Raven | 𝘙𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 39

Alexandra knew this was risky, but she had to take her chances, for she was longing for the answers that everyone had been denying her all her life. So with that, she hesitantly walked toward the door which only an inch of it was open.

     Gulping, Alexandra placed a hand upon the door and slowly pushed it open, peering her head inside for a quick look before walking inside and closing it gently behind her.

     The room was large and shadowy with shelves covering every inch of each wall, filled with curious looking books which Alexandra had never seen before.

     She walked forward, toward one of the shelves to see what the books were, but there was no title written on the back of their black covers.

     Although for a moment she could've sworn that whispers were coming from the books' direction, as if they could sense her presence and knew that she wasn't supposed to be here.

     But what worried her the most was those books that were chained to the shelf with locks in them as they writhed slightly in their place, and those that looked as if they were creating some sort of fog and haze in their row on the shelf.

     Alexandra shuddered and turned her look away from the books, not sure if she even wanted to know what they were about anymore. So she stepped away from the shelves, looking around the office once more with a sense of awe.

    The place was so dusty that Alexandra assumed her grandfather probably didn't even let Edna in here for cleaning. The curtains were dark and shabby, hung loosely by the floor-to-ceiling window.

     Alexandra went and looked out of the window, where she could see the whole backyard from there, and even a slight view to the village ahead from the mansion.

     There was a fireplace right before the large desk inside the room, which was filled with numerous papers. Alexandra wanted to look over at the papers, certain that it could lead her to know what her grandfather was up to.

     But before she could go over the desk, her attention was caught by something else. Above the fireplace where two candles laid with a quill in an ink, there was also a photograph.

    Alexandra moved forward with a little frown on her face until she reached it and picked up the frame, staring down at the moving photograph.

    It was a picture of her four-year-old self, laughing and waving at the camera with her old teddybear held tightly in her arms. Her raven black her was just as long as it was now, falling around her face with a tiny pink bow tie behind her head.

     Alexandra didn't realize that a lopsided smile had now appeared on her lips. In the fifteen years that she had lived with her grandfather, never had she seen a photograph in his mansion; not from his long-lost wife, son, or daughter-in-law. There was never even a moving portrait in their house, as it was at Hogwarts.

     But Alexandra just shook her head and placed the picture back on top of the fireplace and made her way back toward the messy desk. Every inch of it was covered with parchments and different files, all piled up on one another.

     Alexandra looked them over quickly, glancing at the doorway every once in a while just to make sure no one was coming her way. But the house was quieter than ever before, so she just kept looking.

     But Alexandra became slightly disappointed when she realized all those papers belonged to his work at the Ministry of Magic, even though he didn't go there much and only once or twice a week.

     So Alexandra decided to open up his desk's drawer in hopes of at least finding something of value in there. But the moment she did so, she noticed an old yellow parchment which was rolled up and laid there.

     Her curiously taking the best of her, Alexandra took out the parchment and opened it up, but her jaw nearly dropped at what she saw in it.

      The parchment was so long that when she unrolled it, the bottom of it almost reached the floor. But what caught her off guard was that inside the parchment hundreds of names were written; some were written in black ink, the others in red.

     Alexandra decided to read through them all, but the more she read, the worse the ache in her stomach got, seeing as she saw many familiar names in there.

      The red names that she recognized were Albus Dumbledore, Alastor Moody, Edgar Bones, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, and so many others that she had recognized because they were all well-known and powerful wizards.

     But there were some other names written in red whom she felt like she personally knew, such as Fleamont and Euphemia Potter.

     Those two were both well known Aurors, and Fleamont was also a well-known Potioneer. But Alexandra knew that they were James and Jenna Potter's parents and that made her heart sink as she tried to understand what their names were doing here. But she tried not to think about it, afraid of the answer.

     Alexandra then turned her look on the names written in black, which were way more than the red ones. She recognized them as well, but from the wanted posters all around Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.

     The black names were all Death Eaters.

     The list went on and on until it reached the bottom of the parchment. But Alexandra read from atop in order. The first name was Blackwood which sounded familiar, and then it went down with infamous names such as Avery Sr, Rosier, Dolohov, and Nott.

      Although as she went down to read the rest of the list, Alexandra realized some of the names such as Rosier and Dolohov and Lestrange were repeated, meaning that their sons had joined the Dark Lord as well.

     But just then, Alexandra'a heart sank and all color was drained from her face when she looked down at the bottom of the parchment to see the newest names added to the list in black ink.

Severus Snape

Avery Jr

Mulciber Jr

Regulus Black