The Last Bloom Of Summer

"'Tis the last rose of summer,

left blooming alone.

All her lovely companions

Are faded and gone." Nina Simone

A First Journey of Discovery

The first time it happened, Dahlia Black was nine years old. She was hiding from the Christmas visitors in the attic. She could hear her mother yelling angrily for her down below when everything went spinning. The next thing she knew she was sitting in a red room besides a nice warming fire, looking at four slightly older, unknown boys. The four boys were sprawled over comfy looking armchairs and obviously just in the motion of unpacking their Christmas gifts.

"Woah, who are you? What just happened?" the boy with the glasses and the messy dark hair said. He was holding a golden snitch in his hands that was threatening to escape because he was so stunned at Dahlia's sudden appearance.

"Did you just apparate in here?" the handsome boy with the big blue eyes and wavy black mane said, raising his wand.

"One can't apparate into Hogwarts," the chubby one with short blond hair answered, his widened eyes fixed on Dahlia.

"Of cooourse, I didn't know that," the handsome one answered, rolling his eyes. The fourth boy, pale and scarred, wearing his thick brown hair to his shoulders, was too surprised to comment on the sudden arrival of the young witch. He was silently turning the pages of some book in his lap, oblivious to his hand movements.

Dahlia was just as stunned as the four boys, slowly getting on her feet and looking around. "Um, so I'm in Hogwarts?" she asked, scrutinizing the young mischief-makers.

"Yes! Now, what we'd like to know is how you did your appearing trick and how we can make it useful to us!" the messy-haired one said excitedly, letting his snitch flutter away.

"Well, she's a girl," the other dark haired one drawled, one eyebrow raised. "I doubt there's anything interesting to be learnt from her."

This made Dahlia take a double take. "Excuse me?" she snarled and let her hand drift towards the pocket where she kept her wand. In average wizarding standards she was by two years too young to own her own wand. The Blacks, however, had never kept to such rules.

"Uh, the little girl is gonna hex us," the blond boy said. Dahlia wasn't quite sure whether he was speaking out of fear or whether he was making fun of her.

"S … stop it! The girl is probably frightened," the fourth boy finally spoke up reluctantly and turned towards Dahlia with a concerned frown on his face. "Do you know how you ended up here?"

Gripping the wand in her pocket, Dahlia shook her head no. She could guess that she had triggered some kind of ancient dangerous artefact in the attic, but she was not going to tell these boys anything about her family secrets.

"Well, we all must have forgotten our manners for a few moments here. I'm Remus Lupin," the fourth boy said in a friendly manner, extending his hand for her to shake. Slowly and shyly, Dahlia let her wand drop back into the pocket of her cloak and took his hand.

"And I am the one and only James Potter," the messy-haired one said and extended his hand towards her as well. Dahlia's eyes widened. "I've heard about you," she said without thinking as she shook his hand.

"Then you must have heard about me as well. Sirius Black at your service," the handsome one said.

Dahlia did not take his hand and scrutinized him with a critical look. "You can't be a Black," she said at last. "I know the family tree by heart. There is no Sirius Black."

Sirius crossed his arms and frowned silently down at the little girl. She answered his gaze with steadfastness. "Well, that doesn't make sense," Sirius said at last. "Why would you want to know the Black family tree by heart? And why would not know about the only decent one of us?"

The blond boy was nodding ardently next to him. "Yes, that's just ridiculous," he said. "But anyway, I'm Peter, Peter Pettigrew." Dahlia, however, was still busy glaring at that Sirius guy. He couldn't be very serious.

"Maybe she's from a different time," James piped up. "From a time before you were thought of, good old Sirius. Imagine a time traveller stumbling across the great marauders …"

"Yeah, or maybe she just got hit on the head a few times too much," Sirius interrupted him coolly.

"Well, I am Dahlia Black and I tell you, there is no Sirius Black," she snapped, drawing herself up to her full height. She was still shorter than any of the four boys.

"Oh really? Well, I tell you that I am Sirius Black and there is no Dahlia Black," Sirius answered flippantly.

"Riddles, I like riddles," James said, rubbing his hands together happily.

"There is no riddle," Dahlia said. "Your friend has simply cracked and imagines to be my relative. I can't blame him. If I had his ugly mug, I would want to be related to me as well."

