Chapter 3: An Interesting Summer

"Is there a reason you needed to talk to me?" Claire asked, feeling more worried by the second.

"She has to know, Molly. We've kept her in the dark too long. She needs to know everything, including her parents." Mr. Weasley said to his wife.

"My parents?" Claire said in shock. "You mean, you're actually going to tell me about them?"

Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Claire it's time you knew the truth."

"Your parents didn't just leave you on our doorstep for no reason," Mrs. Weasley began. "There was a man. You're mother didn't tell us much about him but she said he was after you."

"Why was he after me?" Claire asked.

"We don't know. Your parents kept us in the dark. They said it would be too dangerous if we knew." Mr. Weasley said.

"But why wouldn't they keep me with them? Wouldn't it be worse if I wasn't with them? Wouldn't I be a more vulnerable target?" Claire questioned.

"All your parents told us was that you'd be safer here because he wouldn't expect you to be here." Mrs. Weasley said.

Claire's eyes drifted towards the newspaper in Mr. Weasley's hands.

"So, how does all of this relate to that newspaper?" Claire asked, pointing at the paper.

Mr. Weasley handed her the newspaper. On the front there was a headshot of sunken-faced man with long, matted hair.

Black Still At Large

Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today. "We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm." Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis. "Well, really, I had to, you don't know," said an irritable Fudge. "Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle. I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it-who'd believe him if he did?"

While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse.

"Sirius Black? What's he have to do with my parents?" Claire questioned.

"Sirius is your mother's twin brother." Mrs. Weasley answered.

Claire was quiet for a moment taking in the information. Her mother was Sirius Black's twin. This man had murdered thirteen people with one curse and now he escaped from Azkaban. Great. She thought sarcastically.

"We're telling you this because we fear he may come after you and Harry," Mr. Weasley said.

"Harry? Why?" Claire asked.

Mr. Weasley was about to talk before Mrs. Weasley spoke.

"I think it's time for you to go to bed, Claire."

"But Mrs. Weasley, I-" Claire was cut off.

"Now!" Mrs. Weasley said sternly.

Claire reluctantly went to her room. She was frustrated. She had a feeling they hadn't told her everything. Why were they being so secretive? Why couldn't they just tell her what she wanted to know? Why was a man after her? Why would her parents leave her with the Weasleys if that man was after her? None of it made sense to her. She opened the door to her room and saw that Ginny was awake and the light was on. Ginny noticed Claire looked irked.

"Are you alright?" Ginny asked, concerned. "What did they tell you?"

"I don't want to talk about," Claire muttered.

"Claire, you should really talk-"

"No!" Claire shouted angrily. She took a deep breath and exhaled. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm just upset at the moment. I just want to go to sleep."

And with that Claire changed her clothes and curled up in her bed drifting into sleep.

Drums pounded. Claire had heard it countless times before. It was as if it were taunting her.

"He's coming….he's coming…..he's coming….." a voice whispered.

"Who's coming?" Claire yelled frustrated.

The only reply she heard was the drumming. The drums began to get louder as a piece of paper flew in front of Claire. Just as she was about to pick up the paper, an arm began to emerge from it. She backed away from it, fear increasing inside her as a man had emerged from the paper. The man's back was facing her, but she could tell by his ragged clothing and matted hair who the man was. When the man turned around, her theory was proven. The man was Sirius Black. He drew his wand and said, "Avada Ked-"

Claire jolted awake at that moment.

"You alright?" Ginny asked.

Claire glanced at the clock. It was ten in the morning.

"Yea, just a bad dream," Claire said as she threw the covers off herself. "I'm going to take a shower."

Claire grabbed her clothes and walked into the bathroom. When she finished showering, she put on her clothes and walked back into the room. Ginny was no longer in the room. Claire suspected she had gone downstairs for breakfast. She went downstairs and saw the all the Weasleys eating and a familiar bushy, brown haired girl.

"Claire!" Hermione ran up to Claire and hugged her. "How are you? Did you get the books I sent you? I bet Egypt was fantastic. Did you get to see any of the tombs?"

"I'm good. Yes. It was brilliant. Yes, we saw King Tutankhamen's tomb." Claire answered. "I have the books you gave me in my trunk. I'll give them back to you later."

