The hidden side of the Wizarding World

Chapter 17: Anything, invite and dialogue (lots and lots of dialogue)

7th of July 1992

"Sirius! Sirius!" Evelyn yelled, franticly searching for her husband. "Poppy!" she said, once she had collected her wits again and realised Sirius would never be able to hear her from in the office.

"Yes, Mistress?"

"Tell Sirius to come to the study immediately." "And once you've done that, inform Remus and Harrison of the same thing."

"Yes, Mistress. Right away." And with a pop Lady Black was the only one standing in the room.

Placing her hands firmly on the desk, she tried to calm down. The glimmering seal on the envelope and the shining, elegant name on the bottom of the page were making this rather hard.

The doors burst open and Sirius came stringing in the room. "Evelyn?"

Seeing her defeated position, he hurried to her side. "What's wrong? What's that?" taking one glance at the letter and the seal and Sirius knew the heaviness of the situation. His eyes fluttered close.

He knew this day would come, he knew it would come too soon for him to handle, but he'd only been released from St. Mungo's two days ago. His godson barely spoke with him, the only thing they'd talked about in the past two days was food and Quidditch. He'd plainly refused to play Quidditch with Sirius. He would walk out the room when Sirius tried to string up a conversation with him and would throw him angry looks at mealtimes when Sirius talked to Evelyn or Remus.

Sirius was also trying to come with taking up his duties as Lord Black, but as it was at the moment, Evelyn did most of the paper work.

The shiny, silver crest was taunting him, laughing at him. It was as if it knew that the content of the letter and the effects it would have, would be a bloody nightmare for him.

Hearing two pairs of footsteps coming closer, he took a deep breath. He would do this, he would do anything. Anything for Evelyn, anything for Harrison, anything for his family. Including having tea with the Malfoys.

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"Mum? Is something the matter? Did something happen?"

Evelyn looked up at her godson.

"Don't worry, pup. It's nothing severe. Sirius and I have been invited to have tea with Lord and Lady Malfoy." She said, keeping her voice calm and warm to not upset Harrison further.

"Oh. Oh. They won't hurt you, will they? I— I'm not exactly best friends with Draco. I'm sorr—"

"Your relationship with the Malfoy heir has nothing to do with the reason why we've been invited, Harrison. It's old family business that made them send this letter. If they wanted to talk about you and Draco, they would've invited you as well."

"So, so, I don't have to go?"

"No, pup. You don't. I'm sure Remus will be happy to entertain you tomorrow afternoon. Remus?"

"Of course, no problem. We can play Quidditch like yesterday, if you want, cub?"

"Sure!"

"Do we really have to go, though? Can't we say we're busy or something?" Sirius whined.

"Yes, Sirius. We really have to go. and no, of course we can't say that! We've got plenty to discuss. Besides, it'll be nice to see Narcissa again."

"Well, yeah, but I don't fancy talking to Lucius about us having primacy over his marriage."

"Well, I'll do the talking about that. Otherwise you would throw it out before everyone's settled. We will need to be careful of how we word things. I don't want any fights, Sirius. You're a Lord now, you have a family to protect." She said sternly.