Raylynx's POV

I let out a breath. I had finally managed to infiltrate the upper levels of Azkaban. I rushed to where I knew Sirius' cell to be.

"Sirius! Sirius!"

Then, an intense chill swept over me. I turned towards the cell with a terrible feeling of fear engulfing me.

There was a dementor above Sirius, sucking out his soul.

"No!" I screamed and ran forward, but I was too late.

Sirius stared at me with mindless eyes, incapable of recognizing me.

Then, the dementor turned towards me. I started to back away, but it swooped easily through the bars and knocked me down.

Its long bony fingers reached out and grabbed my chin. I shut my eyes.

It began to draw on me forcing me to relive the memories of the death of my parents, Dorcas, Marlene, even Julian.

I screamed and tried to resist, trying to pull out my wand. But the dementor hit my wrist, which burned with pain. My wand clattered away from me.

My brother was cursed off his broom a hundred times, and Alice's haggard face swam up to my conscious a thousand more times. Then- Lily and James-

I managed to grab my wand and summon my lynx Patronus.

The dementor was clawed away and I ran past cells filled with the corpses of people I loved. Suddenly, the prison floor came to an abrupt end hundreds of feet above the sea. I skidded to a stop and grabbed at the crumbling wall beside me.

Then, ice began to form around my feet, trapping me in place.

I turned and saw the ghastly sight of a hundred dementors all swooping towards me.

I opened my mouth to scream, knowing that this was my end.

Somewhere in the depths of the prison, Bellatrix's hideous laugh rang out.

My eyes flashed open. They skittered nervously across my ceiling, only to find it drenched in warm morning sunlight.

I sat up in bed, breathing heavily and clutching at my heart.

How many more nights are going to be haunted by bad dreams?

But what if it was true? What if something went wrong and Sirius couldn't withstand the dementors anymore? He had been in Azkaban for over three years now.

Stop it. Enough is enough, it was just a dream.

I pulled back the covers and headed to the bath. Sitting in a tub of warm water and lying back, I marveled at the fact that that I was looking up at the ceiling of my own house, instead of the dusty wooden ceiling of the Magical Menagerie or the clinical-looking ceiling of the Auror Offices. It had also been a while since I'd slept in later than sunrise.

I got up and freshened up, but stayed in my pajamas.

Wrapping a robe around me and a bandage around my left wrist, I went and clattered around the kitchen and made myself breakfast- or brunch, really. I made myself some tasty soup and toasted some bread. I whipped up some eggs too. I even opened an old bottle of wine that'd been sitting in the pantry for ages.

I settled back, all ready to eat. Just then, my doorbell rang.

I started.

I hadn't been expecting anyone to visit.

I hurriedly brush my hair back with my fingers.

It's probably just Sola, I reassured myself as I hastened to the door.

Instead, I found a ginger-haired and good-natured Ministry of Magic worker on my door, lugging three suitcases along and making a general mess of things.

"Hello!" he said cheerfully and held out his hand. "I'm Arthur Weasley. I work for the Office of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, and I'm here to tell you that all of Black's properties passed the test- save for one object, but that's beside the point."

I stared at him, wide-eyed, half-hiding behind the door.

"I beg your pardon?" I said uncertainly.

"Well, the Ministry is only interested in Black's magical items. Dumbledore asked me to deposit the rest at your place or at Remus Lupin's. It seems that Mr. Lupin is not around at the moment. So I came to see you." He still held out his hand.

"I'm sorry. What?" I said, utterly confused. "Whose items are these and why did you bring them here?"

"Oh, did Dumbledore not tell you?" Mr. Weasley said, looking surprised. "These items are what's left of Sirius Black's confiscated items. As you probably know, convicted felons have all of their property confiscated. Usually, we hand it back off to families, but in this case, Sirius Black's family members are all deceased or also in Azkaban. So, if I may-?"

He began to lug a suitcase into my house.

"I would magick this, but you know, you live in a Muggle neighborhood," Mr. Weasley said, panting as he dragged the second suitcase up the stairs. "Wouldn't want to attract any undue attention, would we?"

"Mr. Weasley, I don't- this isn't- um…" I couldn't put together words as I watched this man drag Sirius' items into my house.

"I'll bring these in further so you don't have to do anything yourself," Mr. Weasley said graciously, right over my stammering.

