Raven (Fred x oc)

58. She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Remembered

I stood, rooted in place as I stared at the woman before me. She had long, light blue hair that was dull and seemed to have lost much of its color and piercing blue eyes. Her skin was pale with a faint sickly-green dusting her cheeks. My voice low, I said, "You have two minutes to explain yourself before I leave and never talk to you again." Her face fell.

"Valerie," she said. I raised my eyebrow at her, crossing my arms over my chest. "The truth is...I was scared."

"Of what?!" I yelled. "Living for your daughter?!" Turning from them, I ran my hand through my hair, letting out a deep breath as I tried to quell my anger. Turning to face her again, I snapped, "What about everyone on the other side, huh? You let them live in torment all those years because you were scared."

"I didn't mean to lose the ring," she said. "It wasn't supposed to go to you." I scoffed.

"Right," I said bitterly. "So what you show up here for the ring? Because you're not getting it back." Anger briefly flashed over her sickly face but as soon as I saw it, I thought I'd imagined it because it was gone the next moment. "Clearly you haven't been responsible with it so I'm keeping it." She opened her mouth to protest but I snapped, "You left Lily and James to live in torment for thirteen years, not to mention millions of others!"

"Raven," Dad said warily.

"And you!" I snapped, rounding on him. "How long have you known that she's alive?"

Sharing a look with Remus, he finally admitted, "Two months."

"Two months?!" I thundered. The dishes piled up by the sink quaked and one of the empty bottles of butter beer shattered as I spoke. "You didn't tell me for two months?!"

"I was going to tell you," he said, refusing to make eye contact with me, "right after the final task, but then...I didn't want to cause you more problems."

"Lying to me causes more problems," I retorted. Jaw clenched, I turned to Remus. "And let me guess, you knew too?" He sighed, looking away from me. I scoffed, backing away from them.

"Valerie!" Remus called, beginning to go after me, but I ignored him.

"I will die without the ring!" she shouted, her voice weak. I froze. I drew in a deep breath and turned back around. "It's punishment for there not being a ring-bearer for so long. I'm dying, Valerie." I stared at her for a long time, expressionless before looking at my dad.

Glancing at Remus, I asked, "And how long do you estimate you have?"

"No more than six months," she replied.

Setting my jaw, I, with a resolve I didn't feel, said, "Then I have six months to decide if I'll give it to you or not." Dad opened his mouth to say something, but I snapped, "Dad, don't. She may be my biological mother, but I have no reason to trust her. This ring is too powerful for me to just give it over." He sighed, but said no more. Casting a look of irritation and dislike to them all, I turned and left.

Once in my room, I took out the once-red-now-purple box and dumped its contents on the bed. Shoving the pictures back in the box, I set aside all the letters and the small journal. I had never spent much time reading these but as I sat on my bed and set aside the pictures and the box, I pulled the first letter towards me. Most of the letters were in German, but I had been thinking this over since the moment I saw her.

Recalling the spell I quickly looked up, I pointed my wand at the letters and journal and muttered the spell under my breath. The long-dried ink on the page began to shift, changing to form different characters. It seemed to be a letter to her father. As I read through more and more of the letters, I began to become more confused. Her words went back and forth between sounding against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and others she sounded indifferent. And the dates lined up as such that she was switching one day to the next, sometimes in the same day. Was she writing to someone who she didn't want to know about her support?

Frowning, I set aside the letters and grabbed her journal. Before I could look inside, someone knocked on my door. Rolling my eyes, I quickly hid everything under my covers and crawled in bed, hoping they would take me for being asleep and leave me alone. To my annoyance, the door opened. After a moment, whoever it was at the door sighed. "Val, I know you're awake." It was Dad. I could still trick him. He only thinks I'm awake.

Sitting down on the bed next to me, he said, "Valerie, please just listen to me." I sighed, adjusting where I was laying on my pillow slightly but still staying turned away from him. "When I found out about your mom, I-I couldn't process it. By the time I had, I was still trying to figure out how to tell you. And then everything happened. I wasn't sure when the best time to tell you was. That's why I didn't tell you until tonight."

"I don't trust her," I said quietly. I was still turned away from him but I knew that he heard me. "I won't give her the ring, Dad. I can't give that kind of power to someone I don't trust."

"I know," he replied with a sigh. "But she's dying, Val. I trust her."

"Do you?" I retorted, sitting up with my brows furrowed. "You trust the woman that faked her own death and left you to raise your child on your own."

"Valerie," Dad said quietly. I gave him a hard stare, watching him carefully. He couldn't, could he?

"Dad," I said cautiously. "How much have you been talking to her since you found out she was alive?"

"We talk every once in a while," he said, refusing to meet my gaze.

Pushing my way out of bed and away from him, I snapped, "You still love her, don't you?" He didn't say anything. He wouldn't meet my eyes. "Dad," I snapped. Sitting down beside him, I said, "Are you forgetting everything? She didn't just abandon me, Dad. She left you too."

"You don't know what it is to be in love, Valerie," he said quietly.

"Maybe not in the way you have but Dad, you can't just forget what someone has done when they do you wrong," I countered.

"It's called forgiveness."

"No," I retorted. "Forgiving is not forgetting! It's moving on."

"Then move on," he replied.

"What?" I cried. "Dad, this isn't like you! Why are you acting like this?" Instead of answering me, he got up and left.