front door. Knocking on the door, took a step back and waited.
A moment later, a muffled voice drifted through the door. "Who is it?"
"Amelia Bones."
"...What was the first thing I ever said to you?" The voice behind the door questioned.
"'Have you seen my owl, Jabba?'" Bones said, sighing at the memory.
The door opened to reveal Sirius Black in jeans and a t-shirt. "Hey, Lia, what's up?"
Bones' mouth screwed to the side, "How many times must I tell you not to call me that horrible name?"
Sirius shrugged, and let his old school friend in. "Why didn't you take my advice and go out with that guy Han in sixth year?"
"Hansel, as you may remember, was gay. He was dating that fifth year boy, Lance."
"Oh yeah!" Sirius said, as he led Bones to the living room. "I always thought that he was bi, or keeping their relationship on the DL, at the very least."
Bones sighed, and rolled her eyes. "I have never understood your fascination with that muggle franchise."
"That's because you never put in any real effort into the movies. You always fell asleep five minutes in! Even Remus was a fan!"
"It's so boring!"
"What are you talking about? It's space magic!" Sirius threw his arms up into the air in exasperation.
That's when she saw it. Or, rather, them. All over the room, there were little magical threat detection devices. Like a Sneak O'Scope.
"You're starting to become as paranoid as Mad Eye." Bones commented. Looking at all of the unresponsive devices.
Sirius snorted, "Really?" He said, sarcasm oozing from every orifice. "I wonder why?"
Sitting down across from each other, Sirius waved his wand that was returned to him, and a tray of tea appeared on the coffee table between them.
Once they both had a cup of tea in their hands, Sirius said, "Now, what can I do for you? Not that I don't enjoy company."
Amelia drained her cup, and refilled it. Sirius watched her with an ever raising eyebrow. Finally, Bones sighed, and put her cup on the table, "Last week I received a rather interesting letter. I was asked to give it to you. But, as it wasn't time sensitive, I decided to hold off on giving it to you until after the trial was over. Then I received a letter from Dumbledore, reminding me of the first letter, and asking that you come to his office at Hogwarts as soon as you can."
"Okay…" Sirius said slowly. Taking the sealed letter from Amelia's hand. Noticing the lack of an official stamp on the seal, his brow quirked before he broke the seal, unfurled the letter, and began to read.
Dear Dad, Father, Sperm Donor, Genetic Mutation, Mr Black,
You're probably wondering why I've asked you here. Your mission, should you choose to accept it…Okay this isn't working. Let me start from the beginning.
Do you remember boning a woman named, Penelope Sapphire Zonko? Hm? Well…she had a baby.
Mazletaf! It's a girl!
Yup. The Mutt, The Bitch, and the pup that everyone forgets!
So sad.
Who am I, you may be asking? Well… maybe this will jog your memory, *ahem* Do I look like a middle-aged man that just crawled out of a Unicorn's ass?
Siriusly, were you trying to make a fashion statement? Because, that glitter, with those rags? I don't think so.
Warm Regards, because rags won't,
With glitter straight from Hogwarts,
Ahsoka Zonko
P.S. Do you have insurance? … What am I talking about, you've got magic!
P.P.S. Have you talked to Mother yet? Neither have I.
P.P.P.S. If I have to listen to Snape "lecture" (read: rant) about how he hates you when he's supposed to be teaching Potions, I'm going to do something rash.
Sirius ran through a whole host of emotions as he read. He was scared, angry, upset, hurt, tickled pink. Finally confused. Because, insurance? Why is Ahsoka asking about insurance?
And then he got a face full of pink glitter that shot out of the page, while a voice over of Frosty the Snowman shouted, "Happy Birthday!"
Sirius couldn't help it, he snorted. And then promptly started to hack and cough, because he had accidentally snorted glitter. Amelia, taking pity on him, though she had to bite down hard on her lips to keep from smiling, cleared up the glitter.
Once Sirius was able to breathe again, he gulped down a cup of tea. Breathing heavily as he leaned back in his chair, after setting his cup back down. Once he had caught his breath again, sat up and picked up the letter again. Brushing off the glitter, a smile tugging at his lips, he read over it again. And again.
Finally he looked up at Bones, though he wasn't really seeing her. "I'm a dad?" Sirius said into the quiet room.
Sirius suddenly laughed, a grin spreading across his face. "I'm a dad!"
He looked down at the letter again. Scanning it with his eyes, when something caught his attention. Penelope Sapphire Zonko? Ahsoka Zonko? And like the time Snape and his little Death Eater friends had pushed him into the Black Lake in the middle of winter, Sirius froze. Thinking back to last month, and that girl who Dumbledore had introduced, had gone off on Amelia.
"I'm a dad…" he growled. He looked at Bones, all humor gone, erased from off the plains of his face, "You said that Dumbledore wanted to talk to me?"
Amelia looked at her friend warrily, "...Yes. He didn't say what about. But, just that he wanted to speak with you."
Giving a nod of his head Sirius stood, grabbed his coat, and with long strides left his apartment. Bones behind him.
