The anxiety and nerves from waiting was starting to get to Katherine as she walked down the train corridor. She stopped ten steps away from the compartment door and leaned her forehead against the large window in the train corridor. "I'm being ridiculous" she muttered while eyeing the door handle. She had yet to muster the courage to knock on her godson's door

I've defended myself against from all kinds Dark Magic and creatures; Dementors, Inferi, werewolves and Death Eaters throwing Unforgivable Curses. I've taken on countless personas to get behind enemy lines and gather information. Yet the thought of sitting down with my godson –makes me so nervous I feel like throwing up. Oh god, my hands won't stop shaking. I can't go in like this. I'll just take one last walk down the corridor

She made it a few steps back down the hallway when she heard the door she had been eyeing open behind her. Freezing in place she turned quickly to face the train's large open window pretending to watch the view.

"See you at the Castle mate" said a loud voice and two figures stepped out in the train corridor.

"Harry try to get some sleep alright?" a girls voice said.

"Yeah, after all that's happened recently. You look like – "

"Off we go, Ron!" the girl interjected and closed the compartment door.

Katherine stared into the window's reflection watching the two members of the trio pass walk pass her. She saw Hermoine give Ron a look of warning.

"Harry isn't ready to talk about Sirius yet Ron. I want to ask him too but if we keep pushing him to open up about how he really feels he'll get more uncomfortable and frustrated. We need to give him more time" said Hermoine softly.

As the two student made it down to the end of the corridor, Katherine pretended to be attentive to her reflection in the window – she smoothened out her charcoal grey cardigan and fixed the collars of her white dress shirt. From the corner of her eye that Hermoine had turned her head briefly to eye her before disappearing around the corner.

Attentive as usual that Hermoine. Best watch myself carefully around her.

Katherine dug deep within herself and replayed Sirius's letter in her head:

When the second war begins he'll need more support and guidance than ever…

He'll need you by his side…

Please keep Harry safe.

She couldn't procrastinate any longer. After years of avoidance and doubt it was time. Opening up her eyes, Katherine took a deep breath and grabbed the door handle.


The sudden slam of the train door opening made Harry jump in his seat and knocked off his glasses. As he bent forward to look for his glasses on the floor he could see a blurred out figure in the doorway.

"Bloody dress robes!"

"Excuse me"

"You chose the worst possible moment to get stuck in door!"

"Ummm-"

The girl couldn't hear him over her series of explicit mutterings.

"EXCUSE ME!"

The girl turned around in surprise and tripped over her right foot falling backwards on top of Harry. It took Harry several seconds for his eyes to focus and find himself staring into green eyes. As his eyes grew wide the girl clumsily scrambled to sit herself next to Harry.

"I…I'm so sorry" she began. "I didn't realize anyone was inside this compartment already. I'm just going to leave now".

Harry sat there for a moment, eyes squinting to see. "No! It's alright, you can stay. There's plenty of room here".

"Well…alright then I'll take you up on your offer then".

Standing up to remove herself off him, a loud crunch of broken glass filled the cabin when her feet reached the ground.

"So that's where my glasses fell".


Harry squinted again at his repaired glasses before putting them back. The girl had taken them from him momentarily and with a quick tap of her wand returned them, good as new.

No longer having blurred vision, he could see she was fiddling with her thumbs; her left foot was tapping the floor and her hair was bit ruffled out of place which Harry assumed was from their collision.

"Again, I'm so sor-sorry for all that" she stammered while looking down at the ground.

The poor girl was a nervous mess.

"Please, stop apologizing. It's quite alright".

"O-Okay I can do that". The girl closed her eyes and took a deep breathe. She then patted down her hair, tucked her left foot behind her right and softly folded her hands in her lap. When she opened her eyes she looked directly at Harry head on. He wasn't expecting the girl who crashed into him to look so cool and collected now, it was as if she was another person.

Harry realized then he couldn't put a name to her face. She obviously wasn't a first year but he couldn't recall her face in any of his classes.

"I don't think we've met before" he started.

"Well that would because I'm the new transfer student from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. Elise Blanchette, sixth year" she said with quiet voice.

"My mother sent me to school in France when I was nine. After being away for so long, I just thought it was time to return to home. And as the new girl at any school, there are always expectations to be interesting and exciting. I'm sorry to say I'm neither. I'm quite ordinary" she said with a small laugh.

"Trust me, after all that's happened to me at Hogwarts I'm very happy with that. I could use ordinary".

"That's a relief then. And you are…?" she looked at him expectantly.

Harry's eyes widened a bit at her question. "You don't know?"

Elise raised one eyebrow at him.

"I'm Harry Potter". Seeing her face void of any recognition of his face, Harry winced and looked down at his feet. "Well that's awkward. I'm sorry I shouldn't have assu-"

"Since you said could use an ordinary encounter. I'd thought you would enjoy actually introducing yourself for once like normal people".

Hearing the joking sound of her response, Harry looked up to find her with a faint smile.

Harry ran a hand through his hear in relief. "You had me there for a second. I thought I had just made a complete ass of myself".

"It's nice to finally meet thee Harry Potter"

"Nice to meet you too, Elise."

She reached down into her skirt pocket and put on her own thick rimmed black glasses. "The pictures of you in the Daily Prophet sure don't do you justice".

