The Unexpected Letter

Sunday morning, Ron and Siria headed down to the dungeons. The last time they headed to this dungeon, it was eerie and dark. Things had not changed. It was so cold that Ron's and Siria's breath could be seen in the air. There were no windows for natural light and the torches seemed uncharacteristically dim for anywhere that wasn't Snape's classroom. Ron groaned and rubbed his nose. A stale, musty stench hung in the chilling air.

They continued down the dim hall to a set of propped open doors. Light poured from the doors and into the hallway. Siria's legs cemented themselves outside the doorway. "What's it?" Ron asked over his shoulder. A small laugh choked out, but she couldn't find the words. It was silly really, she told herself. Ron stepped back into the corridor. "Did you hear something?" He whispered. She shook her head. "You know, that was years ago, and we took care of it— and even Mrs. Norris was fine." He told her. Siria nodded. Ron patted Siria's shoulder.

"I's okay if you don't want to do it here. We can talk to Hermione and—" Ron stopped when Siria shook her head.

"I'm being silly." She whispered.

"Naw. It's pretty normal. I'm actually glad you got nervous. I thought I was the only one." He told her. Siria smirked. She knew Ron had pushed their second year to the furtherest corner of his mind. He may have even forgotten that this was the room where Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party was.

Hurried footsteps thundered down the stairs to the corridor. Siria looked to Ron with even widder eyes. "In or…?" He asked. She nodded and he stepped back into the room. Siria hurried after him. The room was much warmer than the hall. Both fireplaces were roaring with dancing flames. Hermione had gotten several arched tables and they had been arranged in two large circles. Every couple of chairs, there was a jar of blue flame, which Hermione learned to conjure in their first year. The occasional jar had a small bowl of bubbling water with what looked like yellow and orange kelp in them.

"Siria! Ron!" Neville waved. Hermione and Neville were standing on the inside of the one of the circles. Cedric Diggory, Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, and Lily Moon sat closest to them with a sea of parchment before them. Ron and Siria made their way through the surprisingly full room. It wasn't even nine in the morning and the circle of the newspaper was nearly full.

"Do you like the smell?" Hannah asked them.

"The smell?" Ron asked. He and Siria sniffed. While the room didn't smell stiff and musty like the hall, it didn't seem to have a smell either. If anything, it was just crisp or clean. It was almost like a winter morning, but it was too warm in the room for that to be it.

"I suppose?" Siria looked to Ron. He shrugged.

"Better than the hall." He said.

"It's thanks to Neville!" Hannah told them. Neville's round face flushed red.

"Professor Moody, really." Neville muttered.

"Oh? He knows about Herbology too then?" Ron asked.

"No. Maybe. He, uh, he lent me a book on water plants and it had Lautus Seaweed." Neville continued to mutter, but the blush faded from this cheeks as he talked about the book. Professor Sprout told Professor Moody that Neville was good at Herbology and so he asked her about a few of the plants in the book.

"It's kind of thanks to you three, really." Neville's gaze fell to the floor while the blush crept back into his cheeks. Siria socked him lightly in the arm. "What are you talking about? You asked her for it, didn't you?" She chuckled. Neville rubbed his arm.

"I suppose." Neville resigned.

"Potter-Black, Weasley, did you want to look at the layouts?" Cedric asked them. He rummaged through the sea of papers for the layouts.

"We're good." Ron told him.

"And Siria is fine, really." Siria stressed the really.

"Then 'Cedric'." He told her and extended his hand.

"You're so weird." Siria said, but she shook it. His grip was firm, like Sirius's, but she felt like she would be able to break it off early, if she wanted.

"So, 'Mione, I know you know what you're writing, but what am I writing?" Siria asked.

"You actually want to write?" Hermione asked and grabbed hold of Siria's arms. "Really?" She looked through her best friend's glasses with such honest excitement and eagerness that pink rush through Siria's face. "Yeah." Siria uttered.

"I'd love for you to write anything, really. If you'd do an honest article about things, that would be great. You know, a news article or editorial." Hermione requested.

"I guess news?" Siria asked.

"Why don't you try both?" Cedric asked. "You might be good with editorials; they're about convincing people, and you and Hermione are obviously good at that."

Siria scratched the back of her neck. Ernie, Hannah, Lily and Neville had gone back to writing their pieces or else adjusting the layouts to work with the advertisements that Ginny had gotten. Ron shrugged at her; he agreed to share coverage of sports with Ginny and Fay, and he wasn't going to sign up for more. "I don't know that I'm all that good at persuading people." Siria confessed. "If I am, I'd think it was more because I'm 'the Girl Who Lived' and not because I'm… me" she kept her eyes on Hermione.

"If you decide you want to try an editorial, you can write under a pen name, but I'd really just love to have you do anything with the Hogwarts Herald." Hermione smiled at Siria. "If you decide you just want to tag along with people while they do polls or collect interviews, anything."

