The Death Eaters' Graveyard
The biting wind was sweeping dark grey clouds ahead, and although it was only one o'clock noon on this Sunday in mid-November, lights were already (or still) on behind the windows of most of the Muggle houses in the small village of Kinkirk, when Julian and Roy, under the protection of an Invisibility Charm, landed on their brooms in a little wood near the village, and made themselves visible again. They had already flown over the graveyard and seen that there were no visitors. At this time, the Muggles were having lunch.
Both wore jeans and heavy Muggle jackets so as not to attract more attention than two strangers in a small village would do anyway. Their caution turned out to be unnecessary. No one was on the street in this weather, and no one seemed to be looking out of the window.
In bright sunshine, the village graveyard with its many rotten, partly moss-covered gravestones next to the ancient church would have had something romantic about it, but today it just looked depressing. The two of them quickly found the memorial plaque for the village's war dead, took a quick look around to make sure no one was watching them, and walked through the memorial plaque with the same ease as they usually did through the barrier at King's Cross.
They entered a burial ground that differed from that of the Muggles in that none of the graves were decorated with a cross and many of them didn't even have a gravestone. Only the small plates the Ministry had placed on the graves of the Death Eaters revealed who was buried there.
Slowly walking along the rows of graves, they searched for those of the Lestranges. While Julian was going ahead, Roy crossed himself.
In the second row they found the double grave of Rodolphus and Bellatrix. Roy discreetly stayed behind when Julian stepped to the grave and stood in silence for minutes. While Julian was completely absorbed in the silent dialogue with his grandparents, Roy examined the grave more closely: The ministry plates were still in place, but in addition, a large stone of magnificent pink marble rose above the grave. Roy frowned: While on the ministry nameplates both names could be clearly read, on the gravestone only Bellatrix's was written. How strange. Who had placed this gravestone? The Malfoys hadn't – Scorpius, Julian's second cousin, had asked his family if they had taken care of the grave or perhaps reburied the dead. And why should the Malfoys – or whoever – deliberately omit Rodolphus' name?
After a few minutes, Julian pulled two tiny bouquets out of his jacket pocket, cast a Magnifying Charm on them to bring them back to their normal size so that they now were recognisable as his special bouquets, and placed one on each grave.
Suddenly both of them heard a discreet coughing behind them. When they turned around, they were facing a gaunt, rather short, black-clad man with a serious face, who appeared to be in his fifties.
"John MacBride. I am the graveyard keeper."
He could not be anything but that. Decades of daily practised piety had left traces on his features, among whose many wrinkles there seemed to be no laughter lines.
"Roy MacAllister" – "Julian Lestrange", the two young men introduced themselves in turn.
When Julian mentioned his name, MacBride raised his eyebrows in interest.
"Mister Lestrange! How wonderful that you could come!" he called out, as if Julian were a long awaited, welcome guest. "Would you please follow me to my office, a message has been left for you."
Before the two puzzled boys could say anything, he turned around and walked towards the back of the memorial plaque. Roy and Julian hurried to follow him.
The cemetery caretaker's office was small and a bit shabby, but tidy. All the walls were hidden behind shelves full of folders that reached up to the ceiling. MacBride unlocked one of the drawers of his desk, leafed through the documents inside and finally pulled out a sealed envelope.
"The gentleman who had the tombstone placed," he explained, "left this to me with instructions to give it only to Julian Lestrange, that is, to you." He nodded to Julian and handed him the envelope.
"One question, sir," said Roy. "Why did this gentleman have only one of the two names engraved on the gravestone?"
"That's what I asked him, too," MacBride said, "but he, uh, persuaded me not to ask any more questions and just to keep this message."
Must have given a big tip, this gentleman, Roy thought, while Julian broke the seal and opened the envelope. It contained two sheets, closely written in handwriting. Julian read the first lines, then the last – and stared open-mouthed at the graveyard keeper. "When was this man here?" he asked.
"That was in 2007, pretty much ten years ago," MacBride replied.
Julian looked at him for another moment, as if expecting further explanations, then folded up the two sheets, put them back in the envelope and rose.
"Thank you very much, Mr MacBride. Now I don't want to take up any more of your precious time." He shook his hand and after the astonished Roy had also said goodbye, they both left the office.
When they were outside and moved a few steps away from the tiny office house, Julian murmured to Roy: "He's alive."
