Fugitive

Mr. and Mrs. Boyd were a very nice couple living in Edinburgh, and no one could deny it. Other than their niceness, there was not much to talk about them, except for Mrs. Boyd's obvious melancholy.

Mr. Boyd was the Arts teacher in the neighbourhood school. He was a thin, dark blond, tall man, who loved flowers and painting above all things, including his wife. Mrs. Boyd was a short, thin redhead whose deep green eyes seemed to be always looking for something, and she barely ever smiled. Mrs. Boyd worked in the same school as her husband, but as an Food and Health Technology teacher.

The only thing they had in common was friendship, because in spite of being married, they didn't share any other sort of love. They were simply loyal to each other, and to their daughter, Lily.

Violet had been married to Roger for only six months when the child was born. A beautiful ginger, who already had her face full of freckles, and bright gray eyes that made people feel like she could see inside them. Of course she couldn't, really, for Lily was just a baby.

Because of Lily, Violet had become best friends with her neighbour Rachel Allen, who had a boy called Hector, only one day older than little Lily. No one ever knew Hector' father, but Rachel described him as a very odd man, in every possible aspect, who wouldn't contact her back, no matter how hard she tried.

The Boyds did not have what we can call a perfect life. They lived downtown in a really nice apartment, barely ever fought, and spent their evenings having pleasant chats with Rachel during dinner, as they watched the children play on the floor, but truth was, Violet was a very sad person to live with. She was a quiet woman, who barely ever smiled, even when she was happy. She was always looking at the sky, as if she expected it to fall over her head, and looked very melancholic at all times. Her students found her classes boring, and she found them equally uninteresting, even those who cooked well. Violet acted the same with animals, and dogs seemed to drive her especially unhappy. Truth be told, Violet seemed to be constantly fighting back tears and no one, absolutely no one, could tell why.

The only thing that seemed to make Violet happy was Lily. Watching that little girl, and know they were a part of each other, was the only insurance she had that her true life was real, and not a distant dream.

It was Halloween on that cloudy monday, and the two women were together in the kitchen cooking and baking sweets for children who would later knock on the door saying "trick or treats?". Violet felt an odd chill go up her spine when she saw the clouds outside. They were so thick and dark the light could barely get through them.

"Oh, Violet, isn't it perfect for Halloween? Funny, isn't it?" Said Rachel. Rachel tended to be a bit over optimistic, which compensated Violet's constant misery. "I love Halloween, you know? Feels so magical! It's perfect! So dark and mysterious, and all those children dressed like witches and vampires and ghosts!"

Violet was busy looking outside. Those clouds were definitely abnormal. Something was wrong.

"I can barely wait for the day when our babies will first go out to ask for sweets. Can't you picture them doing that?" Rachel wasn't really paying attention when Violet half nodded in response. "It's gonna be really fun, isn't it?"

Violet pretended to laugh and excused herself for a moment and went to her bedroom. She needed to think.

The sky was unnaturally dark, the air was freezing cold, and there was only one explanation for that. Violet couldn't really tell if it was just an especially bad day, or if the feeling that she would never be cheerful again came from non-beings, but she decided not to wait and see.

She groped under the bed until her hands found the loose board on the floor, and under it, her fingers felt their way to the thin, long wood stick. That's where she kept her wand, where no one could ever find it. Her trembling fingers held the object for a moment when she brought it closer to her eyes.

It had been years since she had last held it.

Violet had hidden in the muggle world, waiting for signs that she could go back. After seeing some great friends being tortured, she decided to leave everything behind, to protect her loved ones. The Death Eaters would never leave her family and friends alone, and she knew it. And nothing could make her more miserable than have to leave them all, and don't even be sure they were alive. Yet, Violet hid, and lived her life with a muggle.

The only thing she couldn't hide was her daughter. Young Lily was most certainly a witch, and had already performed her first shows of accidental magic. And Violet was certain that, on that very evening, she had been found. The Dementors would come for her and there was nothing she could do about it, except for hiding her wand in her sleeve and waiting for those foul hooded things to come.

There was a strong smell of cake in the kitchen when she went back, and she had to cut two slices of it and pour some tea for Rachel and herself.

In the living room, Lily and Hector were crawling, chasing each other in a baby's way to play tag.

