A Twisted Candle chapter Two

The wind blew at Harry as he walked over to Candle. She looked up at him, her expression hardly readable. "Th-thank you, for letting me s- stay with you. I-it's awfully k-kind." Candle choked out. "It's all right. I-we don't mind. I mean, it'll be different, but a good kind of different." He stuttered, blushing. He hoped that the cold covered it up. 'I wonder who would attack her family' He thought, not catching the thankful look on Candle's face. There was a dead silence. "Are you okay?" Harry asked softly. Candle gently stood up from where she sat on the steps and wrapped the blanket around herself tighter. She followed Harry and Sirius.

Candle sat on the couch. She couldn't explain it but with Harry she felt safe. This was not a crush though. He seemed like a really good friend that she had known all her life. He kept blushing probably because she was a girl and he didn't know how to react to this kind of situation. She looked outside the window as the police left her house but kept the area restricted. She glanced over at Harry and Sirius. Then she noticed that Harry was still wearing his pajamas. What made it especially cute was the teddy bear design on the pajamas. Suddenly she started to giggle and laid down on the couch laughing. Harry and Sirius looked over at her with concern as if she had gone insane. "Nice pajamas." She managed to choke out through her laughter. But even the fact she was laughing surprised herself considering her parents just died. She even began to feel she was going insane especially since her laughter abruptly turned to tears. "I couldn't tell them." She kept repeating as she cried. Harry and Sirius grew quite and looked at her with pity. "They were dead on the floor. They looked almost like they were asleep! No blood or anything! But I knew! I knew they were dead!" she cried harder. "They tried to kill me too. I screamed when he killed them. I don't understand how they died! He was floating and had on a hood and he just brought out a stick like a play wand and a green light flashed and then they were dead!" she fell off the couch and onto the ground crying harder. Sirius suddenly looked up at her. "A hooded figure with a wand?" he whispered to himself. "You said 'they' tried to kill you, was 'he' alone?" Sirius asked. She shook her head as she laid on the ground. "Another person was with him. He called him Wormtail." She barely got out. "But I couldn't tell the police. They won't believe me! What am I to tell them? A maniac who floats killed my parents with a toy?!" she practically screamed. Sirius looked over at Harry. "My scar hurt when I woke up." Harry whispered and Sirius grew pale. "We should go to sleep for now. Candle especially needs some rest. The police will most likely pay us another visit to ask us questions like if we heard anything and to see if they can get more information from Candle. Harry, Candle will sleep in your room tonight. You may take my bed as I will take the couch." Sirius ordered. "Harry?" Sirius asked in a low whisper. "Hmm?" "Your room is clean, yes?"

Harry peaked around the corner and into the kitchen. Sirius had gone grocery shopping and Candle was taking a nap. She still wouldn't tell the police anything. Harry turned to happier things to look forward to. Like how he was returning to Hogwarts in a week. Harry slowly looked around and grinned. Though it was forbidden to use magic outside of Hogwarts Harry didn't get in trouble when he uh....blew up his aunt to the size of a balloon. Harry brought out is wand from behind his back and aimed it at the refrigerator. He did this every once in a while just for fun and hadn't received a warning from Hogwarts yet. It was hard pretending to be normal everyday and not use magic at least every once in a while! The refrigerator door opened by itself as if it had life. Harry pointed and brought out the bottle milk and poured it into a glass on the table. "What's Hogwarts?" a voice asked from behind Harry. Immediately the bottle of milk fell to the ground and shattered. Harry looked stunned. "What's Hogwarts?" she asked again. "How do you know about Hogwarts?" Harry asked grimly. Candle handed him a piece of paper. "An owl dropped it off. Quite interesting." She commented. Harry swallowed hard. "It's a school I go to. We train animals to do things." Harry said quickly. "Do you also use a wand and pour milk that way too?" she asked innocently. "It was a magic trick. I am practicing!" Harry spit out. "You protest too much." She said. "You know, four nights ago, when my parents were....killed, the man had a wand as well." She said coldly. "Tell me what you know! You and your godfather know something about what happened to my parents and you're going to tell me!" she screamed. Harry looked shocked. "My parents were killed in front of my own eyes, I have a right to know what happened. Why were they killed?" she whispered in a deadly tone. "I-I don't know." Harry said. "I wonder what your godfather and the police would think if I told them you use magic. Real magic." She whispered. "Actually, they would assume you had gone insane." Harry countered. "I have a right to know!" she yelled. Before Harry could reply, Sirius walked in and laid groceries on the table. "Tell me." she said looking at Sirius with pleading eyes. Sirius sighed. "She has a right to know, Harry. Maybe if we tell her we can find out more about Voldemort and what is happening." Sirius said. Sirius led Candle to the living room and told her everything.

