Chapter 15: Difficult Mothers
Lexie woke feeling groggy and disorientated with her eyelids stuck together. She could hear the girls getting ready on the other side of her bed curtains and it took her a few minutes before realizing she was still fully dressed in her clothes from yesterday. Realizing she must have cried herself to sleep, it took her a few minutes to remember the events of last night.
She had a birth mother. Lexie thought back to the severe, cruel woman from last night and shivered. Something about Almeda Carrow chilled her to the bone. For once she wished she was still an orphan with an unknown past. Knowing that her family abandoned her just because she didn't seem to be a witch was incomprehensible to her, but she also knew after being an orphan for so long that parents ditched their kids for lots of stupid reasons.
Lexie waited to hear the rest of the girls leave for breakfast before rolling herself out of bed. She tossed on a fresh set of robes and knew avoiding the boys and becoming a recluse wasn't an option. She knew James and Sirius would at least seek her out and pester her until they got answers. She wasn't ready to reveal everything about last night, but maybe she could come up with a partial truth that would appease them for now. Taking one last deep breath with her mind working on what to say, she made her way down the staircase to the common room.
It wasn't a shock when she was greeted by the sight of four boys waiting around the fire watching the girl's staircase with hawk eyes. The minute she entered James and Sirius jumped up and immediately started asking questions talking over each other.
"Lexie what happened last night?" James asked, his eyes blinking owlishly behind his glasses.
"Lex, are you okay? What did Dumbledore want?" Sirius said at the same time.
Lexie felt an unexpected smile grace her lips, no matter who she was, she was happy that she still had her friends.
"Come on you lot, let's head to breakfast and I'll explain."
The four followed her out the portrait hole and James immediately started talking again "Let's hear it Lexie, what happened?"
"So, Dumbledore had some bad news about my mother. Kind of took me by surprise to be honest since I didn't really know her growing up given er-well she didn't really raise me if you know what I mean. I'm sorry I didn't say anything last night. I was just really upset. It will be okay. I think. I don't really want to say much because I get.. er-emotional still. I think I'm also kind of confused... I guess I'm still sort of processing." Lexie stumbled through her explanation trying to explain but also remain vague, not ready to unleash how awful her mother turned out to be and the circumstances behind her abandonment.
"Is your mum okay? I mean she's still… um, alive right?" Peter asked.
Sirius tried to inconspicuously elbow Peter to shut up when he saw Lexie's face fall again.
Lexie was quiet for a few seconds before quietly answering "Still alive, just, um.." she trailed off not knowing what else to say. That her mother was a monster? A cruel horrible woman she wished she never knew existed? Deciding to sugarcoat the real truth she finished her sentence "Turns out my mother is a difficult person to like if you catch my drift and I guess I'm not sure how I feel about the news, I think I'm still in shock."
Sirius smiled sadly before trying to change the subject "Ah, well my mother is a hag, difficult person is a huge understatement. Did I tell you lot about the time I tried to hide some family heirlooms in Kreacher's bed so she would finally get rid of him?"
All eight eyes looked at Sirius with varying degrees of confusion.
"What kind of creature?" Lexie finally asked, her brows furrowed.
"And why would you hide things in his bed?" Peter followed up.
Sirius chuckled "Our horrible house elf, he's completely mad but I swear he has spies everywhere since he's always getting me into trouble. I was just trying to get rid of him 'cause you know, house elves who steal is a big no and all. My mum didn't fall for it and I had to clean every heirloom in the house. It took me weeks! Some of them bite too. I still have the scars."
"You have family heirlooms that bite? What kind of house do you live in mate?" James asked.
Sirius shook his head "Oh you have no idea the horrors that take place in the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Not all of us can be from upstanding families like yours, just looking at my house would give you the creeps. I bet you have a doting house elf called Dottie or Rosie or something who makes you cakes and sings you lullabies. Heck, your dad gave you an invisibility cloak for Christmas. You know what I got? A cursed family crest that burns anyone who isn't a pureblood and a lecture about how I was not living up to their 'standards' by being a Gryffindor."
The group fell quiet before Peter piped up "My aunt gave me a dead rat once, she's blind and thought it was still alive once. I think. It supposed to be my gift for getting into Hogwarts."
"That is downright disgusting mate. Am I seriously the only one with a normal family?"
Lexie, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all exchanged looks "Yes" they all said before they all broke out in laughter.
The topic of Lexie's visit with Dumbledore forgotten and they spent the rest of breakfast making fun of James for being so close to this parents.
Lexie anxiously awaited more news from her mother as the term progressed knowing that a woman as angry and severe as Almeda Carrow would not just give up the fight. However, weeks later life at Hogwarts had returned to normal and while she still thought about what this meant for her future, she was also having too much fun with her group of friends.
