Elektra Black III

Chapter 9 | A Fond Memory

Author's Notes:

A long chapter to get you through this week! Enjoy!

Something was amusing about Sirius being a Professor. In El's eyes, a Hogwarts Professor was someone who could control pranksters, someone who had to be harsh when it came to students getting into trouble for wandering the halls at night and someone keen to pass on their academic knowledge.

To Elektra, her father never seemed to be one of them.

But as he entered the Gryffindor Common Room with his arm protectively around her shoulder, almost as if he was scared she'd run off again, El noticed that he did have a knack for the job and that the students respected him much more than El had seen them do with McGonagall.

"Where are they?" Sirius announced, letting go of El's shoulder to storm into the room with an underlying panic about him. The students parted ways like the floor had cracked between them, revealing a saddened Hermione on the darkened carpet next to Ron and Ginny as Harry watched on from the velvet, red couch. But when he caught Sirius' voice, he turned immediately, his hands sweaty from the pressing guilt rippling through him.

With Sirius halting in his tracks, they caught eyes, almost as if he had seen a ghost.

James.

How much older he appeared, how much he was beginning to look like the spitting image of his old best friend- the messy hair, the stubble that was starting to grow, the glasses and the denim jacket that even James opted to wear when he was younger.

"Harry..." Sirius breathed out as the same boy rose out of his seat to greet his Godfather.

The room fell silent, watching the two stiffly stand there, unable to form words whilst El gently pushed her father more towards Harry, pulling him out of his fumbling trance.

"Sirius, I want to say how sorry I am." Harry started, yet, instead of Sirius taking his earlier anger out on him, he instantly enveloped his arms around the boy, relieved to have his Godson back too.

"Don't you apologise! Please, I was too harsh. I am eternally sorry that I was not the role model for you that James had in mind." The two exchanged a look of relief as Sirius pulled away, patting his shoulders with Harry smiling up at him; good to have someone to look up to again, someone he can go to for advice. Although he was El's dad, he was the father figure Harry desperately needed.

Sirius glanced behind him, landing on Hermione, "I have heard from Elektra the events that took place." He gently pushed Harry to the side as he carefully paced around where Hermione held her bloodied arm.

"Oh... darling girl." Sirius gently knelt to where a fragile Hermione sat as Ron moved away so that Sirius could get a better look at what had occurred. Hermione let Sirius take her arm, "B-Bellatrix." She whispered, unable to form a proper sentence. She hissed as Sirius examined the mess his mentally unstable cousin had made, with a face of pure hatred for the actions of his revolting bloodline. "What matters is that you survived. You survived this because of how brave you are, Miss Granger. You live to tell the tale, and I do hope, as I'm sure everyone in this room can attest too, that Bellatrix will suffer a fate worse than death." Sirius whispered, reaching for his wand as the doors to the Gryffindor Common Room swung open, revealing an agitated McGonagall and a face that Elektra had missed just as much as Sirius'.

"Oh my goodness, is that? Mr Potter! What do I owe the pleasure?" McGonagall announced, rushing over with a subtle glimmer of ease to see Harry back at Hogwarts and not out fighting a war on his own. Harry smiled up to her, his hands reaching into his pockets, feeling welcomed back, unlike he ever was at the Dursleys.