Through The Veil「 The Veil Trilogy Part Ⅱ 」✔

[28] Saved By The Banshee Portrait

After dropping off our luggage at Grimmauld Place, we were taken to St. Mungo's to visit Dad.

Dad was definitely not alright. The snake had attacked again and again and he was wounded far worse than I expected. Mum was in quite an emotional state and so were the rest of us.

But surprisingly, Dad seemed to be the most motivated out of us all despite the fact that his body was accumulated in poisonous venom. He was the one who kept encouraging us and true enough, it was that hope we got from his words that prevented us from breaking down.

We would go back to the headquarters by night but came to visit him daily and Mum was the one staying with him at the hospital. Moony and Sirius were the ones who had not yet visited him in the hospital because they were supposed to be keeping themselves out of sight lest the Ministry suspected something suspicious was going on.

Finally, Dad was discharged from the hospital two days before Christman and it was then we took him to Grimmauld Place because obviously, we couldn't go back to the Burrow as we had been living in the Order headquarters too. An unexpected surprise was waiting for us as Sirius had arranged a little get Well Soon feast.

He cooked buttered toast.

No really, we celebrated Dad's recovery with buttered slices of bread because that's the only thing apart from hot cocoa that Sirius can cook all by himself without destroying half of the kitchen.

Kreacher was in a sulky mood as usual but after putting up with Umbridge at Hogwarts, even Kreacher appeared to be quite a decent and well-mannered fellow in comparison to that pink toad. I noticed that Fred and George had been thinking the same thing because even they refrained from unnecessarily annoying the house elf.

To be honest, when Umbridge was put in comparison to anything unbearable, I doubt it would rank higher than her. I was even considering those scary dementors were not as worse as her.

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being tolerable to 10 being insufferable, I would give the dementors a 9 and Umbridge a whole freaking 30.

Harry arrived at dinner time by the Hogwarts Express as Christmas Break had started and the students were sent home. Moony had gone to receive him from King's Cross and now after they had returned, we were all seated at the giant table for dinner.

Harry looked relieved to be out of Umbridge-infected Hogwarts and he had also been very worried for Dad so seeing him doing much better than before put him at ease too. The boy really is a very nice person who cares for our family like his own.

Dinner passed in a casual conversation as there were quite a lot of people around and almost all of us were talkative. Moony was telling us about a new job he had found in the Muggle world, Ron mentioned insufferable Slytherin first years whom he had given detention while Mum distributed the Christmas presents already so that on Christmas morning, we would all be dressed in our Weasley family jumpers.

She had made one for each of us, even for Moony and Sirius, with our initials knitted on the front. Fred and George exchanged their jumpers and gave me a wink as I suppressed a smile. I do admit, it was the first time that I felt really normal during the whole of this awful last term.

"How's your preparation for NEWTs going?" Moony addressed me all of a sudden and just like that, my happy mood evaporated.

I shook my head, "worse than owls."

"Excellent!" Fred and George piped up immediately.

However, Moony narrowed his eyes, "and why is that? How is your progress in Defense?"

Well... I might have a lot to say on that but it won't be exactly what our former Professor Lupin would want to hear.

"You can't call it a progress," I replied with a disappointed sigh, "it's rather a downfall. Totally insufferable."

That once Sirius joined the conversation, "now that surely is saying something. Moony told me you were the best at Defense in your year."

I wonder why all of them had suddenly started discussing my progress report so keenly...

"Our current Defense professor, Dolores Umbridge, has gotten a law passed which allows us to study Defence by only theory. We aren't allowed to practice any spells using our wands," I explained, rolling my eyes exasperatedly, "Dolores Insane Umbridge thinks that if we read the book thoroughly, we will be able to perform the spells under monitored conditions in exams quite well..."

Sirius burst out laughing at the sheer stupidity of the law and of course, I would expect no other reaction from him. "How pathetic. Remember, Remus, when Umbridge was Head Girl in our Second Year?"

"She was Head Girl?" The twins almost dropped their spoons in shock.

Moony scowled slightly upon recalling that, "I agree with Kat; practically insufferable." But then after a while, he added, "but still even if it's just theory, you must be able to answer all the questions right."

Oh wow, Professor Moons is back to being my teacher again.

"Yeah, I guess. If she asked me the effects of the Cruciatus curse and how the victim feels when it is cast upon them that I will be able to answer quite easily," I mumbled, not quite realizing that I had said that out loud.

Suddenly the whole table was silent and all of them were staring at me. Oh, shoot... I forgot that I had asked the twins not to tell anyone about the incident at school so even Mum and Dad were unaware of it.

"Have you been reading on Unforgivables?" Sirius asked, his grey eyes focused on me skeptically.

"Of course not," I replied instantly.

He was looking at me suspiciously as if he had gotten the meaning of what I had implied just a few seconds ago. I knew I was in for a serious interrogation, no pun intended, and it would definitely not end well.

However, I was saved in the nick of time by being interrogated right then and there as the doorbell rang and Walburga Black's portrait started screeching.

Sirius cursed under his breath then stood up and went to shut the curtains over her.

"FILTHY BLOOD TRAITOR! A SHAME TO THE NOBLE NAME OF MY FOREFATHERS!"

We could hear his voice as he screamed back at her, evidently frustrated by having to listen to the portrait all day, "shut up. Just shut up, would you? As if tolerating you for sixteen years wasn't enough..."

"DRAGGING FILTH IN MY NOBLE HOUSE! MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS! A DISGRACE TO THE FAMILY..."

But then he must have forcefully shut the curtains because the screams died away. Moody and Tonks had come to join us and well that meant an Order meeting was expected afterward.

Throughout the rest of the dinner, Sirius was extremely silent and once or twice I caught him looking at me with his face set in a calculative expression.

I remember from my time travel days that he used to be like that when he was deeply occupied sorting something out in his brain. Much like plotting out a plan and believe me, that was not very good news since he mostly acted on instincts and I feared what would happen if he instinctively went out of Grimmauld Place.

Turned up in Hogwarts for instance to question that High Inquisitor... Nope, not happening.

I made a point to talk to him afterward and try to persuade him out of whatever scheme he was making to get back at Umbridge for using the Cruciatus curse on me. I definitely had to persuade him to be logical and abandon any plots of revenge.

But I couldn't talk to him just yet as the Order meeting was going to be held right after dinner and only the elders were allowed to sit through it. Mum strictly sent us off to our rooms and for the first time, even we did not want to eavesdrop on them.

After what we had accidentally heard back at St. Mungo's by using the Extendable Ears, me and the twins were steering clear of any Order business.

***