The Daughter of the Murderer - BOOK 1 - *COMPLETED*

Chapter 43 - Freedom At Last

Long dark hair, grey shiny eyes, the most genuine smile I've ever seen.

"D-dad..." I say, ready for the tears, "A-are you...?"

But he engulfs me in the tightest of hugs before I can say anything else.

"I'm free!" he cries, soaking my cloak with tears, "I'm finally free!"

"You are...?" I say, not sure if this is real, "For real? Forever?"

"Well, I'll have an appointment at the Ministry in a few hours to make it official," he replies, making me release a teary laugh, "but yeah... forever"

"Thanks to these three young wizards," says Dumbledore's wise voice behind Dad, "who risked their lives yesterday, or some minutes ago, to make sure you were alive and free"

Dad looks at me, then at Harry, then at Hermione, "You did it?" he asks, "H-how...?"

"That doesn't matter now" Harry says, "What matters is that you're free"

"And if you still want to live with us..." Dad says.

"Yes, I do" Harry interrupts, smiling slightly, "I mean, if that's still okay with you..."

"Of course it is!" Dad exclaims, "At least for me... we have to talk to Remus first, but I'm sure it'll be okay with him... wait" he suddenly realises, and his eyes widen with worry, "W-where's Remus...?"

The good old full-moon-worry fills my mind.

"Um..." I stutter, "He um... he must be in the Forest... it's already day, we should go look for him"

~

"We have to make sure no one sees us..." Dad mutters.

"Why?" Hermione asks.

"Well if the Ministry finds me I-" Dad stops, then chuckles happily, "I'm not used to this..." he mumbles.

We laugh silently, but stop when we hear a faint cry.

Dad and I look at each other, then run towards the sound.

Moony sits against some old tree, his clothes ripped, his knees to his chest, his arms hugging himself, his messy-haired head hidden by his legs. And his cries are quiet but heartbreaking.

"Moony..." Dad whispers, taking a step forward.

I put a hand on his shoulder, "Maybe I should go there first...".

He tries to resist but nods in defeat after some short seconds.

I approach Moony and sit next to him.

"Hey...".

He jumps in surprise and looks at me, "Jupiter... go away. Go away, I already did enough damage..." he whispers the last part.

"What?" I say, "What... you didn't do anything..."

"Of course I did!" he yells, "Sirius is probably dead by now, and it's all my fault! If I wasn't this... this... monster than he would be here now!"

"But I'm here..." Dad says, walking to us, "I'm not dead, I'm not in jail, I'm here"

Remus looks up, "I thought the Dementors would be giving you the Kiss by now..."

"Well, guess what?" Dad says, "They're not. Thanks to my daughter, to..." he looks at me and I nod, smiling, "our daughter"

"And Harry and Hermione too" I whisper, but I don't think they heard.

Remus cups Dad's face and kisses him, as if he was waiting to do that forever. And, honestly, I think he was.

We just awkwardly stand there until Hermione speaks up, "Um... I'm sorry, but Sirius has an appointment at the Ministry in one hour and a half..." we all look at her, "so I think we better hurry"

There were some moments of awkward silence, then we all start hysterically laughing and try to go back to the castle.

--

A/N: helloooo my nifflerssss! hope you're doin' well and hope you liked reading this chapter!!

ya know, i gotta go to school tomorrow (today was a national holiday so, thank Loki, we didn't have school), and i just want to stay home watching starkid musicals... but i can't so yeah

anyways...

luv y'all

~luna loveniffler 💙