Chapter 1: The Late Deliveries
Mr. and Mrs. Ma`eva were very kind people. Mr. Ma`eva used to be a writer and would write simply fabulous books that would be published and read by many lovely people. It happened one day that he had a nasty fall down the stairs and found that the incident had left his brain scrambled. The poor man could no longer create his cunning plots or shape his multi-faceted characters. The Ma`evas were very smart people and had kept most of his hard earned money in savings, leaving little to want for in their ripe age of seventy-six.
While this was all well and dandy, Mr. Ma`eva would sit most nights at the little breakfast table with a notepad and scribble and scribble and try to recreate something even close to his former glory. His inability to participate in one of his favorite past times greatly disturbed and frustrated him. By the morning, balls of yellow paper would sometimes be ankle deep with every sentence hardly making sense with itself much less each other.
It was a night like this that found the couple sitting together. Mr. Ma`eva determinedly making letters on paper and Mrs. Ma`eva, having taken too late a nap that day, sipping on some Earl Grey tea. Every few minutes or so she'd offer her husband some Earl Grey to which he'd ask for coffee, which they hadn't had in their house for forty years.
It was storming terribly that particular night. Buckets of water slammed against the windows loudly. Their nearly senile golden retriever Nana was sprawled across the entry way mat, stiff and unmoving, like someone had simply stuffed the poor creature and left her there as a decoration. Frequently, a clap of thunder shook the air.
"I want some coffee!" Mr. Ma`eva yelled at his wife, starting to worry that she couldn't hear him then almost instantly forgetting his request.
If it hadn't been for Nana, the old couple probably wouldn't have heard the knock on the door over the obnoxious weather. As it was, they had no idea what was wrong when Nana suddenly lifted her old head and began to bark at a blank wall. It might have been left with Nana barking and the storm raging if Mrs. Ma`eva had wished to be asked for coffee one more time. As it happened, this was not her desire. She eased herself out of her chair and went to pat the dog on the head. Without faltering, the straining dog continued to reprimand the wall.
"No one's there, Nana. Look no one's outside either. Yes, look. No on-oh. Hello, dears! Come in, come in!" the old woman ushered the young children into her house, "Samuel, we have company!"
"No, I want coffee!"
"Samuel..." Mrs. Ma`eva turned kindly towards the little girls, drenched to the bone, "Oh my! What happened to your little sister?"
"She got scared." the bigger little girl answered. She had long black hair and scratches on her face and arms. She was supporting the little toe-headed girl.
"Samuel!" Mrs. Ma`eva yelled at her husband, "I'll just get a towel, dear." the old woman hobbled up the staircase as quickly as she could. The conscious child watched her quietly.
"Grace, how many times do I have to ask for coffee?" Mr. Ma`eva came out of the kitchen. His eyes widened at his damp guests. "You aren't Grace." Nana had finally gotten to her feet and was excitedly sniffing the flower pot next to the door that was a few feet away from the girls.
Mr. Ma`eva came up to the little girls. The older one gave him a stony look.
"Samuel, take that little one to the couch!" Mrs. Ma`eva called as she came back down the stairs, a stack of towels in her arms. The older one grudgingly gave her sister up and closely followed behind Mr. Ma`eva as he carried her to the living room.
"Maybe we should call an ambulance." Mrs. Ma`eva said worriedly, putting a towel around the black haired girl's shoulders and rubbing some feeling back into her numb skin before turning to the other little one.
"So," Mrs. Ma`eva said when the little girls were warmer and only a little damp. Mr. and Mrs. Ma`eva were sitting with the bigger girl at the breakfast table with hot cocoa, "Where are your mummy and daddy?"
The little girl turned her spoon around in her hot drink for a few minutes. Then she glanced over her shoulder at her little sister. "They died." she replied, her eyes lowered. Her face was riddled with bandaids to help heal up the multiple scratches.
Mrs. Ma`eva silently caught her breath while Mr. Ma`eva began to scribble on his paper again, seemingly untroubled.
"W-what happened, dear?"
"A werewolf killed them."
"A-a werewolf? Dear, those creatures are nightmare horrors."
"Oh." the little girl's gray eyes examined the old couple a few quiet seconds. "I see. You're Muggles."
