A Slytherin Black Sheep

England,
September 18, 1979

Edana Katherine Rosier was born on September 18, 1969 at half past three in the afternoon. Nine years separated Edana’s birth from that of her older brother Evan. With such a difference in age between them, one might have expected that the siblings would not be very close. Indeed, Evan did not find his baby sister to be especially interesting until his second year at Hogwarts. One morning in late January he was taken out of Herbology by his Head of House, Professor Wormwood, to be informed of his father’s sudden death.

After the death of his father, Augustus Rosier, Evan grew closer to his mother and sister. They were the only living family he had, aside from a squib uncle living in London, and he was very protective of them. He dutifully returned home from school every Christmas and summer, owled frequently, and always remembered their birthdays and other special occasions.

Edana’s tenth birthday was no exception. Even though Evan was very busy with his new job at the Ministry, he arrived bright and early on the eighteenth of September bearing a long, thin, package wrapped in silver paper that could only be a broom.

“Happy birthday sweetness.” Evan said as he hugged his sister. Then he went to greet his Mother with a second hug.

“You should not have bought her a broom.” Lenore Rosier chided her son. She a tall, stately woman with black hair usually worn in a chignon, golden brown eyes, and an aristocratic nose that was one of the few features other than height that she shared with her son. Both children favored their father with their russet hair and gray eyes, though Edana had her mothers oval face and fine bone structure. Her family was among the most ancient of pure blood lines, a fact she was quite proud of. Lenore Rosier’s specialty was in amulets, which she both created and repaired, though the creation was difficult and time consuming so she was seldom able to manage more than one a year

“She is almost old enough to go to Hogwarts. I thought Edana ought to have a better broom than that awful Shooting Star that Dad bought me.” Evan replied.

“It is hard to believe she will be old enough for Hogwarts in another year. I am not sure I‘m quite ready to let her go.” Lenore said, shaking her head wistfully.

“But Mother, it’s not for a whole year!” Edana chipped in. “That is almost forever!”

Evan and Lenore laughed. “The time will pass before you know it.” Evan told his disbelieving sister before he changed the topic. “Don’t you want to open your gift?”

Edana’s eyes flashed with excitement as Evan handed her the gift. “Of course, I do!”

“Not until after lunch. You know the tradition.” Lenore reminded her daughter firmly.

When is lunch?“ Edana sulked.

“In a few minutes. I made your favorite: chicken and potatoes.” Her mother said.

“Some on, sweetness. I bet the time will go faster if we help Mother out and set the table. I’ll get the plates and pour the drinks while you take care of the silverware.” Evan suggested.

“All right.” Edana started off.

“We’re using the good china and silver since it is Edana’s birthday.” Lenore said walking into the dinning room and returning a minute later with a box containing silver flatware, three bone china plates rimmed in gold and three crystal glasses. Evan took the glasses and plates from his mother and set them on the table while his sister placed the silverware.

“Forks go on the other side of the plate.” Lenore told her daughter. Edana moved the fork.

As Edana finished, her mother and brother brought in the food. The conversation stayed light, discussing things Edana would need for school, Evan’s prospects for promotion within the next year, a scandal involving a player on the Wimbourne Wasps.

“He rigged all the Quaffles?” Edana asked incredulously.

Evan nodded.. An injury from a Bludger in the Quidditch final his seventh year had ended any chance he might have had to play professionally, but he still loved the game and took an offer from an old family friend to join the Ministry. He worked in the Department of Magical Sports and Games, Standards and Practices Committee, which supervised and regulated all the League teams.

“How?”

“That is still under investigation, but the current theory is that he found out when the locking charms were renewed and went to the storage facility when they were weakest.”

“Your work sounds so exciting.” Edana said.

“Its actually boring and has a lot of paperwork, but it has its uses, and its moments.”

“Any girlfriends?” Mrs. Rosier shifted the topic over to one that inevitably came up every time Evan visited. “Estella’s son is still seeing the Radley girl, we expect to hear they are engaged any day now, but I have not heard of you dating any nice young witches in over a year.”

“I‘ve been busy, Mother.”

“I thought you said your job was boring.” Edana said.

Mrs. Rosier shot her son a warning look. “Just because it’s dull doesn’t mean there isn’t a great deal to do.” Evan said.

“Edana, why don’t you help me clear the table and then we can open your birthday presents.” Mrs. Rosier suggested.

Edana helped her mother clean up. When they were finished she was permitted to attacking her birthday presents. She was finally able to rip the paper off of the broomstick and pull the lid off of the box. Edana gasped at the sight of the shiny broom she immediately recognized from all the magazines. “A Cleansweep 6!”

