so I wouldn't say our relationship is exactly stellar at the moment"
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Maria Black had never met her father.
Over the years, she imagined what he would be like. She wondered if Perseus got his wavy locks and boyish grin from him. Or maybe Maria's shimmering, silver eyes and raven hair came from her father. They didn't even have a picture of him, so her imagination was all she had to go on.
For years she waited, hoping to finally meet her father until it slowly turned into a hopeless dream. It wasn't until she was much older that she was told her father was a murderer and a traitor.
Maria had cried for days, wondering why life had to be so cruel. She didn't want a father who was a murderer and she wanted her mother back. Life was cruel, Maria Black had learned too quickly, and it would only get worse.
After her untimely death as a child, she seemingly forgot all about her father. She had bigger issues to deal with than just a missing father. Nightmares kept her up at night and she became scared of getting too close to anyone, fearful that she would see their death too.
Things only started to look up when her mother appeared. Maria finally had someone she could look up to and finally received a parental figure in her life. It was Eleanor Black who finally shed some light on her father.
Sirius Black wasn't a traitor and he certainly wasn't a murderer. Maria had thought her mother had lost it at first. There wasn't a chance that the whole wizarding community would allow her father to go to Azkaban if he wasn't guilty. The more her mother explained, however, the more it all seemed to make sense. Sirius Black was innocent.
Maria had relayed all the information to Perseus but was surprised when he snapped at her. He refused to believe their father was innocent and refused to hear any more on the subject. After that, Maria had kept her mouth shut about their father around Perseus.
It wasn't until Eleanor's suggestion of writing letters to Azkaban that Maria finally had any contact with her father. She wrote to him, telling him about the simplest things about her day. Maria never received a response, but somehow she just knew that her father was reading her letters in his tiny, cold cell in Azkaban.
Maria didn't mention anything about her death until she slipped several months after she had started writing the letters. Nothing seemed off to Maria as she mentioned her mother once, forgetting that her mother was dead and she wasn't' supposed to be able to see her.
That was the only time she received a letter back from her father. Prisoners weren't allowed to send letters of any kind, and it left Maria wondering what her father had to do to send this particular one. He expressed his concern in the letter, and it wasn't until that exact moment that she realized how much Sirius Black loved her.
His letter is what compelled her to fill out pages of paper, explaining everything that had happened to her and the result of it. She had hesitated before sending the letter, worried about it getting into the wrong hands or her father becoming fearful of her after he learned what she could do. It took a little coaxing from Eleanor to find the courage to send the letter to her father.
Maria waited anxiously for days, wondering if the letter had reached him yet. She tossed and turned in her sleep, although this time it wasn't from the nightmares. A week later, she finally received a response. Her nerves shook her entire body as she unfolded the letter to find six simple words written on the piece of paper.
I love you no matter what.
Maria felt her chest bubble as she felt a weight lifted off her chest. For the first time since she had died, she wanted to dance or do something to express how she was feeling. It was the most happiness she had felt since she had died. She didn't do any of these things, however, as she tucked the letter under her pillow so Perseus couldn't find it and continued writing letters. Even though Maria never received a response to her letters again, she knew he was reading them.
Like when she was a kid, she soon found herself imagining what it would be like to meet her father. Maria knew it was pointless as no one ever left Azkabanz alive, but she couldn't help but hope. Hope that her father would someday be free from a crime he didn't commit so he could finally meet the kids he hadn't been able to watch grow into young adults without him.
Little did she know, that soon she would get her wish.