"Mmm. Were you cooking? That smells absolutely delicious," Mr. Weasley said, as he pushed a suitcase further into the house.

"Wait, Mr. Weasley-" I said.

"My goodness, is that a bottle of Cabernet? Looks delicious!" he commented, noticing the open wine bottle.

"Er-yes, that is," I mumbled.

"Well, you are living life correctly, I must say," Mr. Weasley said approvingly. "Anyhow, that's that, and I'm off. I have some paperwork that I'll just leave on your desk. Just there, yes. Well, good day to you, Ms. Kingsley."

Needing some time to sort this all out, I ended up asking Mr. Weasley, "Wait! Mr. Weasley, would you like to join me for break- I mean, brunch?"

When he gave me a surprised expression, I hastily added, "I might have questions about the paperwork and I would appreciate it very much if you could just stay here until I've finished everything."

"Oh, well, it's quite simple… But I wouldn't mind a spot of wine or some toast, now that you mention it."

Mr. Weasley sat down at the table, smiling.

I couldn't help but smile back at his cheerful disposition.

I threw some more toast and eggs on the stove as I carefully poured him a glass of wine.

I served him the freshly made soup with the cooked eggs and toast.

"Cheers to you!" he said, lifting his glass to me. He tasted it and nodded his head. "Yes, that is marvelous."

I started to read through the paperwork, still trying to get my head around what was going on. My eyes flickered back to the beaming red-haired man sitting in front of me.

"Mr. Weasley, you seem very familiar to me," I commented. "I'm sure I've seen you before."
"Oh yes," Mr. Weasley nodded. "I remember seeing you at the Franks' wedding, and then at the Potters'."

"Oh," I said, suddenly remembering. "Your wife is Molly."

"That is correct," Mr. Weasley said proudly. "Molly Prewitt- now Molly Weasley."

Molly was Fabien and Gideon Prewitt's little sister and the one who had recognized that Lily was pregnant.

I looked over the paperwork as Mr. Weasley dug into the food and finished off his wine. Slowly, the terms and conditions began to make sense in my mind. "So," I recounted, "after Sirius was captured, the Ministry tracked down his private residence and confiscated all of his things."

Mr. Weasley nodded. "Yes. Then, everything was thoroughly checked. We wanted to make sure that Black hadn't set up any further traps to torture innocent wizards or unsuspecting Muggles. That's why I was called on. Fortunately, there weren't any."

"Of course he wouldn't-"I started indignantly, but I held myself back.

"Well, that's a relief," I said, more calmly.

"The Ministry wanted to dispose of items that weren't magical, but we weren't sure what to do with them. We were going to incinerate everything leftover, but Dumbledore suggested that you or Mr. Lupin may have a place for them. He said that you were old friends with Sirius Black."

"Oh… I see," I said. I wondered how much Dumbledore knew. Sirius and I were friends, weren't we? I settled on saying, "Well, that much is true, I suppose."

"No need to feel worried," Mr. Weasley said heartily. "I don't think any less of you. There's no way you could have known about Black. I'm just sorry you had to feel the pain of betrayal."

He shook his head and for a moment, his bright eyes dimmed as he said somberly, "Dumbledore also said you were friends with Lily and James Potter. My condolences to you, Ms. Kingsley. I shan't imagine that we will ever overcome the devastating losses from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"Thank you," I said quietly. I finished the paperwork and handed it to him.

He got up and I walked him to the door.

"Well, you must come around sometime, Ms. Kingsley," Mr. Weasley said to me, cheerfully shaking my hand. "Molly and I will be most happy to return the favor of brunch. Oh, and if you ever need assistance from the Office of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, I'm at your service."

He bowed and went on his way.

I was cheered by his kindness, but when I turned around and saw the boxes filled with Sirius' old things, I felt my high from this morning fade away entirely.

I sat beside the first box and opened it.

I pulled out the blanket that had been on his bed.

It had his scent on it.

I remembered our last afternoon together.

We were sitting on his bed. That morning, I had made up my mind to tell him about Regulus. I'd spent all morning preparing myself for it- all night, really, seeing as I hadn't slept a wink.

At that moment, we were just talking about mindless things, relaxing with each other. But in truth, I was mustering the courage to tell him about Regulus.

"When are you going to tell me who your first kiss was?" he asked me, prodding me in the stomach.

