Snuffles stared at her for a long moment. I'm insane, I just asked a dog a question and expected him to answer. She shook her head as if to clear it. Suddenly everything that was wrong in her life hit her all at once and the tears welled up in her eyes, dripping down before she could stop them. Her nose filled up and she sniffed, trying to breathe. Snuffles walked toward her slowly, biting her hand and pulling it gently. He led her farther into the Forest. The night was loud around them, animals calling to each other, owls hooting. She felt goosepimples rise on her arms. The dog nuzzled her cloak, slipping under it. She sat next to him, trying to stop crying, but the tears kept pouring. Suddenly the space under the cloak became very small, and in place of the dog there sat an extremely dirty man.
At first Sophie didn't even realize it. She was rubbing her eyes, and when she opened them she yelped in fright.
"Shhh!" He took her hand, squeezing it gently in his. He wrapped his arms around her. He hadn't killed her. He'd hugged her. She laughed.
"Are you really…" She began.
He faced her, and she wished it wasn't so dark, she wished she could see his eyes.
"I really am. I'm your dad."
She pulled out her wand, and he froze. A terrified look came upon his face, and he whispered.
"Sophie-"
But she was whispering too. "Lumos."
A ball of light erupted from the end of her wand. Relief washed over him. His eyes were sunken, deep inside their sockets.
"What are you doing here? Did you- Are you- How?" She couldn't stop, suddenly everything that she'd always wanted to know came loose.
"I escaped. I didn't do it. I don't know what they told you, but I wasn't their Secret-Keeper, we switched, at the last second and we never told them." A twig snapped somewhere. He looked around nervously. "You have to believe me, I'd never-"
"I know," She said. "But who did tell?"
He stared at her. "You believe me?"
"Who was it?!" She asked, desperately.
He shook his head. "No. I can't involve you in this. Once it's over, we can-"
"What?! You have to tell me who it is, that's the only way they'll believe me!"
"No! You can't get involved in this, this is my battle, Sophie. I've been waiting twelve very long years for this, I can't mess it up now."
"You've been waiting for this for twelve years? Do you have any idea what I've been waiting for?" Her temper flared, a temper she barely knew she had. Her cheeks felt hot. "I've been waiting to see you ever since you got out, not knowing whether you wanted to be my dad or to kill me! I've been waiting for a father for my whole life! I've been waiting to figure out if you're innocent or a traitor like mum and Vieara think so that I can get along with them again. Everyone hates me because I don't hate you, and you can't even tell me what makes you innocent?"
He wrapped his arms around her again, hugging her fiercely.
"Look, I don't want to involve you. The less you know the better. This will all be over soon, and we'll be a family again, I promise." His voice broke. She pulled free of the hug, trying to wipe off the tears running down her cheeks again. Her locket glinted in the light.
"Did you like it?" He asked, touching a finger to it.
She nodded, unable to produce a decent "yes".
"It was my grandmum's. When your mum saw it, she loved it, so I nicked it for her when I ran away from home." Sophie laughed.
"Thanks." The tears finally stopped coming, and she realized how exhausted she truly was. Sirius looked at the ground for a very long moment before he spoke.
"You mum, she thinks I'm a traitor then?"
Sophie dodged his gaze. "Well, most people do. She's really angry at you. But she won't really talk about it, so I don't know."
He coughed awkwardly. "Is she married now? Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
Sophie shook her head. "She dates sometimes, but no. Nothing… real." She remembered Professor Lupin and shoved the thought of him down. Sirius didn't need to know that her mum had been getting cozy with his old friend, definitely not right now, at least. "Look, I should be getting back, I have to brew Wolfsbane for Professor Snape tomorrow…"
"Snape?" Sirius looked as if Sophie had just stepped on his tail. "Wolfsbane?" A proud look crossed his face. Wolfsbane was a difficult potion, Sophie was only thirteen. "Professor Snape?"
Sophie nodded, not meeting his eyes. "He's Potions Master here. He has been for a really long time."