"Whoah, wait a minute. I said I was a Black before you even opened your mouth to tell us your name!" Sirius exclaimed unhappily. "And what's this with the ugly mug? You're the one with an uncanny resemblance to cousin Bellatrix. That's what I call an ugly mug!"

"I certainly don't look like Bellatrix!" Dahlia cried out. "Take that back!"

"You sooo look like Bella! Bella-look-alike! Bella-look-alike!" Sirius chanted back at her with a smug look on his face. Obviously he did not know what was good for him.

With a battle cry, Dahlia threw herself at him. But strong arms wound themselves around her while a sniggering Sirius took a few cautious steps back. Dahlia was trying to get out of the grip that was holding her back. If only she could get her hands on that usurper! She would show him! "Calm down, calm down," Remus said next to her ear. "Take it back Sirius, or I'll let her loose on you," he added in the direction of his friend.

"Alright, alright," Sirius said raising his hands. "You don't look a bit like dear old crazy Bella," he said in quite a dishonest tone of voice.

Remus released a panting Dahlia who decided that this might not be the right moment to finish off that Sirius guy. Too many witnesses.

"Okay, when you're all done, you might want to listen to Agent James, right?" James said happily next to them, completely oblivious to the tension between the two Blacks.

"What is it, James?" Remus said.

"Well, I have come to the conclusion that they might both be Blacks. I mean they both know and hate Bellatrix. This has got to be clear evidence! Maybe she's some kind of love child that has been kept secret from Sirius. And thus the riddle is solved …" He looked quite content with that explanation and graciously snatched the snitch out of the air next to Peter's ear.

"I am the completely legitimate eldest child of Orion and Walpurga Black," Dahlia answered coolly. "And I have lived at Grimmauld Place all my life and know all my relatives."

"Right," Sirius said and eyed his opponent furtively.

"But that doesn't make sense," Peter said tentatively. "I mean: Sirius is their eldest. Why would he not know you?"

"Furthermore, you are younger than Sirius. How would you be the eldest of the children?" James added.

Dahlia snorted: "Boy, you must really be delusional if you're trying to steal my parents! Go look for different ones… Really, it's for your best! Do you know what they do with old houseelfves?"

Sirius was still glaring. "They behead them and put their heads on the wall," he answered coolly. "And believe me, if one could exchange parents, I would have gone looking for different ones a long time ago."

"Mysterious, very mysterious," James was commenting, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Well, either the girl is pulling a joke on us," Remus said. "Or we are dealing with some kind of magical phenomenon. Maybe she's been confunded."

"I'm not confunded!" Dahlia complained. "I was just up in the attic of Grimmauld Place. The entire ancient family of Black had crawled out of their dark holes and was there for Christmas. And I was hiding in the attic because Bellatrix had threatened to turn me into a frog the last time I'd seen her."

A quick look of surprise flitted across Sirius' face. "And why did she threaten you with that?" he asked.

"Well … Regulus and me had pulled a little prank, but she thought it had only been me. Regulus being everyone's darling after all… the only male Black heir and so on …" Dahlia explained.

"What exactly was that prank?" Sirius asked full of curiosity.

"We put a bunch of muggle pictures in her study just before her boyfriend came for a visit," Dahlia said, innocently widening her eyes.

"Ingenious," Sirius said. "But the reason I am saying it is ingenious is because I did that prank myself a little bit more than two years ago. And dear old Bella threatened me with that frog transformation as well and I hid in the attic until the Christmas guests were gone. Obviously you are confunded, little girl!"

"But why would anyone give her your memories?" James questioned.

"Yeah, and how do you know they are your memories and not mine?" the girl said triumphantly.

"Because I have three friends here who will all tell you that I am Sirius Black. You, however, only have your own opinion," Sirius answered smugly.

"Take care Sirius, or I'll side with the girl," Remus said quietly.

"Yeah, cause she's simply better looking than you," James added, smirking.

Sirius let out an astonished cry: "What? Betrayal! Betrayal! By my best friends… And hey, wait a minute; what's this about her being better looking than me? Give me a mirror! My family for a mirror! What's happening to this world?"

"Right," Dahlia said. "So we both think we are the eldest child of Orion and Walpurga? How do we settle this?"

"Snow ball fight!" Sirius said.

"Okay, it shall be the duell of the snow," Dahlia said.

And thus, Sirius and Dahlia shook hands. They certainly did not know what they were getting into.