Disclaimer: Do not own anything related to Harry Potter
a/n: Third year is so fun to write! Enjoy!
July - August 1993
Breakout From Azkaban: Notorious Mass Murderer Sirius Black at Large Once More.
Thirteen, almost fourteen, year old Ascella Black sat holed up in her room, the Daily Prophet laid out before her on her bed, moonlight drifting across her soft blue comforter, a deranged photo of Sirius Black, her father, staring up at her from the front page. Her gray eyes, so alike in color and shape to those of the man on the front page, were darting back and forth as she read the article attached to the photo for the umpteenth time.
Meda and Ted hadn't wanted her to see it. In fact they'd tried to hide it from her, Meda shoving the paper behind her back when Ascella had walked into the kitchen at breakfast. It was clear they'd both just had their heads bent together reading the article. Ascella might have not thought anything of it, she wasn't much for reading the news, except for the way they were acting. Meda was edgy, her hands shaking as she poured Ascella a cup of hot water for tea, forgetting to give her the tea bag until Ascella asked, and Ted didn't read the newspaper at the table like usual, instead both of them hovered over her and kept shooting sad, concerned eyes at her and fussing.
She'd caught on quickly, she wasn't stupid after all, and had casually asked to see the morning paper. Meda's quick response that there was nothing interesting in it, so she'd already tossed it, made Ascella sure they were hiding something from her. Meda quickly changed the subject after, rambling about some new potion she was working on. Even if Ascella hadn't figured out Meda was lying from the way her guardian was acting then the sight of a corner of the Prophet sticking out from the drawer next to the sink, where it had been hastily stored upon her own arrival, would have alerted her that Meda was lying.
What really tipped her off that something was up though, was the letter she'd received shortly after from Dora. It was hastily written, as if scribbled in a hurry, Dora was training to be an Auror and so was informed when crazy things happened, and was along the lines of 'oh just checking in. Wanted to make sure you were doing alright. I'll be by to visit later...' blah, blah, blah. It was clear they'd all known and hadn't thought it worthwhile to share with her, a thought that still irked her. He was her father after all, you'd think the first person that should know the murdering bastard was at large again would be her, but noo better to keep the young one in the dark.
After Ted had gone to work later that morning Ascella had offered to help Meda with her gardening, something she never did willingly, and successfully distracted Meda from thoughts of the paper. She'd then snuck into the kitchen on the pretense of bringing them both lemonade after a couple hours in the hot sun, both covered in dirt, and had snatched up the paper hiding it under her shirt before she could sneak it to her room to read later. And she hadn't stopped reading it since she'd opened it, countless hours ago now. Over and over, again and again. She'd long since memorized every word, the nastier truths resounding in her head as she blindly read the article once more. "Murdered twelve people with a single curse", "You-Know-Who's biggest supporter", "Deatheater... deatheater... deatheater".
Finally, she couldn't take it anymore, couldn't take looking at the deranged man that looked hardly human, couldn't look at the shape of those eyes and not see the truth, this man, this thing, was her father, couldn't read the words anymore. She flung the paper across her room. It hit the wall and unfurled, sliding down to the floor in a heap of loose paper, the photo of her father still perversely staring out at her, despite her efforts. Glaring she resolutely curled up on her bed so her back was facing it, staring out the window, still unable to escape the words she'd so easily memorized.
She didn't remember falling asleep but when she did, she dreamt a man with hollow eyes, and a sunken face, the skin stretched across it like a corpse was chasing her, trying to catch her, trying to speak while she fled in terror. She woke in a cold sweat, her eyes snapping open a wild look in them. Other than that she didn't move. It took her a moment to realize where she was, safe in her second story bedroom at the cottage she'd grown up in. The sun had replaced the moon from the night before in shining across her bedspread. Another nice summer day. Too bad she wasn't in the mood to enjoy it.
Ascella thought of staying in bed longer, but it was already later than she usually slept. And she was angry. Angry that her father was so deranged, angry that the Azkaban guards had let him slip away, angry that Ted and Meda didn't think she could handle the news. Seeing as only one of the three she was angry at were within her sights, she proceeded to dress quickly and march herself down to breakfast.
She caught Ted and Meda once again talking in hushed voices in the kitchen.
