Chapter 3:

There's a period of time between when a death eater sucks away at a man's happiness and when it departs, that one remains frozen in fear. It becomes impossible to identify what is real and what is not or even to recall what had just happened. The aftershocks of an encounter with a dementor, especially more than one at a time, were detrimental to one's health and allowed doubt to fill every crevice of one's soul. It was one of the many things that allowed them to truly derange their victims in Azkaban.

It had taken Sirius years to overcome it and he used the term "overcome" lightly. He had lost count of the nights where the confrontation with dementors left him to his own delusions. Sometimes, he imagined James's dead corpse, rotting beside him in his cell. Other times it was Lily screaming out for him to save her. Worst of all, there were nights where he imagined his dead wife's tortured body with a bundle in her arms.

Sirius felt very much like that now, unsure of what was real and what was deception from his own desperate mind. It had suddenly become very hard to breathe. His lungs begged for oxygen, but it seemed that the rest of his body had forgotten how to accomplish the act. All his attention was directed in from of him. At the words that had just been spoken. Nevertheless, he kept his wand aimed at the house elf as he frantically tried to process what it had just said. His hand trembled despite his efforts.

"Don't lie to me." He rasped, but he wasn't sure how intimidating it sounded. The elf gulped nervously at the end of the wand an in away from his nose, but seemed to be firm in his declaration.

"Dobby is not lying sir." he squeaked, "Dobby has been sent by his employer Mister Dumbledore!"

"Dumbledore? Employer?" Remus questioned, looking at the elf with curiosity and caution. "Surely you must be mistaken, I-"

"No sir. Dobby is not mistaken! Dobby is a free elf and is employed by Mister Dumbledore at Hogwarts!" Dobby stood the tiniest bit straighter, as if trying to heighten his claim. "Dobby's former masters had kidnapped young Miss Ariana when she was just a baby! Back in the year of 1981 right before Harry Potter defeated You-Know-Who."

Remus made to question him again, but Sirius held out a hand, his eyes transfixed on the elf before him like a dog unsure if it was going to bite or not. He nodded for the creature to continue.

"Dobby wanted to tell others, but master forbade it. Master made an unbreakable vow with Dobby, forced him never to reveal the fact that the daughter of the blood traitor and murderer Sirius Black was alive. It was only until Dobby met Mister Dumbledore sir that things were able to change. Mister Dumbledore was able to prove to Dobby that Mister Sirius Black is innocent. This freed Dobby from his unbreakable vow sir, because there is no daughter of a blood traiter and murderer."

It was an odd explanation, but it wasn't complete nonsense either. The elf had certainly had the date of his daughter's attack right and his interaction with Dumbledore was a point of interest. However, Sirius was still hesitant, still scared to even begin to hope that there might even been a possibility of this revelation being true.

"Why would they have kept her alive though? What reasoning could they possibly have to ensure her survival?" Lupin prompted as he tried to make sense of it all. Dobby bowed his head in shame.

"Dobby does not know, sir. Dobby only knows that he was the one to tend to young Miss Ariana from the moment she was brought in. Nearly thirteen years it's been."

Sirius shot a suspicious eye over to Remus, silently prompting his opinion. Lupin was always one to catch a lie, which came in handy more than once for James and Sirius in their youth. It also became a useful tactic that made him rather impressive during interrogations in the first war. The professor returned his gaze with a slightly puzzled look that told Sirius he was unable to detect any dishonesty.

"You do recognize that your claims are... rather bold?" the werewolf began, to which the elf shyly nodded. "How are we to trust your story? What proof do you have that you have even been in contact with Dumbledore?"

Dobby glanced down and lifted his bony foot into the air. It was only then that Sirius realized he was wearing what must have been the most outrageously colored socks he had ever seen in his life. One was a violent shade of magenta where the other was a checkered pattern of gaudy oranges.

"Dobby has been gifted socks by Mister Dumbledore! And also this," the elf then produced a long fiery red feather. The two men tensed at the unmistakable token of Dumbledore's pet phoenix Fawkes. Leave it to their old headmaster to be as vague and discreet as humanly possible. While Remus looked a bit more convinced, Sirius refused to buy in so easily.

"Free or not, house elves have a ridiculous loyalty to their houses." The dog animagus bit back, glaring down at the elf that reminded him too much of his family's old house elf. "There is no way you can prove such a ridiculous claim. My daughter is dead."

It hurt to say it. It rattled him to his very core, pulling out emotions he had buried for over a decade. Saying the words aloud made them so final, but he couldn't fathom why they also made it feel so fresh. He found memories playing in the corners of his vision, his beloved wife's laugh just a whisper away from his ears.

