Half-breeds at Hogwarts: PART 1 [COMPLETED]

2: The Wizengamot

Lila joined her parents for breakfast as was usual. They sat at a table in the centre of a ballroom, with beams of sunlight cutting across the glinting marble floors. It soon became evident that it would not be an ordinary day. An owl rapped its beak at the window, bearing a letter tied to its leg, and it narrowly avoided Lila's bowl of oats with its wings.

"Dad don't freak out,"  Lila said after noticing an official seal, "but it's a letter from the Wizengamot." 

Lila saw her father's eyes bulge in anger. Lila's mother, Lady Morgana, turned her beautiful head towards her husband and snatched the letter up.

"Your classes are cancelled Lila," Lady Morgana announced. "Go discuss travel plans with one of the generals."

"Travel plans?" Magnus yelled. "Who says we're going anywhere these bumbling old fools tell us to?"

Morgana carefully moved a strand of hair off of her porcelain face, and motioned for her daughter to leave. Lila stood in the hallway listening to her dad erupt into an argument, before she threw the front doors wide open. Lila felt light-hearted at the prospect of her schedule opening up - it was usually filled with tutors. She rushed to the stables, breathing lungs full of fresh air as she ran. There was a small chance General Aureus was with the horses. It was more likely that Lila could hide undisturbed under the pretense of looking for the general. 

"Back again Miss?" asked a freckled-face stable boy, as Lila poked her head in at the stables.

"Yes, seen Aureus yet?"

"Not yet Miss. The general is resting the horses."

A loud snap echoed in the stables and a chestnut horse tossed his troubled head. A house elf had Apparated and appeared in their midst.

The little elf addressed his toes as he bowed before Lila and said, "Miss your mother requests you to come and prepare immediately. The generals is taking Miss to the Wizengamot."

Lila grimaced. She stroked the chestnut horse's mane and lamented that her day off would likely not be an enjoyable one, 

"Can't you tell my mother you couldn't find me?" Lila asked the little elf, but he shook his head so vigorously that his little ears flapped.

Lila sighed and she grasped the extended hand of the house elf and vanished along with the elf in a resounding crack.

The matriarch was a formidable sight as she swept through the corridors. Soldiers stood at attention with their chests thrust out as Morgana, Lady of the House approached.

Pippy the house elf quivered and darted into Lila's room.

"Miss must listen!" Pippy said anxiously to Lila. "Miss must not be stubborn. Your mother approaches. Please!"

Lila was huddled on her bed looking mutinous, her arms in a knot and her clothes in a heap on the floor. Pippy danced around nervously, her body the size and shape of a small child, draped in a purple toga, and on her floppy ears like those of a cocker spaniel's, were lilac earrings.

Morgana threw the door open and Pippy dived under Lila's desk.

"Lila what's this nonsense I'm hearing about you?" Morgana exclaimed.

Lila glared up at her mother and looked away.

"I don't want to wear a traditional dress," Lila said sullenly. "No one will listen to me, not even Pippy."

"You are heiress to the House, Lila," Morgana spoke dangerously. "When I was your age, I was carrying my first child."

Lila softened. She wasn't used to hearing her mother mention Lila's other siblings -none had survived childhood. Lila didn't have many memories of her older sisters and brothers.