Sirius didn't say anything but the look of hatred on his face spoke more than a phrase could. Sophie stood.
"I'll bring you supper tomorrow, after… at nine. D'you want anything specific?" She asked, worriedly examining his thin frame.
He grinned. "If you could get some treacle tart with the steak, I'll give you an extra lick on the cheek."
She laughed again. "Deal. Night, Dad."
Sirius choked at the word. It was the first time anyone had called him Dad. How long had he been waiting for this moment?
"G'night, Sophie. Oh and, don't give any hint that I'm any more than a loveable stray. And don't draw any attention to Snuffles either. I think maybe you shouldn't tell Vieara I'm here, not yet."
She nodded. This secret she was glad to keep.
The holidays approached rapidly and the school filled with the regular excited bustle. Everyone prepared to go home and enjoy the snowy landscape. Vieara couldn't wait to get home, even though Lupin would be spending the holidays with them. Sophie did not share the sentiment, however, and when she announced her intentions to stay at Hogwarts during the holiday, Vieara scoffed and refused to speak to her for days. At Sirius' urging, however, she finally agreed to go home as planned, and come back to school early.
On the morning they left for holiday, huge wet flakes fell from the sky. Their mother waited on the platform, giving them long hugs before offering one to Lupin. He grinned at her and they hugged for a long moment, until Vieara cleared her throat.
"Are we going home now?"
Elly laughed. "Yes. Let's go. Remus says he's arranged a Portkey for us."
Remus nodded and looked around. He walked over to an empty Coca-Cola bottle and motioned for them to gather around it. They touched it, everything lurched, and suddenly they were just outside the white, snow covered house. The girls bounded in, laughing, to light the fire. A delicious smell of Christmas filled their noses. It was good to be home.
The day before Christmas, Elly urged the girls outside with Lupin while she wrapped their gifts. She watched them tumbling about in the snow having an intense and laugh-filled snowball fight, laughing herself. She was glad to see that they seemed almost normal again. She eyed Vieara's crumpled robes lying on the kitchen chair and sighed, picking them up with the gifts. She deposited the packages under the tree and continued upstairs to the girls' room. She hung the robes in the wardrobe and was about to leave when a shriek made her turn toward the window. A burst of laughter followed it, but something caught her eye, keeping her gaze. On Sophie's bed lay a spiral-bound notebook. It looked old, and somehow oddly familiar.
"No!" Elly gasped. The notebook. It was the same notebook Sirius had spent hours writing in the summer of her pregnancy. The notebook he refused to let her see or touch. When he had disappeared that Halloween, it had disappeared with him, and she assumed, no, she knew, that he had been writing to Voldemort in that notebook, spying and sending information without arousing the suspicions of those in the Order. Why else would he hide it so diligently? Does an innocent man act like Sirius did that summer? Restless, short-tempered, even with her. Angry, scared. Of course he was scared, Voldemort would have killed him if he failed. But he hadn't failed. She had. She had failed to realize what was going on right under her own nose. And Lily and James had paid for her ignorance.
But how had Sophie gotten her hands on this notebook?
Elly picked it up cautiously. She opened it.
It was blank. Except for a scribble on the inside of the cover, there was no writing in it. But the scribble was Sirius' favorite doodle, a half moon/half Snitch round little ball hovering over a dark mass of squiggly trees. Below it he had written her own initials, E.V.I, scratched them out, and added his own.
"I command you to reveal yourself." She tapped the notebook with the tip of her wand. Writing slowly began to appear on the page in Sirius' thin slanted hand.
Elly, it read, I hope you've told the girls all of these things since I've been gone, but I thought I'd give them my side as well.
What? His side? She turned the page. A table of contents appeared. She shut the book, blinking fiercely.
He hasn't been communicating with the Dark Lord, he'd been writing to his unborn daughters. Elly felt an enormous wave of guilt wash over her. The grief that she'd given him over that stupid notebook! Why couldn't he just tell her? Stubborn Sirius Black. She shook her head. She felt faint.
