Remus expected to see his daughter sitting at the table in the dining room, and was surprised to see Sirius there instead.
"Early riser now?" Remus asked.
"Sit," he said. "There was an incident last night."
Remus raised an eyebrow. "An incident?"
Molly came upstairs from the kitchen carrying a tray of coffee. Tonks was behind her with a tray of mugs.
"You trust this one with ceramic?" Remus teased.
Tonks stuck her tongue out at him and nearly tripped over her feet in the process, but she recovered and sat the tray on the table.
"I am an Auror, I'll have you know," she said. "I can keep it together when it counts."
"Sorry I ever doubted you," Remus replied.
She flashed him a smile and sat down beside him.
"I expected Aurora to be up making coffee," Tonks said.
"She's probably hiding and commiserating with her friends," Sirius said. "Harry too."
"What are you on about?" Molly asked.
"You mentioned an incident," Remus said. "Were you talking about Aurora and Harry?"
"Unfortunately," Sirius said. He poured a cup of coffee.
"What happened?" Remus asked. He was pretty confident he didn't want to hear about what incident had occurred. He was trying very hard to be supportive of his daughter and her relationship, but he also didn't like to see her unhappy. After hearing about their argument at Hogsmeade, the lies about the detention, and their disagreements since they'd gotten to Grimmauld, Remus wasn't exactly feeling very positive towards Harry. He loved Harry very dearly.
Just not in the capacity of dating his daughter, at least not right now.
It was funny. Remus saw so much of James in Harry and even more now that Harry was dating Aurora. And realized again that he would never, ever, ever want James to date his daughter.
"I got up last night to grab a drink of water. Crush a couple of sandos as the youth say," Sirius said.
"They don't say that," Tonks said.
"You know that because you're a youth," Remus said.
"Shut up." She said gently elbowing him in the ribs.
"But I went to the kitchen. Had my drink, had my sandwich and I come into the hallway to go back upstairs and…" Sirius paused. "Remain calm, Remus."
That was concerning. "What do you mean 'remain calm?' What happened?"
"Well, I get into the hallway and I clearly see the two of them snogging, Aurora and Harry I mean. And at first, I plan to just embarrass them. A bit of a 'stop snogging in the hallway and go to bed' type thing," Sirius said. "But…"
"But? But what?" Remus asked.
"Well… Someone had his hands under someone else's shirt. It was a bit uncomfortable to witness after I realized the… Intensity of the moment," Sirius said.
Remus felt a little sick. Aurora was her own person, in charge of her own body, and teenagers were going to do what they were going to do…
But she was 15 and he'd been getting the feeling lately that she and Harry were a bit too serious. And in this instance, he couldn't even decide who the instigator was. Had Aurora sought out Harry in the middle of the night? Would Harry be so reckless as to just feel up his girlfriend while her father slept quietly upsta[p'irs?
Who knew. Remus didn't like it. What's more, is that Remus could almost perfectly recall a story in which James and Lily had a similar encounter, but it was met with cheers and high-fives.
Remus felt even sicker.
"Sorry, but what kind of idiot just feels up a girl in the hallway of a house where she's got two dads sleeping upstairs?" Tonks asked.
"Literally any 15-year-old boy, that's who," Molly scoffed. "From Harry Potter. I guess you just never know, do you?"
"I assume you separated them," Remus said.
"Naturally. I informed Aurora that I'd be telling you what happened," Sirius said. "And I gave Harry a talking to. He said he went down to get a drink of water and ran into Aurora on his way back to bed in the hallway. All the same-."
"That can't be right," Tonks said.
"Why?" Remus asked.
"Well, Sirius said he went to the kitchen, yeah? If Harry went to the kitchen as well they'd have crossed paths. So either Harry came down after Sirius was already in the kitchen or they were already in the hallway when you came down and you didn't see them."
Molly scoffed. "He'd have seen them if they were in the hallway. How could you-."
"The bathroom," Sirius said, the proverbial lightbulb going off over his head. "I saw the light on in the bathroom and thought nothing of it and went straight down to the kitchen. They were in the hallway when I came back up."
"The bathroom?" Molly said. "What would they have been-."
"No," Remus said. "We're not exploring that question."
