The Daughter of Sirius Black

Chapter 76

But Leona had never hated being back at school more than when the news came.

There had been a mass breakout from Azkaban prison, with 10 high-security prisoners including her deranged Aunt Bellatrix escaping.

And Fudge was blaming her father for it.

He claimed that it could only have been engineered by someone with previous experience with breaking out, i.e., the notorious mass murderer, Sirius Black.

The only reason her father left was because he still had a soul.

No matter how much the dementors took from him, there was always a piece left.

A piece where his happiest memories of all were stored, the memories of his daughter, of his Rose. And they were memories that the Dementors would never be able to take from him.

He didn't know how it made its way to Azkaban.

How a tiny piece of paper had managed to float across the ocean and inside of his cell and land at his feet.

But he would never forget it.

He would never forget the day he watched as his 11-year-old daughter surfed on her broomstick before hoisting the Quidditch Cup into the air.

He would never forget how he devoured the article about her.

About the daughter of a mass murderer and how she became a star Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

About how she already had end of school offers to play professional Quidditch for many teams from England, Ireland and France.

It was her that inspired him to transform. To shift into dog and pad from his cell, out and free into the world, article held gently in his mouth.

But in reality, he'd merely traded one prison for another. He couldn't leave Grimmauld Place for fear of being forced back to the worse of the two prisons.

At least at Grimmauld Place, he wasn't so alone anymore. He could walk about freely, bathe regularly, and talk to his daughter as much as he pleased.

And so returned the people avoiding Leona. She was so tired of that.

But there was one person that she needed to apologise to.

Neville.

She knew what her estranged aunt had done to the boys' parents, and though he'd never been apprehensive towards her because of her relation to Bellatrix, Leona still felt the need to at the very least apologise.

"Neville?" she asked softly as she approached him inside the room of requirement, finding him staring up at the original photo of the order, his parents in particular. "Neville, about my aunt, I'm so sorry. I -"

"I don't blame you, Lena. Not one bit," he interrupted as he looked down to the smaller girl, having had quite the growth spurt in the last two years.

"Still, someone should apologise. It's unfair that you had to lose them, especially to someone from my bloodline," she admitted as she clasped her hands together, looking up at her own parents.

"You lost yours as well. Your dad might still be alive, but, you can't be with him, not in public at least. I'm sorry that he was framed," Neville said as she gave him a warm smile, having told him about her situation when he'd first joined the DA, when she and Harry had first shown him the photo that they were now staring at.

"Thank you, Neville."

"I'm quite proud to be their son," he said as he looked back at the photo.

"As you should be."

"Bellatrix tortured them but they never gave in. I just, I'm not sure I'm ready for everyone to know just yet," he admitted nervously.

"And that's completely fine," she said as she placed a gentle hand on his arm. "I kind of wish I had that choice. People knew about me before I did. And it's not like anyone would believe me if I said my father is innocent. But I do know one thing," she said as she dropped her hand and returned her gaze to the photo of their smiling parents before the world had gone to hell. "We're going to make them proud. That's a promise."