“You bought your sister a Cleansweep 6? Evan Korbin Rosier! It’s too much for someone her age.”

“You bought me a Cleansweep 3 when I made the House Quidditch team.” Evan defended himself.

“You were thirteen.”

“A Cleansweep 6 is far safer than any other broom currently on the market. It has better breaking and only the most powerful of magics can interfere with it, which is certainly not the case with that old Shooting Star. I would never buy Edana anything dangerous.”

“She always insists on flying too fast,” mumbled Mrs. Rosier. She shot a disapproving look at her daughter. “All right. She can keep the broom, but woe betide you if I find that you tried to take it to school with you, understood? First years are not allowed to bring their own brooms.”

“Yes, Mother.” Mrs. Rosier allowed herself a small smile. All of her daughter’s other presents were practical things like new robes, quills and books. Maybe Edana needed a diversion. There were not many children her age around here, and the parents of the few in the area refused to permit a friendship between their offspring and Edana Rosier. They still whispered about her father, about how he died, and that was enough to convinced the local wizarding families that the Rosiers were involved in the Dark Arts. Mrs. Rosier told her daughter that such accusations were nonsense and that the Ministry had made a mistake, and admitted they had erred, in the matter of Augustus Rosier. With the Daily Prophet reporting murders, abductions, and violence by Death Eaters almost every day, the attitude of the wizarding community was guilty until proven innocent.

“It is easy to blame the dead.” Mrs. Rosier said in the distant tone she often used when speaking of her husband. “Unless they are a ghost, they cannot denounce their accusers, and they can do no more harm. Many would rather believe a criminal is dead and buried than still at large.”

Edana understood, but wished her mother would tell her the specifics of what had happened to her father. All she knew was that he had been accused of being a Death Eater and something had gone horribly wrong when the Ministry tried to arrest him. An Auror mistook Augustus Rosier’s actions for a threat and hurled a hex at him that proved deadly. The Ministry offered a formal apology, but refused to go beyond a simple discipline of the Auror in question. Aurors were simply too valuable in such dark times.

The situation was rather moot at the moment. The Auror had been killed in a Death Eater attack the previous January. Edana had seen pictures of him in the Prophet, the article on his life did not mention the fatal blunder that cost her father his life. She found it difficult to sympathize with his wife and children. Why should they have the support of the community when the Rosiers were shunned by their neighbors? The only visitors they ever had were Evan, Uncle Brian, and the handful of old school friends her mother and brother kept in contact with. Edana could not wait until she was able to go Hogwarts. She had never told her mother or Evan, but she was looking forward to making friends with others her age the most of all, even more than playing on a real Quidditch team.

Autumn faded into winter. They received an unusually high amount of snowfall and the spring was unusually wet. Walking on the ground was like stepping on a sponge. Edana spent a great deal of her time when she was not flying reading. Her mother insisted that she not be idle on dreary days.

Evan came to visit on Christmas, and once in April. He seldom owled them and when Edana questioned her mother as to why Evan was not coming by or writing very often, Mrs. Rosier pressed her lips together in a tight line and reminded her daughter that her brother was new to the Ministry and the newest employees were often saddled with the most difficult and cumbersome tasks.

Then, in mid July, Edana’s Hogwarts letter arrived.

She had gotten up early to practice diving before a rainstorm that was expected later in the morning when a huge owl flew up right over to her. It did not have the look of something from Evan, and he always addressed things to both his sister and his mother, so Edana knew what it was even before she glimpsed the purple wax seal. She jumped off her broom and ran full tilt into the house, startling one of the house elves, waving the letter in her hand. Mrs. Rosier looked ready with a reprimand when she saw her youngest child running indoors until she saw the letter and a smile blossomed on her face.

“I had no doubts that you would get in.” Mrs. Rosier said proudly. She opened a drawer and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill, which she handed to Edana. “We’ll owl your brother with the good news.”

Evan showed up the next day and hugged his little sister enthusiastically. He insisted on being the one to take Edana to Diagon Alley to get her school things. Mrs. Rosier agreed as she had a client coming by in the afternoon to discuss the feasibility of repairing a damaged amulet. She gave Evan not only the list, but a moke skin moneybag containing sufficient gold.

“Don’t bother with the robes.” Mrs. Rosier told them. “I’ve had the house elves alter your old ones to fit your sister. I’ve marked the other items we already have on the list. Also, Edana may purchase a pet, a toad or rat. Something not too pricey.”

