COMFORT ZONE | Sirius Black [REWRITING]

36. Zarah's Sin

Morning of Thursday, 7th March 1974

Zarah Shafiq treaded the hallways of Shafiq Manor, her dupatta flowing behind her. Since she worked part-time as a curse-breaker, she opted to stay home three days a week, and Thursdays were one of those days, allowing her to spend the early hours of the morning in the greenhouse, tending to her precious plants within. All while Adam still slept.

Lila had returned from Hogwarts sometime the previous night, and despite Zarah's strong resistance to it, the house-elf had remained awake to relay some news she thought would be of interest to her while she replaced the soil of her shrivelfig plant and watered some flowers.

And now, she needed to talk to her husband.

"Yasin."

She found him in his study, clearly drowning in paperwork, but it was rare of her to disturb him; the man could make an exception this once.

"Yes, my flower."

Zarah stared at him, cheeks heating slightly, but she ignored the way her husband was grinning at her.

"Lila came back last night."

The change in his demeanour was quite rapid, his paperwork was quickly stacked away with a flick of his hand, and he gestured for her to sit on one of the leather chairs before his desk.

"Has she told you anything?" He asked in Urdu.

"Not about what was discussed in the office, she'll talk about that with you," Zarah propped her elbow on the armrest. "But she told me about Maddi."

"Maddi?"

"Yes, Lila talked to her in the kitchens last night, and it was quite late too," Zarah glanced pointedly at the steaming mug on the desk. "Said she was craving coffee or something,"

The man leaned back in his chair with a pleased look on his face. "Took after me, she did."

She shook her head at him.

"That's not all, they had some long conversation about the Valentine's Ball too." Zarah couldn't help a tinge of pride seeping into her words. "You'll be glad to know that our daughter had the time of her life that night."

"Who was her date?"

"Lily Evans."

"Ahh, her father is a lovely man," Yasin nodded approvingly. "Got a great muggle financial firm running."

She nodded along, interested by this information, but still eager to get to the crux of her problem.

"But there's more," Zarah said. "Lila told me that she was asked to go with quite a few people. She thinks Maddi was being modest about how many there were—"