Rough Waters |Sirius Black

Chapter Twenty Five

Harry stared at the woman who awkwardly pointed out the fact that he did indeed have a face and then proceeded to request to be thrown out of the cave afterwards. Sirius seemed to grow more amused with every passing second as she struggled to find the words to properly talk to Harry and his friends. But each time she opened her mouth, something beyond random would come spewing out to the point where it seemed she was about to give up. She had already pointed out that Harry had a face, Hermione was a girl, Ron had red hair and that she was horrible with starting conversations.

As Sirius howled with laughter, Nixie took the opportunity to kick him in the shin as she lost her temper.

"You could help me instead of laugh!" she told him.

Harry smirked before turning to Hermione and Ron who seemed confused and concerned.

"You'll have to excuse me," Nixie said clearing her throat and turning her attention back to Harry. "For the last few minutes, my only sources of conversations have been with a hippogriff and a dog. Not that I was ever spectacular with beginning a conversation in the first place."

"Yes, she's far much better at threatening and being violent!" Sirius said as he continued to baby his shin.

Nixie smiled. "I do take pride in that."

She took a step towards Harry and then stopped herself as she looked at him. "Wow...I know Sirius said that you...resembled your parents but...oh that was bad...sorry."

"No, it's okay." Harry told her. "Trust me I've heard it a lot more than you think. Nixie, right?"

She nodded her head.

The cave grew silent as Nixie took in the boy's appearance, seeing the ghostly image of James standing before her, but instead of James' eyes, it was as if Lily was staring right back at her. Nixie could feel a lump developing in her throat as she looked at the boy that she hadn't seen in so many years. To see elements of her late friends before her, brought tears to her eyes as she covered her face to hide her emotions.

Hermione and Ron frowned as Sirius quickly let go of his leg to walk over and comfort her but Harry beat him to it.

Walking over to his godmother, Harry slowly wrapped his arms around her bringing her down into a hug. She seemed a little thrown off by the gesture before she moved away from him slightly. Harry flushed a bright red as he figured he had come across a little too strong. But she quickly laughed at his face before pulling him into a hug.

"Oh it's so good to see you!' she said. "It's been far too long! Last time I saw you, you were just a little thing wearing a nappy and-"

Harry became even redder if it were possible as Ron snickered until Hermione whacked his arm.

"Sorry," Nixie told him as she grimaced. "Probably not the best time to bring that up...we'll save that for a rainy day...when we're not in a cave...and things aren't as complicated."

"Sounds good." Harry replied.

The group sat around discussing suspicions of who had been the one to enter Harry's name in the tournament. While everyone had their suspicions of who it might have been, Nixie pointed out without solid evidence, there wasn't much that could be done. 

"The problem is, the Ministry seems far too concerned with having positive publicity for the tournament that their last concern is Harry." Nixie said. "When in reality the fact that a boy who wasn't of age being in the tournament should be priority. I don't understand if they suspected cheating why wasn't the tournament canceled or why wasn't there a redraw?"

"The magical binding contract, Nini." Sirius reminded her.

"That's a load of rubbish." Nixie rolled her eyes. "It's not the Unbreakable Vow here...this is a competition...one that rigged, mind you. Yet everyone in the Ministry is sitting on their hands looking at one another with the stupidest of looks. You mean to tell me that a band of wizards that are monitoring, helping and supposedly ruling over the wizarding community couldn't figure out a way to withdraw Harry from a competition that he was forced into. He didn't put his name in the Goblet obviously...yet everyone is just acting as if the Goblet of Fire is this almighty powerful enforcer. Someone created the bloody thing, did they not?! Can no one piece together how to go around it? Obviously not..'

"Easy, Nini." Sirius smirked.

"No, if you think about it...Harry didn't put his name in the goblet...so he holds no binding contract to it...the contract lies with those who organized the tournament. His binding contract is to the Ministry.  Seems all a bit convenient, doesn't it? I'm telling you, I think the Ministry is behind all this mess." she folded her arms and leaned back. "Even if they're not, I still think they're a bunch of idiots. Barty Crouch being the ringmaster of the idiot circus. I don't trust that man for anything!"

Sirius knew a lot of Nixie's bitterness came from how Crouch had handled his case, throwing him into Azkaban without a trial while giving actual known Death Eaters a trial.

Eventually, she settled down before looking to Harry.

"Don't worry Harry, all those who have done wrong in this world will get it back to them ...tenfold."