"Mor - ning!" Ascella sang out, trying for overly cheerful. She'd catch them yet. She walked over to the counter where Meda had made her favorite, thick cut bacon, fried eggs, and hashbrowns, and loaded her plate up, while her guardians once again tried dually to hide the morning paper and act like absolutely nothing was wrong. They didn't fool Ascella for a second. It didn't help that she knew Ted should have left for work almost an hour ago, that Meda would never have let her sleep this late, while simultaneously keeping the food warm with a warming charm, nor was there any special reason for Meda to make Ascella's favorite breakfast.
"So I was thinking," Ascella mused aloud at the table, as she scooped up some egg with a slice of bacon. Ted and Meda had joined her, both sipping tea and watching her with a wary eye. "That I'd visit with Kevin today and see what we can get up to in the village -" but she was cut off.
"No!" both Meda and Ted said together, before looking wide eyed at each other. If Ascella wasn't so annoyed she might have found their reactions comical.
Instead, she slowly lowered her bacon and egg and asked coolly, "Oh? And why not?" staring pointedly at the two of them, giving them the chance to stop skirting around the issue and tell her.
"Because - well - because you need - you are -" Meda stumbled out before closing her mouth and looking helplessly at Ted.
"What Meda means is that I'm taking you to work!" Ted said. He said it like it was such a treat, a big grin on his face, his arms thrown wide in invitation. Ascella knew better. They wanted to keep an eye on her. And they were doing it by offering up something that she'd always loved to do. She was almost tempted to decline the invite out of spite, had even opened her mouth to do so when Ted said, "We can even see if Dora would be free for lunch." Damn him. It had been almost two weeks since Ascella had seen Dora.
"Fine," she said shortly. Then rising, her breakfast all but untouched, "I'll just go write Kevin and tell him we will reschedule." She all but stalked out of the kitchen, unable to keep up her fake smile of happiness as she passed Ted. He noticed, his warm brown eyes watching her. She heard him sigh when she was out of the room and on the stairs.
She hadn't left to go write Kevin, the plans she'd said they had having been made up, while not out of the realm of possibility, but she'd had to leave before she exploded at them for still trying to hide her father's escape from her. Reaching her room, she flung open the door and marched over to her desk. She almost thought she might write to Kevin, but thought better of it; he was at Aaron's up in the far north and didn't deserve to be burdened with this, no matter how close they'd grown this summer.
She and Kevin had spent near everyday together since school let out, just over a month ago now as they were currently into the last week of July. At first it had been like they were trying almost to make up for all the time they'd missed during the school year but then the dynamic had shifted. For the most part they still had the same fun they'd always had, pranking the muggles or old man Archie, especially the previous week when Aaron had come to visit, but there were subtle differences now. They talked more, about serious things, like how Kevin was worried his muggle parents were headed for divorce. He thought it was his fault, his and his younger sister's, who'd just received a letter from Hogwarts too, because his mum couldn't handle that neither of her children were "normal". It had apparently also just come out that their father was actually a squib, but after the rest of his family had been killed in the first war, he'd retreated from wizarding society. Kevin didn't know who he hated being around more, he'd whispered to Ascella one day.
And so to help him get away, Ascella kept him busy with their usual antics, or invited him and his sister over to dinner, and sometimes they'd even find themselves a quiet moment away from everything, each with a book in hand, and perch themselves up in a tree on the edge of the Greenfield Meadow just outside the village. And it wasn't just their relationship that had changed, Kevin had too. He was more serious in some ways, one could still see the mark his attack had left on him, if not physically, but Ascella somehow didn't mind the change. He was still Kevin and she liked having him around, but he was somehow more mysterious now and she found she liked that too.
Physically, Kevin had perhaps changed the most, having sprung up, the first of the boys aside from Ron to pass her in height and his voice had begun to crack and deepen. He was even starting to lose some of the puppy fat from his once boyish round face, the planes and angles of his face more pronounced now. Ascella often found herself looking at it when they were perched in the tree, appreciating the way his thick shaggy black hair hung into his almond shaped eyes, touching the tips of his ever more pronounced high cheekbones and the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he'd look up and smiled at her, the dark brown catching the light through the leaves, making them seem to dance with golds as well as the usual brown. She told herself she looked at him so much because she was so glad to have her friend back but that didn't explain the slight blush she felt whenever he looked her way in those quiet moments, or the stirrings of something like butterflies she felt in her stomach. She didn't know what they meant and she usually attempted to knock Kevin out of the tree when she felt this way rather than dwell on its meaning, effectively returning them to their usual comfortable banter.
