April 24th

7:30 AM



Spring holiday had been both kind and not so kind to Aoife. While it was nice being back home with her mother and she smiled thinking back on the visits to her two aunts, Aoife frowned when she had thought of a slight argument that had erupted between she and her mother.

"She is the Minister for Magic! How could you not know who she is?" Mum had nearly yelled.

"Mum! It's not that important!" Aoife had said in a similar volume, though it didn't carry nearly as well her her mother's.

"Not important-What are they teaching you at Hogwarts? When I was your age they taught us every Governor who held office in the past ten years at least!" Mum didn't seem to want to let the topic go.

It had just degraded from there. Aoife's mother had later apologized for yelling, but insisted that Aoife learn more about current events in the wizarding world. Aoife had then picked up the nearest Daily Prophet and began to read it. Every page of it, for the past week since she had returned to Hogwarts. She had skimmed the front page on her way to breakfast, but the serious reading didn't begin until she was eating. Since she had started reading the paper, there had been some sort of financial examination...

'But that didn't make a lot of sense. Maybe I'll ask mum about it today.' Aoife thought as she opened up her Daily Prophet. So far, not any much interesting news. She came across a small article on the page before the Recipes from Home page.

'Maybe I should skip this page...' She thought before her eyes caught a very peculiar name in the article, her own. Well, her surname at least. Aoife looked closer.

[/b]

Sean Moffett (36) is set to be released from Azkaban on the thirteenth of June, 2010.

That was all Aoife managed to read before the paper slid out of her loose grip and landed on the table. For about five minutes, all Aoife did was stare at the paper. After that, she slowly but calmly got up from her seat and made her way out of the Great Hall. She walked along the entrance of the kitchens, not saying a word and her thoughts too jumbled to focus on anything but what she had just read.

She soon found herself at the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. She drew her wand and tapped the door in the correct rhythm. The door opened and Aoife quickly made her way into the common room.

Having eaten his breakfast quite awhile ago, Roland Dylanis was enjoying this overcast and rainy day with a good book in the Hufflepuff Common Room today. It was the first Saturday since he'd gotten back from a fun and enjoyable Spring Break with Ted, and he couldn't go out to the lake due to weather. The boy was a bit disappointed by this turn of events, but then again this was typical for Scotland, always having either beautiful, sunny days, or miserable rainy days after the spring season began.

He was enjoying his reading of The Ogre Who Lived Downstairs, when the Common Room entrance opened up and Rou glanced over top of his book to see who it was. Just as immediately as he saw who it was, his eyes snapped back to the pages of his book and he moved the book up to obscure his face.

Of course it had to be Aoife, Rou thought grimly as he tried his best to avoid attracting her attention. He knew that if she saw him, she'd want to drag him off to some random adventure or another. She always did so when she went out to the lake and found him there. She just always seemed wont to ruin his perfectly lovely days...

Aoife frowned as she climbed through the door leading to the Hufflepuff common room. Her mind had cleared a bit and her toes tapped inside of her brown slippers. Her father, the one who had abandoned her mother, was being released from Azkaban.

'How did this happen? I thought he was supposed to be there for the rest of his life!' Aoife's small questioning thought of how exactly did he get sentenced to life in Azkaban was squashed when she saw Rou, sitting and reading a book that Aoife couldn't see the name of.

Aoife frowned even further when she saw Rou covering his face with his book. He must have seen her.

'Great. He doesn't want to talk...Well too bad for him.' Aoife slowly made her way to the chair across from where Rou was sitting. She moved her right foot and slid it down her left heel, letting her left foot slide out of her plain, brown slipper. She did the same using her bare left foot on her right slipper before sitting down with her knees up to her chest. She wore a long, dark red robe so sitting awkwardly wouldn't be a problem.

"Rou...What would you do if a part of your family went to Azkaban, and then was let out?" Aoife asked her housemate and friend, getting right to the point.

She sat next to him, very clearly showing that his attempts to ward her away would not work. Rou continued concentrating on his book even as Aoife made herself comfortably by taking off her shoes and pulling her knees to her chest. From the corner of his eye, he could now see that she was immensely bothered by something. This realization caused Rou to actually look over at her, as this was probably the first time he'd ever seen her like this. A look of concern came to his face as she began to speak.

"Rou...What would you do if a part of your family went to Azkaban, and then was let out?"

