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 Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:05 pm
Story Name: Please...Just Make the Pain Stop... Author: KT Perl (s/n tonksloveswerewolves) Rating: I would rate it for more mature audiences, mainly for later chapters that I haven't written yet, but whatever Synopsis: The Universe is Alternate, the Dark Lord's in hiding, Wormtail walked free, Sirus is in prison, Remus is self-destructive, Tonks is smitten, Hermione is tortured, Lily is a wreck, James is a bit of an a**, Sunrise is NOT a Potter, The Triwizard's at Hogwarts, Death Eaters are rampaging... And who's in the middle of all this nonsense? Why, Harry Potter of course! Send replies via PM, or the thread I'm making in da main forum. I abso-bloody-lutely LOVE feedback!!  Prologue: Finding Jane DoeWhen thirteen year old Hermione Granger went missing, nobody noticed. When Death Eaters were in her house, and she was screaming as loud as she possibly could, nobody heard. When the three loud CRACKS of the Death Eaters Disapperating sounded through the air, Hermione unconscious in their clutches and her father dead on the kitchen floor, nobody even looked out their window. Three days later, a neighbor who came every week to check on the parent and child discovered Oliver Granger’s body. Of course, she called the authorities. When the Ministry of Magic got wind if the kidnapping, they sent in their finest Auror, James Potter. And, James potter had a son, but of course, you know who that is. His son didn’t know the first thing about being an Auror; he thought it was all “Cool Death Eater Smashing,” as Harry referred to it. James really, truly, did not want Harry to see some of the things he’d seen, so he told Harry he was taking him on a mission. “Ready Harry?” James asked, father and son both hunched over against the cold winter wind. Harry grinned in response. It was three days until Christmas Eve, and he had just gotten out of Hogwarts until January. “Definitely,” he said. He was expecting a huge Death Eater battle of Good versus Evil, but instead they were in an old rundown warehouse. “We’ve got a new recruit on the way as well Harry, his name’s Kingsley Shacklebolt. Actually he might already be here,” James said. “So…we are in the right place?” Harry asked. “Depends on if we find anything…anyone,” James said in a somber voice. Harry’s mood lightened, thinking of ‘anyone’ as Death Eaters. They entered in silence. Kingsley was already there waiting for them, his dark face nervous. Harry smiled in greeting, and Kingsley looked at him like he was crazy. “James, I took the liberty of looking around a bit, and you should see something,” he said nervously. He led James and Harry over to a corner of the warehouse, and when they approached a horrible smell met their noses. “What is that smell?” Harry asked in disgust. “That Harry,” James said sadly, sounding the oldest and most tired Harry had ever heard, “is the smell of a torture chamber.” Harry looked around in shock. The corner looked almost like there had been crude, floor-level barracks blasted into the walls around. Harry tried his best to avoid looking at them, but one caught his eye. “Dad,” he said, ashamed at how high his voice sounded, “There’s…there’s a d-dead body…in there.” James looked in the barrack that Harry was facing. “Dead, definitely,” he said quietly. “Let’s look for survivors, boys. Let me know what you find.” With that, Kingsley and James separated, leaving Harry in the center of the room. His eyes roamed anywhere but at the barracks where the wasted, thin, empty shells of the poor lost souls resided. “Harry, get looking,” James said, pulling Harry from his reverie. “Do I…do I have to?” he asked, knowing he sounded like a four-year-old. “Harry, you said you wanted to be an Auror. This is what being an Auror is. Get looking,” James said sternly. Harry silently nodded and walked to the nearest barrack. It was a girl, and she looked to be merely a child. He looked toward her feet and realized that her legs were folded beneath her, and she was really about his age. For some reason, this was utterly devastating to him. “D-d-dad,” he said, trying to stop his voice from breaking. “What is it Harry?” James asked, not even looking up. “It’s…it’s a girl Dad,” he said, feeling his eyes burn. The one lesson his father had taught him that really stuck was never mistreat women, never hit girls. This girl was dead, killed in a torture chamber, all alone. Harry was suddenly aware of his father’s hand squeezing his shoulder. “Sometimes that’s just the way it is Son,” he said gently before moving on. He knew he would have to move on as well, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. The curve of her bloodied cheek, her thin pale hands, the way her eyelids flickered—wait what? “My God,” he whispered. Without thinking, he knelt down and grabbed her wrist, feeling almost desperately, for a pulse. The only sound he heard was the thudding if his own heart in his ears, and his shaky breathing. “DAD SHE’S ALIVE!” he shouted, unable to contain his panic. If he hadn’t stayed and seen her eyes, she might have died. “What, are you sure?” James said, running back to Harry and feeling the girl’s pulse for himself. “Mercy, she is,” he said in the same astonishment as Harry. “Kingsley, contact the Ministry, let them know we may have found the missing student, and get a team from St. Mungo’s down here.” “Yes sir,” Kingsley said and quickly ran off. “Good work Harry,” James said, “what made you check?” “I saw her eyelids move, like when somebody’s dreaming,” Harry murmured, feeling like if he spoke any louder the girl would wake up and tell him off for it. “Harry,” James said, making Harry look at him, “you did good. You may have saved her life today.” “May have?” Harry said, his eyes wide in fear. “Harry,” James said, again sounding like a parent explaining something to a small child, “you can see how bad her injuries are as well as I. There is a very good chance she won’t even make it to St. Mungo’s.” Harry gulped slightly. “You understand, don’t you Harry?” “Of course,” Harry said quickly, a bit too quickly. “People die, it happens every day Dad. I’m not that ignorant.” The girl took in a huge gulp of wheezing air, and one of her hands reached out and met Harry’s. As if on instinct, she clutched it, even though she showed all signs of still being unconscious. James smiled. “What?” Harry asked, wondering how anyone could smile in such a place as this. “There’s something about being all alone…makes you lose the will to live…. Being with someone, even just touching another person,” he glanced toward Harry’s hand again, “gives you the hope that you won’t be all alone much longer.” Harry looked at his father, whose eyes were sparkling with silent amusement. He looked down at the girl again. What had she done to deserve this? What had caused the Death Eaters to rampage her home and steal her away? Had she committed some sort of crime against the Dark Lord? Had she merely dared to say his name aloud when Death Eaters were near? Or perhaps, and Harry found this thought terrible, maybe it was because nobody would notice. He had heard his father talk about her case once, and he said she had been missing since a month before they returned to Hogwarts. That was five months. Harry looked down at his knees, and saw that he was kneeling in a puddle; a puddle of this girl’s own blood, and vomit. He closed his eyes and tried to keep himself from being sick. He thought about how his father said he’d saved her life, and didn’t feel sick anymore. He slowly reached down and touched a strand of the girl’s soft brown hair, and felt comforted. “Healers are here!” Kingsley cried out, an entire hoard of Healers at his heels. Harry was forced to get up and move so he was out of the way. A woman healer, with soft blonde curls and familiar looking hazel eyes stepped forward, obviously leading the group. She started rattling off innumerable potions, some Harry had never even heard of, and the moment she said them a healer would inject it into the girl. “Alright, she’s stable, let’s get her to the hospital,” the healer with familiar eyes said. As the healers raised the girl on a stretcher, Harry saw a pearl fall from her limp hand and roll back to her tiny barrack. He followed it to find enough pearls to make a necklace scattered across the concrete floor. He told his father to wait for him outside, then stowed all of the pearls in his pocket quickly. Maybe he could fix it for her. When Harry emerged, dazed from the sunlight outside, he saw that his father and the healer with familiar eyes were having a full-out shouting match, and no one was even trying to stop it. “Do you have any idea what you put me through James? Of course I changed my name! I didn’t want anything to do with you!” The healer shouted, her face pink from shouting. “I have been looking for you for twelve years, Sunrise! How was I supposed to find you?” James shouted back. “Have you ever thought that maybe I didn’t want to be found James?” the woman named Sunrise practically screamed. Harry looked from his father’s eyes, to Sunrise’s and suddenly made the connection. “You’re related,” he said stupidly. “Yes Harry. Sunrise Addams here,” James said bitterly, “is my little sister, and your godmother.”
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Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:26 am
“So…you’re my aunt?” Harry asked awkwardly, standing over the girl’s bed as Sunrise examined her.
“Yes,” Sunrise said quietly, not even looking up from the girl.
“So, you’re my aunt…but your last name is Addams…” Harry said slowly, more to help himself understand than posing a question.
“That’s right Harry.”
“Are you married?” Harry asked, looking toward Sunrise’s left hand, which she shoved into her robe pocket.
“Uh…no,” Sunrise said quietly, her face turning bright red. “But I, er, almost was…once,” she added quickly, seeing that Harry was about to utter an apology. “I’m sorry; I wish I were at all good with teenagers.”
“It’s okay,” Harry replied instantly, a bit too quickly. Sunrise looked up and smiled, the corners of her mouth curving upwards ever-so-slightly. A beeping filled the room suddenly, making Harry jump in his seat.
“Sorry ‘bout that Harry,” Sunrise said, pulling a pager off of the waist of the jeans she was wearing beneath her green robes. She looked at the screen briefly before replacing it moments later. “It’s an emergency, I’ve gotta go.” Harry nodded, and Sunrise ran out of the room, leaving Harry and the girl they were calling ‘Jane Doe’ alone. He slouched down beside her silently, touching her hand for a fraction of a second and dropping it at his side.
“It must have hurt,” Harry whispered, more to himself than Jane. “Did it hurt? I think it would…” He trailed off, thinking about how stupid he must look, talking to himself.
“What happened?” Jane whispered suddenly, not moving anything but her lips. Harry couldn’t even answer he was so shocked.
“Is-…is anyone there?” Jane whispered quietly, her voice fading. She opened her eyes and tears fell out. She sounded so scared.
“Yes, someone’s here,” Harry said shakily, holding Jane’s hand in his. She looked at him with unfocused eyes. “You’re safe now.” Jane looked at him with the most beautiful eyes Harry had ever seen in his life, besides his mother’s which were a lot greener than his. Jane nodded silently and her eyes closed again, pulling her back into unconsciousness.
Harry sat in silence again. Hearing footsteps and the angry voices of Sunrise and James coming closer, he straightened up to listen.
“You only page me when there’s an emergency, James!”
“Okay, so it wasn’t an emergency, per-se, but—”
“Was someone dying?”
“Well, no, but—”
“No, James! Unless someone is dead or dying, you do not page me! Do—you—understand?”
“What are you doing on Christmas?”
“Excuse me?”
“What are you doing on Christmas?”
“James, did you even hear me before?”
“Yes, and I chose to ignore it. What are you doing on Christmas?”
“Uh, working.”
“On Christmas?”
“Yes James, on Christmas. No one else volunteered, so I did.”
“Well, would you be interested in un-volunteering yourself and coming to Christmas dinner?”
“Oh James, I dunno—”
“Come on, you’ll have a good time! Lily misses you!”
“Lily and I hardly knew eachother, James.”
“Well…I’m sure Harry would like to get to know you better!”
“I will be sure to tell him that he can owl me anytime he wants to, then.”
“Sunrise…Sunny—”
“James do not call me that!”
“Alright, alright…but…I miss you—”
There was the sound of someone being slapped, and a long silence. Harry looked through the window on the door to see that Sunrise was leaning her back against the door, and James had fled the scene. He was slightly shocked to see that his aunt had slapped her own brother, but was forced to turn away when Sunrise entered the room again, her eyes red.
Sunrise avoided eye contact with Harry at all costs as she began re-examining Jane, but eventually looked up at him, her eyes normal colored now.
“You heard every word of that, didn’t you?” she asked wryly. Harry jumped, taken aback.
“How’d you know?” he asked in response. Sunrise smiled genuinely, making her look really pretty.
“I’ve had some experience with eavesdropping in the past, Harry,” she said with amusement evident in her voice.
“Just let me warn you; someday you’ll think you’re having fun and getting in on secrets you’re not supposed to be in, but then you’ll hear something that’ll make you wish you’d never heard any of it in the first place.” Just from the look in her eyes, Harry could tell it came from personal experience.
“Did it happen to you?” he found himself asking, instantly regretting it when Sunrise’s face turned pink again.
“You don’t have to answer, never mind,” he said quickly. Sunrise smiled before looking down again.
