The Good Slytherin

Chapter Twenty-Two: Eurydice

Eurydice was silent as the Ministry's latest representative filed out of the sitting room. For what seemed like the hundredth time, she had to recount the events leading up to the deaths of her mother, father, and sister. Again she had to deal with some Ministry fool with paperwork or an Auror asking questions. "Did you know your sister was a Death Eater? Did Hestia and Gerard Thorpe know she was a Death Eater? Are you yourself a Death Eater?" She had wanted to scream.

"Is this really necessary?" her husband had asked during the Ministry's most recent visit.

Mr. Ministry Man, or whatever his name was this time, had looked apologetic, adjusting his glasses and fiddling with his quill. "I'm afraid so. Mr. Gordon, your sister-in-law was known to be cavorting with the most dangerous men and women in Britain. We've interrogated the paintings at Thornridge House, but their descriptions of the two assailants has been vague . . ." Eurydice quickly had tuned him out; she had heard the speech before.

Now left alone, she starred numbly out the window and onto the bleak winter countryside. Minnie soon brought her tea, which she sipped quietly as the sun receded on the horizon. She was reminded of the steady stream of owls that arrived at the house after the deaths--family members, old Hogwarts friends, all sending their condolences. But she could tell in their letters that they didn't quite know how to address the nature of the tragedy. Up until that point, few people save for the Aurors knew that Delphinia was a Death Eater--something that Eurydice never openly advertised for obvious reasons.

As she sat there and watched the last of the sunlight fade into dusk, she once again thought of the same thought that had plagued her since the tragedy--was she to blame at all? Could she have helped Delphinia? Could she have prevented her parents' deaths?

"Do you want supper?" Her husbands voice snapped her out of her trance.

"I'm not hungry," she replied dismissively.

He came in and sat close to her on the sofa and patted her arm. They sat silently until he suddenly said, "Darling, this is probably not the time to be discussing this, but we need to think about the future."

She set down her tea. "What do you mean?"

"We need to think about our reputations here and this tragedy is having on the business. I've been talking with Sebastian. It's bad news for the Gordon family, I mean with Delphinia's involvement with Dumbledore . . . and the Dark Lord too."

She felt like she had been slapped. "What are you trying to suggest?"

"I'm only thinking of what's best for the family. We need to distance ourselves from this scandal as much as possible."

She had never thought of the deaths as cause for scandal and she knew that that Gordons prided themselves on reputation, but this was too much. The mere suggestion that clients were avoiding Gordon & Hollings made her face burn with humiliation and it didn't help to have her husband force some of that shame on her.

"Darling, don't look at me like that. It's a complicated matter," he said defensively.

"What do you want me to do? Pretend like it never happened?" Dusk was rapidly becoming night.

Sedgwick said nothing for a few moments. She looked at him searchingly before he continued, "I shouldn't have brought this up now. It's too early to be thinking of things like this." He kissed her forehead and made for the doorway, but turned and added, "You should really think about eating something. I worry about you and the baby . . ."

Eurydice wished that could be the end of that conversation, but unfortunately it wasn't. A week later, Sedgwick brought it up again and now the family was adding their two sickles worth--most vocal of the lot was her mother-in-law. The matter was so persistent that by the time Daphne was born three weeks later, Eurydice had been practically brain washed by the family into thinking that shame of Delphinia was far too great.

"I've been thinking," her husband said casually as she was tending to the baby. "We shouldn't tell Daphne about your sister or how your parents died. The disgrace would be too great--especially when she gets sorted into Slytherin." He said it as though there was no other choice.

In another time and place--another life perhaps--she would have argued with him, but the longer he stared at her expectantly, the longer she felt her will drain away. The venom coursing through her body, she slipped towards exhaustion. Grief had left her a poor imitation of herself.

Eurydice merely nodded her head yes and said, "Of course."