Chapter 21

"I-I'm sorry Sirius" I muttered, but he was already walking away.

As days passed, I was truly happy with Rodger, but I could never shake the image of Sirius' retreating figure that day from my head. Why had it stung so much see his eyes flash in disappointment? Why did I have to stop myself from calling him back?

I was eating breakfast on Monday morning with Lily and the girls, lost in thought as I chomped on my strawberry jam toast. I didn't even look up when I heard the familiar loud screeching and flapping of wings that indicated the entrance of the post owls. So I nearly choked when a rather large, disgruntled looking brown owl dropped a letter onto my plate.

I looked down at the letter and furrowed my brows, why was the St Mungo's crest on it? It mustn't be mine.

But when I flipped the letter over, I saw Bella Harper written in neat cursive.

Tearing it open, I read it over. I read it over again. I read it over another time.

My eyes were beginning to grow dizzy from scanning the pages at such a high speed.

"What is it?" Lily leaned over and whispered. I wordlessly handed the letter to her. She could sense something was wrong from my face, so she took it and read it silently.

I kept seeing phrases of the letter in my head, having nearly memorised the entire thing.

"Dear Miss Bella Harper"

…

"We are grievously sorry to inform you that your parents, Mrs Simona and Mr Edwin Harper have met with a most unfortunate accident."

What?

"For the moment they are in the Emergency Magical Recovery Ward"

Why?

"We are unsure when they will be able to recover"

No.

No no no no.

Lily gasped.

"Bella! That's terrible! We have to see Headmaster Dumbledore!"

I shook my head weakly, feeling tears springing to my eyes at an alarming rate. My breathing was speeding up. I was starting to panic.

"We have to Bella, the nurse has said to report to Dumbledore and he will explain what happened! I'm sure he will call for you soon anyway, let's go, you need to be away from all these people"

So I let her take my arm and lead me out of the hall.

As soon as we headed out of the doors, and the chatter had dimmed out, I sobbed.

I sobbed and sniffed and stopped in my tracks, unable to stop the tears that were falling down my cheeks.

Lily hugged me, and I held her tightly back.

We stood there for a long time, until my crying slowed down and I started breathing normally.

"I'm sorry" I said thickly.

"Oh Bella, there's absolutely no reason to be sorry, I'm here for you."

With an arm around my shoulders, we continued walking to the Headmaster's office.

"Now Bella, I understand you are quite distraught, and the only reason why I wanted to see you so quickly was to ensure you as soon as possible that everything is going to be alright." Dumbledore peered down at me with kind eyes. "But first sit," he indicated two squishy looking chairs that pulled themselves out magically, inviting us to sit on them.

When we were settled and comfortable, the professor offered us a bowl of sweets.

"Pineapple lumps or lemon drops?" He offered with a smile.

"No thank you" Lily said politely, at the same time that I eagerly grabbed a handful, before looking up sheepishly. Dumbledore only dropped a wink and sat behind his desk.

"Now," he began, "Let me start by explaining just what happened to your parents."

"Yesterday afternoon a group of five young wizards who had fled from Durmstrang Institute were hiding in the small valley between your house and the Potter house." I nodded, imagining the scene now. James' father and mine had been friends when they were at Hogwarts, and after marrying both our mothers, they had found a secluded area with two evenly high hills, and built their houses atop both of them.

"It would seem that your father spotted them, a conflict of sorts ensued and your mother called the Ministry of Magic officials immediately, and when the officials apparated to the scene, for some reason the boys decided to run inside the house. They were chased of course, but they had some tricky and dangerous spells in their arsenal. They had learnt how to undo the magic binding spells holding the house together and before long, the house came crashing down, and unfortunately your mother and father along with the three officials were unable to avoid it."

Lily and I gasped. My eyes widened.

"The situation would not have been so grave if help had arrived on time, but alas the Potters were not at home that day and only arrived seven hours later in the evening, and of course called the authorities and emergency services immediately. It wasn't looking good but," he held up a finger. "The nurses at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries has informed me that they will be able to use the services of Patricia Mortimer Travis Cresley, two of the most esteemed healers in the country, and they have assured us that though it will be a lengthy treatment, your parents will be perfectly fine eventually." He looked down with a smile as I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Can I visit them Professor? Soon?" I asked.

"Of course, you must. I allow Miss Lily to accompany you" Lily gave my hand a squeeze at that.

"And Mister James, as he is also close with your family. His parents have been staying in the ward since the incident also." I didn't have to look at Lily's face to know that her lips were gracing a scowl upon hearing that.

After leaving the headmaster's office, we were walking to the common room, preparing to change our clothes for the visit. We were instructed to go to the Professor McGonagall's office after we had changed so we could apparate to St Mungo's.

"BELLA! LILY!" The breathless voice of James Potter called. "McGonagall just told me what happened," he said after he had caught up to us, "I'm really sorry Bella" he said, pulling me into a hug, "good thing they're going to be fine though!"

I saw Lily looking at him in a strange way out of the corner of my eyes and I couldn't help the knowing smirk that appeared on my lips.

"Ah there's that smile" James said, ruffling my hair affectionately.

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- Sugar :)