“Thank you Harry. And I will tell you someday, I promise. I’m just not ready to talk about it yet,” she said gratefully. Harry smiled back widely.
“Harry, time to go, your mother’s got dinner waiting,” James said, poking his head in the door, a bruise forming on his left cheek already.
“Okay Dad,” he said quietly. He smiled at Sunrise, and then looked down at Jane Doe, feeling like he should say good-bye to her too.
“I’ll let you know about her condition Harry,” Sunrise said, awakening him from his thoughts. He looked at her with the words on his tongue, but she nodded it away.
“Sunrise, please think about Christmas,” James pleaded. Sunrise looked away for a moment.
“Fine, I’ll think about it, but I’m not making any guarantees, I hope you know,” she said quickly, her face flushing. James and Harry both grinned before leaving the room.
“Dad?” Harry said as he and his father made their way down the corridors to the Floo centers.
“Yes, Harry?”
“Why did Sunrise slap you?” he asked curiously. “You did only tell her you missed her, after all.”
“Well, a few years ago, I did something that…hurt Sunrise…very badly…. You have no idea how terrible I feel for that,” James said, sounding extremely sad.
“What did you do?” Harry asked.
“I…don’t think Sunrise would want me telling you that…until she’s comfortable with it,” James said. Harry nodded in understanding.
“Alright Son, let’s get home before your mother has kittens,” James sighed with a smile as he threw glittering green powder into one of the fireplaces, and was swept away in a sea of emerald green flames.
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Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:27 pm
Chapter 2When Christmas came, Harry found his father was incredibly tense, hoping Sunrise would come. He walked around the house several times, running his hands through his hair nervously, going up and down every staircase in the Potter Mansion in Godric’s Hollow. James told Harry that he had restored the house after it burned down when he was seventeen. Harry was guessing that was the day his grandparents died as well, the day it burned down. There was one room in the house Harry had never been allowed in, and now he assumed it to be Sunrise’s if James had restored that too. Harry, unable to watch his father’s restless movements any longer, helped his mother in the kitchen with dinner. “You think she’s coming?” Harry asked while he handed Lily a cutting knife. She liked to do things the muggle way once and a while; it reminded her of her adolescent years with her parents. “Do you want her to come?” Lily asked, tossing a piece of chopped celery into her mouth. “Well…yeah,” Harry said quietly. “I mean, when we were at St. Mungo’s, Dad said he missed her, and she slapped him. I want to know why, and it seems like this is the only way to find out.” Lily nodded in understanding and pulled herself up on top of the counter. “Well, if she is coming, she’d better hurry up,” Lily said. “If she doesn’t get here soon the turkey’ll burn.” As if on cue, a hesitant knock sounded against the wooden door. Harry practically ran out to the living room, and Lily followed after him. They both looked at the door as James approached, running a hand through his hair innumerable times before opening it. Sunrise stood uncertainly on the front steps, her hair neater than it was at the hospital, wearing a maroon sweater and jeans, holding a covered plate. “I brought cookies,” she said after a few moments awkward silence. James looked at her confusedly for a moment. “You…brought cookies.” “I brought cookies.” “Okaaay…” Sunrise rolled her eyes and leaned forward slightly. “I’m trying here,” she said quietly. “You’re…oh! Come in, come in…you’re trying…” James said nervously, trailing off as he led Sunrise in. She looked at the already set table and turned red. “Am I late?” she asked, already about to apologize. “Nope, you’re right on time,” Lily said, giving her sister-in-law a brief hug. “Dinner’ll be ready in a few minutes, make yourself comfortable.” Sunrise smiled and sat on the couch uncomfortably. “So…I see that you’ve put the old house back together,” she said mock-casually. James shifted uncomfortably in his chair he had just sat in. Lily uttered an excuse out of Sunrise’s cookies and fled the room, knowing it would end badly. Harry didn’t quite get the hint. “Er, yeah...I had it restored shortly after it burned down.” Sunrise looked up suddenly from where she’d been staring intently at the carpet, an intense fire burning in her Hazel Irises. “And you never told me,” she breathed out slowly, closing her eyes and shaking her head even more slowly. “I can’t believe this.” “Sunny, I—” “I told you not to call me that James,” Sunrise snapped, suddenly fierce. Harry jumped, not expecting anything at all unwelcome from this woman. “That was a long time ago and I don’t want to relive it.” James shut his mouth and looked around the room, looking for help. His eyes met Harry’s questioning ones, and he shook his head. “I kept your room,” he said to break the silence. Sunrise covered her eyes with a shaking hand, not expecting these words. She sat for a long time, obviously trying to compose herself. “Can I see it?” she asked finally, moving her hand away from her now red eyes. James stood up to lead the way, but she gave him a look. “I know the way James, you don’t have to come.” “Can I?” Harry finally piped up. Sunrise looked at him, having forgotten he was there. She swallowed. “Yeah you can,” she said quietly, getting up. Harry followed her upstairs and down the hall to the forbidden room. It was clean white with a gold door handle. Sunrise reached for it with a shaking hand, and opened the door with her eyes closed. It was exactly how she remembered it. The walls were still sky blue with enchanted, moving clouds over the blue. Her bed was in the corner, two feet exactly from the wall, just the way she like it if she needed to hide between wall and door. Sunrise remembered the last time she hid in that place, the terror running through her veins, the fiery hatred shining in the eyes of her own— “This was your room when you were a kid?” Harry asked, distracting her thoughts. She let out a long sigh, running a hand through her hair shakily. “Yes,” she whispered with a cracking voice before bursting into helpless tears. Okay, so the chappies kinda suck and are really short at the moment, but I promise they get longer!! There are 31 of them!!
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Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 3:46 pm
Chapter 3
Harry stared helplessly at Sunrise for a moment of two before awkwardly patting her back, not knowing what else to do. Sunrise wiped her eyes about seven times, but the tears never stopped.
“Can I have a minute…please?” she asked shakily, looking around the room. Harry left immediately, not wanting to intrude on such a personal moment.
As he stood in the hall he could hear banging against the wall, like Sunrise was sitting against it and hitting it with her back. He could hear her crying inside.
“Dinner’s ready!” Lily called up the stairs. Harry didn’t want to move, he felt as if he wanted to be near Sunrise. He could hear his father coming up the stairs, making sure he heard.
“Harry?” James said, poking his head around the corner. He furrowed his brow in confusion at the noises coming from Sunrise’s room. Sudden realization dawning on his face, he rushed into the room.
“Sunny, it’s okay, I’m here.” Harry looked into the open door and saw Sunrise in a tight ball between the bed and the wall, tears running down her face, hands clasped in front of her.
“GET AWAY FROM ME!” she screamed, thrashing out at James. “YOU RUIN EVERYHTING!” James stepped back and gave Harry a look that could kill. Harry ran down the stairs and into the dining room to meet his mother. She was looking at the ceiling with a tired look on her face; she had been expecting this.
“What did Dad ruin?” Harry asked Lily. She knew everything; she was his mother after all.
“Well, when it comes to Sunrise’s life, Harry—exactly what Sunrise said. Everything,” Lily said wisely.
“But how?” Harry asked, annoying Lily just a tad bit.
“Sunrise will tell you when she’s ready Harry. Now please just sit down,” Lily said exhaustedly, rubbing her temples. Harry obediently sat in his seat at the dining room table.
“So…do you even know what happened Mum?” Harry asked with a wicked grin. He did enjoy pressing her buttons, didn’t he? She gave him a look, and he quieted. Instead, he tried to decipher some of the yelling coming from upstairs. Now both Sunrise and his father were shouting at eachother.
Harry jumped slightly, hearing one distinct sentence among the rest.
“You took every chance you could to blame me for killing them, James! That is why I left!”
Even Lily looked up in shock. She sighed heavily before getting up to go upstairs.
“Wait here Harry; I’m going to go try to sort this out.” Harry nodded solemnly just before she disappeared up the stairs grumbling “worked on the damn dinner all day…”
As he sat for several minutes waiting, Harry’s thoughts turned to Jane Doe, all alone in the hospital. What had her other Christmases been like? Had she ever been anything but the sad little-looking girl in a big empty hospital? Did she even have anyone left in the world to take care of her now that her last living parent had died?
After a few minutes and almost coming to the conclusion of illegally flooing to St. Mungo’s just to see her, the shouting upstairs finally stopped. There was a loud CRACKing noise, something familiar to Harry, maybe from a dream, and then silence. Lily and James came back downstairs without Sunrise, looking solemn. They sat down silently and bent their heads forward to say grace.
Harry bowed his head slowly, thinking about that CRACK. What had he been dreaming about that night?
Shaking his head, he started praying for Jane Doe to be alright, and for Sunrise to stop hating his father, and for him to remember that dream.
***
Harry couldn’t help but pack to go back to Hogwarts with a heavy heart. He was leaving day after next, but Lily always made him pack two days early to make sure he didn’t forget anything. He folded his last sock with a grin, and slammed his trunk shut loudly before shouting goodnight to his parents and going to bed.
As Harry lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, he again started to think about Jane Doe; if she was alright, if she was hurting…if she remembered him. Sunrise had told him that first day that there was a good chance she wouldn’t remember anything from the first few weeks.
As Harry started to drift off, images of what looked like Jane Doe’s life came to him in a dream.
A little girl with Jane Doe’s eyes was clutching the handlebars of a bike, biting her lip anxiously. A tall handsome man stood behind her, holding the back of the seat so she wouldn’t fall.
“Come on Hermione, just pick up your feet and go!” he said comfortingly.
“But Daddy I’m scared!” Hermione-Jane Doe said nervously. Her father bent down and put his mouth right next to her ear.
“Would I ever let you fall sweetheart?” he asked in such a way that warmed Harry’s heart. Hermione-Jane Doe smiled gleefully. The image melted away to be replaced with a new one.
“Mum…please don’t leave me,” an older Hermione-Jane Doe said, looking only about ten. She was sitting at her mother’s bedside, holding her hand. The woman in the bed was so thin and pale, wasted away. She smiled weakly, her skin stretched across the bones of her face.
“Hermione, darling, you’ll be fine without me. I know you will, because you’ll have to be,” Hermione’s mother said in a weak voice.
“No Mum…don’t say that, you’re going to be fine,” Hermione said tearfully.
“Hermione…I’ve lost the battle dear…but you will be okay, I promise you.” Hermione choked back a sob.
“Mummy…”
“Now no more childish games Hermione Jane Granger,” Hermione’s mother said sternly. “You are going to make it in this world, and I promise you that I’ll always be right there with you. Do you understand me?” Hermione nodded silently, crying too much to speak clearly.
“Now dear, I know you’ll be sad for quite a while after I’m gone, and that’s okay…just promise me you won’t be sad for too long, okay? ‘Cause it’s every mother’s dream in life to make their child happy. Can you promise me that?”
“Yeah…yeah Mum I promise,” Hermione said quietly with a nod. Again, the image started to melt away. Harry felt his heart reach out for Hermione, and that’s when he realized that he knew who she was. The hospital didn’t have to call her Jane Doe anymore.
“Oh this will be fun,” one of several Death Eaters hissed, their cold eyes gleaming at the thirteen year old Hermione Granger. She stared at them with fright in her eyes, her breath rising in a fine mist around her. She had nowhere to turn, she was surrounded. Harry wanted to reach out and pull her away from this, wanted to prevent what was sure to come.
Hermione screamed as nearly twelve stunners went at her at once, blasting her through the air and out of the circle.
Harry tumbled out of bed screaming until his throat felt about to tear. He was covered in sweat and his head felt as if it were about to either explode or split in two. Tears were streaming from his eyes it hurt so badly.
“Harry, Harry tell Mum what hurts,” Lily’s soothing voice came to him from the darkness. Harry turned away from her and started vomiting on the floor. He was blind with the pain, and gasping for air.
“Lily, what’re you doing—Christ, Harry, what is it!?” James suddenly ran into the room and knelt beside his son.
“They’re going to kill her Dad! Mum don’t let them kill her!” Harry said incoherently, still pressing his hands to his splitting forehead. He felt a sudden pang of horrible pain, and screamed again. A vision came across his mind of a girl who looked shockingly like Sunrise only younger, running through a burning home.
