My Father's Legacy - Fred Weasley 18+

Ellen was reeling, she'd never been so angry before, never to the point of wanting to cry. This isn't fair. She cried internally, as the people around her in Hogsmeade would probably think she was insane if they'd seen the convicted Riddle felon storming the cobbled streets with tears streaming down her face.

Ellen had excused herself from work, luckily Jacob was already there and had the ability to cover for her- he didn't want to push her. He'd heard the conversation from the bar, and he knew she needed to process everything. She'd come back when she was ready.

Ellen stormed her way up the woodland walk to Hogwarts, huffing as she argued her case in her head. She soon found herself talking out loud as she trudged up the path.

"Did you get Crucio'd in your sleep when the tiniest thing went wrong? No, you didn't!
Did you have to cut yourself under the Imperio curse as a punishment for trying to be good? No! Of course not!
Did you drug Nagini so that Bathilda Bagshot had time to escape Voldemort the first time he tried to kill her? You didn't! I know you didn't!
Did you spend months of sleepless nights with Severus trying to undo the Imperius curse that forced you to kill Sirius? Thought not you fucking fucks!
How about tampering with the vanishing cabinet? Huh? No? You didn't? Shocker!
Did you disarm Dumbledore to ensure the Elder Wand never belonged to my father? Yeah fuck off that's what I thought!"

At this point in Ellen's self ranting, she'd come to stand before Severus' grave, and the tears had begun to escape her eyes.

She sniffled, "I'll never be able to make this up to you, Severus. You don't deserve to be painted in this way"

She looked down at his headstone, and kneeled before it, brushing some stray leaves that rested upon it. She brought her hand down to the base of the headstone and lightly brushed her fingers through the air, hovering over the grass. An arrangement of blush pink lillies appeared below her hand, laying in a neat cascade that allowed each flower the space to show itself off to the world.

No one would have guessed that the dark and eerie professor that marched the halls and threatened students loved the colour pink. She remembered when he had told her when they were playing around with veritaserum on her 12th birthday, and it made her giggle and charm his robes into a neon pink, almost matching the blush that filled his face. Severus was the only person she had happy memories with in her childhood. True happy memories, unlike the very few okay ones she'd shared with her father when he finally returned to her after all that time.

Ellen was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realise a tall figure walking towards her. They walked down the path, coming from the direction of Dumbledore's grave. The person stopped and stood a meter away from her, and admired the flowers that had been laid on Severus' grave.

"Pink is a bold choice for a man like Severus" a Scottish voice quipped, earning Ellen to turn her head to Headmistress McGonagall's direction and back to Severus' grave, smiling.

"Hello Minerva. You won't believe me when I tell you it's actually his favourite colour"

"And I'm sure he'd hex you now that you've even hinted it at it"

Ellen laughed and brushed her fingers across the flowers.

"He really would, wouldn't he" she said, allowing a comfortable silence to sit in the air.

Ellen always liked Minerva, and despite the obvious rivalries between them when she attended Hogwarts, there was always a level of respect that was shared between them. It's as though Minerva always knew where Ellen's true allegiances lay. Which was in fact the truth as Albus and Minerva were so tight at the hip that any and every which thing that came out of Ellen Lillian Riddle was discussed between the two like it was water cooler gossip.