Ascella sighed now, bent over her desk, quill in hand, a piece of parchment beneath her palm. No, she couldn't write Kevin, he had enough on his plate. Her next immediate thought was Harry. She and her best mate had been corresponding regularly this summer, unlike the last when Dobby the house elf had been intercepting Harry's letters. She'd even sent his birthday present off a few days previous, with a threat that he'd better wait to open it until the 31st. But no, even Harry would not do. Ascella had still yet to tell her best friend about her father and she really didn't want to explain that, as well as her frustrations with her guardians, in a letter.
She thought of her other friends and dismissed each of them in turn: Hermione - off in France for the summer with her parents, Ron - who she'd seen for more than a few pickup Quidditch games this summer, had just left for a family trip to Egypt after Mr. Weasley had won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Drawing, Padma - also away on holiday, in India visiting relatives, Terry - who she wouldn't even know where to begin with the letter and Aaron - who she felt just wouldn't understand.
Ascella sighed. She had no one, not a one to write to. A knock came then at her open door. It was Ted.
"You ready?" he asked, voice cautious. Ascella scowled.
"Yes," she muttered, throwing her quill down, where the ink splattered in a blotch on the parchment. She grabbed a jumper from one of many clothes piles strewn about the floor, it was always freezing near the offices where Ted worked in the Wizarding Library in Diagon Alley, and walked past Ted and out of the house.
"You know, don't you?" Ted said when they were out the house. He held his arm out to her. She grabbed onto it. He'd phrased it as a question but his tone made it more of a resigned statement.
"Right-o, Ted. Well spotted," said Ascella, her tone pure acid.
Then she felt the usual tugging at her navel, followed by the squeezing sensation that indicated they were apparating away. Landing in an overcast London, Ascella quickly dropped Ted's arm.
"Now there is no need for that attitude," Ted informed her as they walked toward the Leaky Cauldron and the entrance to Diagon Alley, his eyes searching left and right and around as if expecting Sirius Black to pop out at them in the middle of muggle London. Ascella rolled her eyes. "We only found out yesterday. We - we wanted to tell you." He held the door open for her, ushering her into the dark safety of the pub. "We just didn't know how. We didn't want to scare you or alarm you in any way."
"Scare me? I'm not scared," she said, shaking her hair, her loose waves dancing with the motion, choosing to pretend the dream she'd had didn't mean anything. "I'm angry." At least she could say that with full truth. "And not just at him. At you. You shouldn't have tried to hid it from me. I'm not a child anymore."
Ted looked down at her. That it wasn't as far down as in previous years, only seemed to emphasize Ascella's point. Ascella had always been tall, but she had soared up in recent months and was now nearing five foot seven. Right now she was aware she looked a bit stretched out, but Ascella had also begun to notice her jeans weren't fitting the same, not to mention her bras and Quidditch T-shirts weren't either, as other parts of her body had begun growing as well. She'd had to raid Dora's closet the other day, after she'd failed to get her once favorite pair of jeans over her hips. Even Dora's jeans had only helped a little, tall and slim as she was with narrower hips. Ascella made due with some illegal out of school magic to help stretch the jeans. She'd been more than thrilled when she'd learned the Ministry couldn't actually track underage magic outside of school, only instances of magic. She also knew though, that Meda would do her knut if she found Ascella with her wand out so she tended to leave her rule breaking to a minimum.
Now though, Ted was looking down at her like he was remembering when she hadn't been so tall, when she came rushing to him after a nightmare where she'd cling to him as he rubbed her back until she calmed, and wishing she was still that little girl that he could protect. Ascella felt a lump form in her throat, cutting through her anger and she had to look away. To cover her reaction she moved off. Ted sighed and followed her through the pub, to the brick wall that led to Diagon Alley.
Ascella waited for Ted to pull his wand out and tap the bricks in the correct order. As the bricks rearranged themselves Ted spoke.
"You're right," he said, his voice soft and sounding so very sad and drained. "We can't protect you from him forever, no matter how much we want to try. Since you already know he's escaped I expect you have questions?" Ascella nodded. She always had questions; Ted knew her well. He nodded. "Alright well lay them on me. I'll answer if I know."
"Why? Why now? What's he doing? How did he get out? I just don't understand," Ascella said the questions spilling forth like a tidal wave as they moved out into the alley, not nearly as crowded at this time of day so late into the morning was it, most people already at work. These questions were just the tip of her iceberg of her questions though, the deeper ones, the ones that had haunted her ever since she'd learned about her father bubbling under the surface, questions like why was he a Deatheater, what had driven him to be so evil and the most worrying of all, was she like him? Did she have a propensity for evil too?
