Which Witch? Harry Potter

007.

SEVEN.
The Way I Loved You

Riley Jane didn't have a very clear idea of how she had managed to get back to the Hogwarts castle. All she knew was that the return trip seemed to take no time at all, and that she hardly noticed what she was doing, because her head was still pounding with the conversation she had just heard.

Why had nobody ever told her? Why hadn't anyone ever mentioned the fact that Harry's parents were her godparents? That her mother had died because Sirius Black had betrayed her? That her parents were close to James and Black?

Ron and Hermione watched both Riley Jane and Harry nervously all through dinner, not daring to talk about what they'd overheard, because Percy was sitting close by them. When they went upstairs to the crowded common room, it was to find Fred and George had set off half a dozen Dungbombs in a fit of end-of-term high spirits.

Riley Jane sneaked quietly up to the empty dormitory and headed straight for her bed, not even bothering to lay underneath the covers as her back hit the mattress. She took her sage ring off her finger, examining the jewel in its thick, gold band.

It belonged to her mother: Aurora Soleil.

Her mum could be wearing this ring herself right now, if not for Black. Riley Jane wouldn't need to be in possession of Aurora's ring at all.

Did Black know, that once he sold out his mother's location to Dolohov, all Riley Jane would have left of her was a simple ring? Did he know that he was leaving her with a hollow father and a scarred body?

But the dementors don't affect him, Riley Jane thought, staring at her green-tinted and scar-blemished reflection through the ring. He doesn't have to hear anyone's mum screaming if they get too close—

Riley Jane slid her ring back on, took off her robe, and properly got into bed this time. After the tiring day, it was easy for drowsiness to succumb to her.

But she was still awake enough to wonder if she'd been cursed her entire life.

If she'd been a curse, herself, even before she was born.

Had Riley Jane not been born at all, Harry could still have his parents. Lily and James and even her mother wouldn't have died. It seemed to be an entire pipeline that stemmed from the torturing of Riley Jane Lupin.

Her father tried to keep her family's history from her as much as he could, which only made things worse. Riley Jane wanted answers, not protection. She had to find out herself that she was a mistake, that her parents were never together, and Riley Jane was nothing more than an accident. It took Remus thirteen years to willingly tell her even a sentence about her mother's death. Then she had to go and find out about the second half of the story through gossip? She didn't even know there was a second half. 

Riley Jane understood it must be hard for her father, but the more she discovered he was hiding, the more frustrated she grew. He made her feel plain stupid for being so oblivious.

She lay in bed, the dormitory eerily quiet compared to the chaotic noise of the common room below. The muffled shouts and laughter felt distant, like they belonged to a different world—a world where Riley Jane didn't exist. She tugged the blanket up to her chin, her fingers clutching the edge tightly, as if holding on to the fabric would keep her thoughts from spiraling any further.