There was thunder outside, but no rain. Violet took a sip of her tea, staring at the dark sky, waiting to see a slimy hand on the glass at any moment.

Downstairs, the door opened and then closed, and Violet nearly jumped out of her skin before she heard the steps of her husband downstairs, and then his cheerful voice, claiming that he would be cooking dinner tonight.

Roger always made food look like pieces of art on the flowery plates, even though it was almost always tasteless, despite of Violet's constant advice when he was in the kitchen.

There was a long conversation about the weather: it seemed that a storm would be coming, but there was no wind, just dark clouds. Violet just sat quietly in an unusual way, even for her. Muggles couldn't see Dementors, if they were in danger, she would be the only one there to protect them.

Occasionally, a knock on the door would make them get up to go give children some sweets, and both Roger and Rachel were surprised to see how Violet was the one to go downstairs every time. The cake had long been finished at half past eleven, when Rachel got up from her seat on the sofa and got Hector from where he was asleep on the floor, holding hands with Lily.

When Violet and Roger went to bed, she hid the wand in the nightstand drawer, before her husband came to join her.

"Is everything alright?" It was the first thing he asked.

"Yes." She lied, staring at the mirror that covered the wardrobe door, and looked at the wary face in his reflection.

"Look, I know when something is wrong with you. I know there are things you never told me. You can tell me, I won't blame you. There are things I never told you either." Violet smiled faintly. She loved how his Scottish accent seemed to grow when he spoke softly. "I can tell, if you want to listen." Violet nodded, and finally turned to face him. His brown eyes were distant.

"Alright then," he cleaned his throat "There was a woman once, Elizabeth. I was madly in love with her, could paint her all day long. She was obsessed with flowers, especially lilies."

"Was that why you wanted to call our daughter Lily?"

"Yes. And perhaps that was why I asked you to marry me only three months after we first met." He answered before going on with the story. "Elizabeth was everything to me. We grew up together, she taught me about art. We promised we would get married when we were seventeen, but then… we found out she was ill." Roger had continuously decreased his tone of voice to a whimpering whisper. Violet felt the need to hold his hand, but she didn't. Finally, the man looked up at her again. "Now, your turn. Was there someone else?"

"Well, there was. I loved someone. Still do. But this is not what I'm keeping from you. Just look at Lily, and you will know. When you know, you can ask." She saw his confused face, but couldn't keep answering. It was already too much.

It took a long time until she could finally fall asleep and, when she did, she dreamt of a green flash of light on the windows of an unknown house. She woke up in the morning, and swallowed back the scream in her throat when she realized she was home.

On the grey, dull Tuesday morning that followed Halloween, Violet saw something she had never expected. Sitting on the fence outside the apartment's glass back door, there was an owl. An owl she had already seen… a severe looking screech owl. She didn't have much time to look at it, because Lily woke up crying.

As Roger walked into the living room and sat at the table near the sofa with the newspaper in his hands, Violet tried her best to look calm.

"That's odd" He said after turning a page. "A house exploded in a wee town called Godric's Hollow, in England. I never heard of such place." Violet grabbed the newspaper out of her husband's hands, ignoring his complaints. Godric's Hollow. It wasn't supposed to be mentioned in muggle newspapers… Could it be only on hers?

"That's odd, indeed." She said, more to herself than to Roger. Then she looked at the clock on the wall. It was half past Seven. "Oh, deary me. We are going to be late!"

In the blink of an eye, both of them had at their eggs and swallowed the coffee and got dressed for work.

There was a knock on the glass door, and Violet turned to see Rachel smiling widely with Hector in her arms. Rachel was a University professor, and spent most of her time working at home rather than at the University - except when she had classes to teach - so she looked after Lily in the morning, while Roger and Violet were at the school, and then spent the rest of the day with Violet, since Roger came home two hours after his wife.

Lily, who had been on her high chair, was put in the ground and crawled to the boy. They immediately started playing in their mysterious way. Lily tried to stand, using the coffee table for support. She had been trying to take her first steps for the last week, while Hector experimented with his first nearly understandable sounds. He was watching her as she moved her baby legs.