"I...don't know," the boy replied quietly, marking his place in the book and setting it down. Rou pulled his feet up from the floor and crossed his legs. "My family's always been on the right side of the law. Why do you ask, Aoife?"

'Right. Rou's grandpa was in Magical Law Enforcement. So was his dad.' Aoife thought, remembering the conversation they had when they had first met.

"Well...My dad's getting released in a few months." Aoife said with some hesitation. "He's been in there for as long as I can remember and now he's getting out. I don't understand! Mum said he was going to spend the rest of his life there, and now they're letting him out?" She shook her head.

"I just don't understand, and I don't know what to do." She said before looking at Rou's eyes. He looked concerned, which made Aoife feel a bit better.

Their eyes met. Normally, Rou would be averse to looking Aoife in her eyes, because doing so always made him feel odd. However, this time, he held her gaze. There was a look of complete sadness within them, not unlike how people normally described his eyes when they looked into them. He couldn't help but sympathize for her, but at the same time, he would have given anything to be able to live with his parents instead of his grandfather. After some slight hesitation, Rou reached over and wrapped his arms around Aoife's shoulders, pulling her into a hug to show that he was there for her.

"Why is your dad in Azkaban, Aoife?" Rou said quietly.

Aoife's eyes widened slightly as she felt Rou pull her into a hug. After a moment, she wrapped her arms around his waist, not sure as to where to put her arms. Her small feet curled up.

"I didn't think you could do stuff like this." She said quietly befer withdrawing and looking into her friend's eyes. They seemed sad as usual, but the genuine concern was still there.  "Thanks."

Aoife's eyebrows furrowed as she tried to remember what her mother had told her about his sentence. She had asked her mother about him on her ninth birthday, but she had mostly focused on how they met, as her mother honestly didn't know much about the sentence. She had been busy raising her daughter at the time.

"He was working with Death Eaters." She said after thinking. "I mean, I don't think he killed anyone, but he found where Muggleborns where hiding and told the...Sneakers I think? He told them where they were. Once the ministry was better, he went to Azkaban for what was going to be the rest of his life."

She didn't expect him to be so openly affectionate toward her. Then again, neither did he, but giving her a hug just seemed so...right at the time. Ted's comfort whenever Rou was sad during their holiday together never failed in making him feel better, after all...

"Snatchers," Rou said quietly, remembering the name of the Death Eater enforcers who hunted down Muggleborns and those who fought against their regime. He remembered that name clearly, because it was a party of Snatchers who killed his mother and father the night they were due to be transported to America for safety. "I don't understand, either," Rou said, his voice a bit louder now as he and Aoife sat next to each other, "Assisting the Death Eaters is a serious crime, after all. Was there anything you read that might have said why?"

"Snatchers, that's it." Aoife said, repeating the word. She leaned a bit as she sat next to Rou. Her shoulder gently brushed against his.

"I know it's serious, but I thought people who just worked for the ministry when it was like that got off lighter. I don't know...Maybe he really did kill someone and mum didn't want to tell me." Aoife speculated, her eyebrows furrowed once again has her small toes began to tap against the chair seat more rapidly. "I mean, she told me how they met and why he left, but she doesn't know a lot about what happened after that."

"Did you mom ever tell you what your dad did for the Ministry?" Rou said, his attention unwaveringly focused on Aoife. It was clear that she needed a friend and...well, Rou guess she had to settle for him. Even so, the boy had the incredible urge to make a carving. So as he sat there and listened, he pulled out his father's old dagger and a block of pine from his pack and he began to cut at the block in order to shape it into a general form that he'd carve the rest out of later.

"I don't really know what to say, Aoife," he said quietly, his attention shifting to his pine block, "I never got to grow up with my parents..."

"She said he worked in the...administrative services. That was it. He worked for Magical Law Enforcement. Mum says he spent a lot of time at work." Aoife said, after pausing to think of the word her mother had used.

Aoife began to watch as Rou took out his father's dagger along with a block of pine and began to carve. It was strangely hypnotizing and a good distraction as Aoife's looking turned into staring as she focused. But when Rou spoke again, Aoife looked back at him.

"Right...Sorry. It must seem silly. I have my mum, and my aunts, and they're great. Well, mum's kind of sad sometimes...But I forgot that you live with your grandfather." Aoife's eyes cast down for a second.

"I guess it's because you're so strong about it. I mean, if I never knew my mum along with my dad, I don't know how I would deal with it. But you act like nothing can hurt you. So...I guess I just forget sometimes." Aoife said, hoping she wasn't making a mistake by saying what she had said.

