Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
September 24, 1996
London, England
She needed a fucking break.
Like, honestly.
Well, either that or see a shrink. And she really wasn't willing to see a bloody shrink in the middle of a fucking war. Knowing her luck, the shrink would probably end up being a death eater in the disguise out there to get her. And if possible, Hope really wasn't willing to put herself in the harm's way more than she already had done.
And as if it wasn't nearly enough that her whole life had become a full-fetched soap-opera to begin with (what with twin brothers she hadn't known anything about before a few days ago and a whole family history she had to sit down, and study), her half-brother just had to find that stupid book with those suspicious spells Harry kept using without even inquiring from anyone where the bloody book came from like a bloody fool she so desperately had hoped he wasn't for so many years now.
One would think he had learned the lesson after their second year where he had started chatting up with the fucking teenage dark lord, resulting in her own near death. But apparently not. She had been a fool to expect otherwise. Because obviously, the only wise one here was she alone. Everyone else was happy enough to use suspicious books that came from suspicious places when there was a fucking war going on about, people dropping dead like flies every day.
And Hope should really stop swearing. Even if it was in her own mind.
"You look quite lovely." Theodore Nott commented as soon as he saw her stalking down those painfully long stairs of the Black Manor; the property her father had inherited from his own father when he had turned seventeen in the early 1978, only a year before her father had gone off and disappeared, leaving her mother all alone by herself in this huge mansion with nothing more than the ghosts of the past and the twins that were growing inside her to accompany her.
"What are you doing here?"
Theodore Nott was not someone she would normally cross paths with back at Hogwarts. He may be one of Malfoy's best mates, but unlike everyone else in his group of friends, he was someone who had never uttered a single mean word to either herself, or her group of friends through the entire time she had been at Hogwarts. He had always been more than happy enough to bugger himself off the room to somewhere else every time the blond ferret started going on with his usual shenanigans. And for that, she had always respected him. It didn't mean, however that she expected to see him anywhere near her person through all those years they had attended Hogwarts together.
Especially not on the day she was supposed to meet all the high-born nobles to talk about how they shouldn't support his cause just because they feel like they have to due to either from the fear, or because they feel like they have no other choice. Even if she had been dragged into the plan without her consent, if it meant it would help her cause and family, Hope was more than willing enough to do it.
"You are a pretty little princess without a prince there to guide her." Theodore Nott explained, and Hope resisted the urge to smack him for the implication that she needed a bloody prince there for her to save the day. "And well, I am your temporary prince until the right one comes along."
Hope stared at him dubiously, crossing her arms from across her chest in a pure annoyance. "Who even says I need a bloody prince?" she asked, lifting her chin high up because bloody hell, since when was he this tall? Or was she simply that short and hadn't realized it yet because most of her friends were of an average height? "Men had proven to be a huge disappointment over and over again through the years."
"Sweet thing, I am not every man." Theodore Nott smirked at her cheekily, "I am Theodore Nott."
"I am not a complete fool, Nott. I know exactly who the fuck you are."
Theodore grinned approvingly at her use of a language and opened his mouth to say something when Narcissa Malfoy came bursting down the stairs with her brown-haired, brown-eyed older sister in the tow, looking quite like she had heard the Minister of Magic had died. But then again, from the first time she had met the blond woman, she had always looked as if something quite terrible and downright awful had happened.
"Not a minute longer," She was telling her sister before she was dragging them both past the front doors of the ballroom, ushering her into the center of the room hurriedly, a seemingly permanent smile on her face. And Hope was standing with shaking arms on her feet with Theodore Nott by her side grinning at her like a little kid in a candy store, anxiously gulping under her throat as every nobleman was staring at her as if she were the newest prize to be won, and for the first time in her life, Hope wondered how in the world her father had dealt with them when he was in her shoes. One thing was certain, however. It couldn't have been easy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming all the way here." Mrs. Malfoy was starting with the sweetest, fakest smile she had seen on the woman's face and before she could continue to say another word, the front doors were opening and a rather tall and lean-looking, a red-haired boy was pushing past the confused looking guests into the center of the room and toward them and -
"Mrs. Malfoy, don't you look just lovely." The taller boy was saying with the sweet, genuine smile of someone who knew how to deal with those type of people and he was suddenly standing by their side in a pair of a very expensive looking dark robes and there were fashion glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. And Hope was gaping at him confusedly like a bloody fool, and he was grinning at her like they were sharing a very deep secret only a few people in the room knew and all of suddenly, something clicked in her brain.