Nothing good was going to come of trying to answer the question of why Harry and Aurora were alone together in the bathroom.
"Can I just…" Tonks started. "Has anyone talked to Harry?"
"About what?" Sirius asked.
"About stuff like this? I mean, I know Rory has been given 'the talk' to death, as she says," Tonks said. "But has Harry?"
"Well he has his aunt and uncle," Sirius started.
"They let him live in a cupboard under their stairs for 10 years," Remus said. "No, I don't think they've had a chat with him about it."
"Fair point," Sirius said.
"Well, someone should," Molly said. "Can't very well have them running wild around the house. They're children for goodness' sake."
"I am well aware," Remus said.
"I think you're absolutely right, Molly," Sirius said with a nod.
Remus looked over at him. So did Molly and Tonks. Sirius frowned.
"I have to do it?" Sirius asked. "Why?"
"Well, he's dating my daughter. You can imagine how uncomfortable that would be for everyone involved," Remus said.
Sirius frowned and looked to Tonks.
"I'm not a parental figure in his life, so it would be inappropriate," she said.
"I'm certain Arthur would be happy to do it were he not indisposed," Molly said.
Sirius huffed again. "I don't even know where to start with that kind of conversation."
"You could start by telling him to keep his hands to himself," Remus said.
"And this is why Remus can't talk to him," Tonks said.
"If you don't mind me saying so, I'd say that she needs a talking to as well," Molly said.
"Oh, don't worry about that. She hasn't been talked to 'to death' despite what she may think," Remus replied. "I'll speak to her when we go home. That should keep her hypervigilant today."
The night before the hearing, Rory and her dad returned home to their flat. She hadn't been home since her birthday and she was eager to spend a night in her own bed. Her dad seemed pleased to have her out of Grimmauld for a while as well, likely to put distance between her and Harry.
Rory was surprised when Remus hadn't said anything to her about her late-night rendezvous with Harry. Sirius had spent the last day practically being Harry's shadow whereas her dad had basically decided to treat it like nothing happened. Rory even asked Sirius to make sure he'd actually told her dad like he'd said he was going to.
"Are you nervous about tomorrow?" Rory asked.
"Do you think I should be?" Remus asked.
Rory shrugged. "You haven't seen my uncle in ages."
"Neither have you," he countered. Rory rolled her eyes. "It'll be fine, though I have no doubt it'll be a circus."
"Do you think they'll ask you about Sirius?" she asked.
"I'd be shocked if they didn't ask me to recount exactly how it is I came to adopt you," he replied.
Rory nodded at this and an uncomfortable silence enveloped the room. She'd never asked for details about it. All she knew was that when Sirius went to prison and her mother was presumed dead, the only living relative on her mother's side, her uncle, Levi, was nowhere to be found, and none of Sirius' immediate family could take her in, or so he'd said.
She wasn't stupid though. She knew that despite having many living relatives on Sirius's side, they likely wanted nothing to do with her. Even from beyond the grave her grandmother's hatred for Sirius was passed onto Rory. The alternative would be the Malfoys and there was no way her dad would ever consider leaving her with them. She wondered why maybe she didn't end up with the Tonkses instead, but maybe Andromeda Tonks wouldn't have been able to stomach looking at Rory every day knowing what Sirius had supposedly done. It was a miracle her dad had.
"I'll be fine. Hearing about all of it," Rory said.
Remus nodded. "Logically, I know that, but it doesn't stop me from worrying." She rolled her eyes. Just like her dad to say such a thing. "Are you nervous about tomorrow?"
She shrugged. "A little, I guess. I don't know anything about Levi. I guess no one does. Which was probably the point on his part."
"That's likely so," Remus said.
"I still don't understand why my mother would ask him to stay away or why she wouldn't come out and tell the truth about Sirius," she said.
"Hopefully we find that all out tomorrow," Remus said.
Rory hoped so too. It was incredible how this had all been dropped into her lap and somehow she'd been distracted by Harry. She'd spent so much time pondering over Voldemort and Umbridge, she hadn't spared a thought about her uncle or her mother. Or herself even.
"We'll see," Rory replied. She was ready to head to bed, but her dad stopped.
"Before you run off," he started, "I wanted to talk to you. About Harry."
Rory nodded and plopped down into a chair at the kitchen table. She'd been expecting this after all.
