The Tree of Blacks (English version)

Threats From the Sky

23 February, 1977. Hogwarts, Forbidden Forest.

James' hazel eyes jumped in amazement from Alya to the book the girl held in her hands, then back from the book to Alya.

"I can't believe it," exclaimed the Gryffindor in disbelief. "You are the proudest, snootiest pureblood Slytherin I have ever met..."

"Oh, I thank you." mocked Alya, offended.

"What I mean is that you are the most unlikely person... your family is... I mean, what's someone like you doing holding a book like this? It's a Muggle book!" mumbled James, increasingly astonished.

"I've just told you, it's one of my favourite texts. I've been reading it since I was a little girl, before I even entered Hogwarts." explained Alya, with a note of impatience seeping into her voice.

"Yes, but how did you come into possession of it? I highly doubt it was a gift from your 'sweet' parents!" commented Potter bluntly.

"It is indeed a gift!" snorted Alya, brusquely.

James squared her in astonishment.

"Well, not exactly a gift... A sort of," the girl immediately added, clutching her shoulders.

James kept looking at her with a puzzled air. Alya sighed.

"Remember when I told you about how Koboro and I first met?"

"Of course! In the grove near your family's Manor in Cornwall." asserted the Gryffindor confidently, but still unable to guess where the Slytherin intended to go with this.

"Exactly, the same one where Sirius caught me speaking in Parseltongue. You see, Potter, you should know that the story has a sequel. After my brother found out that I can speak with snakes, he freaked out. He insulted me, rejected me. I tried to explain to him that I was doing absolutely nothing wrong, but he wouldn't listen to reason. Sirius pushed me and ran off, as if I had suddenly transformed into some horrifying creature. As I fell, I hit my head violently on the ground and fainted."

"And Sirius just left you there?" indignantly James indignantly, disappointed by his friend's behaviour.

Alya nodded with veiled sadness in her face.

"Well, he was upset to say the least. And disgusted. You can imagine... Honestly, I don't think he noticed my condition when he ran away... or, perhaps, he just didn't care. Either way, it was someone else who came to my aid," Alya explained, before plunging into another tale of her troubled childhood.

Alya told James about what happened after her altercation with Sirius in that distant grove in Cornwall: she told him about the Muggle family who lived nearby and who had taken her in, caring for her head wounds. How they had approached her with free kindness, offering her shelter and delicious food. She even told of the strange encounter with the fake clairvoyant and the double, far-fetched prediction she had made, when she had scanned the grooves of her palms. Alya told how it was Andromeda who had found her and how the latter had warned her not to reveal to a soul who she had been saved by, reminding her that her family would not be able to accept it.

"Before I left that Muggle house, the son of the woman who rescued me wanted to lend me this book at all costs. It was his favourite, fixated as he was on pirates." concluded Alya, wistfully.

"Lent? I thought he gave it to you as a gift?", observed James, curiously.

"I had intended to give it baxk to him the following summer, once I had finished reading it. But it wasn't possible for me."

"Why? What - what happened to that poor Muggle child?" asked Potter, not hiding his apprehension.

"Oh well... my parents caught him and fed him to Kreacher," replied Alya, stung. James winced in horror.