Christmas-Blues (IV) [Chapter 218]

~~Bones Manor~~

Amelia finally returned with her niece in tow and slumped down on the couch while mentally preparing for the upcoming conversation. There was clear tension in the air, especially with last night’s catastrophic attack and then the reveal of You-Know-Who’s return in such a striking manner.

“Auntie, what is happening? Is it true that… You-Know-Who is back?” Susan Bones asked in a barely audible tone. From the looks on her face, she was worried that if she spoke too loudly, You-Know-Who might hear her. Amelia grimaced at that… Her niece needed to grow a backbone, especially with what she was planning to do.

“Have a seat” Amelia gestured toward the couch and when her niece was finally seated, Amelia started to speak. “Yes, he is back. He has been back for quite some time” Amelia answered honestly, and Susan seemed to pale at the revelation and her whole body started to tremble in fear.

She knew that the last War was really horrible and her parents were also killed during the last War by Death Eaters, so it was obvious that she was scared at the prospect of another War… She didn’t want to lose any of her friends or her Aunt as her Aunt was the only family she had left.

“How? How did he return?” Susan asked, just out of curiosity even though a part of her didn’t want to know the answer. As a Pureblood Witch who was supposed to take over the Family after coming to age, Rituals were not a foreign concept to her even though she wasn’t planning to use one.

“I don’t know…” Amelia revealed with a sigh. “The only thing we know for certain is that he is back and last night, he also freed his followers from Azkaban” Amelia added after taking a deep breath.

“Then was the attack on Hogwarts a simple distraction?” Susan asked in a frantic tone.

"No, it wasn't Voldemort who attacked Hogwarts. It was Harry Potter" Amelia slowly explained and Susan practically flinched at the mention of Voldemort's name. "It's just a name, Susan. Grow a spine. With him back, we need to be strong, we can't flinch every time his name is mentioned" Amelia snapped.

"Okay" Susan gave her a hesitant nod, but there was a determined glint in her eyes.

"Good" Amelia nodded her head in satisfaction. “Now, there is something else I wanted to show you” She said with a hint of nervousness in her voice before she used her Wand to summon a piece of paper from the nearby table. She seemed to hesitate once again before she finally handed over the paper to Susan, who was looking at her Aunt curiously.

“This is the list of people who are responsible for killing your parents” Amelia revealed and Susan’s eyes grew wide in surprise before she glanced back at the paper and she started to read the names off the list, anger and hatred started to bubble inside her mind. Most of the people on the list were the so-called upstanding citizens of Wizarding Britain.

“Where did you get this?” Susan asked in an enraged tone.

“Harry Potter, he gave me that list and it was Severus Snape who sold out your parents” Amelia revealed and Susan’s eyes grew wide for the second time before she started to ground her teeth in anger. “We are invited to a Christmas dinner he is hosting tomorrow if we choose to accept” Amelia added with a hint of trepidation in her voice.

Susan wasn’t certain why the invitation really mattered, but Harry Potter was a criminal, right? “What about your job?” Susan asked with a frown.

The trepidation Amelia was feeling increased by several folds, but there was no point in trying to hide the fact… “I lost my job last night” Amelia decided to rip off the bandaid and Susan was so surprised that the list dropped from her hand while she started to gape like a fish out of water.

Amelia realized that this conversation was going to take much longer than she had planned…

<Line Break>

~~Greengrass Manor~~

Daphne Greengrass was led into her father’s study along with her sister, Astoria Greengrass. Their mother was already there and from the look on their father’s face, they knew something very serious must have happened… Well, neither of the sisters could blame him, now that it was public knowledge that the Dark Lord was back.

Daphne started to wonder if her father was already being coerced by the Death Eaters into supporting their cause or joining their ranks… Daphne clenched her fists in anger while gritting her teeth. Everything was happening much quicker than it happened in her own dimension, but she was no longer the weak girl when she came to this dimension.

“Take a seat” Cyrus Greengrass said in a grim tone. Both Daphne and Astoria sat down before they glanced toward their mother, who looked equally grim as their father.

“A few months ago I was approached by Lucius Malfoy. He wanted me to support him in a venture and in return I wanted the Contract nullified” Cyrus started to explain, but he didn’t even need to finish the whole story before everything started to click inside Daphne’s mind.

“He wanted you to support him in his plan to become Harry Potter’s guardian?” Daphne asked, but it was more of a statement than a question. Cyrus and Angelica, both looked surprised at her deduction, but Cyrus ended up nodding his head. Daphne internally groaned in frustration.

She had been wondering why her father decided to support Lucius Malfoy of all people in his plan, but now she had the answer and to be honest, she couldn’t fault him… How was he supposed to know that Harry Potter was dangerous as fuck! “And now Harry Potter wants a pound of our flesh” Daphne stated as she started to release her Magic.

“Yes, we are invited to the Christmas dinner he is hosting tomorrow night and according to him our presence is mandatory” Cyrus finished grimly and Daphne cursed inside her mind. She wasn’t sure, but there were some rumors saying that Gellert Grindelwald was working with Harry Potter and if that was true, they were screwed and not in a good way.

Daphne cursed her luck before she started to wonder how to deal with this mess as running was clearly not an option…