Reva sat down in front of Fred and George Weasley during breakfast one Wednesday and got straight to the point. "I need a favor."
She'd been thinking about this for a few days already—Malfoy's taunts about being related to her hadn't gone unnoticed, and she'd decided, late that night as she tossed and turned restlessly in bed, that she had to figure out just what he meant. She couldn't deny the tiny thrill that had passed through her at the idea of placing a name to the face she'd seen in the mirror. Best of all, this way she could get her answers without hurting her mother's feelings. If she could just work out for herself who her connection to Malfoy was, she could figure out this entire half of her heritage without bringing up anything Anjali didn't want to talk about.
So the day after the match, a Sunday morning, she'd gone to the library and searched through the racks for a book that Hermione had mentioned offhandedly some two months before that Reva rather thought might help her out. Of course, Hermione had confessed that she'd only gotten through the first three volumes before she felt too uncomfortable with the obvious importance placed on blood purity to continue. She'd lamented to Revati that it was one of the only anthologies that she couldn't finish, though she insisted that she'd try again later, because according to Hermione, knowledge was the best weapon she could arm herself with. Reva herself had never imagined that she'd be seeking out an encyclopedia on ancient wizarding families, but here she was. Magical Ancestry, Heritage, and Bloodlines in Great Britain, Volumes XIII and XIV (1876 - 1925 and 1926 - 1975) was thankfully not in the Restricted Section, and Revati had brought them over to a secluded table in the corner of the library and began searching.
She had known that Malfoy's father's name was Lucius, because her mother grumbled about him every so often—it seemed that he was very influential in the Ministry, and a nasty piece of work to boot. According to Volume XIV, he'd been born in 1953, to Abraxas Malfoy and Vesta Malfoy (nee Travers). Abraxas Malfoy was thankfully an only child, which meant that any first cousins Lucius had were on his mother's side. If Draco Malfoy was to be believed, and much as she hated to admit it, Reva rather thought he was on this issue at least, her father was the first cousin of either Lucius or his wife. After all, if the connection was any more distant, she wouldn't be just as closely related to Malfoy as Harry, whose father was Anjali's first cousin.
Volume XIII had revealed to Revati that Vesta Malfoy had three older siblings. Her eldest sister, who was twenty-three years older than her, had married a man named Prometheus Crouch, and their son Bartemius was already out of Hogwarts when his cousin Lucius was born. Revati bit her lip. According to the book, Bartemius Crouch was married before Anjali was even born, and his son (named after his father) was just two years younger than Revati's mother. Still, she pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill, dipped it in ink, and wrote an inch below the top, Bartemius Crouch, Sr, listing his birth year next to it. She'd sort out the impossibilities later—for now, she just had to make the list.
Vesta Malfoy's elder brother, Asterius Travers, had two daughters and a son. Though it was possible in the magical world for both of Reva's biological parents to be women, she knew that she, specifically, had a father. Her mother had never been prejudiced against queer people, and would never hide her sexuality from Revati out of shame. Anjali had said plenty of times that Reva had a biological father and not two biological mothers, so she disregarded the two Travers women and instead wrote down Adalbert Travers and his birth year underneath Bartemius Crouch, Sr.
Vesta's last sibling had married into the Selwyn family, and both Wilfrid and Osmund Selwyn were added to Revati's list.
Reva had nearly sighed in relief, before she remembered that Draco Malfoy's mother likely had first cousins as well. Groaning, she'd flipped through the pages of XIV—this volume was published in 1975, when her mother would have been fifteen and Lucius Malfoy perhaps twenty or twenty-one. There was a good chance he wasn't married by then.
"Oh," she murmured to herself, staring at the book in wonder. Right before her eyes, printed in dark black ink, were the words, Lucius Malfoy has been betrothed to Narcissa Black since 1956, the year after her birth. Surely he would have gone through with the marriage? Those old Pureblood families were so focused on purity that Revati was rather certain they wouldn't break a betrothment. It was a pretty safe bet that Narcissa Black had married Lucius Malfoy, and that it was her son who was doing his best to ruin Hogwarts for all the first years.
