Running. Running from the shack, trying to get away from Bobby. Only it wasn't Bobby. It was his ghost. She screamed as the ghost got closer to her. She had to get away but everywhere she went there he was, following her, grinning at her, telling her he wanted to do it again and again and again.
Kieran sat straight up in bed, her eyes wide in the darkness. Her breath came out rapidly in short bursts. It was only a nightmare. Once she was calm, she cried, the tears falling into the teddy bear that she held tightly in her arms. Like every other night of the past month, she had had a nightmare of what Bobby had done to her.
She had found out from her mother that Bobby's parents had found him dead not long after Kieran and her father had left the house. The muggle examiners had come out and couldn't pinpoint the exact cause of death but would do an autopsy to try and figure it out. Eleanor had asked Kieran if she knew anything about it since the death looked like the work of a wizard. Kieran responded that she didn't know what happened. Eleanor believed her, but no longer allowed her to play with muggle children.
Kieran's door opened a crack and a pale light filtered through. She cowered under the covers.
"Kieran," Bradley whispered, "honey, are you alright?"
Kieran poked her head out from under the covers and saw her father in his bath robe holding a small candle in a holder. Bradley came into the room and sat on her bed, stroking her hair as she gazed at the wall.
"Another nightmare," he asked.
She nodded.
"You know Bobby can't hurt you anymore. You're safe now."
"I know," she said in a small voice, "but he comes in my dreams every night."
"Would you like me to go to the Apothecary in the morning and get you a draught for dreamless sleep?"
"Yes please."
"Alright. How about tomorrow we go and visit Grandma Lydia."
"Ok."
"Try to get some sleep honey."
Kieran shuddered as they walked through the front gates of Azkaban. She didn't like the dementors and not they brought back memories of her mother and father arguing and the incidents with Bobby. Despite the dementors though, Kieran was excited to visit her grandmother though she wished it wasn't in Azkaban.
After her grandmother had murdered her grandfather, Lydia threw the body into the nearby creek to make it look like Henry had drowned. The Ministry though was suspicious and the death and performed Prior Incantato on her wand and discovered the killing curse. Lydia admitted to killing her husband and to being a Death Eater declaring that the Dark Lord would come back for her and his loyal servants. After a quick trial she was sentenced to life in Azkaban.
They walked down a long hallway passing the cells of other prisoners, some of which shot dirty looks at Bradley. Kieran knew why, her father had explained it to her after their first visit. Bradley had denied that he was a Death Eater to avoid Azkaban and to help raise Kieran. Because of his denial, the prisoners considered him a traitor.
They reached Lydia's cell and after it was unlocked, went inside. Lydia sat on her small bed smiling faintly at the sight of them. Kieran sat down on the bed next to her grandmother, Bradley leaned against the wall.
"How good to see the two of you. It's been a couple of months. How have you been," Lydia said.
"A muggle boy hurt me grandma," Kieran whispered,
"Now Kieran," Bradley started.
"Hush son, let her tell me."
"He touched me in the bad touch way," Kieran hung her head.
"Wait!"
"Mother it's ok, I took care of the issue," Bradley said quietly, putting his hand on Lydia's shoulder.
"And just how did you take care of the issue?"
"He killed the muggle," Kieran whispered in her grandmother's ear.
"Is this true Bradley?"
"Yes mother, it is."
Lydia smiled smugly as if knowing her son had come back to his old ways. Bradley raked a hand through his hair.
"I didn't really want to do it," he said, "it was only a little boy. But he hurt Kieran and I don't let anyone hurt my daughter.
"Understood. This however is not the place to talk about such things as muggle killings," Lydia said looking pointedly at Bradley.
As her father and grandmother discussed other events that were taking place outside of Azkaban, Kieran drew in on herself drowning out their drone. She missed having her grandmother around. She still remembered the book that read to her right before her grandfather had died. Lydia had taught the truth about muggles and now that she was no longer around Kieran had to learn such things on her own from books she had stolen from Lydia's hidden library.
"Kieran, it's time to go," Bradley said, jarring Kieran from her thoughts. She hugged Lydia and whispered in her ear,
"I liked watching the muggle boy die grandma."
Lydia just smiled and kissed Kieran on the cheek. As they left the cell, she looked back and noticed for the first time how emaciated and grey her grandmother looked. It was with a heavy heart that she realized that Lydia's days on earth were growing shorter. She knew that soon her grandmother would die and this saddened her even more than the thoughts the dementors drug up in her.
