Chapter 10
"Keara? You in here?" Sirius attempted to look around the pitch black girls' room.
"Mmpf," came her muffled voice from the far end of the room. It sounded as if she had her face buried in her pillow.
"I'll take that as a yes," Sirius stepped into the room trying his best to get used to the light enough to make out where she was.
"What are you doing here?" Apparently she had removed her face from the pillow.
"I brought you dinner," Sirius indicated the basket at his side. He knew that she would be able to see the motion because of the backlighting from the doorway.
"Why?"
"I thought that would be obvious. We missed lunch and you didn't stay to eat dinner," Sirius closed the door behind him.
"Mm."
"I'm turning on the lights. I can't see where you are," Sirius juggled the basket around as he fumbled for his wand to light the torches.
"On my bed."
Sirius turned on the lights. "Wow, this room is small. Ours is huge!" He saw her shake her head and give him a small smile.
"Well you have to fit more than twice the number of people in there. I could have stuck you all in here and taken the large room for us girls," Keara sat up and leaned against the wall at the head of her bed propped against her many pillows. Sirius took a seat in front of her and placed the food in between them.
"Good point. I'm not gonna complain about the room. Dig in," Sirius helped himself to a plate of food.
"Thank you."
"No problem," Sirius took a bite of his chicken. "This is excellent," he grinned mimicking something that Dumbledore would say.
"I'm sure you think all food is excellent that's cooked here or by James' Mum," Keara grinned, teasing him.
"I thought you were American," Sirius looked confused.
"I am but, what does that have to do with anything?" now it was Keara's time to be confused.
"Well you called James' Mum, Mum. I thought Americans said Mom."
"They do. I used to as well until we moved to England. I still refer to my own mother as Mom because I never had a chance to call her Mum. But I'm so used to everyone else calling their mothers, Mum that I call them Mum as well. If that makes any sense to you."
"Perfect sense. Do you mind my asking what happened to your Mom?" Sirius purposely used Keara's term for her mother.
"She was killed when Dev and I were younger in a car crash by a drunk driver. That's why we moved to Britain. Daddy wanted to be closer to his parents," Keara whispered sadly. "I still miss her."
"I would too if I lost my Mum. I'd never stop missing her."
"Thank you for not killing Dev as well," clearly indicating that further conversation about her mother was closed for discussion. Sirius wasn't surprised that she had changed the topic. She obviously didn't like to be unhappy.
"How do you know I didn't?"
"If you had, you wouldn't be up here talking to me. It would be just plain tacky to come up here with me if you had just murdered my little brother."
"Ah, well I guess you're welcome for that. Although sometimes I wouldn't mind killing him."
"I know he's giving you a hard time. I've never seen him act this way before. I thinks he's a tad bit jealous that he doesn't have my undivided attention all the time now."
"Hopefully he'll get over it. He needs to learn to share."
"He had better get over it and I quite agree. He does need to learn to share. HEY! Wait a sec. I'm not a piece of property."
"I know that. If you had been born a couple hundred years earlier, though you would have been."
"As long as you know that."
"Eat. I'm not leaving until you do," Sirius said with a mock stern voice reminding her suspiciously of her father when she had been little and hadn't wanted to finish her veggies. It made her smile, which she assumed was what he was going for because he grinned when he saw it.
Sirius walked out of the girls' bedroom a few hours later followed by Keara who was carrying the dirty dishes and muttering something like 'women's work my arse' obviously commenting about Sirius' lack of assistance with the dishes. Keara said something along the lines of 'be right back' and walked out of the room with the dinner dishes. A few snickered at her misfortune and went back to their conversations.
"You were one of the champions in the tri-wizard tournament? You would have been too young."
"Technically."
"Technically?" James raised an eyebrow wondering what his son meant by that and just what it was that he was trying to hide or at least not tell him about. Getting information out of his son was like pulling teeth sometimes. He just didn't want to give it.
"Yeah," Harry attempted to just avoid the answers that his dad wanted, hoping to put off upsetting him as long as possible.
"Care to explain a bit more?" He just wasn't going to drop it this time. James had a feeling that this was about what Devlynn had interrupted Harry from having to tell him the day before in the hall.
"No. Not really."
"Tell me, Harry."
"I'd really rather not."
"I'm your dad. I have a right to know."
"Yes, you do have a right, but I'd still rather not tell you," Harry looked down at his hands as he fiddled with them, not wanting to meet his father's eyes. He didn't want to upset his dad with recounts of all of his near death experiences and there were many.
