8: Further Theories and Another Member of the Club
My hopes for someone else being able to see me were replenished. Even if Sirius couldn't see me fully, I was grateful someone else could sense me. Maybe this was a key to discovery.
If I wasn't sure before, I was definitely sure now; Sirius could see me, if only vaguely out of the corner of his eye. He was shooting suspicious looks in my direction every time James wasn't looking. Maybe he thought he was imagining it and didn't want to draw attention to himself, but he kept peering at me discreetly. James seemed to cotton on to what Sirius was doing as we made our way towards the bookshop we had first arrived in. He caught my eye and looked happily at his friend.
"You can see her can't you?" he asked suddenly. Sirius looked up abruptly and tried to cover his surprise of being caught out.
"See who?" he spoke up, "What are you on about, mate?"
James rolled his eyes before answering with, "Don't play dumb, you know what I'm on about." Sirius looked back at me again and then turned a questioning gaze onto James.
"I guess you can see it too then? You've made me look like an idiot for the last ten minutes or so. I thought I was going mad for a moment there. I bet you've been silently laughing at me this whole time, haven't you?" Sirius mock glared at his friend before grinning widely and looking in my direction again. "It's been following us this whole time…" I felt a bit insulted by being called "it", ghosts had genders too! James saw my expression and smirked at me.
"She seems to be a little insulted at that, mate," James said light-heartedly. Sirius looked sharply at James then - so he didn't see my whole form then, only partially I'm guessing right.
"She?" Sirius asked James. Sirius then looked back at me as if he was trying to see me more clearly.
"Yeah," James replied. "What does she look like to you then?" I was beginning to get a little frustrated about the two of them talking about me as if I wasn't there and couldn't hear them.
"Just a blur, maybe not even that. It's like I can see her more out of the corner of my eye but when I look directly at her, it's as if she's not really there, you know?" Sirius explained slowly, as if he wasn't really sure himself. I'd had enough of being ignored at this point so I butted into the conversation…well, one half of the conversation since Sirius couldn't hear me.
"I'm standing right here, you know." I waved my hands in front of James's face and he took a step back to avoid them. "And I also have a name, so use it!" I was so used to not having anyone to talk to for a very long time, so now that I did have someone to talk to I didn't want them to ignore me.
"Sorry," James said meekly and grimaced in my direction. Sirius sent James a look of confusion but he ignored it. I sighed before offering a small smile. It wasn't really James's fault that Sirius couldn't really see me properly or the fact that I didn't want to lose what I had recently gained; I was just expressing my feelings to the only person that I could.
After some explanations later and a small rest on a nearby bench outside the bookshop, Sirius was fully caught up on my predicament. He was just as puzzled and clueless about the situation as James was. It wasn't enough that I was a ghost but now I was an anomaly ghost too? Great. This was always my life's ambition…not! Whilst I mulled over what kind of ghost I was, Sirius began to question James about me.
"So you found her in your garden yesterday?" he asked while pulling his longer-than-average hair back from his face.
"Yeah," James confirmed, he had an intense look on his face as if he was studying me…he probably was actually.
"She said she's been there ever since you first started sixth year at Hogwarts, and your parents didn't see her? They haven't sensed her, at all?" Sirius sounded more skeptical as he went on. At James's nod, Sirius scoffed. "How do you know that she isn't some Death Eater spy trying to get information from your parents?" James and I simultaneously frowned at Sirius's last question. I could understand Sirius being a little doubtful of my existence, but to accuse me of being associated with a bunch of heartless murderers was quite insulting.
"I don't believe that," James answered in a quiet but sure voice. Sirius raised his eyebrows in disbelief.
"Really? And why's that then? Have you even told your mum and dad about her?" Sirius let out a breath upon seeing James's uncomfortable squirm. "Look mate, I'm not trying to find faults with this girl, it's just that she could be anyone. I'm just trying to look out for you." James's facial expression softened then.
"I know. I know you are." James ran a hand down his face and then ran it back up through his hair, making it look windswept. "I saw the newspaper article - she's the real deal."
"All right," Sirius simply replied. We all sat in silence after that. It wasn't a uncomfortable silence per se but to some extent it was; I could tell Sirius still had some more points to make about me and my existence but he was holding back.
By the time Mrs Potter had bought all she needed in Diagon Alley, James and Sirius had started talking again, but not about me. They were discussing a game called Quidditch; I couldn't really keep up with the conversation but they sounded really enthusiastic about it. Apparently James was something called a "Chaser" in this game and Sirius was a "Beater", although I didn't really like the sound of that. I had tuned them out after awhile as I realised that I would never know what they were talking about. They were just like a couple of football fanatics talking, but I guess sport is sport no matter if it was a magical one. Sirius jumped to his feet as soon as he caught sight of Mrs Potter.
"Hello Mrs P!" He moved to hug the woman. "Thanks for inviting me over for dinner. It's nice getting out of that old house of mine."
"Don't worry dear, it's nice to see you. You can come around for tea anytime you like." Mrs Potter smiled maternally at Sirius before herding him and James back towards the book store. I would never get used to this place. It was such a lovely chaotic store but if one was to look closer at what was going on they could tell that it was in a slightly organised way. It reminded me of my mother's old work desk; she used to clutter the thing up with paperwork, pens and pencils but she still knew where everything was. I was so focused on my surroundings that I wasn't looking where I was going, it wasn't until I felt the familiar unpleasant tingle go through me, and Sirius's loud outburst of "Merlin's beard!" did I realised that I had just walked straight through him.
"What? What is it?" Mrs Potter asked as she looked at Sirius sharply. I winced in sympathy for the boy as I knew that couldn't have felt pleasant for him, and then turned towards James to give him a sheepish look. James gave me a mock scolding look in return but then shifted his attention to Sirius and his mother.
"Uh, nothing. Nothing," Sirius replied too quickly. He coughed a little, trying to avoid Mrs Potter's scrutiny. After a moment, she rolled her eyes and shook her head as she carried on walking. Sirius hovered back a bit to talk to James. "Tell ghost-girl not to walk through me again," he hissed in low tones. Sirius shook himself as if he was trying to brush off any lingering sensation from the incident that he had experienced, before walking confidently behind Mrs Potter. James gave me a raised-eyebrows look of amusement before quickly following his friend. This was going to be a long day, I could just tell.
We used the Floo Network again. The strange green fire licked at my skin but didn't harm me. I had more time to appreciate the magical mode of transport this time. It made me wonder what other places I could go to if I wanted. Those thoughts were quickly brushed aside as I was spat out, unceremoniously, onto the Potter's kitchen floor. It wasn't long before everyone had arrived at their destination. Even though it was nice seeing that little portion of the Wizarding World, it was also nice and comforting to be returning to a familiar place. Magic was still a little overwhelming for me and a quiet place to get my head around everything that had happened today would be beneficial. I left Sirius and James to their own company and went outside into the garden where I could figure out what to do next with all the knowledge I had gathered today. I didn't know if I would find anything, but I know that things were about to get interesting around here, especially now Sirius was added to the mix.
A/N: This is like, over a year late. I'm sorry, I've had a lot of problems with this story, the main one being lack of inspiration. I don't know how regularly I will update this story but I definitely won't leave it a year again.
Enjoy!
