It had been nearly a decade since he’d last been in Hogsmede. Though iago was uncomfortably reminded of how untrue that was. The night of the battle, in the aftermath, he’d secreted himself away here and erased the evidence of his sister’s presence in the alley where she’d apparated from. But that was a night he would very much like to forget. Truthfully he’d considered turning her in; and they’d even talked about it at length. But Iago knew what Lara’s reasons for joining that order had been. And what her refusal would have meant for both her siblings, and the two young children Iago now had. They’d all be dead, by his father’s own hand or by the dark lord’s… and it was because of that, and because she’d severed ties with them, and wanted to focus on rebuilding their family with him, free of the past, and from their father, that he had not. But today, those thoughts were fleeting, only whispering through his mind as he passed by that Alleyway without a glance.
No. Iago was here for something important, and though it was sad, there was also a smile on his face as he did so. His wife had always been a woman of forethought, and though there were precious few things that had been recovered from the fire, one of those had been her oversized keepsake box, that she’d enchanted against fire before she’d ever met him. The contents were undamaged and the box unharmed, but he’d only been able to bring himself to open it recently. It hadn’t taken him long to go through what was in it, mostly little treasured things that she’d collected over the years. Many of the things within it he was saving for his children, though the book of poetry was going to be given to his sister, assuming he could get gabriella to agree to meet him. Rose was right, that was a relationship he needed to repair. But there had been three things in the box that Iago didn’t need to be a seer to know in whose hands Isabella would have wanted those placed.
He was surprised when Cerce had agreed to meet him in hogsmeade, though truthfully he felt a little strange being there on a school weekend. He felt horribly old watching all the children and teenagers running around. But he’d agreed to buy Isabella’s young niece lunch, and had brought pictures of the kids for her. He had of course told her why he wanted to see her, though not what he’d found. A man had to keep some secrets after all…
Walking into the three broomsticks was like a wave of Nostalgia, he could even picture himself with his friends all crammed into one booth, or that time with the soft spoken brunette in Gabriella’s house that he’d… no he really shouldn’t think of such things. Cerce was easily spotted, and he smiled at her, joining the girl at the table that she’d chosen. “Hello little cousin.†he said with a smile, even though she had been his wife’s. Iago really didn’t make such distinctions, and it did get rid of the few stares that he’d been getting from people wondering why a man in his thirties was meeting with a girl nearly half his age.