“I hate toads and rats!” Edana complained. “I want a cat.”

“I cannot afford to spend eight galleons on a cat for you. Your school things are quite expensive enough. Be grateful I’ll allowing a pet at all. If you make the Quidditch team, we will discuss the matter again.”

Edana scowled, but Evan was soon able to restore her good mood with tales of his own experiences at Hogwarts. By the time they had flooed to Diagon Alley, Edana was all smiles and excitement.

They took care of her potions ingredients, supplies and books (Edana would be taking Evan’s old school caldron), which left only her wand and pet. Evan ushered her into Ollivanders wand shop and she started to try out wands. The fifth prove to be the charm. As soon as she touched it, Edana felt connected to the wand and as she waved it through the air greenand silver sparks followed the path set by the wand.

“Ebony, ten and one half inches, contains one unicorn tail hair. Excellent for Charm work, though you might find it tricky with curses.” Mr. Ollivanders informed her. The old man seemed pleased to have found her the perfect wand so quickly.

Edana glanced over to her brother to see what Evan thought of her wand, but he was not paying any attention to her. Instead he was staring intently at a couple strolling by the shop. The man was tall with exceptionally messy hair and carried a baby in his arms. The woman with him had dark red hair and was very pretty. She noticed his staring and tugged on the mans sleeve. He hugged the baby tighter and brought out his wand. Both hurried their steps and were soon out of sight.

“Evan?”

“What is it?” Evan asked irritated, then he saw the wand in her hand and smiled. “Oh you have found your wand. That was quick, but you don’t like to dally do you sweetness?”

Edana waved her wand around the shop again, sending a mass of emerald sparks everywhere. “Ebony and unicorn hair, ten and a half inches.”

“How much for the wand?”

“Five galleons, three sickles.” Evan handed the man the appropriate coins and hustled Edana from the store.

“I think it is time I took you home.” Evan told her outside the shop.

“Mother said I could get a rat or a toad.” Edana reminded him.

Evan glanced down the street in the direction the couple had been going in, Edana followed his gaze but did not see them. Evan sighed, then smiled again. “I guess we can get you an animal, but not a rat or a toad. I’ll get you an owl or a cat, it can be an early birthday gift.”

“Did you know those people?” Edana asked as they walked toward the Magical Menagerie.

“Which people?” Evan asked evasively.

“The ones you were watching while we were in the wand shop.”

Evan considered his words carefully before answering. “We were in school together. The wizard is a pure-blood. His wife is Muggle-born.”

Edana was shocked. “He married a Mudblood?”

“Tradition and purity of blood mean nothing to certain wizards. Some families no longer keep to the old ways, but that will change.” Evan replied with an odd steel in his voice as he steered his sister into the Magical Menagerie.

Five minutes later they came out of the shop with Edana holding a gray kitten in one arm and a bag of cat supplies her brother had indulgently charmed to be feather light.

“Thank you so much for Shadow!” Edana said.

He raised an eyebrow. “Shadow? You have him named already?”

Edana nodded happily. “He looks like a Shadow.”

Mrs. Rosier had been able to repair her customer’s amulet, but it had drained her and she was not in a very good mood when her children stepped out of the fireplace and brushed the soot off their robes. She was especially not pleased to see Shadow and prepared to scold her son, when Evan silenced her with a gesture.

“The cat is an early birthday present. I thought Edana ought to have a decent pet. She’d be laughed at if she brought a toad to school. They are useless creatures.”

“You spoil her.” Mrs. Rosier sighed, collapsing into a chair and closing her eyes for a moment. “Weren’t toads popular when you started at Hogwarts? You begged me for one.”

“But Dad insisted I bring an owl.” Evan reminded her with a laugh. “Toads were only popular because some of the fifth years held toad jumping contests. The rest placed bets on the outcome. A particularly troublesome quartet of Gryffindors ratted on us. Cost Slytherin eighty points all told.”

“Did your toad win a lot?” Edana asked, interested.

“More than she lost.” Evan replied. He glanced out the window. “I need to go. It will be dark soon.”

Mrs. Rosier’s face suddenly became apprehensive and embraced her son, crying in an uncharacteristic display of emotion. “Take care.”

“I will.” Evan promised, conjuring a handkerchief for his mother. Then he turned to hug his sister and ruffle her hair. “I don’t want to hear that you got caught doing anything that might cost your house points, understood, sweetness?”

“I won’t get caught.” Edana declared. Her brother grinned before his family led him out back beyond the anti-apparation charms laid down by his and Edana’s grandmother.