"If I wasn't the same age as you, you probably wouldn't be so impertinent," James muttered.
"Probably not, but that would mean you were most likely still alive, and then I probably wouldn't have anything to hide from you," Harry shrugged. "You would have already known about it."
"True," he conceded to that point. "Just tell me."
"Promise you won't flip?"
"No," James started to think he didn't want to know anymore.
"Then I won't tell you," Harry said simply.
"Fine, Fine. I promise," James lied.
Harry rolled his eyes knowing that it was a lie and decided to tell him anyway and get it over with. "Well a death eater pretended to be Mad-Eye Moody and taught at the school in my fourth year. He taught my class about the three Unforgivable curses and tried placing the Imperius curse on all of us to see if we could fight it. The Curse doesn't work very well on me. I'm able to fight it. He put my name in the goblet so that I could win the tournament and bring Voldemort back to life. Voldemort tried to put me under the Imperius curse as well, but I fought it, Dad. Then he tried to kill me."
"WHAT?! Did Sirius know?!" James had shot forward in his chair and was almost falling out of it.
"Yes, of course he did," Harry snapped irritably.
"He LET you compete?!"
"No one gave him much of a choice, not that Sirius could really do anything about it. He was still a convict then. Everyone still thought that he was guilty," Harry answered. "And you said you wouldn't flip," he muttered.
"Why didn't Sirius come and get you? And I kept my promise. I didn't flip, you did not see me somersaulting through the air. I got upset. There's a difference."
Harry gave a snort but continued, "He didn't come get me because he still hadn't had his trial yet and it didn't look like he would for a few years. Which he didn't. It was better for me to stay at school than go into hiding with Sirius."
"Why didn't you just stay with the Dursleys!? The Dursleys are better than someone trying to kill you!"
"No, Dad, they weren't. That was also part of the point. I could no longer stay with the Dursleys. I was going to be staying with the Weasley's during that summer holiday. You can't honestly believe that I would have been safer outside of Hogwart's."
"Well, I suppose that's true. Wait. Are you trying to tell me that the Dursleys, they." James looked like he was about to be sick.
"Yes, they did. It was a while ago, so don't worry about it."
"Keara? You in here?" Sirius attempted to look around the pitch black girls' room.
"Mmpf," came her muffled voice from the far end of the room. It sounded as if she had her face buried in her pillow.
"I'll take that as a yes," Sirius stepped into the room trying his best to get used to the light enough to make out where she was.
"What are you doing here?" Apparently she had removed her face from the pillow.
"I brought you dinner," Sirius indicated the basket at his side. He knew that she would be able to see the motion because of the backlighting from the doorway.
"Why?"
"I thought that would be obvious. We missed lunch and you didn't stay to eat dinner," Sirius closed the door behind him.
"Mm."
"I'm turning on the lights. I can't see where you are," Sirius juggled the basket around as he fumbled for his wand to light the torches.
"On my bed."
Sirius turned on the lights. "Wow, this room is small. Ours is huge!" He saw her shake her head and give him a small smile.
"Well you have to fit more than twice the number of people in there. I could have stuck you all in here and taken the large room for us girls," Keara sat up and leaned against the wall at the head of her bed propped against her many pillows. Sirius took a seat in front of her and placed the food in between them.
"Good point. I'm not gonna complain about the room. Dig in," Sirius helped himself to a plate of food.
"Thank you."
"No problem," Sirius took a bite of his chicken. "This is excellent," he grinned mimicking something that Dumbledore would say.
"I'm sure you think all food is excellent that's cooked here or by James' Mum," Keara grinned, teasing him.
"I thought you were American," Sirius looked confused.
"I am but, what does that have to do with anything?" now it was Keara's time to be confused.
"Well you called James' Mum, Mum. I thought Americans said Mom."
"They do. I used to as well until we moved to England. I still refer to my own mother as Mom because I never had a chance to call her Mum. But I'm so used to everyone else calling their mothers, Mum that I call them Mum as well. If that makes any sense to you."
"Perfect sense. Do you mind my asking what happened to your Mom?" Sirius purposely used Keara's term for her mother.
"She was killed when Dev and I were younger in a car crash by a drunk driver. That's why we moved to Britain. Daddy wanted to be closer to his parents," Keara whispered sadly. "I still miss her."
"I would too if I lost my Mum. I'd never stop missing her."
