A/N: The Ministry chapter has been kicked back a bit, considering I need to explain why and what they're to do there more, from both sides (Ellie and Sirius) and there are a few things that need to be clearer about Ellie and her background before we really get into everything. So yah, meet filler chapter. Thanks for the reviews : D!
And I've discovered the soundtrack to this song – not so much the lyrics but the music behind it. This fic Brighter than Sunshine by Aqualung; I recommend you buy/download that song. It is beautiful.
---
Welcome Back
Chapter 2: Secrets We Keep
Ellie sighed, glad to be home.
It had certainly been a rough day – she'd had to eventually talk the trainees through a healing when the visitor had woken up, and it had been tricky, but the results were commendable, and afterwards, she'd talked to the patient to coax any information she could from him.
She was rewarded with very little knowledge and quite a few questions concerning visitors.
After an hour, she was waiting on him hand and foot (she did what she had to to get him to talk) and still in the dark about the Ministry's relation to all of it.
Ellie had grown so annoyed by his rudeness and self-importance that eventually she began to see the pile of paperwork as the lesser of two evils.
Getting through the paperwork with Aggie checking in every few minutes was only just tolerable, but she'd gotten through with thoughts of Sirius.
Notions she usually fought away were welcomed with open arms to distract her, and at one point she decided she couldn't stay silent much longer without knowing.
She had decided to ask him everything.
Snuffles came to greet her lazily, rubbing his nose on the back of her knee.
She squat down and smiled.
"If no one else, you've always loved me, haven't you, Snuffles?" implored Ellie, scratching the dog's ears.
He only stared at her droopily, and gave her a lick on the face, a small, comforting lick.
Ellie looked around and stepped into the kitchen, seeing the cleared plate and empty glass on the table.
She smiled a secret little smile to herself as she collected them into her hands and began to wash them in the sink.
No matter how long he was gone, once he got back he settled in right away, leaving his clothes on the floor, his shoes in the doorway, the lights on behind him.
A walking mess he was, but perhaps it was part of his charm.
Faintly she could hear the shower going in the upstairs bathroom, the sound of artificially pouring water rivaling the natural rain outside.
Today had started out sunny – or as sunny as England gets – but there was always the promise of rain in Britain's clouds, always dancing, gray, along the horizon undecidedly.
She remembered times when she'd find Sirius in the shower and join him – not always for lewd intents, sometimes purely to save money on the water bill they could barely scrape up enough money to pay for.
But that was back when they were poorer and younger and before…just, back then.
She banished the thoughts, frustrated, glaring for a moment at the majority of the dishes still unwashed.
In her haste this morning she'd left it almost half-full of dirty silverware and plates, and the newly added ones didn't help matters at all.
Deciding to procrastinate, Ellie heaved another sigh and fell on the couch in the living room, bumping her ankle on the coffee table as she did.
"Ow,"
she muttered under her breath, nursing her offended ankle.
"You
know that always happens to you," Sirius muttered, an amused sort
of twinkle in his tone.
She glared up at him half-heartedly from where her head lay, reclined on the arm of the sofa.
Sirius was clothed in a towel and little else, she assumed, with the way he stood.
Sirius had always had a specific pose for when he was scantily clad – which Ellie had once complained was not often enough – with one leg sort of bent and the other straight so he looked like a pirate.
The sight was enough to cause her to forget her troubles and just enjoy like any self-respecting pervert would, and if nothing else, that described Ellie pretty fairly.
"Yeah, I know," she muttered dreamily, covering her face with a pillow as she was yanked from her reverie by Sirius wagging his head like a dog, sending projectiles of water everywhere.
She then looked over the back of the couch and stared at Sirius's feet, whose toes scrunched and relaxed under the attention as if it would distract her from the fact that they were half-submerged in a puddle of shower water.
"You're dripping."
Sirius scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I know."
He laughed, slightly nervous.
"Then get off the damn carpet," said Ellie, flopping back down to lean her head against the arm of the sofa.
"Fine, fine," Sirius grumbled petulantly, then took large steps to get to the open frame separating the living room and foyer.
He stood just shy of the carpeting.
"Ellie?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for breakfast this morning," he said.
"No problem, Siri," said Ellie quietly.
He stared at her.
She stared at him.
"I-"
"You should get dressed now, Sirius," she cut him off in as kind a voice as she could manage with the emotion already starting up in her eyes.
She'd seen the look in his eyes – the one of sorrow, pity, regret, sadness, frustration.
She'd seen it before; if it were up to her, she'd never see it again.
He had been about to apologize, admit all that he'd done, and half-smile up at her to forgive him.
It was what he always did; it was some kind of confessional, a rite so he'd be able to leave again.
"I think that's been the first time you've ever said for me to put my clothes on," said Sirius amusedly, cleaning his ear with the towel round his shoulders.
She smiled a little bit.
"Go," she urged, blowing him a half-hearted kiss.
"Alrightey, alrightey, I'm going." Sirius began to waddle away, trying not to drip.
"Sirius," she called, half-surprised that she'd said it out loud.
"Yeah, Ellie?" His head popped up from the corner of the wide door-less frame.
"Erm…nothing, nevermind."
