AN

Major Character Death. I suppose.

This chapter outlines Naenia's rather dubious view of the world perfectly, so be prepared for that.

August 1944, summer of 6th year

There was a lot one could tell from the fact that the Lémures were more concerned with the curses put on the body than the body itself.

This wasn't the first time someone had turned up dead on their doorstep, though Naenia had never been to one to find a body first. The thing was, though, that she was not only the one who found it, but also had a connection to the person it had belonged to. In fact, she could even dare to say that Perseus Black had been a very close friend of hers.

The Lémures had a lot of enemies from their reputation alone and the occasional dead body on their doorstep wasn't all that concerning. They were often meant as a message of sorts, depending on the way the body was presented, who it was and who had put it there. As for the latter, people either told them or the Lémures were able to find out themselves, if not by the wards alerting them then from the body itself. There was a lot a dead body could tell a Necromancer.

This body didn't tell them anything whatsoever as to who had sent it to their doorstep.

Once they had dissipated the multi-layered curses placed upon it, they had taken it inside and started to conduct their research. He had been tortured by a variety of dark spells, all except for the Cruciatus Curse. He had been killed with the Killing Curse, though. Whoever had done this to Black – no, she should probably start calling him Perseus, now – they had been going about it very cleverly, not leaving a single trace that could lead to their identification. Not even Perseus himself, once Naenia had completed his transformation into an Inferius, could tell them who had done this to him.

He had been her friend in life and she had therefore been granted the privilege to decide how they would proceed. The proper decision would have been to dispel the curses and then inform his family. But Naenia was a Lémure, a Necromancer and she did not want to send Black, Perseus, back to a family that wouldn't honour his corpse properly. The Noble House of Black would most likely have accused them of his death anyway and no one wanted to inflict that upon their family.

Saying the Lémure family 'had a certain reputation' was like calling a severed head 'a noticeable wound'. And, well, Black was dead, wasn't he? He had been killed, put under quite a number of curses and then deliberately placed right in front of their house without alerting any of the wards – which in and of itself was rather disconcerting. And they hadn't even found out why it had been done in the first place. Maybe not a severed head, but still quite noticeable, no?

Turning Perseus into an Inferius had been a partially selfish decision, but first and foremost one of the most efficient ways to find out what had happened. It was a first that a deceased could not tell them anything of importance – a first for a family whose oldest members were several millennia old. Whoever had done it was very clever and very powerful and knew their Necromancy ways rather well. Another thing that unsettled the Lémures.

Maybe that was the intended message – a display of power. With a promise of more to come, otherwise they would have revealed their identity or at least what they wanted from their family.

Based on everything Naenia knew about Black, Perseus, there were a few names that came to mind. They could rule out the House of Black, which was known to disown any 'blood traitors' and squibs, erasing them from the family tree, but would have never killed one of its own. They would rather have them disappear quietly or live in hiding under their roof than have a body turn up and raise unwanted questions. They were also, despite all their flaws, still law-abiding people that would not just resort to murder and certainly not kill their eldest son, put curses on his body and deliver him to the Lémures.

The Blacks had many reasons to hate the Lémures, that was a given, but they certainly weren't responsible.

The next that came to mind were Tom and the Dolohov Bl– Perseus had mentioned in one of his last letters. Naenia did not know who Dolohov was, but she recognized his family name as one of the pureblood families. Her parents' inquiry about his background did not cast him in a very good light, but didn't bring up any motives for the murder, nor did he have any connections to the Lémures.

Tom was… a very strong suspect. There had been tensions between the two of them for a while and Black had never quite agreed with whatever it was Tom was doing behind Naenia's back. But despite everything that pointed to Tom, reasons Naenia did not list to her parents, there was absolutely no evidence and Tom was, supposedly, still in Albania anyway. She could not think of any reason why he would put Black on their doorstep, either. Tom wanted to keep Naenia close, not offend her in any way. And Tom knew how she felt about murder.

So they turned up with nothing, in the end.

Ꝋ

"Here," Amelia said and dropped one of the kittens in Naenia's lap.

Naenia looked at the tiny cat in her lap and then at her friend, not knowing what to do.

"Go on," Amelia said with a soft smile on her lips, "you can pet it. You look like you desperately need to pet a kitten."

Naenia cautiously lifted her hand and began lightly stroking the kitten. Its fur was very, very soft. The kitten, in return, started licking her hand.

