Hey everyone! So thanks to all of you who reviewed and I'm sorry if I didn't respond to thank you for it. Fanfiction decided to be dumb and not send me email notifications that I had reviews for some of you, so I had no response link to shoot you a quick note. And I'm sorry! Because I feel like if you review, then the least I can do is thank you for it with a personal note. If it doesn't send them to me again, I shall be very upset. :(
But anyways, I'm glad that you all liked the previous chapter. I was worried that people would think I ruined the story.
I don't own HP
ENJOY!
It had been a week since school at Hogwarts ended and Arra and Sirius moved into the Noble House of Black. The whole train ride home from school, Arra could hardly sit still due to the anticipation of arriving at King's Cross station. It would be the first time her father came out in public since the release of the Daily Prophet notifying the world of his innocence. While she was excited for her life to finally gain some normalcy, she was still nervous about the reactions of some people. She knew that their opinions wouldn't bother Sirius, but she wanted his first day in the world to be special.
When they pulled into the station, she immediately caught sight of her father. He stood in the center of the platform, smiling widely, hardly paying attention to the staring eyes of the people surrounding him. Actually, they weren't surrounding him, per say. It was more like they had created a ten foot radius around him that no one would enter. But it really didn't seem like he minded. She jumped off the train as soon as it stopped and gave him a huge bear hug.
"Jeez, Arra! It's only been a week!" Sirius laughed.
"Well sorry!" She said sarcastically. "Next time I'll greet you with a monotonous hello and a nice handshake."
He shoved her a little bit as Harry, Ron and Hermione came up to them as well. They shared their greetings as Arra finally got a look around the station. When most people use the word 'everyone', they use it as an exaggeration. Not this time. Literally everyone was staring at them. Some with shock, some with hatred, but most just with wide unreadable faces. Arra looked at her father. He had found the time to shave and get his hair cut so he was the handsome man he used to be and not the scraggly Azkaban escapee.
"Ron!" Mrs. Weasley said from somewhere in the crowd.
Arra caught sight of her, waving from a distance over in the corner of the station. She waved back normally, just like she always did. For some reason, Mrs. Weasley's smile faltered a bit when she looked at Arra.
"There's mum." Ron said, rolling his eyes. "Better get going guys."
"Oh wait!" Arra said excitedly. "I want to introduce my dad to your parents!" And she grabbed both of their hands, not waiting for a response and skipped off to where the Weasleys were standing with Harry and Hermione following behind. Every eye followed them as well.
When she approached, Ron's parents looked a bit shocked at first, but Arra was sure that they would accept Sirius and not act weird about it.
"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Weasley!" Arra said, hugging them as Harry and Hermione did the same. She then grabbed her dad's arm and pulled him forward into the group. "This is my dad, Sirius Black." She beamed.
Sirius said quietly in Arra's ear, "Maybe we should give them time to adjust to my presence before we start making friends--"
"Nonsense!" Arra said with a laugh. "Mrs. Weasley is the nicest person I know! She won't be like everyone else, will you Mrs. Weasley?"
Mrs. Weasley looked uneasily at Arra for a split second before responding with, "Actually dear, we've got quite a busy day ahead of us so we don't really have time to chat." She glanced at Sirius. "But another time perhaps." She smiled at Arra and bustled out of the station with her children following her quickly. Ron looked back at Arra, mouthed a quick 'sorry', and followed his mum.
Arra stared after them with a look of confusion on her face. Harry noticed her sad eyes and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Arra. I thought she would be different too."
Arra sniffed. "No, it's ok. I'm sure that she just had a lot to do. She said we would do it another time." She said, more to convince herself rather than Harry.
Harry smiled, "I'm sure you're right."
Now Arra was sitting up in her new room in Grimmauld place. The silky red sheets of her kings size bed slid off of her as her eyes traveled her new home. Her trunk still sat at the foot of her bed with robes still untidily smashed into it and the remainder of its belongings strewn about the floor (Arra had never been very neat). She had painted the formerly Slytherin green walls to a deep Gryffindor crimson the second she got home and had pinned multiple pictures of her friends and other things on the walls. On one wall hung a large map with push pins stuck in strategic places. Arra had been keeping track of all the places her and Sirius planned to go that summer and all the places she someday wanted to visit on her own. The blue pins were used to show where she wanted to go, and the yellow were reserved for where she had been. As of now, they were all still blue.
Since the Weasleys had reacted badly to her father, Arra had realized that it really was going to take some time for people to accept her father. But she was certain Mrs. Weasley would come around eventually--she always did.
A knock at her door brought her out of her thoughts. "Come in." She called as a small, old house elf came in.
"Breakfast is ready, mistress." Kreacher droned.
"Ok." She said as she walked past him. He muttered something about hating Arra and how she would kiss the shoes of mud bloods if given the opportunity.