"Never," I said, and felt my cheeks flush slightly.

"Who was yours?" I asked quickly, before he could follow up.

He paused, thinking back.

"Fourth… no third year. Some blonde girl, I forget her name."

"Oh yeah, I forgot who mine was too," I said hastily. "Some blonde bloke, probably."

"Stop lying, Lynx," Sirius scoffed at me.

"What about a boyfriend?" he asked. "Did you ever bring a guy over to your parents?"

"Is that how relationships work?" I questioned. "I bring my boyfriend to meet my parents and then what? If enough time passes, we get married or something?"

Even as I joked, I felt that familiar pang of sadness inside me.

"Hell if I know," Sirius shrugged. "I'm just going off of what I saw in some Muggle movie Lily forced me to watch. The lunatics I grew up with still had arranged marriages to keep the bloodlines pure." He rolled his eyes.

"I probably wasn't the guy girls would bring to their parents, anyways," Sirius said nonchalantly. "I mean, I'm not really any parent's idea of a good guy."

"No kidding," I said wryly, but I was teasing. I was pretty sure my parents would have loved him, especially my father.

"It might have been nice with your parents, though," Sirius said, thinking it over. "They wouldn't be familiar with my family's background, right? I guess it'd be nice not to have people assume I'm just a "blood purist" or "blood traitor", which is basically all I am with any other Wizarding folk."

"That's not true," I said.

"Well, it sort-of is," he said, shrugging. "Purists think I'm a traitor. Traitors think I'm a purist."

"But to your parents, it'd just be about my character…" Sirius said wistfully.

He paused, then grinned and said, "Yep. They'd love me."

I laughed at his playful arrogance and quipped, "Yeah, my parents love humility, and you just have loads of that.

Sirius smiled at me more genuinely and said, "Nah, I'm not that confident, but it might be a good change for once."

"Your parents would hate me," I said to him knowingly.

"No question about it," he replied casually.

Seeing my face fall, he said quickly, "That's a compliment, by the way."

"I still want them to like me, oddly enough," I admitted.

Sirius laughed. "Trust me, you don't. If they hate you, that's how you know you're a decent human being."

A decent human being… Regulus was far more than a "decent' human being. Tell him. Tell him now.

Finally, I turned to Sirius and said, "There's something I have to tell you."

"Oh, yeah?" Sirius arched an eyebrow at me. "If you're leaving again, don't bother. I'm not letting you go this time."

"No, it's not about that," I managed to say, half-heartedly. I took a deep breath as I stared down at the blanket.

Knowing that something was off, Sirius pulled me into his arms. I resisted a little, but he was too strong and ultimately, I was too willing. He hugged me against his chest, my head tucked under his chin. My heart thumped. I had to tell him. I had to tell him about my relationship with Regulus in order to tell him about how Regulus had always been on our side and how he'd loved Sirius his whole life.

I opened my mouth to tell him everything, when suddenly Sirius spoke first and said, "Come live with me, Lynx. When all this is over, I mean…"

The words abruptly died in my throat. My mouth stayed open, but I was stunned into silence.

Sirius let me go a little to peer into my face.

"Sorry, was that too sudden?" he asked. "But I'm serious."

"Sirius…" I murmured slowly.

I tried again to tell him, but then he kissed me.

"Wait," I said, leaning back a little.

"I will wait for you," he said, his mouth still on mine. "However long you need," he said, and then added in a whisper, "just not right now."

I felt his lips smile against mine before he drew back slightly. "I know we can't have a perfect relationship," Sirius said earnestly. "I'm never going to meet your parents and you'll never meet mine, but still, we can be together, right? I mean, when this is all over and we've got the time and energy…"

I bit my lower lip anxiously. How could I break it to him right now? But I had to…

I closed my eyes and tried to speak again, but he had already leaned in to kiss me. I didn't have the heart to resist. Instead, I gripped his strong arms around me and kissed him back until I was breathless.

Guilt washed over me.

Now, I regretted more than ever that I hadn't told him then. What if I never got to see him again?

I'd been so scared that he would be angry with me when I told him, that he would distance himself from me and I would lose him… But that had happened even without me telling him…

I put the blanket down and sighed, leaning my head back against the wall.

I went to my room and searched inside my old suitcase. Tucked away in a corner was a small music box. I gently lifted it up and stared at it.