"Rodolphus?" asked Roy, as if anyone else could be meant.
Julian nodded. "The letter is from him."
Since Julian wanted to read unobserved, they first went back to the small wood where they had left their brooms.
"We should just Disapparate," Roy suggested. "There was no need for the brooms at all, this MacBride is obviously not a Ministry informer to report us for illegal Apparating."
Julian agreed, they both Disapparated and found themselves with their brooms in their secret room at Hogwarts. When they had made themselves comfortable on the cushions, Julian pulled out the envelope again and began to read aloud:
Kinkirk, November 4, 2007
Dear Julian,
when you are reading this letter, some years will have passed from now, but you can be sure that I, your grandfather Rodolphus Lestrange, am still alive.
While escaping from Hogwarts after the Battle of 1998, I used a Confusion Charm to give my appearance to the corpse of my dead brother Rabastan to evade pursuit by the Aurors. The man lying in the grave with my name on it is my brother. In my Testament I name my real identity and that of the deceased. I have also saved some money to make sure that my brother can be reburied with dignity and I can find my final rest by Bellatrix's side. I have further arranged that you will be notified in the event of my actual demise. As you haven't received such a message, you know that I am still alive.
You may wonder why I don't simply contact you. At the lates, when you get to Hogwarts and your father can no longer intercept my letters, that will be possible.
Well, I visited your dad one year ago, in 2006, under the guise of a wizard he knew – Polyjuice makes it possible – and had a long conversation with him. It was hard to bear the hatred and contempt with which he spoke of Bellatrix and me, his parents. He told me that if his father were still alive, he would hand him over to the ministry without further ado. On this occasion I also saw you for the only time in my life, and I may say that I was and am very proud of you. Unfortunately, I had to learn from the conversation with your father that he would bring you up in the same spirit of hatred and contempt against us that he himself had been instilled with.
I do not want to condemn him, because we ourselves have imposed on his life the heavy mortgage that he passed on to you. I think that if you manage to live a happy life regardless of this mortgage, I have no right to squeeze myself into that life. But you have every right to find me if you want to. Since you are interested enough in my person to visit my grave, I assume that you are also interested in meeting me. This, by the way, is the reason why my name is not on the gravestone. I wanted to make sure you wondered enough to ask the graveyard keeper, even if he didn't notice your arrival himself.
I also confess that I am a little afraid of your questions about my time with the Death Eaters, but you have the right to ask me those questions. I want you to know that I deeply regret the many crimes I committed under Voldemort's influence. However, I would like to explain to you how it could happen that he captivated young people like us so much that we literally shied away from nothing in his service.
Having gone underground in the Muggle world, I am now living in Edinburgh – London would be too dangerous because of all the Ministry people there. My address is No. 5 Leamington Terrace. If I will have moved by the time you arrive, I will make sure you are given my new address. I have no plans to move, though. I am living a discreet life here – under the name Timothy Williams – as a taxi driver. If you want to come and visit me, it's best to do so after 6pm when I have finished my shift.
I am very happy that you exist and I am longing to talk to you.
Your grandfather
Rodolphus
Roy saw Julian struggling with his tears when he laid the letter down. Neither of them said a word.
Julian finally broke the silence. "For that I could kill my father!"
"If your grandpa doesn't judge him," Roy said gently, "maybe you shouldn't either."
"Shut up!", Julian hissed at him. "It is a basic human law to stand by one's family! If he had kept to it, Rodolphus could have revealed himself and I would have had a grandpa. He had no right to withhold that from me!" His lips quivered.
Roy realised that now was not the right time for a discussion, especially as Julian was not wrong at all, but said: "If I were you, I wouldn't be thinking about my father right now, but about my grandfather. Will you visit him?"
"Of course!" exclaimed Julian. "And today!"
"All right, so you are going to tell McGonagall that you have spotted another former Death Eater and ask her permission to Disapparate to Edinburgh today and come back late if necessary."
Julian looked at him in amazement. "Aren't you coming with me?"
"I don't want to disturb both of you, it's a family matter after all, something very private ..."
"Yes, exactly! You're my best friend, I make a point of having you with me!"
Actually, Roy had intended to spend the time with Arabella, but since his best friend needed him, he would not leave him alone. Arabella would understand. He smiled.
"Of course I'd love to, then!"