"On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it."
For awhile, no one spoke. When someone finally did, it was one of the three men that Harry and Ron did not recognize. He murmured an apology to Sirius before turning his focus to Emily. She had finished her breakfast and was now focused on the paper napkin in front of her, which she was nervously tearing up into little pieces. When she noticed that everyone was looking at her, she looked up and put the napkin back on the table- top, and gave them her full attention. It seemed to be a showdown, the group of men versus her, each trying to make the other talk first. After several more tense minutes, Emily gave in.
"What!? Do you want me to cry and be sad that my mother is dead and I will never know her? Is that what you want me to do? Well, I'm sorry, but I can't do that! He already told me everything, and I did cry a little then, but that's all the tears I'm going to be shedding over this! Yes, she's my mom, and I'll always love her, but I only have one memory of her. She's barely even real to me, just someone I've been told about. I've been an orphan all my life, and I never expected to have any real family. I accepted this a long time ago. After everything I went through in some of those foster homes, I had to. But I always hoped, or maybe just dreamed, that someday it would happen. One of my brothers would come and take me away from that life. Or that one of my parents would come and get me, prove to me that I'm no throw away. That I was wanted." Emily was crying by now, tears slipping down her cheeks. "But I accepted that both my parents were dead a long time ago. And yes, it turns out I was wrong, and I am unbelievably happy to have my dad, but I'm not going to cry over my mother anymore, I've spent long enough doing that already, and I want to get on with my life." With that, she bolted from the table and up the stairs and into her room, shutting the door behind her.
It wasn't even a full five seconds before Sirius had gotten up and was going after her. Remus muttered something about the girl having her father's temperament as well as looks. It seemed to be then that he finally realized Harry and Ron still had no idea who the other three men were.
"Harry, Ron, I would like to introduce you to Mundungus Fletcher, Atticus Wittlewanger, and Orion Black," he gestured to each man as he said their name, "these men work, along with Sirius and me and several others, for Dumbledore, fighting Voldermort."
"Black?" Harry asked, pushing his bangs out of his eyes, "Are you related to Sirius?"
"I'm his brother." The smile Orion gave him looked a lot like Sirius', and even though he had just met the man, Harry oddly enough found himself smiling back.
***Upstairs***
Sirius entered the room, only to find it empty. Glancing around, he started to panic, until he noticed a small ball with long black hair curled up in the corner. Going over to her, he gathered her into his arms, attempting to soothe her silent sobs.
She held tightly to her father as he rocked her back and forth, whispering calming words in her ear. After a few minutes, she had calmed down enough to be able to speak.
"I'm sorry I just blew up like that. I really had no right to do that. And I didn't mean what I said about Mom, well not completely. I am sad that I'll never know her. But I accepted the fact that I had no parents a long time ago, so finding out I was half -wrong is not as a big a shock. Yes, it would be great if I could know both of my parents, but even knowing one is a lot more than I ever expected."
He smiled at her sadly, "It's alright. I didn't doubt for a minute what you meant, and I understand how you feel. So lets just forget the whole blow up ever happened and get on with our lives. What do you think of finding your brothers?"
"Well, of course I want to find them. They're my older brothers! Do you think, once I'm at Hogwarts, you'll be able to find them?"
"I don't know, not for certain. No one can ever really know. Even Seers can be mistaken. But something inside me tells me that someday, and someday somewhat soon, you, your brothers and I are all going to be back together again. Eventually, I will have my name cleared and the four of us can get on with the business of living."
§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§
It was about an hour later when Sirius and Emily came back down stairs after their talk. They sat down at the table and looked at those around them. Everyone was quiet, waiting to see who would speak first. Finally, after the silence became stale (this group did seem to be silent an awful lot), Orion spoke, "So, Sirius, have you and Emily talked it all out, regarding Liz and the boys and what you're gonna do?"
Sirius nodded to his brother, looking at his daughter sadly at the mention of his wife. He knew that a day would not pass that he wouldn't be reminded of her, their daughter was already so much like her. He had been young when he had gotten married, and it was a bit sudden, in a manner of speaking, but he had loved his wife and God help him, he always would.
Everyone at the table saw the look of pain pass over his face, and gave him a look akin to pity. Sensing her father's thoughts, Emily went around to stand behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a small hug.
Sirius noticed that she was still wearing muggle clothing, a T-shirt and wind pants. But what really attracted his attention were several small burns along the skin of both her right and left arms. They were red and circular in shape, reminding him of curse burns. They were obviously scars and looked to be a couple of years old. In fact, they looked a lot like a burn he remembered Peter had once had on his arm. Right after they had graduated, the four of them had gone to a pub, and Peter had been smoking when a bit of ash had fallen on to his arm, successfully burning and scarring him, most likely for the rest of his life.
And now he was seeing these same marks on his fifteen –year- old daughter's inner arms. "Emily," he growled, "what are these marks?" Remus, Orion, Mundungus, and Atticus recognized this tone of voice. They hadn't heard it in fourteen years, but they would never forget it. It was the same tone he had used whenever they, along with James and the girls, had caught a Death Eater or some other known supporter of Voldermort. Harry, and Ron recognized the tone from a little over a year ago when he had confronted Pettigrew. He had wanted to kill Pettigrew that night, and the tone of his voice was much the same as that night. Both groups knew that his anger was not directed at her, yet at the person who had put the marks there.
Emily, however, didn't. The first thing that occurred to her was that he was angry with her, and she drew back, afraid. For the first time since he had found her, Emily had found herself afraid of her father. The anger scared her. It reminded her of her first several sets of foster parents. She had been sure that he wasn't like them. She hoped that she had been right.
Sirius saw the fear on her face and this calmed him down a bit. "Emily," he said, calming down, trying to calm her as well, "I'm not mad at you. I just need you tell me who did that to you."
She looked at him closely, and saw that he was telling the truth. "Well, umm, uhh…" she stuttered for a moment before stopping. Sirius saw that she was still a little nervous, so he opened his arms to her. He realized that she was fifteen, but at the moment, it was the only comfort he could offer. This seemed to do the trick. She moved into his arms and they immediately went around her, securing her against him. Feeling reassured, she started again, "I was in about seven foster homes before I ended up with the family you found me with. They were by far the nicest people I had lived with, as least as far back as I could remember. But the first three or four families I was with were horrible. And violent. These were from the second family if I remember right, but they are not the worse marks I have, not by far. They just happen to be the most visible." Emily couldn't see the look of rage settle on her father's face, but she could feel him tense up. There were a few moments of silence and everyone was waiting for his outburst. It came, and with it a whole string of consequences of her statement that none of them had been prepared for.
To Be Continued
Author's Note: Ha ha, I left you with a cliffhager! But
I do promise to try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible, hopefully
by Saturday afternoon, but I'm not making any promises. Well, once
again I'm begging you, I'm down on my knees, please, please, please review!!!!