"Is this about the other night?" Rory asked.
"What else would this be about?" Remus asked. Rory sighed. She had expected this, but she was still not thrilled to be having this conversation. "Please do me a favor and try to suppress your irritation. I am not excited to be having this conversation either."
"We didn't do anything," Rory said. "It was-."
"If you tell me for the hundredth time that you were only snogging I'm going to lose my mind," Remus said. "You weren't. I don't know what the two of you were doing and quite frankly I don't want to know, but I know that you're lying."
"We just passed each other in the hall and-"
"Why didn't Sirius see Harry?" Remus asked.
Rory raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
"Harry was on his way to bed from the kitchen," Remus said. Rory nodded. "And so was Sirius when he found you. So why didn't he see Harry leaving the kitchen?"
Rory paused. Right. Because they'd had to have passed each other in the hall or caught Harry and Rory in the hall before he got to the kitchen. But they weren't around to get caught because they were in the bathroom when Sirius came downstairs. And they definitely hadn't just been snogging as she repeatedly insisted.
"Oh, well, it's just we-"
"Save yourself the trouble of trying to formulate a semi-believable cover story. I don't want to hear it. I don't care where you were and I don't care what you were doing, because we've had this conversation several times before," he said. "And I don't know how to get through to you."
"Through to me about what?" Rory asked. "I already told you, we're not, like, sleeping together or anything."
"Thank you for the reassurance, but as I said, that is not the issue at hand here," he said. "The issue is there are rules. We set boundaries. And as irritating or inconvenient as you might find them, you have to abide by them."
Rory groaned. She was over being lectured about this. She wanted to go to bed.
"Fine. I will not canoodle with my boyfriend around the house anymore. Can I go to bed now?" she asked.
"You've told me this several times before already and every time we end up back here and it makes me wonder whether or not I can actually trust you to keep your word or be honest about anything," Remus said.
Rory was downright offended by that statement. "I might not be good about following the rules when it comes to where I'm allowed to kiss my boyfriend, but that hardly makes me dishonest or untrustworthy."
"And what about your hand?" Remus asked.
Rory instinctively pulled her sleeve down over her right hand where the words "Half breeds don't belong" were now permanently etched into her skin.
"I wasn't trying to be deceitful about it when I didn't tell you about it," Rory said.
"And it certainly wasn't because Harry asked you not to mention it," Remus said.
Rory groaned. "Merlin! I am sick to death of saying this, but Harry didn't ask me to lie about it."
"Withholding information is just as good as lying, Aurora," Remus said.
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, and I'm certain everyone is being very forthcoming with information for me right now. No lies of omission there."
Remus let out a long, frustrated sigh. "If anyone is withholding information from you, it's for your own safety. We are trying to protect you."
"And what if I didn't tell you about my hand because I was trying to protect you?" Rory countered.
"I have had nearly 40 years of hearing and seeing what people will do when they don't like werewolves, Aurora. I don't need you protecting me. I am the parent, and you are the child," he said.
"I'm sick to death of hearing that too. I'm a child unless someone wants to know how I saw dementors in Surrey or knew someone was going to be murdered. Maybe everyone should just stop treating me like a little kid and actually trust that I know what I'm doing," Rory said. "I'm fifteen, not an idiot."
Remus sighed. "No. You're not an idiot. And you're right, you're not a child anymore either. But what you aren't is an adult. And until you are, there are still rules. There are double standards and there are some things you have to do just because we tell you to do them. For starters, any other unethical punishments Umbridge institutes I might like to know about regardless of how upsetting you may think I find them and regardless of whether or not your boyfriend thinks he can handle it himself."
Rory went to protest again, but her dad held up a hand and she slumped back in her chair.
"And secondly, no more 'canoodling around the house' as you so delicately put it," Remus said. "And if it happens again, we'll only be popping around Grimmauld in the evenings and you and I will both have a very long, very boring winter holiday together in this flat until it's time for you to go back to school. Is that quite clear?"
"Yes," Rory huffed under her breath.
"Good. Now you may go to bed," he said.
"Gladly," she said, rising from the table. She stomped off to her bedroom and closed the door.
