Lorraine Spiral
It had been months since the attack at the shopping center, but it felt as though it was still fresh in Harry's head. Harry had told Sirius what had happened between him and Voldemort and asked the truth about his parents.
Swearing loudly, Harry told him every last detail without holding back. Harry was traumatized for a few weeks, but after a while he accepted the fact that his parents were dead and he had a murderous lunatic after him.
Sirius, however, had a lot of other things on his mind. He didn't have time to mention them to Rachel because they were busy trying to get Harry into elementary school.
It was late August, and they were sitting in the daycare looking a variety of brochures from schools that they visited.
Harry had turned six, last month, and was too old to keep attending Rachel's daycare. He could still visit it and that made him happy. He enjoyed playing with the other students and helping Rachel during naptime, while Sirius took his own lunch break. He never told them where he was going. He just said, 'I'm going to take my lunch break.'
Harry's favorite part of the day is when he played with Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley. She had flaming red hair like her brothers and had a flowery smell that Harry liked. They were inseparable. When Harry went into the kitchen, Ginny would follow him. She wouldn't even get into trouble (no student was allowed to leave the classroom without permission.). Rachel thought it was cute and Sirius, lost in thought almost every second, had not noticed.
Sirius was thinking a lot about his friend, Remus Lupin. He missed him and was willing to go talk to him, to sort out their problem and become friends again. The challenge was talking to Lupin. When he wasn't busy at work, he was paying bills and rent, looking for a school for Harry, and of course, looking after Harry, which was a round the clock job.
He would have to ask Rachel for a vacation, so he could have at least a week to calm Lupin down and get him to talk.
During their own days, James and Sirius may have been the ringleaders of the group, but Lupin was like the 'mother' of the group; he kept them in line.
"We can send Harry to this school," said Rachel, bringing Sirius back to reality. "It's called Canine and it's only a town over. I could change the schedule around. . ."
"You can!"
"Yeah," she answered, not noticing the excitement in his voice. "We open at six, so I can do from six to two. You could start at nine thirty and leave at six. I'll take my lunch break at one o' clock and you can have yours at two."
"Oh." Sirius said in a disappointed voice.
This time, Rachel caught the sound in his voice and looked at him more closely.
"Are you alright," she asked. "You haven't been your cheerful self lately."
"I'm. . .fine." he responded. "I just don't want Harry to go to Canine. It's like a military there."
Harry came into the kitchen and leaned onto the table.
"All the kids are sleep now," he said looking at the brochures. "What are these?"
He picked up a brochure with a small school on it called Smeltings.
"We're looking at schools," Rachel told Harry. "Remember how we discuss that you were too big to go to daycare, so we're sending you to big people's school."
"Why do I have to go to school anyway?"
"Because if you don't Fudge'll get mad." Sirius said grimly.
"Who's Fudge? Is he edible?"
"What Sirius meant to say was that you go to school to learn," Rachel took the brochure out of his hands and laid it on the table with all the others. "Which school would you want to go to?"
Harry looked at all the brochures on the table. He saw pictures of small schools, big schools, and schools that took up three buildings. But the school that interested Harry the most was two large brown buildings, and a row of small red houses. In the middle of the building was a picture of a multi-colored cat. Underneath that was the word 'Fuzzy.'
"I want to go to this one." Harry said, picking up the brochure.
"It's not to far from your house, Sirius," she said, looking at the brochure. "It's located in town and you want have any trouble getting him in. There's a town rule saying that if you can't find a school for your child, they have to go to the local school. Fuzzy is our local school."
"What's a town?"
"A town is smaller than a city. Our town is called Fuzzy Town." Sirius answered.
"We live in a town? What's a city?"
"Yeah, we live in a town," he answered. "A city is bigger than a town with more people."
"Okay," said Rachel, before Harry can ask another question. "We can stop by Fuzzy on the way home."
Sirius never did get a chance to talk to Rachel about his problem. It was now a quarter to six and they were waiting in the three-year-old classroom for Mrs. Weasley to pick up Ginny.
Harry and Ginny, who were tired of watching television, started a game of spider tag. Rachel worked on some paper work, occasionally looking at Sirius, who was staring blankly out of the window.
It was five minutes to six, when Mrs. Weasley showed up. They said good night and left.
After Rachel turned off all the lights and set the alarm, they were driving down the street, (speeding is more like it.) towards Fuzzy.
When they had reached it, a young woman wearing a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and some white flip-flops, was locking the school.
"Hey, wait!" Sirius yelled. 'Where're you going?"
"I'd love to stay and chat, but I have a—Rachel?" she said when she spotted Rachel, who was walking towards them, holding Harry's hand.
"Lorraine?"
There was a long pause, then. . .
"I can't believe it's you!" Lorraine exclaimed.
"You look great."
"I love those shoes."
"Yeah. I love your shoes too."
"You must tell me how you do your hair."
It went on and on like that for five minutes until Sirius said, "Do you mind telling me what's going on here?"
"Sirius, this is my best friend Lorraine Spiral." Rachel explained. "We went to school together. We both wanted to have a career in the field of education. Lorraine wanted to be a principal and I wanted to own a daycare."
Sirius stomach churned. The word 'best friend' made Sirius think of Lupin and how the Mauraders all had their own career plans. James wanted to be a famous Qudditch player, Lupin wanted to go into retail, Peter wanted to be a mystery shopper, and Sirius wanted to be a police officer, but under extreme circumstances, he couldn't.
"That's. . .er. . .great." he said.
"Is this your son?" Lorraine asked Rachel, her eyes on Harry.
"No," answered Rachel. "This is Harry Potter, Sirius's godson."
"Really? You're Harry Potter?" her eyes roved over his scar. "Are you interested in my school?"
Harry nodded shyly, but didn't say anything. Ever since he ran into Voldemort, he was cautious about who he talked to.
"Why don't we talk business in the car? You could give me a ride to my hair appointment. My husband has the car."
Before Sirius could object, Rachel led Lorraine to the car, talking along the way.