Coven

Anya looked around at the gathered members of The Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. There was Maya, Cora and Narcissa. The three kids who were under Arcturus and Melania’s care, fourteen year old Celeste, her thirteen year old sister Diya, and their nine year old brother Altair.

Anya turned to Cora in concern. “Should I try to owl or floo Andi and Cass?”

Cora snorted. “Be my guest, maybe they’ll wanna talk to you.”

“I don’t think it’s not that they don’t want to talk to us.” Maya frowned. 

“Our owls were turned away both times.” Cora deadpanned.

Anya gave the two a worried look before walking towards the doors to the attached office. “I’ll just send an owl and floo if there’s no response.” She shrugged, causing Cora to sigh as she followed Anya into the office. 

The office was decently sized, certainly bigger than her office at home and while her office had mahogany bookshelves and a cherry wood desk, Arcturus’ office was made entirely of black oak with ornate designs on the walls. It was a sight she had seen several times over her life and something that she didn’t want to waste time on by taking in every detail.

Hastily walking down the silver rug to the desk in the center of the room, she opened the top left drawer and grabbed two sheets of parchment.

“Did you bring the boys?” Anya asked curiously and Cora hummed in agreement as she traced a finger along the spines of some books.

“Remus in watching them.” She replied offhandedly. “They’re in the garden at the moment.”

“Remus?” Anya asked in mild surprise. “I didn’t realize he was in Britain…” Pausing in her writing, Anya turned to Cora with a confused look. “Actually, I didn’t even know you still spoke to him. You were pretty upset about that time Sirius-!”

“Remus was just as much a victim of my brother's stupidity.” Cora said, cutting Anya off with a bitter tone. “Besides, there’s no point in letting him cloud my friendships, I haven’t seen him since the night Atlas was conceived.”

Anya stared at Cora for a moment before shaking her head and continuing to write her letters to the twins. 

“I didn’t think I’d hear that.” Anya murmured with a shake of her head.

Cora snorted, a grimace twisting onto her face. “Oh there’s plenty that I didn’t need to know about you.” She paused for a moment before her face twisted like she ate something bad. “You or my cousin.”

Anya chuckled, eyes twinkling with both amusement and pain. It hurt her to think of happier times. “You should have knocked.” She teased but Cora just looked at her like she smelled something bad.

In fact, the look Cora had on her face reminded Anya of Walburga….not that she would tell Cora that…

“Besides, I was just changing.” Anya shrugged. 

Cora deadpanned. “Right, we’ll if I had to learn about your naval piercing and the tramp stamp-!”

“Oi!” Anya called  indignantly as her head whipped up to glare at the curly haired woman.

“-then you can deal with that little tidbit of information.” Cora huffed, continuing like she didn’t hear the older woman.

Anya continued to glare at her. “That’s not what I meant.” Cora’s head turned to her in confusion and Anya merely shrugged. “I never thought he was the type to abandon his kids.”

A pained look appeared on Cora’s face before she looked away from Anya. “He…doesn’t know….”

Anya dropped her quill. “Excuse me?”

An ashamed look took over Cora’s face. “..I wasn’t able to tell him before we separated.”

Standing up from her hunched position, Anya stared unblinkingly at Cora, she couldn’t hide the surprise and disbelief that appeared on her face. If she remembered correctly, Cora and her husband separated when Cora was three months pregnant with her eldest- Aster.  Atlas, Cora’s youngest, was two years younger than Aster and while Anya knew they both had Cora’s surname, she always assumed that their father knew about them and just decided to not be a part of their lives.

Shaking her head, Anya rubbed at her temple. “I’m not touching that with a ten foot wand.”

Cora didn’t say anything else, but the look of shame on her face grew.

“Doesn’t Aster start Hogwarts in September?” Anya asked with a disapproving frown. “How in Merlin’s name will you hide him from-?”

“I never planned on hiding either of them!” Cora cut in quickly. “I just…wasn’t sure how to tell…” The grey eyed woman seemed to tear up as she looked away from Anya. “Besides….maybe it was for the best…” Cora shook her head with a hollow laugh. “..he was…one of them after all.”

Anya grimace at the heartbroken tone in Cora’s voice. Perhaps it was for the best…but it still left a sour taste in her mouth.

“He’ll find out eventually.” She reminded.

Cora sent Anya a smile so full of pain that it brought tears to her eyes. “He won’t care,” she said definitively. “I was nothing more than a replacement.”  

Eyes widening, Anya’s breath hitched. She didn’t know Cora felt that way….oh she would be having words with a certain professor. 

Walking around the desk, Anya walked up to Cora and wrapped the younger woman in a tight hug. “You are no one’s replacement.” She said resolutely. “And I’ll hex him for making you feel that way.”

Cora held Anya just a little bit tighter. “Thank you.” She whispered hoarsely.

Stepping away with a soft smile, Anya ran a finger over the few stray tears that escaped Cora’s face. “Always.” 

Turning around, Anya walked back to the desk and picked up the quill to continue writing her letters to the twins before she started. 

Staring at Cora in surprise with blue eyes wide, Anya asked. “Has anyone messaged Lydia? Aquila and Lynx should be here.”

Cora nodded, curled black hair flowing with the movement. “They’ll be here in the morning.” She reassured, gray eyes rimmed pink. 

