A Slytherin Black Sheep

"There is no easy way to say this: your brother - Evan - is dead." 

Professor Wormwood's voice was matter-of-fact, but something about the forced calm in her demeanor betrayed the fact that she had delivered this sort of news before. Hadn't she been the one to tell Evan about their father's death? Edana could not recall, Evan did not care to discuss that particular memory.

Edana had expected bad news from the moment Wormwood told her to gather her books. Everyone knew what it meant to be pulled out of class by your Head of House, but she had never really thought Evan would die.  If anyone would die it would be her mother.

"Dead?" Edana sputtered, feeling as though she had somehow been pulled out of her life and plopped down into the middle of a book or wireless play. She could not imagine Evan dead. He had just started his career at the Ministry. "How?"

The Professor's look was somehow both evaluating and pitying, which made Edana want to shake the woman. She wanted this all to be some sick joke or terrible mistake because even that was better than Evan really being dead. She had pity enough from strangers who learned she was fatherless, but only contempt from her neighbors who would not allow their children to associate with her because the rumors about her father being involved in the Dark Arts refused to die a natural death. When she was eight she played a few times with an older boy from further up the lane until his mother saw and ordered him home. The next time she saw him, he pretended he did not hear her.

"There some Ministry officials waiting in my office who would speak with you. I have contacted your mother. You will go directly home afterwards." Wormwood said. Edana heard her as though the Professor had been speaking from a distance rather than a few feet away.

As she followed Professor Wormwood to her office, Edana realized that she had not answered her question, but now there were too many other questions buzzing about in her mind and she did not know which one to give voice to first. Before she could force her jaw to open and utter a word, Wormwood was opening the door and pushing her inside. It was the first time she had ever been inside Professor Wormwood's office and could not help looking around.  It was a sparsely furnished room with a desk, two chairs, and full bookcases. All the books on potions and were in order by author's last name. One of the chairs was occupied by a man in severe black robes of the more fitted cut that had not been fashionable for over a decade. A tall woman in identical garb leaned against one bookcase. It took Edana a moment to recognize the significant of the gold eagle and oak leaf pins on their chests.

Aurors.

Edana had a vague memory of seeing Aurors before. When she had been very young, one came to the house. Edana could not hear exactly what was said, but her mother screamed at the man to leave before she hexed him.

"Miss Rosier, these are Ms. Tonarin and Mr. Longbottom of the Aurors. They are here to ask you a few questions." Professor Wormwood said crisply. Edana noticed the warning look she shot the two Aurors as well as the fact that Wormwood had her hand on her wand. Despite her advanced age, the Professor was reputed to be a fast draw.  Edana felt strangely reassured.

"Aurors?" Edana suddenly realized that she was repeating her head of house.

Professor Wormwood looked hard at Longbottom for a moment, but his focus was on Edana and he did not see her look. "She has not been told?" He asked Wormwood a minute later.

"She knows her brother is dead, but I have not informed her of the circumstances. I was ordered to bring her straightaway, but I thought she ought to be told in private. I will not throw a student of mine completely to the wolves." Wormwood snapped.

Longbottom nodded. Edana thought he appeared just the tiniest bit recalcitrant, but when he addressed her, his face was as unreadable as blank parchment. "Were you aware that your brother was a Death Eater?"

Edana was a while in absorbing what she had just been told. As it percolated through the veil of shock, rage flared up inside her. "They said the same thing about my father, murdered him because of it, but he turned out to be completely innocent."

"I remember your father. He was a good man." Wormwood said softly.

"History is not repeating itself Miss Rosier." Longbottom said sharply. "Your brother was caught red handed wearing the robes and mask of a Death Eater."

Edana shook her head. She did not want to believe it could be true, and yet in made a kind of sense. Evan had been very secretive of late...but there were also more reasonable explanations. He was busy trying to establish himself at the Ministry. Then she remembered something that had seemed strange at the time, a request of a powerful amulet, but she had dismissed her questions without giving breath to them. He was her brother, after all.

Edana glanced at her teacher, she would not have thought it possible, but Wormwood looked older. She sank into the chair behind the desk, gripping the sides as though it were a throne, and seeing Edana looking at her, gestured for the girl to take the seat in front of the desk next to Mr. Longbottom.

"Miss Rosier?" This time it was the female Auror - Tonarin - who prompted her. "If you know anything..."