For the first time in her life as a Muggle, Violet did the unthinkable: she took her wand outside the house. The day wasn't as dark as the previous evening, and there was nothing like the horrible chill Dementors brought, but that owl and the explosion in Godric's Hollow had not happened out of coincidence. Someone important had died last night, the only remaining information there was to get was if it had been someone from the Order or a Death Eater. Her heart sank in her chest. Could… could he have died in Godric's Hollow last night?

Teaching is not something to be done by a teacher whose head is up on the clouds, and much less by a teacher whose heart feels like it is missing. Therefore, Violet's classes on that morning were terribly boring and dull.

Other than that, it was a normal day. She managed to make two of her students understand the true importance of timing between serving the courses and had lunch with Roger and heard him tell her all about all his student's researches on artists around the world. Violet stopped a boy from bullying a girl, and three of her students called sick on that day. As for her own feelings, the woman was proud of being able to stand.

At Three in the Afternoon, Violet left to go home and spend some time with Rachel before Roger came. Perhaps they could take the children to the park and let them play around for a little bit, she thought while crossing the Meadows to go home.

However, her ideas disappeared when she looked up at the trees. There were over a hundred owls sitting on them and, to Violet's horror, all of them seemed to be staring at her. She ran towards her house and locked herself in.

Violet didn't get any sleep on that night. Finally, she gave up on rolling on the bed and headed to Lily's room. She got the baby, carefully not to wake her up, and went to sit by the window, watching the street. It was silent. Completely silent. But there was an uneasiness in the air, it was heavy inside her lungs.

Then a figure appeared. Someone wearing a dark cloak walked to the door and knocked. They tried the door knob. To Violet's horror, one hand slowly raised a wand. Violet needed to see no more. She ran to her bedroom, woke Roger up and handed him Lily, along with the car keys and some money.

"Go. Get into Rachel's apartment, take her and Hector. Get in the car and go. Go to Glasgow, I will meet you there." Roger didn't know anything, but the terrorized gaze in his wife's eyes told him to ask no questions. She watched as he left through the common area to meet Rachel.

The footsteps came up the stairs two seconds after that. Mentally, Violet recited all the spells she could use in a duel, as her heart pounded into her head. She held tight to her wand and pictured Lily's face in her mind as her eyes became filled with tears. Her daughter. That would be her last thought.

The hooded figure finally made it to her field of vision, one hand holding a wand, the other hand raised to his hood. Violet didn't give him time, she didn't want to see what face lied beneath that dark fabric.

"Stupefy!"

The figure was thrown against the wall, and it seemed to shake. A painting fell over the person's head, who spat some curse words.

His voice felt like a gulp of hot chocolate in a cold day. Her heart was still pounding, but now she couldn't hold back a smile, and couldn't stop herself from rushing to the man on the floor and aiding him to get up.

The man was Sirius Black.

"Merlin's beard, Freckles," he said, grabbing her hand to help himself up "You could have killed me."

"I'm sorry, Padfoot." Violet made sure to call him what his friends called him, so there was no doubt about his identity, just as he had just done to her.

Sirius immediately wrapped his arms around Violet as if his life depended on it. A warmness spread all over Violet's body. She honestly didn't expect to feel that ever again.

"How did you find me?" She finally managed to ask, as she didn't want to let go of him.

"I had heard rumours that you could be in Edinburgh. I didn't want to come at first because of the letter you left me, but after last night, I had no choice. I had to see you. It was easier than I expected."

"What about last night?" She cut him. Her letter and the need to meet again were subjects she would rather forget about, or at least buy herself some time to think of what to say.

"Oh, Violet..." His voice was a mix of pity and pain. "Lily and James are dead."

If Sirius' appearing felt like hot chocolate, learning about Lily and James felt like going out of a warm shower and into a blizzard. Violet had to hold onto Sirius' shoulders for support, for she could barely keep standing.

"Wha-what happened?" She could barely ask, her stomach was revolving inside her.

"You-Know-Who found them. Wormtail gave them away." Violet felt as if the ground was gone. Out of all people, why them? Poor Lily. Poor James.

Poor Sirius.

She could see the sorrow in his eyes. The man was about to lose his mind, so Violet had to pull herself together and guide him by the hand to sit with her on the sofa, even though she had to use the walls to support her own weight.

