"WHAT IS THAT, DEAR?" Claudia heard her grandmother ask her as she sat on the windowsill and stared at the book in her hands. The book that had revealed the truth.

Now, all she had to do was confirm it.

Claudia looked at her grandmother, who immediately could tell that she had gotten there too late. Claudia knew. Oh, she knew all too well what her father had done.

And she wasn't going to let this one go.

"I think you know just what this is," said Claudia, whose voice was quiet and raspy as if she had been yelling for hours, when she in reality hadn't spoken much all day.

Claudia tossed the book on the floor, and then she stood up and stared her grandmother dead in the eye, "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" Margaret asked, despite knowing what Claudia was going on about.

"Did my father kill my mother?"

"Oh, Claudia-"

"Don't," the girl warned, holding up a hand to silence her. "Don't pity me. Don't act as if you give a shit. And please, for the love of Merlin, don't act as if you're my perfect sweet little grandmother. Answer me instead. Did my father kill mum?"

"Yes."

Claudia's throat closed up, and she must've stared at Margaret for at least a few minutes before she finally could talk again, in an even smaller and weaker voice.

"H-how long have you known?"

"It came to my attention a few years ago," Margaret said, and she looked as if she was sad and remorseful which only made Claudia angrier.

"How?"

"The same thing happened to your aunt. I found that out on accident. I caught him speaking with Greyback about it. That's when I figured it out."

"And you still didn't do shit about it," said Claudia, staring at her out of disbelief.

"I tried," said Margaret. "I really did. Your aunt...Gemma, she was nice. I don't like the idea of nice people being murdered. Oh, and your mother, Claudia-"

"What about her?"

Margaret hesitated for a moment, but then she surrendered to herself, "Your mother was as good as one gets. I will forever be sorry for what this family did to her."

Now, one might wonder just why Margaret Maple didn't hate Claudia's mum despite everything. Well, she had first met the woman who soon would be the mother of her grandchild during an interview with the Prophet. Anne was a struggling writer who had arrived to interview the family in a devastating piece about the loss of Albert, the oldest son.

And, well, Anne wasn't exactly in the brightest of moods during the interview considering she knew Albert and Fayola as well as she did. But, she plastered on a smile and acted professionally.

And then, after having had her first proper conversation with Charles and having felt attraction yet confusion over the man, Anne got ready to leave the manor.

But, before she got the chance to, she found Margaret crying. The old woman had been struggling to get past the interview, and after it all she just couldn't hold it in any longer.

And Anne comforted her just like the angel she was, which caused Margaret to find her to be a truly good and sweet person.

And maybe that was what caused Margaret to care for Claudia as much as she did in her secret and weird little way ever since the girl was born. Maybe it was because she couldn't hate her even if she proved to be a halfblood - because Claudia Maple was half of one of the nicest people Margaret had ever met.

And maybe kindness was more important than blood.

"Then why'd you do it?" Claudia asked, because she didn't understand why they did what they did to Anne if Margaret liked her so much.

"I didn't do anything, your father-"

"All of you were cruel to her," Claudia said. "Even I understood that when I was little. You paid no mind to her whatsoever. Didn't help her when you knew how horrible he was to her. You only cared for her when it looked good in the public eye. And then, you told everyone that she was the one who was lying. That she was the one who fooled father into a relationship, when in reality he was too fucking stupid to even ask her anything about herself! And then, by accident, she got pregnant, and it was suddenly her bloody fault that I came along and ruined your family! Well, guess what?! My mum was the closest thing any of us ever got to goodness. And she's gone...because of him."

Margaret sighed, "I had to tell people that. It was my duty as a mother to protect my son. Family protects family, Claudia-"

"Screw that!" Claudia yelled. "You people ruined her. You embarrassed her, and you took everything from her. She's dead because of him! And I don't give a shit about protecting him, or you, or even myself at this point!"

Margaret stared wide-eyed at her, "What's the meaning of that?"

Claudia grabbed her wand, flicked it and then took a strong hold of the book that came flying to her.

"I don't give a fuck if no one will believe me. I'm doing it anyway."

"Doing what?"

"I'm telling them everything," Claudia said with a new strange darkness in her eyes. "I'm telling them that he killed his brother. Alvin. Fayola. Mum. Gemma. I'm not going to stay silent anymore. Even if there's no proof but this book-"

Margaret flicked her wand to take the book from Claudia's hold, but the girl quickly aimed her own wand towards her grandmother which only caused her to drop her wand.