Rory was already seated in the room. Her dad had been pulled aside since he would the first to offer up testimony about Levi and Theodosia's disappearance and sudden reappearance. She hated sitting there alone, waiting, and wondering what was going to happen. She especially hated that every time she looked up, Umbridge was sitting there, a smirk on her face. Whatever was going to happen, Rory knew she wasn't going to like it.
There were a few other familiar faces in the hall. Tonks and Kingsley for one. The head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Rufus Scrimgeour, was also present.
The room went utterly still when things got underway. Levi walked in. He wore cream-colored robes embroidered with gold that popped against his brown skin. He took his seat before the Wizengamot, seeming utterly unphased by the assembly and the inquiry as a whole.
"We are here today to discuss the matter of the disappearance of Levi Goldfinch, the disappearance of Theodosia Goldfinch, and the outcome of Aurora Lupin," Fudge spoke. "Is that clear to you?"
"Yes," Levi said, still as composed as ever.
"Please state your name for the record," Fudge said.
"Levi Ambrose Goldfinch," he answered. "Shall we get on with it? I've got dinner plans."
Everyone in the room seemed to bristle at how flippant he was being about this. But Rory understood. She hated being questioned and was easily defensive.
"Your whereabouts have been unknown to most magical authorities for the past 15 years. Can you detail where exactly you have been?" Fudge asked.
Fudge had the attitude of a frustrated parent whose child was out past curfew rather than a man conducting a missing person's inquest.
Levi stretched his back in his chair and crossed a leg over the top of his knee. "Well, I was in America, you see."
"For what purpose?" Fudge asked.
"I went with a lady friend, but after things went sour, I decided to stay and do some sightseeing," Levi said.
Fudge narrowed his eyes. "You were sightseeing for 15 years?"
"Well, America is quite a bit bigger than the United Kingdom. There was a lot to look at," Levi said.
Fudge was clearly irritated with how evasive Levi was being. Rory was kind of amused.
"During your time 'sightseeing,'" Fudge continued through clenched teeth, "were you informed that your sister had disappeared, thought dead?"
"Hard not to hear about it. That was 'supposedly' the day You-Know-Who was also killed, but," Levi shrugged, "misinformation abounds as we've learned."
"And what do you mean by that?" Fudge asked.
"Well, you thought I might be dead, thought my sister was dead, thought You-Know-Who was dead. Even that Pettigrew bloke. But we all make mistakes," Levi said.
Rory's eyes went wide. That had not been what she was expecting to hear. She wondered if Theodosia was this flippant as well. It was starting to seem like a toss-up regarding who she got her attitude from—the Blacks or the Goldfinches.
"But I've steered us off course. Apologies. Yes, I was informed that my sister was 'missing,'" Levi said.
Fudge was flustered, which Rory found deeply satisfying. He glanced at his notes.
"And what of your niece, Aurora Lupin, formerly, Aurora Black?" Fudge asked. "Were you made aware of her situation when your sister disappeared?"
"I was," Levi said. He glanced over to Aurora in her seat. "She seems to be doing well."
"Seems, being the operative word," Fudge said. Rory raised an eyebrow. What the hell was that supposed to mean? "Please send in Remus Lupin."
A moment later he was standing at the podium and she sat up a little straighter in her seat. She was not her dad's biggest fan today, but he was still her dad. She didn't want him to deal with this.
"Sir, can you state your name for the record?" Fudge said.
"Remus John Lupin," her dad said.
"Do you recall the evening of Theodosia Goldfinch's disappearance?" Fudge asked.
"Quite vividly, yes," Remus replied.
"And is this the same day her daughter came to be in your care?" Fudge asked.
"Correct," he replied.
"Can you recount the events of that evening?" Fudge said.
Remus glanced over to Rory.
Since learning about Sirius, she'd heard some details about the night Harry's parents were killed. Naturally, it wasn't a time her dad and Sirius or anyone else was thrilled about reliving. She gave him an encouraging smile.
Remus turned back to Fudge.
"Well, I was visiting Theo and Sirius-."
"Sirius Black?" Fudge confirmed.
"Yes," Remus said, "I was visiting them for dinner and stayed late into the evening to catch up. It was just before midnight when Dumbledore came by-Albus Dumbledore and told us that James and Lily Potter had been killed. Sirius went to check on Harry and find Peter."