"I really don't know...," Edana began. She was about to say 'anything' but the word crumbled before reaching her lips as a memory flashed before her eyes.

Longbottom spoke again. "Miss Rosier? If you know something, anything at all, of your brother's activities you are bound by the law to tell us."

Edana still could not speak.

"The girl is in shock." Wormwood began, but Longbottom whipped something out of his robes and handed it to the Professor.

"We need to know what she knows, even if it turns out to be insignificant. I want to take her to the Ministry for questioning."

Professor Wormwood did not like this at all. "She's a child, Frank."

"She is also a witness."

"You need written consent from her legal guardian to question her unless she is a suspect." Wormwood retorted.

The Aurors smiled. Edana did not like their look. "Her mother is being investigated as a suspect, therefore Miss Rosier is a ward of the Ministry. Read the paperwork."

Professor Wormwood snatched up the paper and read it. "You had her declared a ward of the Ministry before coming here."

"You were the one who taught me to cover all my bases." Longbottom replied. "Good day, Grandmother."

* * * * *

After flooing to the Ministry from Professor Wormwood's office, the Aurors took Edana through a maze of corridors until arriving at a small room. It was windowless and bare of any furnishings but a table and a few chairs. Another Auror set up a quill and parchment with a dictum spell and they made her drink a glass of clear liquid that was too bitter to be anything other than a potion. Edana supposed it was a truth potion; she had yet to study the affects of truth potions so she could not be certain. It made the room became very blurred and Edana felt as though she were both falling and flying.

A voice asked: "When did you last see your brother?"

Edana remembered seeing Evan before going to King's Cross. She guessed she must have spoken aloud because she heard the faint scratching of the quill and the voice asked another question. The sounds echoed in such strange ways.

"Did your brother do anything unusual recently?"

Edana recalled that Evan had come home unexpectedly before she left for Hogwarts. He did not stay long. Another few questions prompted her to describe the episode in greater detail.

Edana was standing in the kitchen with her mother when Evan arrived. He did not knock as he usually did, but walked into the house to ferret out his family.

"I thought you had to work today." Mrs. Rosier chided Evan as her son came up to her and kissed her on the cheek.

"I wanted to see my family." Evan said simply. "After all, Edana will be going to Hogwarts next week and I won't be able to visit with her as often."

"I'm glad you came by."

"I'm sorry if I interrupted anything." Evan apologized.

Mrs. Rosier brushed off any notion that he had interrupted her.

"I have a commission for you." Evan told his mother as he pulled a silk swathed bundle from his robes. Mrs. Rosier made no move to examine it until Evan pulled back the ivory silk to reveal a flawless green sapphire that was easily the size of his palm.

"What kind of commission?" Mrs. Rosier asked, examining the stone carefully, but still refusing to touch it.

"The owner wants a Mirror of Truth."

Edana gasped. A Mirror of Truth was a very powerful amulet that allowed the owner to see who their true enemies and allies were. It was the most difficult and expensive type of amulet her mother could create and it took nearly a year of careful enchantment to complete.

"Does the client know the price?" Mrs. Rosier demanded. "It is not up for negotiation."

In answer, Evan removed a moke skin money bag from his inside cloak pocket and spilled the contents on the kitchen table. Edana had never seen so many galleons. "The down payment."

Mrs. Rosier picked up one coin to examine it. When she was satisfied that it was real she said, "is he aware of the time it will take? I could not possibly have it finished before next May. With the current climate will likely be much longer. Not all the potions ingredients I will need are readily available these days."

"He's aware. He does not want this amulet known to the Ministry and is willing to wait however long you need."

"I assume he'll want it attuned to him personally for the best results. I'll need blood, in a crystal vial. A new one. Lingering bits of potions in a used vial could contaminate the blood. I'll also need at least three strands of hair from the client, and one strand each from a known enemy and a known ally. He must be certain of the ally or the amulet will be weak."

Evan nodded and summoned a quill and parchment. He maneuvered himself so that his sister could not see what he was writing. "May I borrow Aeneas? Cassandra is out with a delivery."

Mrs. Rosier gave him permission to use the family owl and Evan disappeared for a few minutes to go to the owl shed outside and send the letter off.