He felt another searing pain and again screamed as another unbidden vision came. Another young girl with bright purple hair was standing over two freshly dug graves, tears flowing.
A third slash of pain came across his forehead with another scream, and he saw Sunrise at about sixteen, being held in the arms of the man that could only be his imprisoned godfather, Sirius Black.
Lily and James pried his blood-soaked hands away from his forehead to see a lightning-bolt gash there. They looked at each other with tear-filled eyes. This was the sign. Their son was marked by the Dark Lord.
Only now did Harry realize he was crying.
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Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 3:53 pm
Sunrise was sulking. She had left James’s house and went right to the hospital to work, still in her nice clothes. Yes, she was calling it James’s house. He had every right to it. He had inherited it, after all, because her parents had been daft enough to believe he would share it with Sunrise in the event of their deaths. James had refused to even look at her, let alone live with her back then.
A few days before Hogwarts students were scheduled back, as Sunrise walked into the hospital, one of the apprentice Healers turned to her.
“Healer Addams, your brother and your sister-in-law are here,” she said in her perky little voice. Sunrise wanted to run a power-drill through her head; she hadn’t had her morning coffee.
“Well tell them I’m not in the mood for a social call Jenny, thanks,” Sunrise said briskly, not even waiting for an answer. As she turned a corner on her way to Jane-Doe’s room, she stopped abruptly, seeing what was at the door.
Lily and James were walking alongside a stretcher with Harry laying on it, screaming in pain. Sunrise felt like she had stopped breathing. She ran down the remainder of the hall and started checking her nephew’s status.
“What happened?” she asked, going into full Healer mode, forgetting her grogginess from earlier. That’s the way it went: you come in tired, but once she gets into that situation where a life is hanging in the balance, and you forget the world.
“I don’t know, I woke up when I heard a crash from his room, and when I got there he was screaming and holding his head,” Lily said fearfully, her face white. Harry’s hands were still clamped over his forehead and blood was drying on his hands.
“Harry, can you hear me?” Sunrise asked clearly. “Harry, I need you to talk to me and tell me what hurts. Harry, what hurts?”
“My h-head…” Harry moaned, his eyes tight shut.
“Alright Harry, can you move your hands please?” Sunrise asked. Another Healer (who outranked her, by the way) approached her before Harry could.
“Healer Addams, do you know this young man? Because, I didn’t hear him or his parents tell you his name,” Healer Clifford said.
“Ah, yes sir, he’s my nephew,” Sunrise said wearily. She knew what was coming.
“I understand,” Clifford said. “You’re not this boy’s designated Healer?”
“No, sir,” Sunrise said.
“This is a conflict of interest Addams, you’re off this case.”
“But sir, I—!”
“Go. Now.”
With a, exaggerated sigh, Sunrise gave James and Lily an apologetic look before walking away.
“We want Sunrise to be Harry’s Healer,” James piped up suddenly, still ashen and pale.
“I’m sorry Mr.…?”
“Potter, sir.”
“Right, well, with all due respect Mr. Potter, but it’s hospital policy that Healers are not allowed to treat family members,” Clifford said briskly.
“Well with all due respect sir, I don’t think you should be in charge with that choice,” James said angrily.
“James, leave it!” Lily and Sunrise said simultaneously. They stared at each other in almost silent companionship.
Sunrise heard a scream from Jane-Doe’s room and ran off to find out what was happening. It turns out Jenny was the one who screamed in the first place, because Jane-Doe had a grand mal seizure and didn’t know what it was.
“What is going on, Jenny?” Sunrise asked angrily. She had had enough of this girl!
“She went all-out exorcist!” Jenny said fearfully. Sunrise rolled her eyes and gave Jane-Doe a potion that immediately stopped the seizure.
“You overreact to everything, Jenny,” Sunrise said calmly. Jenny blushed and left the room to check on another patient. Sunrise managed to catch her breath; she hadn’t even been breathing as she adhered the potion.
She sat on the edge of Jane Doe’s bed and looked down at her face. She was so young, and already the world had delivered a sharp blow. This girl was epileptic, Sunrise could tell. Sunrise had never wanted anything like what happened to her happening to a child. Now this girl had experienced something ten times worse, only a few years older than Sunrise had been herself.
***
“James why won’t you talk to me!?” Sunrise asked on the verge of tears. James only looked out the window, acting like she wasn’t there. “James, I know you can hear me!” Sunrise practically screamed. James looked the other way, pain evident in his eyes.
“James what’s going on?” Lily asked, approaching him and putting an arm around his shoulders. James put an arm around her as well and kissed her cheek.
“Nothing Lily,” he said quietly, still staring out the window. Sunrise stared at him angrily. Decent people do not ignore their sisters! Needing to vent her anger, she walked over and kicked James in the shin.
“OW! You little f*ck!” James shouted angrily, holding his leg. Sunrise’s eyes widened at the profanity. James had never sworn at her before, and now he had completely lost it. “What the hell did you do that for?” he asked, advancing on her now.
“Why don’t you listen to me anymore?” Sunrise shouted, slightly afraid of the fists James was clenching at his sides.
“BECAUSE YOU KILLED OUR PARENTS, SURNISE!” James screamed. Sunrise went pale. That’s what he thought of her?
Tears filling her eyes, she turned on her heel to run, but instead had a collision with Sirius and Remus.
“Sunrise—” Remus said, but Sunrise pushed through them, tears streaming down her face.
“Move!” she cried as she ran down the corridor, hardly able to see for the tears. She felt a hand close around her shoulder, and she fought it as hard as she could, but he was too strong. She turned around, the tears finally falling and clearing her vision to see Sirius holding her arm. They were out of James’s sight, who she could hear yelling from here.
“I didn’t kill them…not on purpose…” Sunrise said shakily. Sirius wrapped his arms around her tightly.
“I know…James is just trying to avoid blaming himself,” Sirius said reasonably. Sunrise nodded, her face buried in his shoulder.
“He hates me,” she whispered to herself, too quiet for Sirius to even hear.
“He’s gonna hate me,” Sirius whispered to himself, too quiet for Sunrise to hear as he pulled her closer.
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:01 pm
Chapter 5
Sunrise managed to pull a few strings at the hospital, and managed to get Harry in the same room as Jane-Doe. Now, even thought she couldn’t treat him, she could at least keep an eye on him. Jane was going in and out of consciousness every few minutes, and it was obvious she was in pain, but Sunrise couldn’t give her anything that would help.
She turned her head slightly to listen to the bumbling Healers trying to treat Harry. She nearly laughed. She knew it sounded vain, but she was probably twice as intelligent as any of these crack-pots. Harry was sitting up now, looking slightly bored, and occasionally cracking jokes with the healers. Sunrise waited until they had gone, examining Jane-Doe extremely slowly just for this reason, before walking discreetly to Harry’s bedside.
“Subtle,” Harry said sarcastically. Sunrise smirked and looked at Harry before sitting down for a moment. She looked around the room innocently for a few moments, and then suddenly slid her chair to Harry’s bedside. Harry laughed briefly then suddenly stopped, his head hurting. Sunrise looked at him, slightly alarmed.
“You alright?” she asked, looking into his eyes with one of those funky eyes instruments that always made Harry squirm as a small child.
“Yeah…just a headache…” Harry said quietly, trying to avoid eye contact with his aunt. He still remembered what he saw about Sunrise, the pink-haired girl, and Jane-Doe.
“Jane-Doe’s name is Hermione Granger,”’ Harry blurted out suddenly. Sunrise’s eyes widened.
“How d’you—?”
“I just do, okay?” Harry said, suddenly defensive. Sunrise actually flinched slightly from surprise.
“Alright…give me a minute…” she said slowly. She walked over to Jane-Doe’s bed and gently touched the girl’s shoulder.
“Dear…can you wake up for me please?” Sunrise asked quietly. “I really really need you to wake up now, alright?” To Harry’s utter astonishment, Hermione (or Jane-Doe) opened her eyes slowly.
“Where am I?” she whispered, her voice shaking from pain and misuse.
“You’re in St. Mungo’s; I’m you’re Healer, you can call me Sunrise; can you tell me your name please?” Sunrise asked patiently. The girl looked up at the ceiling, as if she couldn’t remember. She opened and closed her mouth several times, her eyes fighting to stay open. Then suddenly, she began going through the motions of getting up.
“Where’s my dad?” she asked urgently as Sunrise tried to push her back into bed.
“Miss, you have some very extensive injuries, you’re on bed-rest, and I need you to—”
“I don’t care, where’s my dad?” Hermione asked, getting weaker by the moment, ad finally allowing Sunrise to help her back into a laying position. Harry had been halfway out of bed to help as this happened.
“Don’t even think about it Harry!” Sunrise warned, raising a finger at him. Harry lay back down. Hermione was staring at the ceiling, tears streaming down her face.
“I just wanna see my dad,” she half-whispered, half-moaned.
“I know, but I need to ask you a question first,” Sunrise said. “Is your name Hermione Granger?”
Jane-Doe looked over at Harry under Sunrise’s arm. He didn’t know what had happened, but tears started forming in his eyes, and the cut in his head began burning again as a pair of red eyes flashed across his vision. It hurt do badly he didn’t even know he had screamed until Sunrise was shaking him.
“Harry what is it?” she asked, her hands on his shoulders. “Where the hell’s your Healer?” she asked herself.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” Harry screamed from both anger and pain.
“No one told you? I thought your parents would at least,” Sunrise said, in shock.
“No one tells me anything!” Harry said angrily, though not as loudly as the pain faded. “Al they want to do is protect me, while I’m perfectly able to protect myself.”
“Not from Voldemort, you aren’t,” Sunrise said with severity. Harry sat up straighter, but didn’t flinch. Sunrise admired his courage.
“Just…tell me what’s wrong with me,” Harry said, his voice wavering slightly. Sunrise saw that his face wasn’t nearly as angry as it had been. She couldn’t help but soften and sit at the foot of his bed.
“Harry…” Sunrise started, but before she could continue James and Lily came in to see Harry. Sunrise jumped up from her seat on the bed and busied herself with Jane-Doe, who had lost consciousness again. She took a long shuddering breath as she checked Jane’s heart monitor. It was steady.
She could feel James’s eyes on her, and she looked farther down to avoid all chances at eye-contact. After doing everything possible for Jane without being completely ridiculous, Sunrise knew she had to leave. As she crossed the room, James’s pleading eyes met hers. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the pair that was so familiar and similar to hers.
“Tell your son the truth about why he’s here,” she said as James opened his mouth to speak. He snapped his mouth shut and looked into his son’s pleading, resolute eyes. She left the room without another word.
“If you’re trying to protect me…stop,”’ Harry said to his silent parents. They looked at him with (surprisingly to Harry) very wet eyes.
“We’ve been protecting you since before you were born, Harry…it’s pretty hard to stop,” James said, sitting beside his son’s bed.
“What do you mean?” Harry asked. James looked to Lily for support.
“Harry…six months before you were born…a prophecy was made…that could have been about either you or a boy in your year named Neville Longbottom,” Lily started quietly, tears in her eyes. “We were convinced by Professor Dumbledore to go into hiding while I was pregnant with you. We decided to have a Secret Keeper to hold the Fidelius Charm for us to keep us safe from Voldemort.” Lily looked to James, and he nodded.
“We, of course, chose my best friend and your godfather…Sirius Black,” James continued for Lily. Harry felt a jolt of electricity run through his stomach. His godfather had been in prison for the past twelve years, but Harry had never been told why.
“Sirius took both the job of Secret-Keeper and godfather very happily, and we trusted him greatly, as we did our other friends, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. We were a very tight-knot group in school.”
“Called themselves ‘The Marauders,’” Lily said with a reminiscent smirk. James smiled lightly, and Harry saw them squeeze each other’s hands.
“Well, yes,” James continued. “We did. But anyway, we’re getting off track. When you were one year old, we realized that Sirius had betrayed us, and turned us in to Lord Voldemort. We managed to escape only an hour before it was said Voldemort was at our home looking for us. We knew from then on you wouldn’t be safe…” James looked to Lily again.