"Thank you for not killing Dev as well," clearly indicating that further conversation about her mother was closed for discussion. Sirius wasn't surprised that she had changed the topic. She obviously didn't like to be unhappy.
"How do you know I didn't?"
"If you had, you wouldn't be up here talking to me. It would be just plain tacky to come up here with me if you had just murdered my little brother."
"Ah, well I guess you're welcome for that. Although sometimes I wouldn't mind killing him."
"I know he's giving you a hard time. I've never seen him act this way before. I thinks he's a tad bit jealous that he doesn't have my undivided attention all the time now."
"Hopefully he'll get over it. He needs to learn to share."
"He had better get over it and I quite agree. He does need to learn to share. HEY! Wait a sec. I'm not a piece of property."
"I know that. If you had been born a couple hundred years earlier, though you would have been."
"As long as you know that."
"Eat. I'm not leaving until you do," Sirius said with a mock stern voice reminding her suspiciously of her father when she had been little and hadn't wanted to finish her veggies. It made her smile, which she assumed was what he was going for because he grinned when he saw it.
Sirius walked out of the girls' bedroom a few hours later followed by Keara who was carrying the dirty dishes and muttering something like 'women's work my arse' obviously commenting about Sirius' lack of assistance with the dishes. Keara said something along the lines of 'be right back' and walked out of the room with the dinner dishes. A few snickered at her misfortune and went back to their conversations.
"You were one of the champions in the tri-wizard tournament? You would have been too young."
"Technically."
"Technically?" James raised an eyebrow wondering what his son meant by that and just what it was that he was trying to hide or at least not tell him about. Getting information out of his son was like pulling teeth sometimes. He just didn't want to give it.
"Yeah," Harry attempted to just avoid the answers that his dad wanted, hoping to put off upsetting him as long as possible.
"Care to explain a bit more?" He just wasn't going to drop it this time. James had a feeling that this was about what Devlynn had interrupted Harry from having to tell him the day before in the hall.
"No. Not really."
"Tell me, Harry."
"I'd really rather not."
"I'm your dad. I have a right to know."
"Yes, you do have a right, but I'd still rather not tell you," Harry looked down at his hands as he fiddled with them, not wanting to meet his father's eyes. He didn't want to upset his dad with recounts of all of his near death experiences and there were many.
"If I wasn't the same age as you, you probably wouldn't be so impertinent," James muttered.
"Probably not, but that would mean you were most likely still alive, and then I probably wouldn't have anything to hide from you," Harry shrugged. "You would have already known about it."
"True," he conceded to that point. "Just tell me."
"Promise you won't flip?"
"No," James started to think he didn't want to know anymore.
"Then I won't tell you," Harry said simply.
"Fine, Fine. I promise," James lied.
Harry rolled his eyes knowing that it was a lie and decided to tell him anyway and get it over with. "Well a death eater pretended to be Mad-Eye Moody and taught at the school in my fourth year. He taught my class about the three Unforgivable curses and tried placing the Imperius curse on all of us to see if we could fight it. The Curse doesn't work very well on me. I'm able to fight it. He put my name in the goblet so that I could win the tournament and bring Voldemort back to life. Voldemort tried to put me under the Imperius curse as well, but I fought it, Dad. Then he tried to kill me."
"WHAT?! Did Sirius know?!" James had shot forward in his chair and was almost falling out of it.
"Yes, of course he did," Harry snapped irritably.
"He LET you compete?!"
"No one gave him much of a choice, not that Sirius could really do anything about it. He was still a convict then. Everyone still thought that he was guilty," Harry answered. "And you said you wouldn't flip," he muttered.
"Why didn't Sirius come and get you? And I kept my promise. I didn't flip, you did not see me somersaulting through the air. I got upset. There's a difference."
Harry gave a snort but continued, "He didn't come get me because he still hadn't had his trial yet and it didn't look like he would for a few years. Which he didn't. It was better for me to stay at school than go into hiding with Sirius."
"Why didn't you just stay with the Dursleys!? The Dursleys are better than someone trying to kill you!"
"No, Dad, they weren't. That was also part of the point. I could no longer stay with the Dursleys. I was going to be staying with the Weasley's during that summer holiday. You can't honestly believe that I would have been safer outside of Hogwart's."
"Well, I suppose that's true. Wait. Are you trying to tell me that the Dursleys, they." James looked like he was about to be sick.
"Yes, they did. It was a while ago, so don't worry about it."