Plans and Problems

On a chilly misty evening, two hooded figures were strolling on an empty meadow, beside a thin, dying river.

"Do you really trust Snape?" said a woman's voice from under the hood.

"I don't, I know he is loyal to Dumbledore," replied a man's voice.

"Shouldn't we inform this to the Dark Lord?" asked the woman.

"My God, Stormy, you are speaking like a true servant of the Dark Lord," said the man in a mock surprise.

"No, I —" the woman, Stormy went stiff and stopped walking. "I am sorry, master. I am still loyal to you. If you don't believe me, you can have my head."

"No head needed," chuckled the man. "I know you will be loyal to me till your last breath. I trust you."

"An honour, master," said Stormy and quickly followed the man.

"Remember Stormy, we have an advantage, we know what is going to happen," said the man seriously. "We can not waste that gift by telling everything to Dark Lord, can we? In the end, there can be only one winner and I intend to be that one. We will tell him but only that much, which will help us."

"But the Dark Lord will be suspicious," suggested Stormy. "Fooling him isn't that easy, especially after that Lestrange woman came back."

"Yes, that woman, Bellatrix Lestrange, raw talent and great potential but weakness same as the Dark Lord," said the man. "Think everyone is beneath them."

"Isn't it a good thing?" said Stormy. "I mean, the Dark Lord trusted you only because he thinks you are —" she hesitated.

"Beneath him?" laughed the man. "I know, I proudly led him to believe that I have knowledge but not the power to oppose him. I know after we take over Hogwarts, he will try to finish me."

"He wouldn't dare!" said Stormy angrily.

"Calm down, my dear," said the man. "He sees me as a weak and almost magicless person, which, unfortunately, I am, right now. But soon I will gain everything which was mine once."

"Of course, you will, master," said Stormy. "But trusting Snape with this important task after knowing he is a double spy?"

"My dear Stormy," the man laughed. "Do you really think me or the Dark Lord can decide Dumbledore's faith? If it was so easy to kill him, don't you think Dark Lord had already done it and I had already destroyed Hogwarts?"

"Then how Snape will —"

"Dumbledore will plan his own death, we just have to sit back and enjoy," said the man. "That man is not only powerful, but he is also a mastermind. He is more cunning than we think but sometimes he gets ahead of himself and there we will take our advantage. The war will begin, Stormy, but after Dumbledore kills himself and I gain my strength back."

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Miles away in a grim place in London stood a hidden house. A fifteen years old girl, with round face, deep blue eyes, a sharp nose, full lips and long dark brown hair, was practising her fighting skills, punching and kicking on a dummy. Her long hair, which was perfectly braided, reached almost her waist and her full body was sweaty because of the physical work. Somewhere in that room, a Weird Sisters' song was blasting from a wireless. The room was very messy, there were books, parchments, Daily Prophet newspapers, quills, ink, moving photographs, chocolates and some weird looking objects all around the floor, bed and table.

Suddenly, the clock on the table started to make noise and small fireworks erupted from it. The girl stopped and looked back at the clock as its fireworks left an imprint of '8' behind. She wiped the sweat off her forehead, turned off the wireless and flopped down on the bed, staring out of the window.

After a few minutes, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in."

A man with long black hair opened the room and stepped in.

"Good morning," he said, sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes.

"Morning Sirius," said the girl.

"Just got another letter from Molly and Arthur," said Sirius. "They want you to spend the rest of the summer with them."

"But I —"

"You can't avoid them forever, Chris," interrupted Sirius frowning. "They are your friends, they care about you."

"I am not avoiding them," lied Chris looking back at the window.

"Yeah, like Tonks and Remus?" said Sirius rolling his eyes.

"That's different," said Chris, irritated. "Tonks started going to the Ministry this soon just so she didn't have to face Remus and Remus is taking dangerous Order works, expecting he would die at one. That's madness."

"Love makes people mad," laughed Sirius. "Prongs used to say that — James I mean. By the way, didn't you agree with Moony? You said he is kind of right about refusing Tonks."

"I just said that it's scary when you know that you could hurt your loved ones if you are not careful," mumbled Chris. "That doesn't mean I want Remus dead."

"It will take more than a couple of Death Eaters to beat Moony," said Sirius dismissively. "But as Auri said, anyone can hurt people without realizing it, you don't need to be special to do so."

"But Sirius my — Remus' condition is different," said Chris.

"Yes, I know. When we just started school it took a week for Moony to accept us as friends. Even after we realized he is a werewolf he thought of every possible way to stop us from being friends with him but we were rather determined," said Sirius with a smile. "I remember, I had grabbed Moony by the collar and had said, 'Remus, if someone wants to be friends with you and be around you even after knowing your situation then shut up, consider yourself lucky and accept them." he looked back at Chris. "That goes for you too."

Sirius, Aurelia and Remus were only one who knew about the legend. Chris had told them after a week.

"But my friends don't know about my situation," said Chris.

"And who's fault is that?"

"I — I wo — I don't — I don't know, Sirius," Chris sighed and buried her face on her hands. "I killed three people. My anger can make me kill, what if I hurt someone I love? What if my anger makes me mad or worse it makes me evil?"

"Chris, I have said before," Sirius said putting a hand around Chris' shoulder. "The world is not divided into good and evil, both are inside us, it's on us what we choose. If you want to be good no one can make you bad."

"You are not going to give up, are you?" mumbled Chris after a few moments. "We are repeating this conversation almost the tenth time."

"And we will repeat again until you understand that there is nothing wrong with you," said Sirius smiling. "You are just a good person who is going through some bad circumstances, that's all."

Chris smiled at him weakly.

"So you are going to talk to Remus too?" 

"Yes, now I have to," said Sirius. "He can't keep being reckless just to avoid Tonks. Being reckless is my job."

"Sirius?" Chris chuckled and shook her head. "I mean, will you talk to Remus so he stops avoiding Tonks?"

"Auri was asking me to do the same," said Sirius. "Tonks is looking really bad, nowadays."

"Yeah, she is," Chris nodded. "And last night when Aurelia told us about Remus' new Order job, Tonks literally ran out of the room in tears."

"Poor girl," sighed Sirius. "Remus acts so stupidly sometimes —"

"SIRIUS!"

A woman screamed from downstairs.

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To be continued. . .