black and white ✰ g.w.

CHAPTER SIX

One morning, Olivia, Fred, and George sat at the small kitchen table in the flat, the only sounds being their eating and the rustling of the Daily Prophet in Olivia's hands.

"Your dad's in here," she said suddenly, breaking the quiet. Both men looked alarmed. "It's nothing bad." They looked relieved. "Well... okay, let me rephrase that." Now they looked even more alarmed. "Your dad's fine, he and his team just searched Malfoy Manor again. Apparently they were going off of a confidential tip-off."

"Well, did they find anything?" Fred asked.

"No. I wouldn't think they would, I mean, with Lucius Malfoy in Azkaban, the Malfoys are already under suspicion, so why would they be keeping Dark objects in their house still?"

"Well, that's just it, isn't it?" George said. "Lucius Malfoy is in Azkaban. What more is there to it? They have the Death Eater in prison."

Olivia set the newspaper down. "The thing is, you'll find with Death Eaters that it is usually a fun family activity. If one is a Death Eater, most if not all of their family members will be, too, or at least they will be involved with them or support the cause. Sometimes, obviously, as it is with everything, there will be a special case, like my aunt Anastasia being the first and hopefully the last person in my family to ever be a Death Eater, and of course this is me happily ignoring the fact that the Malfoys are included in my family whether either of us want to admit it or not. And of course there's the case of the Blacks, every one of them being Dark wizards and witches except for Sirius and Faustus and probably a few others as well."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, whoever the person was that gave your dad that tip was suspicious of one or both of the two remaining Malfoys. Now, Narcissa doesn't exactly strike me as the official Death Eater type, while she is more than likely extremely involved with them. Draco, on the other hand... I think it would be safe to assume he would want to take his father's place, or maybe someone is forcing him to, I don't know, I think either possibility is plausible. Either way, I think this mystery person just wanted to make sure there were no loose ends."

"Do you think there are loose ends?"

"Maybe."

"So, what you're saying is," Fred said, "our sister's boyfriend is a Death Eater."

Olivia hesitated. "It's possible."

"Great!"

"Just fantastic," George added.

"Okay, now, don't go getting all worked up, and don't you write to her and embarrass her, either," Olivia said, noticing that the twins were itching to leave the table, more than likely to write a letter to Arabella to warn her of her own boyfriend. "Bella's smart, she's probably already considered the possibility. And if it's true, I have faith she'll make the right decisions in order to keep herself safe, and you should, too."

"It's not her we don't have faith in, it's him."

"Right, but last I heard, Bella was the one that was top of her year and also had real experience fighting against Death Eaters in battle, not Draco. Trust me, she'll be fine."

Just to help calm the twins' nerves, however, Olivia wrote to Faustus that evening, asking him if he had seen Draco doing anything particularly suspicious, or heard from anyone that he might have somehow become a Death Eater over the summer holiday. She received a reply a few days later, and if anything it just made Fred and George even more anxious regarding the safety of their sister.

Apparently, Harry had told Faustus about seeing Narcissa and Draco during his visit to Diagon Alley before term started. He, Hermione, Ron, and Arabella had followed the mother and son into Knockturn Alley, a division of Diagon Alley completely dedicated to the Dark Arts, and further to a shop called Borgin and Burkes, which sold Dark furniture items and such. Faustus also mentioned that Draco was acting a bit different this school year; usually, the bully of a boy would be using his prefect status to terrorize younger students and unjustly take points from other Houses. This year, however, he seemed to be ignoring that he was a prefect entirely.

Maybe he's just finally matured, though. Took him long enough, if that's the case, Faustus had said. This bit of humor, however, went completely unacknowledged by the twins, a sure sign that they were much too concerned.

"So she knows," Fred said after Olivia had relayed the information in Faustus's letter to him and George. "She knows he's a Death Eater and she's staying with him anyway."

"We don't know that," Olivia said. "Faustus didn't mention anything about Draco and Bella's relationship. They could very well have broken up again and he just forgot to mention it, or maybe it hasn't reached him yet."

Olivia had a feeling that Fred was right, though, that Arabella knew, or at least suspected that Draco was a Death Eater, or at least much too involved with them than anyone should be, and was choosing to stay in a relationship with him anyway. Olivia herself had witnessed the previous year, Arabella's mood plummet after breaking up with Draco after he had gotten in a fight with Harry and George and made up a song to belittle Ron. She knew that Arabella was not likely to do that again unless she had no choice.

"Fat chance," George scoffed, apparently thinking along the same lines as Olivia. "She's obsessed with him. She'll never break up with him."

"That's not fair, George," Olivia said. "She's not obsessed, she's in love. And because of that, I think it very likely that she'll try to help Draco before she just leaves him."

"No offense, but I really hope you're wrong, love."

"Yeah," Fred agreed. "She shouldn't be trying to help him if he really has become a Death Eater. She needs to leave him before she gets herself hurt."

[word count: 990]
[written: 9/5/20]
[published: 9/6/20]