Begins during Order of the Phoenix
Darleen Veronica Khanna.
Pureblood, Slytherin, Special, Orphan, grown-up, lost, lonely.
Sirius Orion Black.
Pureblood, Gryffindor, Special, Orphan, grown-up, innocent, lonely.
"Everybody stands, as she goes by
Cau...
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"I know that you fought for us"
DARLEEN KNEW SHE SHOULDN'T leave Grimauld Place without telling anyone.
Actually, she shouldn't leave at all.
The whole point of her being there was to train as some sort of secret advantage which wouldn't work if people knew she was alive.
But she was sick of being locked up the whole day, she'd spent years traveling around the world, doing whatever she wanted, she couldn't stay at one place for too long.
She was going to come back, of course, there was no way she'd abandon her chance at revenge. Or Sirius. Or Harry.
But for now she wanted to travel for a week or two, visit some places she had missed.
She did feel kind of bad for leaving Sirius and Harry behind, especially today, since it was Harry's hearing but she needed everyone to be distracted so they wouldn't notice she was gone at first.
As soon as she apparated to a Beach in France, however, all thoughts of Sirius, Harry and the rest of the Order left her mind.
☆
WHEN HARRY RETURNED, surprisingly, side by side with Dumbledore and Arthur, no one had noticed Darleen's disappearance.
They were used to her occasionally spending hours upon hours locked in her room, not talking to any of them, so they assumed that was what she doing today as well.
Dumbledore entered the house and greeted the others before asking Ginny to get Darleen, a knowing twinkle in his blue eyes.
When the fiery redhead returned and told them she couldn't find the brunette, the atmosphere changed instantly.
The relief and happiness about Harry being able to go back to Hogwarts was overshadowed by the worry that something happened to the Khanna witch.
The worry was replaced by hurt once Dumbledore informed them that Darleen most likely left because she wanted to, that she was a free spirit who could not be kept in a confined space for so long without a very good reason.
(Said reason needed to be good enough in Darleen's eyes, and they all felt hurt by not being good enough.)
The Headmaster also let them know that she would probably return soon, and just needed a bit of time to herself.
That didn't mean that the residents, especially Harry and his godfather, weren't hurt by her leaving.
The only ones who had no doubt she would return were Dumbledore, who knew how important the people here were to her, and Kingsley, who'd witnessed Darleen run away many, many times, and he'd seen her return every single time, always welcoming her back with open arms since he had secretly trained her to be an Auror before she decided she wanted to travel instead.
