The Bet // Remus Lupin Fanfiction

38

"Okay. First step completed for being an animagus. Now as the next step, keep this mandrake leaf in your mouth," Dad instructed and gave me the leaf.

I kept it in my mouth under my tongue since from what I read, it was the most comfortable place which didn't cause any problem in talking either.

He smiled at me. "Very well. We need to go now. We have some work," he said and he and Mum stood up to leave.

"I thought you left the ministry?" I asked.

They looked at me. "We did. We aren't going for the Ministry's work," Mum answered.

"Who are you working for then?" I questioned.

They exchanged glances. "We aren't going for someone else's work. We are going to get some things for the house," Dad said.

"We can send Fera for that, can't we? She is our house elf. We pay her for doing these work," I said.

"Fera isn't-"

"Can I get the truth now?" I asked and stared in my parents' eyes.

"Let's tell her Ander. The more she knows, the better it is," Mum said.

Dad looked at her and then at me. My expressions didn't change. He gave in.

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"What's the first question?"

"Who do you work for?"

"Order of the Phoenix," he answered. My eyebrows furrowed.

"It's an organisation formed by Dumbledore to fight against the dark forces rising these days-"

Expected.

"-In other words, it's an army to fight against-against.. Vo-voldemort," he said.

I winced when I heard you-know-who's name from his mouth. "Dad how ca-"

"And right now," he interrupted, "we have a meeting at the headquarters. We need to go there. We'll answer your questions later."

My mind was still in a haze from what I heard when Mum bent down and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. "I know it came out as a shock but don't worry, we'll explain everything to you," she spoke softly and after patting me affectionately on the head, left with my father.

----

"You already know about Voldemort approaching pureblood families?" Dad asked.

I winced internally but nodded.

"And we too are a pureblood family?" he asked with a little smile.

"What kind of question is that Dad?" I rolled my eyes at my father's poor attempt at cracking a joke.

"We have been expecting him for some time. A few years to be exact," he continued. "That was the reason we left the ministry. We didn't want him to use us to infiltrate the only department capable of fighting him."

I nodded grimly. I knew it.

"Also, the ministry have been putting up a blind eye to the incidents happening around us, refusing to believe a dark wizard is on the rise. Another reason why we left it and chose to work with the people who are willing to fight."

Oh.

"Now Athea, there are three reasons why death eaters can approach us. Number one is to kill us."

I nodded in acknowledgment.

"In that case, we will fight and take as many death eaters down with us as we can. And we want you to fight too as much as you can and stop and run only if you know there was no point in doing it anymore; if you know we are on the loosing side. You have completed your Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations and you are a brilliant child who knows beyond their school studies. I am expecting you would be pretty good in DADA since we have been training you in it for years." He smiled.