"He was all she had left."
Sirius was over at James and Lily Potter's house. It was a place he frequented more often than his own apartment. This day he was there for Lily's baby shower. The whole crew was there. Well, Remus and Peter were. Their crew was rather small. Sirius was laughing at some joke James had made when a loud crack startled them all.
Albus Dumbledore himself was standing in front of them. "Hello to you all," He said in his characteristic cheerful tone.
It took everyone a moment to respond. "Albus, what brings you here?" Lily asked. "Is everything alright?"
"I have actually come to inform Sirius that his mother has passed away." Dumbledore responded. "She seemed to have had a heart attack in her sleep."
Everyone looked at Sirius as if they expected him to burst into tears and start breaking things. Sirius shrugged his shoulders. "My parents hated me. You can't possibly expect me to become emotional over this news. She was getting old anyhow."
"Sirius!" Lily hissed at him.
Dumbledore waved her off. "I did not expect you to be upset, Sirius. Though, you should recall that your father and brother passed away last year." He said.
Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Yes, I recall. What are you on about, Albus?" Sirius asked.
Dumbledore shook his head at Sirius. "You seem to have forgotten that you have a little sister, Sirius." He said, a slight tint of sadness to his voice.
"You have a sister, Sirius?" Remus asked.
Sirius rubbed his forehead. "Yes, Loan. She was born during my first year at Hogwarts." He said. "What about her?"
Dumbledore gave him a look as if he'd just asked how to spell Hogwarts. "She's orphaned, Sirius."
"How old is she now? Fourteen? She's old enough to take care of herself. I'm sure my parents left everything to her in their will." Sirius said.
"Sirius, fourteen is hardly old enough to take care of oneself!" Lily chastised him.
"She's nine, Sirius." Dumbledore said. "Loan is only nine years old."
"Well, certainly they have someone set up for this! She was an accident. My parent's 'most beautiful' mistake," Sirius said exasperatedly. "They must have prepared for this to happen, if it did. They were old when they had her."
"They did, Sirius. In case of their death, they listed Regulus as her guardian." Dumbledore said. "Which was fitting seeing as Regulus knew the girl much better than you do."
"If you're suggesting that I don't care about my sister…" Sirius snarled.
Dumbledore cut him off. "I'm suggesting nothing, your avid resistance to hear the truth is doing all the suggesting." He said. "In the case of the untimely death of Regulus, you were listed as her guardian."
Sirius was not given the opportunity to respond before another loud crack resounded. Severus Snape appeared with a child clinging shakily to his hand. She had long brown hair and eyes the same shade of silver as Sirius's. Her cheeks were tear stained. "Despite my best efforts, I was unable to calm the child." Snape said. He was carefully avoiding Lily's eyes. "She begged me to bring me to her brother."
Loan at first pushed herself closer to Snape at seeing all the unfamiliar faces. He put a comforting arm around her, rubbing her shoulder. "It's alright, love." He said comfortingly to her. It was a tone no one could have expected to have come out of Snape.
She looked up at Snape and then to Sirius, recognition then crossing her face. "S-S-Sirius?" She stuttered.
Sirius hadn't seen his sister since the beginning of his seventh year at Hogwarts. It'd been three years since he'd had any real contact with her; even then it was only a forced hug and a quick goodbye. Dumbledore was correct; Regulus was much better fit for this job. Regulus doted on Loan, she was his entire world. Sirius had hardly paid her attention. He'd never been close to Loan. This was not because he did not care about her. He just had not been close with his family since he defied his family tradition by being sorted into Gryffindor. Loan was born during his first year at Hogwarts. While Regulus lived solely for Loan, Sirius barely noted her existence. He realized, looking at her now, that he'd really missed a lot.
Loan detached herself from Snape and raced towards Sirius. She flung herself into his arms, sobbing hysterically. "M-m-m-mummy's dead, Sirius." She sobbed into his chest.
The sounds of her sobs broke his heart. He bent down and she wrapped her arms around his neck, sobbing into his shoulder.
He stroked her hair comfortingly as he felt tears threatening to form in his eyes. This child had truly lost everything. He was all she had left, whereas he had Remus, James, Lily and Peter. All she had was him, the brother who had ignored her. The brother who couldn't even tell you when her birthday was. "Shh," He whispered soothingly. He picked the sobbing child up. "I'm here now; it's all going to be okay." He was trying to reassure himself more than her.