"The Herald is about getting the word out, but there's more than writing to a paper." Cedric told her. Siria nodded.

"I'll think about what to do, okay?" Siria asked.

"Of course!" Hermione and Cedric agreed. The two looked to each other and chuckled.

Ron and Siria excused themselves to the other circle, which was for studying. They had barely gotten their things out when Astoria Greengrass and Colin and Dennis Creevey pulled up chairs on the interior of the circle. Astoria kicked Siria in the shins when she pulled her chair in and apologized so loudly that the room fell quiet to look and make sure everyone was okay. Siria waved it off. Ron had to push his chair out so Dennis, who swung his legs back and forth beneath the table, would stop kicking him.

Around one, the room was packed. Ron had finished his homework and took up playing The Witch's Labyrinth, which was some sort of strategy game that required players to to maneuver through a changing maze of monsters and riddles to reach the center before the other players. He had won half the rounds he played. Cassius Warrington beat Ron and Cedric in the third round and insisted he didn't want a rematch. Siria had eyed the game, but allowed Astoria, Colin, and Dennis to occupy her time with Transfiguration questions and Shield Charms until Warrington stole her away to talk Potions.

Warrington handed Siria his bound notes from his fourth year. "Snape does the same thing for each year, so read up." He told her. They went over the Potions she would have to brew in the next couple of weeks.

"Where's Travers today?" Siria clenched her teeth together the moment she asked. She was supposed to be getting over Travers. Travers was dating Warrington. It didn't do Siria any good to ask the boyfriend of the girl she liked where she was.

"P.B. Why don't you find yourself a nice Gryffindor girl to date?" Warrington asked. Siria choked on a cough. He looked up from his notes to her face. His sharp brown eyes stared directly at her. Siria held her head, but her jaw remained cletched.

"That Weasley girl obviously likes you. If you don't want her, you could actually ask Malfoy out, with how much he talks about you, he probably really does like you, and that brunette Hufflepuff with the ink on her face," Warrington gave a subtle nod to Lily Moon, who was trying to rub the mentioned ink off. "There are plenty of people who aren't dating anyone, who would be more than happy to have you."

"I…" Siria didn't even know what to say. "Who told you?" She asked.

"You look at Alice the way Weasley looks at you. It's not hard to tell." He told her. "Hey, watch your quill." Siria had left her freshly filled quill over her parchment and it resulted in a large blotch of ink over her notes. She put it to the side then down. Warrington continued going over his notes and Siria, not wanting to talk more on the subject of relationships, followed.

Professor Vector didn't come to the dungeon until just after three and she insisted they leave. "Merlin's beard! It's Sunday, my dears. Please, rest before tomorrow." She told them while she put out the fire places. Hermione and Neville stayed back to take care of jars of blue fire and bowls of Lautus Seaweed. Daphne Greengrass knocked Siria's shoulder as she past, which sent Siria's books to the floor. Siria nodded for Ron to go ahead while the girls picked up Siria's books.

"You could just talk to me." Siria whispered as she reached out for the books Daphne picked up.

"And miss looking at the Transfiguration books you've got?" Daphne smirked. "Really though, are you okay?" She placed the books in Siria's hands. Siria shrugged while the two stood up.

"As okay as I can be for being called out."

"Saw that." Daphne told her. "Don't think anyone else did, for what it's worth."

"Hey, Siria," Cedric caught up. "Hello Greengrass." Cedric smiled. Daphne forced a smile and looked to Siria.

"See you." Daphne nodded and she waved to Cedric.

"I didn't mean to scare her off." Cedric told Siria. "I just wanted to tell you that some of the Hufflepuff Team and I are having a practice Friday evening and wanted to know if you wanted in? The more the merrier."

"Sure." Siria adjusted the strap of her bag while they climbed the stairs. "Kinda sucks the Triwizard Tournament is messing up the Quidditch season."

"Really? I think it's a good mix up, though I'm sorry we won't get to compete against each other. Not because I want to compete against you, per say. You're just very direct and I'd like an honest rematch." He told her. Siria nodded.

"Yeah. I wouldn't join the Triwizard Tournament to compete against you, or at all, really." Siria brushed under nose. After hours in the dungeon, the musty smell of the corridor seemed more prominent than before.

"Oh?" Cedric asked. "I'd think the Tournament was right up your alley, if there wasn't an age restriction."

"Do you know how many people have died? Besides, as much as my dad might be 'that's my kid!' he'd worry himself to death." Siria sighed. Even if she could join the Tournament and Srius hadn't made her perform the Unbreakable Vow to not join, she wouldn't dream of signing up. "To be honest, I'm looking forward to cheering for someone, like Warrington or whoever."

"Cassius is signing up?"

