Thanks for having moved on to the second chapter! Enjoy!

Dad's secret

Neither Mum nor Dad was shouting this time. Or were they using an Imperturbable Charm? I had heard about that spell in the common room when Theodore Nott was arguing with Drago Malfoy the year before – But it's not what mattered at the moment. I was sitting on the top step of the stairs. Aedhan was to my left and Keelin to my right without complaint. Their lack of reaction made me believe that they needed to be reassured, more than ever. They knew something big was coming. Then what should I say? Only Dad had the right to say what I had in mind. What if he decided to keep it for him once more? Wasn't it their right to know? I breathed deeply. Aedhan put his head on my shoulder. My little brother was yet my size. How tall would he become? Tall like a Harper or broad-shouldered like an O'Lean? And Keelin? She was not trying to get away from me that time. She had turned Mum's eyes on the staircase apprehensively. There was no sign of the little devil anymore: her teenage face seemed suddenly grave.

I felt absurdly the urge to keep my siblings from what I had discovered. In those already troubled times, it seemed to me that the unrest they felt was enough for them to grow older. What had they understood by themselves? I gave them both a big hug. It was as well for their reassurance as for my own. One might have thought that we were a family united in sadness. But deep down it was like I was betraying their trust: we lived just part of the truth, we weren't even all here! Eventually, I sat up and prepared to speak without looking any of them in the eyes. 'I think I know what's going on. It is related to the dark things that spread in Great-Britain, and in Ireland, to a smaller extent. It has something to do with… with the killing of Professor Dumbledore.'

Footsteps came closer and we remain still. Dad and Mum were there. They stood side by side at the bottom of the stairs.

'Come here kids, please', Dad began, 'there is something we need to tell you.' He looked Mum. 'There is something I need to tell you.'

I led silently my siblings downstairs. We went quietly in the kitchen and Mum closed the door after us. She turned her wand smoothly around the room with no word and a puff of gleaming air seemed to hang on to the walls. I understood at once she was using the Imperturbable Charm without spelling it. I felt a sudden hurry to learn it. But I took a chair without speaking and once again Aedhan and Keelin placed on both my side.

'As you know', Dad said calmly, 'times are going darker. But for your mother as for me, it already happened once.'

'You can't plainly imagine what the loss of your headmaster really means', Mum added, 'what happened two months ago was terrifying, terribly shocking, and incomprehensible to you. But its meaning is even stronger for our community. With the killing of such a great wizard it was only a matter of time before our countries slide into fear and chaos. Even what you heard about last year won't prepare you to what is coming. It is like nothing you have experienced."

'What we hardly made through was darker, scarier, bloodier than you'd imagine."

I felt that Keelin had frozen.

'I passed my .T.s in 1968. Shortly after, You-know-who claimed for the responsibility of his first attack on Muggles. Nothing was the same after that. Gradually, he made the Magic people his servants or his victims. And his power made more and more hopeless any attempts at resistance. All protections seemed doomed but one, Hogwarts.'

'The Harper family benefited from a magic fortification, which ladled its power from the age of the domain. And our status meant another shielding against a potential attack, at least for a while. I grew up safe enough to enter the school with no real threat."

"But those who did not prepare themselves with sufficient protection were hired when they were Pure or Half-bloods, the other where killed. The surrounding vast fear was to come home under a shining Dark Mark. I foolishly believed that I could avoid drawing attention to me while being a modest Carer for Magic Creatures' apprentice.'

Dad paused. I wasn't the only one noticing that he was hesitating.

'So, what did you do?' Aedhan's voice was harsh. Right away and with discomfort, I understood what he was hinting.

'Aedhan!' I scolded him. 'How dare you say that? Let him speak.'

'What! It is not because you believe that you guessed everything on your own, it's no because you decided not to tell us anything that I should do the same! If I believe you have something to know and you missed…!'

'You are the one missing the point Aedhan!' I shouted while getting on my feet.

'Am I?' He sprang to his feet. 'So what are you? I wonder if you believe our father did nothing wrong or if you actually think wat he did isn't!'