All this time, she'd thought… Her notebook had played the starring role in convincing her that he was guilty all these years. It had made so much sense. But suddenly… She could feel a tiny seed of doubt plant under her layers of denial and it terrified her. He couldn't possibly be innocent, she tried to convince herself. But the horrid possibility didn't stop leaking into her mind.
The year slid by quickly for Sophie, who was occupied not with friends and pranks like most second-years, but with Legilimancy lessons, extra Potions, and night-time visits to Snuffles. Hidden deep in the Forbidden Forest, she and Sirius would curl up under her cloak, her wand warming them as he told her tales of his school days and she offered stories about her and her sister growing up. The one subject he adamantly avoided was the night of Halloween twelve long years ago.
By June Sophie had lost all hope of Sirius telling her anything. The most she could do was wait for him to do what he planned so that the ministry would acknowledge his innocence and they could finally be a family. He had promised to tell someone what had really happened if he hadn't done whatever it was he meant to do by the end of the school year. As exams drew near, Sophie began to worry about him.
The night of her last exam, Sophie and Vieara were awakened by Professor McGonagall and sleepily ushered into Dumbledore's office. The professor then left, leaving them alone with the headmaster who stared out into the night by the window.
"Tonight, you father was caught and the Kiss was almost performed on him by the dementors."
"Wha-" Vieara began, but Sophie cut her off.
"NO! He's innocent!"
"Yes," Dumbledore nodded. Vieara looked frozen in her spot. "He and three students have convinced me of that. However, there was not enough evidence to convince the Ministry not to perform the Kiss right away. And I'm afraid your father has not acted like an innocent man. However, I believe you deserve to know the truth."
"Where is he? Do they have him? Is he going back to Azkaban?!" Sophie kept shouting. Dumbledore shook his head.
"No, your father has escaped." A tiny, somber smile played upon his lips. "I have sent an owl to your mother. I've explained what he told me to her, and she has agreed to take him in."
Sophie gaped.
"I just thought that you ought to know. And since I happen to know you have both taken you last examinations, under the circumstances I believe it would be alright if you went home a little earlier than planned." The girls both nodded. Dumbledore tapped a silver instrument lying on his desk.
"Your trunks will be sent first thing tomorrow and you marks should arrive within a week. Have a good summer, girls!" He winked at them, and motioned for them to touch the instrument. They didn't have time to say thank you before the room lurched from under their feet and they landed in their very own kitchen.
Their mother looked up, a look of relief washed over her face. "It's you! Dumbledore told you, I take it?" She asked. They nodded.
Vieara looked around wildly. "Where is he?"
Elly shook her head. "He isn't here yet. He's coming by hippogriff, it'll take a few more hours at least. I didn't think Dumbledore would send you girls til morning. Go to bed, I'll wake you."
Sophie eagerly took the advice, heading to their room. She wanted to be nowhere near when Elly and Vieara learned that she'd been communicating with Sirius for months and hadn't told them a thing about it. She curled up in her bed and drifted off to sleep.
Vieara had no intention of going upstairs, however. She walked to the sink and filled two glasses with water, handing one to her mum. Then she went to the refrigerator and poked through, pulling out a pot of soup, which her mother warmed for her with a flick of her wand. She ate silently, nodding off nearly into her emptied bowl, until her mother insisted that they lay down on the sofas in the living room and get some rest.
It was a fitful sleep, and Elly cracked an eye open nearly every five minutes to make sure he hadn't arrived. Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, as the chickens began stirring in their coops, a soft knock came from the back door. Elly got up as quietly as she could, her feet padding on the cold tile floor. She cracked the door open and came face to face with an eye she never thought she'd see again.
She opened the door and they stared at each other for a long moment. He looked so much older, the laughter in his eyes was nearly gone. He was barely recognizable, let alone the boy she once knew and loved. He stared at her as if drinking her every feature in. Her once waist-length hair now just below her shoulders, her figure more womanly than girlish, and her eyes still a soft green. But the way she stood was so different, Sirius thought.
