• Nathan Novak •

"If you want to keep a secret,
you must also hide it from yourself."

Nate had barely slept a wink that night, the after-effects of which he was now feeling the next morning. He had been glad to hear that the Ministry hadn't caught Serena and he hoped it would stay that way.

He barely listened as Umbridge addressed the entire school that morning, announcing that anyone who withheld important information about Serena's whereabouts would be punished. How good that he didn't even know exactly where she was. He could only hope that she was safe there.

"Is there another student missing?" she added with a grim face and let her gaze wander over the four house tables, where a loud whisper had broken out in the meantime. None of the students seemed to be able or willing to give her an answer. It was Snape who stepped forward and whispered something to Umbridge, whose face instantly darkened, presumably having just been informed of the loss of another student.

Nate hadn't expected Edmund Hall to go with her. Helping her, yes, but going on the run with her was something completely different. But it made sense, at least after what he had found out the day before.

"If no one has found her yet, then that's a good sign, isn't it?" Tim tried to cheer him up and seemed to have noticed his furrowed brow.

"It's not that," sighed Nate, lowering his voice, "Did he tell you? That... you know."

The older boy shook his head. "No, but it does explain a lot."

Nate folded his hands on the table and began to cradle his head. Actually, none of it made any sense. Why hadn't Hall told anyone about this? Not even his closest friends knew about it, apparently, but it was something worth mentioning.

"Wrackspurts, huh?" he heard a bright dreamy voice say from across the room. "They've been especially annoying lately."

"That's right," Nate said, wishing that it really was just an invisible being that was messing with his mind. At least his answer brought a small smile of satisfaction to Luna's face, who then began to flail wildly through the air a few times, presumably to drive the creature away.

Suddenly he felt a sudden rush of air next to him, and it wasn't the blonde's flailing movements. Hailey had settled down next to him like a whirlwind and was now looking at him expectantly. "Where the hell is Serena?"

"I don't know," he replied truthfully, but the Hufflepuff didn't seem to want to let up. "But you know what happened, don't you?"

"Can we please not discuss this here?" Nate asked quietly, looking around his house table, where quite a few students had already pricked up their ears. On the way out of the Great Hall, he began whispering to her about what had happened the night before and when he finished, her mouth was open as if she was trying to catch flies, "You know the secret and you don't tell me?"

"I didn't have time," he merely replied, noticing at the same moment that Astoria was only a few metres away from them and coming towards them with a curious look on her face. "What secret?"

The Ravenclaw was about to give her an answer before Hailey interjected, obviously not wanting to let up. "Is it something bad?" She slapped both hands over her mouth. "By Merlin! It's something bad."

"What? No, it's not," he replied dryly. "At least Serena won't die or anything. She won't be too happy about it, though."

Astoria was still looking back and forth between the two of them, completely confused. "What's this about anyway?"

"I think it's better if I show you," Nate sighed and finally led both girls upstairs to the library. Neither of them seemed to be able to stop themselves from making the wildest assumptions as they walked, each one more absurd than the last, but in the end, the Slytherin was on the same level of knowledge as Hailey.

A little hesitantly, Nate walked purposefully through the rows of shelves. After all, he didn't know if Serena wanted her two friends to know about this, but they certainly weren't going to let up anyway. The Ravenclaw walked the same route as he had the day before, reaching for the book he had used for his essay and a wizard directory.

"It's a history book," Hailey sobered as he placed both books on the table and nodded. "The one I used for my essay."

The Hufflepuff's mind seemed to be rattling, as she had probably once had to write a similar essay for Professor Binns. After all, the ghost was reluctant to deviate from his annual curriculum. Her mouth dropped open at the same moment and she widened her eyes, "You think... What? What, does Serena know that?"

"Yes, I think so," Nate replied simply, while Astoria still looked rather lost in the conversation, but she too would soon understand. "I haven't had time to tell Serena about it, though."

"But are you sure?" the brunette asked, looking at him doubtfully, "An arranged marriage? We're living in the twentieth century."

