"Professor?" Harry asked, quietly. But, she didn't answer, she was now staring at the black hawk before her, which was, surprisingly, staring back at her. Harry was beginning to become uncomfortable with the image before him. "Um, Professor?" He asked again. She finally looked up at him.
"I'm sorry, Harry. What was I saying?" She asked, as if unsure what had been going on.
"Um, the ring…" He trailed off slightly, not sure what question to ask.
"Oh! Yes, the ring…" She paused for a moment. "This is the strangest thing—but, this just can't be a coincidence—but, I'm sure that it is…" She trailed off. A smile crept to Harry's lips. For a moment, she reminded him of Hermione when she couldn't solve a problem in her Arithmancy class.
"What is it?" He asked, taking a seat on the other side of her desk.
"You won't believe this, but this is the ring that Sirius gave me for our engagement."
"The one that you gave him before he went to go after my parents?" He asked. She just nodded. "How can that be?"
She shrugged. "I can't explain it, Harry. I really can't. As far as I know, he still had it when he was taken away to Azkaban, but it's possible that this hawk found it on the ground while flying somewhere around that area. But, I'm positive that Sirius wouldn't let this go if his life depended on it. It's very…"
"Weird." Harry blurted out.
"Yes… and then some."
A thought crossed Harry's mind. "Are you sure that it's the ring he gave you?" She let a small smile creep to her lips.
"I'm positive."
"How?"
"Because, it belonged to my mother. It was actually the ring that my father gave to her when they got married. She liked Sirius so much that she wanted him to use her ring."
"Your mother liked Sirius?"
"My mother loved Sirius! She treated him like he was one of the family. I mean, since he had left his family when he was sixteen and went to live with James, they got really close sometimes. I never met his parents, which he said was a good thing and I finally found out what he meant when I saw the house that he used to live in."
"You're part of the Order?" He asked, quietly.
"Proudly. My mother was part when she was still alive."
"What happened to her?"
"She was killed by a Death Eater, which is another reason why I decided to join Dumbledore's side. Unlike my father, who just wants nothing to do with it whatsoever. He calls it a load of rubbish at times. I've been trying to convince him that it's not because Voldemort may come after the vampires next, but he doesn't believe me."
"What'll he do if it happens, though?"
"I'll make him eat his words and then make him fight alongside the same witches and wizard who've tried to kill him hundreds of times."
"They've tried to kill him?" She nodded as she unconsciously pet the hawk on the head.
"Of course. He's one of the most well-known vampires because he is so powerful and they just think that he's a murderer, which he isn't. He's never killed for amusement; only if his life was in…" She trailed off suddenly as she felt a low rumble. For a moment, she thought it to be thunder, but no thunder she had ever witnessed made the whole ground shake.
