PHANTOM FIGURES | harry potter

27. christmas catastrophe

     It was silent as the group walked back to Hogwarts without Harry, who took his own route through Honeydukes cellar.

     Aspen thought about the situation, she felt like something was missing. It didn't make sense to her that Sirius Black would just betray his friends like that. Perhaps he was under the Imperius curse? Or maybe something even bigger?

     The journey back was long and awkward. Ron nibbled on his sweets, Hermione was in deep thought, Jasmine was fidgeting with her coat, and Aspen kept setting warming charms over them as she contemplated the situation.

     She couldn't imagine how Harry felt. The reason his parents died was because their friend betrayed them? What if Harry stopped trusting her because of that? Or Hermione? Ron? Jasmine? She didn't know how to react to the news.

     Dinner wasn't much better, there was an implied agreement that the whole group would sit at Gryffindor table in an attempt to ease Harry. But Aspen wasn't sure their plan was working; they kept watching him nervously throughout the meal, not daring to talk about what they'd heard, especially since other people were around.

     Aspen returned to her dormitory when dinner was over. She didn't join in on the conversation as her roommates spoke about their Hogsmeade adventures. She sat there with Crystal in her lap and pet her, then went to bed early and closed her curtains.

     The Ravenclaw awoke at dawn to go to the library, in the midst of all the chaos, she had forgotten the holidays had started. Leo went home to his family so she wouldn't have to tutor him over break.

     The library was still and eerie. Madam Pince was behind her desk, staring Aspen down as she went to the one section she knew would have the book she was looking for.

     Aspen didn't stop searching the aisle until she found was she was looking for. The novel was hidden as far back as it could go, as if someone didn't want it to be found.

     The Pure-Blood Directory

     It was written anonymously, and released in the early twentieth century. It had a page that listed twenty-eight families that were deemed sacred. It was to be used as a table of contents.

     Leo's family was in it. As well as Neville's, and Ron's.

     She didn't have to work very hard to find the Black family on the list, it was in alphabetic order.

     The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black is one of the largest, oldest, and wealthiest pure-blooded wizarding families in Great Britain, and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Many wizarding families in Britain are distantly related to the House of Black. Like the Malfoy and Lestrange families (both of whom are related to the Black family), the House of Black is synonymous with elevated status and wealth. The Blacks have been traditionally sorted into Slytherin at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

     Then there was an image of the family tree.

     There were plenty of names Aspen didn't recognize, such as Marius Black (who had a strange dot of ink over where their face would go) and Hesper Black. But there were others she did know, like Narcissa Malfoy (née Black), and Sirius Black. Yet, there were three of them so she guessed the Potter's best man was the most recent. His parents were Orion and Walburga, and he had a brother named Regulus Black (the second). She supposed it was tradition for the House of Black to name their kin after astrological beings. She also saw a name, Phineas Nigellus Black, a former Hogwarts Headmaster who apparently hated his job and was the least popular, he possibly might have been forced into the occupation by his power obsessed family.