"It's fine, you can keep the books. I have plenty of books as it is." Hermione said.

"Oh, there you are, Claire," Mrs. Weasley had a letter in her hand. "Here's your school letter. It just came today."

Claire took the letter thanking Mrs. Weasley before she sat down.

"When did you get here by the way?" Claire asked Hermione.

"Just this morning. My parents had dropped me off and I saw Ron eating and sat here." Hermione replied.

"How was France?" Claire asked.

Hermione began to talk all about her trip. She had seen the Eiffel tower, the Lourve, and Notre Dame.

"France is truly beautiful." Hermione said. "There really is no way to describe how incredible it is."

"Have you gotten your school supplies yet?" Claire asked.

Hermione shook her head. "Maybe we could all go today."

After breakfast, the Weasleys, Hermione, and Claire went shopping for their school supplies. Claire, Ron, and Hermione went shopping for their school supplies together.

They entered Flourish and Blotts to get their books. Claire opened her letter to see which books she needed.

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 3) by Miranda Goshawk

Unfogging the Future by Cassandra Vablatsky

Intermediate Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

The Monster Book of Monsters

Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles

The Essential Defence Against the Dark Arts by Arsenius Jigger

Claire searched for all the books and found them all; except one, The Monster Book of Monsters. She spotted Ron and Hermione and walked over to them.

"Have either of you found The Monster Book of Monsters?" Claire said.

"No, that's the only one we have left. We should go talk to the manager." Hermione suggested.

They walked to the front of the store and saw the manager.

"Excuse me," Claire caught the man's attention. "We need help locating The Monster Book of Monsters."

The man paled. "V-very w-well," he stuttered. "How many do you need?"

"Three." Hermione said as the man turned paler.

He drew on a pair of thick gloves, picked up a large, knobby walking stick, and proceeded toward the door of the Monster Books' cage. He quickly pulled out three of the books and sat them on the counter.

"Anything else?" He said.

"No, thank you," Hermione replied.

They paid for the books being extremely careful with the monster book and then left to go back to the Leaky Cauldron. As they were walking, Claire noticed their were multiple posters of Sirius Black plastered all over Diagon Alley.

"That man is crazy!" Ron said, staring at one of the posters. "He killed thirteen Muggles with one curse!"

"That's awful!" Hermione said.

Claire remained quiet not wanting to talk about the man who was apparently her uncle. As Hermione and Ron discussed Sirius Black, Claire felt someone staring at her. She stopped walking and looked behind her. She saw a large, black dog staring at her as if it recognized her. The dog seemed to be almost human-like with striking grey eyes that stared into her brown ones.

"Claire! C'mon, we have to get back to the Leaky Cauldron!" Hermione yelled from up ahead.

Claire turned around and yelled, "Ok! I'm coming!"

Claire turned back around to the dog to find that it had disappeared.

"It's official I've finally gone crazy," she muttered to herself.

The last week of the holidays were coming to a close. Claire, Ron, and Hermione had gone to the Magical Menagerie one day because Ron's rat seemed to be ill. Ron had managed to get rat tonic for Scabbers and Hermione, who had been given money from her parents for an early birthday gift, had bought a ginger-colored, big, bandy-legged cat with a squashed head. The cat had nearly scalped Ron when it jumped from the top of one of the cages and landed on his head and then tried to attack Scabbers. Hermione seemed to think the cat was cute and decided to buy it. Claire was more of a dog person and wasn't too thrilled about Hermione buying the cat. Ron was definitely upset that Hermione had bought the cat that had nearly tore off his scalp. In fact, Hermione and Ron seemed to argue every second about it and it was driving Claire insane. It was the last day of the holidays and Claire, Ron, and Hermione were in the Leaky Cauldron. Claire was sitting at one of the tables in the Leaky Cauldron waiting for Hermione and Ron. Soon she heard their voices coming from upstairs.

"I'm warning you, Hermione!" Ron said, appearing at the top of the staircase with Scabbers in his hands. "Keep that bloody beast of yours away from Scabbers or I'll turn it into a tea cozy."

"He's a cat, Ronald!" Hermione argued, holding her cat as they both walked down the stairs to the table Claire was at. "What do you expect? It's in his nature."

