Chimaera Of Judgement

39: Mentacles

"Mr Peele, you had damn well better start talking."

The Auror glanced around at the two cousins, the Death Eater's corpse, the unconscious girl he was responsible for, and the Healer that was making sure her vitals were stable. Frowning deeply at this turn of events, he took several deep, steadying breaths and said, "What d-do you want to know?"

"Well," Albus growled, "why our friend started to light up like a Christmas tree for no apparent reason seems a likely place to start!"

"Your guess is as good as mine! That and the fainting, if they're related or not, are a complete mystery to me!"

"But you did know something else." Rose walked over to the bed, staring down into the wasted sack of bones that had once been the Dark Lord's strong right hand. She swallowed hard, fighting to keep from letting everything overwhelm her. "This Lestrange bat... she was Jezabel's mother, wasn't she? You knew all along."

Several seconds passed before Matthias answered, and when he did he refused to look any of them in the eye. "I did. And I was sworn never to tell, not a soul, but... as she's told you herself, I see no point in keeping my silence, now."

Albus shook his head distractedly. "How? How could she bear to have a child in prison, and- and how did Jezabel come to live with those awful people?"

"It was all arranged, and I'll say no more than that," he said firmly. "I'm still in no position to reveal more information to anyone, much less underage students."

Rose fired up at once. "Y'know, everybody places so much importance on the fact that we're still wet behind the ears, yet from where I'm standing the adults of this wide wizarding world aren't any cleverer than we are!"

Matthias sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, and Albus thought the somewhat condescending air he maintained around Albus and his peers seemed to fade. "You know, if it were up to me - which it isn't - I'd probably just make everything public knowledge and have done with it. But that's not how witches and wizards like Bellatrix Lestrange work, is it? Secrets and cover-ups are the tools of their trade."

"Let me take a stab at this." Albus craned his neck to better view what the Healer was doing to Jezabel. His brain had been filling in the blanks ever since Bellatrix confirmed his initial unpleasant theory. "Someone arranged to have a child with her, either a husband on the outside or another inmate or some other bloke entirely. Of course, the father has to be someone who couldn't keep his child, since she was dumped on a family of dyed-in-the-wool Muggles."

Their escort said nothing.

"She grows up knowing nothing about it... and they probably didn't know anything, either. Or if they did, they kept it a secret. Then, Headmistress McGonagall shows up to invite her to Hogwarts, and their whole world is thrown into chaos."

"She wasn't a Muggle-born," gasped Rose, glancing back at Albus. "If this Lestrange cow was her mum, that means she can't have been - a Death Eater wouldn't dare have a baby with any Muggle!"

"Yep." More to himself, Albus muttered, "He wasn't seeing things - he knew."

"But this is brilliant! The Slytherins gave her so much grief, and... and all along, her mother was one of the Darkest witches of all time! Oh, I can just see their faces when they hear ab-"

"NO!" shouted both Peele and Albus at the same time. With a brief glance at the younger, the elder continued, "What you have found out is n-not to leave this room! Can you imagine the wizarding community's reaction when they find out that certifiably wretched Death Eater had a d-daughter? One who's been allowed to go to school with their own children?"