Lexie learned very quickly that James and Sirius were like her and the three of them definitely became the troublemakers of the group. Lexie was pretty good at playing innocent though and so more often than not it was James and Sirius serving detention, even when a prank was originally her idea. Luckily Sirius and James seemed to find her brilliant in this way and never held it against her.
Remus was often quiet, but deep down he had a wicked sense of humor. His sarcasm often came across as more serious than joking, but Lexie also saw him on more than one occasion smirking to himself in the corner after a good prank.
Lexie did worry about Remus though since he seemed to fall ill often, she worried he had an underlying health issue and was just too shy to talk about it. Lexie wasn't sure what ailments wizards had, but she knew some muggles who suffered from diabetes and anemia and wondered if maybe it was a blood condition since he would sometimes become pale and shaky. Lexie kept quiet though, she knew the other boys noticed too, but there was an unspoken truce that unless Remus brought it up they wouldn't confront him about it.
Lexie, Remus, and Peter also became the more studious ones of the whole group. Lexie knew Remus was trying to prove something, she just couldn't figure out what yet.
Peter just needed all the help he could get with classes so he often tagged along. Peter she found was a confusing sort of kid. At times he was enamored with Sirius and James and always laughed at their jokes, but she also found him strangely cunning in his own way. He also seemed to have a knack for getting out of trouble when the five of them did get caught together by acting like he had gotten caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She felt Peter lacked confidence most of all, but also felt James and Sirius had enough for the five of them.
Exams were quickly approaching and Lexie had never had to really partake in anything like it. Even when she did attend school as a muggle, her grades were often abysmal from either being absent or she didn't have a school to attend at all.
However, for the first time she felt like there might be hope since she was doing okay in most of her lessons. She struggled with Charms the most since it often took her several tries and she often found herself needing to read up on the theory of a spell to fully grasp it whereas the rest of the class would simply mimic the wand movement and spout off gibberish with ease. Luckily Remus was more than happy to also read up on Charm theory with her late into the night when he was well enough.
It was during one of these study sessions when Lexie and Remus were both carefully scratching away at their Charms essay and they both looked up when there was a sharp tapping on the common room window.
Remus frowned when he noticed a dark black owl at the window "That's odd, mail shouldn't be until tomorrow. Do you reckon it's just lost?"
Lexie shrugged "Dunno, but I'm not touching that thing. Owls hate me, you go get it."
Remus chuckled and went to the window cracking it open. The black owl immediately swooped in over Remus' head and dropped a blood red envelope on Lexie's essay causing her to shriek in surprise before flying back to Remus who ducked just as it flew right out the open window.
Remus and Lexie exchanged nervous glances before she looked down at the envelope.
"Do you know that owl belongs to? Or who is so desperate to write to you at this hour?" Remus asked.
"No. I never get mail." Lexie carefully tore open the envelope finding a letter.
Dear Aster,
After that completely inappropriate meeting with Albus Dumbeldore I demand that you return home to the estate for the summer.
Your behavior was completely inappropriate and I can see living with muggles has brainwashed you – and a Gryffindor no less, shameful. It is time that you learn how to uphold the family values. I realize you may have some resentment for my abandonment of you, but you must realize what a squib would have done to this family's entire reputation. Our bloodlines would have come into question and we simply could not have other families raising questions.
My own father could barely look at you and after listening to my sister rave about how her children all demonstrated their abilities by the time they were three I could not take any chances. Speaking of children, you will get to know your cousins. They have all graduated Hogwarts and are all great role models for you. They are all doing wonderful work towards cleansing the atrocities that have been allowed to infiltrate our society for far too long. I hope that they will help you understand why we must uphold this family's reputation as it is of utmost importance.
I expect to see you waiting on the Platform on the final day of term. If you even dare to disobey me I will have to take drastic actions.
Almeda Carrow
Lexie snorted after reading shaking her head.
"Everything okay over there?" Remus asked looking up from his essay since he was trying to give Lexie some privacy.
"Oh just peachy, just you know, silly family stuff. I swear, are there any families who aren't dysfunctional?"
"Oh James' for sure."
"You make a good point, I swear the way he talks about his mom and dad.." Lexie trailed off shaking her head. As hard a time as they all gave James, secretly they were all jealous of how close he and his parents seemed to be.
"I mean, my dad's okay I guess. But he's made mistakes. Big ones…" Remus ended with a sad look on his face.
Lexie sent a compassionate smile Remus' way, "Yeah, I know what you mean. Big mistakes are hard to forgive. Well, I'm about done and I'm absolutely exhausted. I'll catch you tomorrow okay?"
Remus had also wrapped up most of his essay, "Same. And Lexie? Thanks for being such a good friend."
Lexie smiled wide, "Back at you."
With that the two friends made their way up their respective staircases. Lexie decided that she would need to bring the letter to Dumbledore's attention, but knowing the term wasn't over yet there was no point sneaking out in the middle of the night to do it now. Instead she thought about her friends as she fell asleep, knowing that if she had dreams with their faces it would now bring comfort and not confusion.