Sighing, he flipped open one of the books and started typing on one of the paragraphs in the introduction. "It makes sense, though. Why else would Hall not want her to read this book?"

For centuries, numerous witches and wizards have fallen victim to arranged marriages. In most cases, neither the bride nor the groom were particularly happy about it; in fact, those who made the arrangement were the only ones who were happy. For the betrothed couple, however, there is no way around it when the unbreakable vow has been made as a medium. It was not uncommon for wizards as young as sixteen to be forced to marry and bear heirs.

Nate was still getting looks of confusion and disbelief, but that was how he had reacted at first, so he reached for the directory and pulled out the marriage register, "Serena is a Black and so far everyone in this family has entered into a marriage with another pureblood family. Except for Andromeda Tonks and Sirius Black. Same with the Halls, but everyone has been married. At least it seems to be important to these families to maintain their pureblood status, which is why some even practised inbreeding. Not the Halls, though. It almost seems like they're trying to get another family of the untouchable twenty-eight to marry into theirs with each generation, because they've only had male heirs for decades. Guess which seven members are still missing from their collection, including the Blacks."

After he had finished his explanation, Hailey was still looking at him with her eyebrows raised and her arms crossed. "But Serena is not a pureblood and I doubt that her parents would simply betroth her like that."

"I don't think so, either. Maybe it was her grandparents and they assumed that their grandchildren would be purebloods too," he returned, but the Hufflepuff didn't seem to want to let up. "So why does he always save her? He and his family should actually be happy if she can't marry him. After all, as I said, she's not a pureblood and in their eyes she's also a traitor."

To his surprise, it was Astoria who replied, "That's true, but I understand what Nathan means. If it really is important to them to unite the twenty-eight families, then it won't help them if she dies. After all, she's the last girl with the surname."

"And why is he helping her now? It's not like her life is on the line," Hailey continued to try and disprove Nate's theory, but he had a simple answer to that too: "The Halls really do care about their reputation and if Serena has some sort of 'criminal past', it probably interferes with their perfect demeanour. Think about it, it all makes sense! Her father was probably looking for a way to break the vow with that book about breaking curses."

"As a matter of fact, I'm afraid I have to leave something out," Astoria suddenly interjected gently and looked at him apologetically, "My family really isn't as fanatical about the dark arts as many others, but they know the Halls quite well and even tried to marry Daphne to Edmund because she asked them to. It never materialised, but it was never mentioned that he was already engaged."

"So you don't believe me either?" the Ravenclaw sighed, running his fingers through his honey-blonde hair. Astoria, however, shook her head. "I didn't say that. I just think there might be a little more to it than that."

The three of them were interrupted at an abrupt moment by a crowd of their former Defence Alliance colleagues, who were arguing loudly and seemed to be in a crisis. "Harry, stop being so rude," Hermione said, reprimanding the bespectacled boy. "Ginny only meant well."

In fact, the boy addressed seemed to be sorry for whatever he had said for a moment, but in the next instant, his gaze became panicked again, reflecting pure determination as he turned away, cursing. "Where is Serena anyway? I'm sure she would agree that we need to act now!"

"She wouldn't," Hermione replied briskly and started talking at him again with the others, "Harry, please I'm begging you! What if that's what he wanted?"

Hailey was finally the first to join them and gently stroked her boyfriend, the redhead, on the arm. "Are you all right? Is there anything we can do to help?"

"No," replied Harry in Ron's place with a still harsh tone, but Hermione promptly interrupted him, "Hang on, actually, they can help!"

__________________

Sooo, that was the much-anticipated chapter, or wasn't it? 😉

What do you think? Do you think Nate is right? Do you agree with Astoria that there's a little bit more to it than that or do you agree with Hailey that it's something completely different? 🤔

Also I'm so sorry for the long wait. I'm on vacation right now, so the chapters may take a little longer than usual. If you want you can follow my tour along the east coast of the US and follow me on Instagram: kimii.sxch 🥰