Harry's smile slipped a little and his lips pressed into a firm line "The Daily Prophet? Well what that newspaper puts out has never been just to begin with, it's a bunch of garbage"

"From the sound of that, I think we share the same feelings on Daily Prophet. I stopped reading the Prophet a long time ago." The tenseness in Harry's face began to fade. "However it's impossible not to notice who's on the front page every week."

With that Harry's face broke out into a small smile. "Well I've never had the greatest track record with the Ministry".

"Indeed you haven't. But with Ministry no longer denying Voldermort's return you won't be reading anymore articles about you being deranged and working with Death Eaters."

Harry's eyes widened. "You said his name".

"What?"

"Voldemort".

"That's his name isn't it? Would you prefer I say 'Who-Must-Be-Named'?"

"No! It's just that it's still strange for me to hear it from other people.

"Hopefully I'm not the last one either. With the Ministry on your side now, the public will be encouraged to follow your example and just say his name. We're in the midst of war, if people want survive they at least need the courage to say Voldermort's name"

Harry gave a bitter laugh "They honestly think that after calling me an attention seeking liar that I'd be happy with being called a savior now?"

"Be it a liar or savior, I would imagine both titles are rather burdensome" Elise said softly.

"I don't deserve either." he said abruptly and looked out the window. "Especially not a savior...I'm not sure I'm capable of saving anyone anymore" he said softly with a pained expression.

Elise opened her mouth to speak but seemed to decide against doing so. Silence filled the cabin.

As the time stretched on, Harry's thoughts became like a broken movie reel - replaying Sirius's fall through the veil over an over again.

How was he mean to live with himself knowing that he caused his godfather's death? It had been him who had been lured into at trap, who had brought his friends along into a dangerous mission where each of them had sustained injuries. If only he had listen to everyone's advice and just learned Occlumency like everyone advised him to, then none of this would have happened. Though everyone reassured him that they did blame him, he couldn't stop the guilt from weighing heavily on his heart.

Harry took a deep breath and tried to focus on the changing scenery outside.

But it crept into his mind again and again. He killed Sirius. He was the reason he was dea-

SNAP

SNAP

The sudden sound made Harry quickly look up across his seat to see Elise holding a large piece of chocolate in front of him. In the midst of his whirlwind of thoughts, he had forgotten about his compartment partner.

"No, thank you" he started.

"Here." As if sensing Harry's hesitation, Elise pushed the piece of chocolate forward ""Eat it, you'll feel better." she insisted.

Harry stared at the offering hand thoughtfully before taking the chocolate from Elise. "It's funny, a good friend of mine said the exact same thing to me before"

"Well was he right?"

Harry reached for the piece of chocolate and bit into it. As the chocolate melted, a warmth spread down from his mouth to his toes. He nodded with a small smile.

With the next piece of chocolate Elise gave him, his eyes started to feel heavy.

"Sorry I'm feeling sleepy all of a sudden"

"It's alright Harry. Just close your eyes" she said softly.

The image of Elise blurred and the sound of the moving train faded away.

"You'll have a good rest my dear. Remus's chocolate treatment never fails" he thought he heard her whisper.

Harry's consciousness began to slip away. "Wait..how do you Remus's name?" he tried to say but his mouth felt too heavy to move. "I ...never ...mentioned his name".

Whether or not what she said was a figment of his imagination or not his body already had succumbed to the sleep he was desperately craving.


Katherine closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She had been so nervous towards the end of their conversation she hadn't realized she was holding her breath.

As she watched Harry sleep, she reached for her left arm to give herself a hard pinch.

"definitely not a dream" she whispered.

He looked so peaceful now, away from the guilt and worries that plagued him in his waking hours. A surge of emotion filled Katherine, as the reality of being with Harry really sunk in.

As her eyes grew wet, Katherine cleared her throat. "Ummm…hi there" she choked out. "You wouldn't know this Harry but …"

"I'm your Godmother"

"I'm sorry to say that the only thing I've physically left behind for you to find is a fixed up Grimmauld's Place. Sirius hated that place but he finally let me remodel the place in these past few months. I'd say it's almost unrecognizable as you've found out by now. The Black family tapestry was fixed up as well but you won't find my name there anymore.

I've been presumed dead by the enemy, but within the last year they've been growing in forces and it was growing harder to keep myself hidden. During one of my missions to gather intel, I had a rather difficult encounter with a group of Death Eaters. Out of fear, I had contacted Sirius and told him to take off my name. I told him to destroy whatever remaining evidence of my existence.

I couldn't take the chance of the enemy finding out I was alive - they would have used Sirius against me. If they found out that I was your godmother, I can't even imagine what they would have done to you to lure me out.

But looks like both of our efforts failed regardless and we'll just have to pick up the pieces together".

She leaned forward to the now snoring child and gently pushed away the hair on his forehead to reveal the infamous scar.

Seeing as the monster who gave you that scar, killed your parents and is largely responsible for Sirius's death …

Would you still want to know who I am?

If you knew what I've done…

Where I came from…

How would you react if you knew I was a

Killer

Murderer

HIS daughter

Katherine shook her head vigorously.

I'm different person now because I met your parents, Remus and Sirius.

Regardless of what happens

Whether you accept me Harry

Or come to hate me

I will be here for you