Chapter 19: Getting Some Answers
Once the sorting had ended and all the students made their way to their dormitories with full bellies, Lexie waited to hear her dormmates falling asleep before she carefully snuck out to the common room. To her surprise, Sirius was already there waiting for her.
"How'd you get past James?" she asked having spent the entire welcome back feast listening to James prattle on about his summer holiday.
"Are you kidding, once he's fed and hit the mattress he was out like a light. So what did you want to talk about?"
Lexie took a seat next to Sirius on the couch, "Well first off, how was your summer really? I know you aren't being completely honest I can tell."
Sirius groaned putting his head in his hands, "Okay fine it was bloody awful. My mum lectured me every single day how much of a disappointment I am and my dad wasn't much better. Regulus is suddenly the golden child of the house and my cousin Bella is completely insane and ended up staying with us for a few days. And I'm not talking like crazy as in just a little off her rocker, she's become completely obsessed with everything anti-muggle."
Lexie scrunched her brow in disgust "She sounds awful."
"What about yours? You have fun with all your brothers?"
"My brothers?" Lexie asked.
"Yeah.. didn't you say you had six of them?" Sirius said suddenly looking suspicious.
"Oh right, yeah sorry, so many I forget sometimes," she improvised quickly, "Some of them are on their own now so they uh, weren't around. But yeah it was okay. I mean nobody at home knows about me being a witch so that was hard. I honestly spent most of the summer alone just wandering around London. That was nice though."
"So what did you actually want to talk about? As much as I'd love to hear about your London adventures I'm a bit knackered."
"Oh right, sorry," Lexie said, "I was honestly just curious about how you know the Carrows and what you meant about the murder. I've uh, sort of taken an interest in Magic Law and was going to do some research on the case."
Sirius gave Lexie a weird look, "And you chose a completely insane pureblood family as your first research venture? Lex, trust me, you really don't want to know about the Carrows or any families tied to them. None of them have a happy ending."
"But you are tied to them technically right? And you aren't so bad."
Sirius let out a laugh, "Yeah except I'm also the black sheep of my family, no pun intended."
"Please Sirius, I'm just really curious. You know how I get when I can't get something out of my head! Please!"
"Ugh, fine. I still think you should look up something else. I don't know the Carrows well and what happened was a few years ago. All I know is that Malcom Carrow, he was married to that creepy woman you asked me about on the platform, died unexpectedly. My parents used to talk about him being a disgrace to the family before his death, something about having a muggle friend. Or maybe a friend that was a squib.
Honestly I don't remember the details and it was all hearsay from what my parents said. But it was in the Daily Prophet that they suspected his wife did it and she was arrested. Only she was found not guilty by the Wizengamot, there weren't a lot of details about the trial. I remember my mother saying something though about how it didn't matter who killed him and get got what he deserved for betraying his family. She used to use him as an example actually to dissuade me from ever speaking to a muggle born or non-pureblood. Not that it worked mind you."
Lexie's mind was whirring "What's the Daily Prophet? Do you still have it? Can I read it? And the Wizengamot, that's like a wizard courtroom, right? So Alm-urm that lady, she had a trial and everything?"
Sirius shook his head "Wow, you really are taking an interest in law, aren't you? The Daily Prophet is our newspaper. It happened years ago so I don't have a copy but I'm sure the headquarters have archives. And yeah, she went to trial. The Wizengamot is basically a bunch of old farts who decide if someone is guilty or not.
That's all I know seriously, the rest you'd have to look up. But please be careful, the Carrows are a nasty family, might even be worse than my own. Alecto and Amycus Carrow are friends of my cousin Bella and they all graduated Hogwarts a few years ago."
"Thanks Sirius, sorry I kept you awake. But you've been really helpful. I promise, I'll be safe and won't poke around too much. I guess I'm still trying to wrap my head around this pureblood mania thing that's going on and understand it more and understand how Magic Law cases work."
"Well you picked a horrible place to start. But I guess if I was raised like a muggle I'd probably be curious too. But maybe split your research between that and what pranks we can do this year instead? I've been plotting all summer and I hope you haven't been slacking."
Lexie laughed, "Oh be ready Sirius, you have no idea what this brain has come up with. Can't wait!"
The two friends shared an evil grin before high fiving and make their way up their respective staircases.
Once Lexie was situated, she had a hard time getting her brain to relax, her mind was contemplating ways she could get her hands on more information about her mother's role in the death of her father.
As much as she wanted nothing to do with Almeda Carrow and the rest of her family, Lexie knew that a time would come where this knowledge might be important. Especially if the Carrows were going to try and reverse their decision when she was abandoned at five and get her to return home.
She eventually nodded off and spent the rest of the night tossing and turning from sinister dreams about her blood relatives.