“We heard in the news the next day…that Peter had gone after Sirius when he found out what he’d done. Sirius had killed Peter and thirteen others, including his cousins who had been in the crowd—Andromeda and Ted Tonks. They had a seven-year-old daughter named Dora, and she stayed with us for a little while after her parents died…. The most they found of Peter was…his finger…
“Sirius was sent to Azkaban without a trial. We never even had a chance to find out why he did it,” Lily finished.
“But I don’t understand why…why did that happen the other night?” Harry asked.
“Because…because somehow…Voldemort found us,” James said in a hushed and broken voice. “He found us…and managed to find you.”
“But where does this whole gash in my forehead come in?” Harry asked, still confused.
“It’s all in the prophecy,” Lily said, her own voice shaking as well as she recited the words from heart, her voice breaking as she did so.
“He who has the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…”
The silence in the room was absolute. By the end of the prophecy, Harry’s mother had started crying. No one made a sound beside the soft sobs of his mother and his father trying to console her even while he felt the same as her.
“Mum? Dad?” Harry said tentatively. His parents looked up at him, their eyes watery. “What did that mean?”
“It means, Harry,” a small weak voice to Harry’s left said, and they all turned to see Jane-Doe looking at the ceiling with tears in her eyes again, “That you’re the only person in the whole world…who can kill You-Know-Who.”
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 3:03 pm
Chapter 6
The girl’s eyes rolled back in her head and she went rigid. A cry emerged from her throat as an effect of the air being forced out of her lungs by her muscles convulsing.
James ran into the hall and yelled for help. Harry and Lily were sitting stiff with shock, staring at Jane as her muscles lost control. Sunrise, who hadn’t been too far down the hall when James yelled, ran into the room and began rummaging for a potion.
“Dammit! Where is it!?” she said, frustrated and causing things to go crashing to the floor in her frantic attempts to find the potion. She didn’t even make a move to put them right even as she found the lime green potion from a cupboard. It was only moments too late. Jane stopped seizing on her own, vomiting on the bedspread.
“Damn, I really like these shoes,” Sunrise halfheartedly joked as she cleaned up the mess and checked Jane’s pulse. Harry was still staring at Jane, his face pale.
“What was that?” he asked shakily.
“She had a grand mal seizure, a result of epilepsy caused by severe head trauma,” Sunrise said, trying to get her breathing back into shape. She leaned with one hand against the wall, breathing deeply and shakily.
“Are you—?”
“Fine,” Sunrise cut James off and started walking briskly from the room. “I’ll talk to Harry’s healers about letting him out tonight to catch the train to Hogwarts tomorrow, it looks like there’s nothing they can do anyway.” She then promptly snapped the door shut behind her, leaving her own family behind, slightly stunned at her sudden departure.
***
When Harry left the hospital that afternoon he and his parents were met by bright flashes of light in their faces from cameras.
“Harry Potter, is it true you’re the Chosen One?” a reporter shouted eagerly. Several others were shouting similar questions. Some were just ridiculous, like what his favorite color was.’
“How the hell did they find out about this?” James asked loudly and angrily as he and Lily lead Harry through the crowd of reporters.
“I don’t know, let’s just get out of here,” Lily half-yelled, half-moaned. The three ran as fast as they could until they got to the other side of the crowd where the Portkey was waiting.
As usual with a Portkey, Harry fell over upon landing on the ground. James and Lily caught him just as he started falling.
“Thanks,” he said with a grin, glad to be back in his own house. “Wanna go flying Dad?” he asked eagerly, already about to turn and run to his room. James looked at Lily edgily.
“I’m not just gonna randomly drop dead at any second, you know. Voldemort actually has to be here for it to happen,” Harry said moodily, turning around and walking slowly to his room, closing the door loudly. James sighed and rubbed his temple.
“He’s a teenager James, you should know that teenagers get moody around his age,” Lily said comfortingly.
“You’re right Lily. Harry is a teenager; a teenager who could be killed before he has a chance to experience what we have, a chance to have kids of his own.” He looked at Lily with sadness reverberating from his eyes.
“Lily…when someone old dies, they die with memories and accomplishments. When a child or even a teenager dies…” James’s voice shook. “They die with expectations…and—and dreams…and it’s just…it’s not fair, Lily!” James’s voice had risen to a shout. Lily quickly placed a hand over his mouth.
“James, he very well may be able to hear you!” she said urgently. Sure enough, they turned around at hearing a noise and saw Harry staring at them, white and shocked, with his broom over his shoulder. He had never seen his father this close to crying before. There was a long and uncomfortable silence. Surprisingly, Harry was the first person to speak.
“I’m not gonna die without taking him with me,” he said quietly. He kept his eyes downcast and fled through the back door. James and Lily stared, disbelieving, after their son. The determination that had shone in his eyes was something they had never seen before.
***
“Now be sure to stay out of trouble—”
“What? Lily, you can’t possibly ask that of the boy!”
“And ignore anyone who stares at the scar, they’re just idiots—”
“Jealous idiots Harry, this scar’s gonna make you a total babe magnet!”
“James!”
“What? It is!”
Harry laughed as his parents fell into their own little squabble that had started as instructing Harry how to act the rest of term.
“Mum, Dad, I’ve gotta get on the train,” he said, gently distracting them from their argument.
“Oh sorry dear, have a lovely term,” Lily said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
“Have a good time,” James added, receiving a stern look from Lily.
“Will you let me know about H—about Jane Doe? If you can contact Sunrise, that is,” Harry said quickly.
“Of course Harry, I’ll work on getting Sunrise to talk to me long enough to ask her,” James said. Harry nodded gratefully and, with a final hug from his mother, jumped onto the Hogwarts Express, looking forward to the final term of his third year.
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Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 7:54 pm
Chapter 7I woke up—lucid, that is—for the first time after being in the hospital for three months. Every part of my body hurt, and a blonde woman—pretty, nice eyes—stood over me, frowning at the papers in her hand. The woman sighed and ran her hand through her hair before sitting on the edge of my bed. “I could treat you,” she said, not knowing I was awake, “if you would only tell me what hurts.” “Mostly…mostly my ribs…” I managed to say painfully. The room was swimming in and out of focus. The woman jumped up as though she’d sat on a hedgehog and looked at me. “Y-y-you’re awake,” she said, stunned. I nodded as best I could, but my neck hurt as well. “My god, I…,” the woman seemed to be lost for words. “Sorry,” I murmured, a blush creep up my cheeks. “N-no! Don’t be sorry, don’t be sorry at all, this is a…a very good thing,” the woman said quietly, still trying to regain her composure. “Er…what’s your name?” I felt my eyebrows furrow. I was in the hospital, and who was obviously my doctor didn’t even know my name! “Well, you see, when you were…found…and brought here, there was no identification card on you. There was no way anyone would recognize you because you had a lot of cuts and bruises. So we at the hospital have been calling you Jane Doe.” “Well…you’re kinda right…” I said as best I could. “My middle name’s Jane…. My full name’s Hermione Jane Granger.” *Tonks* I never expected my first mission to be both as an undergrad and a personal interest case. An old friend contacted me about a teenage girl who was recovering from torture, might have a few answers for me. I’m nineteen, no one expects me to be that impressive. Yet those who know me know that I am vastly underestimated on a near-daily basis. Right from the start, I didn’t think Sirius had killed all those muggles…and my parents. It wasn’t like him to do something that terrible. But, anyway, I’m getting off track. An old friend, Sunrise, contacted me about the girl, asking me to come and question the girl about her torture. I am closer to her age; it might be easier for me to understand her emotions. “Think of it as on-the-job training,” Sun had (unconvincingly) told me. And yet, I find myself walking through the halls of St. Mungo’s, off to find some high-strung girl who doesn’t know her earlobe from her esophagus. “Dora,” Sunny says with a happy smile, spreading her arms like wings. “Sun…I missed you,” I spread my own arms and wrap them around my friend. We squeeze each other tightly before I give her that quizzical look that tells her exactly what I’m looking for. “She’s right through here,” Sunrise tells me as she opens the door. The girl—Hermione, I believe her name is—is sitting up in the bed, obviously uncomfortable. “Good morning Hermione, how’re we feeling today?” Sunny asks her. Hermione forces a smile, though she grimaces halfway through. “Not too great, my ribs are really hurting,” Hermione said quietly. I can’t help but notice that when she talks about her pain, she blushes as though she feels like a burden. “Well we’ll just bump up some of your pain-killers then,” Sunrise said with a smile, trying to make the girl feel comfortable. That’s when she notices me. “Who’s that?” she asks Sunny quietly. “This Hermione, is a very good friend of mine, Nymphadora Tonks—” “Please, call me Tonks,” I say, piping up for the first time since I arrived. “Well anyway, Tonks is here to ask you a few questions about what happened in that chamber,” Sunny says very gently. Hermione goes pale and fidgets in her bed, wringing her hands. Now she won’t look me in the eye. I’ve never seen anyone so pale and nervous besides myself. “Don’t worry,” I say with a smile, “I don’t bite.” Hermione seems to relax a bit under a bit of humor. It’s a good thing my scary and damaged past made me highly sarcastic. I sit on her bed and ruffle my currently purple hair. “Now,” I say gently, hoping I look at least a bit comforting, “do you think you could tell me anything at all about your experience?” Of course, her hands instantly lock together, almost like she’s going to spontaneously start praying. She looks down, her cheeks colorless and eyes overbright. “It was terrible,” she whispered. I quickly shoot Sunny a fleeting look, and she nods and leaves, leaving us alone. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?” I suggest, still trying to remain gentle. Hermione nods, still staring at her lap. Now smiling in an ironic way, she raises her head and looks at me. “There are a lot of answers to that, Tonks,” she says quietly. “You could be asking me to start at the beginning of the universe, the beginning of life, the beginning of my life…of the beginning of my life going right down the tubes.” I stare at this girl, now fully confident she could tell the difference between her earlobe and esophagus. “I…I’m not a psychologist…” I say awkwardly. “I know,” Hermione says quickly, turning red again. “I’m just saying…there are a lot more answers to that question than you’d think.” “You’re a very smart girl Hermione,” I say. She smiles at me. “Thank you Tonks,” she says quietly. “But I’m not that smart…I’m only turning thirteen in…” she’s suddenly pale again. “What’s the date?” she asks me. “It’s May fifteenth.” “What year?” “1994.” “Oh my god,” Hermione says, covering her mouth with her hand. Tears were springing to her eyes, and I was completely helpless. “I’ve been gone for nearly a year…how long have I been here?” “About five months,” I say. Hermione buries her face in her hands, shaking. “I’ve been gone ten months,” she’s moaning into her hands. “That means I’m turning fourteen in September…” I awkwardly reach over and pat Hermione’s shoulder, not knowing what else to do. She looks so small and helpless, the same way I felt during the blur of my life that was spent at the Potter’s as a young girl. “Ah…I remember that awkward age,” I say, hoping it will incline her to remove her face from her hands. “It sucked for me with my hair, everyone made fun of me.” “At least people saw you,” Hermione says now from between her fingers. “Saw me? What?” I am so bloody confused. “No one saw me. I would be standing right next to someone, and they would walk right into me…didn’t even know I was there.” Hermione sounds so sad now, I can’t believe I ever thought that I was messed up. “Hermione,” I say with a fierce determination evident in my voice. “I need you to tell me who did this to you, the ones who tortured you.” Hermione looks at me, slightly shocked at the strength in my voice. I myself am a bit shocked. She nods at me nonetheless, not taking her eyes from mine. “There was one man…he did most of it…they called him Wormtail,” she says to me quietly. Immediately in my mind’s eye I see Sirius as a young man introducing me to his friends: Prongs, Moony, and Wormtail. I see my mother looking out the window, pale and scared, as Sirius and Wormtail shout at each other across the street (I know it’s Wormtail because I ask Mother if it’s him). I see Mother and Daddy running outside to try to sort out the chaos that was attracting a small crowd. I see a violent flash of light and hear many screams…and the remains of all of those people, including Mum and Daddy, littering the road. I see myself on the floor screaming, puling on my hair and thinking No, Sirius, no.“Tonks…are you alright?” Hermione is asking me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I jerk my head up from where it had begun staring at the floor. “Thank you,” I say shakily. “For what?” “You may have just proven a man in Azkaban innocent of the murders he was arrested for twelve years ago.”
