The Godmother || Sirius Black

━ 18. Warmth

Harry looked at his godmother and realized how different she looked than the first time he saw her- back in the Shrieking Shack. Before, she was pale as paper, had gaunt cheeks, dark circles around- not under- her eyes, knotted, dirty hair in those moving pictures of the Daily Prophet. And now while she still had some of her dark circles left under her eyes, the complexion appeared a lot healthier, her auburn hair looked wavy, her hazel eyes shone brightly as she talked with Hermione and Ron and the sound of her laughing made her sound a lot younger than she actually was.

'She's probably the same age as Sirius...' Harry thought. 

They were in the living room of Grimmauld Place while Kreacher the house elf brought some light snacks on the table while cursing under his breath. Harry was quite surprised when he saw Diana didn't berate the elf as he thought she would but he only found her politely thanking him for the food and dismissing him from the room. Then she mumbled a quick but sincere apology to both Hermione and Ron for Kreacher's nasty behavior towards them.

"Don't you feel... bad though?" Ron asked quizzically and he took a big bite of his cornish pasty. "You're a muggleborn too."

Hermione, who looked a bit disheartened by Kreacher's foul remarks, looked at Diana. 

She shrugged. "Well, house elves tend to follow their master's beliefs quite strongly. And the late Mrs. Black... let's just say she was not a very pleasant person to begin with, but Kreacher was very fond of her. Even after her death, he still follows her. So, I can't really blame a mere old house elf when the entire wizarding world is filled with people with that belief system. Besides," She smiled. "If you act kind towards him even when he's being completely nasty, he gets very confused. That's quite amusing to watch."

"He seemed to be on good terms with you even if you're a muggleborn. Is that how you did it?" Hermione asked brightly.

"Well, that for one. And I was close with... Regulus too, that's why..." her voice turned a bit somber at the mention of his name but she quickly hid it with her smile.

'Regulus Black. Sirius's younger brother.' Harry thought. Sirius never talked much about him. Except for the fact that he died fighting Voldemort. Nothing more than that.

Harry sat beside Diana on the same sofa while Ron and Hermione sat on the other beside him. Remus was in the room too, he sat on the single sofa right beside Diana; he wasn't speaking much though, only looking at Harry with a warm smile every time their eyes met as if to say that he was there. Sirius was not home yet and Harry didn't know whether to feel disappointed or relieved. He missed his godfather badly but he wasn't sure if Diana and Sirius worked out their problems yet and the last time he saw them, they seemed to have quite an issue between them.

"Oh hey!" Diana suddenly whipped her head at Harry and slapped his arm enthusiastically with a wide smile. "I almost forgot!"

She quickly ran out of the room and Harry looked at Remus quizzically, rubbing his arm. The light brown haired man just shrugged.

"So you are going to the Quidditch World Cup?" Remus looked at the trio.

They nodded excitedly. Well, Ron and Harry more than Hermione. 

"Fred, George and Ginny are going too. Amos Diggory and Cedric are coming along too. '' Ron gulped down his food and seemed to remember something. "Fred and George said something about having some extra tickets from Amos. Professor- er, Remus you can come too if you like." Then the ginger haired boy looked at Harry, "you can ask Sirius and Diana too.... if they want to come." Ron frowned at the end, remembering the altercation between Sirius and Diana.

However, Harry's face brightened up at that. This was the closest he has ever had of a family- his godfather and godmother and he wanted to spend as much time as possible with Diana to make up for the lost time. Even though he knew she didn't have the best relationship with Sirius right now, Harry wanted to be selfish. And who knows, this might even bring both of them close just like before.