The Mudblood

Chapter 53 : Summer

The next few days were a blur of tears and formalities. Fred contacted Lupin almost immediately after the Death Eaters Disapparated, and he arrived right away to console and to mourn. Since neither Fred nor I knew how to counter a Full Body-Bind, Lupin had been the one to free Garren, though it had proven to be a mistake. As soon as my oldest brother was free to rage, he raged. I wasn't sure who broke more: Garren or Evan.  

We had to lie to the Muggle police about the whole thing, of course, and we hadn't even bothered with telling the Ministry of Magic about the truth, because the Minister of Magic would never believe us.

Trying to explain the truth to my brothers was almost harder than trying to explain a lie to the authorities. None of my brothers knew that my mother had been tortured—or that she'd been a Gaudium—so explaining that whole story to them was a struggle of pain, anger, and sadness. I felt horrible telling them now—in light of what had just happened—but I had no other choice; Voldemort had revealed enough for them to be curious, and I didn't have the heart to lie to the little family I had left.

I tried to convince Fred to go home and spend time with his family, but he refused to leave my side for the next few days as we planned the funeral. Astoria Greengrass arrived the next day as well, dragging Melody Flemming along with her.

"I need to be here for poor Evy-poo," Astoria told me as she stroked Evan's hair. His eyes, like all of ours, were red and droopy: sore with the misery that consumed each of us. "This has nothing to do with you, Lainey. You had your chance to mourn with Cedric."

"I just wanted to see Lyle, so...this was pretty convenient," was Melody's input on the situation. Even having said those heartless words, Lyle was still ecstatic to see her.

"What do you have to say about You-Know-Who being back now, Astoria?" I questioned her at dinner the next evening. Lupin had made something horrendous for us to eat, though even if it were five-star cuisine, none of us would have eaten much anyway.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she sneered, her eyes staring disgustedly at the food. "What does he have to do with anything?"

"He killed our father!" Lyle growled, glaring at Astoria from the other side of Melody.

"I'm mildly turned on by your aggression," Melody commented dryly.

"Oh hush, hush, Lainey's twin," Astoria drawled as she averted her attention down to her sparkly pink nails. "You-Know-Who is probably just a pile of bones rotting in the ground."

"Yeah...maybe that guy who killed Dad wasn't actually the evil guy you all talk about..." Evan pondered thoughtlessly.

"Evan!" I exclaimed, my face hot with irritation.

"What? I need to please my woman," he hissed loudly, though Astoria didn't even seem to notice.

"Should we see if they want to try some Sugar Shrills?" Fred whispered, revealing a handful of candies under the table. "I'm especially curious to see how much more obnoxious Greengrass could get with one of these."

I snorted, glancing over at the airheaded diva. "Doubt you'd even see a difference. Her voice is already so shrilly."

Against my will, Evan and Astoria had overtaken Evan and Garren's bedroom, kicking him and his girlfriend, Olivia, into my father's old room. Lyle and Melody had also done a hostile take over of my bedroom that I shared with Lyle, meaning I was forced to sleep on one of the couches in the living room, which was where Fred had also been sleeping. I hated to think about what those three couples were doing upstairs, though I assumed my brothers were all too distraught over our father's death to be having sex...right? Or was that even more of a reason for them to... Oh no... Don't think about that...
I didn't sleep much over the next few days, but that had nothing to do with sex: I simply could not fall asleep without having tremendous nightmares.