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:54 pm
Chapter 8Sirius Black had never had a single visitor in his entire imprisonment until today. The odd thing was, the woman never showed her face. When the dementors took him bodily from his cell, he had been expecting anything but this woman in black. She wore long black robes that were more like a dress than anything, and a blue cloak with the hood up, shadowing her face. Shining through the shadow were two bright eyes. “Can I help you?” Sirius asked, his voice hoarse from misuse over so many years. He could have sworn he saw a tear falling down the woman’s cheek, but it was too shadowed to tell. She leaned forward against the table separating them, folding her hands in front of her. “I want you,” she said slowly, “to tell me everything—and by that I mean the truth—of how you came to be here.” Sirius was quite taken aback by her question. He had never known that there were people out there who actually thought he might be innocent. So, after regaining his composure, he cleared his throat, and started at the beginning. He had no idea how long he was talking, but even when he was finished the woman was listening with rapt attention. He could have sworn he saw more tears, but when the woman spoke she was perfectly composed. “So…if one were to find this…this rat…one would find Peter Pettigrew?” “He’s at Hogwarts,” Sirius immediately croaked. He pulled a newspaper clipping out of his robe pocket and slid it across the table to the woman. He took one shaking finger and placed it on the boy in the center of the picture. There, sitting on his shoulder, was a rat. “I will be at Hogwarts by tomorrow then,” the woman said briskly, getting into a standing position. “Wait!” Sirius croaked again. “So…you actually believe me?” The woman turned to look at him and, at last, she lowered her hood. “My mother would have believed you,” she said quietly, “so I do too.” Before Sirius could look at her properly enough to identify, she was gone. *** Albus had been waiting for this day for twelve years, the day Nymphadora Tonks tried to claim her second cousin innocent. But the one thing he did not expect was for her to request to see Ronald Weasley’s pet rat. “You wish to see a rat to prove Sirius Black’s innocence?” he asked slowly. Nymphadora nodded fervently, wringing her hands in her lap. She felt as if she were a teenager again, getting called to the Headmaster’s office for counseling to help her with her troubled past. “Yes sir,” she said quietly, staring at her white hands. He had never seen her this nervous, even as a girl. “Alright,” Dumbledore said simply, standing up and striding around his desk. He stopped at a sort of funnel in the wall and held his wand to his throat. “ Sonorus. Would Ronald Weasley please report to the Headmaster’s office with his pet rat. Ronald Weasley, bring your rat to the Head’s office. I enjoy Pear Drops.” He moved around and sat in his desk again, twiddling his thumbs pleasantly. “You should think about straightening up, Nymphadora. You don’t look much like an Auror with your head on your knees,” he said conversationally. Tonks immediately became straight as a board, trying her best to look the way she thought an Auror should look. “I, uh…go by Tonks now, Professor,” Tonks said feebly. Dumbledore smiled warmly and nodded to acknowledge her wishes. Several minutes of awkward silence later, Ron Weasley was knocking on the Head’s office door. “Enter,” Dumbledore called serenely. Tonks straightened even more. Ron came in looking pale and nervous. He had definitely done something wrong and thought he was being caught for it. “Y-you wanted to see me Professor?” he asked, eyeing Tonks nervously. “Well, more specifically, we wanted to see your rat. Miss Tonks here—” he gestured to Tonks, who stood, nodded and blushed, and sat again, “—would very much like to have a look at him.” “What’s Scabbers done wrong?” Ron asked with confusion evident in his voice. Dumbledore looked to Tonks, and she stood again, holding a hand out for the rat. “Well Ron…you see…there’s a convicted man in Azkaban who has told me a very interesting story of a man who betrayed his best friends, faked his own death to imprison the aforementioned convict, and has been in hiding for twelve years. I have every reason to believe your rat is that man.” Tonks had tried to look confident, but her voice shook nervously as she spoke. Ron was looking at her as though fearful of her sanity. “But—But Scabbers couldn’t be a murderer! He’s been in my family for—” “Twelve years?” Tonks offered. Ron cut off his own sentence and stared first at Tonks, then Dumbledore, then Scabbers. “How do we know if it’s this guy you’re looking for?” he asked, handing his rat over carefully. “Don’t worry, if he’s a rat it won’t hurt him,” Tonks said consolingly. She flicked her wand at Scabbers, and the room was suddenly filled with electric blue light. It was like watching a tree grow in front of a strobe light. Tonks shielded her eyes, and noticed Ron and Dumbledore doing the same. When she looked back, there was a sniveling, balding, watery-eyed man standing before her. “ You!” Tonks snarled. Wormtail looked at her with confusion in his eyes now. “W-w-w-what happened?” he asked, feigning amnesia. “What do you think Mister Pettigrew?” Dumbledore asked calmly, standing up from behind his desk. Wormtail recoiled as though the Professor had brandished a whip at him. “I-I-I have no idea! It is almost as if…as if I am awakening from a deep slumber,” Pettigrew said in a falsely dreamy voice. “Oh come off it! You know exactly what happened!” Tonks roared angrily. Pettigrew actually cowered! Tonks fought off the urge to laugh. “But…what you must understand is-…who are you?” Pettigrew whimpered. “I’m Sirius’s cousin,” Tonks said coldly, shooting him the dirtiest look she could muster, which was quite good. “Oh…you’re little Nympha—” “ Don’t speak to me about my name!” Tonks shouted. Peter pressed himself against the wall, much to several previous Heads’ dismay. “Miss Tonks, perhaps you should just get to what you came here to do,” Dumbledore said quietly. Tonks closed her eyes to master herself and nodded. She pulled a pair of unbreakable handcuffs from an inner pocket and closed them around the vermin’s wrists tightly. Then she remembered there was some official thing she had to say. “Peter Pettigrew, it is my duty to the Ministry of Magic to place you under arrest.”
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Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:34 pm
Chapter 9Harry jumped off the train to see his parents looking pale, nervous, and happy all at once. He shot them a quizzical look because of their mixed emotions. “We have great news…and maybe sad news too,” James said in response to his look. “The bad news is that your godfather has been wrongly imprisoned for twelve years. The good news is he’s being released from Azkaban in a month.” Now Harry understood the slightly guilty looks on their faces. “That’s great…right?” Harry said, smiling awkwardly. He did not even remember this man. “It’s marvelous!” Lily said happily. She pulled a photograph out of her purse and handed it to Harry. “I know you don’t remember him, but that’s what he looks like.” It was a photo of his parents’ wedding; his mother was alight with happiness, and his father looking as if he couldn’t quite believe he was actually there, standing beside his new wife. “Where is he?” Harry asked, looking around the portrait and budging people out of the way to look. James took the picture in his hands to look. He nudged a few people out of the way, convinced that his best man was there that day. He saw a flash of blonde hair at the edge of the forest at Godric’s Hollow. “Was anyone at our wedding blonde?” he asked Lily quickly. She shook her head, and James leaned in closer to look more carefully. There was a fourteen year old blonde girl crouching among the trees, looking thoroughly depressed. Kneeling next to Sunrise was Sirius, who looked as though he was trying to comfort her. *** Sunrise was—almost startlingly similar to James and Lily’s wedding photo—hiding behind a tree. The boat from Azkaban was just visible on the horizon, but everyone had already arrived, including the Minister of Magic. He was probably there to give him a full pardon or whatever. Sunrise wasn’t paying enough attention to notice. She was too busy staring intently at the black dot that was steadily growing larger as it approached. It was coming, the one moment that would decide the rest of her life for her now, the moment that boat made harbor. Tonks, on the other hand, was at the very front of the crowd with Harry, James and Lily. She looked over the small sea of heads—more like a lake, really…or a bay—to see Hermione, who had been discharged two days earlier to see that Peter Pettigrew was taken away. She was standing alone, far off to the side, but it seemed the press from the Daily Prophet couldn’t get enough of her or Harry. They kept flashing their cameras in her face which, without her daily medication, could give her a seizure. Sunrise was about to pluck up the courage to be seen by James (in the process of trying to get the press away from Hermione), when a familiar voice met her ears. “Sunrise, that you?” Sunrise whipped around to see a tired man standing behind her, his young face interrupted with false age lines and rough scars. There were streaks of grey in his light brown hair, and his robes were exceptionably shabby as well. “Remus!” Sunrise said, almost in shock, as she threw her arms around him, feeling like a girl of ten years old again. “I can’t believe you’re back in the country! Where have you been all these years?” “I’ve mostly been with the ferals, getting inside information for Dumbledore,” Remus said in a surprisingly hoarse voice. He seemed to have aged twenty years instead of twelve. “I just came back when I heard word of Sirius’s release. Why aren’t you up there? I mean, I’m no expert, but when a man’s getting out of prison, he likes to know his—” “I don’t want to be up there,” Sunrise said quickly, cutting him off. “Why not?” “I…” Sunrise gulped, “I…just…I can’t face him.” Quite suddenly there were tears in her eyes. “Oh Sunny, I’m sure James doesn’t still—” “I wasn’t talking about James, Remus…and don’t call me Sunny,” Sunrise said quietly, her voice a surprising monotone to Remus. He hadn’t heard her sound so sad since her and James’s parents had died. “Oh, I see.” Remus looked toward to the front of the crowd, craning his neck to see over the heads. “Well…I think I’m going to head up if I can…I want to say hello to James and Lily and…my God, is that really Harry?” Sunrise just barely choked back a laugh. “Yeah that’s him,” Sunrise said, unexpectedly feeling tears coming back again. “I only just met him a few months ago.” Remus had taken half a step forward when he stepped back again. “Who’s that other woman with them? She looks too young to have gone to Hogwarts with us,” Remus asked, sounding curious. “That’s Sirius’s cousin, Tonks. She’s also the new Auror that caught Pettigrew,” Sunrise said conversationally, and with very slight amusement. Remus seemed very interested in Tonks, from what she could see. Sunrise suddenly gasped and whipped back around to face the front. The boat had sounded it’s foghorn. They were really close now. “You know, for someone who doesn’t want to face him, you seem pretty desperate to see him,” Remus said, teasing her a little bit. “You know, for an unemployed werewolf, you seem pretty interested in a pretty young woman standing with my brother,” Sunrise said, making sure that it was obvious that she was teasing back. “Touché,” Remus said resignedly. He squeezed her shoulder briefly before making his way through the crowd to meet James and Lily after twelve years of separation. *** Tonks was practically shaking with excitement as the boat came closer and closer toward the harbor. She looked at Lily and James and grinned even wider than they were nervous. Harry looked nearly as excited as her, bouncing on the balls of his feet, trying to get the first good look at Sirius in nearly his whole life. She was suddenly distracted by one man, trying to politely push his way to the front of the crowd. “Who’s that?” she asked Lily. Lily turned around and shrieked. James looked and boomed “MOONY!” at the top of his lungs, causing several people in the vicinity to stare. Lily and James dragged the man named Moony over to them and nearly crushed the poor thin man in a regular girly-hug and an incredibly tight manly-hug. “What, you’re not mad?” Moony asked James and Lily, looking confused and slightly worried as they released him. “Why would we be mad Remus, really?” Lily asked, suddenly serious. “Oh, right! Harry, this is…where did he get to?” Lily added, looking around for her son. “He’s over there Lily,” Tonks said, pointing to where Hermione was standing, and where Harry was currently making his way toward. Moony looked at her, and she remembered who he was. “I know you,” she said hesitantly. He looked her up and down, a small, studious crease forming between his eyebrows. “You grew up,” he said suddenly, making her jump. She blinked several times, forgetting about Lily and James. They were looking from Tonks to Remus as they spoke, as if watching a tennis match. “Couldn’t quite help it…sorry,” Tonks muttered, turning bright red. “I’ve no problem with it, but Sirius is going to have something to say about it,” Remus said, suddenly in a pleasant voice. “I’m sure he’s still expecting you to be three feet tall and begging him to have a tea-party.” Tonks snorted into her hand. “He probably will, come to think about it,” Tonks said, suddenly tense and nervous