Sirius took a breath and tapped the mirror with his wand before muttering the activation phrase. He felt a bit silly saying "Mum and Dad" but he'd done far more stupid things over the years for far less important reasons. He found himself unconsciously smoothing his hair and making sure his shirt was straight as Jane Granger appeared.
"Sirius? What's happened? Where is Hermione?"
"Hermione is fine, everyone is fine," he lied. "I was hoping I could speak to David?"
Jane looked like she wanted to say something but held her tongue, probably realizing David would tell her everything later regardless of whatever she'd be able to pry out of Sirius at the moment. "Just a second," she finally replied with a smile. Seconds later an equally confused David Granger appeared.
"Everything alright?" he managed.
"Yes and no," he began. "No-one's hurt and we actually learned a bit of information about Harry."
"Based on your expression I'm guessing Harry's not alright now because of this information?"
Sirius nodded.
"Is he cursed?" David prompted.
"More like destined for something," he supplied.
"Like 'the fate of the world is on his shoulders' kind of destined?"
Sirius nodded again.
"Is the fate of the world really on Harry's shoulders or does he just think it is? Hermione said that Harry always feels like he has to-"
"It really is on his shoulders," Sirius interrupted, his heart sinking at having to verbalize that awful, inimitable fact.
"Well...shit," David replied, sounding very much like Sirius had been feeling over the last few hours.
After several seconds of silence David continued his questioning. "How is Harry handling it?"
"He's keeping to himself and saying he's fine even though he isn't. He skipped supper tonight and is holed up in his room."
"Hermione?"
"She's upset because Harry's upset and because she's worried for him. I distracted her by giving her a book about something he needs to learn."
David laughed. "You realize you've created a monster, right?"
"I'm not following," Sirius replied in confusion.
"Well I would suggest you find any and every book you have on the subject as soon as humanly possible or she will be pestering you until you do it. I can't tell you how many trips we made to that bookstore in Diagon Alley once she'd learned about magic."
David paused in contemplation. "But you didn't want to talk about Hermione, did you?"
"No, I'm looking for a bit of advice on how to talk to Harry. Lift his spirits...make him believe everything is going to be all right...proper parenting things."
David raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure everything is going to be all right?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Then forget about that one," David informed. "If Harry is anything like Hermione, he'll know immediately that you're feeding him a line and it will only set him off."
"I need to do something!" Sirius exclaimed. "Just tell me what you would do...that's all I'm asking. I'm always being accused of treating Harry like he's my best mate and we're back in school instead of his guardian. I can't fuck this up."
After a pause David replied. "So you're basically expecting me to offer the perfect advice to inspire a fifteen-year-old boy who just found out that he has to save everyone or die trying? Couldn't you have eased into it a bit with some easy questions? What are the popular trainers these days? How to have 'the talk'? Something non-life and death?"
أنت تقرأ
Live Forever
العاطفيةThe summer after Harry's fourth year would have been much better if just one person in his life had disregarded Professor Dumbledore's instructions to ignore him. And if that person was Hermione Granger? It would have been much, much better