Narcissa Black was the daughter of Cygnus Black III and Drusella Black (nee Rosier). That meant that the sons of Orion Black, Cygnus's younger brother, were added to the list. Revati felt a chill as she wrote down Sirius Black and Regulus Black. Sirius Black was one of the most notorious dark wizards of the 21st century, and his younger brother Regulus had been known for being the youngest ever wizard to join You-Know-Who's ranks.
Cygnus and Orion had a sister as well, Arethusa, who married into the Rowle family. She and her husband, Berthold Rowle, had a daughter and two sons. Both Joseph and Malcolm made it onto Revati's list.
With the Black siblings covered, she turned her attention to Narcissa's mother. Drusella's brother, William Rosier, had three sons, Evan, Felix, and Martin. Each one of them could be her father, though Martin Rosier must have only been seventeen when Reva was born.
Finally, Drusella's younger sister Priscilla had married a man named Penthus Burke. They'd had two sons, but the eldest had died in childbirth. Deimos Burke, however, had survived at least through 1975, so he too was added to Revati's list.
It took her the better part of three hours, but finally Reva had emerged from the library with a triumphant gleam in her eye, her list of names clutched tightly in her fist. She hadn't bothered checking out the books, choosing instead to just put them back once she was done. The process had been long and arduous, seeing as she'd had to flip back and forth between the two volumes to find Malfoy's grandparents, track their siblings, and then find those siblings' children. After she had finished, she decided that she never wanted to lay her eyes on those infernal (but conveniently thorough) books again.
She had spent the next few weeks looking through the names on her list: Bartemius Crouch, Sr; Adalbert Travers; Wilfrid Selwyn; Osmund Selwyn; Sirius Black; Regulus Black; Joseph Rowle; Malcolm Rowle; Evan Rosier; Felix Rosier; Martin Rosier; Deimos Burke. As it turned out, Felix Rosier had died in 1977, at the age of twenty-one, so she was able to cross his name off. There was no possible way he'd fathered her when he'd already been six feet under for nearly three years.
But as for the rest of them, she'd had no way to figure out who belonged on the list and who ought to be crossed out. Bartemius Crouch, for example, had been in the Ministry for ages—but he'd also been married long before he could have possibly met Reva's mum. Reva was quite confident that her mother hadn't had any relations with someone who'd had a family already, but she also knew that her mother didn't know much about Reva's dad, except his name and some other very basic information. They'd been casually dating, and it hadn't been anything serious, so Crouch (or any other married person on the list) might not have told Anjali about his family, and would also have run for the hills when Anjali told them she was pregnant. So Reva was back to square one—as far as she knew, any of the remaining eleven men could be her father.
But that was when she remembered something important.
Her mother was no older than twenty when she met this man—Revati had been born two months after her twenty first birthday. That meant that whoever her father was, he'd either gone to school with Anjali or he was working in the Ministry in 1979. She'd managed to fall asleep with just one thought lingering in her mind: she needed to break into the Hogwarts student records.
All of this brought her to the present moment: she was in front of Fred and George Weasley at a quarter to eight in the morning on a Wednesday, just fifteen minutes before they had to be in their History of Magic class, and forgoing a greeting in order to ask for their help.
"Ooh, ickle firstie needs a favor," said Fred, raising his eyebrows and smirking.
"Good morning to you, too, Kumar," George said pointedly.
"Sorry," Reva winced, wringing her hands nervously. "That was rude of me, wasn't it?"
"Ah, don't worry about it, we're just having you on," Fred said, waving a hand dismissively.
"Bit odd to see you without your posse, though," George added, taking a bite out of his bacon. "Had a row?"
"No, nothing like that—and they're not my posse, it's more like we're Harry's posse," Reva said. She took a deep breath and leaned forward to address them in a lower voice. "I… er, I kind of need to break into the old school records, if it's at all possible," she said. "And I figured if anyone knew how to do it, the two of you would."
Fred and George shared an intrigued glance.
"Why're you so interested, then?" Asked Fred curiously.
"Can you do it or not?" Revati swallowed.
George waved an impassive hand. "Course we can," he said. "The question is, what's in it for us?"
Revati raised her eyebrows. "What, corrupting an innocent first year to break school rules isn't enough for you?"