"Peter Pettigrew," Fudge said. "Who Black subsequently murdered."
"I can't speak to that. I wasn't there," Remus said.
"I reckon he's pretty alive," Levi said, sounding rather bored.
"You'll do well to be silent during Mister Lupin's testimony, Mister Goldfinch," Fudge warned. Levi rolled his eyes. "We have you on record as the last person to see Theodosia Goldfinch before she was missing and presumed dead. When was that?"
"After a few hours, Sirius didn't return. Theo had been noticeably agitated since he left, so I wasn't that surprised when she said she was leaving," Remus said.
"Did she tell you where she was going?" Fudge asked.
"I assumed to find Sirius, but no. She didn't specify. She just asked me to stay with Aurora and said 'I have to go.'," he said.
"And that was the last you saw of her?" Fudge asked.
"Yes," Remus replied.
"And how is it that the girl came to stay in your care?" Fudge asked.
"Well, it wasn't too long after that I heard that Sirius had been arrested. And I stayed and waited for Theo to come back, and then obviously she didn't," Remus said.
"And you decided the best course of action was to keep her?" Fudge asked.
"Hardly. The first person I reached out to was Levi," Remus said, motioning to the man sitting beside him. "I reached out several times in fact and never got a response."
"And did you receive the correspondence, Mister Goldfinch?" Fudge asked.
"Yep," Levi said casually.
"And you never responded?"
"Nope," Levi said.
"Were you not concerned about the welfare of your sister's daughter?" Fudge asked.
"Should I have been? She seemed well in hand," Levi said.
"There's that word again: seemed," This time it was Umbridge who spoke and she knew exactly where this trainwreck was headed. "Mister Lupin, is it true that you are a werewolf?"
"Yes," he deadpanned.
"And Mister Goldfinch, were you aware of Mister Lupin's affliction when you left her in his charge?" Umbridge asked.
"It may've come up," Levi said with a shrug.
"And you felt it was the responsible choice to leave her in the hands of someone so dangerous?" Umbridge asked.
"Well, Aurora's parents saw fit to leave her with him. Why should I question their judgment?" Levi asked. "My sister always talked very fondly of Remus. I was in school with him. He was younger than me, but he certainly had more sense. And Lily and James Potter trusted him unquestionably. That was enough for me."
"And Mister Lupin, did you feel you were capable of raising this child yourself after you were unable to contact Mister Goldfinch?" Umbridge asked.
"It wasn't a question of whether or not I was capable. It was a question of where she would end up if I didn't," Remus said firmly.
Rory tried to suppress a grin, but she was proud of her dad. He wasn't going to let anyone tell him he wasn't a capable father. Rory would stand up and shout at the entire Wizengamot if he did.
"Did you make any other attempts to place her with her family before you decided to take her in?" Umbridge said.
"Of course," Remus replied. "First I went to see Walburga Black, and she made inescapably clear that she was not interested in taking Aurora in."
"What exactly did she say to you?" Fudge asked.
Rory watched her dad hesitate and she knew he was going to say something that he didn't want her to hear.
"She told me to 'leave her out in the street for all I care,'" Remus said.
Rory winced. That was harsh.
"It didn't seem in Aurora's best interest to press the issue," Remus said.
"Did you attempt to contact any other family?" Umbridge asked.
"I also reached out to Andromeda Tonks, being that she was close with Sirius, but she had her own daughter to care for at the time and didn't want to deal with the emotional turmoil that came with raising her cousin's child being that he was imprisoned for an alleged murder," Remus said. "And that left the Malfoys who were involved in their own debacle with the ministry over Lucius Malfoy 'alleged' involvement with Voldemort," Remus said.
A visible shudder rolled through the room at the mention of the name.
"Didn't seem wise to insert her into that situation either," Remus said.
"And you felt you were her best option?" Umbridge asked.
"Her only option," Remus replied. "If she'd been sent to an orphanage she'd have to live with people reminding her every day that her father was Sirius Black and that he was a murderer."
"And you feel you spared her that?" Umbridge asked. "You feel that you gave her the best life possible? That under your care and not the care of her uncle, she was raised to be the best possible version of herself?"
"I always did what was best for her, within my power. But I suppose only she could tell you if I'd done a good job of it or not," Remus said.
