A Letter 2 Years Late

Chapter 20 - Countdown to Summer

Rose and I were in the library, digging through the restricted section with Fred the ghost. Scorpius had Quidditch practice and Fred had a Potion's essay due the next day which he didn't even start yet, so neither of them could join us.

We went through each and every newspaper we could get our hands on and laid them in categorised piles on the wooden table. Anything that mentions my parents or their trial, another for news in Lucca and a last one for unusual sightings or events internationally. I was actually quite surprised by the amount of articles we found.

We each grabbed a pile and read through each article, making note of anything useful. I read anything and everything I could find on the accident on Lucca but Rose was right, it was a really small accident that only made a small article in some local newspapers. I wondered why the library had local newspapers in Lucca though.

"Aha! I knew I saw the Aker's name somewhere before!" Fred's voice sliced the silence we were working in, causing me and Rose to jump out of our seats.

"Sorry," Fred chuckled sheepishly. Rose and I glared at him and motioned him to continue talking.

"Here," Fred said, motioning to the newspaper in front of him, "Basically it says that their only son was supposed to be on his way to visit family in London but went missing before he got there. Two weeks later they found his body. He was dead..."

"No one knows who murdered him?" I asked.

"No, not until your parents trial that is," Fred replied, "By then they would have already given your brother to them..."

"Guilt?" Rose suggested.

"But why would they want to kill the kid anyway?" I questioned.

"Durmstrang," Fred replied. Rose and I looked at him oddly.

"What do you mean?" We asked in unison.

"Your Dad taught there for a year or two remember? Mr Aker was there too. If I were to guess, they ran into some problems and killing his son was revenge,"

"That's terrible!" Rose gasped, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth.

"Revenge? Like that?" I asked.

"They are assassins," Fred reminded me. I guess that was true.

"Okay let me get this straight. Mr Aker and Mr Bae both taught at Durmstrang where theoretically, they ran into problems between the two. Then Mr Bae gets his revenge by killing Mr Aker's son and then hands his own son over. That's confusing," Rose deadpanned and I nodded in agreement.

"There's probably more to the story that we don't know though," Fred pointed out. I sighed and put the newspaper into the read pile.

"It's getting late, I'll read the Toronto newspapers tomorrow," Rose announced as she collected her things. I followed suit.

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Saturday came quickly and I managed to sleep in for once since Karen and Kaitlin had sneaked off early probably still up to their usual mischievousness. Penelope was also taking advantage of the day so the dorm room was peaceful. After checking my clock and confirming that it was ten in the morning, I finally dragged my butt out of bed and got changed.

Of course I already missed breakfast thanks to my tardiness but I wasn't really in the mood of eating anyway. I shuffled down the unusually empty hallway hoping to find something to do or someone to talk to. Then I noticed Abby, Stellar, Lilith and Jessie. I smiled and waved as I walked up to them and they returned the gesture.

"Hey Tressa, what's up? Anything new?" Stellar asked curiously and I nodded in response.

I took a seat beside them on the stone bench and began to tell them everything from Mr Malfoy's letter, to my brother, to the memories, to the newspaper, still leaving out the journal. Jessie seemed to have flinched when I mentioned my brother and the Aker's, but then again, her arms have been hurting lately from Quidditch practice. When I was done explaining everything, I caught my breath and looked at them expectantly. However, all I got in return was silence.