Miranda Black and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Sirius Black's Daughter SEQUEL!)

Chapter 14 - Tears and Dementor Dreams

Tears were a strange thing. They appeared so many times over the course of human lives - when we were sad, but also when we were happy, when we were mad or when we were feeling very touched. I was not sure why I was crying now. I wasn't overly sad at all, and I damn well wasn't happy.

"No!" I cried out. For so long, I'd fretted that maybe I was related to Sirius. I think, deep down, despite all of my praying, wishing, and hoping that it wasn't true, I always knew that their was some connection between us...between my father and I. Harry watched me with sad eyes, before grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me.

"MIRANDA! Snap out of it, okay? We're going to be fine. The Dementors will find him, and he'll go back to Azkaban. They'll up the security on him. He will never escape again. We don't need to worry about him!" Harry paused, noticing a tear slowly falling down my cheek. "Miranda, please! We have to be strong. We're going to get through this, I can promise. I really don't want to leave you, but classes start soon, and I haven't had a bite to eat. Go find Ginny and Dan. Tell them what I've told you, okay?" I nodded weakly, and Harry pulled me into a hug.

"We'll be okay, I promise." he whispered.

He then walked off, and looked back once, before he turned the corner and disappeared. I wiped my eyes on my sleeve and turned to walk towards the Common Room, which is where Ginny had headed to when she had left.

I gave the password, and went into the Common Room, to see Daniel and Ginny sitting on the stairs, their things that they needed for today's work tucked down by their feet. Ginny spotted my eyes glistening with tears straight away. She got up, dragging Daniel, and came over to me.

"What's wrong?" Her and Daniel asked simultaneously. They gave each other a look of surprise. I motioned towards the sofa, and we sat down. Taking a deep breath, I told them what Harry had told me. By the end of it, they both had their mouths hanging open.

"You'll catch flies like that," I said. Daniel smiled at my weak sense of humour, but then his face turned serious again when he remembered the problem. My best friends looked at me sadly, and pulled me into a three-way group hug. We stayed like that for a few seconds, but we all pulled away, as we heard the portrait door swing open. All three of our heads turned to see who it was. Unfortunately, it wasn't who I wanted to see - Harry - it was Star, Felicity, and Ella. 

"Oh dear God, I do not need this right now," I sighed and turned away from them, as did Ginny and Daniel. We watched the flames for a few moments in blissful silence, before we heard the squeaky voice of Ella call out to Daniel. I kind of wanted to cry. Also I had a feeling of jumping into the fire so I wouldn't have to hear any more of the three girls' ridiculous insults. 

"What do you want?" Daniel said, turning around to face them. I turned around as well, to see the three girls standing there, hands on their hips, staring at Daniel.

"C'mere for a second..." Felicity said flirtatiously, batting her eyelashes and flicking her hair. Daniel shook his head, no.

"Why not?" Ella questioned, putting a fake pout on her face.

"Is it not obvious? Because I would rather hang out with my best friends than you snobs." he answered, looking down as he said it. I saw all three girls roll their eyes and then sigh.

"Why can't you see the light Daniel?! Those girls you call 'friends' are stupid. Ugly. Dumb. Why do you hang around them, when we're here?" Star piped up, pointing to herself, and the other two girls. I could not really believe we used to be friends. I no longer wanted to jump in the fire, but now I wanted to put a curse on her. Not necessarily because she was mean, but just because her insults sucked that much. "I mean, you're hot. Why hang out with ugly girls when we're here?" 

"It's nice that you think I'm hot. I would say thanks, but I don't think you deserve it. How dare you insult my friends like that? These girls are beautiful, inside and out. You're a disgusting person. I will never like you, okay? Get over it." Daniel argued. I dropped my book in a moment of surprise.

Before they could think of another dumb comeback, Daniel had grabbed his bag and stormed off. Ginny and I looked at each other, before slowly following him. We eventually caught up to him, and together we made our way to class in silence.

We went by the rest of our day like this. The only time we weren't in silence was when we went to lunch, and discussed how tiring it must be for owls to carry mail all over the place. I can tell you that it was a weird discussion...

Finally evening came, and we all relaxed in front of the fire, knowing that today was our last day of lessons for a couple of weeks. The mood throughout the Common Room was relaxed, yet there was an excited buzz around the room, everyone eagerly awaiting having a break from learning. Fred and George even popped some little fireworks, similar to the ones we'd stole to wake Harry up in the Summer holidays.

