I was sitting on the floor of the hallway, waiting for Marlene and Sirius. I'd sent them my Patronus, saying that there had been a Dark Mark over my family's house, and now I was waiting for them to arrive.

Maybe I'd know what to do when they were with me.

I didn't even have to wait a full minute.

"Merlin, Freya, are you okay?"

Sirius dropped to his knees on my right and put a hand on my shoulder.

Marlene hugged me from the other side.

"Yeah," I said. My emotions were a mess. I didn't know how to feel, and I felt bad about that.

"He's in the living room."

Marlene and Sirius exchanged a look.

"Your Dad?" Sirius asked me and I nodded.

"Mum and Francisca are at work. That's why I called you, I don't know what I'm supposed to do now."

The couple exchanged another look.

Sirius stood up and walked towards the living room, whereas Marlene helped me get up. "I think we should call the Ministry, so that they get the Aurors to investigate the case and obliviate the muggles."

In trance, I nodded. How come I hadn't thought of that? "Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

I chuckled embarrasedly. "Is it bad that I'm not really sad?"

Marlene didn't say anything.

Sirius returned from the living room and took my free hand. "From what you've told me, no. I wouldn't miss my parents either. I think I'd celebrate, actually."

I cracked a weak smile. That had actually helped. "Thanks."

He ruffled my hair. "Anytime. Now, Marls, you call the Ministry and Freya and I take care of the Dark Mark, alright?"

She nodded and Sirius tugged on my hand to lead me to our front yard.

"C'mon, Frey."

Luckily, we'd already made Dark Marks vanish on order missions, so it didn't take long to let the white light consume the green mark in the sky.

My lower lip quivered when I dropped my wand, and before I knew it, I was crying.

Sirius immediately appeared in front of me and pulled me into a hug.

"Shh, it's alright."

I clung onto him as if he were my lifeline. In a way, he was.

"I know," I sobbed. "I don't even know why I'm crying." My sobs mixed with laughter for a few seconds, before I just cried again.

"You're overwhelmed, that's all. It's normal." He stroked my hair soothingly and I caught me closing my eyes and hugging him even tighter.

His presence just had this comforting effect on me. When I closed my eyes and just breathed in his scent, it was as if I was still in a time when everything had been easy.

When my crying subsided, Sirius pulled out of the embrace and held me at arm lenght, stroking my upper arms. "Better?"

I took a deep breath and nodded. Then I noticed that Marlene had come out of the house, too and was standing next to Sirius. She gave me an encouraging smile.

Somehow, this broke the dam and my tears returned. This time, it was Marlene who hugged me.

"They will inform your Mum and Francisca, they'll come with them. You're all fine, that's the most important thing."

I nodded, not letting go of my best friend. She didn't, either.

"You're lucky you were at the order meeting. Or that you went to see Peter," Marlene continued. "They were probably after the magical part of your family, including you."

I nodded again. I'd figured that much. I knew that we'd had an immense amount of luck. My father hadn't.

But considering that he'd been killed in the living room, he hadn't even made an effort to look who'd entered the house.

Just stupid, really.

A bang made me pull out of the embrace and turn around.

Several Ministry officials were standing in front of me, some looking at the sky doubtfully.

"Miss Tygris?" The one in front with a bowler hat asked me. I nodded.

"Can you tell us what happened?"

I gulped, looking back at Marls and Sirius for comfort.

"Well, I don't really know, I was at a friend's place. But when I returned home, I saw that the front door was open and there was a Dark Mark in the sky. I went in and found my father's corpse, then I called my friends and we called you."

The man took notes, nodding, while his colleagues were already swarming around the place, going into the house and ringing the neighbors' doorbells.

"Was your father a muggle or wizard?"

"Muggle," I replied. "They probably wanted to get my mother, sister or me."

"What are your occupations?"

"My mother and sister are Healers at St. Mungo's and I'm an Auror in training."

The man looked up from his parchment, his brown eyes studying me intently. "I see."

He put his notes away and cleared his throat. "Now, the Ministry will take care of the formals, like trying to find the responsible Death Eaters and obliviating muggles.

Your family will have to move, as this place obviously isn't safe anymore. Understood?"

I nodded. I knew that much. I mean, I'd just told him that I was an Auror to be.

"Do you have a place to stay the night?"

"She does," Marlene piped up, coming closer to stand beside me. "She can stay with us."

I smiled at her. She nodded scarcely.

"Alright," the Ministry Official said. "Tomorrow, you can get all of your things and look for a new place. Now you should get rest. The Aurors will take care of everything."

"Freya!!" Over the official's shoulder, I could see Mum and Francisca run towards me.

Both of them immediately hugged me as tight as they could. "I'm so glad you're alright," Mum sighed and kissed my head.

I was so glad that they were alright. We had been super lucky that Mum and I both hadn't been at home.

Once Mum let go of me, she looked at the house. "What does this mean now?"

The Ministry Official had left sometime during our hug, so I answered. "We can get our most important stuff now and stay somewhere else over night. We can get the rest tomorrow and should move as soon as possible."

"I only have place to take one of you in, though," Francisca said with regret written all over her pretty face.

"It's alright, Marlene and Sirius offered to take me."

"Oh, alright. Mum, you can stay with me, then. Mum?"

Mum didn't take her eyes off our house.

"He's really gone?" She asked quietly.

I took her hand and Francisca stroked her arm.

"He is," I said softly. I couldn't imagine how Mum was feeling. I knew that she hadn't loved the man for a long time, but she'd still loved the person he'd once been. She'd already mourned him when my father was still alive, so theoretically, this didn't really change anything.

But of course, theory and practice were different things.

I'd never thought that I'd cry for that man either.

"Is it bad that I'm a little relieved?" Mum said with a guilty sounding voice, tears glistening in her eyes as she turned to look at her children.

I smiled at her.

This man had constantly screamed at us, treated us like his slaves, especially Mum. He'd abused us, and when we'd reached the age in which we could defend us, he'd continued with verbal abuse.

He'd never done anything for us.

Theoretically speaking, we were better off without him.

Actually, not just theoretically speaking. We were better off without him.

"No," I replied, giving my mum an encouraging smile. "It's really not."

I looked at the entrance of our house, where two men were holding a stretcher, carrying a person covered with a blanket.

I squeezed Mum's hand tighter and took Francisca's hand, too. "We're free now."