Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 55 ⚡️

The fact that Hagrid was now on probation became common knowledge within the school over the next few days, but Vega was genuinely upset to see that hardly anybody appeared to be upset about it; indeed, some people, Draco Malfoy prominent among them, seemed positively gleeful over the news of Hagrid getting in trouble.

As for the freakish death of an obscure Department of Mysteries employee in St. Mungo's, Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione seemed to be the only people who knew or cared – not one whisper of that man's name had reached any of their ears.

But there was only one topic of conversation in the corridors now: the ten escaped Death Eaters, whose story had finally filtered through the school from those few people who read the newspapers.

Rumours were flying that some of the convicts had been spotted in Hogsmeade, that they were supposed to be hiding out in the Shrieking Shack and that they were going to break into Hogwarts, just as Sirius Black had done.

Those who came from Wizarding families had grown up hearing the names of these Death Eaters spoken with almost as much fear as Voldemort's; the crimes they had committed during the days of Voldemort's reign of terror were legendary.

There were relatives of their victims among the Hogwarts students, who now found themselves the unwilling objects of a gruesome sort of reflected fame as they walked the corridors: Susan Bones, who had an uncle, aunt, and cousins who had all died at the hands of one of the ten, said miserably during Herbology that she now had a good idea what it felt like to be Vega and Harry.

"And I don't know how you stand it, it's horrible," Susan Bones spoke up rather bluntly, dumping far too much dragon manure on her tray of Screechsnap seedlings, causing them to wriggle and squeak in discomfort.

On an entirely different side of the spectrum, there were several relatives of the Death Eaters themselves in the school – and Vega was the most prominent for her mother Bellatrix, father Rodolphus, uncle Rabastan Lestranges as well as a cousin once-removed Sirius Black. It didn't help that she was the only non-Slytherin and was quick to earn the ire that she knew was coming for her the moment she saw the newspaper.

Glaring, mutterings, and pointing in the corridors as they looked toward Vega. Some people outright refused to talk to her again and the rest Vega had nothing to say to. She was trying to be as aloof to this as her aunt had asked of her but that didn't stop Vega from getting unexpectedly emotional whenever people called her as her mother.

The Slytherins were having a field day with this – they didn't seem to care if any one of them were a Death Eater but they thoroughly enjoyed reminding Vega of her relation. It was now a favourite job of Pansy Parkinson to call Vega by her mother's name.

"Oh, that's Bellatrix Lestrange!" Parkinson would shout. "Oops, it's just Lestrange!"

While Vega was upset with this showing up everywhere that she went, she was more so concerned that Neville didn't seem to be having a good time with those names being blasted around the school. It didn't help Vega wanted to hide her face from him already.

Just within the day of the news breaking, several letters had arrived in Vega's name – criticising her for her parents' actions, and the others asking if she would want to give a little interview. Vega knew that they were all looking for something sensational and going to paint her black just like all of her relatives and the reputation that preceded them.

Fred was not quite happy to see what was going on with her but Vega had no energy to deny that she wasn't as he thought she was – because in the end of the day, she really was. It took them some time before they got to meet in the Owlery.