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chapter five

"WELL. THAT WAS UNEXPECTED."

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     The Hufflepuff table had the best selection of croissants, in Emilia's opinion. They were soft but they didn't fall apart. They were warm but they didn't burn your tongue, and butter could melt easily into them but not too quick that you can't spread it around. And, to be fair, all food tasted better at breakfast, because Emilia didn't feel as bad sitting on her own since there were less people around.

     Emilia was halfway through buttering the insides of a croissant when someone sat opposite her. First, she expected one of her friends, and to be fair, the expectation was correct, it just that it wasn't Dinah, Melanie, or Carmilla.

     "Morning, Salvatore," said Sirius. He took half of her croissant, and she gasped in offence. He smiled at her. She did not smile back. "Oh, these are far better than the ones from the Gryffindor table—!"

     "But that's a secret, because I'd like to keep my nice croissants," said Emilia. She felt she was a little justified in this. Croissants were her favourite thing in the world. Surely, she could be selfish this one time and keep this to herself? "What are you doing here, then?"

     "Maybe I just wanted to see you."

     "Maybe you just wanted to steal my croissants."

     Sirius raised an eyebrow at her. Emilia smiled.

     "I was going to suggest," he said, "that we write some of these letters to your godparents, the ones saying you've gotten a detention and all that."

     Emilia frowned. "I'm busy this lunch," she told him. "There's a test in Potions—"

     "There's a Potions test? What the fuck?"

     "Yep," she said. He looked mildly worried (and by this, she meant very incredibly worried) and she quickly added, "It's meant to be a surprise one! And you can't tell anyone, the only reason Slughorn told me was because he thinks it's unfair to let the one with the dodgy brain sit a surprise test."

     "Dodgy—?"

     "Dyslexia," Emilia said. She saw Sirius nod in an "ohhh okay that makes more sense than 'dodgy brain'" kind of way. "I mean, I don't have it that bad, and it doesn't affect intelligence, just the way I learn, but you know, barely any wizards understand it. My siblings just think I'm stupid."

     "Well, if we're being fucking honest," said Sirius, "it's not that surprising your siblings think that, they're all awful."

     "They mean well—!"

     "When they get you into trouble for something you haven't done?"

     "No, I think it's just because they're scared of Capulet — and he can be scary, I don't blame them, it's just unfair on me..."

     "You haven't chickened out, right?"

     "Of course not! I'm not a chicken! And, anyway," said Emilia. She grinned mischievously. He looked surprised at it. "There's turning back now. My hair's blue and I've got a tattoo."

     Sirius added, "And it rhymed."

     "Must mean it's true," Emilia remarked.

     To her own surprise, Sirius ended up sitting at the Hufflepuff table for the rest of breakfast. Emilia didn't mind it, nor did she mind the amount of looks she was being given by her fellow housemates. Because, to be fair, Hufflepuffs could be just as judgemental as the other houses. Loyalty didn't mean they were pushovers, and not all of them were fair. Gryffindors weren't always brave, Slytherins weren't always cunning, Ravenclaws weren't always creative.

     And, although she loved her blue hair, not everyone's bound to like it. That's fine. It doesn't necessarily concern them, the colour of her hair, but if they're going to dislike it, then whatever. She liked her hair. She liked her tattoo. She liked not worrying about what others thought.

     It was the end of lunch when the two of them departed. Carmilla put an arm around Emilia and steered her away, just as Sirius went to catch up to James. Emilia ducked to get Carmilla's arm away from her shoulders, but then the two quickly linked arms. The arm was just a little uncomfortable, she felt like she was being strangled.

     "So, Paris spoke to you yesterday?" said Carmilla. Wincing, Emilia nodded. Her best friend held onto her a little tighter. "Yeah, it was trying to show off about it a few minutes ago. Don't worry, though."

     Emilia's eyes widened. "Don't say—"

     "Yeah," said Carmilla. "Dinah almost drowned him in his own bowl of cereal. Then she was almost elbowed in the nose by him — which, obviously, pissed her off, since it was her new nose and all... And then, she stopped trying to drown him in the cereal, but she did give him a black eye because he said he almost did things with you—"

     "He tried to kill my rabbit!"

     "That isn't a euphuism, right?"

     "No! That's disgusting!" said Emilia. She pulled a face. Carmilla looked worried. "No, he was making me nervous and I was holding Ripper so I was making Ripper nervous and I was getting a little panicked so then Ripper was scared and rabbits can die from being scared so yes, he tried to kill me rabbit!"

     "That bitch," said Carmilla. "We should kill him."

     "What? No?" said Emilia.