again, looking down her front. Would Sirius be disappointed in the way she turned out? The next thing he knew, her cropped purple hair was flowing in black tendrils over her shoulders and down to her waist. “You’re a Metamorphmagus!” Remus, James, and Lily all said in surprised unison. Tonks looked up quickly, her brown eyes wide. “Didn’t I tell you?” she asked, looking mainly at Lily and James. They didn’t get a chance to answer for the fact that the Minister’s hand was now gripping Tonks’s shoulder. “Miss…er…well, then, why don’t you come closer up here, I’m sure Mr. Black would love to see the Auror that caught Pettigrew before anyone else! The boat’s about to come, you know!” The Minister laughed in what he must have thought was a jovial way, but Tonks sent Lily and James a fleetingly frightened look as she was led forcefully away. She felt like she was going to be sick. Tonks made it to the very front in the time it took Sirius to walk ashore, flanked by two Ministry officials. “Mr. Black! First of all, as Minister of Magic,” Fudge puffed out his chest impressively, “I would like to give you a full pardon for any crimes you were accused of committing twelve years ago, and present you with this.” He pulled out a fancy-looking scroll of parchment. “It is an Order of Merlin, First Class.” “Thank you, but I know what an Order of Merlin looks like,” Sirius croaked, sounding thoroughly unimpressed. His eyes met those of Tonks over Fudge’s shoulder (which was currently shaking with false laughter at Sirius’s comment), and his eyebrows knitted together. “Andromeda?” he said in disbelief. Tonks felt the blood rush from her face. So he didn’t know her mother was dead. Part of her was upset, and another part was excited; she never knew that she looked that much like her mother! She shook her head slightly as Fudge looked at her. “You mean Andromeda Tonks? No, no, this is her daughter, and the young woman who turned Pettigrew in!” Fudge laughed in that goofy jovial way again as he pushed Tonks forward. They stared at eachother for a long time, her and Sirius. “Dorrie?” Sirius whispered. Tears filled Tonks’s eyes from memories as she nodded, not trusting herself to speak. “Y-…you caught Wormtail?” “With the help of this lovely young lady, Mr. Black!” Fudge butted in again, this time pushing Hermione forward. She was looking sore and annoyed. “Miss…well…er…this young lady was the one who…” Fudge trailed off and eyed the poor girl as if he expected her to explode. “Let me help,” Hermione suddenly piped up, sounding bitter as she crossed her arms and faced Sirius with a sarcastic smile. “I’m the girl who was tortured and nearly killed purely for the reason that nobody would notice, which no one did for a month.” She shot the minister a sardonic smile before continuing. “Peter Pettigrew killed my father the day he kidnapped me a year ago, but I wasn’t told until three days ago because the freaking healers thought they were doing what was best for me! “So now I’m parentless, currently living with a family I don’t even know, and I feel like I just lost my father even though he’s been dead for a year!” Hermione pushed past the Minister and walked off, leaving Tonks, Sirius, and Fudge in an uncomfortable silence. “Yes, well…” Fudge said, looking flustered as Hermione shot the press flashing in her face a very dirty look, “all very sad I suppose. But, life goes on, yes?” He looked at Tonks as though she were the one who made Hermione start shouting. “It’s terrible…” Sirius said, his voice hoarse. “No one should have to deal with all that being so young.” Tonks nodded mutely, not knowing what to say. “Er…” she said, feeling nervous again and playing with her fingernails. Sirius looked her up and down the same way Remus Lupin (Tonks finally remembered his name now!) had several minutes before. “You grew up without me,” Sirius said, practically wilting in front of her, sounding tired and much older. Tonks looked up again, tears filling her eyes again. “I’m so sorry,” Tonks whispered, tears practically flowing like a fountain now. She flung her arms around Sirius and started sobbing. Sirius looked over Tonks’s head. His eyes rested on Lily and James for a moment, who seemed to be looking for someone. He looked in the same direction they were looking in, and saw a boy who had to be Harry (he looked so much like James!), which was the apparent reason of Lily and James’s search. He was following Hermione. He looked a bit farther, to the back of the crowd, and saw a mane of blonde hair quickly disappear behind a tree. “Sunrise,” he breathed. Tonks looked up at him and, knowing it was the right thing without really knowing at all, stepped back and let him walk, nay run, to the back of the crowd. “Sirius, what—?” James said as Sirius ignored him and ran past, right for the tree. A single hazel eye appeared in a tiny V of two branches, and then quickly disappeared again. Sirius ran around the tree and seized the woman by the shoulders, much to the press’s delight. They stared at eachother silently for nearly a minute, both breathing hard. “It is you,” Sirius said in a whisper. Sunrise nodded, tears in her eyes. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his, no matter how much she wanted to. Memories were speeding into her brain at a million miles an hour, one after another. “Sunny…” Sirius brushed a strand of Sunrise’s hair out of her face, his hand lingering on her cheek. Unwillingly, Sunrise leaned longingly into his touch with her eyes closed. Sirius, perhaps noticing that she was shaking, or the fact that she seemed to be repeatedly trying to keep from looking into his eyes, kissed her forehead instead of her lips as he would have done. Even then the press went crazy, but not as crazy as when Sunrise slapped him afterward and Disapperated with a strangled sob.
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:23 pm
Chapter 10
Sunrise sat in her apartment, her hunched back against the wall in such a way it was painful. She didn’t want to go to sleep; it would only bring bad memories. On this day, sixteen years ago, her parents had died.
And it was all her fault.
It all came down to a sequence of events, which led to the night her home burnt down. It all started with the day she met the infamous Sirius Black.
Six year old Sunny watched as James approached platform 9 ¾ hesitantly, clutching his trunk tightly in his slightly sweaty hand. She hugged her stuffed rabbit to her chest tightly, feeling anxious. Mummy and Daddy had promised to take her to the platform to see the big train.
Her thumb found its way to her mouth, and Mummy immediately said “No thumbs Sunny dear.” Sunny dropped her thumb hand to her side sadly. She looked at one of her pretty plaits with pink ribbons going through it and grinned. Her mummy had done it just this morning, and it was perfect.
“Can Hugsy ride the train Mummy?” Sunny asked, holding up her rabbit as the big red train came into view.
“But then Hugsy would have to go to Hogwarts with me Sunny, and you love him,” James said, grinning down at his little sister. Ever since she was born, Sunny and James had been thick as thieves. James bent down so he was eye-level with Sunny, a smile on his face.
“But perhaps you and Hugsy could sit on the train for a little while? But you’d have to get off a few minutes before it leaves, okay?” James offered.
“Yeah! Mummy can I go sit with Jamie?” Sunny said quickly, running up to her mother.
“As long as it’s alright with Father dear,” Elizabeth Potter said, ushering her littlest child over to her father.
“Father, may I go sit on the train with Jamie?” Sunny asked, her voice reeking with excitement. James Sr. looked at his son with an eyebrow raised.
“Well as long as you aren’t in the way of the other students, I suppose it’s alright,” he said, giving Sunny a small kiss on the cheek and a loving smile.
“Thank you Father,” Sunny said before running back to James.
“Don’t lose her James dear!” Their mother said cautiously. James nodded and immediately took Sunny’s hand in his. Mrs. Potter kissed James’s cheek. “Have a lovely first year James, and don’t forget to let your sister off, it would be a bit complicated if a six year old came to Hogwarts.”
“Alright Mum…love you too…bye,” James said, nodding along with his mother’s words. He then pulled Sunny gently by the hand to an empty compartment on the scarlet steam engine. Sunny busied herself by walking around the compartment and climbing on the seats while James watched in amusement.
After several minutes, two boys showed up outside, apparently being harassed by another boy their age.
“What’s the matter Pettigrew? Afraid of my bad old wand?” a weedy looking boy with greasy hair sneered, holding his wand aloft.
“Leave him alone Snape,” a thin and sickly looking boy said, stepping between them. The boy named Snape shoved him roughly out of the way, into James’s open compartment door. The thin boy fell to the floor.
“Stay out of it Lupin, unless you know what’s good for you!” Snape said. James stood up. Sunny did as well, looking defiant despite the stuffed rabbit.
“Sunny, don’t—!”
“Leave him alone, poopy-head!” Sunny shouted in her high-pitched voice. Snape froze in his tracks, and then slowly turned to look at Sunny, who James had just shoved behind him.
“Sunny, I said no!” James said angrily, looking the weedy-Snape up and down.
“Need a three year old to do your talking for you, do you?” Snape sneered. James’s face turned red.
“She’s six,” he said bluntly.
“What?” Snape asked, not having heard. The Lupin boy was sitting up, staring intently at the two other boys, his eyes wide.
“I SAID SHE’S SIX!” James shouted at the top of his eleven-year-old-lungs as he lunged at Snape, punching every inch of him he could reach. Sunny screamed and crawled under the seat, clutching her rabbit to her chest. Snape was taller and stronger than James, who was getting beaten up pretty badly.
Out of nowhere, a high-pitched sounding battle cry sounded, and a boy with jet-black hair leapt atop Snape’s shoulders. Snape crumbled under the boy’s deadweight, and lie flat on the floor, unable to move.
“Get outta here Snivelly, before I ride you again, next time like a broomstick!” the boys shouted, getting off of Snape. Snape jumped up, cursing, and ran off. “You’ll fly and everything! AND THAT’S A PROMISE FROM SIRIUS BLACK!” the new boy shouted through his laughter. He turned to James, a wide grin on his face. James didn’t look so enthusiastic.
“Oh,” they both said with disappointment in their voices. “I know you.” Sunny was still crying under the seats, and her rabbit was quite damp by now.
“Oh…Sunny, I’m sorry,” James said, remembering his little sister. He dropped to his hands and knees and looked at Sunny, who was inching away with Hugsy firm in her grip.
“Sunny, come on out, I swear I didn’t mean it. Please come out?” James pleaded. “Come on, Mum and Dad’ll kill me if you don’t come out!” Sunrise sniffled a few times, and allowed James to pull her out from beneath the seat.
“Y-y-you didn’t scare me,” Sunny said bravely as she stopped sniffling. “You scared Hugsy.” She held out the rabbit as James lifted her onto the seat. The two other boys and the boy that was being picked on were still staring at them.
“Sorry Hugsy,” James said seriously. Sunny nodded as she hugged the rabbit. James stood up straight and looked at the boy named Sirius Black, who had tackled Snape.
“Thanks for helping me out Black,” he said nervously, holding out his hand to shake. “My little sister nearly had a nervous breakdown for a minute there.” He grinned shiftily.
“No problem, that kid’s been bugging me for ages anyway,” Sirius Black replied with a similar grin as he shook James’s hand. Sunny suddenly remembered her Daddy talking about people she thought were called ‘Blacks,’ but they must have been his Mummy and Daddy.
“My daddy doesn’t like your Mummy and Daddy, do they?” she asked seriously. Sirius Black looked at her as though he’d never seen anything quite like her before.
“No they don’t…” Sirius Black said, looking to James for her name. James quickly whispered “Sunny,” and Sirius Black turned back to her. “They don’t Sunny, I’m afraid not.”
“Well…I like you,” Sunny said without hesitation. “You helped Jamie.”
“Sunny,” James groaned. Sirius Black grinned. “You’re not being very polite, what would Mum say?” Sunny quickly bit her lip. What would be the polite thing to do?
“Wanna hold my Hugsy?” she asked, holding out her beloved stuffed rabbit. James’s eyes widened considerably.
“Whoa…she never even lets our parents hold Hugsy,” James said in astonishment. Sirius Black grinned, sat down beside Sunny, and took the battered rabbit into his hands carefully.
“I like Hugsy, he’s cute,” Sirius Black said cheerfully as he handed him back to Sunny. “Kinda like you,” he added, flashing his best grandma-charmer smile at the little girl. She immediately turned pink. Meanwhile James was introducing himself to the other boys.
“I’m James, James Potter,” he said politely, offering his hand to each in turn.
“I’m Peter Pettigrew,” the boy who was being teased said as he sat down. “Thanks for the help, by the way.”
“No problem,” James replied with a grin. He turned to the thin and sickly boy. He opened his mouth to tell James his name, but a woman’s voice rang out before he could speak.
“Remus, where did you get off to dear?” The Lupin boy turned red.
“That’s my mum. I’m Remus Lupin,” the boy said as he ran out of the compartment. James watched him outside the window as his mother ushered him away from everyone and started talking to him in urgent whispers. Remus looked downtrodden as he nodded along with his mother, his eyes glued to the ground. James caught a snippet of their conversation as Remus boarded the train again.