"Merlin's beard, Violet, everyone thought I was the one who knew! They are going to think I betrayed them!" He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. He had the eyes of a mad man.

"Sirius, calm down! Come, sit down, I will make you a cup of tea!" She said.

"No. I have to go soon. They will look for me."

"I can't let you go like this. I already left you alone once, it won't happen again."

"I Have to go. I will only put you and your beautiful family in danger." His voice was cold, painful.

"Then at least stay until you calm down." Violet made him sit. Then she followed Sirius' eyes, which were glaring at one of the many pictures of young Lily.

"How old is she?"

"One year old. Her name is Lily." Now that name had gained a whole different meaning.

"She looks like you." He said, his voice dry and distant, as if he wasn't actually in the room.

"She does. She is showing magic already."

Sirius was suddenly unable to listen to that woman talk about another man's baby. He would rather talk about yet another baby.

"Anyway, there's some good news at last. The boy lived. And the Dark Lord is gone."

"Gone?" She whispered in shock. Gone. After all those dark years, he was gone. "Wait, did Lily and James have a baby boy?"

"Harry. My godson!" He shouted. "Oh, Violet, how can you not know? Haven't you even taken a look outside? What have you been doing meanwhile hiding like a coward? You left me, Violet! ME! A witch like you. You… you were valuable to us! You were one of our best duelists, you held Him on your own for nearly two hours! Maybe the Potters would still be alive if…" He didn't seem himself. Violet cried uncontrollably, unsure if the cause was the loss of her friends or Sirius' words, or even his bare presence. Still, she got a grip of herself and shouted back.

"I couldn't have done anything! I knew too much! Too many names! I couldn't risk giving it to him, no matter how long I could hold him." Sirius was shaking.

"You wouldn't be alone."

"I know…" Violet cupped his face with her hands. "That's why I had to leave." She said gently.

He fell to his knees in front of her, taking in what she had said. "I'm sorry I said all of that. It's just that… James and Lily…" She hugged him, stroking his hair as both cried.

"You have to believe me, Violet. I didn't do it. I didn't tell him." He cried. She cupped his face between her hands.

"I believe you." She whispered.

Then he kissed her. Both could feel how each other longed for that moment for the past years. She could feel it. She belonged with him. With her world. She should go back with him. She didn't even love Roger. She liked him a lot of course, he was an amazing husband, but her heart belonged to Sirius and there was nothing she could possibly do about that. But then there was Lily. Her little baby.

She couldn't go.

Violet broke the kiss.

"I am so sorry…" She said.

"Come with me, Violet. Let's go somewhere else. Let's hide somewhere… We can go to… We can go to Brazil, or Australia… you always said you wanted to go somewhere warmer, didn't you?"

"I can't… I can't leave Lily here."

"Then bring her along! We can be a family, like we always wanted!"

"How can I go back, Sirius? After leaving like that… After so many have died, how can I go back and face everyone?"

"Who gives a damn about everyone? You don't have to look at them, we can go somewhere where there's just the two of us!"

"Hiding? Running away from Aurors? How can I put Lily through that? Sirius… If it were just me, I would follow you without blinking. But it's not. I can't do this to her." There were tears in her eyes again.

"I… I understand." He said, with what seemed to be a knot in his throat. "I… I must leave, then."

"No. Please, stay some more!" Even after refusing his offer, Violet was still desperate to spend some time with him. "How could the boy survive? There's no way to survive a killing curse!"

"I know." Answered Sirius. "It's a mystery. He is the boy who lived. The one who defeated You-Know-Who."

"After all of that… A little boy…"

"He has a mark. A scar on his forehead, where the curse hit him, I saw it when Hagrid came to take him. Said the boy is going to live with his uncles - despising people, James told me - He… He looks so much like James."

Sirius touched her cheek with one finger while his voice wandered through his memories.

"I missed you so much…" He whispered. Violet held his hand and kissed it's palm.

"So did I. And I will still miss you, every single day.

"I love you, Violet." He said.

"I love you." She answered.

Then, with another deep kiss, he said goodbye and walked to the middle of the living room.

"One more thing. If I don't come back, watch over Harry for me, will you?" Violet opened her mouth to reply, but was caught by surprise with Sirius' final phrase. "He has Lily's eyes."

Sirius Black disapparated.