Starry skies and Gardenias

Chapter 13

Isabella found out many things within a couple of weeks, but not everything. And it bothered her a lot.

The Mirror of Erised was an enchanted mirror, and the reflection it showed was whatever the seer desired the most. 

Dementors were dark magical beings, very dangerous, they suck out all the hope and joy out of the person and leave them in utter despair. A dementor's kiss is said to suck out a person's soul. And a person who has suffered a dementor's kiss was better of dead. 

These Dementors guard the wizarding prison of Azkaban. Azkaban was a high-security prison, on an island somewhere in the middle of a dark, cold sea.

Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters had a symbol or a sign that they leave over places to show that it was their work. The Dark Mark, a colossal skull with a snake protruding out of its mouth. The mark was set over places, and it was usually considered that a murder had taken place.

The Death Eaters took it as entertainment, tormenting muggles demolishing muggle areas. It was their idea of fun. . .This annoyed Isabella to great extents. Those sick bastards.

The pureblood lines were elaborate and confusing, but it was a sort of constricted group, everyone was related to the other in some way or the other. There were a lot more half-bloods and muggleborns.

When she was looking for this, she found out about the Sacred Twenty Eight. 

Twenty-eight pureblood families.
Abbott
Avery
Black
Bulstrode
Burke
Carrow
Crouch
Fawley
Flint
Gaunt
Greengrass
Lestrange
Longbottom
Macmillan
Malfoy
Nott
Ollivander
Parkinson
Prewett
Rosier
Rowle
Selwyn
Shacklebolt
Shafiq
Slughorn
Travers
Weasley
Yaxley

These families were given a lot of power. They had ancient, highly guarded vaults in Gringotts and other wizarding banks. Not just in monetary terms, but these families had great influence in the Ministry of Magic. They had reserved seats in the Wizengamot.

The Wizengamot was basically the Wizarding court. And these families had a seat, and hence could influence the decision. Although, their power wasn't that much as the Minister of Magic themselves, and Chief Warlock, it still had some influence regardless.

The Sacred 28 had a rather confusing and weird way of maintaining. There was apparently a directory, and a few families were kicked out of the directory because they were blood traitors, a term used for the purebloods who associated with muggleborns or muggles.

But this wasn't absolute either. There were many pureblood families that weren't considered in the Sacred 28. But at the same time, there were many blood traitor families who were considered to be a part of the Sacred 28.
But these blood traitor families usually didn't attend any hearings, nor where they asked for their opinions.

It was a confusing system, and it seemed very whimsical.

Isabella only got a headache as she tried to figure out even a single rule how the system worked.

Then she went on to trying to read about the Ministry of Magic, which was yet another complicated system and so she had left it for after the Christmas break.

She was going home for the holidays and would return a few days before the new term started. She could read up on the Ministry of Magic then, and hopefully, she could brainstorm what the Stone Voldemort was searching for could be.

Christmas seemed to arrive faster that year. Maybe it was because not a single day at Hogwarts seemed monotonous. It was special every single day. She got to go to Hagrid's almost twice every week. She had met unicorns and a centaur. And she was learning magic!