Fred snorted. "Please. By this point, Snape's taken more points off you than he has from the rest of the house combined."
"I still haven't broken any real rules," Reva pointed out. "Arguing with a professor isn't forbidden, just ill-advised."
George grinned at her. "Well, it seems that you're more trouble than you think you are," he said. "Regardless, I think we might need something else before we can be convinced to help you out."
"Answers, perhaps?" Fred cajoled.
"Depends on the question," Reva replied coolly.
"How about we start with why you need the old records to begin with," George said.
Reva's jaw worked as she stared at the two grinning, freckled faces before her. They had her right where they wanted her, and they knew it. She was desperate enough for help and information that their cost didn't matter—whatever it was, all three of them knew she'd pay it. But… it felt weird to tell Ron's older brothers, who she didn't even know extremely well, before she had the chance to talk to her mum or her best friends.
"I'll give you half the truth," she bargained. "And if I figure out what I'm trying to solely because of your help, I'll reveal the rest of it."
Fred and George turned away from her then and put their heads together. They whispered a bit, their voices too quiet for Reva to properly eavesdrop. Finally, they turned back to her.
"You have a deal," they said together, reaching their hands out across the table. Blinking, Reva took each of their palms in one of her own and shook them firmly. She released their hands and then turned back to her breakfast and started buttering her toast.
"Well, we'd best be off," said Fred, checking his watch. "Don't want to be late for old Binns, do we?"
Revati fixed them with a perplexed stare. "Since when do you two care about being late to class, especially Binns? I'd have thought the two of you would skive off the old ghost's lectures entirely!"
"Oh, we do," George assured her. "Normally."
"But today's class is going to be something very special," Fred smirked.
Revati's eyes flicked between the two third years, who were sharing a mischievous grin. Slowly, a small smile broke out on her own face. "What exactly do you two have planned?"
"Can't tell you," Fred said at once.
"But I'm sure you'll hear about it around lunchtime," added George, winking.
Revati laughed.
"Meet us after classes on Friday, yeah?" Fred said, getting to his feet. "We can come up with a plan to break you into Filch's office then."
"And you can tell us all about this big mystery you're solving," George added, before he and Fred began walking out of the Great Hall. "Hey, Ron," she heard him greet his younger brother; seconds later, Ron, Hermione, and Harry took their vacated spots.
"You're up early," Hermione noticed, cocking her head to the side.
"I was hungry," Reva replied, indicating her eggs, fruit, and toast.
Ron tutted as he piled bacon on his plate. "Course you were, you barely ate at dinner last night," he pointed out. "This is why you pack snacks, Reva, in case you're hungry later."
"Thanks, Mum, I'll keep that in mind," Reva laughed. Hermione and Harry snickered too. Ron's ears pinkened as he protested, but Reva could see him hiding his own smile.
The four students threw themselves into their breakfast with gusto, all laughs and jokes and teases; any thought of the Philosopher's Stone, or Snape's agenda, or looming exams, or even family ties, were temporarily pushed out of their heads.
And out of their heads they remained, as later that day they discovered that Hagrid was harboring an illegal dragon's egg.
short chapter this time! honestly the rest of the first book is gonna be kind of dull, but the summer will be fun! reva's gonna put the pieces together and the sirius revelation will be a doozy.
i love mother hen ron, ron is the bestest and i adore him, even if he is a straight white boy. he's alright
it didn't feel right for reva to just figure out "oh hey, my dad is one of malfoy's parents' first cousins? gotta be sirius black!" so there's a lot of unnecessary info about the other potentials, sorry. also, i thought it would be super funny for reva to be like "holy shit my dad might be barty crouch senior!" because like. of course it's not crouch lol, it's obviously sirius.
anyway, hope everyone is well and safe. thinking of you all always as i continue to social distance and wear a mask :) my favorite one is bright red with white stripes, but i'm hoping to get more fun patterns when i'm going back to campus (my school is having us self isolate on location, so i'm going to be living in a mask for a few months straight). not ideal to be going back but. i'm essentially going to be a hermit and never exit my room. it's gonna be a time.
stay safe! love you all!