Family Ties

The happenings of the season were published by the Daily Prophet, the primary source of news for British and Irish wizards, the newspaper only mentioned the people that didn't get a substantial punishment, choosing to focus on their "generous donation to the rebuilding efforts", with a brief mention that the amount was in fact a penalty for them.

At the girls flat, the morning owls arrived, there were three in total, the first to arrive was the Daily Prophet's with its issue of the day, it landed right in the middle of the table, the second was a great grey owl who was holding a letter from Gringotts Wizarding Bank, and landed in front of Susan, and the third was a eagle owl, who went directly to Mary.

With their duty done and the compensation of owl treats, and money for the newspaper, the three owls returned to their owners, leaving two curious girls with their unopened letters.

The first to open was Susan with her Gringotts' letter, in it was a simple invitation to speak with the family's account manager, the goblin Gornuk, he only said that her father had given the goblin a letter for safekeeping and should something happen to the Head of House the letter must be open only within the presence of his daughter and account manager.

Mary's letter was more complicated, it was from her father, Tristan Travers, he summoned her to a meeting at Gringotts to discuss the position of the family.

Both were shocked, these were unimaginable news, for Mary, her father had taken the Dark Lord's side and since she disagreed, she was casted out of the family. As for Susan, she knew that her father was in custody, but now with this letter she feared the worst had happened.

They then decide to read the news, hoping that they would get at least a bit of clarification. And that they did.

Evan was in Azkaban for twenty years, he would lose out on his grandson's childhood, but he did commit very big mistakes, so it could be said that he got off lightly. This left Susan relieved, for she would have a chance to see her father again, and maybe he would change his mind after staying in prison for two decades.

Mary was happy with the news, mainly because her cousin, the main instigator of her falling with her family, was in Azkaban for life. He had been such a thorn in her shoes that now she could finally try and get a better position in the Ministry without having to rely on her superior fondness.

They briefed each other with the letters content and noticed that the summon was for the earliest time possible, and knowing the goblins and Mr. Travers, it meant that they wouldn't wait until tomorrow.

Thus they had to send letters to their respective jobs informing of a family emergency as the reason that they would be late. They were lucky that the house's owl had been resting for some days, or else the poor thing wouldn't be able to deliver the letters on time.

With all else out of the way, both went to Gringotts, it wasn't that far, they lived only a few minutes walk from the Leaky Cauldron.

Upon their arrival at the bank they got separated, since theirs were matters of their house. Susan alongside Robert got escorted to Gornuk's office, where after a brief exchange of good mornings they decided to read the letter.

'Dear Susan,

I write this letter in hopes that in the future I'll be the one to read this to you, my daughter, if not, at least that I'll be able to see you again.

Firstly, I'd like to apologise to you for my behavior, I was angry that you were walking around with that Black, I knew he was on a growing trajectory within the ranks of the Death Eaters and I knew that were you two to get together you'd get dragged into this mess.

I couldn't have that, it was too dangerous, so I tried to separate the both of you, I see that I failed and yet I am happy that it went this way. I'm sure your mother would have loved Robert as much as I do.

And it's for him that I'm worried, our society won't be easy to live in, you'll both be associated with me and my mistakes and I fear that in the future, if another Dark Lord shows up, you'll get dragged into it.

For that I wrote this letter, with it I give you everything that I have, I formally step out of the position as Head of the House and pass it on to you my heiress, you and Rob can do whatever you want with it. I know that Arcturus plans on making him the Heir of House Black, so if the day comes where he is the head of both the Rosiers and the Blacks he can fuse them together.

I know you don't wish to lead the house, but I believe that you'll be able to turn our house's image, so don't get too angry at me. And Gornuk is a very good friend, he'll help you with everything you'll need.

Evan Rosier,

Head of the Noble and Ancient House of Rosier.'

There was another paper inside the envelope that the letter was in, upon taking it out and giving it a brief read, Gornuk said, "Shall we move on with the changes, Mrs. Rosier?"

Susan just gives a small nod with her head and takes the document and the blood quill from the goblin. She absently signs it only gaining attention to the situation after noticing the small glow that the contract created after being signed.

"Congratulations Mrs. Rosier, we at Gringotts hope to continue our business together with your family." he says while taking out a small box from within one of the drawers, and continues after opening it, "Please put this ring on, it'll be proof of your position as Head of the House."

Susan took some time to admire the ring, it was a golden ring with carvings of thorny vines throughout the band with a medium sized blue colored jewel in the shape of a rose adorning it's head.

Upon wearing it on her right hand's ring finger, the ring shrunk so it would be the perfect size.

"Now that the ring has accepted you we can start to discuss the family business, in general terms we're in a very good spot." Gornuk said after the ring took its place in the girls hand.

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Meanwhile, Mary was led to another office, this one from the goblin responsible for her family's account.

The goblin that was escorting her stood in front of a door and knocked, it didn't take a moment for the two of them to hear a "Get in!" from the other side of the door.

The escort opened the door and waited for Mary to move inside, upon her doing so he closed the door and stood guard outside.

Mary, now in the room, noticed the presence of the two other individuals, one being the family's account manager and the other being her father. The man hadn't changed much, only looking older, perhaps due to the worries of the hunts that the aurors made for the past months.

Tristan only spared his daughter a glance and turned to the goblin while saying, "Read the letter, we don't have much time!"

The goblin did so, and to Mary's surprise, it said that, effective immediately, she was back in the family as it's heiress and her cousin now a Azkaban prisoner was removed from the family for being considered a disgrace to its name.

"With that done, me and your mother are waiting for you at the manor. Goodbye Odbert." said the olderly man while getting up from his seat.

As she heard those words, Mary leaped from her chair and grabbed her father's arm, looking straight at his eyes she said, "Is that it? You just sign a paper and it's all in the past? No apologies for how you treated me? No apologies for letting that guy try to ruin my career? Just a 'me and your mother are waiting for you at the manor'. Have you any idea how my life was this past two years?"

That stopped Tristan, now with his arm grabbed and staring at his daughter's eyes he simply said, "This is not the place for this conversation, we'll talk when you get to the manor, your mother also wishes to speak with you."

He removed Mary's hand from his arm and left the room, leaving a frowning goblin and an angry looking young woman staring at his back.

Mary went to follow him but, upon arriving at the main hall she realized she had lost him in the crowd. Thus she decided to wait for Susan in order to continue her day, her very bad, annoying day.

They met each other at a corner of the main hall, Susan noticing her friend's state of anger asked, "What happened for you to be like this?"

"My father happened." was the brief answer that she got.

Now with a look of worry, Susan continued, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Mary took a big breath, turned to Susan and said, "Not now, when we get home we talk, all I want for now is to drown myself in work and forget this day."

And with that they left for their jobs, Mary decided to take the Floo to the Ministry, while Susan did the same but to the house of Arcturus Black, who no longer lived at Grimmauld Place.

Upon getting at the Black's home she dropped off Robert and left for St. Mungo's through the Floo, all the while wishing to occupy her head so she could delay thinking about her family and it's business.