19 Chapter 18

Sirius Black was having hard time understanding what was happening. Just this morning… or maybe night? It was kinda hard to tell while in Azkaban. Anyway, this morning he was roused from his sleep by aurors who told him that he was getting a trial.

At first he just thought that he was dreaming and laid back down, but then he was roused once more by the same aurors who looked far from amused. Then he realized that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't dreaming.

Mostly because if he was dreaming he would be hauled away by a coven of veelas who just threw his shrew of a mother into a pit of lava. Those veelas would then start doing some exotic dances before a herd(?) of Dementors would appear only to burn as the abominations deserved. Instead he got two bearded old men hauling him.

Sometimes life just wasn't fair.

After that, things got fast and confusing. Turns out, Pettigrew was found. The bastard had turned into a rat and Dumbledore had somehow found the little traitor in Hogwarts. Then they had the little shit confess that he was the Secret Keeper and the one who blew up the muggle street. Meaning Sirius was innocent but still had to answer questions in a trial because the Wizengamot was mostly controlled by the stooges of the Dark Lord who cried like a bitch in order to escape prison sentence.

And here he was now, on a chair before the Wizengamot, getting his long since denied trial.

"Now then, the accused… do you consent the use of Veritaserum in your trial?" Fudge asked him, as if he was going to deny that.

"I do."

"Administer the Veritaserum." The man said and as the people with the truth potion were getting closer, Sirius could see the less than pleased expression on the faces of many people among the seats. Each one of them gave him another burst of joy, especially Lucius' grimace. He had never liked that arrogant peacock and he never forgave his uncle Cygnus for marrying Narcissa to the bastard.

Not because he liked Narcissa or anything, she was almost as bad as anyone in the family who wasn't him, but because the marriage meant that he was technically related to Lucius. It was a disgusting feeling.

Him getting out of Azkaban seemed to make the bastard uncomfortable so Sirius opened his mouth and welcomed the drops of the potion with joy.

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"Well, I think we can end our lesson here." I said as I stopped projecting my mind.

I had to admit, Daphne was a fast learner. She was quite skilled with the mind arts, almost as skilled as I had been her age as Hyperstorm. Guess those Occlumency exercises did work for something.

"Thank you." Daphne said with a nod. But there seemed to be something bothering her.

"What are you thinking?"

"Can't you just read my mind to find out?" She said, there was no accusation in her voice. It was a genuine question.

"You are my student now. The only time I enter your mind outside of lessons is with your permission unless I make a surprise test. Which technically would be in the lessons but semantics." I shrugged. I could see my statement had slightly amused her by the twitch of the corner of her lips.

"Yeah… I sent an owl to my father about our… lessons." She said with a grimace.

"Ok, and?" I asked, much to her shock.

"You're not angry?"

"Honestly I thought that it was something serious. Your parents are the ones whose been trying to deal with your powers for years and unlike most families, they don't seem to abuse you for your powers."

"They would never do that!"

"Good, that means they won't cause problems." Honestly, I had actually thought that she was going to give some bad news.

"So, what did he say?"

"I sent the owl today. It will come back tomorrow, at earliest. I just wanted to let you know." She said while twirling her hair.

"Well, you let me know. Now go to your dorm and keep doing the exercise I told you about. Hopefully it will help you become somewhat competent soon." I teased with a laugh and Daphne huffed before leaving with a flip of her hair.

Whelp, that should get her butt in gear. In just one lesson I understood that Daphne was incredibly prideful. So making her believe that she was just being average in our lessons should make her work harder than usual. Though I would have to praise her once or twice in a lesson so that she doesn't get depressed, that would lead to her results being less than what it could be.

Bullying is fine, but being an asshole would be detrimental.

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Damian Greengrass read the letter he had gotten from his daughter with conflicted feelings.

To be perfectly honest, he wasn't sure he truly believed it. That the solution to Daphne's problems had appeared out of nowhere as a muggleborn child who had knowledge that no child would possess.

But he also couldn't help the feeling of hope blossom within his heart. Hope that at least one of his daughters might have a chance for a happy life.

It was still hard to believe the things he was reading about. He knew that some muggles had abilities different from others, his father had taught him about the war the muggles were waging with Grindelwald in their midst. He knew of the so called Justice Society of America. But he didn't know their abilities could vary that much.

He always believed himself to be above the other wizards when it came to being rational about muggles but it seemed that even he had been underestimating them.

How funny.

"Damian, what is that in your hand?" Anastasia, his beautiful wife asked him with Astoria beside her. And for the first time since Daphne's powers and Astoria's condition had made themselves known, a genuine smile came to his face.

"Hope."