She'd been so ready to tell him of the problems today; of the small bits and pieces she knew of the Wizarding world's newest threats, hoping he'd be able to fill in what she didn't have.
She'd been so ready, but she couldn't.
She didn't want to open up yet, act like it never happened, and welcome him back with open arms and a hidden, heavy heart.
She didn't want to let go yet.
She wasn't ready to let go yet.
---
"Towels, towels, towels," Sirius muttered, searching the utility closet for a towel to dry himself with at Ellie's request.
Sirius grabbed a towel hidden behind bed sheets, starting to dry his hair as he leaned against the wall.
Ellie.
She was pretty again; that special kind of pretty.
It wasn't sexual; it was soft, gentle, warm.
She felt like home.
Snuffles, this house, being back in that old shower which knobs were mixed, so the cold was actually hot and the hot was actually cold – it all felt like home.
And he was glad to be back.
Walking while dragging his feet, he walked into his bedroom.
The bed was unmade as he'd left it, his clothes were still on the floor, and Snuffles was snoring in the corner of the room, beside the door that led to the bathroom.
The big black Labrador was always near either him or Ellie, as if he thought to protect them.
Thinking back to what he, Remus, and James had spoken of, he wasn't so sure this four-year-old baby could succeed in that.
"…A monster, he is. He leads a sort of spy network, rumor has it they've even penetrated the Ministry. No one is safe…"
He should have told Ellie; he should have given her a hint that he might be away again, for a while again.
He could convince himself that it was because he didn't have a chance.
He should have told her, but he wouldn't have - given the chance or not.
Sirius shook his head.
Quietly, he approached Snuffles and scratched his ears.
The dog woke indolently and gave him a stare.
"Hey, Snuffles," said Sirius softly, "You're a good dog."
Recognizing the phrase, Snuffles nudged at his owner's hand.
"The rain's stopped, maybe a walk would do you good."
He ruffled his fur affectionately as he hooked the leash on downstairs.
"Ellie?"
"Yeah?" Ellie's voice held a distinctly lazy tone to it.
He heard the couch move under her as she stretched.
"I'm going to take Snuffles for a walk; that okay?"
"Sure, but if it starts to rain, take him back inside quickly. I don't want him sicker than he is already! It's bad enough he's now as lazy as we are."
Sirius nodded, half-smiling.
"I'll be back in two hours or so, alright?"
"Uh-huh," Ellie replied, getting up and moving to the kitchen to tackle the remaining dishes.
Snuffles barked excitedly.
"Alrightey, buddy, here goes. Bye, Ellie!"
Ellie turned on the water quietly, shaking a little.
Her window of opportunity had just opened.
---
Henry Lehmicke sat very quietly, perusing a psychology journal in his large armchair, surrounded by tomes in bookcases adorning every wall.
"The butler said your name was no longer Elisa Lehmicke."
She was slightly startled, as his eyes hadn't moved from his book.
"That's true," she muttered quietly.
She never seemed to have much nerve when around her brother.
There was heaviness in the air that seemed to be weighing down on her shoulders.
"It's Black," she finally blurted out softly, "Elisa Black. People don't even call me Elisa anymore; it's just Ellie."
"Black as in…Sirius?" pursued Henry.
Ellie nodded.
"You married him?" he shouted in outrage.
She nodded again.
She didn't feel the urge to part her lips and explain; it would only make him angrier.
"You've rid yourself of the noble Lehmicke name to marry a…a…traitor!"
There was a lapse in his speech; his German accent was becoming slightly more noticeable.
Ellie looked to the floor steadily, biting her tongue.
He'd be no good to her if she got him too angry.
"Have you any children with the ingrate?"
"N-No," she said shakily.
"Well, at least you haven't ruined yourself completely," he said, roughly tossing his journal aside on the table flanking his chair. "Why did you come here?"
His eyes, hazel like hers, bore holes into her harshly, and it was all she could do not to turn from her brother.
His hair was still very blonde, just like the typical Slytherin graduate and properly bred German he was.
Ellie remembered when her hair had been that blonde; it had darkened since she'd gotten to Hogwarts, and she'd never seen to alter it again.
She didn't want to answer the question.
There really wasn't a delicate way to put it; she needed his help, and asking for it was a harder task to go about than she had remembered.
"I-I…" she bit her lower lip in frustration. "I need your help, Henry."
---
A/N: Hey, guys. It's me again, with the next installment of Welcome Back. Yeah, it's not a brilliant chapter, and it's not my favorite chapter, but I like it. It gives you a little more insight into what's going down. Well, I updated earlier than I thought I would.
Huge thanks to "Moi" for all of the wonderful corrections and quite possibly the best review I have ever received; I fixed the errors and a few others I noticed. You are now my favorite person EVAH!
The next chapter is actually ((all those with unstable coronary diseases please brace yourselves: absolute shocker)) already almost done! That's right, people! I've actually had a chapter in the works before I uploaded this! I hope no one died just then.
And don't think that the reason why Sirius has been gone so often has already been revealed - trust me, he's got more up his sleeve.
Henry's not terribly big in the story, but there's a reason for him. A big reason. Well, you'll just have to wait til the next part, hm…