"Try scratching it behind the ears, they like that a lot."

Naenia did as told and felt its body vibrating under her touch when it started purring.

Amelia settled down beside her with several more kittens and then laid down on the grass, looking up to the sky. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Talk about what?"

Amelia gave her an unimpressed look. "Don't play dumb, Naenia. Something is clearly bothering you. I would even say it's eating at you."

Naenia hummed non-committally, still petting the kitten in her lap.

"Did something happen at home?" Amelia asked. "Did someone die again? Oh no. Someone did die."

Naenia sighed. "A good friend of mine."

She couldn't tell Amelia who it was. For one, her family had unanimously decided to keep quiet about the whole affair, and for another, Amelia would be heartbroken if she knew. Naenia wouldn't know how to deal with that.

Amelia turned her head to observe Naenia closely. "It's affecting you more than the death of your brother."

"It is." Naenia frowned. "And I can't figure out why."

Amelia didn't offer any condolences this time, either, and she also did not express any outward sympathy for which Naenia was very grateful. Her friend knew her that well by now.

"Were you not very close with your brother?"

Naenia thought about this for a moment. "I suppose I wasn't."

"But this person was a close friend, yes?"

Naenia nodded.

"We grieve more deeply for those that were closest to us," Amelia said. "Their loss hurts us more, so we suffer more when faced with the reality that we will never be able to be close to them again. This doesn't solely apply to someone's death either, so maybe one day even you will be confronted with grief." She took a deep breath. "As for this situation, hm… I think talking is a good start. You don't really grieve, because you don't perceive death as a loss or anything other than a natural occurrence."

"A gift," Naenia said and Amelia nodded.

"But talking about your thoughts and feelings helps in most situations, so why don't we try that now?"

Naenia looked down at the kitten that had fallen asleep in her lap. "But what do we talk about?"

"Do you feel guilty about their death?"

"No."

Amelia nodded. "Okay, good. You… This is going to sound rude, but you don't seem like someone who ever cried or would even allow themselves to."

Naenia didn't consider anything about that statement rude. "That's because I don't. I never felt the need to cry."

"Do you now?"

Naenia tilted her head. "What would that even feel like?"

Amelia blinked. "Well, I suppose if you never experienced it… Let's see… For me it's like there's a lump in my throat, a weight on my chest, my nose starts prickling and I feel a pressure behind my eyes and then the tears start flowing."

"Huh," Naenia said baffled. "I think I actually did feel like that."

"You did? When?" Amelia asked surprised. "Oh, sorry, you don't have to answer that. That was terribly intrusive of me. Anyway, do you feel anything like that now?"

Naenia shook her head.

"Hm… Crying usually helps a lot, I find. But forcing yourself to cry isn't a good idea either. Ah, what else can we do?"

"I thought we were going to talk?"

There was a loud "Meow" as the mother cat called out to her children. The kitten in Naenia's lap raised its head and then slowly climbed down to pad back to its mother. The kittens Amelia had been petting followed suit.

Amelia sighed. "I'm not an expert on this, Naenia. When I was younger and we lost a kitten - which happened quite a few times - I was so sad that I started breaking out in tears for several weeks. Then my mother always took me in her arms and told me it was okay to cry, but also that the kitten was now at a better place, that it was happy wherever it was. Then she made me take care of the other kittens, the ones that were still alive, to occupy my mind with other things and to show me that I had to cherish those still alive, that I shouldn't neglect them because of my grief."

Amelia abruptly sat up. "Oh, it's so easy! Come here!"

She held out her arms expectantly, wrapping them securely around Naenia as soon as she was within range. Naenia let herself be held, focused on Amelia's warmth that seeped through the cooling spell she had put upon herself (how the girl survived the summer heat without cooling spells was beyond her). Naenia listened to her heartbeat – something she had found she liked doing a lot in recent years – and then closed her eyes and breathed out.

"This was not how I imagined your first stay here to turn out, you know?" Amelia whispered into the crown of Naenia's hair.

"Neither did I," Naenia said.

Amelia laughed. "Obviously."

Amelia's father was on a business trip on the other side of the country, accompanied by her mother, and they had allowed Amelia to let a friend stay over. Her parents probably didn't know it was Naenia and had just wanted their daughter not to feel lonely in their absence. Naenia didn't care either way.

"You know what," Amelia said after they had stayed in their hug for several minutes, "to make it up to me you'll let me braid your hair."