At around nine, a majority of the Gryffindor house came together in the middle, and sung a couple of early Christmas carols, due to the fact that basically everyone was going home. In the end, we all burst out laughing because of the completely out-of-tune voices of our beloved house. After the singing, people started disappearing into their dormitories, ready to go to sleep after a long term of learning.

After a tough argument over who was the better singer out of Fred and George, our group of friends decided to go to bed like everyone else. Before I left, I hugged Daniel tightly and thanked him for being so amazing. He laughed, and told me that it was no problem. I hugged him again, as did Ginny, before we went our different ways.

We got changed into our pajamas, and said good night to each other. Ginny closed her curtains around her. Soon after, I heard heavy breathing coming from her bed, and I knew she'd already fallen asleep. I guessed the other three girls were asleep too, having gone up before we even started singing.

Fortunately, I'd overheard them talking about going away for the holidays, so this was their last sleep at Hogwarts for awhile. A wash of relief ran through me, before I thought of Sirius being my dad. I was alone now, as everyone was asleep, which meant that I could finally think without any interruptions.

I didn't want to be related to any person who'd committed a crime. I mean, if it had been something small, something that didn't mean much to anyone, I wouldn't care. But this man had killed 13 people with one curse. In a street full of Muggles. And he was now after me - and Harry. Harry!

I propped myself up on my elbows excitedly. I'd only just realized that I could now think of Harry as my brother. He'd overheard that he was Sirius' godson, and because Sirius was my dad, didn't that mean I was Harry's god sister? The thought of that cheered me up a lot. So with that, and the thought that Felicity, Ella, and Star wouldn't be here for a couple of weeks, I slowly, but surely, fell asleep.

-

"Miranda! Come on, get up!" Ginny's voice said, awaking me from my peaceful sleep.

"What do you want?' I said groggily, "Oh shoot! Is it not the holidays? Was I just dreaming about that? Do we have class!?"

"No! I just wanted you to wake up, seeing as there's basically no-one here. And it is almost 11 o clock." Ginny laughed.

"Where is everyone then?"

"It's the holidays and everyone's already left. " Ginny briefly explained, "I don't know about the rest of the houses, but there is absolutely no one here apart from Harry, Ron, Hermione, Daniel, you, and me." My eyes widened in pure excitement - we had the whole Common Room to ourselves.

"I'll be down in a sec." I said quickly. Ginny nodded, and ran back down the stairs, her flaming hair flying out behind her. I jumped out of bed, and looked happily down a the three empty beds at the end of the room. Feeling perfectly happy, I pulled out an outfit and whipped it on. Then I quickly brushed my hair, and went down the stairs to go find my friends.

The Common Room was most definitely deserted. Ron and Hermione were discussing something in the corner of the room, and Ginny and Daniel were reading a book together, sitting at the coffee table. I went over to them, and sat down next to Ginny.

"Ah, Sleeping Beauty awakens!" Daniel joked. Ginny laughed, but I cocked my head, saying,

"You think you're so funny..." Daniel nodded, his face deadly serious, which made us all crack up laughing, very loudly, earning us a glare from Hermione.

"Harry's still sleeping you know." she said quietly.

"Won't hurt him. It is past 11 o'clock, you know?" I said back. Hermione looked shocked, but she turned away, facing Ron again .

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed." I said gloomily. Daniel and Ginny agreed. After awhile of reading the book - which was called 'Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them' - we decided to do as much homework as we could today, so we'd have more time to hang out.

"Wait, so why was Cressida Redwood put in Azkaban?" Daniel asked as I was just finishing an essay for Professor Binns.

"Did you not read the story? Pathetic!" I said sarcastically. Daniel frowned, so I continued, "She performed the Cruciatus curse on 3 Muggles, tortured them to the brink of utter insanity, and then she killed them." Daniel nodded as I spoke.

"Okay...so what's the Cruciatus curse do?" Daniel asked as he scribbled down some notes.

"Are you for real? It's one of the most powerful curses in the world. It inflicts a terrible pain on the person it's aimed at...horrific, terrible pain that can't be described. If someone performs the curse on one person for too long, they could be tortured out of their mind,"  Ginny explained in a low voice.