A/N: I'm so very sorry it has taken me this long to update this story, but life and Sherlock Holmes-craze have their ways of getting in the way. Anyway, I think I'm beginning to have my muse back for this fic, so I'm hopefully able to update more frequently. Anyway, here's the new chapter. Hope you like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
'Thoughts'
The first three months of the school year went by quickly and Sky was glad to say there had been no incidents in the school, if one didn't count Lockhart's poor DADA lessons (seriously the man didn't even know how to handle a punch of Cornish Pixies). Sky had spent his time reading books on various subjects and continuing Dora's training.
Dora had advanced very well in her training and Sky could almost say she was his best student. He had honed her reflexes and she was now almost as fast as he himself was and she was very quick on her feet. Her spell-work was very good and she picked them up very fast. Sky had also taught her to use her Metamorphmagus skills in advantage, which she had found very hard to do at first because she kept stumbling down at the height differences, but now she had gotten a hang of it and got better by the day. Sky was sure Marcus would agree to let her join the DoM when summer came, that is, if she wanted to.
Now though, it was 28th of October, which marked Sky's birthday as well as the anniversary of the deaths of Blake, Fox and Marcus' wife and daughter, not to mention it was the day Marcus saved Sky from the burning shack and took him in. And so it was with mixed feelings that Sky snuck out of Hogwarts in order to get to the Saint Mary's cemetery with Dora on his heels. The day marked a turning point in his life, for the better for the most part, but there was also much sorrow in it. He had found and lost his first true family on that day, but then again he also gained another. It was also his birthday – which he had insisted on keeping, despite knowing he had truly been born on July 31st – and though he had never been one for celebrating birthdays he was happy to spend it with his family.
The 28th of October also meant that there was two days till Halloween, which was the anniversary of the deaths of his biological parents and so it had been decided that they would visit their graves on the 28th at the same time as the rest of the family. They had agreed to meet at the Saint Mary's first before moving on to Godric's Hollow and then to the Lux Manerium to celebrate Sky's birthday. Thankfully it was weekend so that Sky and Dora could disappear from the castle without anyone searching for them, but Sky had asked a house-elf to keep an eye on things, just in case, and inform him if someone asked after them and lastly Flitwick to cover for them should the need arise. He had of course failed to mention why he was gone from the castle and let the Professor assume he was on DoM business.
Now however, the two twelve-year-olds apparated to the cemetery from the abandoned Shrieking Shack and met up with Marcus, Sirius and Remus, who were waiting for them at the gate to the cemetery.
"Happy birthday, Sky." Marcus said warmly and hugged the boy.
"Thanks." Sky mumbled into his shoulder before moving to hug his honorable godfathers who too wished him happy birthday.
"Did you get out fine?" Marcus asked.
"Yeah, I got Bomfur on watch and Flitwick will cover if need arises." Sky said and Marcus nodded.
"Shall we go then?" He asked turning towards the gate walking towards graves. The others walked slightly behind him, letting Marcus visit his wife and daughter in peace while Sky and Dora travelled to visit Fox and Blake.
"You realize this is the first time we have come here together." Dora said quietly as they approached the graves.
"Yeah." Sky said taking hold of her hand and squeezing it softly. "It's a wonder we never met each other again before. I came here every year with Marcus unless we were out of the country and that too was only twice as Marcus usually wanted to come for his wife and daughter."
"Hmmm…" Dora hummed absently as they stood in front of the graves. There were no names as the Police had never found out who they were. There was only the date of the fire and some religious words that meant nothing to them. Dora sat down folding her legs under her.
"Hi Fox. Hi Blake." She said quietly. "It's been a year again." She continued and suddenly felt her throat tighten and eyes water.
Noticing this Sky sat down next to her and put an arm around her.
"Shh… It's okay Dora." He said.
"It's just… I just realized you're not with them anymore. I mean, I know now you never were, but… I used to come here and talk to you and them for hours. But you were never actually there." She sobbed.
"I know exactly how you feel." Sky said. "I talked to you too. Every time. But I'm glad you're with me now. And in flesh, not just memories."
"Me too." Dora sniffed leaning her head to Sky's shoulder. "It's such a shame there isn't their names on the stone." She said after a while.
"Yeah." Sky said thoughtfully before leaning to but his hand on the cold stone. He trailed it on the surface and suddenly words appeared on it:
Fox & Blake
Died: 28th of October 1986
'Never forget to live'
"That's better." Sky said happy with his work.
Dora smiled at the words before frowning.
"'Never forget to live.' What's that?"