"As to the how, no one knows," Ted answered her. "Dora said the Aurors are completely flabbergasted. Prisoners aren't allowed wands, or access to anything magical and on top of that Black was one of their highest security prisoners. And the why? Equally confused. People go mad in Azkaban, he could be out to do anything. Some think he could be trying to meet up with Voldemort again. Others think his motives are more concrete, that he wants to finish what his master failed to do." Ted trailed off here with a significant look at Ascella.
She felt her heart grow cold. "Harry," she breathed. Ted nodded. No one knew why the Dark Lord had targeted a child but that that child had lived and brought about the downfall of that same man, no one doubted. Any true follower would be angry and it was said Black was the closest of Voldemort's followers; it make sense he was out for revenge.
They were almost at the Library, a large marble building tucked behind Gringotts, when Ascella furrowed her eyebrows and asked,"If most people are so worried about Harry, then why don't you and Meda want me to be alone?"
Ted sighed and held the door to the library open. Even the comforting smells of the books couldn't help take the tension out of the air at their conversation.
"I know you don't want to hear this but whatever Black became, there is and was never any doubt that he loved you, Ascella." Ascella scoffed. If you asked her the love of a madman wasn't worth much. "And we - Meda, Dora, and I - wouldn't be that surprised if he were to come looking for you."
"What? Like to kidnap me?" she said as they pushed into the back area where the offices were and where government documents were kept for the Ministry. Ted worked in the main area, where the books were kept, but was also in charge of record keeping.
"Perhaps, or even just try to see you," Ted said, magicing a key from his pocket into his hand and using it to open his office door. "I can't say whether he'd try to hurt you. Once I would never have suspected that were possible but having loved you or not he has spent the last 12 years in the wizarding worlds darkest prison. We'd just feel better if you were close."
"Fine," Ascella conceded, crossing her arms.
"Thank you love," Ted said kissing her swiftly on the top of the head. Ascella shrugged him off, but she was secretly pleased.
"Am I at least allowed to wander the library?"
"Of course. Just stay close. I have a meeting all morning in the Bagshot office just down the hall. If you need anything don't be afraid of interrupting."
Ascella nodded but she was already wandering away, her eyes fixed on the sight of books in front of her. After an hour or so of reading from her favorite fiction novel, a story about the adventures of a wizard boy in muggle America during the American Revolutionary War, she put the book down, finding even the distraction of a good novel not enough to curb her racing mind. The only thing that ever could really distract her when she was like this was research of some sort, so putting the book back on the shelf she made her way back to where the Ministry records were kept. She wandered their dusty halls for a bit until she found herself in the marriage registry of all places.
Grinning, she decided it might be fun to find Meda and Ted's wedding date, or even to find the exact date of Harry's parents wedding, knowing he didn't know it. Meda and Ted were easy; they were married in the fall two years before Dora was born in '78. Harry's parents weren't as easy. She suspected they'd gotten married before Harry was conceived, and some time after they'd left school, which put the time range to some time between summer '78 and fall '79. She pulled the books dedicated to that time frame out and sat herself on the warn wood floor, hidden within the stacks, the musty smell of old books and the sound of her flipping pages her only companions.
Ascella figured that they'd in all likelihood gotten married closer to fall of '79 but she decided to start her search beginning when they left Hogwarts. Sure enough they weren't in the first book she'd grabbed that documented wizarding marriages for the summer and into the fall of '79. She opened the second book and hadn't made it halfway through before she stopped her mind unbelieving of what her eyes saw. Then, she felt rage bubble up within her. Next thing she knew she was marching with the open book clasped between two hands out of the stacks and down the hall to where Ted's meeting was taking place.
Uncaring of the consequences, she threw open the door and marched up to a very stunned Ted, his mouth and those of a lot of others in the room, hanging open as she slammed the book down onto the table in front of him, the thin legs of the table wobbling.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded. Ted's jaw flapped open and closed as he tried to comprehend what was going on.
"Ascella - What - what are you talking about?" he finally managed to get out.
"That!" Ascella stabbed at an entry on the page of the open book with her finger.