"Regulus," I whispered. "What would you tell me now?"

I turned the music box and the melody began to play.

In the sorrowful tune, I swear I heard Regulus whisper: Don't give up on my brother.


I sighed as I wearily walked up the doorsteps to the Muggle apartment.

It was the last witness. There had been fifty-six witnesses in total.

I'd spent the last four days tracking them all down, starting with the list of names the Ministry of Magic worker had given me.

All fifty-five thusfar had given the same account: a gas leak and an explosion.

I didn't expect anything new from this fifty-sixth person, but I wanted to go through with everyone and be thorough- after all, I had decided to look for a piece of evidence that, on all accounts, did not exist. I was looking for evidence that Sirius was innocent.

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

I could hear somebody shouting and a rush of footsteps.

Then, the door opened and a rather flustered woman holding a child and with another wrapped around her leg appeared.

"Hello," I introduced myself. "I'm Raylynx Kingsley. I was wondering if I might have a spare bit of your time…"

I paused. It seemed this lady had no spare time.

"What is this about?" the lady asked, as the child tugged on her strawberry blonde hair.

"It's about the gas leak that happened a few months ago. I'm a follow-up worker for the government," I said. My words were true, to some extent, but of course, they meant something entirely different to her. She thought I was a worker for the Muggle government.

"Oh, of course, please do come in," she said graciously.

I stepped in after her.

"Megan, darling," she said sweetly, putting down her toddler. "Go play with Louis, all right?"

The two children ran off, yelling happily.

The lady led me to the living room.

"Please sit," she said, gesturing to the couch. She sat across from me in a chair.

"How may I be of help?" she asked.

"You are Mrs. Vivian Green?" I confirmed.

"Yes," she replied.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash in the kitchen.

"One moment," she said, and rushed out of the room.

"Are you two all right?" she called.

There were guilty murmurs of assent.

"Mummy's got a guest, so I need you to be on your best behavior for a little bit, all right?" I heard her speaking softly.

A moment later she came out with some tea and cookies and set them on the table in front of me.

"Oh, thank you," I said.

She smiled. "Sorry about that, my children can be a bit of a handful."

"No need to apologize," I replied.

"So you wanted to ask me about the gas leak?" she said.

I nodded. "I just wanted your report of what happened."

She told me her story, and I simply heard a version of the same story I'd heard fifty-five times before.

I sighed internally as I said robotically, "Thank you, that's helpful to hear."

Just then, her little girl came running in holding a piece of wood high above her head.

My eyes widened. My mouth opened slightly and tea dribbled down my chin. I hurriedly wiped it before Vivian noticed.

Louis came chasing after her, trying to grab it from her.

"Don't hold that and run," Vivian chided, taking it from Megan. "You'll hurt yourself."

"Ms. Green, what is that?" I asked, trying to keep myself from snatching it out of her hands. I clenched my hands into tight fists briefly, then hurriedly made myself relax them. Stay calm. Stay calm, Raylynx.

"Oh, it's a piece of wood I found on the ground after the explosion," she answered. "It was on the sidewalk I was walking down. It seems to be a piece of art. Do you see how it's crafted? I was going to take it down to the pawn shop and sell it, but I haven't had the time.

"I'm actually an expert on wood," I blurted out. I paused, realizing how odd that sounded.

"I mean, I craft wood," I tried to amend.

"Like a carpenter?" she asked.

"Exactly," I said, and laughed a little nervously.

"May I see it?" I asked her, trying not to sound overly impatient. In truth, I was about to burst with impatience.

"Sure," she said and handed it to me.

As soon as the wand touched my hand, it shivered. It detected the presence of a magical person.

"Can you tell what kind of wood it is?" Vivian asked me curiously.

"Yes," I breathed out. "Yes, it's dogwood and aspen."


Back in my own house, I gently twirled Sirius' wand in my hand. I'd managed to have Vivian sell it to me, though I'd had to run to a nearby Muggle bank to withdraw Muggle money.

I hesitated before drawing out my own wand.

I took a deep breath, readying myself for utter disappointment.

I pointed my wand at Sirius' and murmured, "Prior Incatanto."

I held my breath anxiously.

A Tracking Spell arose from Sirius' wand.

My jaw dropped.

It's not even an offensive spell.

