The Gift- A Story by Elizabeth Potter
"Sirius, give mummy her wand!" cried a bushy haired brunette woman as she ran through her enormous house chasing her son. "Sirius!" she yelled again as she heard a loud crash coming from the kitchen.
The skinny woman rushed from the study through the library shaking her head disheartendly after she spotted a smashed china vase strewn across the floor.
The woman arrived in the kitchen to find her three year old son sitting in a pile of flour and giggling while he levitated dishes and cutlery. The boy was fair skinned with hazel eyes and very dark, untidy brown hair. He was thin and averagely tall, but yet there was something mysterious about him.
The woman crept towards him with her hand outstretched, brown eyes full of worry and anxiety. "Honey, give mummy her wand." She tried to sound soothing, but it barely masked her obvious nervousness.
The boy looked up at his mother, eyes twinkling, and swished the wand through the air. The flying objects gave a jolt and hurdled towards the ground. The woman yelped as a large cutting knife zipped down in front of her face with a 'whoosh'.
"Sirius!" she screamed again as a saucepan hit the floor behind her. "Siri-!" The kitchen door swung open. "Immobulus!" shouted a male voice as a flash of light filled the room. At once the child froze as did the kitchenware. "Accio wand!" Said the voice softly.
The woman's wand slid out of the boy's hand and soared to a man standing at the door.
His black hair was ruffled a bit, shadowing his face, but his irises were a crisp, beautiful green with a touch of blue.
The man's skin was a bit pale, but a handsome color all the same. He was thin, but in a healthy way so that his clothes were loose but not overly so. Lastly, his attire was casual and not that of your average wizard; khakis and a white, long-sleeved, button-up shirt with a crimson and gold striped tie and brown leather shoes.
"Rough day, eh, Mione?" Hermione Potter smiled "Your son decided to start practicing early." She walked over to her flour covered son, Sirius, and picked him up, giving him a loving squeeze and a kiss on his cheek. "You're home early, no new today?" she asked her husband, Harry, with a look of concern. "No." he sighed looking down. "Bellatrix is still at large." Harry's voice went from being subtle to hateful. Hermione, who had been bouncing on the balls of her feet stopped, patting Sirius' back and setting him down gently. "Sweetie, head to your room, mummy will be up in a minute to tuck you in." Sirius looked up at his mum pouting and stomped off. Hermione watched him go down a hall leading to his room and turned back to Harry. "Harry, I know this is bothering you, but-""I'm tired of waiting! If we don't go out after her now she'll continue killing people!" Hermione stood taken aback "Harry,""No, Hermione, Just leave it alone!" He said harshly. Hermione's lip trembled slightly, but she straitened up and breathed in and with a look of hollowness followed down the hall to Sirius' room.
Sirius sat on the rug in his room playing with a plastic snitch which was flying around the room much slower than the actual thing. He jumped up trying to grab it with a baseball glove that Harry had given him, and flopped back down to the rug again.
This time he would get it, he decided, this time he'd be like daddy.
Sirius hurried to his closet and threw open the door. He took a second to look and then grabbed out a toy broomstick and straddled it. The toy hovered a little ways off the floor as Sirius directed it to follow the toy snitch.
Hand outstretched and glove lopsided, he chased after the snitch stretching his fingers to their fullest potential and with a swift swing of the arm grabbed it. Sirius landed softly on the rug and whooped happily, waving the snitch like a banner. Hermione stood in the doorway as she thought about how Harry had acted a moment ago. Ever since he had received a position in the Ministry as an auror strange things had been happening.
Ronald Weasley (Harry's best friend from Hogwarts.) becoming head of the division for magical sports (which incidentally, is how Sirius received a 'Chudley Cannons' T-shirt.) for one.
But then there were the droves of dementors who had been spotted in suburban areas of wizarding London.
The dementors, cloaked, hovering and deadly creatures, usually isolate themselves from other dementors (for reasons unbeknownst at this time.) Back in the days of Voldemort such a thing like packs of the foul creatures would mean that Voldemort was successfully creating an army, but it had been ten years since the death of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
With a sigh, Hermione resigned herself to the fact that long hours in the office were making Harry irritable, which in part was truth; but she knew that wasn't all there was to it.
"Sirius, bedtime!" she said scooping him up and sitting on his twin sized bed.
Sirius shoved his mother the snitch and beamed triumphantly, hazel eyes alight. "Look, mum, I got the 'nitch!" his vice was full of excitement. "I see! That's so good!" replied Hermione happily as she gently took the toy snitch from her son's small hand. He looked up at his mother pitifully, "Do I hafta go to bed?" he asked sticking his lower lip out. "Sorry, baby, I afraid you do." Hermione tucked her son in and gave him a kiss on the forehead and laid the toy snitch at his side. "Good night, Sirius!" she called turning off the bedroom light. "Night, mum." Sirius grumbled.
Hermione walked down the stairs and through the hall leading to the kitchen thinking only of how Harry was reacting to Bellatrix Lastrange still wandering around. It had been she who killed Harry's godfather, also named Sirius, and she who had destroyed nearly the whole village of Hogsmead for God only knows why.
'In retrospect, I s'pose that wasn't such a strange reaction." She told herself "I probably would've done the same thing." Hermione walked over to the china cabinet and took out a teapot. She filled it up quietly and put it on the stove to boil. "But why, why has she been doing all of this then? She seemed to have gotten what she wanted after killing Sirius..." Hermione jumped as she heard the water boiling loudly, had it been that long? She walked over to the pantry and pulled out two packets of hot cocoa and dumped them into mugs. After pouring in water and stirring them, she carried the two mugs to the family room and sat herself down beside Harry.
"Want some cocoa?" she asked grinning.