"Yeah. You?"

"I've been thinking about it." Cedric confessed. "Don't tell anyone though. I'm only saying because you've asked." He added. "To be honest, I hadn't thought how my parents would feel about it."

"It'd be one thing, if I could enter, and I wrote to Sirius, and he and Remus were both 'do it! We'd be so proud,' but I…" Siria shrugged and fidgeted with the zipper on her jacket pocket.

The two stopped on the Ground Floor. "If you're the Hogwarts Champ, we'll all be in your corner. Just, I don't know, make sure you know what you're signing up for? Warrington's parents are over the moon that he's signing up. Family glory and all that. You're really smart, so you'd do fine." Siria rambled.

"If I sign up, would you be in my corner?" He asked with a smile.

"Cedric," Siria looked up at him and placed her hand on his shoulder, "I'm already in your corner." The extra hand of her watch ticked to 4 o'clock. "I just need to talk to my dad about getting over a girl I don't stand a chance with, so I'll catch you later!" Siria nodded and hurried out, onto the grounds, and dashed, full charge, to Hagrid's cabin.

Siria's bag dropped from her shoulder, to the muddy grounds. She leapt into the air and knocked Sirius back with the force of her tackling hug. Hagrid caught the two of them with a single, manhole sized hand. He patted Sirius on the back so hard that Sirius's knees buckled. "You're an entire day late!" Siria exclaimed.

"I wrote you." Sirius said as he patted down his jacket. Siria crossed her arms.

"Saying 'I'll be late. See you Sunday'," she shook her head. Sirius extended a letter—a stamped letter.

"What is this?" Siria asked as she accepted the envelope.

"A letter." Sirius told her, at the peak of his unhelpfulness.

She turned the regular paper envelope in her hands as she opened it. The writing on the return address wasn't legible at all, but it was clearly addressed to "Siria J. Potter-Black." It slipped through her fingers from the shock of who it was from. Sirius snatched it before it hit the mud. "What is happening?" She asked and looked to Sirius.

"Your cousin wrote."

"I can see that." Siria pointed at the letter like it was covered in bubotuber pus.

"Dudley?" Hagrid cried.

"Yes!" Sirius and Siria said together, though in completely different tones.

"Why?" Siria asked Sirius.

"I haven't read, it's your letter." Sirius told her.

Hagrid smiled from beneath his massive beard and beamed down at Siria. "Ho' 'bout we come in fer tea?" Hagrid suggested. Sirius agreed. Siria's eyes were glued to the letter, but she pulled her hands to her chest and shuddered from the it whenever Sirius extended it. She followed them inside Hagrid's cabin and watched the letter like it was going to bite her.

"Are you late because of the letter?" Siria asked with her hands held to her chest.

"No." Sirius told her as he sat down at the table. He laid the letter before the seat beside him. Siria sat down, but kept her chair out and away from the letter. "I'm late because of work and Blast-Ended Skrewts."

"What?" Siria asked.

"My little project, for the older students." Hagrid told Siria.

"Little for now." Sirius grumbled. He pushed the letter closer to Siria. "If you don't read it, I'll toss it in the fire." Siria tsked, but picked the letter up and read. She folded it up and stuffed it back into its envelope.

"Oh?" Sirius asked. Siria shrugged. "That's all?"

"I don't know." She shrugged again. "He said thanks for the uniforms and that he's boxing now." She looked at the envelope. "He said he 'guesses' you're 'okay', so…" Siria sighed. "I'll write back later."

"Yer don' 'ave to write 'im if yer don' wanna." Hagrid told Siria as he put the mug of tea before her.

"Thanks." She didn't know what to think of the letter. Dudley had even said he wasn't expecting a reply and that he just felt like he may as well say thanks because the uniforms Sirius sent were "kinda" working out.

"I guess a letter from Dudley saying 'thanks' is… weird, or something." She shrugged again before stuffing the letter into her bag and trying to enjoy tea with Hagrid and Sirius.

Back in her dorm, Siria headed straight into her trunk and closed it behind her. She pulled a chair over to the hanging mirror on the bookshelf and sat down with her wand. There was something about Transfiguring her hair to red that was comforting. The red hair was still as wild as her black hair, but it was like her mothers. Part of Siria wondered if the Dursleys would have still tried to torment the magic out of her if she looked more like her mother. She Transfigured her hair until it was flat and the same deep red as her mother's. Maybe she would leave like this, just for a while.

Siria took off her glasses and tried to look at the blurry figure before her. She stepped off the chair and took in her features. If she added freckles, she would look even more like her mother. More like Lily Evans and less like James Potter. Her stomach twisted itself into tighter knots. There was one thing from Dudley's letter she would never tell Sirius. "My parents don't like Sirius because he was friends with your dad and I think my mom blames your dad for why she stopped talking to them."

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