She entered the kitchen to find food covering the table, and her father sitting at the end devouring it. Since they had moved in, Sirius had been eating like crazy trying to catch up to the lack of food he suffered for the last 12 years. "Goo' mornin' Arra!" He muffled out with a mouth full of eggs.
She frowned at him. "Slow down, you're going to get heartburn."
He swallowed. "Eat up. We're going to Ireland today."
"Seriously?" She asked, sitting down and grabbing some bacon. "We're not supposed to go until next week?"
He nodded, shoving toast down his throat.
"When did you decide this?"
He shrugged. "About an hour ago."
She frowned for a few seconds before shrugging. "Ok." They had plenty of money, so they could pretty much do whatever they wanted. "I wish Harry was coming too." She said a bit sadly.
Sirius smirked. "I bet you do."
She snatched a pancake and threw it at him. "Hey!" He said.
"You were asking for it."
***
About three hours later, Arra and Sirius were sitting in a fancy hotel room in Ireland, staring out and the green landscape. While Sirius took a shower (lately showering and food had become his obsession, as he had lacked them for so long), Arra wrote a letter to Harry.
Dear Harry,
This morning, Dad had a sudden epiphany and decided to begin our extravagant vacation early, so I'm writing you now from Ireland. It really is beautiful, I'm sorry you aren't here with us. As much fun as I know it's going to be with my dad, it just would have been better with you. I miss you. And Ron and Hermione too. I'm sorry I'm going to miss our annual end of the summer gathering at Ron's house. I think that's when we'll be in Canada (Don't worry, I brought my camera and moose hunting gear). Listen to me! It's only been two weeks and here I am writing to you like a long-lost lover! Haha, but I do really miss you. But not in a loving kind of way. But more like the 'your-my-best-friend' way. Ok , now I'm just rambling. But I think we're going to dinner soon so I'm afraid I have to cut this letter short.
Love,
Arra
She sealed the envelope and sent it off with one of the hotel's owls. Soon enough, Sirius finished his shower and got dressed and ready for dinner.
"Come on, Arra! We've got to go now!" He shouted from his bedroom of the incredibly large suite they had rented. He walked into her room, "What are you doing?" He asked, confused.
Arra was laying on the king size bed on her back, staring up at the ceiling blankly, still in her lazy traveling clothes. "Square dancing." She said sarcastically.
Sirius grabbed a pillow off the floor and flung it at her. "Go get ready." He said with a smile.
Arra sighed dramatically. "Fine." She said, still not moving from her spot.
Sirius groaned in exasperation, "What's on your mind?"
Without moving from her spot she answered, "Mom."
Taken aback, Sirius was momentarily speechless. "Your mom? What about her?"
"Nothing." Arra said truthfully. "Because that's all I know--nothing. You sort of skipped out before I could get the details, and Bellatrix pretty much banned the subject all together."
Sirius nodded. "Oh, I see." He walked over to the bed and sat down next to her, joining her in watching the ceiling fan spin around. "What do you want to know?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Everything I guess."
Sirius took a deep breath in preparation, and Arra could tell that this was going to be a long story. Maybe she should grab a snack before he gets started? Odds are they were going to miss that fabulous dinner they had reservations for. "I guess I'll start at the beginning."
"No, I'd like to hear it from the end, going backwards please." Arra said with a sarcastic smile.
Sirius glared at her, but was trying to hide a smile. It was remarkable how alike their senses of humor were. "Anyways, where was I? Oh yes, the beginning." He said, emphasizing the last word. "I met Violet on the train ride to Hogwarts. She immediately hated me." He smiled, fondly remembering her. "She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. You look so much like her. Except for you got my ugly dark eyes instead of her gorgeous blue ones."
Arra frowned. "Hey! I like our matching eyes, thank you!"
Sirius scowled at her. "Stop interrupting!" Arra nodded, signaling she would stop.
"But yeah, she was the shyest person in Hogwarts I think when she came. She came from a pureblood family too, so her family kind of expected a lot out of her. But she wasn't the type of person to spend her life trying to please others--she liked to make herself happy. But when she came to school, she was really shy and Lily, Harry's mom, was the only person who befriended her. Eventually as the years went on, she broke out of her shell a bit, but still remained the nicest person in the entire school. It still amazes me that out of all the nice guys there, she picked me."
"Me too." Arra interjected.
"Arra! What did I say about interrupting?!"
"Sorry. Last time--Scout's honor!" She said, putting her hand up in defense.
Sirius sighed. "I remember how we got together. It was in our sixth year. I had always had a crush on her since the day we met, but during school, I was the bad boy that had a new girlfriend every week. By the way, it's guys like me that you want to stay away from!" He said in a warning tone.
"You've got it backwards. I'm the kind of girl that mom's tell their bad boy sons to stay awayfrom." Arra smirked.
Sirius laughed. "The sad thing is that you're probably right."
"Would you rather I be like the girls you used to date?" Arra asked.
