𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲, tom riddle

02. A VISIT TO THE MINISTRY

CHAPTER TWO
✧
-: fifth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY RECEIVE
BADGES OF HONOUR, AND ONE
DOES NOT

. . .

A WEEK OR SO LATER, their Hogwarts letters came. Lena was sat within her father's office, reading over one of the reports Theodore had written for his work experience at the Ministry alongside her father. They were pouring over another document together by his desk. She liked working in there, reading in there, and often liked to paint it. The walls were covered in tall bookshelves stretching all the way up to the ceiling, folders and files tucked in drawers and stacked on side tables, the plaque he had gotten to prove his position hanging on the wall behind his desk, to the right of the portrait painted of his family. On the left of that, the collection of medals he had acquired during his time as an Auror at the beginning of the war.

August Bones was something of a Ministry hero, a soldier rewarded by position at the very top. He appeared, in all sense of the word, as the perfect man for their liking, as he had such a darling daughter and a son just like himself, and a wife of note too. Not to mention his commitment to the work he did. August Bones was the perfect Ministry man, and on his days off he continued to devote his life to his profession, albeit with the help of his two children and wife, who would often visit the office in moments of calm within the orphanage with pitchers of sweet drinks and platters of still-warm baked goods.

"Theo?" Lena looked up, to find her brother deep in focus in the document his father had presented, a file left untitled in his right hand.

"Leave him for a moment, Odette." The sobriquet had become her name for August, for her love of Tchaikovsky's ballet. He call her swan, too. Her brother was Benvolio, for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and sometimes, Lena was Cordelia, of King Lear. "What is it, darling?"

"Nothing much, Father." She replied, almost hesitantly. He said nothing, but raised from his leather-bound chair and set towards her, the girl lifting her feet so that he could sit down. "I just wondered if this was true, about the Werewolves?" She pointed out. August's face flickered through emotions, perhaps wondering just what he could say to her. "It's unjust, they didn't choose to be turned."

"That does not matter, Lena." Theodore stood up, his tone harsher than she had expected. "They-"

"I'd rather you did not try to justify this to me, Theo." Lena replied.

"Now, now. Family feuds do nothing to aid us." Mr Bones interrupted, standing to properly separate them. "Lena, Cordelia, darling, it may be unjust, but that is what is difficult about my job, and Theodore shall have to experience the moral imbalance soon. Theo, we are in a home setting, you are allowed to express your true emotions here."

"That is how I feel, Father." Theo's nose scrunched. "They may not have chosen to be Werewolves, but they choose their paths in life. Lena, I do not want to upset you over this but-" He was interrupted by a pecking at the window and their heads shot up, previous conflict forgotten. Two owls sat on the windowsill and August crossed the room quickly, unlatching the wood and allowing the birds to hope within.

"Hogwarts letters?" Theodore stood tall. He was about to enter his seventh year, and it was evident what he was hoping for. One of the owls carried two envelopes, and he reached forward to take them. One appeared heavier than the other and he beamed, handing his sister the thin slip of parchment that was the other. "Perfect, just as I had hoped."

"Theodore." August said gently, looking over his daughter's shoulder. "This is your letter, here."

"Pardon?" His son looked horrified and turned a shade paler, as though he was going to be sick. He flipped the envelope over, having not even opened it yet, and scanned the scrawl addressing it to one of the two. "Oh." Theodore didn't look up as he held out the envelope, and August gently switched the two.