Ted leaned forward, adjusting his glasses, and read the same thing she'd just read. Written in curly script were the words 'On this day, December 21st, 1978, Marlene Marie McKinnon and Sirius Orion Black married. Wedding witnessed and officiated by bride's brother, Mason Micheal McKinnon'. His face paled as he read it once, twice, and once more. Then he took his glasses off and muttered, "But no - it can't be..." he looked up at Ascella then. "Ascella, I - I didn't know. Neither of us did. We thought you were the only secret he kept." He meaning her father. He'd turned up with her, an almost two year old girl, on Meda and Ted's door the night her mother had been killed, shocking them; she'd heard that story enough to know it for truth.
Ascella sighed, her anger deflating. She believed him. She just couldn't believe this was true. It just didn't make sense. In a lot of ways Ascella could better handle that her mother had merely been stupid, fallen for a pretty face and gotten knocked up. But this, this changed things. This meant her parents had, dare she think it, loved each other. And it wasn't a shotgun wedding either, Ascella's brain had already done the math, even if she had been conceived exactly nine months before her birth than her mother would have only been two weeks pregnant at the time of the wedding and that was still too early along to know she was with child before the wedding, even with magic.
But how could her mother, that kind woman in all the photos Harry had gotten for her last year, that woman that was so close with Professor Flitwick, how could that woman have loved a murderer? Ascella felt her eyes begin to burn. She looked down at her feet.
"Can you take me home?" she asked, voice smaller than she wanted to admit. She refused to cry, she wouldn't, but she had to get out of here to ensure that.
Ted reached for her. She jerked back, before his hand met her arm. Ted sighed then, his hand falling and nodded.
"Yes, I'll take you home. Wait for me in my office. I'll just finish this up," he said his voice kind. Ted was always kind. Giving and kind; he was a good match for Meda and Ascella, who preferred to keep people at a distance and who came off as cold more often than not. But right now his kindness was contrary to what Ascella wanted to be feeling; she wanted to still be angry but if she let Ted's kindness touch her she knew she'd start crying and that was the last thing she wanted.
So she turned and left, blindly making for Ted's office. She didn't remember much of the rest of the day, just that she'd locked herself away in her room, trying to ignore the hushed words downstairs where Ted was no doubt explaining to Meda what they'd found.
And her room was where she stayed for most of the next week, ignoring Meda's demands and Ted's entreaties that she come join them at meals. Even Dora couldn't get her to come out. Ascella was mad at the world and she didn't need the lot of them. She snuck down to the kitchen to grab food when Ted was at work and Meda in the garden, before retreating back to her hovel. After awhile even Esmerelda was starting to look at her with a judging look on the white and brown barn owl's face.
"Oh shut it," Ascella had said to her after the two had had a long staring contest in the middle of the night, a silent conversation passing between them that went something like 'Why are you still in here?', 'Because I can be.', 'Great way to deal with your problems.' , 'What do you know? You're a ruddy bird.' , 'At least I'm not the one having an imaginary conversation with a creature that can't speak.' followed by Ascella breaking eye contact and telling her owl to shut it, which had only made her feel more crazy.
Even though she had resorted to imagined conversations with her owl she still didn't emerge until just over a week into August when she received word from Harry that he'd blown up his aunt (literally blown up, like a balloon, Ascella was more than a little impressed, not to mention proud) and had run away to Diagon Alley where he would be staying until school started up.
Ascella had then practically flown down to the kitchen, letter in hand, and demanded she be allowed to visit her best friend. What had followed was a tense and guilt ridden (on Ted's side and even a little bit on Meda's too if Ascella was really willing to admit it, which she wasn't) conversation about how it wasn't safe.
"But Harry's there! He's there and he's the one everyone is actually worried Black is out to get, not me. He gets to wander about unsupervised. Why can't I visit?"
"Oh Ascella, you don't honestly think Harry isn't being watched every minute, do you?" Meda scoffed. Ascella deflated as Meda's words sunk in. Of course they would be watching her friend like a hawk. He was the Boy Who Lived after all.
"Ugh," Ascella rolled her eyes and turned from the room, knowing she'd lost. "Adults suck!" she called from the stairs, stomping her way back up to her den of a room. She slammed her door for good measure too.
Meda and Ted must have talked though because later that night he came up to her room and told her that later in a couple weeks he'd take her to see her friend and he promised he wouldn't follow them around. It wasn't much but Ascella still threw her arms around him in a hug.
Ascella next emerged from her room (she wasn't about to stop hating the world so easily just because she'd get to see her best friend finally, no not until she got to start hating it with him then maybe she'd feel better) when Meda called her down saying that Kevin was there to see her, two weeks into August.