"I don't give a shit if he tries to kill me," Claudia said. "If I can even so try to bring them justice, I will. My life has only been a ticking time bomb anyway."

Margaret stared bewildered at her as Claudia simply walked away, but then she knew she had to do something.

Even if Margaret knew that her son was horrible and cruel and deserved punishments for what he had done, he was still her son. And family protects family, she believed, so she had no choice but to go against Claudia.

Even if that meant that she was in some ways failing to protect her family from her own family.

"We won't go after you," Margaret said, causing Claudia to stop. "We will go after him. Or no, I won't. But Charles will once I tell him the truth."

Claudia turned around, and now she didn't seem so certain anymore.

Because she knew that Margaret was talking about Remus.

"You wouldn't dare-"

"I would," Margaret said with a pointed look. "I'll tell him if you tell anyone the truth."

"Why?"

Margaret didn't answer that, so ignoring the question she went on, "I'll tell him about the boy. I'll tell him about your friends. And we both know what that means. Your father wouldn't take it lightly, you know-"

"Don't!" Claudia begged.

"Then don't go and disrespect your family," Margaret said. "If you stay silent, so do I."

And now, Claudia had to make a choice. The obvious one may have seemed to tell people anyway; because maybe Charles could go to Azkaban before he even could find out the truth about Remus and the others. And maybe, if he did find out, he would show them mercy and bring it out on her instead. And maybe, if he chose to go after them, they could protect themselves. And maybe her loved ones could finally get their justice and she could live in peace.

But then, she got to thinking about her mum. About Gemma and Fayola too. And then she realised that their lives had been lost simply because they ticked Charles off.

And suddenly, she knew that she had to protect them. So, she made her choice.

"I won't talk," Claudia said quietly. "That is if you leave them alone and promise me to not say a word about Remus and my friends."

"I won't," Margaret said with a small nod and a look of triumph that made Claudia furious.

So, that's when she realised that maybe something good could came out of it all. Maybe she could push her grandmother further just as she had done with Nicolas all those months ago when she managed to get what she wanted in exchange for her silence.

"But you also have to promise me that you will do everything in your power to make sure that I don't get the Dark Mark," Claudia said with a sudden look of confidence. "And you have to promise that you will do everything you can to stop them from hurting me again."

Margaret nodded, because she was almost proud of Claudia for taking what she wanted.

"I promise," she said. "I'll shall keep all of you safe."

"Good," answered Claudia. "Now I'd quite like to go home."

"You are home," said Margaret.

Claudia stared up at her, "I'm not home. I don't...I had a home. It was mum. And he took her from me."

Margaret nodded understandingly, deciding not to press on the matter any longer because she knew her granddaughter deserved so much more than she got.

Even if she couldn't give it to her.

"I'm going home, and you're covering for me," Claudia decided. "And you better keep your promises, or else I'll...I'll do it."

"All you have to do is keep yours, and I will," Margaret said, and then Claudia apparated away.

She landed, thankfully, at the Lupin cottage, just as she was supposed to that night according to the plan. She had no idea what time it was, but it appeared to be late considering that it was as dark as it was and that none of them seemed to be around. She could hear Lyall snoring from nearby, which weirdly caused her to grow emotional.

She thought about what it would be like to have a father. Well, she had one, but it wasn't as if he was anything like Lyall, or Fleamont or Daktari.

He was plain and pure evil, and Claudia couldn't understand how that was.

Because what drives a person to be so cruel?

She would never have the answer to that. She just wished that things were different. She wished that her father was kind and good, and that he was the one who was snoring in the room nearby instead of being the one who killed every person she loved.

And, most of all, she wished that she didn't miss him. No, she didn't miss him, but she missed the idea of him. The idea of a dad. The idea of having someone who loved her just as her mum had done.

She wished that she was someone else, in all honesty.

Claudia sat down by the kitchen table slowly as if she was careful to break something, and then she just sat and stared for a while, until tears finally started coming out of her eyes.

"Claudia?" She heard Remus' tired voice say as he approached her. "Oh, it's you. Thank god, I thought that something had happened. I've been up all night waiting for y..."

Remus stopped talking, because he noticed how she was crying.

Without even questioning her, because he had learned to wait a while so that she could answer if she truly wanted to, the boy wrapped his arms around her.

"Oh, my love," he whispered as she started crying even more, a million flashbacks of her mum flying through her mind.

Because now it was as if someone had opened up old wounds.

__________________________________