He glanced around nervously. "May I come in?"
"Of course," She jumped aside to offer him entrance. He was filthy. This robes were ragged and dirty, his hair disheveled and long. But he still made her breath catch in her throat. He caught her looking at his clothes and ran a hand over them as if to brush the dirt off, but then grinned.
"I bet you didn't think Prince Charming would gallop back on a hippogriff wearing nearly a year's worth of muck on his royal attire." He simply slipped the robe off, shoving them into the rubbish bin. He stood before her, chest bared. It was littered with blue tattoos, spanning over his ribs, nearly reaching his pants and shoulders. Two thick angry scars ran over his shoulder and on the right side of his ribs. This shocked her much more than the robes had. The fact that the man she'd touched and who's chest she'd memorized for hours was gone, that suddenly she knew nothing of his flesh, scared her more than anything she could remember. She held her hand out to touch him, and her watched her, expressionless.
Her fingers felt so cool and delicate over his skin. He'd forgotten what it was like to be touched, let alone by a woman. He let out a deep sigh, which made her hand retract. He grabbed it, and placed it over his heart. She was so close. He leaned in to kiss her.
She turned her head, to see Vieara staring at them at the doorway. He pulled back, then caught a glimpse of the girl. They stared at each other, startled. Sophie had said Vieara thought he was a traitor. Unlike Elly, whom he'd known before, this was someone who he'd never known, but who's opinion mattered more than nearly anything.
"Vieara, this is your dad," Elly finally broke the silence, hoping the glaringly obvious sentence would end the tense moment.
Vieara glared at her mother. "Well, obviously, mum. I'm not daft." Sirius laughed.
"Jesus, she looked just like you when we were in school and I tried to cheer you up with stupid jokes when you were mad at me." Vieara smiled almost against her will.
"So you're innocent then?" She asked pointlessly.
He nodded. "That I am. And I'm glad to finally meet you, Sophie's told me loads-"
"What?! Sophie?" Both Elly and Vieara stared at him, shocked.
"Um, right. I forgot. Well…" Elly had her hands on her hips and Vieara's rage was visibly building. "She um, figured out my disguise and confronted me about it. I told her I was innocent and we would talk when she brought me food. She didn't tell you, because I asked her not to. I didn't want anyone to find me before I got a chance to… Well anyway, it's not her fault."
Elly nodded, even though she didn't quite believe the part about Sophie not telling them because she'd promised him, but she let it go. After all, she'd been right all along. There was more to the story than nearly anyone realized, and it was Sophie who first suspected there might be a different version of events.
"You should go upstairs and take a shower. I've laid out some clothes for you. Vieara and I will make some breakfast. Sophie's sleeping." Elly was already pulling out some eggs.
"But-" Vieara began to protest.
"Later, we can talk later." Elly said in a stern voice that made Sirius grin. He headed upstairs, shaking his head at the incredible change in his school sweetheart, and how grown-up and opinionated his daughters were. He opened the door to what he assumed was the girls' room to take a peek at Sophie. But it was Elly's room. He remembered that it used to belong to her parents, and they used to sneak in and make use of the extremely comfortable bed. He grinned again, and opened another door. This room was large and divided in half. One side was strewn with rock posters of various wizard and Muggle bands, and the other with Quidditch players. Below the photos of musicians lay a curled up Sophie, her dark hair cascading down the side of the white bed. He sneaked in and kissed her forehead. She stirred, but didn't wake.
With another smile he headed toward the bathroom. Oh, how good a shower sounded right about now.
Author's note: So, didja get what you wanted? LOL. More family drama coming right up. How did you like the reunions? Cheesy? Anyway, please review. I'm getting quite a few hits but very very poor reviews (except for my amazing, dedicated two reviewers, Ramzes and HappeeGoLuckee!!! love you guys:). So if you read it, drop me a line, even if it's short. I love knowing what you think.