Surprising Truths (James and Prim)

Guest

When Prim got up that morning she had found a note lying on the bedside of her desk and while she had no idea how it got there she was quite sure she knew who the sender was. It took only one look at the name at the bottom of the note for Prim to be wide-awake and eagerly reading the words only to huff in annoyance when all it told her was to meet with James' in the Room of Requirements after lessons ended.

Which is why she was currently bundled up in some warm clothes and walking back and forth in front of the wall where the Room was, asking for something private but also something comfortable where the elves would be able to bring them some warm food and drinks as she was quite sure this was going to be a long meeting with quite a lot of questions from Prim for James.

Sighing, the girl pushed the door to the room opened when it appeared and she quickly made her way towards the couch that was situated by one of the walls where a fireplace was happily lit up and warming up the room. Plopping down on the seat the girl awaited her fellow Gryffindor.

Guest

His father had taken quite a while to respond to his letter regarding Prim. He took that as a sign of reluctance- possibly shame? Of course, he needed to keep his family name clean- so it would be no surprise that Prim was kept a secret.

However, when James did see the letter, well, he found out quite a lot that he didn't know about his family until now. He knew that often purebloods would keep secrets to keep the family in good light- but this seemed far-fetched, even to James.

He had to talk to Prim, let her know about the reply. It was only fair that she knew where she came from, he thought. He'd left her a note, telling her to meet him in the room of requirement.

When the time came, he made his way in. He saw Prim seated on couch in the room, and walked over to her, hand clutching his father's reply. He took a seat next to her and grinned "Took him a while, but here," he held out the letter for her to look at.

Guest

Truthfully Prim wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to hear what James' father had to say about all this but at the same time she needed to know. Just who was she? Who were her parents? Why had she been abandoned in an orphanage at such a young age?

So many questions yet Prim had so little knowledge; the fear of knowing was eating away at her but the want of knowing was growing stronger day by day. She knew she had parents, the question was just who her parents were. Before that day in the common room Prim had been sure that her parents were dead and some distant relative just left her at the orphanage but now she was feeling nothing about the revelation that she did have a family.

Whether that family wanted her was another matter entirely though and the brunette couldn't help but grimace as she watched James approach, her eyes wearily eyeing the letter in his hands which he handed over to her.

"...Bad news or good news?" She asked with a tilt of her head as she took the letter, her eyes falling to the contents and she read the letter.

Guest

"Well, good and bad I suppose," he shrugged a little bit. He wasn't entirely sure how she'd take the news. She'd have answers, yes. Whether or not they were, well, the expected answers was a different question.

His father's letter had been rather short, compared with other correspondances between the two over the years. But he had explained everything, at least. And that's what mattered.

The letter read:

Dear James,

I read your letter, and I admit, I had to read it a few times. I'm afraid that I haven't been quite honest about all the members of our family. The only possible way that this Primrose girl could be related is through your uncle, Walter.

You and your siblings have never met Walter, and probably never will. During You-Know-Who's second rise to power, Walter was a death eater. He genuinely believed that what he was doing was the right thing. Your grand parents were not impressed by his actions. Ultimately, when the war had ended, and he was one of the most wanted men in Britain for his war crimes, they erased him from the family tree. It was simpler to do that, rather than taint our good name.

It is unfortunate that such a secret was revealed in such a confusing way. Though I do hope that this clarified at least some of the confusion I imagine both you and Primrose are facing. Regretfully, I have no information on where Walter might be- the last I heard, he was residing in the United States. Nor do I know of who might be her mother.

Kind regards,

Charles

"Cousins, it seems," James added as he watched her read the letter.

Guest

Prim had heard of Walter Byrne, the most wanted man in United Kingdom straight after the Dark Lord's inner circle, maybe higher than some of them. To find out she was related to such a man, made Prim shiver in revulsion, her eyes wide with fear as her eyes roved over the letters, hoping that they changed but no matter how many times she read them the words didn't change.

The fourteen-year-old wasn't sure what to think about all of that; she thought she would feel some type of relief knowing that she had a family, and while she did feel that about her cousins and uncle, her father was an entirely different matter.

Knowing that she was related to a Death Eater, one who was probably the most wanted man right now made her angry, angry at her father for having joined a mad man and then for abandoning her in the middle of England. The least he could've done was maybe drop her off at some magical household and not in a muggle orphanage yet what happened had happened and Prim knew she couldn't change it.

"Father a Death Eater and Mother unknown." She muttered fairly annoyed as her brows furrowed. "I'm a dead woman walking if people find out I'm his daughter." She said it in such a blase voice that even she cringed. "I doubt I'd be welcome anywhere." And with magic being magic Prim knew for a fact that her surname would've changed or at least been hyphenated to Seele-Byrne which would make people question her parentage.