She'd yelped at this news and stumbled out of her bed falling to the floor with a loud thud, in her haste to get to her mirror to check her hair. Upon finally reaching it she was dismayed to see how greasy her hair was, when was the last time she'd showered, she really couldn't remember. She decided a ponytail would have to do since Meda had locked her wand away after she'd caught her trying out a spell a week ago and thus she wouldn't be able to clean her hair with a quick spell. Then she pulled on one of the pairs of jeans she'd stolen from Dora and checked the mirror one last time, before shrugging and bounding down the stairs.
Her friend greeted her with a big grin. Ascella almost tripped down the last step. Somehow in the two weeks since she'd last seen him he'd gotten even taller and, dare she think it, cuter. Her heart was definitely racing now and it had nothing to do with her rush to get downstairs.
"Right, well I'll leave you to it," Meda said, looking at Ascella with a knowing smirk. "Just don't leave the grounds!" she called the warning over her shoulder as she went back into the kitchen to start dinner. Ascella rolled her eyes when Kevin looked at her a question in his at Meda's words.
"C'mon," she grabbed his hand and dragged him behind her. "I'll tell you out here."
She dropped his hand when they got outside, blushing, when she realized the implication of it. She covered it by asking a question instead.
"What are you doing here anyway?"
"Well, I've been back from Aaron's almost two days now and you haven't been to visit yet. I even wrote you but you didn't write back."
"Oh," she said. "Sorry, I've not been feeling myself." She had a stack of unread and unopened letters on her desk. If they weren't from Harry she hadn't been bothering.
"Tell me about it. You look like you haven't showered for a week." Ascella shoved him, as the walked side by side through Meda's garden. He sent her a side smirk to show her he wasn't serious though. "Come on though. Tell me what's up. Meda said you hadn't left your room in weeks."
"Of course she did," Ascella said, refusing to meet Kevin's eyes. She stopped at a stone bench under a maple tree, near the forest at the edge of the property.
"Want to sit?" she asked. Kevin nodded and they sat then.
Ascella took a moment to gather her thoughts before she sighed deeply and not looking at her friend explained in halting sentences about her father. She gave Kevin all the details as he was muggleborn and didn't already know. She explained about how she'd always just thought her mum had gotten knocked up by the pretty boy before any of them knew better, knew about his dark side, how her father was a murderer and all around evil man, how she felt so betrayed that they'd actually been married. It felt almost cathartic to talk to Kevin about this. It also helped that one of the villages many stray dogs that wandered about the village and usually to Ascella's cottage as she was a sucker and always gave them treats, had found her about halfway through her tale. He was a big black dog, with more matted fur than the others and with an intelligent look in its eyes but nonetheless it was a comfort for her to pet the big animal while she spoke. His head ended up in her lap at some point and he made a particularly mournful snuffle when she got angry talking about how she hated her father, that it was his fault her mother had died. She continued to talk to Kevin, explaining how while she'd always felt this way it had only gotten worse now that her father had escaped. Now she had her every move monitored and she felt trapped. Her father had clearly never cared and just because he'd broken out didn't mean he'd start trying to be a father.
"Not that I'd want him anyway," she finished with a sneer. The dog in her lap sank even lower. "What's with you?" she cooed, ruffling its ears. "You seem more sad than I am." The dog wagged its tail halfheartedly.
Kevin's response was to whistle.
"And I thought my parents were bad," he said.
Ascella looked at him miserably, but found Kevin's face sympathetic and not matching his throw away tone.
"No but seriously 'Cella," he said. "That's rough. If you need anything just let me know."
"Thanks. Now enough of this serious stuff. I'm finally outside and it's a beautiful day," she said rising. "Wanna play fetch?" she asked the dog. The dog barked and began wagging its tail furiously. They, Kevin, Ascella and the stray, spent the rest of the afternoon playing fetch and running about in the sunshine, for the first time in weeks her father the farthest thing from her mind. Little did she know that she hadn't been closer to him in years than she was just then.
a/n: well I hope that was worth the wait! thanks to my reviewers and readers. you are awesome :) Let me know what you think if you feel inclined. I'm really excited for you guys to see what's going to happen this year. This is also the year where we start deviating the most from canon. the shell of the story will still be there but you couldn't expect it to stay the same forever :) Oh and yes the dog is Sirius. He would have been traveling north at this point after having scared Harry into the Knight Bus and so I've decided Ascella's cottage is somewhere along his journey.
