COMFORT ZONE | Sirius Black [REWRITING]

31. A Black Christmas

Saturday, 23rd December 1973

Madiha and Adam had spent the afternoon rummaging through old boxes in one of the old and abandoned rooms of the Manor, which her mother kept on saying she wanted to clean up, but never got around to doing.

Hidden away in a dusty corner, the two had come across a box which held a thousand pieces of jigsaw glory which would reward the puzzler with an enchanted painting of the Shalimar Gardens in Lahore. When the children showed this to their mother, they were informed that that the puzzle was a gift from a Mughal prince to one of their great-great-grandfathers, Khalil Shafiq.

After significant persuasion, Mrs Shafiq allowed them to solve the jigsaw and the children wasted no time in taking the box up to Adam's room, where they began to lay out the pieces on the floor, starting with the edge of the painting. A few hours later, when they were close to finishing, Adam left to go grab some juice.

"Get some for me too."

"Say please."

"Please."

"Non."

Brothers.

Madiha went back to placing pieces where she thought they would fit, humming along to the distant sound of Noor Jehan and Ahmed Rushdi songs playing somewhere else in the house.

They were expected to leave for Grimmauld Place tomorrow, as Mr Shafiq had needed to head off to Gringotts this morning before he was able to handover the running of the bank completely to the goblins over Christmas break, when almost all curse-breaking activities would be paused, and the majority of wizarding employees would be allowed time off. This included Mrs Shafiq, who had already started her holidays since Friday.

Mr Shafiq was the Head of Gringotts bank, but he was not, in any way, in charge of, or responsible for, the goblin workforce within—they organised themselves on their own. His role was to lead and manage the wizarding aspect of the bank and liaise with goblins, aided by his fluency in Gobbledegook and the fact that he had earnt a measure of the goblins' respect that very few wizards in the world commanded.

In his own words, his job was to take care of all the stuff that goblins wouldn't give a toss about.

Things that the goblins cared little about included the bank initiative he was currently attempting to realise for the influx of migrants to the country, which he hoped would make it easier for immigrating wizards and their families to shift their assets from their home bank to Gringotts. The Ministry had been making things difficult, but, after a host of meetings with the Minister for Magic, Eugenia Jenkins, he had managed to straighten out the loose ends and gotten the initiative on track to start very soon after the New Year.

"Maddi," Adam walked back into the room, with no juice in sight. "Guess what?"

"I asked for juice too."