The Half-Blood Black

Chapter Eight✨

"Why do you look like that?" I ask Tonks as I study her features.

"I might raise ... some problems, if people see me." She says avoiding all eye contact and changing the subject. "So how about we get your your uniform first?"

I nod and look at my list, still surprised that robes is an article of clothing required. We enter a shop and a man asks Tonks all types of questions, which she dodged and simply says, "There was an accident in Hogwarts during her Potions class and now she needs new uniforms."

The man eyes me up and down suspiciously before asking my name.

"Tara." I sputter, my mothers name coming to me first. Tonks looks at me with warning eyes and I give the show owner a smile, ducking my head.

My goodbyes this morning weigh heavy on my heart as the shop owner takes my measurements and disappears into the back. Tonks and I stand in silence as I think back on my father. He didn't cry in front of me but his eyes were wet when he pulled me away from his chest. Remus wasn't sure if they should send me to Hogwarts tonight or if I should return.

I cried all night last night and most of this morning. Sirius held me and told me he wasn't ever going to let me go, that he had done me wrong the first 14 years of my life but he swore to be there for the next 114. 

-

Once my uniforms and robes are all packed neatly into boxes, the shop keeper brings us to the counter to allow us to pay. I start to pull out "muggle money" as Sirius calls it, when Tonks stops me, shaking her head.

"Oh, I never asked what house you were in!" The man says, stopping the check out process.

"I'm...uhh..." I stutter. I bite my lip and start to panic.

"Hufflepuff." Tonks says handing the man money and grabbing the boxes. "Thank you, enjoy your day."

Tonks practically pushes me out of the shop and into the chest of a man with long blonde hair and a pale face.

"Excuse yourself." The man says disgustedly.

"So sorry, sir." I mumble as Tonks steers me away and we practically run down Diagon Alley. "Tonks, what's wrong?"

"Wait..." She says. We enter a book store and she takes my list of 4th Year books I will need.

She goes down the alleys, flicking books off the shelves and into my arms. She sees a book by a man named Gilderoy Lockhart and she knocks it into the ground, rolling her eyes.

Tonks suddenly turns to me and whispers, "That was Lucius Malfoy, he is married to Narcissa and they have a son named Draco. They're Death Eaters." She stops speaking and looks around to see if anyone is near or listening in. My skin begins to crawl at the thought of a Death Eater touching me. "Try to keep low ok? You're unfamiliar around here, everyone should know you if this is your 4th year."

I nod and duck my head behind the stacks of books and she take a few for me, leading me to the register. "Plus, to be frank, you look so much like your father. Like all Black's actually. If I didn't know you and saw you in a shop, I would immediately assume you were a Black."

The thought sends shivers up my spine again. If I'm exposed outside the walls and grounds of Hogwarts, that could mean I expose Sirius. And that cannot happen.

I won't let it.