"The last words Blake said to me. 'Happy birthday Sky. Never forget to live." Sky said quietly.
Dora and Sky spent the next ten minutes speaking softly to Fox and Blake, telling them about their reunion and lives during the past year. Only when Remus, Sirius and Marcus joined them they stood up and said their goodbyes.
"Sky would you come with me for a bit?" Marcus asked him as they walked away from Fox and Blake's grave.
Sky exchanged puzzled glances with Dora before nodding.
"Sure." He said letting go of Dora's hand and following Marcus back to the cemetery. "What's up?" He asked.
"There's someone I'd like you to meet." Marcus said and a realization dawned on Sky. He had never visited the graves of Marcus' wife and daughter before, having always visited Blake and Fox when they had been there and Marcus had never asked him to. In fact Marcus hardly ever spoke of his family and Sky only knew that he had lost them during Voldemort's first era. Needless to say he was curious of what had changed.
They stopped before a dual grave with a white gravestone that had two names carved into it.
"Sky, this is my wife Marie and my little girl Mia." Marcus said.
"Hello." Sky said speaking to them just like he'd to Fox or Blake. It was clearly important to Marcus that he'd meet them.
Sky could see from the dates that the girl had only been four-years-old when she had died. He didn't know what had happened to them and knew better not to ask – Marcus would tell him when he was ready. It was clearly a painful memory for him.
"I know you're wondering why I brought you here tonight, Sky…" Marcus said. "I just thought it was a time for you to meet them and…" He trailed off.
It seemed Marcus had a hard time finding the right words for whatever he wanted to say, which was very unlike him and it had Sky frowning and slightly worried. Normally Marcus was a man that had an answer for everything and if he didn't he'd straight out say so or find out. He always knew what to say regardless of the situation and the fact that now he didn't was putting Sky slightly on the edge.
However, before Sky could say anything, Marcus continued after taking a deep breath.
"You know I consider you like my own son and was wondering…Well, I was hoping that you'd want to make it official." He finished regarding Sky nervously. Sky looked at him for a moment in shock trying to form some words. "
You mean…"
"Yes, I'd like to adopt you, if you let me."
"Really?" Sky asked his eyes shining with unshed tears.
"Yes." Marcus breathed and Sky answered by launching himself into Marcus arms and trying to hug the life out of him.
"Thank you." He murmured into Marcus' chest.
Marcus gave a watery laugh as he stroked the boy's long messy hair. "You know, you're not supposed to thank your parents for something like this." He said jokingly. "But really, there's no reason to thank me. You've been my son ever since I took you in. I love you and would have adopted you years ago, but I didn't think you were ready to accept another parent until I saw you at Christmas." He said.
"You're right, I wasn't." Sky said wiping his eyes as he pulled away. "Not until a year ago when I visited mum and dad."
"You visited James and Lily?" Marcus asked frowning. Sky hadn't told him about that.
"Yeah, just before I left for Hogwarts. I had Shadow take me. I thought it was time to go through all my emotions and parent issues… I needed to come to terms with them and everything I went through because they decided it was a good idea to sacrifice themselves for me. I felt oddly relieved afterwards. Now they are just my birth parents, who died to protect me and I can respect them for that without all the hatred that used to came with it." Sky said.
"You still haven't gotten back all the memories from your first year?" Marcus asked a bit sadly.
"No, there's next to nothing after I'm about six-months-old. After that there are a few memories with my dad, but there's never any with my mum until a few days before Halloween."
"Well, I'm sure they will return to you in time." Marcus said.
"Yeah."
"Now about the adoption… I have the papers here if you're sure this is what you want." Marcus said pulling a paper from his pocket and handing it to Sky. "You just need to sign it."
"Of course I want to! Is this gonna be a blood-adoption or a regular one?" Sky asked.
"A regular. I didn't think you'd want a blood adoption and with your Metamorph skills…" Marcus trailed off frowning.
"No it's fine. You're right; there would be no point in it when I can just morph to look whoever I want to." Sky said before chuckling. "Sky Lee. That's going to take some getting used to."
"I like it." Marcus grinned. "It has a nice ring to it."
"Yeah, me too. I'm just not used to having a surname. I have always been just Sky or Shade or one of my other pseudonyms." Sky said before waving his hand over the paper and watching as his signature appeared on it. He was now officially Marcus' son; Sky Lee.
"Welcome to the family Son." Marcus said tears in his eyes as he hugged Sky.
"Thanks Dad." Sky whispered answering the hug equally affected.
"I think we should go before Remus and Sirius send a search party after us." Marcus said wiping his eyes dry.