Had I decided to clench my right fist? I looked Aedhan in the eyes and something hit me. Could he really believe what he was saying? Was it possible that all the clues I put together could be interpreted differently–? By anybody who wasn't obsessed with my icy eyes that I took after Dad–? He and Mum were voiceless. Probably were they stunned by the very first argument I and Aedhan were having. Oddly, perverse satisfaction breezed as I saw that Keelin was left out of the discussion this time. It fell quickly. I was totally sorry for her as for Dad who should be hurt by his son's distrust.

'It's exactly the way he nearly won in those days', Mum suddenly said with a lifeless voice, 'he broke the families apart, he made the friends standing against their friends, everyone began to distrust anyone else, even their allies. And the worst are the friends who profited of the trust they had left to stab the most supportive ones in the back.'

Aedhan swallowed and we sat back without looking at one another. Mum hadn't spoken more than twice about the last war nor of its heroes.

'They were one year older at Hogwarts', she went on with more vehemence, 'but I remember them all: the popular Muggle-born Lily Evans, her great admirer the famous James Potter, the discrete charming Remus Lupin, Sirius Black the deprived icon, and Peter Pettigrew the lucky one of the group.'

Everyone went more silent, if it were even possible to be. My siblings couldn't be remembering my best and most mysterious Defence Against the Dark Arts. I did however. But the next name created a shadowy chill.

'Nobody there could have foreseen how the war was about to destroy their lives. What I saw actually was that Black, Potter, Lupin, Pettigrew were as brothers one to another. They were inseparable as they grew older in Hogwarts and as times went darker outside.' Mum took a pause and gave Dad a deep look. Then, she took the floor again: 'Father and Mother wouldn't send me and my brothers away from home without difficulty. And it is against their will that the oldest of us joined the Auror forces when he left Hogwarts, three years before me. He, his wife and their new-born child were found dead on happy event day.'

The silence was deafening but Mum wouldn't let us the time to breathe.

'People were so often missing at the time that it was nearly impossible to be sure of the cause. Just after my N.E.W.T's Father sent me to a distant aunt who was owl master-trainer in Ireland. But the atrocities from which I was kept away ended only with a last family tragedy. The Potters were given away to You-know-who but the Magic World only rejoiced with his disappearance. One day after the first of those four died, one was bestowed posthumously with Merlin Order, another was put in jail, and the last was abandoned in a world from which he could surely not share the joy… This is what betrayal means, and what devastated all of them to the last left. I wanted you to know in what world your father and I have lived. Think about the way your Headmaster died. You won't render your judgement about what we went through before that.'

'Never would I have joined this murderer!' Aedhan cried out loud.

'We know that better than you do, son.' Dad added calmly.

'So, you…' Aedhan tried to ask: 'you did nothing bad, did you?'

'The worst I did in the midst of that war would be for you to flee like a coward.'

Aedhan hung his head. He opened his mouth twice to apologize but no word came.

'You don't have to excuse yourself: I should, for having hidden that. Keelin, Aedhan, Sheeva', Dad began before turning to Mum, 'Ashley, please accept my apologies.'

Silence, again. I couldn't look at Aedhan or at Keelin. After a while, Mum spoke.

'Dil', she whispered, 'I told you once that I would accept them plainly when you tell our children everything.'

'I know!'

My voice seemed weirdly high-pitched. But I push myself to go on.

'I know and I…', I took the time to look Dad in the eyes, 'I accept your apologies.'

'Your mother is right, Sheeva. You've maybe understood a part of it. But it is my duty as a father to admit you the whole story. It has been mine for too long and it is more than time you hear it.'

Mum and Dad exchanged a long stare before sitting down in front of us. Then Dad eventually began to tell us his story.

'I fled. I had barely decided it that I couldn't change my mind. I took Muggle leave of England and of my apprenticeship. But rather than putting my family in danger I sent a Muggle letter from Dublin where I settled. My parents had taught me how to act with non-magical people since I was very young. I already had an identity for them. Therefore, I had no real problem mixing with them. I found an activity – studies to become a veterinarian – how to pay it – money sent from my parents – and where to live.

'This was confusing at first, like being on the other side of the world. Tension heightened, some shootings were having inexplicable triggering. I was made aware of You-know-who's acts from the Muggle's point of view as I tried to act like one. But I laid low by focusing on my studies. For years, I learnt much about animal health, about Muggle social life either. I was a serious student for my teachers, a funny guy for my friends, and – well – "unfortunately settled down" for most of the girls of my age.