Claire sighed as the two bickered.

"A cat! Is that what they told you?" Ron said, sitting in front of Claire. "Looks more like a pig with hair if you ask me."

"That's rich coming from the owner of that smelly old shoe brush." Hermione snapped, then sat down. She then began cooing to her cat. "It's all right, Crookshanks. You just ignore the mean little boy."

Claire rolled her eyes. "You two are ridiculous. Hermione, your cat did attack Ron and try to eat his rat so I understand why he's upset-"

"HA!" Ron interrupted. "See? Even Claire agrees that your cat is a bloody monster!"

"I wasn't finished," Claire glared at Ron before continuing. "Though I understand why you're upset Ron, you've never showed much interest in the rat in the first place."

"That's not true," Ron said.

"Really?" Claire raised her eyebrow."Because if I recall when you got the rat you were complaining about it not being an owl. And not to mention first year you called it worthless."

Ron muttered underneath his breath angrily.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Claire said.

"Nothing." Ron said.

Claire rolled her eyes and then stood up. "I'll be upstairs when you two decided to be civil with each other so we can enjoy the last day of summer."

Claire turned around and as she did she saw at the bottom of the stairs was Harry.

"Harry!" Claire said in surprise. After recovering from the surprise of seeing her best friend, she gave him a hug.

"Harry, what are you doing here?" Ron asked.

"I sort of blew up my aunt." Harry said sheepishly.

"You what?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Sounds like someone had an interesting summer." Claire said.

So, now you know a little bit about Claire's parents' reasons for abandoning her. They aren't too specific because I don't want to give away the complete details just yet. But by the end of this book you'll know exactly why she was abandon and maybe a few other details. I know this chapter wasn't too long but I have to study for my finals because my school decided to wait two weeks after winter break to give us exams and I have Algebra 2 tomorrow and I'm stressing out. I'll have a five-day weekend because of MLK day and a non-student day so I should be able to upload another chapter this weekend. Thank you to my new followers: nomadeagle and Not-Famous-Yet (love your username).

Reply to Reviews:

NicoleR85: Well, they sort of gave Claire an explanation as to why she was left with them. But the question is were the hiding the complete explanation or were they being truthful when they said Claire's parents kept them in the dark?

crossMIRAGE19: The Birds and Bees Talk was really fun to write. I could just picture Mrs. Weasley saying the things that happen as girls and boys get older and Claire and Ron sinking lower and lower in their chairs pretending that the conversation wasn't happening.

Rainpelt the Doctor: Bohemian Rhapsody is one of my favorite songs by Queen. The song is very different both lyrically and instrumentally compared with most songs and I think that's why I enjoy it so much. Also, Freddie Mercury has an INCREDIBLE voice! I actually have never been to Egypt though I've always wanted to. I've been fascinated by the Egyptian culture since I was five (my favorite movie is THE MUMMY) and hopefully one day I'll be able to visit Egypt. However, I wouldn't want to go now because of everything happening over there. I wish I got 2 days off of school. But I live in Florida and they never cancel school because of the weather.

Amanda (guest): I'm thrilled to hear you're enjoying the story. The Master was one of the boggarts I considered for Claire but I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted it to be him. But the sample you wrote made me realize that he'd probably be the best boggart. I absolutely love the sample you wrote and if you don't mind I'd like to use it. I just need to change a few details but if you're okay with me using it in my story then I'd be happy to use it. I'll give you credit for it too.

Teckie De Cool: Yea! I have to admit the last chapter was one of my favorites as well. Mostly because I got to write about Egypt. And the woman and man on the tomb wall are the Doctor and Carina.

TENZA (GUEST): Glad you liked the birds and bees talk and the painting on the wall. And I'm just going to say she doesn't really recognize her feelings yet for Harry and he doesn't for her either. I still feel like they're too young for dating and what not so their relationship won't happen until later on. Besides I think Claire as well as Harry have better things to worry about at the moment then if they have feelings for each other. I mean a murderer is after them. No, problem about clearing up any doubts about Claire having two hearts. I like your idea of the boggart being the sound of the drums. And thank you for showing your friends this series. That means a lot to me. I find it amazing to have people know about this story in Mexico.