While they need all the help they can get…
She's playing games.
And while they don't understand now…
They'll be thanking her later.
I'll tell you right now that I'm not the main character of this story. You may think that, especially once you get into it, but it's not true. I'm just a supporting actress in Blaire's life. I'm just the girl telling you her story. A story in which I happen to have a fairly major part.
You see, this story is about Blaire. Not Lily and James or Sirius and me. Blaire. It's about Blaire because Blaire was the first to go. She was always the one to bring us back to reality. Of course, it was usually a positive thing.
Not this time. Because this time she brought us from a world of NEWTS and curfews, of being students and lowly interns at whatever job we had chosen, to a world plagued by war and fear. Into a world full of death. Yes, death. Blaire is dead.
The story starts with me, of course. Because I'm the ending, and like so many great stories, this one begins at the ending. I'll let you know this story doesn't have a happy ending, but you should know that. You should know that after Blaire comes James, then Lily, then Sirius, Peter, and Remus. One by one until I'm the only one left. It was years after the last death that I woke up and realized that.
I did, though. I just woke up one day and the first thought that popped into my mind, was, as usual, one of Sirius. It was that he, and everyone else, had left me here. So naturally I retreated to somewhere quiet. Yes, naturally I retreated to a household with four small children. Grimmauld Place.
"LOOK DADDY! There's a strange lady sitting on the doorstep!" called an eight-year-old James Potter to his father, Harry.
"Okay James…" he replied unconsciously, not really paying attention. "Wait, what did you say?"
"I was just telling you that there's a strange lady on the doorstep."
At this point Harry stopped to look out the window and opened the door. "Umm, I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?"
I laughed ironically. "I'm Maria Black." I said, silently adding, 'Your first cousin once removed, godmother, and your mother's best friend.' He looked at me strangely and I spoke again. "Go ahead, you can't let me into your house yet. Do your little background check. Why, you can even stick your head into McGonagall's office and ask if she knows who I am. She will.
In fact, ask her to give the first five names she thinks of when she hears 'Maria Black'. Lily Evans, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Blaire Laforest." I laughed once more. "Funny, isn't it? Five people you think of when you hear my name and they're all dead."
"How did you know my…and…Sirius…and Remus…" he trailed off and disappeared inside, no doubt to follow my instructions.
HPOV
As soon as I was in the door I stuck my head in the fireplace and reached McGonagall's office, just as the woman outside had suggested. She jumped at my sudden appearance. "Harry! What are you doing here?"
"Professor, I'm going to give you a name, and you're going to give me the first five names that come to mind when I say it, okay?"
"What's going on?"
"Will you just do it?"
"Okay, Mr. Potter, but-
But, I cut her off. "Maria Black."
She looked startled, but was true to her word. "Your parents, your godfather, Remus Lupin, and," she paused, out of sadness of a memory rather than thought, and finally added, "Blaire Laforest. But, Mr. Potter, I really must know where you heard that particular name."
"She's sitting on my doorstep."
"She's dead!"
"She looked pretty alive."
I withdrew my head from the flames as she prepared to jump into them. Just who was this girl? There was a Black I had never heard of? I snapped out of my reverie when my former transfiguration teacher appeared beside me, walking briskly toward the door, and, upon opening it to find Maria having a conversation with James, abruptly fainted. (if that made any sense at all)
The woman pointed her want at Minerva and muttered "Ennervate." The word rolled off her tongue, as if she said it incredibly often. Perhaps she was a healer. She was clearly good with the spell, for Minerva was up and on her feet very quickly.
"Would you like to come in?" I asked.
"Of course." She said. "I'll tell you a story. Minerva, you already know most of the story. Not the end, of course, or rather the middle, because this is the end, but you know much of it."
"Of course." I stuttered. She took a seat in the living room and began to speak.