✓ Heavenly

043. Lazarus Rising

Part Two / Chapter Forty-Three

Taken from the interest of her name, Venus always watched the stars when she was in bed hoping to catch a glimpse of the planet, Venus. She wondered sometimes how she could see planets from her bedroom window, but Tonks could only see the stars that specked the night sky. Venus always assumed she was special, and she was. Just not in the way she would have expected.

Venus opened her eyes sheepishly, her eyes meeting the outside of her bedroom window. The stars were visible that night. What she wished ever since she was four came true, a small red planet came into view. Venus sat highly in the night sky in front of its namesake. She looked away when she heard voices downstairs. A slip of paper fell off her bed when she yanked the covers off herself.

Your mom let me use the Floo network to get back home. It was chaos down there, you're lucky you passed it. See you tomorrow <3  — Cee.

Venus left her bedroom and crept down the stairs, sticking her head at the opening into the living room. Andromeda sat with her arms crossed on the couch, Ted was standing up beside her, Castiel and Corinne were nowhere to be seen and Albus Dumbledore sat on the other side of the couch with a cup of tea in his hands.

Snowflake came out from underneath the couch and just stared up at Venus waiting for her to come down. Small meows and purrs escaping her lips, Venus placed a finger over her lip at Snowflake hoping she'd hush up.

"Is Remus sure?" Andromeda muttered.

"If he was so sure, why didn't he inform us last year?" Ted questioned.

"He didn't think you lot would believe him," Dumbledore said, out of sympathy for Lupin's supposed theory. "Sirius was his best friend, that definitely would have played a factor in why he was so determined on proving his innocence."

Venus sat on a step and continued to listen in. She heard Ted's voice again. Where they talking about Azkaban?

"How come Sirius didn't know? Even under Imperius he would have—"

"What if it wasn't Imperius Curse?" Andromeda interrupted, holding her hands over her chest. She looked horrified.

Dumbledore nodded. "Remus' theory exactly, but if not Imperius—"

"—Why the bloody hell did he neglect his daughter?" Ted continued.

Venus let her foot slip off the step and made a small thump against the step below her. She quickly jumped back up the stairs out of view. The adults all stopped, the sound of them turning toward the stairs could be heard from the couch cushions.

Venus exaggerated a yawn and walked down the staircase. "I smacked my head straight into the wall, it's like I've been sleeping for ages," she swiftly lied and walked into the kitchen, hastily pouring herself a cup of tea.