The Pureblood Princess | Sirius Black

|23| The Worst Friday

Adelaide was seated in the great hall, eating her oatmeal between Mary and Sirius, and across from James, just like any other Friday morning. She was in particularly good spirits this Friday, looking forward to getting back to work on the Animagus potion the next day, especially now that they had enlisted the help of a Potions expert like Lily Evans.

She was in the process of reaching to grab her pumpkin juice when a large, black, great horned owl with bright yellow eyes landed upon the table in front of her. It reached out its leg, gesturing for her to take the letter tied to it. She knew this owl. It was Archimedes her family owl. She quickly untied the letter rom it's leg with shaking hands, gave the owl a piece of sausage, and watched as it flew back from whence it came.

No one at the table thought much of the occurrence, distracted by the various letters and parcels delivered by their own owls. Adelaide slowly and carefully opened the letter to read what her parents had to say. As her forest green eyes scanned the words written upon the page, her timid and fearful demeanor morphed to one of anger and frustration. She crumpled the parchment into a ball, shoved it into her bag, and left the hall for her first class without a word, and 30 minutes early.

She stormed off toward her double Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and sat in her usual seat waiting for the class to begin. She pulled out a book to distract herself, but the words of the letter were etched into her mind, and intruded into every other thought.

"Miss Fawley, you are quite early!" Remarked Professor Gallagher after a while. He was a nice enough professor, much more competent than his predecessor, but gave her an uneasy feeling. Adelaide regretted going straight to class and wished she would have just run into an empty hallway to sulk.

She nodded to the professor in acknowledgment, then went back to pretending to read her book on advanced charms.

"'Advanced Security and Concealment Charms'?" The professor noted, looking over her shoulder at the book. "That's quite an unusual book to see a mere second year reading." He said in an almost challenging voice.

"I enjoy charms." Adelaide said cooly, flipping the page, but never meeting eyes with the nosey professor.

"Ah yes, Professor Flitwick did mention you have a certain aptitude for them, but what use would you have for security and concealment charms at your age?" He continued. Adelaide could tell he was trying to get at something. Trying to pry her open for information. But she wasn't about to tell him anything about the somewhat-illegal map she and her friends had been working on.

"Well you know what they say, 'Constant Vigilance'." She said quoting one of the more intense Aurors she had met the few times she accompanied her father to work.

To her surprise, the Professor laughed. "I believe  Alastor Moody says that more often than others." He said with remembrance twinkling in his chocolate brown eyes. "I forget that your father is Filip."

"You know my father?" She asked, looking up from her book at last.

"Of course! I was an Auror for many years Miss Fawley." He said

With the mention of her father, her parents and the contents of their letter were brought back into the forefront of her mind. Before she could have a chance to think through what she was doing, she found her self asking, "Sir, what would happen if someone were to use an Unforgivable Curse?"

That was not a question he expected the girl to ask, but he didn't miss a beat in answering. "They would be sent to Azkaban. An immediate life sentence."

"But, I mean, if they used it privately, how would anyone know that they used it at all?"

The professor was taken aback by this question as well. "I can insure you Miss Fawley, that there are ways in which we can track the usage of such curses."