It was midnight and Mr. and Mrs. Black were seated in the lounge room of the Black house. Mr. Black had an empty wine glass in his hands and was muttering to himself. Mrs. Black was sitting rigidly staring at the lit fireplace.
Two grueling weeks had passed by. They had just gotten their boys back from the hospital, both memories modified.
The case was finally closed as well.
They won the case of modifying the memory of most of the people involved. They also won the case against the muggle. However the sentence was not as they wished. They both made it clear from the start that only a death sentence would suffice. Instead he got five years in a muggle prison. The Blacks were beyond devastated. And the whole pure blood society horrified.
And it was all thanks to their biggest traitor, Mrs. Potter. She had spent two weeks arguing for the humane treatment of the muggle, that Regulus had done more harm to him, and that in fact he should get compensation for his leg injury. It had taken all the self-control of Mrs. Black not to hex her in court.
"Kreacher!" shouted Mr. Black drunkenly. The house elf appeared nervously. "More wine!"
"That is enough!" said Mrs. Black sharply.
"Orion" said Mrs. Black furiously, "this is the worst time for you to get drunk. What are we going to do about our child?"
"What do you mean? It's over, isn't it? The case is closed and they're well now. Hurrah."
"No, it's not over. If they won't give justice then we well."
Mr. Black sobered up a little, hearing this.
"Wallburga" he said softly, "we need to be for our children now. We can't go putting revenge on the muggle and the damn Potters. We'll become outlaws if we do."
"While I can't break her neck with my own hands, there are other ways to bring a family down" said Mrs. Black feverishly.
It was silent for a few minutes then Mr. Black spoke.
"I went on a date with her once, you know" he said.
"What?" Mrs. Black looked up startled. She had never heard of her husband and Mary Potter mentioned together.
"Yes we went to Hogwarts together. This was before you joined of course. She was always interested in me I think; used to stare at me so much in class people called her moonlight Mary."
"You know she threatened me" he continued on mildly "when I got engaged to you. She said she'd kill herself. Of course I told her to bugger off. Then she said she'd kill you so I took you to France for the holidays, if you remember. Thankfully she met Harold Potter after that. I always sensed she wasn't right in the head. And today proves it. Compensation for the muggle!"
"And when were you going to tell me all of this?" said Mrs. Black coldly.
"Oh, I just always forgot" said Mr. Black surprised. Mrs. Black looked ready to attack so he quickly changed the subject.
"I saw Lord Voldemort today. He said he was deeply sorry for what had happened but he wasn't shocked by the ministry's response. He said it was typical of their muggle loving agenda. However, he did have some good news. He said he received 50 more pledges to join in his cause. It seems that most people cannot deny anymore the threat to our pure ways."
"That's good" said Mrs. Black broodingly.
"Well Wallburga" said Mr. Black heavily. "We need to pretend that everything's okay for our sons. It's time to move on."