Hopeful Liars

A twelve year old girl stared at herself in front of a six foot long mirror in Madam Malkins Robes for All Occasions. Her dark brown eyes held no expression and her slender fingers rose to touch the empty place on her breast that in a week’s time would be covered with a house crest.
Madam Malkin herself beamed at the pretty young thing. She hadn’t seen a girl so striking in many years and she was only twelve years old. She made a mental note to remember the girls name and use her as a model for her next line.

“What house would you like to be in my dear?” the robe designer beamed at the girl. “I was a Hufflepuff myself and I heard a rumour that we had the cosiest common room. Just by the kitchens so it was always warm!”

The girl looked at Madam Malkin and in a voice laced with sweetness replied, “my whole family has been in Gryffindor so I guess, that’s where I’m expecting to end up. I’m Hope by the way, Hope Weasley.”

Madam Malkin grinned wide, “Oh a Weasley! I would never have guessed with that raven hair of yours. The red is normally the giveaway though now I look; I can see a spattering of freckles on that nose!”
She chuckled to herself as she flicked her wand at the measuring tape around Hope’s waist and it rolled itself back up and landed on a nearby table. Hope began to shrug off her Hogwarts robes, barely listening to Madam Malkin nattering on until she heard her father’s name.

“Oh and those twins, Fred and George, they were always a right pair of rascals! You know one time I was in here after closing up and suddenly all my robes began to dance! As if they were people! Of course, I only had to look outside to see the culprits. There they were, that red hair like a bloody beacon, laughing away at me. They’d only moved into their shop three days! Of course that was before poor Fred passed on.”

Madam Malkin allowed a sad look to pass over her face and then she suddenly realised the wide-eyed look the girl was giving her.

Hope swallowed the lump in her throat.

“He was my father. Fred Weasley...that was my dad,” she whispered in a tiny voice. A tiny smile blessed her mouth at the antics of her famous father but she couldn’t overcome the overwhelming sadness of her loss and a small tear dropped from her brown eyes.

The robe designer cursed her loose tongue and then wrapped the girl in a bone crushing hug, squashing Hope to her bosoms.

“I wasn’t aware my dear. I’m so sorry...I always thought you were George’s before he married that Quidditch player!”

“No, my mother was Odette Silver.”

And then it came, the look that passed over people’s faces at the mere mention of her mother’s name. Madam Malkins cheeks went pale and she stepped away from Hope, clearing her throat. She bustled over to her worktop, declaring the robes finished and ready to be packaged.

Hope stood at a loss, not knowing what to do. At only twelve years old, she had no idea of who her mother really was. Uncle Draco praised her constantly but he never really spoke about her. Her father’s side of the family claimed they hardly knew her and had nothing to say. But Hope knew there was more. And the curiosity burned within her.

There was some kind of secret and a bad one. It was the way people turned away at the name. The way her grandparents had forbade her to talk about her mother in public. It was even, sometimes, the way other witches and wizards looked at Uncle Draco when she was out with him in Diagon Alley.

They kept saying she was too young to understand but Hope knew she was old enough. She was ready, they just wouldn’t believe her.

She sighed and then choked on laughter as her eyes glanced towards the window as she paid Madam Malkin. There was a boy with a ducks bill for a mouth and a spiky pink mohawk blowing raspberries in her direction. She ran out of the shop and immediately linked arms with her best friend, Teddy Remus Lupin.

He noticed her silence and nudged her with his arm, “What’s up buttercup?”

He asked this as he turned his hair into bright yellow petals that framed his face spectacularly. Several witches near the apothecary shop turned and stared at them and Hope giggled. Teddy could always make her laugh.

“I was just thinking about my mother. It happened again...Madam Malkin turned away from me the minute I mentioned her.”

Teddy shrugged, “Ah, forget it. Let’s just focus on something else for now instead of us being orphans.”
Hope glanced at Teddy. Out of all people, he understood her loss. He knew what it was like to lose parents and not even remember them. He was only a year old when he lost his parents in the same battle Hope had lost hers.

But people talked about Tonks and Remus all the time. What heroes they were, how they were important members of the Order of the Phoenix. Hope had searched for her mother’s name in relation to the Order but had come up with nothing and she had never been allowed to look for old newspapers of the time. Granny Molly said they were too upsetting, lists and list of dead people and not for young eyes.

As Teddy grabbed her arm and skipped down Diagon Alley to meet their families screaming the Hogwarts anthem at the top of his lungs, Hope had one more thought. Who had Odette Silver been and why were people so scared to talk about her?