Chapter 6 - Trust

On the first morning of Antoine staying in Grimmauld place Sirius had woken up to the sounds of distant giggles from the rocking chair he had been sleeping in. When he opened his eyes he was startled to see that Harriet was not in her crib but with a quick run downstairs, anxiety flooding his body, he found her with Antoine in the dining room. She was sitting in her high chair with Antoine, now with purple hair and green eyes, who was feeding her cereal. Antoine had looked startled to see Sirius burst in but then understanding settled over his face:

"I'm sorry Sirius for taking her without asking first but I saw that she had woken up and I didn't want her to unnecessarily waken you. We were just playing quidditch cereal." Antoine explained, he seemed sincere to Sirius. That was when he noticed that the spoon was hovering on its own and catching pieces of cereal that were shooting out of the bowl. Once the spoon had caught a particularly speedy piece of cereal it then launched itself towards Harriet who took the spoon and placed it inside her mouth. Sirius was shocked; breakfast time was always a nightmare, Harriet hated cereal but now she was feeding herself. It looked like he would leave daily breakfast time to Antoine.

Later that day, Antoine had surprised Sirius with a homemade dinner, it was a dish that Antoine's grandmother had taught him, it was certainly different to any meal Sirius had ever had, especially since it was savoury but it had pineapple in it too. Even Bambi tried a little and seemed to like it. It seemed that Antoine would be a very welcome guest in Grimmauld place.

Over the next couple of months Sirius grew to like Antoine and enjoy his company, Bambi seemed to really like him too. Except Antoine had also started to try and teach her to talk a little and this meant that she would now rarely shut up. Though she couldn't seem to pick up Antoine's name and instead started to call him "Anto".

Sirius grew to trust Antoine more and more as the months went by but he was still nervous about leaving Bambi completely alone with him; but there was something he wanted to do, a place he wanted to visit.

One morning Sirius woke up in a particularly confident mood and decided that this day might be the day to finally leave Bambi alone with Anto so that he could do what he needed to do. But first he reached into his bedside drawer and removed the newspaper clipping he had cut from the daily prophet a couple of weeks after the attack on his best friends.

THE POTTERS LAID TO REST

Early this morning a small funeral was held for the tragically lost couple James and Lily Potter. Those amongst the attendees were Remus Lupin, a close friend of the couple, Albus Dumbledore himself, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Ruby Hagrid, Gameskeeper of Hogwarts school and friend of the Potters. The funeral was held in a small church in Godric's Hollow where the Potters had been living when they were found by You Know Who.

The ceremony was short but sweet and ended with the potters being buried beside each other in the adjacent graveyard. It appeared that even Albus Dumbledore had a tear in his eye.

The daily prophet sent representatives to the funeral on their behalf and those they interviewed had this to say:

Albus Dumbledore shared: "They were both very intelligent students and had a lot of potential. Miss Evans was the brightest witch of her age at Hogwarts. It's such a shame."

Ruby Hagrid seemed overcome with upset but managed to share: "They were good kids, with a beautiful little girl who they are going to be proud of."

Surprisingly there were some muggles in attendance of the funeral, neighbours of the Potters though there was no sign of the Potters distant family who have taken guardianship of Harriet Potter.

Also missing from the funeral was a close friend of the Potters: Sirius Black. Black has not been seen publicly since the day of the Potters tragic deaths which begs the question: where is Sirius Black and what has he got to hide from?

The life of the Potters:

James Potter was raised as an only child and full blood wizard. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1971- 1978 where he was sorted into Gryffindor house. This is where he met Lily Evans, a muggle born Witch, also sorted into Gryffindor and attending Hogwarts at the same time as James Potter. The couple married soon after leaving Hogwarts and had a daughter: Harriet Potter. It is rumored that He Who Shall Not Be Named had tried to recruit the young couple but was defied by them. The Potters were tragically murdered at the hands of the Dark Lord on the 31st of October this year.

The Daily Prophet send their condolences to the friends and family of the Potters.

Beside the article was a moving photograph of the Potters being married, Lily was wearing a beautiful long slim white gown with love sleeves, there was a silver belt in the middle. beside her was James wearing his smart dressrobes, as Sirius watches, James looks over at Lily like a puppy in love whilst Lily smiles at the camera. Beside James is Sirius himself, wearing similar dress robes to James' and smiling widely at the happy couple, Sirius had not smiled like that since the wedding. Underneath the photo was the caption 'The Happy Couple Married Young."

Sirius sighed and put the clipping down on his bedside table. He was devastated that he couldn't go to the funeral but Bambi was his number one priority at the moment; he couldn't leave her. But now he had Anto who not only seemed trustworthy enough, but also seemed to care for Bambi almost as much as he did. He saw the way that Anto looked at her, with absolute adoration in his eyes. He imagined that she reminded him of his own daughter.

After a few moments of careful consideration of the risks, Sirius decided to take the risk and visit his best friend's graves, to say goodbye one last time. Luckily and rather coincidentally, Sirius had found a package by the fireplace a few weeks ago wrapped in emerald green paper. On the package was a small note in all too familiar handwriting:

'Use it wisely.'

Inside the paper was a familiar silvery cloak: James' invisibility cloak. Sirius hadn't seen the cloak since they had used it as teenagers to sneak into the shrieking shack. He was surprised it hadn't been destroyed but it was clear that Dumbledore had been looking after it. If Sirius was going to ever leave the house, he could not be recognised by anyone that could follow him home and learn the real location of his Goddaughter.

Trying hard not to make too much noise Sirius dressed himself and made his way downstairs with the cloak where he found his travelling bag and stuffed the cloak inside. Then he wrote a quick note to leave for Anto. When he turned around to head towards the front door he jumped when he found Anto behind him. Anto looked suspicious.

"Good morning Padfoot." (Bambi had insisted everyone call him by this nickname)

"Oh Antoine, I just left a note for you, I am heading out for a little while - an hour maximum."

Anto raised a purple eyebrow: "Are you sure it is safe?"

"I have an invisibility cloak. I won't take it off even for a second."

Anto looked like he was about to say something else but Bambi's call: "Anto" could be heard from upstairs. Anto nodded in submission and moved off to go upstairs.

Sirius made his way past his mothers curtained portrait, pulled on the invisibility cloak and opened the front door. It had been a long time since Sirius had been outside, he missed the natural light, the cool wind, the rustling of the trees. He would need to walk at least a block away so as to not give his location away to any ministry officials who could be monitoring him and then apparate to Godric's Hollow for the first time since he had rescued Bambi.