"Any idea what I should do... cousin?" She questioned James as she folded the letter up and handed it back to her cousin. "I doubt I'd be welcome in your house, considering that my father is the man who pretty much disregarded everything he was taught as a kid and joined a madman in a suicidal mission."

Guest

Honestly, reading that he had an uncle on his father's side had been quite a shock. And he didn't blame his father for wanting no association with him. And Prim's existence, knowledge of Prim's parentage potentially spreading throughout the wizarding world would not be good press for the Byrnes, who already had a scandal when it was revealed that someone so close to them had been a prominent death eater, nor would it be good for Prim, who would be a walking target.

He thought for a moment, a very complicated situation.

"It depends what the bigger scandal is, I suppose." James didn't feel it was right to ignore her, or pretend that she wasn't related when such information had been bought to light "That you're a famous death eater's daughter, or you're born out of wedlock to an honourable ministry man."

Both would be detrimental, but which one was least detrimental?

"I don't think it's possible to pretend that you're not related anymore. Not to me anyway, it'd be weird..."

Guest

As Prim listened to James she realized that this boy was probably in the same predicament as her; neither one knew what to do with this information now and the only way that Prim thought this could go was if she were to meet with her uncle, his father, to ask him what he wanted doing.

If it came out that she was Walter's daughter she'd be a walking, breathing, talking target for anyone who was after him; worst case scenario she would be used as bait to bring him back to England so he could get captured. Not to mention Prim was quite aware that abandoning your own child was travesty in the Wizarding World and Walter would, quite probably, be wanted for more than just being a Death Eater.

On the other hand, if she was going to be announced as Charle's daughter out of wedlock it would probably be the lesser of the two evils; yes she would be watched closely by all the purebloods but it would protect her from potential harm at least until she was willing to talk about her father and could protect herself.

"They're both detrimental to your...our family." She replied as she sat crossed legged on the couch and waved for James to join her on the one opposite her that just appeared. "...I would prefer the lesser of the two evils.. And you're right, I don't think I could go back to pretending in not knowing you..."

He was her family now and Prim always wanted family and she refused to bow down to the pressure of protecting herself from the danger of being the daughter of a famous Death Eater.

Guest

James took a seat on the couch that had appeared opposite of Prim. Yes, both detrimental. Though, a child from wedlock is much less detrimental than being so closely related to a death eater... In both his and Prim's case. And he was assuming, also with his father.

"I'd go with lesser of two evils," he nodded in agreement "I mean, it looks bad on our side, covering up having a death eater in the family... And then you being related to him would be even worse." he added.

His father was a great speaker, he had known that from a young age. He'd been forced to go to a great deal of speeches- his father probably trying to make him interested in following in his footsteps... Though really, he preferred sports.

"You being my half-sister would be much, much easier to explain than the whole death eater thing too..." he noted "Dad's a great speaker. Maybe a little tug at the heart strings would soften the blow."

Guest

Prim silently agreed to James' observation and truthfully she couldn't blame James' father, Charles, for covering up the fact that there was a Death Eater in the family; if Prim was in their place she would've done the same thing and she couldn't blame them. No who she blamed was her father who it seemed, to her anyway, didn't want anything to do with a kid.

"I would like to talk with your father to see what he would prefer." She said softly, wearily as she stared at James. "Me being related to him would be just as much of a travesty as if I was related to the Dark Lord himself." She scrunched her nose up at that, her whole body shivering. "Ugh, bad imagie."

"Would you mind that, though? Me being your half-sister?" She asked with a tilt of her head as she stared at James, wishing for once that she had some type of control over all of this but she knew that she didn't and whatever Charles decided she'd have to follow.

Guest

He nodded "Yeah, yeah of course." it would be much easier to sort things out, to explain them to his father face to face. Writing letters about this sort of thing just didn't work.

"I'll wrie back, we can plan to meet with him as soon as possible and sort out what'll happen. And hopefully, he's feeling nice," he replied. Honestly, it was probably the best option. And what pureblood family didn't have some sort of indescretion sometime throughout history? It was frowned upon, but not necessarily uncommon. He assumed people were just better at hiding it. Image was everything after all.

He considered her question, of her being his half sister. "I wouldn't really," he shrugged a little bit "If I didn't like you, it'd be difficult to do so. But you're quite nice..." he thought of his siblings, Anthony and Florrie for a moment "Anthony wouldn't either. Florrie might, but she'll get over it," he shrugged "It's not like they'd have much of a choice either way, depending on what dad says,"

» I'm a Byrne? (James and Prim)
» Explanation's and Reactions (Max and Prim)
» A Witch on Ice (Prim and Dimitri)
» After the Party (Prim and Max)
» How Time Flies { Max and Prim }