“And remember to stay away from those Sickles; they could make you really ill—”
“I know mum, I haven’t been able to touch a Sickle since I was—” He saw James’s eyes on him and silenced immediately. “I’ll stay away from them Mum…bye.” Remus allowed his mother to kiss his cheek before boarding again. He looked at James as if daring him to say anything about it.
“It’s okay, you know,” James said quietly. Remus paled and looked at him. “I have an uncle who’s allergic to all sorts of things; you’re just allergic to silver. It’s no big deal, really.” Some of the color came back to Remus’s face and he nodded silently, returning to his seat. James checked his watch.
“C’mon Sunny, time to go home with Mum and Dad,” James said, his hand outstretched for her. Sunny looked at James, who she had never disobeyed, then to Sirius, who had immediately charmed her by making Hugsy dance. She started doing that pouty thing with her lower lip that James knew meant she wasn’t happy at all with the decision she had to make.
“Hey Sunny,” Sirius said. Sunny turned eagerly to him, “if you ask your Mummy to come to the station to pick up James at the end of term, then I promise that I’ll come say hello to you and Hugsy. How’s that sound, sound good?” Sunny looked at Hugsy, a very serious look on her face, before nodding at Sirius. She stood up and took a step toward James, but then stopped. She turned around, ran back to the seat, and hugged Sirius, Remus, and Peter all in turn.
“Bye bye,” she said gloomily as James led her away, waving a small hand over her shoulder.
Sirius stared after the little girl with an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. No one had ever shown him that much affection in his entire life than that sweet girl did in ten minutes. Sunny’s older brother, a boy Sirius couldn’t help but think he would get along smashingly with, returned and brought up Quidditch. That started a talk that lasted through the entire train-ride.
About halfway through the trip Remus Lupin fell asleep against the window, but no one disturbed him, thinking he needed all the sleep he could get by his sickly appearance. He really was an unusual boy, but he was kind.
Sirius couldn’t help but feel like he had real friends as the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station.
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:41 pm
Chapter 11
Sunrise closed her eyes and sighed, a sob escaping her throat as she hit her head against the wall behind her. She didn’t even know she remembered that day, let alone remember it so well. She didn’t want to remember, she wanted to forget everything about her past, everything about her life. She wanted to be someone else, if only just for a day or two. She didn’t want to be in this tired sore body, which ran purely on spite and bitterness and memories that she wanted to forget.
Memories are just as important as history. Wasn’t it her mother who used to say that?
God Sunrise, your own mother! You are doing the polar opposite of what was probably the most important thing she ever taught you!
She didn’t care anymore. Hadn’t her father always used to say ‘That past is all behind us now, so why are you bothering dwelling on the memories’?
She was so confused. All she wanted was to sleep, but then the worst memory of all would invade.
Nine-year-old Sunrise was crouching among the branches of her mother’s ferns when James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, all fifteen now, marched past into the woods. Sunrise had prepared for this; they had been sneaking out every night of the summer since the three other boys showed up. Her hair was braided and everything, she didn’t want any distractions tonight.
“Alright gents, prepare yourselves for the most eventful night of your young lives,” James said in a dramatic whisper. Sunrise practically toppled out of the hedge when James turned into a towering stag, Sirius (her heart flip-flopped affectionately) into a lumbering dog, Peter vanished, but then reappeared on Sirius’s back as a rat, and Remus merely climbed aboard James’s back, obviously unable to transform. They moved silently into the forest, and Sunrise moved stealthily after them.
She followed them for what felt like an eternity, going through twists and turns and everything in between. She made sure to crouch among the biggest bushes and avoid stepping on the crunchy leaves, but every once in a while she would crack a twig, and Sirius’s head would go up, his ears pricked, and he’d look right at the bush she was hiding behind. She would hold her breath until they continued on, and then it would start all over again.
It went on like this for nearly an hour, and just when Sunrise was thinking about turning around to go home, they stopped dead and sat down in a circle, all human again. Sunrise crouched among some tall saplings and listened. No sound met her ears.
She sneaked a peek to see that they were gone. She started to look around puzzled, when she heard a noise behind her. She turned around slowly.
“Hehe…Hiya James, how’s it going?” Sunrise asked nervously as the four boys towered over her.
“Why did you follow us?” James asked fiercely. Sunrise flinched and stepped back. “Well…why? We’re waiting!” Sunrise stepped back again and fell over the brush.
“James, cool down a bit,” Sirius said warningly. Sunrise looked at him gratefully.
“I-I-I just wanted to know where you’d been sneaking off to!” Sunrise squeaked defiantly. James’s face hardened.
“You know about that?” he asked in a low voice. Sunrise nodded shakily.
“All I know is that you’ve been sneaking out, I didn’t know you could…could…change into animals,” Sunrise finished weakly.
“No one can know about that Sunny, not even Mum and Dad, got it?” James said quickly, though he sounded more worried than angry now. Perhaps she would be able to get away with a bit of mischief of her own after all.
“Yeah sure James, I promise I won’t tell,” Sunrise said quickly, pretending to lock her lips and throw an invisible key over her shoulder. James’s face softened.
“Alright, I suppose it won’t do any harm now if you walk with us for a bit,” he said, but Sirius straightened slightly.
“James, something’s coming!” he said in alarm. James quickly grabbed Sunrise’s hand and led them all to a huge hollowed-out oak tree. It was just big enough for them all to fit inside it’s hollow trunk. Sunrise got in last, and panicked.
“James, my feet are showing!” she whispered anxiously. Sirius, who was sitting directly behind her, quickly grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his lap, making her heart leap again. The toes of her trainers were now all but invisible.
They all hushed to silence as the sounds of a nearby creature approaching met their ears. Leaves were crackling and crunching, twigs were breaking. Sunrise was almost painfully curious.
“It’s coming closer!” she whispered in fear. James hushed her quickly and she silenced. Sunrise started shaking unexpectedly.
“James…something bad’s going to happen,” Sunrise whispered, not knowing why she had said it but knowing it was true. The next thing she knew, a neighing that was close to a roar filled her ears, and she was being pulled out of the tree trunk by her trainers. She shrieked as the marauders tried to grab her and failed.
The next thing she knew, she was on the forest floor with the most terrifyingly beautiful creature she had ever seen in her life towering over her: a black unicorn. Its eyes were the color of burning embers, its coat black as midnight.
The thing reared back onto its hind legs, and the last thing Sunrise remembered was two dinner-plate sized hooves coming straight for her face.
Sunrise snapped awake suddenly. That had been far too close. That was her third worst memory in her entire life. She must have dozed off for a moment there. She started shaking nervously, and stood up from her spot against the wall. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest, as did she. Well, it was more of a groan, really, but you get the idea.
She walked stiffly to the bathroom and splashed at least seven handfuls of freezing cold water on her face, but that seemed to only make her more tired.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Sunrise burst out angrily, eyeing the dark circles under her eyes. “I mean, my God, it’s—” she looked at the clock “—oh…seven-thirty am…that’s not so bad actually.” She must have been dozing on and off throughout the day before the dreaded anniversary and not realized it. Sunrise walked still-stiffly to the door and opened it, only to slam it shut again upon seeing who was there.
“Come on Sunny, you can’t hide from me forever!” Sirius called through the door.
“Oh yes I can!” Sunrise shouted back through the eyehole.
“I BOUGHT THIS APARTMENT!”
“YOU WENT TO AZKABAN!”
Sunrise wasn’t sure if he’d been stunned into silence or if he left. And, quite frankly, she did not care.
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 8:06 pm
Chapter 12
“Sunrise…please…” Sirius moaned through the keyhole. Sunrise had the sinking suspicion that he was doing the exact same thing she was: sitting against the door.
“No.”
“Come on Sunrise…just lemme in…”
“No.”
“Sunrise you’re acting like a five year old.”
“How would you know how I acted when I was five? You met me when I was six.”
“…Touché.”
“Thank you.”
“…So…are you gonna let me in then?”
“Nope.”
“COME ON!”
“No.”
“What’s going on here Padfoot?” Oh goody, the second to last person that was on her ‘People I want to see today’ list.
“She won’t let me in.”
“Why do you want to get in?”
“Because…because… oh bugger off then!” There were scraping sounds against the door, and footsteps telling Sunrise that Sirius had walked away. She couldn’t help but smirk slightly; she won!
“Um…Sunny…could you open the door?”
“Nope.”
“Well…why not?”
“Because I’m sitting in front of it, blocking its path of motion.”
“…Well…could you…oh, I dunno, get up?”
“Nope, sorry, can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t sleep last night, and am therefore unable to move I am so bloody tired.”
James sighed. “Why didn’t you sleep last night Sunny?” He knew he was walking right into her trap, why didn’t he avoid it?
“Because of you, James. Always because of you. That is the answer to the ultimate question, did you know that? It actually isn’t forty-two like in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it’s ‘Because of James!’”
“Well thanks.”
“Why the hell are you thanking me?”
“Because the ultimate question is ‘what’s the meaning of life?’”
“That’s what you think.”
“SUNRISE, FOR GOD’S SAKE!”
“James if you continue to make that racket the neighbors will wake up.”
“THAT’S IT!” James was suddenly leaning so hard against the door with the handle turned, that Sunrise slid with a shriek on the hardwood floor until she was behind the now wide open door.
“JAMES POTTER I WILL CHARGE YOU WITH SEXUAL HARRASSMENT!”
“SUNRISE POTTER, I WILL—”
“MY LAST NAME IS ADDAMS!”
“NO IT ISN’T! YOU ARE A POTTER!”
“NOT IF YOU ARE, I’M NOT!” Sunrise was still sitting behind the door. James slammed the door shut so he could look at her. There was a moment of silence.
“You look like crap,” James said before anything else.
“Oh thanks for that!” Sunrise said sarcastically. It was probably true, though. She hadn’t slept at all in the past few days since Sirius’s release from Azkaban, and had probably lost a few pounds in an unhealthy way. She had also been constantly near tears from exhaustion and the memories she had been drowning in.
“Sunrise, what’s wrong?” James asked quietly, kneeling down beside her. Only now did she realize that she was getting misty-eyed. Her breathing was getting more and more ragged as the tears built up. James took her wrists in his hands and tried to look into her eyes, but she fought him as hard as she could.
“I’m just so…so tired,” Sunrise wept as James pulled her into him. In any other situation, Sunrise would have hit him and told him to bugger off, but perhaps being in the presence of the person that caused her sleepless nights would be all she needed to really sleep. She clung to James like a child, shaking and crying, unable to stop.
“Shh…it’s alright Sunny, I’m here,” James whispered.
“I just…wonder…if w-we w-would still h-hate eachoth-ther…if they hadn’t died…” Sunrise cried weakly into James’s chest. He suddenly stiffened at the mention of their parents. Sunrise immediately knew she did wrong.
“Maybe you should have taken that into account when you burned our house down,” James said coldly, releasing Sunrise from his arms. She looked up at him weakly as he stood up, her face soaked with tears.
He walked out without looking back.
“What are you and Sunny going to do James?” Sirius asked in a whisper as Madame Pince walked past the bookshelves behind them. They pretended to be busy with their schoolwork when she clicked past, then returned to their whispered conversation.
“Well I’m not letting her live with me if that’s what you mean Padfoot,” James replied coldly. Even Sirius recoiled slightly. Sunrise, crouched among the books behind them, flinched and began to shiver fearfully. Where was she supposed to go?
“Then where’s she going to live James? Don’t tell me you’re that coldhearted as to leave your sister out on the streets,” Sirius replied as though he had read Sunrise’s thoughts.
“Course not Padfoot,” James replied briskly. “I’ve already owled a Wizarding orphanage. Hopefully she won’t have the idiocy to try to find me later on.”
“You would actually trust an orphanage to take care of your sister?” Sirius asked in disbelief. Sunrise gave an audible gasp from behind the shelf, and James and Sirius whipped around.
“You wouldn’t do that,” Sunrise whispered, her eyes darting from Sirius to James, “would you?” James stood up, towering over her as if she were a small child again.
“I would, and I am,” James said coldly. Sunrise let out a strangled sob as she ran from the library, slamming the door behind her and making Madame Pince flinch.