Naenia slowly pulled back, Amelia's hands still resting on her arms. "Why would you braid my hair?"

Amelia shrugged. "Because I want to? I like braiding people's hair." She pursed her lips. "Unless you're uncomfortable with that? I would be absolutely fine, if that were the case. But if you're not, then there is no reason to decline, is there?"

"I suppose not," Naenia said reluctantly. "As long as you don't touch my head all that much."

"You don't like that?"

"Not really, no."

Amelia nodded. "Alright, turn around. You can lean against me, if you want to."

Naenia did as her friend had asked and they sat in silence once again, simply enjoying each other's presence and the nice weather. Amelia hummed to herself while working on Naenia's hair. Naenia couldn't see what she was doing, but it must have been something complicated or at least very elaborate judging from the amount of time it took her – and Amelia respected her wishes to touch her head as little as possible.

"Talk to me, whenever you feel like you need someone to listen to you," Amelia said when it was time for Naenia to leave a few days later. "Even if you feel like it isn't important or as if you were bothering me – you're not. I would love to lend an ear whenever I can, okay?"

Naenia smiled at her friend and nodded, even though she knew how unlikely it was that she would actually take her up on that offer. Then she disapparated, relishing in the feeling of being able to freely do so whenever she wanted. It was a small amount of freedom that she cherished very much.

Perseus greeted her in the parlour.

"How was your trip?" he asked politely.

"Refreshing," Naenia answered, handing her bag to a servant to bring to her rooms.

She set off to the library, Perseus following close behind. He was her first personal Inferius, all her other creations having been made for the whole family to use. It wasn't very common – most did not form any kind of close relationships to outsiders and 'special bodies' that one of them wanted to keep for themselves didn't turn up very often. But Naenia had claimed Perseus as hers and that was the end of it.

He was different from how he had been in life, of course. He only held vague recollections of his life, was entirely devoted to Naenia and somewhat devoid of emotions. The Lémures were good at what they did, exceptional even, but the dead were the dead and the living the living. They were no exceptions themselves, either, changing with their own death.

Naenia entered the North Wing via the secret entrance in the library, greeted her parents, her brother and her aunt Lethis, and then retired to her personal laboratory. The elders didn't care whether she greeted them or not, so she had long stopped bothering.

Her personal laboratory had been given to her as a gift on her seventeenth birthday. She would have shared half of it with Veiovis, had he not died before she had had the chance to use it for the first time. He, himself, had barely used since joining Grindelwald's forces, so most of his things had already been stowed away when Naenia had taken over.

The North Wing held several underground rooms of various sizes, and had been expanded several times, deeper into the earth, to allow more Necromancers to have their own rooms. Most of the lower levels were currently abandoned, though, because more and more of the elders were moving into the forest for reasons Naenia did not understand.

She beckoned for Perseus to sit down on the stone table and activated the engraved runes that assisted and enhanced her magic. Perseus was her personal Inferius and she therefore had to do all the necessary maintenance (which wasn't much if any at all, if one constructed the Inferius correctly) and improvements on her own. She had done this countless times with their servants, but Perseus was a special case for her, demanding special attention.

It had been the right choice, she decided, to make him into her personal Inferius, to keep him close. He was not her friend anymore, only looked like him (if you ignored the eyes), but she felt calm when she worked on him, felt more at peace than she had since she had found him dead on their doorstep. He grounded her in a way not even Amelia had been able to.

"Your hair looks interesting," he said quietly and Naenia looked up in surprise.

She touched the braids Amelia had woven that she had forgotten all about. Her friend had insisted in doing it each day of her stay. "Does it suit me?"

Perseus looked at her blankly. "I do not know."

Naenia huffed, smiling. "Of course you don't."

"Am I supposed to?" At least he looked somewhat clueless.

"No. Unless you would like to know such things?"

He contemplated this while Naenia continued looking for non-existent flaws in his construction.

"If I am not required to know, then I do not see any need to," he answered eventually.

Naenia waved a dismissive hand. "I will give you some literature to read later."

"On hairstyles?"

"On proper conversations and social etiquette. And I am going to write you a guideline on how not to act around me. We need to work on that lack of spirit. Deference is fine and all, but I need you to think more for your own."

Perseus fell silent for a moment.

"If you wish."

Naenia sighed. "See? That's exactly what I'm talking about."