From a Cradle to a Grave

Chapter 6

This book was ranked #1 in #hopemikaelson last night! 

Starting now, I'm going to be dedicating the chapters to each of my readers :)

*****

Hope's Pov

"So, has Harry arrived yet?" Hermione asks me, once Ginny leaves.

I shake my head.

"And you haven't heard word from our other black haired friend, have you?" Hermione speaks under her breath.

"No, I haven't received any letters from Sirius," I reply.

It's been four months since Harry, Hermione, Ron, Professor Lupin, and I found out that the notorious Sirius Black was an innocent all along. Unfortunately, when I shot the Stunning Spell at Pettigrew, it blew his tiny rat body to bits. The grisly chunks of flesh got incinerated before my very eyes, leaving us with no way to prove Sirius innocent. Harry and Hermione managed to save him from a Dementor's Kiss by using a time turner, and he's been on the run ever since.

Even though he's safe from the Ministry at the moment, I can't help but feel that the whole predicament that Sirius is in is my fault. I overreacted when Pettigrew escaped. I should have just placed a Freezing Charm on him or something.

"Ginny's thinking of trying out for the Quidditch team," I tell Hermione.

"Really? What position?" Hermione asks.

She's pretending to be interested, but I know better. Quidditch is the only topic of conversation that Hermione finds boring to talk about.

"Not sure, but I'm guessing Chaser," I answer.

I introduce Hermione to my older brothers, Bill and Charlie. Bill and Hermione get engaged in a long talk about Wizarding Banks, so I spend most of the day preparing the house with Charlie.

"It must be fun, working with dragons," I say to Charlie. "I've always wanted to see one."

"Well, you won't have to wait long for that," Charlie says.

I frown. "What does that mean?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "Never mind," he shrugs.

"It's been so long since I've seen you, Hope," he says, as he lifts up his wand and causes the tableware to magically set themselves on the dining table. "Tell me about school. How are classes? Friends? I heard you're a Quidditch player now?"

I smile at the last sentence. "Yeah, Marcus Flint put me on as Beater for the final game. Unfortunately, Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup," I sigh. "But Slytherin came in second place," I quickly add. "No thanks to that stupid Draco Malfoy. It's his fault that we lost."

"I'm sure it is," Charlie nods.

"The only use we get out of him is his family's money. Did you know his father bought the entire Slytherin team Nimbus 2001s the year he joined?" I say.

"I think you mentioned that somewhere in your five paragraph letter titled, 'One thousand detailed reasons as to why Draco Malfoy is a prick'," Charlie laughs.

Suddenly, a screeching sound is heard from inside the house. Charlie and I race indoors, to find our mum screaming her head off at our dad.

"What were you going to tell me, Arthur? What did Fred and George do this time?" she shouts.

Fred and George hastily shove a bunch of candy wrappers back into their pockets.

Bloody hell. This again?