A NEW BEGINNING

25. The Nightmare

PREVIOUSLY IN A NEW BEGINNING

The Potter-Black-Lupin Family bump into the Tonks.

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It was about 1:30 am in the night when Sirius and Remus were woken up by screams coming from Alaya's room. They ran towards her room to check on her. They saw the vase placed on her desk crash on to the floor just when they opened the door. But they couldn't find her on the bed. Remus' heightened sense of smell told him where his blood adopted daughter was. He signalled towards the room's closet when he found her signature smell emanating from there. They could hear her sniffling from inside. They sat down on the floor so that they could get to her eye level.

"Alaya, princess, what's wrong? Are you okay?" asked Sirius in a soothing voice, despite his concern. She was still sniffling, eyeing the two marauders warily. "Come on, cub. We're not going to hurt you. You're not in you're uncle's house, remember?" soothed Remus. They could see her nod due to the light coming from outside the room. "Can we come in and sit with you, Aly? It's me, Harry." Said Harry from behind the other two.

After a few more sniffles, they heard a broken 'yes' come from their little princess. Remus pulled Alaya onto his lap while Sirius did the same with Harry once they went inside. As a soothing gesture, Harry took his sister's hands into his own and rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles. Remus hugged her and stroked her hair out of her eyes. She started calming down and relaxed fully against Remus' stomach. "Did you have a nightmare, puppy?" asked Sirius, while rubbing her back. She nodded against Remus' stomach. "Do you want to talk about it? It helps, you know." Remus said.

She just started talking. "Dursleys. It was Dudley mainly. He was using Harry as a punching bag." She managed to explain it between her sniffles. Harry immediately pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry, Aly. None of them are going to even get near us, sis." He assured. Alaya nodded against her brother's shoulder at this. She looked up to Remus and asked "Can we have some hot chocolate? I don't think I will be able to sleep immediately." "Yes sure, Princess. We can. Why don't we go sit with your parents and grandparents in the family room, yes?" suggested Sirius, to which both the kids nodded.

All the four of them were sitting facing James, Lily, Charlus and Dorea in the family room, holding a mug of hot chocolate each. The four of them went on to update their friends and the two older Potters about what happened in their lives till now, including Harry and Alaya's Hogwarts years. They were really good listeners as they gave the right reactions to each incident.

After everything was done explaining and reactions were done giving out, Dorea called Alaya closer to her portrait. "Listen to me, sweety. Those muggle relatives of yours are not going to touch you anymore as they're not your guardians, okay?" Alaya looked at her grandmother and nodded her head with a smile. "Yes gran. I understand."