This is it. This is the proof I've been waiting for!


I went straight to the Ministry and tracked down Barty Crouch.

When I managed to get him out of his office, he was immensely irritated as he asked me why I was here.

"Auror business?" he guessed, tapping his foot impatiently.

"This is Sirius Black's wand," I said, holding it up. "The last spell it cast was a Tracking Spell- a Tracking Spell, not a spell that would cause a huge explosion."

The blood rushed out of Barty's face as he realized what I was up to. His moustache twitched indignantly as he barked, "What nonsense is this?"

"Sirius Black may be innocent," I said, pleading with him. "Please, have an open trial. Please, sir!"

"This is utterly ridiculous!" he said. "Has it never occurred to you that Sirius Black, a great servant of the Dark Lord, might have learned wandless magic? Isn't it perfectly clear that somebody picked it up after he dropped it and performed a Tracking Spell to find the owner?"

"Unless you tampered with it yourself?" he accused me.

"It may not even be his wand," he said peevishly, before I could say anything else.

"How did you come by it anyways, hm?" he asked me, peering at me with accusatory eyes.

To be honest, I wasn't one hundred recent sure myself, though I suspected Alice had given me a hand. But I'd never asked her and I would never give her position away, so I said, "Through dealings with other Ministry offices, I happened to chance upon a list of witnesses in the case of Sirius Black."

"Ha!" Crouch laughed a humorless laugh. "That case file is under heavy privacy enchantments. You couldn't have possibly happened upon it by chance. Therefore, you have as good as admitted that this is not his wand!"

Without another word, Crouch turned his back on me and disappeared again into his office.

Frustration engulfed me and a few sparks fly out of Sirius' wand as I started to put it away.


If Crouch didn't believe that this was Sirius' wand, then I could find the direct testimony to prove that it was.

I went to Ollivander that afternoon.

"Good day-" he began his usual formal greeting, but cut off when he saw me.

His lips drew a straight, stern line and his brow furrowed.

"Let me guess," he said. "You require a new wand?"

I shook my head. "No, sir," I said. "My old wand still works fine."

Ollivander arched an eyebrow and said, "Does it now? Then that wand is more versatile than I gave it credit for."

"The credit goes to its maker," I said, inclining my head.

"With this amount of flattery, it is clear you came to ask for a favor," Ollivander said wryly. "What is it?"

"Please identify this wand," I said, and gently laid Sirius' wand on the countertop.

As soon as he laid eyes on it, he remembered. But nonetheless, he picked it up between his slender fingers and did the usual examination.

"Dogwood mixed with aspen, phoenix feather, eleven and a quarter inches long," he murmured. "Unwavering. Dogged yet brazen."

"This is the wand of Sirius Black," he said softly. "How did you come by this wand?"

"I discovered that one of the Muggle witnesses had picked it up off the ground after the explosion. I bartered it off of her," I explained.

"Sir, would you testify that this is indeed Sirius Black's wand?" I asked.

"Testify…" Ollivander said heavily. "What are your intentions?"

"The last spell that this wand performed was not an offensive spell," I told him. "There is a possibility that Sirius Black is innocent. I want to pursue this possibility. At the very least, he deserves a trial."

"That is dangerous," Ollivander said thinly. "The Ministry can hardly risk their judgment call. Imagine saying the killer is still out there. Public trust in the government would dissolve entirely. It's barely been patched up together."

"But you work at the Ministry, you know this," Ollivander said and under his slightly unkempt eyebrows, his silver eyes studied me shrewdly. "If I'm not mistaken, you're an Auror now. I've seen your name in the papers regarding the Lestrange capture."

"So," Ollivander said. "Tell me why you continue to fight for this man."

"I…I…" I stuttered as I was unable to come up with an answer.

Ollivander paused. Then, he said, as gentle as I'd ever heard him, "Dear girl, did you love him?"

I was stunned into silence.

"Now I see why your wand continues to work for you," Ollivander murmured.

He sighed. "I will not testify publicly, but I will write it down for you."

He moved around to the counter and retrieved a quill and parchment.

He scribbled down, "I, Garrick Ollivander of Ollivander's Wand Shop, hereby testify that a singular wand of dogwood and aspen, with a core of phoenix feather, and eleven and quarter inches long in length, is indeed none other than Sirius Black's wand."

