Phoenix

Morning Tea

The next morning I woke up with the sun. I looked around and saw everyone else still sleeping. Usually if I woke up this early I would go on a run, or practice some fighting. But I couldn't. I was stuck inside this house until we found a clue which warranted leaving it. Feeling strangely restless, I quietly got up and walked down the stairs. As I did so, I looked at the chipped railing and peeling paint. Somehow it was still easy to imagine what this house had looked like in its prime.

I made my way into the kitchen. I made myself some tea, and sat down at the table. I quickly texted my dad to make sure he was looking after Yet-To-Be-Named. In response Dad sent me a picture of him and yet to be named on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. The I texted a picture of my tea to the group chat with Peter and Shuri with the message the English are rubbing off on me.

After I finished my tea, I began quietly pacing the halls of the house. I tried not to think about Draco. What did I care if that thoughtless traitor was getting punished for his incompetence? I had given him the benefit of the doubt once, and it would not happen again.

As I passed a room, I saw a glimpse of movement. My heart stopped as I reached for a weapon and stepped into the room. Sitting on the bed, was Harry who was reading a letter. I let out a sigh of relief, and quietly put away my weapon.

"Hey, Harry," I said as I sat down next to him in the bed. "Isn't it a bit early to be up and about."

"This is Sirius's room," said Harry. I looked around the room at all the muggle posters and Gryffindor banners.

"I can tell." I glanced at Harry's unreadable face. "What are you looking at?"

"It's a letter my mum wrote."

"Oh." My heart hurt a little as Harry's eyes met mine. Dead moms and dead father figures were something we both had in common.I reached out and put a hand in his shoulder. We stayed like that for a moment.

Suddenly, Harry stood up and began emptying draws and rummaging through papers.

"Harry!" I exclaimed as I watched papers carelessly being thrown to the floor. "Those could be important."

I stood up quickly and pulled him away from the drawers. "Harry, what are you doing?"

He was about to respond, when he roughly pulled his shoulder out of my grasp and dove for something by a dresser. He grabbed it and stood up triumphantly.

He stared at it for a moment, then wordlessly handed it to me. In the picture a black haired baby who had to have been Harry zoomed back in and out of the picture on a tiny broom while a man who had to have been James Potter laughed. All that could be seen of James were his legs.

"Your father had very muscular thighs," I said finally with a little grin.

Harry scowled and took back the picture. "You're not as funny as you think you are."

"What do you mean?" I laughed. "I'm hilarious."

"Kendra." The look he gave me made my laughing stop. "Do you ever miss your mom?"

"Every day." I ignored the wavering in my voice and handed him back the picture. "Do you miss your parents?"

Harry nodded. "I don't even know them, but I miss them anyway."

"Harry? Kendra? Harry!" Voices floated down from the stairs and echoed in the halls.

"We're here!" he called. "What's happened?"

There was a clatter of footsteps outside the door, and Hermione burst inside.

"We woke up and didn't know where you were!" she said breathlessly. She turned and shouted over her shoulder, "Ron! I've found them!"

Ron's annoyed voice echoed distantly from several floors below. "Good! Tell Harry from me he's a git!"

"Harry, don't just disappear, please, we were terrified! I mean it Kendra. Why did you come up here anyway?" She gazed around the ransacked room. "What have you been doing?"

"Look what I've just found." He held out his mother's letter. Hermione took it and read it while Harry watched her. When she reached the end of the page she looked up at him.

"Oh, Harry . . ."

"And there's this too."

He handed her the torn photograph, and Hermione smiled at the baby zooming in and out of sight on the toy broom.

"Doesn't his Dad have nice legs," I joked.

"Kendra!" Gasped Hermione.

"I've been looking for the rest of the letter," Harry said ignoring my antics. "but it's not here."

"Did you make all this mess, or was some of it done when you got here?"

"Someone had searched before me," said Harry.

"I thought so. Every room I looked into on the way up had been disturbed. What were they after, do you think?"

"Information on the Order, if it was Snape," I said a little alarmed I hadn't noticed the state of the other rooms. 

"But you'd think he'd already have all he needed, I mean, he was in the Order, wasn't he?" said Ron.

"Well then," said Harry, keen to discuss his theory, "what about information on Dumbledore? The second page of this letter, for instance. You know this Bathilda my mum mentions, you know who she is?"

"Who?"

"Bathilda Bagshot, the author of —"

"A History of Magic," said Hermione, looking interested. "So your parents knew her? She was an incredible magical historian."

"And she's still alive," said Harry, "and she lives in Godric's Hollow, Ron's Auntie Muriel was talking about her at the wedding. She knew Dumbledore's family too. Be pretty interesting to talk
to, wouldn't she?"

"I understand why you'd love to talk to her about your mum and dad, and Dumbledore too," said Hermione. "But that wouldn't really help us in our search for the Horcruxes, would it?" Harry did not answer, and she rushed on, "Harry, I know you really want to go to Godric's Hollow, but I'm scared, I'm scared at how easily those Death Eaters found us."

"It's not just that," Harry said, still avoiding looking at her. "Muriel said stuff about Dumbledore at the wedding. I want to know the truth. . . ."

He told us everything that Muriel had told him.

"Its kind of weird that I have the same name as Dumbledore's mother," I said when Harry finished.

Hermione scowled at me. "That is all you took out of the story?"

I sighed. "Of course not. I just don't see how the tragic death of Dumbledore's sister relates to defeating Voldemort."

Harry had an uneasy expression on his face. "I'd just like to know whether or not it's true or —"

"Harry, do you really think you'll get the truth from a malicious woman like Muriel or Rita Skeeter? Of course not. You know Dumbledore," said Hermione.

"I thought I did," muttered Harry.

"Look," I said before things escalated. "Let's just go eat some breakfast and talk about it afterwards."

Harry reluctantly agreed, and we all went to the kitchen.

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Hey Everyone, sorry this update took so long, I should have learned by now that the minute I promise consistent updates things get in the way. Anyone I promise I am not gifting up on this series and that there are more updates to come. Thanks for your patience.

Forever and always,

Me.