Umbridge smirked. "Why don't we then?"
"Pardon?" Remus asked.
"You said only she could tell if you'd done an adequate job as a parent. So let's ask her," Umbridge said. She grinned and Rory's stomach twisted itself into a knot.
"That will be all for your testimony, Remus Lupin," Fudge said. "Aurora Lupin, please come forward."
Rory was frozen for a moment. She looked to her dad who seemed equally as startled. She had not been listed as needing to speak today. She was not prepared for this. Her dad knew she wasn't prepared for this either. But, if she wanted a platform for defending her dad, Merlin, this was it.
She gave her dad a nod and rose to her feet.
She walked out onto the floor. Remus gave her an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder, and a look that unequivocally said "Behave yourself." She took his place at the podium.
Rory was starting to get a sense that this wasn't an inquiry just to look into if her uncle had done anything illegal, but also to interrogate her, probably about Harry.
"State your full name for the record," Fudge said.
"Aurora Delphine Lupin," Rory said,
"How old are you and what year of schooling are you in?" Fudge asked.
"I'm 15 years old. I'm in my fifth year at Hogwarts," Rory said.
"Have you ever met Mister Goldfinch?" Fudge asked.
She looked over at him. She saw traces of herself in his face and could see how they were related. She looked back to the Wizengamot. "I've seen a few photographs of me as a baby with him, but I don't have any memories of him from before today."
"And who are your parents?" Fudge asked.
Rory paused for a moment. "My dad is Remus Lupin." Fudge looked at her as if waiting for her to finish. "That's it. It's just me and my dad."
"Your biological parents," Fudge clarified as if annoyed.
"Sirius Black and Theodosia Goldfinch," Rory said.
"And when did you learn of that these were your real parents?" Fudge asked.
Rory cleared her throat. "Remus Lupin is my real dad. He's spent the last 14 years raising me and looking after me, and just because he's not genetically my father doesn't detract from that. But as to your question, it was two years ago that I learned that I was adopted and that Sirius Black was my biological father."
Fudge seemed annoyed at this response. "And what of your mother?"
"I knew she was my mother, but I know as much about her as you do. She went missing and no one's seen her since," Rory said. "I never really concerned myself with it."
"You grew up without a mother and never wondered about where she was?" Umbridge asked.
"I mean, of course, I wondered, and I asked about her when I was a little girl, but by the time I started school I didn't really care. I had the best dad and I never felt like I needed someone else,"
"When did you learn of your Mister Lupin's affliction?" Umbridge asked.
Rory rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't call it an 'affliction.' He was attacked when he was four years old by a lunatic. Something that was far beyond his control and you specifically have seen fit to stigmatize him in our society ever since."
"Miss Lupin please answer only the questions that are asked of you," Fudge said. "Your commentary is not necessary."
Rory sighed. "I don't remember when I found out my dad was a werewolf. I just remember always knowing."
"Have you ever felt unsafe in his care?" Umbridge asked.
"Never," Rory said firmly.
"Since becoming his ward, have you-."
"Sorry, I feel like we keep having some sort of miscommunication about this," Rory said. "I'm not his ward. I'm his daughter. He went out of his way to adopt me so that I wouldn't be anyone's ward in a foster home or an orphanage or with some sketchy relatives that wanted nothing to do with me or my biological parents. I find it incredibly disrespectful that you keep trying to gloss over that."
People were whispering and scribbling around Rory. Umbridge's sweet facade dropped for just a moment, and Rory knew that when she got back to school there would be some sort of retribution for publicly admonishing her Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in front of the wizengamot.
But Umbridge's mask reappeared quickly.
"Apologies," she said. "Your father's, condition, as it were, it's something that comes and goes regularly."
"Every time there's a full moon obviously," Rory replied.
"Naturally, you spend a lot of time at school now that you're attending Hogwarts, but before that, where did you spend your evenings when your father... Indisposed?" Umbridge asked.
"With my grandfather, Lyall Lupin," she answered.
"And do you feel he's done an adequate job raising you?" Umbridge asked. "You don't feel you'd have been better off with your uncle and the resources he could have brought into your life?"