Anya nodded in understanding before quickly writing the two letters, walking to the window and pushing it open. Using a quick spell, she summoned her personal owl and her family’s messenger owl. 

Tying the letters to both owls, Anya gave the two a quick pet before sending them off. 

Biting her lip, the auburn haired woman turned to Cora with a hesitant smile. “And now we wait.”

Sure enough, both owls returned two hours later with the letters still attached to their legs. A fact that confused Anya. She had messaged Andromeda using the same owl just last week and had sent a message to Cassiopeia two days before that. 

Both women had responded at the time, so why were they refusing her owls now? And at such an important time.

Narcissa bit her lip. “This is strange.”

Anya hummed in agreement before walking back to Arcturus’ office.

Maya sagged slightly in her seat. “Why now of all times?” 

“I don’t know.” Cora sighed before watching Anya walk to the solid wood doors. “You’re going to floo them?” 

“I said I would.” She said offhandedly, not stopping as she walked into the office.

Narcissa sat up straighter in her seat, eyeing her cousins. Diya and the other children had joined Melania in the room, so it was only the adults now.

“…This isn’t like them...” Narcisssa said hesitantly. “Me? Well, we haven’t spoken in years.” Glancing at Cora and Maya, Narcissa added. “I could even understand declining an owl from the two of you, no matter how unlikely it was.” Cora arched her head as if saying ‘yeah, I guess’ while Maya gave a sad nod. “It would make sense for them to cut out House Black after everything, but not answering Anya of all people?” Narcissa bit her lower lip as she turned to her cousins. “Something isn’t adding up.”

Cora snorted as she walked over to one of the three windows that overlooked the courtyard. “Don’t tell me you miss them?” She teased.

Narcissa froze, her face twisting slightly before a sadness that Cora and Maya had never seen before took over her face. 

“..it has been eighteen years since I saw either of them…” Narcissa whispered to herself.

Cora hummed. “I thought you haven’t spoken to Andi since she chose that muggleborn over Gia.”

Narcissa twirled a strand of blonde hair as she scowled. “Don’t remind me.”

Gia or Giovannia Di Stella was Andromeda’s best friend during Hogwarts and a constant presence in Narcissa’s life from Andromeda’s first year of school to her sixth year when the two had a falling out. Sirius had always joked that Andi and Gia would end up in a relationship and it wasn’t difficult to imagine Gia being her sister in law. In fact, Narcissa had hoped that despite her parents' views on such relationships, that both Anya and Gia would end up with one of her sisters. 

So it was a shock to her and the others when Gia suddenly transferred to a magical school in Italy seemingly overnight and stopped coming around during the holidays. Narcissa never knew what that falling out was about but she didn’t have to be a genius to know that it had something to do with Cassiopeia’s scandal and Andromeda’s sudden relationship with Ted Tonks. 

Maya clenched her right bicep so tightly that it must have hurt. “I hope they show up…”

Cora leaned back against the wall with her arms crossed as she stared out the nearest window. “..I hope they don’t regret not showing up.”

“Why are you so certain they won’t?” Maya asked with a reprimanding look.

Sighing, Cora threw her head back and stared at the chandelier in the center of the room. “Well they hadn’t spoken to each other since Cassie’s scandal and Andi revealed her relationship with Ted.” Glancing down at her aunt, Cora shrugged. “It wouldn’t be strange if they decided not to show up to avoid seeing the other.”

Maya’s response was cut off by the sound of the office doors slamming open. 

“-what the hell do you think you’re doing dragging me and my children-!” An indignant voice called as Anya walked into the room, dragging an angry brunette behind her with two girls- one barely out of her teens and one around seventeen, trailing behind her, the older of the two was holding the hand of the nervous five year old that was trying to hide behind her.

Narcissa froze as she watched the group that surrounded Anya, eyes flicking over the faces of the younger three.

The oldest of the three had the angry woman’s light brown hair and a pair of striking amber eyes, standing around five foot eight, the seventeen year old had hot pink hair- that had Narcissa immediately labeling her as a troublemaker, and dark twinkling eyes, standing at about five foot six and finally, the little boy had blonde hair and the Black families’ signature gray eyes. 

Narcissa frowned as she tried to look at the ranting woman. It was difficult after all these years apart which twin was currently ranting at the annoyed looking Anya. 

Finally, Anya had enough. She let go of the younger woman and pushed her forward, causing the woman to stumble slightly which only angered her more.

“Really Anya!?” The woman yelled, rounding on the auburn haired woman. “First you drag me out of my house without a word of where we’re going, then you demand my children follow and now you're pushing me!?” 

“Actually mum,” the pink haired girl piped up with a raised finger. “Professor Evermoore merely requested that we follow her.” The brown haired girl elbowed her sister with a slight glare. The pinkette immediately turned towards her sister with a matching glare. “Uh, ow..?” She said in an indignant tone. “It’s true!”

The woman turned to her children. “Not now Nymphadora.” She scolded and the pink haired girl’s hair turned red.

“Don’t call me Nymphadora!” She retaliated.

Cora blinked before raising a brow and turning to her aunt. Nymphadora..? She mouthed questioningly and Maya’s eyes brightened. Narcissa, meanwhile, was as still as a statue as she watched the scene before her. 

“Andi?” Maya asked and the brunette swirled around, as if just now realizing they weren’t alone.