The old lady next door

Chapter 35

"Cornelius, can I have a word? Excuse me Minerva.", said Blaze apologizing for the stern witch for interrupting the conversation, "Sure, my dear. Excuse us Minerva.", wickered the minister giving the deputy headmistress a nod and walking out of her office.

"Yes, my dear.", he said standing beside the lean witch, she ushered him in an empty classroom and said, "What in the name of Merlin is this Cornelius? You can't make Dolores Umbridge the headmistress of Hogwarts…I mean what is wrong with you?"

"Well, I consider her the best of the position, especially now with Dumbledore on a run and Hogwarts in this condition. And, Dolores is perfectly fine, she knows how to deal with all this. A very talented lady she is, smart and sensible. No one do the job better.", replied the minister of magic, Blaze rolled her eyes in the most irritated way she could manage, "What about Minerva, you've completely ignored her existence. She's the deputy and she is the only one who should be the Headmistress. For the love of Merlin, Umbridge tortures the students. Blood quills and what not."

"You've misunderstood her, Blaze. She's not that bad. I honestly think she deserves the position.", he said giving her a meek smile. "I'm sorry Cornelius, no offense but I think you've lost it and you'll soon regret your actions.", she warned.

"Was this a threat?", he asked staring at her, she looked back at him and answered, "No, it's a warning.", turning away and walking away with her high-collared, jet black robes billowing behind her. She was fuming with rage and fired up to the dungeons. The fifth-years potions class was in progress, but she didn't think twice and invaded it, "Severus, can I please have Harry for a minute?"

"Now we are done for.", whispered Ron with a horrified expression painted over his face, "good luck mate, my mum will probably be the next to do this."

Harry turned to look at his dreadful potions teacher who was staring at the scary lady on the door, "Potter, you may leave.", he said with his usual scowl back on his sallow face. "Quickly Harry and Severus, HE HAS A NAME.", yelled Blaze and moved away to let Harry out, then banged the door behind her, "What happened between you and Umbridge, Harry? Tell me everything from the very beginning."

Harry looked at her trying to contemplate if he was in trouble or not, he started his explanation anyways, "You already know about the DA, so we were having a meeting yesterday evening. And the Inquisitorial squad was spying on us."

"Wait a minute, what's that Inquisitorial Squad?"

"It's a team of people who are to report Umbridge of any such activities, you know anything against her mainly. So while we were practicing yesterday, in the Room of Requirement, Umbridge, and her squad came up and blew up the wall of the Room of the Requirement and we were caught in the act. We tried making a run for it but Malfoy caught me and Umbridge took me to Professor Dumbledore. There I found out that one of the members of DA told her about it. Fudge, Kingsley and an Auror named Dawlish were already there, they think that we were building up some sort of army against them and Umbridge found out that list we had of the members with the name 'DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY' on the top and that's where things got worse."

"Okay, so after that they suspected that Dumbledore was raising an army against them because of which Fudge ordered him to Azkaban but he escaped, right.", Harry nodded, "And what about you, did they give you any punishment?"

"Not yet, but I'm sure now that she is the headmistress it won't be long that we could run free."

"Don't you worry cub, Dumbledore will be back soon and until then Minerva, Filius, Severus and others will take care of the students. I'm sure they'll always be there if you need any help. If not, myself, Remus and your godfather are always there for you, I assume you've got the two-way mirror."

"I do, but where is Dumbledore? He just disappeared yesterday. Is he alright? And Sirius? I spoke to Remus two days ago, he told me that both of you were on some mission."

"Dumbledore is perfectly alright but I can't tell you where is he, the same goes for your godfather, he's really good more than necessary actually but I can't tell you where is he. But, I'm sure as soon as we are done I'll make sure that he meets you. I promise.", she said grasping his shoulders, he nodded and hugged her, she kissed his hair, "I think you should go now and so should I. I told Sirius I will be back by dawn and its afternoon already. Take care of yourself and others and concentrate on the upcoming O. more than other things, but don't forget to have some fun too. Now, bye.", she waved him good bye and waited for him to enter the classroom then hustled towards the grounds.

Sirius was in the sitting hall sipping his coffee and chatting with a stout, the old lady sitting on the couch opposite his. "Stop peeking at the door dear, she'll be back soon.", she said smiling at him, he returned a meek smile. Just then the knocker thumped on the door and the lock clicked open, "I'm back….Si…..sweet…sweetheart.", she said suddenly realizing that they have a visitor and stopping herself just in time from calling Sirius from his real name. Sirius took the advantage of the situation and swooped her in a bone-crushing hug, "Who is she?", she whispered to him very softly, "She lives next door.", replied Sirius in the same nature then slowly backed away and turned back the old lady who was positively grinning now, "So is she the one, your lovely missing wife."

Sirius gave her a cheeky smile and a nod, then slowly buried his face in Blaze's hair, "Evelyn", he whispered very slowly then stood beside her. Blaze didn't quite get what Sirius whispered, 'Evelyn?', she thought giving Sirius a questioning look, then performing a mental search, when it finally dawned upon her. She moved forward offering her hand towards the lady, "Evelyn Williams, lovely to meet you.", she introduced herself flashing her best smile, the lady accepted her hand and shook it gently, "Martha Thickle, the pleasure was all mine dear.", she replied.

