Even to those closest to her, Althea was as much a mystery then as she is now. As a girl, she was driven by her ambition and thirst for knowledge to a place very few could follow, and she didn't hesitate to leave them behind. But now, after living a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"YOU'VE GOT SUCH A BIG HEART, THEA."
Althea slept very restlessly that night. She had tossed and turned until about four in the morning, and when she finally did sleep, she seemed to be stuck in a morphing, everlasting nightmare.
It had started with her confrontation with Sirius the previous night, except he had been able to disarm her before she had obliviated him. His angry, accusatory face had morphed into James', then into her parents', then into all of her friends' in turn, both at Hogwarts and in the Muggle world. The only accepting face had been Regulus's, so when it got to him, she reached out and took his hand, hoping that he would pull her out of this nightmare, but as he lead her into a dark room filled with menacing-looking wizards, she realized that he had only brought her into a worse one. She was in the presence of You-Know-Who himself, and he was just about to brand her with his mark when she finally woke up.
The dream, at least the beginning of it, had felt so real to her that she had to remind herself multiple times what had actually happened. She was thinking so intensely about this that her ears were ringing. A soft knocking on her door broke her out of this.
"Yes?" she answered, putting on her best poker face.
The face of her mother appeared with the opening door. "Good morning," she greeted. "Can I come in?" When her daughter nodded, Euphemia closed the door gently behind her and shuffled over to sit on her daughter's bed.
"Is - " Althea started hesitantly, her heart beating rapidly. "Is he okay?"
Her mother gave her a grimace of a smile. "He's . . . adjusting. He's been through a lot."
Althea tried to sound as oblivious as she could. "What happened?"
Euphemia sighed, as if debating whether or not to tell her. Ultimately, she decided it was something she should know. "He ran away from home." Althea sat back in her bed, feigning shock. "You have to understand, Thea, the Black family has very, very prejudiced views. In my opinion, I'm glad he got out when he did. The way this world's going, he very much could have ended up - "
" - a Death Eater," Althea finished. She thought bitterly of her dream, and of Regulus.
"Yes," her mother confirmed solemnly. "But he got out. Your father and I decided that he can stay here for as long as he needs, but we wanted to make sure that you were okay with it."
Althea looked up at her mother, her astonishment genuine this time. "Of course!" she said quickly. "He's James's best friend - of course I'm okay with it."