Rory took a deep breath. "I'm not saying my dad is perfect. I'm not saying my life is perfect. But I always had a roof over my head and plenty of food to eat, and I never ever had a day where I doubted my dad loved me. Maybe we didn't have a lot of money or live in a fancy house, but you know what? I've consistently been one of the top students in my year in all of my classes since I started at Hogwarts. Money doesn't buy brains and it doesn't make you well-adjusted."
"Truly?" Umbridge asked.
"Truly," Rory replied.
"You think you were better off being raised by a werewolf rather than someone normal?" Umbridge asked.
"My dad is a werewolf and he also happens to be perfectly normal," Rory said. "For instance, he's not berating a teenage girl in an inquiry investigating the disappearance of her biological family members, whom she has no memory of."
"You are being questioned to determine whether or not Levi Goldfinch was acting in your best interest as your next of kin when his sister was found to be missing," Fudge said. "Regarding the matter of whether or you were raised in a suitable environment and if it has had an impact on the state of your well-being."
"On that note," Umbridge chimed in again, "are you friendly with Harry Potter?"
Rory raised an eyebrow. What did Harry have to do with this?
"Yes," Rory replied.
"And what is the exact nature of your relationship?" Umbridge asked.
"I hardly see how that's relevant to the situation at hand," Rory said.
"It would cause us great concern if you were romantically involved with someone so... Well, unstable. And it would have called into question the nature of how you were raised," Umbridge said.
And with that, Rory had had about as much as she could handle.
"So you're telling me you assembled the entire Wizengamot in part to determine if my uncle is somehow at fault for me possibly being raised under questionable circumstances and your key to determining this is to ask me if I, a 15-year-old, am dating another 15-year-old because you suppose he is a negative influence?" Rory asked. "Yes, this sounds like a perfectly good use of everyone's time."
There was snickering and lightbulbs flashing, but Rory stood firm. She was not going to have Harry or her dad dragged in these proceedings that had basically nothing to do with them. Rory was starting to get the picture. Levi was here because they wanted to bury whatever happened to Sirius and Theodosia and further push the narrative that Voldemort wasn't back. Rory had been called to speak to further discredit Harry, her dad, and put to bed that there were stirrings of anything going on.
"I won't tell you again, Miss Lupin, to answer only the questions that are asked of you," Fudge said.
"It's genetic. My sister can't go five minutes without going off on a tangent about something or giving some sort of cheeky commentary no one asked for," Levi said.
"And you'll wait your turn," Fudge said. "Miss Lupin you were asked a question."
"The nature of my relationship with Harry Potter is that he's my boyfriend," Rory said.
"And how did that come about?" Umbridge asked.
"What does-?" Rory took a deep breath, resisting the urge to audibly groan. "He asked me on a date and I said yeah. The rest is history."
"And have you ever found his actions or statements to be... Concerning?" she asked.
"No," Rory said.
"So you see nothing wrong with the fact that you are involved with someone who actively spreads dangerous lies?" Umbridge asked. "You don't think that's cause for concern?"
"Well, Harry's not a liar. I just think you and the minister are just willfully obtuse," Rory said.
"Excuse me," Fudge said, glaring angrily at Rory. Right. She probably should've kept that to herself. But she'd already dug herself into a hole. She might as well dig deeper.
"And for the record, I easily ignore 15-year-old boys on a daily basis. If you think the words of a 15-year-old boy are 'dangerous' and could actively damage the ministry, then maybe you're not as good at your job as you think you are."
Even though the crowd went berserk at her words, she could hear her dad groaning behind her.
"That will be enough, Miss Lupin," Fudge said. "You can return to your seat."
Rory backed away from the podium and returned to her seat in the stands.
"Mister Goldfinch, do you truly feel that this obstinate girl has lived the best possible life with Remus Lupin?" Umbridge asked.
"She'd be worse if I raised if I'm being honest," Levi said.
"You think that your sister wanted someone other than you to look after her daughter?" Fudge asked.
"Yes. She told me so," Levi said. "She told me not to take her daughter in. That she'd fled because if she stayed with Aurora it would be dangerous."
"Supposing your sister is alive, and this exchange occurred, you believed Theodosia when she said her infant daughter was dangerous?" Fudge asked.
Levi scoffed. "No. That'd be as insane as believing an infant could somehow kill a dark wizard."