"Do they know you asked to adopt me?" Sky asked as they started walking back after saying goodbye to Marie and Mia. "
Yes, I told them I was considering it and actually asked for their opinion on the matter. They were both convinced that you'd be okay with it."
Sky just nodded and smiled as the two walked back to the entrance where Dora, Remus and Sirius were waiting for them. All three of them looked at them searchingly and a one look of Sky's grinning face told them all they needed to know.
"Oh Sky, I'm so happy for you!" Dora shrieked bouncing up and down before throwing herself at Sky and hugging him tightly.
Meanwhile an amused Marcus shot a raised eyebrow at the two Marauders, who were looking at him sheepishly.
"She wouldn't stop bugging us and threatened to go looking for you if we didn't tell her what's going on." Sirius explained apologetically.
"It's fine." Marcus assured them while watching the two children – who were for once actually acting their age – and thought it didn't seem like it bothered Sky that he couldn't tell the news for Dora himself.
"Now come on, let's go see Jamie and Lils and then get back to the Manor. We have a birthday to celebrate and a cake to eat!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Please Sirius; stop thinking about food for two seconds, would you?" Remus groaned.
"Nope!" Sirius grinned cheekily. "Did I mention it was a chocolate cake?"
"Hmm… Chocolate." Remus licked his lips dreamily and all four of them started laughing at the chocolate-loving ex-werewolf. Still grinning the small group apparated away from the cemetery and Sky couldn't help but think: 'This was going to be the best birthday ever!'
Of course, Sky should have known that not everything of that day could be perfect, so it was no wonder the mood was dampened slightly when an owl came through the window carrying a special edition of the Daily Prophet with it. T
he small group had briefly visited the Godric's Hollow and Lily and James' grave before coming back to the Manor to celebrate Sky's twelfth birthday. The Manor had been decorated with festive decorations, meaning lots of colorful balloons and banners that read: 'Happy birthday Sky!' courtesy of Sirius no doubt. They had eaten dinner with all of Sky's favorite foods and had a huge chocolate cake for dessert. Needless to say they were all quite full when the time to open presents came.
Sky received presents from all of the people in the room along with all of the Longbottoms and the Team Five, who had no doubt found out of his birthday from Marcus. Mostly he received books, but got a new dagger-set from Marcus, a katana from Z (he'd made it himself!), a new snitch from Sirius, sweets from Neville and the best of all (not counting the adoption) a framed photographs of him and Dora; him, Dora, Fox and Blake; him and Marcus; him, Sirius and Remus; him and his biological parents and lastly all of them together.
"How did you-?" Sky started asking but was at lost words.
"I had Marcus help me. They were all pretty easy to obtain apart from the one with Blake and Fox, but we were able to track down Sally – that homeless girl that was obsessed with a camera she had found in the trash. Remember her?" Dora asked. "It appears she too had gotten out of the streets by a photographer, who took her in as an apprentice. She has now made a profession out of it, but still had a few pictures from the time she was still in the streets. She was very surprised to see me, but she still remembered us and was glad to give me a copy. I have one for myself too, but unfortunately this was the only one she had of us." Dora explained.
Sky did remember Sally. She had insisted on taking photos about anything and everything and had convinced them to pose for her. In the picture all four of them were smiling and looking happy regardless of the circumstances they lived in. Even Blake had a smile on his face. He was standing slightly overlapped with Fox, hugging her from behind and looking hopelessly in love with her. Fox was leaning into his embrace with a huge smile on her face making her radiate with love and warmth and that was what she was; Sky had never met kinder person than Fox had been. Her hands lay gently on the shoulders of Dora and Sky, who were positioned in front of her, both grinning widely, though Sky thought he looked a bit shy, which was probably true given the time. The picture had been taken in the spring after they had found Sky and taken him in.
Tearing his watery eyes off the picture, he turned to Dora and hugged her tightly. "
Thank you." He whispered hoarsely, but before Dora could say anything in return, the moment was broken by the owl that flew into the room and dropped the Prophet on Marcus' lap.
Frowning he unfolded the paper and his eyebrows nearly disappeared to his hairline as he read the headline:
THE FLAMEL MANOR ATTACKED: NICHOLAS FLAMEL HOSPITALIZED!
And somewhere in Scotland, in the Headmaster's office of Hogwarts the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a gray-bearded wizard with (usually) twinkling blue eyes was cursing the longevity of Nicholas Flamel.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review and tell me what you think.
Oh, and I just noticed that there was the first paragraph missing from chapter 18, so that has now been fixed.
Thanks,
- Dalnim