She had just made it to the nearest girls’ bathroom when Professor McGonagall stepped out of her office and saw Sunrise run in, sobbing.
“Miss Potter?” she asked suspiciously. She wouldn’t put it past the Marauders to use the young girl as a decoy so they could get into all kinds of mischief.
“Go away!” Sunrise shouted through the door. McGonagall’s mouth thinned; no student had ever spoken to her like this, especially when trying to distract a teacher.
“Miss Potter, open this door immediately,” McGonagall said sternly. She could hear the girl crying in there. “Miss Potter, what is wrong?” the Professor asked, her voice softening slightly.
“James is giving me to an orphanage…he hates me Professor!” Sunrise cried through the bathroom door.
“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you Miss Potter, he’s just upset about the events of last summer,” the Professor said wearily. Sunrise continued blubbering and crying for nearly an eternity.
“Mister Potter, please report to your Head of House’s Office immediately, thank you,” Professor Dumbledore’s voice said throughout the entire school. Several people in the Great Hall smirked, wondering what the Marauders did this time. James, on the other hand, gave Lily a frightened look to her scowl and swore he didn’t do anything before making his way to McGonagall’s office.
“You wanted to see me Professor?” James asked as he entered the office. It was very clean. Sitting in one of the chairs in front of Professor McGonagall’s desk was Sunrise, her face and eyes red and puffy. There were tear-stains on her cheeks as well.
“Mr. Potter, would you kindly explain to your sister that you do not, in fact, intend to give her up to an orphanage? She is quite distressed, as you can see.” The professor gestured to Sunrise, who looked at him hopefully. James stared at her with a hard expression on his face for a long time.
“I do not allow murderers in my house,” he said cruelly. Sunrise let out a shrieking sob before jumping up and running out the office door. Professor McGonagall stood up from her seat, looking as though flames were going to shoot from her nostrils.
“Mister Potter! How dare you speak to your sister as though she is vermin?” McGonagall said loudly. James recoiled in fear. “All that girl has ever done to you is look upon you as a hero, a mentor! You are treating this girl as if you have never loved her at all!”
“This is a family matter Professor. With all due respect, you are not family,” James said before leaving after Sunrise.
“Apparently, neither is your sister,” the Professor said quietly just as James was leaving.
Sunrise pressed herself against the wall again; sobbing so hard her entire body was shaking painfully. Someone else was knocking on the door now, presumably Sirius again.
“Go away, I don’t want to be alive,” Sunrise shouted without emotion in her voice.
“That’s good then, because today is the day you die,” a sharp voice said from the doorway. Sunrise looked up to see a Death Eater looking at her. She was too weak to move as he raised his wand to stun her. Her wand was right in her pocket, she could have defended herself, but then she thought a terrible thought.
What’s the point?
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:22 pm
Chapter 13James had been sitting among these boxes in the attic for nearly an eternity; his parents had saved these photographs in a vault in Gringott’s bank, along with their wills. All throughout the anniversary of his parents’ deaths, he had been looking at them, watching himself grow away from Sunrise. I watch you grow away
From me in Photographs
And Memories like spies
The salt betrays my eyes againJames didn’t know what made him start crying among the boxes, but he couldn’t stop. “James are you alright?” Tonks asked, climbing up to the attic. She had been staying with them over the past few days, bringing back old memories of when she was a girl and Harry a baby. She was only really here to spend make-up time with Sirius, who didn’t have anywhere to go. “I’m fine Dorr—I mean, Tonks,” James said, trying to smile through the tears still falling down his face. The young woman walked clumsily through the boxes and sat next to him. “No you’re not,” she said simply, leaning her head on his shoulder. Tonks was a lot like a daughter or second sister to him in a way. The simple gesture she had made by resting her head on his shoulder had comforted him beyond words. “No…I guess not,” James said quietly. “What about you? You seem a bit down yourself.” “I…I think…Im having second thoughts…about being an Auror,” Tonks said, sounding puzzled with her own thoughts. James wrapped an arm around her shoulders bracingly. “You and Remus would be good for each other,” he said simply. “Always having doubts.” Though he couldn’t see, he could tell Tonks was smiling. “Thanks,” she said quietly. They sat in silence for several minutes before a panicked-sounding Lily shouted up the ladder to the attic. “James! An owl’s just arrived for you! I don’t think it’s from the Ministry, or anyone we would want to know!” Lily called up, her voice shaking. James straightened up and wiped his eyes. “What do you mean Lils, dear?” James called down as he began to climb down again. “It…it has the dark mark on it, James,” Lily said weakly as he straightened up in front of her. James quickly took it from her, Tonks, Remus and Sirius overhearing and listening nervously as he read it aloud. “Potter, Bones of the Sunrise shall rest forever in the Potter tomb,” James read quickly. He looked up at everyone, puzzled. “I don’t understand. This doesn’t make sense.” Sirius took the letter from him and read it. His face drained of all color. He looked up at James as if he were stupid. “James, you bleeding idiot! It doesn’t say ‘Bones of the Sunrise’! It says ‘ The bones of Sunrise!” Sirius shouted at the top of his voice. “They’ve got Sunrise James! We have to do something!” James stared at Sirius blankly for a few seconds as Tonks started crying and swearing. Remus looked shocked, but Sirius looked ready to pass out. Lily was exceptionally white as well. The silence was interrupted by Harry bursting into the hall, his broomstick in his hand, coming in from flying. He looked around at everyone’s white faces nervously. “What happened?” he asked in alarm, putting a hand to the lightning scar on his forehead subconsciously. It had been twingeing painfully earlier that morning, but he had dismissed it. “I-it’s Sunrise…” James said, holding out the letter for Harry. As he read it, he became as white as the rest of them, and joined the mournful circle. *** Sunrise was thrown bodily into a stone chamber, a place she had only been once in her life. The Potter tomb usually had protective charms and enchantments around it. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named must have broken them himself; none of the other death eaters were intelligent enough to achieve such a feat. “Welcome Sunrise,” said the high cold voice of Lord Voldemort. “I suppose you are wondering why you are here. You see, your darling brother keeps imprisoning our men and your charming boyfriend, Mr. Black, has a brother who was unsatisfactory to my service. Now I am punishing them both, with you. Sort of like killing two birds with one stone, isn’t it? “Anyway, we are getting off track, aren’t we? Within an hour, you will be dead. I will be sure to remind you of how much time you have. Any last questions?” “How am I supposed to die?” Sunrise asked wearily. “Nothing in here is killing m—AH!” Sunrise screamed as she felt sudden piercing pains all throughout her body. She looked down, and saw what appeared to be rib-bones stabbing into her all over her body. “Well, there are the bones of your father stabbing into you at this moment.” Sunrise gasped audibly, both from pain and shock. “There weren’t any remains,” Sunrise whispered, more for her own comfort. Then again, James had never told her about restoring the house, maybe there had been remains left in the tomb. “Yes there were, and your mother’s hair is in your face, laced with poison. Like I said before, you will be dead within the hour.” Sunrise started panicking. She was doomed; James would never be able to get to her in time. All the lost years… Sunrise thought despairingly. All of the things I should have said to James…to Sirius…I started losing sleep
And gaining weight
Wishing I was ten again
So I could be your friend againSunrise could feel what was left of her mother’s hair brushing roughly against her face. Her mother’s beautiful hair…the same hair she had inherited. She started sobbing from fear and pain. She had already lost a lot of blood, as seen from the pool of blood forming on the floor beneath her. “Please hurry James,” she whispered, becoming weaker by the second. These days we go to waste like wine
That’s turned to turpentine
It’s six a.m. and I’m all messed upJames finally managed to snap out of the trance they had all been in, and crumpled the note in his fist. Everyone looked up at the noise, their faces white (with the exception of Tonks, who had been crying). “We’ll have to find her. The Potter tomb isn’t far, but there are complicated enchantments,” James said, his voice wavering dangerously. “There’s more on the letter!” Tonks suddenly said. No one else could see any writing, so Tonks took it. She tapped it with her wand and words blossomed over the bottom of the page, a different handwriting. If you can get to her within an hour of when you get this, she may live. I have dedicated my life to defying the Dark Lord, and hope that I will be able to continue my quest.
May Merlin be with you,
R.A.B.“Regulus is alive?” Sirius exclaimed loudly. “Are you sure it’s him?” Remus asked worriedly. Sirius nodded. “He was supposedly killed after defying Voldemort, it has to be him,” Sirius said, looking at the initials. “Regulus Arcturus Black, R.A.B.” “That still doesn’t give us any way to try and get to her,” Harry said quietly. Sirius became mute again as he read the message. An hour, that’s how long he had to save her. I should have told her the moment I saw her… Sirius thought miserably, running a hand through his hair. I didn’t mean to waste your time
So I’ll fall back in line
But I’m warning you
We’re growing up“You have forty-five minutes to live; Sunrise…looks like they haven’t figured out how to get to you yet…what a pity.” Sunrise sobbed silently. She was in so much pain…she wanted to die just so the pain would stop. Even in the span of fifteen minutes Sunrise had grown so weak she couldn’t move. She could still speak; she tried shouting for help fruitlessly a few times. There was no hope left for her. “James…Sirius…” Sunrise moaned, hoping that would somehow cause them to appear at her aid. Why did she have to turn Sirius away when he showed up at her apartment? If he had stayed a little while, she wouldn’t be here. I heard you found some
Pretty words to say
Found your little game to play
And there’s no one allowed in here“All we have to do is break the enchantments and we can get her out,” James said for the umpteenth time as they all stood outside the Potter tomb. They couldn’t even touch it the enchantments were so strong, and it had been sound-proofed, so if Sunrise was in there they wouldn’t know until they opened it. “We have half an hour James,” Tonks said, looking at her watch. She was still shaking. Remus had suggested she stay behind because she didn’t look too well, but she had insisted. James stared more intently at the tomb now, muttering words they couldn’t hear. “Sunny…please don’t die…” James whispered as one of the enchantments lifted. And just when we believed
We could be great
Reality it permeates
And conquers from within again“Ten minutes…” No! This wasn’t how she was supposed to die! She was supposed to live a full life with tons of kids! Well that was in a life where Sirius never got arrested…and James actually cared about her…. Sunrise was having difficulty breathing. She couldn’t even whisper she was so weak now. Please Godric…forgive me for everything I’ve done…I didn’t mean to kill Mum and Dad…it was an accident… Sunrise thought hopelessly, her mouth forming the words as she thought them. All of the bitterness in my life…it’s because of you Sirius…you made me mortal, when I thought I was doomed to live forever…These days we go to waste like wine
That’s turned to turpentine
It’s 6 a.m. and I’m all messed upSunny…please forgive me…I didn’t mean to blame you…it just hurt so much… James thought to himself as the last enchantment lifted. He pressed his shoulder against the stone door and pushed, but it wouldn’t move. “Sirius, help me!” James shouted desperately. They only had five minutes. Sirius leaned against the door with James, his face still deathly pale, and they managed to get it open enough for them to fit through one by one. I didn’t mean to waste your time
So I’ll fall back in line
But I’m warning you, we’re growing upThe tomb was very large; Sunrise had never noticed that before until the door opened, practically a pinprick in her line of vision. There was no way they would find her in time…. Oh…oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
I know we’re okaySirius…Sirius, I’m here… Sunrise thought desperately. Sirius couldn’t read thoughts, she knew that. But if she couldn’t speak, that was her only option. Oh…oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh“Sunrise…Sunrise are you in here?” came James’s voice. It was moving the wrong way! He wouldn’t find her in time! There was only one thing for her to do. I know we’re okaySunrise built up her very last ounce of strength, and tried to form some sort of sound that would lead them to her. After what felt like an eternity of trying, she managed one word without thinking about it at all. These days we go to waste like wine
That’s turned to turpentine
It’s 6 a.m. and I’m all messed up
I didn’t mean to waste your time
So I’ll fall back in line…“Sirius.” But I’m warning you, we’re growing upA/N: The song belongs to the oh-so wonderful Brandi Carlile! It’s called Turpentine, and I strongly recommend it along with all of Brandi’s songs! You may see more of her as the fic goes on; I just love her music so much! Thanks for the love, KT
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