No.

He closed his eyes and forced the sound away. Too painful. Too real. Too much.

"Mister Sirius Black is almost as stubborn as the great Harry Potter!" The elf all but shouted. Both wizards looked back in surprise. House elves weren't known to raise their voices, nor state their opinions. Remus opened his mouth to question precisely how the elf knew Harry Potter, much less how he knew Harry was stubborn. Sirius looked very much like he would like to hit Dobby. Sensing this notion as well, Dobby took one step back, but continued.

"Miss Ariana is very much alive!" he squeaked, "She-She has dark hair. And gray eyes. She looks just like you, sir!"

She looks just like you, a ghost of a voice whispered in his ear. Marlene had gushed about how much their baby girl took after him from the moment they first held her. Even at birth, she had the Black family gray eyes and dark brown hair. In fact, his wife had often joked about her relief Ariana hadn't been a born or she would've had two Sirius's to deal with.

The odds of a mere house elf happening to guess his daughter's features were slim. Like many others, Marlene and Sirius were in the middle of a war. There were very few people who had even witnessed their child and many more still who never knew they were married to begin with.

A shiver ran down his neck as his wand lowered ever so slightly. In fact, he suddenly felt very aged, like a withering tree about to fall. It seemed that Remus sensed his friend's resolve fading and took control of the conversation.

"Let's say for the sake the of matter that... that she is alive," the werewolf swallowed, "Where has she been all this time? Why was she never discovered? We searched everywhere."

"She has been hidden from the world. Dobby's former master keeps her hidden away." the elf responded. His expression began to morphed into one of slight apprehension. "Miss Ariana...she is not well."

Sirius's head perked up like a dog at the sound of a door, alarmed and alert.

"What do you mean unwell?" The words were out of his mouth before he was even thinking them, "Is she ill?"

The hesitance on the elf's face brought on a whole new sense of dread for the Black heir.

"Young Miss Ariana," Dobby paused "She is kept prisoner by Dobby's former master."

"And who would that be?" It was a miracle Remus had spoken before Sirius, who had suddenly gone very quiet and very rigid. The house elf gulped once more and forced the words out of his tiny body.

"Former Master Lucius Malfoy."

Red. Sirius saw nothing but red.

Malfoy. Fucking Malfoy had his daughter? After all this time, all this pain and misery and grieving, his precious child was living in the house of a death eater?

There was a yell and a slam around him. Sirius panted, his entire being encased in a rage he didn't know how he mustered up in his current state. It flowed through his body with such a force that he didn't see the half obliterated tree before him, nor did he feel the blood seeping off of his fist. Maybe he really would be a murderer by the end of the night. At some point however, his ears seemed to pick up on Remus trying to speak with him.

"-need to calm down Sirius and let me have a look at that hand." It wasn't like he had a choice, not with Remus already muttering healing spells over his damaged knuckles. Hell, he couldn't even feel them, not when he had other things to process.

"We need to get her back!" He barked, ripping his hand away from his friend as he began to pace. He ignored his friend's remarks and orders to stay put. "Now! Fucking Malfoy has my child and I won't rest until I squeeze the life out of him myself! There's not a bloody soul on this earth who can stop me!"

"Sirius don't be a fool!" Remus snapped, yanking his friend back by his bad hand. Sirius gritted his teeth and glared at the other man, gray eyes cold as ice. "We don't have any solid proof that she's even there, much less that she's in Malfoy Manor. And need I remind you of the hundreds of dementors looking for your soul to steal?"

The last one was enough to make the former prisoner at least pause and shudder at the thought before throwing back a dirty glare.

"If you think you can stop me from going, you're out of your bloody mind."

"And who said I was going to do that?" This earned Remus a look of surprise between both man and elf. He sighed, letting go of Sirius's damaged knuckles before muttering a quick healing spell to finish the job. "But you need a plan first. You can just go waltzing by Malfoy Manor and expect them to hand her over. You'd end up dead before you got through the front door. We'll have to be more discreet than that. If you'll just give me a day to come up with a plan, reach out to Dumbledore and-"

"I don't have that kind of time Moony." Both men were a bit caught off guard by how easily the old nickname slipped out, but Sirius persisted with desperation. "It's bad enough that I've spent twelve years a prisoner. I won't live another day know that my daughter was too and still remains so!"

Both men held strong gazes, but Remus knew better than to trust that Sirius wouldn't burst through the doors of Malfoy Manor the second he left. So he muttered a simple "fine" and they got to work on a plan.

A plan to break into one of the most protected homes in Great Britain.

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