SIRIUS BLACK BRAKES OUT OF AZKABAN

Grace frowned at the headline in The Daily Prophet, and she looked at the picture of a man screaming and being held back. She couldn't take her eyes off the photo, watching it repeat in a loop. A strange feeling rose in her stomach as she continued to look at the photo. She had only scanned the article, and how it talked about why he was imprisoned in the first place. Twelve muggles just... gone. But as she continued to look at his screaming face, something was gnawing at the back of her mind.

"Good morning, is that the Prophet?" Her mother asked as she made a cup of tea. Grace only nodded. "What's happening today?"

"A man named Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban," she answered her mother simply.

SMASH!

Grace jumped and turned around at the sound of glass shattering. Her mother's face was pale as she stared wide eyed at the newspaper. Without a word, her mother snatched the paper from her hands and frantically read the front page. "Mum..." She called gently. She's never seen her mother this panicked, not even the time when she followed her uncle out to the forest by their old home.

"You're not to leave this house," Her mother ordered, and Grace's grey eyes widened, and her mouth fell open in protest.

"But what about when Harry comes over? Can't we go to the park?PleaseMum! It's only across the street!"

"Your park time will be limited to one hour, and you can only go when I'm not working."

"But-"

"While I'm working, you will be staying with Remus."

"But-"

"No buts!" Her mother snapped, causing Grace to jump. She was used to her mother being strict and cross with her, but her mother hardly shouted at her. "You will tell Harry he can come over on weekends until term starts. You will not leave this house unsupervised; do you understand?"

"But-"

"Do you understand?!"

"Yes! Fine!" Grace snapped, glaring at her mother.

"Don't give me that-"

"Well, if you weren't being so unreasonable-"

"Go to your room!"

"But-"

"Now!" Her mother shouted. Grace yanked herself away from the table, forcing the wooden chair legs to screech across the floor, and glared at her mother before stomping up to her room and slamming the door shut.

Crossing her arms and huffing, she plopped herself on the window seat that her uncle had built her when her and her mother first moved in and stared out the window. Her mother had always been a bit too overprotective with her and often shielded her from most of the wizarding world. The only contact she had with it, outside her mother and Remus, was her cousins, The Weasleys. Her mother had her attend muggle schools and any magical history she may have needed to know her mother or Remus taught her. She didn't even know who Harry was until she found him and Ron on the train when they were eleven.

"How can you not know who he is!" Ron exclaimed with his eyes bulging in surprise as he stared at her.

"I just don't," she shrugged.

"Didn't your Mum ever talk about it?"

"Nope. She just said You-Know-Who was defeated one night and that was that. She never told me how. She told me it shouldn't matter how he was defeated, only that he was." she replied and Ron blinked in disbelief.

She always loved it when she was able to spend days with Remus or with The Weasley's. She wasn't constantly under her mother's scrutinizing eye, she was allowed to be free. Her Aunt Molly and Uncle Arthur didn't let her run wild completely unsupervised, but she loved that she was able to be a kid with her cousins. When she was with Remus she was free to be herself. She was allowed to wander around the garden, climb tree's, fly around on her broomstick if she wanted. She was able tofeel free. She hated Little Whinging because it felt like a prison, and she knew her mother only moved them to punish her.

"I don't want to move!" a ten year old Grace shouted in protest with a stomp of her foot.

"You should've thought about that before you decided to go outside at night!"

"I won't do it again! I promise! I learned my lesson Mum!"

"We're moving! I am not going to allow your own stupidity to ruin your life because you couldn't do as you were told and stay inside!"

"I didn't want him to be alone!"

"I don't care!" Her mother shouted. "You know the rules! Full moon's are off limits! You disobeyed meandRemus!"

"So moving is a punishment?"

"Yes. Maybe living in a neighborhood full of muggles will correct your wandering ways!"

"This isn't fair!"

"Life isn't fair, Gracia!"

"IT'S GRACE! IHATETHE NAME GRACIA! AND I HATE YOU!"

Grace's thoughts were pulled away when there was a knock on her bedroom door. "Go away Mum!"

"It's me," Harry's voice called from the other side of the door. Grace stood from her window seat and opened it, revealing Harry who was standing there awkwardly. She saw her mother on the stairs.

"You can come in."

" Leave the door open," her mother called when Grace moved to close the door after Harry entered. Grace glared at her mother. Harry resisted the urge to shiver from the fury in her eyes and then jumped when Grace slammed the door shut and promptly locked it.

"Er..." Harry started awkwardly, staring at Grace, who stomped her way back to her window seat.

"Sometimes, I really hate her," she whispered, glaring out the window. Harry shifted uncomfortably. "I wish she wasn't my mother, I wish Aunt Molly was my mother instead," Grace continued. "She treats me like I'm normal, she treats me like she treats her own children. I'd rather have six brothers and a sister than be an only child with my mum," she confessed. "Actually, any mother would be better thanher," she huffed.

"At least you have a mum," Harry muttered uncomfortably. Grace whipped her head to look at him with wide eyes, realizing what she was saying, and regretted it instantly.

"I'm sorry," she said, patting the cushion beside her for him to sit. "I-I... I'm being ungrateful," she muttered when Harry sat beside her. "I shouldn't have said any of that, not to you... I must seem like a brat... I'm so sorry, Harry! I'm awful," She sighed, resting her head against the wall. Harry knew she was genuinely sorry for how her words toward her mother affected him, but he also knew that like him, she didn't have anyone to express her feelings to. While he may not have parents, and she only had her mum, they were both only children that had no one to express their feelings to.

"You're not awful," he assured her softly. "You could never be awful, and I could never see you as awful," he confessed. Grace's cheeks burned as she looked down, letting her hair fall in front of her face. His words were true. He couldn't see Grace as being someone who could be awful, who would spew malicious words on purpose. She was too kind of a person for that. "What happened if you don't mind me asking..."

"Some wizard broke out of Azkaban and Mum freaked out," Grace started as she picked at the skin around her nails, "and now I have to stay at my uncle's house during the day, and you can only come over on weekends now when she's home and we only get an hour outside that she has to supervise. She'll most likely walk you to and from the house now."

"That... seems a bit extreme," Harry admitted reluctantly, and Grace snorted.

"She's paranoid for whatever reason and refused to tell me why. It's completely unfair. This is Little Whinging, it'sliterallythe mostboringand mundane place in theworld," she exaggerated dramatically, and Harry couldn't hold back his laughter. "Who in their right mind would come here anyway? Even if they did, they would be spotted right away. Anyone unfamiliar seems suspicious to these people," Harry was now holding his stomach in laughter, he hasn't laughed this much in a while. "You laugh, but it's the truth!"

"That's why I'm laughing!" He managed to get out between laughs. Grace felt herself begin to smile and she started laughing with him. As awful as Little Whinging was, Harry was the only one that made it bearable... and she knew that he felt the same about her.