Rory brought a hand up to cover her mouth to keep from laughing. Everyone else in the room seemed to also be having a fit of one type or another.
"When my sister told me her daughter was dangerous, naturally I asked her to elaborate. You see, Theo was never much of a mother. She had a hard time with it. I thought with her boyfriend locked up in Azkaban and her best friend murdered, she might've cracked or that she was looking for an out," Levi said. "But then she told me about Pettigrew. Sounded just like something that cowardly piece of rubbish would do."
"Peter Pettigrew-."
"Is very much alive. Did you know he's an unregistered animagus? A rat. How fitting, since he was James and Lily Potter's secret keeper, and with hardly any effort at all he sold them out to You-Know-Who. He knew everyone would go on believing it was Sirius. As soon as he was confronted about it, he set Sirius up and escaped into the gutters and let Black take the fall for betraying his friends and murdering those 12 muggles," Levi said.
Quills were racing away at Levi's words. The only other person who had ever come forward to tell this story to Fudge had been Harry and Dumbledore. This was the first time anyone was telling it to the public.
"You see, Theo was there that night it happened. Watched Sirius confront Peter. The only reason she went into hiding and didn't come forward was because of Aurora," Levi said. "But everything else she told me about that night turned out to be true, so I was left with no choice but to believe that she was being honest about her daughter as well."
"And what did she say about her daughter?" Fudge asked.
Levi sat back in his chair and adjusted his robes. He looked Fudge square in the face.
"My sister's exact words were 'my child is a harbinger of death,'" Levi said.
Rory shrank in her seat a little. She wasn't surprised. Tonks had looked into it. Rory had looked into it. The birth of someone like her, an oracle the texts had called her, was thought to be a sign that darkness would soon follow.
"I don't know what brought my sister to that conclusion, but she was adamant. So I trusted her and didn't take Aurora in," Levi said. "And anyway, traipsing around the states would be hard to do with a little one, wouldn't it?"
"Supposing anything you've just said is true," Fudge said, "why come out of hiding now?"
For a moment, Levi was silent. His gaze turned from Fudge and he seemed to find Rory immediately. She felt something, a whisper from her inner eye that Levi's testimony was littered with half-truths and deceit. Would that deceit continue when she was finally able to speak to him alone? Rory couldn't tell. Levi looked away and her inner eye was silent again.
"Well, she's 15, isn't she? No one has exactly died from being around my niece," Levi said.
That was definitely not true, unfortunately.
"Additionally, I feel an obligation to undo some of the damage my sister left behind in her wake. Namely, Sirius Black sitting in prison. Well, he's not anymore I guess. Though I suppose him having a fair trial, or any trial at all for that matter, might've cleared up some of this mess a while ago, I'm not here to tell you how to do your jobs," Levi said.
"You've come here with a lot of conjecture surrounding your sister, Mister Goldfinch, but do you have any proof that she is alive or that anything you've said is true?" Fudge asked.
Levi got to his feet slowly. He stretched again before reaching into his cloak. He pulled out two photographs. He held them aloft and turned slowly so the whole room could glimpse them, though mostly they were too far away for anyone without a camera to discern what they were.
"Yes, photographs, from my sister," Levi said. He dropped them into his now empty seat. "One photograph is of my sister, taken three months ago. Note the copy of The Times on my table if you want to check the date. The other is a photograph of Peter Pettigrew. It was taken six weeks ago. You'll have to take my word for the date, but I can prove he's missing a finger. And he's transforming into a rat in the photograph. Even if this photo was taken 10 minutes after his supposed death, it proves Sirius Black didn't kill him."
My jaw dropped. The room was full of noise now. Bulbs were flashing, everyone desperately angling to get a look at the photographs.
Fudge called for order and everyone slowly began to quiet down, but Levi made it clear he was done talking.
"I think we're about done here, don't you, Minister?" Levi asked. He turned to the door and paused. "Oh, almost forgot. The reason my sister won't come out of hiding is that You-Know-Who is looking for her. Risked her life to take that photograph of Pettigrew, but that's not all she took apparently. And now You-Know-Who wants her dead."
Levi walked out of the room to a large crowd and even more cameras.
Fudge did not attempt to get the inquiry back in order. He ended it. Everyone was dismissed.
