The Pureblood Princess | Sirius Black

|83| So... Truce?

With the soft light of morning glowing behind the pink drapes of her bedroom, Berwin's screech still ringing in her ears, and visions of a blonde little boy running on a loop in her mind's eye, Adelaide sat up in her bed.

"This can't be possible," she muttered to herself, head bent over and running her hands through her hair in a very Sirius-like way. "No, no, no, no, NO! I can't deal with this right now!" she growled, punching a pillow. A frenzy of emotions ran through her— sadness, grief, and happiness from seeing the brother she had long forgotten; anger and frustration that the truth had been kept from her for so long, and that her father still refused to explain what all had happened; but most of all fear. 

Fear that what she saw wasn't real at all. But mostly fear that it was real. She had read all about memory charms and she knew that there were only a handful of ways to recover lost memories, most of which left the previously obliviated person with long-term mental damage. If she really did remember, that would mean she could end up just as crazy as her mother, and that was a reality she did not want to face. 

"There was no way that what I saw was actually a memory." she said to herself half-convincingly, smoothing out her nightgown. "It was just my imagination projecting what I wanted to see. An illusion." 

This was the lie she told herself.

It was easy enough to ignore the truth, surprisingly easy in fact. She simply shoved those pesky feelings down deep in an imaginary drawer, locked the key, and focused instead on the things she could control—such as getting out of that house.

Another loud screech from Berwin caused Adelaide to jump where she sat against her fluffy pillows, effectively pulling her out of her thoughts. As she rose from the bed, making her way toward her trunk on much surer footing than the night before, she wondered briefly if he was coming down with something— that bird seemed to be in quite a mood lately.

She dragged the trunk out from under the squashy white armchair and began to dig through the wide array of clothes and books until she found the item she was looking for. The mirror.

Her hand outstretched toward the silver compact mirror immediately, but paused just before making contact. Part of her hoped that the mirror would be warm when she touched it— that Sirius had found it since he returned home and that he would be trying to reach out to her. But as she finally grasped the ornately decorated metal and opened it, it was cool as could be, with nothing but her own haggard appearance staring back at her. 

"Sirius Orion Black the Third," she hissed into the mirror.

Nothing. She waited for a good five minutes, but nothing but her own sad reflection filled the glass.

Adelaide's heart sank, but she didn't have time to feel sorry for herself. She needed to send word to someone, anyone, to get her out of that house. So, she pulled herself off the floor and  walked with determination toward her messy desk, lifting her quill to write as neatly as she could to Mrs. Potter, begging her to send help. Once she was quite satisfied with her letter, Adelaide made her way to the barn owl near the window, opening the curtains and tying the note to his foot.  

"Okay, Berwie, I need you to take this to James's mum. You know the way." she said as she opened the window to let him fly.

Only, Berwin didn't move.

"Come on baby, I know you're grumpy and all, but I really need you to send this." Adelaide said to the stubborn owl, petting his feathers gently, trying to coax him into moving.

Berwin still didn't move, but he did screech quite loudly.

"Ugh! Berwin!" Adelaide scolded. It was at this point that she started to forcibly remove the owl from his perch in the cage. "Move. You. Stupid. Pidgin." she grunted. Berwin finally humored the girl by flying out of the cage... only to perch on the edge of the balcony. "Really? Ugh! What's with you?!"