"We go to platform nine and three quarters." Sirius said. "I still can't believe you waited until last night to tell me you were my new Dark Arts teacher!" Harry muttered. "It slipped my mind." Sirius defended. "Nine and three quarters? That's silly! There are only whole numbers!" Candle scolded. "Righto!" Sirius said ignoring her comment. They walked on for a while and stopped. "What are we stopping for?" Candle asked looking around where nothing but a wall. "We need to get to our train." Candle said in her usual British accent. "Alright, Harry. You go first." Sirius said. "Go where?" Candle asked. Harry charged forward toward the wall with the cart of luggage she had. Her eyes widened as he went through the wall. "Your turn!" Sirius said. She gulped and ran forward with her cart and instead of going through the wall, she hit it. Her eyes widened. The cart knocked the breath out of her and she fell over. "Well, that was interesting." Sirius said helping her up. "How about you sit on the cart of luggage and I'll run us through?" Sirius said. She nodded dizzily. Sirius helped onto the cart and ran through flawlessly. Harry turned around happily. "Well who do we have here?!" Sirius said laughing happily. Next to Harry was a girl of brown hair and brown eyes. She was dressed in the same uniform as Harry. And to the right of Harry stood a young boy with fiery red hair and green eyes. "Candle, this is Hermione and Ron." Harry said. The two smiled and shook hands with Candle. Suddenly a young girl with fiery red hair and green eyes came up from behind Ron. Her face was red for some reason. "Oh, and this is my sister, Ginny." Ron said annoyed. She shot him an annoyed glance. Then suddenly two boys that also had red hair and green eyes popped out. They appeared to be twins. "This is Fred and this is George." Ron added with amusement. "No, I'm George and this is Fred!" one of them complained. "Ignore them. They are immature." Said another voice. "And this is another older brother, Percy." Ron said with disgust and annoyance. Candle smiled. Suddenly the train made a sound that alerted them it was about to leave. "Better hurry!" Sirius exclaimed rushing with luggage to the train.

Candle was looking out the window, when the door to her compartment opened and Harry poked his head into the doorway. "Hello there. Enjoying the ride?" he asked, hopefully. Her answer was a cold, distant silence. He sighed, saying, "No, no I guess not. Well, I hope you can cheer up because we are about to eat!" But before he got out the door, he heard Candle say, "How can you do that? How can you act as if everything's hunky-dory?" she whispered. When he didn't answer, she went on. "Because, you know, everything isn't alright. And everything won't be alright for a long, long time. Not until I do some thinking first and then, Potter, you can ask me, 'Enjoying the ride?' But until then, don't be expecting anything pleasant, got it?" Harry just nodded. That was all he could do. When he slipped out the door, he nearly collided with someone standing right outside the compartment. He immediately recognized the figure as Malfoy. Malfoy pushed him away in disgust, saying, "Your 'friend' sure has an attitude, Potter. Maybe I could get to know this kid, since she obviously doesn't like you very much." He said, snickering. Harry frowned. "Thought you didn't like mixing with 'muggles'?" he retorted. "A muggle? What is it with you and befriending them? You are a pureblooded sorcerer, Potter. You could do so much more. Like me." Malfoy said proudly. Harry got angry at the thought of Malfoy referring to Hermione. "So much more? Like trying to act grown-up?" Harry asked. Malfoy sneered and pushed past Harry. Candle exited her compartment and bumped into Malfoy. "Watch where you're going, muggle!" he yelled. She looked confused. For a moment she caught a glint in his eyes. Anger and jealous, yes, but something more. Something else was there. "What're you staring at?!" Malfoy spat. He walked off giving one weird glance back at her. Candle turned to Harry. "What's a muggle?" she asked softly. Harry was quiet. "I was called a 'muggle'. I expect to know what it is!" she said giving an exasperated sigh. "It's a mean word for human." Harry replied. "Who was he?" she questioned. "His name's Draco Malfoy. But we call him Malfoy. He belongs to the Slytherin house. He's nothing but a bully! Don't let him get to you." Harry said. But Candle didn't feel even one bit affected by Malfoy's treatment to her. "What do you mean by house?" Candle asked confused. "Hogwarts is a school of witchcraft and wizardry. It is divided into four houses. Usually the brave type go to Gryffindor, the clever type to Ravenclaw, the hardworking type to Hufflepuff, and the power-hungry to Slytherin." Harry explained. "I think something's wrong with that hat though." Said Ron coming by, his hands full of food. "I mean really, Neville is in Gryffindor and well....he isn't too brave. And Fred and George aren't in Ravenclaw and they certainly qualify for clever." Ron said. Candle looked confused. " Want some honeycakes?" Ron asked, his voice muffled from his mouth full of food. As he spoke some of the honeycakes ended up on Candle's face and she wiped it away in disgust.