This boy was her twin brother.
"Gabriel, don't you even think you would get away with being late just because you compliment me,"
"Of course not, Mrs. Malfoy." Her brother grinned at the blond witch somewhat cheekily. "I wouldn't even dream of it." And then he was standing by her side almost as if they haven't seen each other in what felt like forever, his hands intertwining with her own as they stared at the crowd of the nobles that filled the room, a playful little smile on his handsome face.
But before Hope could open her mouth to say a word to her twin brother, Gabriel was stepping toward the nobles with a charming little smile on his face and opening his mouth to say in quite a calming, reassuring tone of a voice, "Look, I know what you all are thinking. I am a seventeen-year-old half-blood boy with a little to no talent that could match up with that of my late old man. Why should you all listen to a little kid like me? I am barely even old enough to be able to apparate, for Salazar's sake! If anything, you should be lecturing me about the fortunes of the life and something equally adult-like as that. But the fact remains you are all here to listen to me today. Just as you had done with my father many years ago."
"And I am not going to tell you how wrong it would be to support him, the one man who wouldn't even hesitate to slaughter all of your precious pureblood children if he just felt like it. After all, I am still just another boy not old enough to understand any of those political games, right? But let me tell me one thing. Just one thing. If I were any of you, I wouldn't be willing to support a man just mad enough to give the Gellert Grindelwald a run for his game. Because let's be honest, how could any of you even know he wouldn't murder you all with all your precious little families along with those blood-traitors and muggle-borns after it's all done and over with? How can you possibly know? Besides, are you really certain you wish to obey a half-blood wizard's word like you are beneath him? Or is that it? Are you all beneath one half-blood wizard who can't even bring himself to murder one foolish little boy?"
There were murmurs going around everywhere around the ballroom due to his speech, and Hope let one small smile slip on her face in the pride and Theodore Nott was glancing at her somewhat secretively, like they were sharing some secret nobody else knew.
Quickly, Hope glanced away from him, her smile nowhere to be seen. "Your brother is something else altogether, ain't he?" Theodore asked her quite admirably because of course he would when her own twin brother had everyone in this room questioning their previous beliefs, murmuring to each other secretively as they each nodded and shook their heads, every one of them glancing at her brother like he was something quite curious, and at the same time, equally dangerous. It made Hope wonder if her father had been the same way, a teenage boy with nothing else on him but a few fancy sharp words to assure the world his way was the only way.
"Now, dare I ask?" Gabriel continued, "How many of you agree with me?"
Most of them agreed.
London, England
12 Grimmauld Palace
"I fucking hate this place." Gabriel mouthed in the pure annoyance as they entered the house, "But as it happens, there is something important here I must give you, little sister."
"How do you know I am not the older twin, Gabriel?" Hope lifted her chin high in the air as they stalked up the stairs slowly hand in the hand, the two pieces of the puzzle finally put together after all those years of a separation. "Just because you are the boy doesn't mean you were born first, you sexist wanker."
Gabriel simply shook his red head at her in the mild amusement as they walked toward their father's room side by the side, and Hope gasped slightly upon entering the room. The room was neat, maybe neater than even her own with only the dust to indicate that nobody lived here anymore. There were piles of books laying on top of the bookshelf alongside a few Quidditch trophies that bore her father's name in a fancy letters.
When she opened the closet, much to her surprise, Hope was welcomed with a closet full of dark and white custom-made clothes from both of the worlds and on top of the closet, laid a single seemingly worn-out red scarf beside the small, equally bright and round-looking sunglasses.
Gabriel nudged her with a small grin on the shoulder, pushing a pile of books onto her hands. "Read them when you have a time." He explained. "They are father's diaries. They might explain several of questions you may have of our heritage."
"Papa's diary?" Hope chocked the sound out slowly, blinking her eyes tearfully at her twin brother. "Have you read them?"
"You forget, darling sister. I've lived here for several painful years before I was shipped off to live with Scamander, our resident magizoologist."
Of course she had heard of that from her brother during the walk to the 12 Grimmauld Palace from the Manor earlier today. But she didn't wish to think about how horribly her brother had been treated here just yet. She wished to concentrate on her father right now.
On something more positive.
"Should we head off now?"
Gabriel looked at his arm-watch. "Our train isn't until seven." He said. "It isn't even five."
Hope gazed. "We cannot be late."
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Fine." He agreed. "Let's go." And then she was following him out of the house into the street where they both apparated, disappearing into the night.