Bookworm

21

There was a long tense silence and Sirius cleared his throat.
"Before you jump to any conclusions, Kreacher said she's in the future."
"I'm from the future, Sirius! Don't you see? I'm not a seer-I read the books! I know the documentation! I know everything!" She wailed out. Kreacher was stood frozen in shock as he stared at her. Molly calmly shook her head.
"No-it can't be right. Not our Mira-Regulus Black-it doesn't make sense."
"On the contrary, my dear Molly. It does. It makes prefect sense." Remus cut in, his green eyes now focused on Mira and Mira alone as he drunk her in.
"It doesn't Remus! None of this makes sense!" Mira gripped her hair in her hands and slammed her elbows on the table as she let out an angry huff. Her heart was in her throat and an occasional hiccup left her as her body screamed at her to cry, but she refused. She refused to cry, because that would make this all real.
To Mira, she had been living her dream. This had been all she could have ever wished for. It didn't seem real to her...it never had. Mira had gone through her short time in the wizarding world as if she were a character of the story, but in reality she had been internally screaming at every new person she met, at every fact and spell she learned. She had damn near fainted when she had met Harry, but in her mind she knew that her mission was more important. Even if she hadn't believed it to be real, she wanted to let it play out. She wanted to pretend, to escape reality. Even if it ended up being for just a short while.
She had refused to believe that she had truly left her parents behind, step or not. She wouldn't allow herself to think of Libby and Amelia, or to wonder if she would ever see them again. Of course she would. She had to. This hadn't seemed real to her. None of it had made sense-why she was there, what her connection was. But it was all coming together now, and Mira could feel her resolve crumbling inside her as her whole identity-her whole life-was torn away from her, leaving her bare and vulnerable for all to see.
Her mind drifted to Regulus as Order members began filing in. Molly ran straight to Arthur and pulled him into a hug, trembling slightly as more and more people began to arrive at the silent scene. He was just a scared child, forced into working for those he detested because of his family. Dead, because he was raised without a choice. He was much like Harry in a way, and much like...Draco. She shut her eyes tight as her mind began to race. Regulus may have been swept up in the revolution, Regulus may have been forced to fight, Regulus may have died, but no matter what she had told herself before she had to save Draco. If Regulus truly was her father, she couldn't stand by and watch another innocent life ruined due to something that wasn't his fault.
Mira flattened her palms on the table and slowly scraped her chair back, looking dead at Sirius.
"Do you have any contact at all with Narcissa Malfoy?" She asked quietly. It was the first time she had moved in an hour and all attention was suddenly on her.
"I-"
"I do." A voice admitted. Mira looked over to Andromeda Tonks, pureblood witch married to a muggleborn with the coolest daughter Mira knew. Mira nodded.
"Is there any way you could set up a meeting with her? It is important."
"We haven't spoken in years, but I'm sure that if I reached out we could work something out."
"Excellent to hear." Mira nodded, chewing her lip with her eyes distant. "Owl her, please. Tell her that Draco is in great danger. Slip in that we heard of some plans to get back at Lucius for abandoning Voldemort the night he disappeared." Andromeda leaned forward, a worried look on her face.
"Draco is in danger?"
"It isn't immediate," Mira dismissed casually as she turned from the table and turned to Sirius.
"Could I have a word?" He nodded and followed her in silence, Remus wordlessly tagging along.
"What is wrong with the Malfoy boy?" Sirius demanded. They stopped in the tapestry room, Mira ignoring his words as her eyes scanned the walls. "Answer me, for Merlins sake!" His voice was full of malice and pent up anger. Mira span to stare at him.
"He is treading the same path as Regulus, and I'll be damned if I allow his life to be ruined just because his father is a spineless waste of space!" As she said this, she bent down and pushed a chair away from its place against the wall. She dropped to her knees and softly traced the wallpaper with her fingers, looking back up at the men before her. She couldn't help the small smile that graced her lips, nor the tears that welled in her eyes.
"I should be in Hufflepuff with how well I find things."
"What?" Remus asked in bemusement, raising his eyebrows as he looked at her face on the wall under Regulus's. She simply waved him off with a grin and pushed herself back up. Sirius was frozen, staring at the wall.
"I-I don't know how we didn't see it before. Just look at you," he sent her a watery grin and forced her into a warm embrace; one that she gladly accepted.
"Are you wanting to tell the Order, or keep it a secret?" She asked. Sirius scoffed.
"Why would I keep it a secret? If I can admit I'm related to dear old Walburga then surely I can bring myself to admit that I'm related to you." Mira smiled widely and squeezed her arms around his neck tighter, relishing the warmth her Uncle gave off as he hugged her back in an even tighter hold. She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes as he began to rock them back and forth, humming something to himself. Mira was quite sure he didn't realise that he was doing it out loud, as it was off tune and he continuously lost his place and started up again at random points. Remus had left the room at some point, and only just now had returned.
"Meeting is starting." He told them softly. Mira instantly pulled away from Sirius and rushed from the room, wanting to take up her plan with her teachers and Headmaster before she put it into action.
"Albus!" She burst into the room, startling the members that were already in a discussion about scheduled duty. "Albus, I know how we can save Draco." Snape pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow, looking between the two.
"And pray tell me, what you are saving him from?" He drawled. Mira cast him a glance and raised an eyebrow.
"You may have made it cushy with the death eaters and gotten buddy with Voldemort, but Draco doesn't belong there." She snapped. "He has no choice in the matter, and I believe that if we give him a choice he will choose what he wants." She moved around the table in order to address everyone in the room, her eyes pausing on Sirius as he leaned against the doorframe and gestured her to continue.
"Regulus Black was a death eater," she announced, her eyes sweeping the room. "We all know it. But what we don't know, is that he turned his back on the dark arts. His last act was one defying Voldemort directly, and because of his sacrifice we are one step closer to taking him down." She paused for a long moment, watching Dumbledore from the corner of her eye. "Regulus was forced to take the path he did because of his family, and their beliefs. He couldn't walk away from it all like Sirius did. He had no other choice, and he wanted nothing more than getting out. So I propose that, in his honour, we stop it happening to someone else."
After a detailed and carefully thought out plan, everything was ready to set into motion. Mira returned to Hogwarts with trepidation and slowly made her way to the defence against the dark arts classroom, bringing her hand up to knock on the door and twisting her hands nervously. It swung open and a burst of pink violated her eyes. Umbridge gave her a sickly sweet smile and brought her hands together.
"How may I help you?" Her voice was high but her tone was clearly uninviting, threatening even. Mira removed her eyes from the floor, reminding herself that this was for her father before meeting eyes with the Ministry official.
"I-I came to apologise, Professor. I was out of line, and the way that I acted was unfair and undeserving on your part." The words made her feel physically sick as they spewed from her mouth and it took all she had for vomit to not come flying from her and land on the woman. "I believe that I was misinformed at the beginning of the year, and I was coming here in the hopes that you would help me get to grips on the lies that Potter is telling." Mira shook her head for dramatic effect and lowered it, making her bottom lip shake up and down. She held out her small gift as a token of apology-one of William's old toys. It broke her heart to give it away, but she had made Remus promise to buy him many many more as replacement when he had suggested the present. "Dumbledore-he scares me, Professor. He-he told me that there was no other explanation and that it was the only version of the story I was allowed to believe." Honestly, when she left Hogwarts Mira was considering taking up acting. She was doing remarkably brilliant in her role if she did say so herself. Umbridge eyed her for a moment before a smile spread on her face and she opened her door wider.
"Well I think you should come in, don't you dear?"