Sirius' eyes widened. "No!" He said sternly. "No! That kind of behavior is…forbidden!"
Arra laughed. "Yes, daddy." She said in her best Pansy Parkinson voice.
He frowned. "I'm serious."
"You're always Sirius!" She giggled. "That never get's old." She said after the laughter subsided.
Sirius waved her off. "Back to the story. But anyways, James knew that I had always liked her, and she had just recently broken up with her Ravenclaw boyfriend. Your mom always liked those smart and sensitive blokes." He said with disgust. "But James decided to set it up so that a bunch of Gryffindors would meet in the Room of Requirement to play truth or dare. It was actually a really fun night. Remus got dared to stand up on the table the next morning at breakfast and recite a love poem to Dumbledore. It was actually quite good too." Arra remembered she would have to bring it up next time she saw Remus. Unfortunately he wouldn't be teaching next year, as Snape had let slip his werewolf-ness. "Ashley McGrady was dared to respond to everything with an Irish jig. And Isabella White had to confess which guy in the room she would most like to have sex with. It was me." He said proudly. Arra rolled her eyes. "So then, after daring Lily to kiss him seven times, James dared me and Violet to go in the closet for seven minutes. So we did, and--"
"EWWW!" Arra squealed. "I don't want to hear about your naughty closet get together!"
Sirius playfully hit her in the stomach with a pillow. "Oh shut up. We just kissed!"
"You're just keeping it G-Rated for the sake of my innocent ears." She accused.
"That's seriously all that happened. We were talking for a few minutes before she said, 'So should we kiss, or what?' I was so taken aback by it, because she was the only girl I really liked, so I didn't want to come on too strong because she was always so shy. But she came onto me. So I told her I liked her, and she didn't even respond. She just kissed me, and then said 'It's about time you realized I'm the only good thing around here'. And since then we were a couple. Most people thought we were odd. The bad boy with the shy goody girl. But we fit each other perfectly. And our parents kinda-sorta approved because we were both purebloods, so they paid for our entire fabulous extravagant wedding the year after we graduated." He said smiling.
"You would take advantage of your parents money!"
"It was her idea." Sirius said defensively. "But after our wedding, she became pregnant with you. And we learned that due to a condition she was born with, it was possible for her to… have major complications in childbirth," Arra noticed how he avoided the word 'die'. "They said the safest way for her was to have an abortion, but she wouldn't have it. She didn't want to give you up." Arra's face fell. Suddenly, she felt guilty for being alive. Like it was her fault that her mother died. "So we went through with it. I don't want to go into detail of it, but labor was…hard for her. They tried to fix it with magic, but it was too late." His voice was breaking now. "S-she knew she wouldn't last. But she held you until s-she…the end. But when she had you, she didn't even look sad about what was coming, she smiled at you and looked the happiest she had ever been. She loved you more than anything in the world." Even with his eyes watering a bit, Sirius smiled at the thought of his wife, and her undying love for others. "She had me take a picture of you two before it happened." He said, fishing in his wallet. He pulled out an old picture and handed it to Arra. There was her mom, dark auburn curls like Arra's and soft crystal blue eyes, smiling happily down at the baby in her arms. Arra looked at her tiny self, staring up at her short-lived mother with interest.
"I'm sorry." Arra said finally in a small voice.
Sirius frowned. "Sorry?"
"It's my fault she's gone. If she just would have gotten rid of me then she would still be here." Arra's voice broke at the end and she blinked back tears.
"Arra." Sirius said sternly. "Don't ever think that thought again. It was not your fault. Your mother and I knew the risks, but we loved you too much already to get rid of you. I miss your mother more than anything, but no way in hell would I ever give you up. And neither would she. I know that wherever she is, she's happy with the outcome, because Violet always cared about the people she loved more than anything. She was glad to leave this world by giving you life. She wouldn't have had it any other way."
Arra tried to smile, but still felt a bit of guilt in the pit of her stomach. She nodded and looked back up at the ceiling. Her and Sirius sat there, staring up, for who knows how long, until Sirius' stomach finally growled. He glanced at the clock on the wall.
"It's nine o'clock." He said, monotonously.
"The ceiling fan has spun around 642 times since the last time we spoke." Arra said randomly, not taking her eyes off the fan.
Sirius lay back down. "Really?" He asked with mild interest.
"Yep."
"Interesting."
And for the rest of the night, they stared at a ceiling, each absorbed in their own thoughts, until they drifted off to sleep, the thought of that fancy dinner melting away into their memory-filled dreams.
Hope you all liked it. Kinda sad, I know. It was sort of hard to write, because I feel like I know Arra now, and what makes her sad, makes me sad. That probably sounds really lame, but I don't care! Haha. Ok, I'm done rambling now. Review! And I'll give you a whole watermelon. (I'm definitely craving that right now.)
Love to you all!