Chapter 13
Casting a last glance at the Witch Weekly, Sara enervated threw the magazine on the table.
There were still too many things she just didn't understand.
Sighing she raised her face towards the sun and savoured the still warm sun rays. Even if it was already mid-October it was a nice day.
Hearing Sirius' and Faith's laughter ranging out to her, she smiled slightly, filled with boundless gratitude. Occasionally she still could hardly believe that they all had survived the encounter with Voldemort. Sara suppressed a shudder, when recalling those moments she had thought her daughter dead. If she only would have possessed magic, if she only would have been able to, she would have killed that bastard in cold blood.
That she would feel such hate one day, she would have never thought. But since Sirius and Harry had stepped into her life, she had experienced many surprises and unusual things. And probably that would also not change in the future she thought, smiling to herself. Then she shook her head and thought once more of Sirius' suggestion to stay here. More or less she had agreed but did she really want to remain living in Godric's Hollow? In a world she didn't belong to? In which she would always feel strange? In which she would hardly manage?
Against her will her thoughts wandered to the first weeks after Voldemort had been defeated. As soon as the ministry and the minister had heard of the events, Dumbledore had had to use his entire powers of persuasion to convince Fudge that Sirius was indeed innocent. And still there had been doubts, the minister would have liked to do nothing more than to drag Sirius into the ministry and to question him there.
But since Veritaserum would have no longer the desired effect on Sirius, there hadn't been a possibility anymore to ascertain the truth beyond doubt. What saved Sirius from an arrest, were the testimonies of the Order members who had hurried to their aid at that day. A Death Eater would have hardly attacked his master with the Killing Curse and to that logic even Fudge couldn't close his mind to.
But as stubborn as he was, he had indeed wanted to take Sirius to court for abduction of Harry Potter. This thought filled Sara with anger up to today.
But Fudge had given up this plan very quickly, as surprisingly the lawyer of the Potters had appeared on the scene. In the young Cole they had found an unexpected ally. As Sirius had told her, Cole's father had been murdered by Death Eaters scarcely three weeks after Voldemort's first fall and since then the son had administered the Potter's property.
Cole had said that Sirius as Harry's godfather had had every right to take the child to safety after his parents' death so that everything had turned out well in the end.
If only the children would have weathered the experiences just as well. But Sara knew that this wasn't the case. She saw it in Harry's and Faith's eyes. It would take its time until both had coped with the events. Harry seemed moreover to blame himself for the death of his mother. Sirius and she had both talked with Harry, but whether Harry had really accepted that he was not in the least responsible for the events, she doubted. Both my two, Sara thought affectionately. Sirius and Harry were in some ways so similar to each other. Sirius as well reproached himself for his former decisions.
But perhaps it would do them both good to stay here, not only Harry who should go to Hogwarts next year but also Sirius. Here in this house Sirius couldn't escape his memories. Sirius actually hadn't wanted to stay in Godric's Hollow at all, but Harry loved the house of his parents so that Sirius had reluctantly resigned himself to stay here. And if it made her family happy to live in the magical world how could she be against it then? After all, Sirius had also spent nearly ten years in her home country, among Muggles. Something what couldn't have been exactly easy for him, as she now realized.
Anyway, thus she could assume that it would surely not get boring in the future.
Sara fished for the magazine and opened it in the middle. Perhaps she should indeed discover a bit more about the magical world, if she would live here in the future, she thought and cast a glance in direction of the terrace door, where quick steps and laughter announced the arrival of Sirius and Faith.
After Harry had walked round the house for he third time, he dropped himself exhaustedly in the grass and leaned against the thick trunk of the cherry tree. He was glad that he finally possessed enough strength again to spend a longer while outside of the house. How he had hated it having to stay in the bed because he had been too weak to stand up. But that was fortunately over now. And also his magic he would be able to use soon again.
Harry sighed. Never before had he had to mind not to use his magic, and he found it more than difficult. He longed after it, and yet knew that he couldn't perform magic. It was too dangerous. He had learned it on the hard way, had not wanted to believe Dumbledore, the healers in Hogwarts and Sirius, who had forbidden him with grave faces to use magic for the time being since he, as they had told him, had nearly used up his entire magic as he had used that Parsel-spell.
Thus he had tried to perform magic and had promptly fainted. Harry made a face as he remembered. Patience, he had to have patience. Anyway that was what Sirius constantly told him when his bad mood got out of hand. But that wasn't exactly easy. He had never been especially patient. And Madame Pomfrey, the nurse, had in reply to his question how long it would still take, only been able to shake her head and had said she didn't know. How should he be patient there?
"Harry!"
Hearing Faith's voice, Harry stood up. Faith ran towards him, and grasped his hands.
"We've a wish free. Dad said we can wish us something!" she said and looked up with radiant eyes.