"He must have been a big factor in hunting down Muggleborns or something, then, to get a sentence like that. I know that some woman who really helped the Death Eaters...Umbridge, I think? She'll never see the light of day again," Rou said, his attention focused solely on his block now. "I'm sorry, Aoife, but grandpa always says that the truth is better to know than a lie...says that the pain of the truth can be overcome, but lying can destroy people in worse ways than magic." Rou recalled some of the sayings he'd read from Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter.

"Words are an inexhaustible source of magic: Capable of both good and harm", he said, though his memory of the exact quote was sketchy. He looked over at Aoife, now, hoping that she wouldn't be mad at him for being so blunt. In that moment, seeing he curled and sitting in such a ball, that he was inspired for his latest sculpture. He realized that he never made one of her, just of the swan he gave her the day they officially met. He focused back on his hands and the carving once more, which was taking shape really quickly thanks to knowing what he wanted to make. Within a couple of minutes, it had taken a general form that resembled Aoife sitting on the couch next to him.

"Do you still have that carving that you made me give you, by chance?" Rou asked absentmindedly, most of his attention taken up by the carving and to avoid slicing his hand open.

"It alright, Rou." Aoife turned her focus to the block of wood as she spoke. "I won't lie to you Rou, well unless I'm supposed to be keeping a surprise from you. Then I think it's okay to lie." She watched as the block of wood began to take on a shape similar to her. Aoife's face brightened. "It's me! You should make one of you, so we could play with them. Or is that too childish?"

Aoife nodded. "I can go get it if you want. It has some marks from when I knocked it off my nightstand, but it still looks pretty."

Aoife got up from the chair quickly, not waiting for an answer. Her small, bare feet hit the floor hard as she got up before she thought of something. She turned to face Rou.

"Hey Rou," She started. "Do you think I should talk to him? My dad I mean. I know it sounds stupid, but...I don't hate him. I mean I don't know him enough to hate him. I thought maybe if I saw him, I would know enough about him to hate him or not hate him more."

Rou's hands ceased where they were when Aoife suggested he make a carving of himself. The thought had crossed his mind several times before, but the answer now was the exact same as the answer he gave himself then. His hands lightly trembled at the thought of undertaking such a practice...but he knew why he could never try and make a carving of himself.

"No," he answered softly, "I could never make a sculpture of myself. It would never...be right." He'd never be able to accurately capture himself like he could other people. And what he could capture in that still-life carving he would absolutely hate to look at, because all that would be staring back at him would be the flaws and the shortcomings he had in the eyes of others. Under no circumstances would he ever be able to make a carving of himself. And as he thought about Aoife's next question, small tears began to well in the boy's eyes.

"Your father was a criminal, Aoife," he said quietly, his voice shaking slightly, "He was in Azkaban for a reason..." The unspoken answer hung in the air between them. He began to focus on his carving of Aoife once more in order to steady his hands and calm his mind. Within a couple of more minutes, the sculpture had acquired detail and refinement, becoming a perfect capturing of Aoife from when she was sitting next to Rou with her arms hugging her legs. From her bare toes to that mousy, brown hair, it was a superb freeze-frame of her, complete with a concerned an unsure expression that she'd had then and right now.

"However," he said softly as he slowed down his hands in order to perfect the detailing and texture of the sculpture, his bare feet clenching and unclenching in the carpet as he carefully thought through what was going to say, "I know that if I was getting a second chance to spend time with my mum or dad...I would take it in an instant." Rou's eyes closed as he said that, a pair of tears now falling down his cheeks as he thought about that.

Aoife watched Rou as he continued his sculpture. Tears began to well up in his eyes, for what reason, she didn't know. She suddenly put her sculpture on the table next to her chair and pulled Rou into a strong hug, her slightly muscular for her age arms squeezing him tight.

"Hey Rou...My mum told me one time that when you're a kid, things look like they're gonna last forever. But they don't. When I'm mad at my mum, I just think of when I'll be 17, and she can't tell me what to do anymore...If you get mad at your grandpa, maybe thinking about that will help you feel better?" Aoife said, her voice seeming to calm down.

"I think...I need to talk with mum about this. I mean she'll probably say no, but maybe my aunts will take my side in letting me see him, even if it is just one time." Aoife said, mostly to herself.