[1] PARADIGM ↳ Harry Potter

-TWO: BLACK

THE NEXT MORNING COMES, the sun blearing through the curtains of Raven's room causing her to arise in the early hours of the morning like usual. She stretches her arms out, yawning as she notices the signed permission form to Hogsmeade and a letter with her mother's scribbles on it on the bedside table next to a stack of school books she was using last night.

Shifting tiredly on the soft mattress, she reaches for the piece of parchment and blinks, trying to clear the blurs from her vision so she can get a better look at the words scratches across it.

Raven,

It is more than likely that I will be gone before you wake up. I have signed your permission form and left you money for your school supplies and transportation. Write to me when you arrive at Diagon Alley.

Raven sighs, letting the letter fall to her sides along with her arms as she sighs, exasperated. The few days that occur before the first day of Hogwarts each year are a struggle for Raven, but she doesn't let her mother know this. She knows how busy her mother is with the Ministry, that she is not to blame for the limited time they get to spend together. It isn't her mother's fault that each year, she has to take a three hour train ride from her home to Diagon Alley to purchase her school books, and then the following day, another five and a half hour train ride on the Hogwarts Express. And she must do this all by herself.

Within the next hour, Raven has gathered all her things that she needs into a suitcase, absently listening to the news playing on the small muggle television sitting in the kitchen. She's not really paying it much mind, rummaging about, trying to finish off the last of the house chores, and she nearly falls over in shock when she sees a copy of the Daily Prophet sitting on the table. Well, any ordinary newspaper would not grab her attention as much as this one does.

Raven freezes for a moment, dropping the items in her hands to the floor without thinking and picking up the paper, bringing it close so she can eye the details of the man on the front page.

Her eyebrows pinched together as she recognized the name printed beneath the photo of the crazed man with wild dark hair.

BLACK STILL AT LARGE

Black? Why is the name so bloody familiar to Raven? She surely has never laid eyes on this wild looking man before.

She scans over the article, eager to satisfy her curiosity.

Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today.

A heavy sigh escapes Raven as she reads this. The first question it raises in her: why is her mother still keeping things secret? She works with the Ministry, in the Magical Law Enforcement department. She would be one of the first few to know about this, Raven suspects, yet she did not think to let her daughter in on it.

She then realizes that many years ago, her mother "did" tell her about Black. He was one of you-know-who's most loyal followers, according to Emma Scamander, and he once killed thirteen people with one curse. This amazed Raven, much to her surprise, but it didn't frighten her. She was intrigued to find out more about this man.

The fact that Sirius Black doesn't scare her, really scares her.

She sets down the newspaper in the process of reading the date on it, realizing that it is over a week old.

    After tossing the copy of the Daily Prophet in her suitcase and forcing the latches shut, she turns all the lights off, locks the doors, and leaves to board the first train of the day.