"Please take a seat. I'll be back in a minute.", said Blaze excusing herself from the duo and heading towards the bedroom to take a shower. She turned on the shower allowing the gush of heated water to fall on her, washing away all the hassle and stress. No matter how hard she tried forgetting the time bomb ticking above her head it always seemed impossible to do so, especially now that she had these bruise like marks running along the back of her neck marking the rapidly damaging veins. She turned off the shower, wrapping a towel around herself and standing before the mirror tracing the dark blue-purple lines moving along from the back of her neck and now creeping towards her right shoulder, when she heard the door banging and quickly pulled down her hair, "COMING", she yelled slipping on a baggy t-shirt and shorts.

After 15 mins of waiting Blaze emerged through the door and sat beside Sirius, "What took you so long love?", asked Sirius slipping his unusually warm hand to her waist, "I was in the shower.", she replied giving him a forced smile. The old lady Martha was looking at them continuously finally spoke, "It's so good to meet the both of you. It was so empty around here all the time, no one to talk to or meet. Though there are families around here but nobody is interested in socializing much."

"That's very noble of you to think of us that way Mrs. Thickle. By the way how long have you been living here.", asked Blaze slowly trying to push away Sirius's hand without letting anyone notice but he won't budge.

"It's been….15..years now. Me and my husband Mark, we've been living in the house next door ever since. Well, I know that both of you moved in a few days ago, Sirius told me all about you and Harold."

Blaze was very puzzled, 'Who the hell is Harold?', she thought mentally cursing the nutjob sitting beside her. "What about Harold?", she asked trying to get hold of the story Sirius spun around her. "That he just turned 8 and is on a holiday with his grandma in Ireland. He sounds like a lovely young man to me.", she said with twinkling, gray eyes open wide, when something vibrated in her hand-knitted pouch, "That must be the cellphone. Mark will be wanting me, I must leave now. But, I will surely visit later. Good bye Jasper, Evelyn my dear.", she said getting up from the couch and exiting the apartment.

Sirius quickly followed her until the door, shutting it behind her. He turned back to interrogate Blaze but found no one behind him. He raced to the bedroom. Blaze was lying on the bed with her locks spread on the wrong end of the bed and her legs resting on the headboard, "What nonsense did you recite to that poor old lady? Do I look like a mother of an 8-year-old to you?"

"True, I wanted to add 5 more kids to the count but, considering you I didn't. Shame, now she must be thinking of me as a sloppy man, 1 kid in 9 years. What a disgrace to my existence.", he said slipping beside her, remembering how they used to spend hours lying like in the common room. His arm was now brushing against hers, she slowly turned to him and felt his forehead with the back of her hand, "Your sick Sirius. Didn't you sleep last night? What did you have for Lunch?"

"I had a sandwich but I'm fine. Tell me what happened after Dumbledore's escape.", he replied grabbing her hand, she quickly pulled it away and got down from the bed, "Later, first tell me who made the sandwich?"

"Me of course", he said flipping back his hair. Blaze's eyes were open wide in shock, every single soul who knows Sirius is very well aware of the fact that he was a dead awful cook, "And what about the sleep?"

"I….did….not much….but"

"Don't beat around the bush. Tell me the truth. I know you didn't sleep, come on spit it."

"Umm…Alright, I didn't but I swear I tried just couldn't do so.", he confessed trying not to remember the nightmares he had, the same Halloween night again and again. "It was the….nightmare..wasn't it? The same one, you saw it last night, didn't you?", she asked sitting beside him.

Sirius nodded in agreement, "The same one from that Halloween. I saw the whole thing again, the destroyed house…..their dead bodies…..Jam..James sprawled on the st…stairs. Li…Lily lying in ruins of the nursery…..Har…Harry crying….Your body….thrown in the hallway.", he sniffed reminiscing the horrendous night, "Everything dead and destroyed…Harry with that nasty scar. My whole world collapsed around me that day…..shattered to the last bit…I thought that I lost all three of you until…..they told me about you.", he chocked, tears flowing continuously from his eyes. Blaze couldn't stand all this anymore, she quickly wiped off his tears and handed him a glass of water, ignoring her own waterworks. After handing him the glass of water she went off to fix them something for supper. Though she did lend him, her cellphone and headsets so he could listen to some music. Apart from chocolate, music was a good healer to overcome nightmares.

She quickly prepared a steak and kidney pie. Both she and Sirius had the pie while discussing the incident that took place last evening. She told how it all happened and what decisions were taken mainly trying to distract him from the dream. "If any of those gits try hurting my godson. I will make sure they don't get to see the next sunshine.", he said punching the table, Blaze nodded, "Don't worry, they'll be taken care of, sir.", giving a graceful bow before him and picking up the empty plates, taking them to the kitchen.

Sirius was sitting on the bed with headsets on, swaying his head slowly. Blaze came in with a packet in her hand, she sat on the bed beside him holding up a bar of Honeydukes finest milk chocolate. But, he was too much in to the music so she pressed it in his hands, he pulled off the headsets and tore up the wrapper, biting off a huge chunk, "Want some?", he asked bending over her. She had a strong urge to take a bite but refused he moved even closer, she took a very small bite not going near him as if he were contagious. He pulled the piece away from his mouth with sour expressions, "What was that? A joke? Come on now, take a big bite like you used to, remember?", then put the piece back between his lips. Blaze moved closer and bit a big chunk, leaving a couple of centimeters gap between their lips. She flashed a grin at him and with a wink walked off to the bathroom, Sirius was staring at her like a drooling dog as if a luscious piece of juicy meat had just been snatched away from his mouth.