He signed and dated it.

He rolled up the parchment and stamped it before handing it to me.

"Good fortune to you," he said.

I began to turn away when he said softly, "Perhaps I understand a little… why you left."

I looked back at him and said genuinely, but without allowing myself sentimentality, "I'm sorry, sir."


I wrote letter after letter to the Justice Departments in the Ministry about how Sirius' wand had no evidence of casting an offensive curse and how he had no Dark Mark. I was very tempted to reveal the Order of the Phoenix as an organization, but I drew the line there, knowing that if Voldemort ever came back, that organization was the greatest shield for Harry, my godson.

I was met first with silence, then with letters begging me to stop, and eventually, threats on all sides. Crouch actively avoided me and bad-mouthed me to the other Aurors. Ahmed was starting to get fed up with my "interference" in the Magical Law Enforcement offices and shouted at me good and proper. Even Jasper, who had started off curious, eventually warned me, "It's not that I think you haven't got a good point. It's just that the evidence is shaky at best."

"That's my point," I argued.

"But in this climate, shaky evidence isn't going to sway anyone. People want certainty. They want the illusion of safety. The horror from the war is only just beginning to bleed out," he told me gently.

"But we have a duty in how we react to the war," I argued back. "If we react to our fear and suspicion instead of our reason and trust, it will only hurt us more. It will only make the war that much more scarring if we lock up the wrong people because of it."

Jasper sighed. Finally, he said, "Listen, I want you to win this. I want you to succeed. I just don't want to see you get your hopes up, darling."

I blinked a little at the term of familiarity. He had called me "darling". But he probably did that with all of his close friends.

"Well, thanks for listening," I sighed and sat back in my chair.

"Anytime," he said graciously. He inclined his head slightly to me, but his eyes, sharp and bright, stayed on me.


Fed up with the Ministry and unable to push Ollivander, I started taking far riskier measures.

I knocked hard on the door.

After a minute or so, it opened.

"Oh, hey, Raylynx," Emmeline smiled in surprise at the fact that I was on her doorstep.

She welcomed me in and we sat at her table.

"I'm guessing this isn't just a social visit," she grinned.

"You're right," I admitted. "There's something I want to ask you about, since you escort prisoners to Azkaban."

"What do you want to know?" she asked.

"I want to know if it's possible to arrange a meeting with a high-level security prisoner."

"It's not," she said immediately. "You can't meet anyone in Azkaban without express permission from either the Head of Law Enforcement or the Minister of Magic. As you might imagine, these permissions are rarely granted and even then, high level prisoners are less accessible. In fact, it's more accurate to say that they're inaccessible. There's never been any permission granted to see high level prisoners."

"Why?" Emmeline asked me, curiously tilting her head a little at me. "Who do you want to see so badly?"

"Sirius Black," I told her.

She looked stunned. "Sirius...? You definitely can't. Of all the prisoners, he's in a high security cell. There's no way."

"Not even a chance?"

"Not even a chance." Emmeline shook her head. "I don't want to disappoint you, but I have to be honest with you here."

A second of silence passed and Emmeline spoke again. "You know, he's probably lost his mind by now. The constant presence of dementors isn't something one can just withstand."

"Sirius can do it," I said quietly. "He's survived through mind games his whole life."

"I'd wager it's not quite the same... I hate when I have to take prisoners to cells deep within Azkaban. I'm not right for the rest of the day. I can't imagine being stuck there," Emmeline said. Then, she paused for a moment before saying carefully, "I would have thought you never wanted to see him again."

I looked up at her. "Do you believe he's guilty?" I asked.

Emmeline nodded slowly. "Yeah. It's not something I'm pleased to say, but... I mean, Dumbledore testified against him. If even Dumbledore-"

"Can you answer something honestly for me?" I cut her off angrily. "Is it really the fact that "even Dumbledore" said something or is it actually enough for "just Dumbledore" to say something?"

She blinked at my sudden outburst. "What?"

"Never mind," I said, calming myself down. "I'm sorry. That was... poorly spoken."

"Well, try again," Emmeline offered.

"No," I said softly, standing up. "Thanks, but I have to go."

As Emmeline walked me to her door, she asked me, "Why do you want to see Sirius Black so bad, anyways?"

I hesitated as I shrugged my cloak back on. "Just… unfinished business."