'I could laugh with many girls I hung about. But one drew my special attention.'

Aedhan was watching our father with an open jaw while Keelin was blinking repeatedly. I hold back my grin and looked at Mum. Her face remained unreadable.

'Maureen was… outspoken, strong and sparsely impressionable. She wanted to become a lawyer and her diction left hardly someone indifferent. Actually, it wasn't difficult to attach oneself to her. I wasn't alone in my bunch of friends who acted instinctively like a gentleman when someone expressed his anger verbally or even physically against her. But I alone braved her wrath while telling her to pay attention. Maybe was I the only one brave – or unconscious – enough to face her temper when she turned into a warlike harpy threatening with her dark eyes and curly hair?"

I hid my gasp into a cough.

'Muggles thereabout didn't like women who studied something else than midwifery or education. But it didn't stop her. It was exhilarating to court her lovely tenacity. For the first time I was crazy about a woman. I would follow her at the end of the earth. So when time came for her to be graduated and to move to Northern Ireland were it could be easier for her to get a job I took my chance. She already had relatives there. It was also time for me to enter the professional world. Then, I mustered my courage and introduced myself to her parents. On June 1st 1978 I proposed Maureen Fletchley.

'I worked one entire year in the Northern Irish countryside while she lived at her uncle's. And time was coming for us to plane our wedding. But there had been in winter another unexplained disaster in Ireland: a gigantic explosion killed four dozen people in a place without any interest for You-know-who. And I was in fear that the time would came for him to strike at random among my loved ones.

'Finally this peaceful life ceased. The rabies was said to be spreading in the surroundings homesteads. I was called by a farmer whose dog had bitten one of his cows. He was forced to shoot the first one. But there was no trace of the disease to be found when I examined the dog's body. I couldn't help but to check that my wand was well hidden in the pocket of my doctor's coat. I had started again to keep it with me for a couple of weeks. The cow was tied in the same barn. After making sure the farmer had moved off with the rest of his herd, I used my wand for the first time since I had begun to act as a Muggle student. What I found out was less disturbing than what happened then.

'I wasn't the only sorcerer around. Her name was Gamp. She was a
Ravenclaw of my graduating class. It was not her first time to practice the Imperius. And she was wielding it very well. I had to stand between her and the poor farmer, on whom she had set the cattle. She recognized me at first sight and she wasn't pleased at all. She called me a betrayer for defending Muggles instead of my own. What suggested me that she was not only meaning Blood Traitor? I don't know. She felt the need to shout me that her spouse was just done with my parents. The fight that followed was chaotic. I remember wondering what she had done to my parents, attacking, defending myself, and then starting all over again. And all finished. I barely bothered to improvise traces of an accident. The farmer was badly injured and I did my best with my hands and wand before obliviating him. Then, I Disapparated with Gamp's body.

'There was nothing to be called home anymore. All my childhood had been devoured by a gigantic monstrous fire. I was insane while leaving for St Mungo's. There, what remained of my mother hadn't even the strength to shudder. She recognised me at once. But the only thing that was my mother in the middle of this chunk of ineffective ointment was her burnt blue-grey eyes, which she found the power to fix on me without seeing anything. The healers told me she managed to reach their fireplace with Floo powder – dreadfully burnt and alone. I haven't left her three whole days. Her lasts.

'It's when I came back and buried her in the black soil where my father remained that I met a newly-wed childhood friend. She had inherited the family riding stable. First, she was very surprised to see me and didn't understand my gesture. But after a long time talking she offered me to take over her heritage. She had wished to leave the region and was glad to find a veterinarian who had known the house.

'I've rebuilt my life here. And here I've established home with a witch I was lucky to meet and love. I had never regretted to build this family, here with you Ashley, or to bring you up, Sheeva, Aedhan, and Keelin.

'But my duty isn't fulfilled yet. For here I received a letter during summer 1991. It was from Maureen Finch-Fletchley whose only son was called to go at Hogwarts. His father was long dead. But she was sure that his abilities came from someone else, as for his blue-grey eyes… For years, I've helped her handle this world without Justin knowing anything. It was harmless for him to be a Muggle-born, until today. I wanted to avoid an awkward situation. But I'm to blame for most likely endangering us all. Forgive me please, for I awe him safety now.'

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