Invisible (III)

ELEVEN

HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
chapter eleven

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J U S T   H A R R Y

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"You mustn't succumb to idiocy."

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Lily doesn't have a very clear idea of how she's managed to get back into the Honeydukes cellar, through the tunnel, and into the castle once more. All she knows is that the return trip seems to take no time at all, and that she hardly notices what she's doing, because her head is still pounding with the conversation she just heard.

Why has nobody ever told them? Dumbledore, Hagrid, Mr Weasley, Cornelius Fudge... Why hasn't anyone ever mentioned the fact that Harry and Lily's parents died because their best friend had betrayed them?

Ron and Hermione watch Harry nervously all through dinner, not daring to talk about what they'd overheard, because Percy is sitting close by them. But Harry's eyes won't leave Lily across the room, sitting alone at the Slytherin table, her plate as full as it had been from the start.

When she goes downstairs to the empty common room, it's to find that Pansy had thrown her possessions all around the room before leaving for the Christmas holidays. Furious tears immediately flood her exhausted eyes, dripping onto the floor as she slumps to her knees to pick them up.

Her clothes, books and previous Christmas gifts are all on the floor, some of her shirts ripped and pages torn out from her books. Once her hands are full, she drags herself miserably to her room to dump it all on her bed before going back for more.

Wiping her eyes and trying to calm her sniffles, Lily makes her way through the dark corridors to Professor Snape's room. She raises her hand to knock but hesitates, her knuckles an inch from the door. What can Professor Snape possibly do at this time of night? Take points from his own House?

Shaking her head, she wanders aimlessly through the corridors again, feeling so miserable she could curl up and die. She settles on a cold windowsill, staring at the snowy Hogwarts grounds and the clear, dark sky.

The moon is shining brightly tonight and Lily finds herself loathing it. Her world feels like it's ending and the moon picks this night to be pretty?

"Lily?"

Lily jumps from his touch, not expecting him to be so close. Harry raises his hand and she sees the leather-bound photo album Hagrid had given them two years ago, which is full of wizard pictures of their mother and father.

Lily hesitantly climbs down and stands beside him as he places the album on the sill, the moon illuminating the pictures.

Harry turns the pages, never stopping at one for more than two seconds, until... He stops on a picture of their parents' wedding day.

There is their father waving up at them, beaming, the untidy black hair Harry has inherited standing up in all directions. There is their mother, alight with happiness, arm in arm with their dad. Lily does resemble their mother.

And there...that must be him. Their best man... Lily had never given him a thought before. If she didn't know it was the same person, she would never have guessed it's Sirius Black in this old photograph. His face isn't sunken and waxy, but handsome, full of laughter.

Had he already been working for You-Know-Who when this picture had been taken? Was he already planning the deaths of the two people next to him? Did he realise he was facing twelve years in Azkaban, twelve years that would make him unrecognisable?