Harry smiled as he gazed at Faith. A strange mixture of relief, happiness and fear rose in him. He was happy that Faith could laugh in this moment, but the last night was still fresh in his memory just as many nights before. Once more he saw Faith sitting with wide eyes in her bed, deeply frightened of the nightmare which had gripped her. And again she had sought protection of him. Sirius and Sara didn't know that Faith came to him at night, didn't know anything of the nightmares.
Or of his, Harry thought. As he comforted Faith, so she comforted him. That he rarely slept through a night, he didn't mind however. He loved Faith so much and he knew that he, hadn't it been for his little sister, would never have found the strength to use that ancient spell he had discovered in his mother's diary.
"Really? Why?" Harry asked.
Faith jumped up and down.
"Dad told me of Hogwarts and I was sad that I can't go to school with you next year. So he said I'd have a wish free instead and I said that you had to have one as well. There he said we should think up something together."
Harry squeezed Faith's hand and smiled.
„Thanks, that was nice of you."
"Yes, it was, wasn't it?"
While Faith loudly pondered what they could wish for, Harry's thoughts wandered to Hogwarts. He would attend Hogwarts not until next year. With his present inability to use his magic, it would not have made sense to start earlier. Apart from that it would still take a while before he would regain his old energy. As school had begun, he hadn't been able to just take more than two steps.
And Harry wasn't necessarily sad about that. As much as he was looking forward to go to Hogwarts as much did he dread it. Neither Sirius nor Sara had succeeded to hide the newspapers from him. He hated the idea that he was famous, was celebrated because he had defeated the Dark Lord. Harry pressed his lips together as he recalled the newspaper's articles he had read and again helpless anger filled him. It wasn't true what the newspapers wrote. He had never defeated Voldemort. Then it had been his mother. He, a one-year old baby, hadn't had any part in it.
He lived because his mother had given her life for him. And also two and a half month ago he had not defeated Voldemort. There still would be a war going on, hadn't it been for Faith, Sara, Sirius, Remus and Claire, as well as Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. And not to forget Bigi who had seen to it that help arrived just in time. If he had faced Voldemort alone, the world would still be lost to darkness. He knew it. But that no-one wanted to know. The truth seemed not to interest anyone.
Least of all Fudge who had wanted to speak with him by all means to present him with some medal he didn't want to have at all. And to meet with the minister he absolutely didn't want. Not after Fudge had wanted to arrest Sirius at all costs. He had discovered it by accident only later as he had listened to a conversation between Sirius and Remus, some weeks after having woken up from his unconsciousness.
But luckily Dumbledore had succeeded to convince Fudge that he was still too ill and also the reporters had believed his words that he had stayed the first weeks in Hogwarts and since then dwelled out of the country to recover as Albus Dumbledore had said. The smile which slid across Harry's face vanished as they reached the little stony bench. Somehow the bench evoke bad memories in Harry.
Though Dumbledore had assured him that he had fixed the wards at the house himself, Harry didn't feel completely safe. Though the war was over, a greater part of Voldemort's followers were still at large, even if the Order and the ministries of the different countries made every effort to find them and to take them prisoner. Peter Pettigrew had also been caught, about which Harry wasn't exactly unhappy and waited for his trail.
Suddenly Harry realized that Faith had asked him a question and was waiting for his answer.
"What did you say?"
"I've asked whether we can't go home. I know that we live here now, but I miss our tree house, the forests. Here aren't such forests as back home. And I want to grandma and granddad."
Looking in Faith's sad blue eyes, he was also overcome by a feeling of home sickness. He saw their house in front of his eyes, his room. Even if he hadn't been born in Canada, there he had grown up, and Faith's grandparents he considered as his own. He missed them very much and they would be happy, too. They had been so worried on the phone.
„And Remus and Claire could also come along." Faith excitedly said.
Harry shook his head.
„Faith, you know that they want to marry soon."
"They can marry there. They will surely like it."
There wasn't anything to say against that and Harry looked to the terrace where Sirius and Sara were standing and waving at them.
"Yes, perhaps they will come along, too." he said and cast a sidelong glance at Faith.
"Come!" he said and began to run.
As Sirius glanced at Harry and Faith and heard their laughter, his mouth twisted into a bright smile. He was so happy and relieved that the happenings hadn't traumatized them forever. The occurrences they would never forget, but with time the memories would fade.
How tall Harry had become. Eleven years, Sirius thought astonished and shook his head. Even if he perhaps had done some mistakes, his promise to protect Harry he had kept. If James and Lily could only see her son now, but he knew that they would be proud of her son.
"Of what are you thinking?"
Sirius turned around and put an arm around Sara.
"Of the past."
Sara raised herself on tiptoe and gave him a kiss on his cheek.
"You shouldn't do that too often. Rather you should look in the future." she said, took his hand and drew him in direction of the children who radiant with joy and out of breath had finally reached the terrace.
Yes, to the future, Sirius thought and wondered what he and Sara should do now; now, where hopefully no-one would hunt them anymore, now, where they didn't need to hide anymore. Smiling Sirius took his family into his arms. There was indeed a lot he had to think about.