     "I'm joking," Carmilla said. "But, I mean, if he goes after Ripper again—"

     "Carmilla, no," said Emilia. "People can hear us. There's evidence."

     Carmilla nodded. The two of them grinned and began to walk to their first lesson, which thankfully, was Hufflepuff with Slytherin. Dinah and Melanie were already waiting outside of the classroom when Emilia and Carmilla arrived.

     Dinah had been leaning against the wall when they arrived, whereas Melanie was standing next to her. The two wore matching smirks when Emilia and Carmilla walked up to them.

     "I almost killed Prince," said Dinah, quite proudly.

     "I know enough dirt on the four bastards to destroy them all," said Melanie. She also looked very proud with herself. "It didn't take much to get what's-his-face talking. So, don't worry about it, Em, if Prince the Prick speaks to you again, just leave it. We can already successfully destroy them. They deserve it, after trying to kill Ripper."

     Dinah's eyes widened. "He tried to kill your rabbit?"

     "He did!" said Emilia. Dinah shook her head, like she was saying, I can't believe he'll do that, that's an absolute disgrace. "Well, okay, it was more that he was making me nervous and because I was holding Ripper I thought Ripper get scared and die, but, you know, he wanted my rabbit dead—"

     And, as if on cue, Prince began "Hey, Salvatore."

     Emilia ducked. She darted behind Dinah.

     Melanie whispered, "Are you serious, Em?"

***

     "Dear Mr. C. Salvatore," read Emilia. A massive grin had been swept across her face for the past ten minutes. "Your goddaughter, Miss Emilia Salvatore, has been involved in various disruptions this past fortnight, and has consequently received detentions every Saturday until December. Normally, we do not contact parents just because of misbehaviour, however, we think that the sudden increase deserves this letter."

     Emilia took a breath. She had been reading as quickly as she could, and was merging words together and hadn't taken an actual breath since Dear Mr. C. Salvatore.

     "Okay, okay, continuing," said Emilia. She coughed, and put on the Professor Sprout Voice again. "Monday: Emilia received a detention for leaving a tarantula on a fellow students' pillow — which was rather distressing for the student, because her greatest fear is spiders. Tuesday: Emilia charmed the showers in the Hufflepuff bathrooms to dye people's skin cheetah print. Wednesday: Emilia enchanted the windows so that the first years' in the classroom next period would believe they were going to be attacked by a dragon. Thursday: nothing happened. We were grateful. On the Friday, however: the school choir were supposed to perform at dinnertime, however, she charmed their voices so a muggle song played instead."

     Sirius said, "What was the song?"

     "Money by Pink Floyd," said Emilia.

     Sirius nodded. "You've got good taste, Salvatore."

     "Originally, Mona made the choir at Donna's charity event just vomit everywhere, but I thought singing was a bit nicer," said Emilia. "I mean, I know I'm supposed to recreating them all, but singing is a bit nicer than vomiting, you know? It was disgusting when that happened. I was sick because of it. It would be out of character for me to make them vomit."

     "Charming," said Sirius.

     Emilia grimaced.

     "Oh, and," said Emilia. "We regret to inform you on this dramatic change in your goddaughter's behaviour, however we thought that it was best for you to be aware of the situation. We will try our best to solve the situation. Sincerely, Professor Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff House."

     "We'll use my owl to send it, they won't recognise mine," said Sirius. Emilia nodded, and she grinned at him. She folded the parchment and placed it into an envelope addressed to her godfather. As Emilia carefully placed the envelope into her robe pocket, both began to stand up to go to the Owlery.

     Emilia said, "Do you think he'll write to me? Oh, Merlin, this is exciting—!"

     "EMILIA!"

     Dinah ran up to her. Emilia and Sirius exchanged a look of alarm. Dinah, whom took a minute to catch her breath, handed Emilia a torn piece of newspaper.

     "Fuck, I'm never doing that again," said Dinah. "Don't run from the dungeons to the hall. Fuck! I can't breathe, motherfucker—"

     As Dinah sat down to rest, Sirius said to Emilia, "I'll take it, if you want."

     "That's unfair, you—"

     "It's fine," said Sirius.

     Emilia sighed, but handed him the envelope. "I'll let you know if Capulet sends me anything," she replied. "And I'll sneak into Sprout's office to see if she gets anything, too."

     Sirius nodded, gave her a grin, and walked off. Emilia sat back down next to Dinah, whom had caught her breath by that point, but was still a little red in the face. She opened the folded piece of newspaper, just as Dinah said, "I came as soon as I read it, I can't believe—"

     SON OF CAPULET SALVATORE BEING INVESTIGATED

     Emilia said, "But why?"