"Mugs?" Mrs. Ma`eva asked, confused, leaning forward.
"Where's that coffee?" Mr. Ma`eva resurfaced from his cloud as he crumpled up another sheet of paper and tossed it nonchalantly on the floor.
"Samuel, are you even listening?"
"Listening to what-who is that, Grace?" Mr. Ma`eva leaned and readjusted his glasses to look at the little girl who matched his look with a stony air.
Nana walked into the door frame a few times.
"Oh!" Mr. Ma`eva snapped his fingers excitedly, "The stork finally came, did it, Grace. I thought that was just an old wives' tale. We really have been doing it wrong all these years." the old man excitedly began to write on another sheet of paper.
"Don't worry, dear, he's a little better in the morning." Mrs. Ma`eva sighed.
"Mummy!" a soft voice called from the couch. The old woman and the little girl hurried over to look at the little blonde girl who was vigorously rubbing her eyes. "Who are you." she said icily upon seeing the other little girl. The latter's expression darkened severely.
"Did your sister hit her head when she got scared?" Mrs. Ma`eva asked the dark girl worriedly.
"Half-sister." she replied sharply, leaning away from the couch and the blonde girl. "She's a Valerian, Phoebe Valerian. I'm a Black, Sirius Black."
"What unusual names." Mrs. Ma`eva said as she leaned over Phoebe.
Phoebe blinked half-closed blue eyes at her.
"Are you going to send us away?" she asked sadly.
It took many trips into downtown before the little girls were allowed to stay with the old couple and a few more before they fully understood that Phoebe's traumatic experience, whatever it had been that night, had been locked away in her mind to protect herself. The little girl couldn't recall anything before that night. It took weeks for her to understand the dark little girl was her sister but she readily accepted the Ma`evas as "Mummy" and "Papa".
It took a few months for Mr. Ma`eva to wake up and remember that he now had a six and seven year old in his house. He had stopped asking what their names were but continued to ask where the coffee was. Mrs. Ma`eva seemed to be filled with energy at the idea of getting up early and making a big breakfast for the children she had always wanted. She had more patience with her idle-minded husband with the girls around.
After a year, routines had been set up and she soon began to look forward to sending Phoebe to first grade and Sirius to second. Phoebe was doing great in the home. She loved to read big books and would read for hours with Mr. Ma`eva. On bad days, she would read his best books to him. Mrs. Ma`eva would sit and knit and listen., smiling and wondering why her perfect family had to come so late, when she was so low on energy.
Unfortunately, Sirius didn't do half as well as her little sister.
The dark girl would sometimes stay in her room the better part of the day. She was quiet and wouldn't say much, maybe because Mrs. Ma`eva kept trying to ask what happened the night they met and spend most of her energy scolding the little girl for the tricks she'd play. The eight year old had gone to saying "I don't remember" involving most questions of her past and had developed a habit of saying the same thing if there was a question she didn't desire to answer. Mrs. Ma`eva usually scolded her if her question was cut off by the moody child.
She said nothing more of werewolves or Muggles but sometimes Mrs. Ma`eva would catch her downstairs in the middle of the night, listening at the front door and peeking out the living room windows, as if waiting for something to come looking for them. Sirius spent time with the family either making jokes of a more negative nature or silently watching her sister, as if waiting for some sort of strange thing to suddenly happen.
Mrs. Ma`eva was only happy that Sirius helped Nana. Nana was the little girl's only friend and companion as long as she could keep up. The old woman also knew that Sirius didn't dislike the family, she was "in the mourning period" as the psychiatrist explained. It would take longer for Sirius to accept another family since she remembered her other so well and had been ripped away from them so violently. The little girl did refer to the old couple as Aunt and Uncle Ma`eva sweetly.
Once Mrs. Ma`eva was awoken earlier than usual by the smell of brewing coffee. She found Sirius downstairs, moody as usual. The old woman had begun to take out the customary breakfast items while the little girl watched her silently.
"Where did you find coffee, Sirius?" the old woman finally asked while she heated up the stove top.
"I asked the neighbors." she replied quietly. A few minutes passed in silence. "Please, please don't get hurt because of me. Please don't ever die."