Edana woke up on a cot in the Ministry infirmary, feeling nauseas and as though she had slept for decades. She remembered wondering who would purchase the amulet and why the need for secrecy. She had a sinking feeling that the field of possible clients had just been whittled down quite a great deal.

* * * * *

Mrs. Rosier owled her brother-in-law Brian to come and collect Edana. As a squib the Ministry was certain he was not a Death Eater, and since they were finished questioning Edana, they allowed him to take her home. Mrs. Rosier joined them a few days later. She had neither been officially charged nor exonerated, and prowled about the house peering through the curtains to try and spot the Auror spies watching the house.

Mrs. Rosier was especially infuriated that she could no longer withdraw funds from her Gringotts vault without having to account for every Knut. Evan's assets were frozen, but the Ministry did not confiscate the money from the amulet, though they did take the blood and hair and issue a strict warning to the Rosier family not to take commissions without their permission.

"Why didn't they take the amulet?" Edana wondered. From the slight variation in placement of items throughout the house, it was obvious the Aurors had searched the place while the Rosiers were held at the Ministry.

"They want to see if anyone comes for it." Uncle Brian answered from his position on the couch. "That is why the house is being watched."

"Why bother to search the house, then?"

"In addition to the psychological effect?  They were hoping to uncover Dark Arts items, spare wands and the like. Death Eaters are rumored to keep multiple wands to use in their activities. The theory is that if they are caught, the Aurors will not be able to catalog every spell they have performed." Brian said. "They think Evan may have kept one of his wands here."

"They think my mother is a Death Eater." Edana hissed.

"That to."  Brian conceded.

* * * * *

Evan was buried a week after his death. It was perfect funeral weather. The day was crisp without being cold, the sky was leaden but no rain fell on the handful of mourners, witnesses, and official Ministry observers.

Edana had always read that dead people appeared as though they were only sleeping, and until today nothing had dispelled that particular myth. Her father's funeral was hazy in her memory, but she did recall Evan keeping her away from the room where her father's body lay. Now she wondered if her father and brother had looked as much alike in death as they had in life.

Lying in his glossy black coffin, polished so bright Edana could see her own reaction, Evan was too still to foster an illusion of sleep. His chest did not rise and fall with each breathe, his pallor was too pale and waxen, and his face lacked the younger quality it always obtained as he dreamed.

Edana knew intellectually that the purpose of a viewing was to allow the friends and relatives of the deceased to say a few last words and to help them confront the reality of the death, but she instead found it a disturbing custom. Why would she want to say anything to the lifeless shell in front of her. Evan was gone, but now whenever she tried to imagine his face she would have to veer around this razor edged memory.

She backed away and sunk into a chair next to Uncle Brian. It suddenly occurred to her that he looked a great deal like Evan might have looked in his mid-forties. They had the same dark red hair and square jaw. For the somber occasion he had even found a set of black dress robes, which heightened his resemblance to his deceased relations and struck Edana as peculiar as she had only ever seen him in Muggle attire.  She wondered if he had worn the same robes to her father's funeral.

As if sensing his niece's scrutiny, Brian turned to look at her and the resemblance lessoned. His eyes were sky blue instead of pewter gray and his hair showed silver threads. Neither Evan nor Augustus Rosier had lived long enough to earn gray hair as wizards aged slower thanks to the magic coursing through their veins.

The tiny family aside, there were not many mourners. Edana cynically realized that Evan's friends were afraid to come to the funeral of a known Death Eater. Only his three remaining family members, a few family friends present to offer the support of their presence, a reporter from the Daily Prophet, a handful of Evan's supported victims or their families, and three unfamiliar Aurors were present. The Aurors wore stony masks as they watched the proceedings, but Edana tried not to look too much in their direction. Ever since her questioning, she found the sight of Aurors made her queasy, like the aftereffects of the potion she had been fed. The survivors trooped up to the casket glaring at the Rosiers and departed after hissing something at Evan with expressions of relief.

An official made a few remarks. Edana noted that the usual summary of the deceased had been omitted and she did not know whether to be angry or relieved. How would they describe Evan? Beloved, brother and son, Death Eater?

The Death Eater part was the hardest to comprehend. Having grown up without a father Edana learned the repercussions of death upon a family at an early age. She heard other people discuss their fathers and wondered what she had missed. How could Evan, knowing the pain of that loss, inflict it upon others?