     "They think he's been doing business with a lot of pureblood-elitists," said Dinah. She frowned. "Your brother's too bone idle to actually become a Death Eater, right?"

     "I don't know," said Emilia. "But then, you never know?"

      Dinah crossed her arms, her lips twisting in thought. Emilia knew the look. She didn't like the look. It normally meant that they were discussing something to do with the Death Eaters, the (admittedly scary) group that wanted purebloods to have all the power. They had been gaining in popularity recently, and Emilia hated it. She didn't get why they were so awful, she didn't get how so many people agreed with their beliefs, and she wished that there weren't around, that they and their aura of darkness could fuck off.

     "Yeah, well, those two girls in Ravenclaw supposedly left school to join them," said Dinah. She seemed to be holding back a lot of worry. Emilia put her arm around her friend. Her best friend worried for their entire quartet. "Anyway. It probably means nothing, right?"

     "I don't know," said Emilia. "I mean, my grandad Rupert was good friends with Grindelwald when he was our age. That sort of thing could be pretty attractive to these beasts, surely?"

     Dinah sighed. "I wish we didn't have to know."

     "I mean, for all I know, Rupert could be with them," said Emilia. "Or my parents. We've always assumed that the three of them are dead, but from what Capulet said about my grandad, he'd fit in well with them. The only reason Capulet took us in was because Rupert planned to make a fortune from marrying me and my sisters off."

     "If he's breathing still, Em," said Dinah, looking scarily determined, "and he goes anywhere near him, he's going to have to get through me. And I live near the sea, so they'll never find the body."

     Emilia shook her head. Dinah started to giggle, and she went to hug Emilia, who started to laugh herself. It was these moments that Emilia forgot the sadness she felt over the summers alone, or how alone she felt before she went to school and found people she belonged with. She lived for these moments, truly.

     She felt weird about the whole thing with Chandler. Her brother was being investigated in case he had anything to do with the recent attacks. But, a little part of her — the part that had survived the determination to stay a little nice to her siblings, regardless of their actions towards her — wasn't that surprised? And she felt awful thinking that, but also, she wasn't surprised that he'd end up doing something like that.

     It's the same with Mona and Paisley. All three of them were rotten in the worst way possible, and she didn't feel dread or worry that her brother was being investigated for it, or that her sisters could be next, or even relief that the problem isn't bad enough yet that he's just been thrown into Azkaban without trial.

     Emilia had a big heart. But, at the end of the day, if her siblings are going to treat her like roadkill they personally ran over, then it makes sense that she's slowly going to feel less love towards them. Just because she's got a big heart doesn't mean it can't be selective.

***

     The next morning, Emilia ended up with her jumper sleeves pulled tightly over her hands in hopes of staying warmer. Although it was only late September, winter was already lurking behind the falling leaves and the Halloween preparation. Emilia had been planning to eat breakfast quickly so she could turn up to her first lesson a little early. She had it with Gryffindor, and she couldn't help but feel bad that she didn't send the letter with Sirius.

     Emilia was halfway through a croissant when her owl landed in front of her. A letter was dropped onto her plate, and she began to open it. Her stomach dropped a little at the way it began: Dear Emilia Elodie. It was her godfather. Oh, fuck, she's going to be killed, even though he's not in school he's going to kill her.

     Dear Emilia Elodie,

     I found out about your misbehaviour at school. I have already written to your head of house so the detentions will stop. If you're going to misbehave, remember to tell them who you're related to, and who we're affiliated with.

     Signed,

     Uncle Capulet

     Well. That was unexpected.

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so, in this chapter a couple things happened but i wanted to quickly address the situation with emilia being dyslexic. the reason i made her dyslexic was because (a) i am and i wanted some good representation apart from that scene in teen wolf with the words falling down the book and it being treated as some quirky cool tumblr thing and (b) i am so fucking tired of seeing other fics romanticising it and using it as a plot point. there are literally fanfictions where the whole plot is that someone is dyslexic and their love interest "fixes" them. no!!!! dyslexia is a learning difficulty, it doesn't go away because you've found someone to make out with. 

emilia's dyslexic. but, emilia's also loyal and friendly and has blue feckin hair. it's a part of her but it's not the only part of her, you know? and, the way she has dyslexia will be based on how i have it (just because i don't want to get anything wrong + it's not that big but it's there + it's easier for me just to write what i know for this one teeny lil part of our girl em)

but, this won an award!! TvandMovieSociety had some awards over the past month or so + this won best sirius fic so thank you guys if you voted! :)

and, thank you for reading, and let me know what you thought! :)

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