November Snow

n i n e

"Nov? Why are you here?"

Harry walked on the Knight Bus, and the first thing he saw was me sitting on one of the beds, my black cat sleeping in my lap. My luggages were placed by my bed, some books placed on the bed. I smiled at him to say hello.

"Every since my mom died, I basically live here." I told him.

"Take her away, Ern." Stan, the conductor, told the bus driver.

"Yeah, take it away!" Said the shrunken head dangling from the rearview mirror.

The bus sped away like a rocket. All the beds on the vehicle at once slid few inches away to the rear. Harry lost his footing and dropped onto my bed, his face paled at the speed the Knight Bus was going. He turned over to look at me with the how-can-you-live-here-without-banging-your-head-sometimes look, and I just shrugged. I had nowhere else to go. Snape's house had never been my favourite place to stay for a long time. Harry then looked up to the dangling, swaying chandelier, his face paler by minutes.

"What you say your name was again?" Stan asked.

"I didn't!" Harry said.

"Whereabouts you heading?"

"The Leaky Cauldron. That's in London--"

"Is it now?" Stan mocked him "Get that, Ern? The Leaky Cauldron. That's in London."

"Leaky Cauldron!" Shrunken head exclaimed "Stay away fron the peas soup!"

"Oi, guys!" I said "Don't be so mean to him."

I continued stroking my black cat, Hades, returning to my books and read all the potions I would be studying in the next year. Sometimes, I felt like Hermione. While Harry kept jerking every time the bus turned or worn its way through the Muggle's vehicle, I was pretty much accustomed to it.

After a very short conversation with Harry, Stan went back to his Daily Prophet. I was never into news and such, especially the Daily Prophet. I prefer the Quibblers.

"Who is that? That man." Harry asked.

I looked up from my second year Potions book to see Harry looking at the Daily Prophet's headline: ESCAPE FROM AZKABAN! Below it as a picture of a man with long, disheveled hair. Sirius Black. Yes, I knew him. I knew him very well, actually. He was a friend of my mother before he was sentenced to Azkaban for some crime he didn't commit. Or at least that was what my mother told me. And now he had escaped from the highest guarded prison for wizards, I didn't know if I should be happy or not. Happy because he made it out, not happy because there would definitely be more escapes from Azkaban in the future if the Minister made no effort to tighten the security.

"Who is that?" Stan said "That's Sirius Black, that is. Don't tell me you never been hearing of Sirius Black?"

Harry shook his head.

"Don't blame him." I told Stan "He's not exactly old to the wizarding world."

"You know him?" Harry asked me.

"Well, I'm not exactly new to this." I shrugged.

"A murderer, he is." Stan said "Got himself locked up in Azkaban for it."

"How'd he escape?" Harry asked.

"That's the question, isn't it?" Stan said "He's the first that's done it. Gives me the collywobbles thinking he's out there, though, I'll tell you that. Big supporter of You-Know-Who, Black was. Reckon you heard of him."

"Yeah. Him I've heard of." Harry nodded, locked eyes with the moving photograph of Sirius Black.

I went back to my book. Potions had always been my favourite subject in Hogwarts. Another reason for me to be in Slytherin, I supposed. And I wasn't ready for someone to take my spot as Snape's favourite second-year this year. Competitive, I know.

After more turns and sudden brakes, the Knight Bus stopped in front of an inn with the sign up front. Despite the darkness of the night, I could still read the name, The Leaky Cauldron. It was Harry's destination. The bus door opened, the steps groaned at the heavy feet and appeared a figure who I guessed was the inn keeper.

"Mr. Potter." He said "At last."

Harry turned from the man to me.

"You coming?" He asked.

"You go ahead." I said "I'm gonna be stuck with this bus for a while longer."

"See you at school then."

"Sure, see you then."

With that, he followed the inn keeper and went off the bus into the inn. The bus took off again, and there were just me, Hades, Stan, shrunken head, Ern and a filthy, disheveled wizard on the other bed. We settled down and sped through the Muggle streets, not worrying if someone saw us. No one ever did.

"How was the year's mind?" Stan asked. (For those who don't know, a year's mind is the first death anniversary, held exactly one year after the death of a person)

"Not much going on." I said "There were just me and my Godfather. We kept it simple."

"You miss Leah a lot, don't you?

"Well, she's my mom. I can't live a day without thinking of her." I said sadly "Hades was my mom's cat. She gave him to me before the day she died."

As I stroke the black cat's fur, it purred and my mind went back to that day.

"November, come here." Mom said.

"Yes?" I sat down next to her, her hand brushed my raven black hair.

"Tomorrow is the day you will receive your letter." She smiled "So, I have a gift for you."

She picked up a black cat and placed him in my lap. He purred and looked up at us with his dark blue eyes.

"This is Hades." She said "He has accompanied me since I was a first-year, and now he's yours. Take care of him for me."

"Why do you give him to me now?" The eleven-year-old me asked "Why don't you save it for tomorrow?"

"Because tomorrow, you're going to Severus's house." She said.

"But why?"

"You don't need to know, dear." She kissed the top of my head.

And even till now, I still didn't know why. She sent me to Snape's house the next day, and by the evening a man came and told us she died in a tragic fire at our mansion. I didn't cry. That, I didn't know why either.