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CHAPTER TEN: Piecing It Together

Nymphadora was forced to wonder if hanging around in corridors looking glum was something her parents did often. This time it was Harry. He was clutching a copy of the Daily Prophet and staring intently at it. Nymphadora came closer and he looked up sharply, realising for the first time that he wasn't alone. For a moment, he looked like he was going to hide it from her, then he turned the paper round and gestured to the mug shot that had adorned so many papers recently. "Sirius Black,"he said simply.

Nymphadora nodded. "They're worried he might come here. That's why all the Dementors are around."

Harry hesitated, as though unsure how much he wanted to share with her. "He killed my parents,"he said at last.

"I thought Lord Voldemort killed your parents?" It was a well-known fact at the time, it seemed a safe thing to say.

Harry looked at her in surprise anyway. "I don't hear many people using that name."

"My parents taught me to. They said you shouldn't be scared of a name."

"That sounds like good advice. I wish my parents had told me things like that." Harry seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before remembering her original question. "Black set it all up. He told Voldemort where to find them."

"Are you sure it was Black?"Nymphadora pressed.

"Heard it from the Minister himself."

Nymphadora knew she was on dodgy ground. She couldn't interfere with history. But then, this was the year Harry learned the truth about Sirius. Maybe he learned it from her? "Why do you think Black escaped now?"

"I don't know. Does it matter? Maybe he's heard stories about me or about Voldemort returning. He was his right hand man."

"Are you sure about that? Does anyone else who followed Voldemort say so?"

Harry glared at her. "I haven't exactly asked them."

"Well, was he marked?"

Harry looked at her in confusion. "Marked?"

Nymphadora sighed. Obviously Harry didn't know about that yet. She wasn't even sure if the Ministry knew about it. "All Voldemort's followers had a mark to identify them."

"Well, there you are then. That's how they know Black was one of them."

Nymphadora gave up. It would take more than her to talk him round but maybe she'd helped. "Well, I hope you get the answers you want."

Harry nodded and got up. "I'm due at Quidditch practise. You want to come along?"

"Yeah. I'd like that."

Bradley cautiously made his way down to the Quidditch training pitch. There, he saw his grandfather giving a pep-talk to the rest of the team. Bradley had learned their names over the years Oliver had been telling him about the year: The Weasley twins, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson (who would go on to be the grandmother of his friend Maxwell)…and, of course, his own grandmother, Katie Bell. Oliver stopped on realising he had an audience and looked at Bradley suspiciously. There hadn't been many times when Bradley had wished he'd followed his father's family into Gryffindor but wearing their colours would probably do him a lot of help at that moment.

"What do you want?"Oliver asked, clearly have to make an effort to keep his tone mild.

"I wanted to watch you practise,"Bradley replied.

"Why?"came the swift answer.

Bradley had been expecting the question and tried to come up with an answer that would satisfy this young version of his grandfather. "Because they say you're good. They say when you leave school you're going to turn professional."

"I'm thinking about it,"Oliver confirmed.

"Oh yes, our Oliver will soon be part of the England XI,"Fred agreed.

"World XI,"George amended.

Oliver scowled slightly, some of his good mood evaporating. "You're not here to spy then?"

"Who for?"Bradley asked. "You've already played Huffelpuff. I'm not going to go running to Marcus Flint to tell him your tactics, am I?"

"Let him stay, Oliver,"Katie suggested.

"Yeah, he looks harmless,"Angelina agreed.

Oliver gave a brief snort and then nodded. At that moment, his attention was drawn to Harry and Nymphadora approaching. "You're late, Potter."

"Yeah, sorry, I had things on my mind,"Harry admitted.

Oliver nodded, seeming to understand. "Okay, well, gather round. I've had a few thoughts on our next tactic…"

Nymphadora gestured for Bradley to follow her up into the stands. "You wanted to spend time with him?"

"Well…I guess I wanted to be around family. I'm not sure I'm going to see the grown-up version of Grandad again. If we're stuck here, I could end up older than my parents."

"We'll get back once we've stopped Nave,"Nymphadora promised him.

Bradley didn't seem entirely convinced by the reassurance but gestured to the training session. "It's good seeing them when they were young though, isn't it?"

"Yeah. It's good,"Nymphadora agreed. "But I still intend to make sure our versions of them are there waiting for us."