"Where then?"
"Not on this Earth."
Hattie Black is the daughter of Sirius Black. Growing up she never had a set home, her parents weren't together and that meant she had to change between houses all of the time. Even during school holidays when she...
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* * *
First thing the next morning, Hattie's sedation we're off and she groggily awoke, her whole body aching similar to how she felt when Charlie had found her during the Christmas holidays. Upon seeing her awake, Madam Pomfret dropped everything else she was doing and rushed to Hattie's side, checking her over and lightly waking Remus, Charlie and Sirius whilst doing so.
Sirius burst awake and grasped hold of Hattie's hand but she yanked hers away, not looking at him at all. She didn't speak at all, only nodding or shaking her head in response to Madam Pomfrey's questions.
It didn't take long before Sirius was showering her with multiple questions. "Why, Hattie? Tell me why you feel like this? Hattie, c'mon talk to me!"
Hattie didn't respond at all, she kept looking away from her father with her eyes tightly shut.
"Hattie, sweetheart, talk to me."
Hattie shook her head and turned to Remus, "I don't want him here." She muttered, her voice barely audible but enough for them to hear.
Sirius' mouth dropped, "Hattie, I'm your father, you need me here."
"No I don't," Hattie turned to him, looking him dead in the eyes, "because you are not my dad."
She knew that had hurt him. Anger built up on his face and is mouth opened and shut like a fish out of water but she didn't care.
Madam Pomfrey looked at Hattie as if she had three heads, her lisp were purses and quite frankly, she was flabbergasted.
"I am your father, you don't get your looks from your mother and I am the name on your birth certificate," Sirius stated, his jaw tightened.
"That doesn't mean your my dad. You told Harry that. Blood maybe be thicker than water but love conquers all! You told Harry that his grandad was your father more so than you biological one. Thus you are not my father!" Hattie raised her voice for the first time in years. Even Remus had to do a double take because the last he had heard her voice so loud was when he picked her up and held her in the air as a child.
Sirius snapped. "Then who do you suppose is?!"
"Remus!"
Sirius slumped, his shoulders falling and his eyes falling on his best friend who, of course, knew Hattie felt this way, but he did feel bad for Sirius. Charlie stayed quiet, watching Hattie's moves just in case she did anything irrational.
Sirius shook his head and stormed out of the hospital wing, slamming the large doors behind him alerting those who still laid asleep on the other side of them. Now they were all awake.
James was the first to his feet approaching his best friend and wrapping Sirius in a hug. "I can't believe Moony." Sirius sobbed.
James furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and asked, "what?"
All of those around were just as confused as James was and waited silently for Sirius to elaborate.
"She says I'm not her father."
"Then what does Remus have to do with this?" Asked Lily, placing a gentle hand on his back and rubbing small circles with her thumb.
"She claims he is her father. I can't believe him!" Sirius roared pushing James away and aiming his fist at the wall, colliding with the stone repeatedly.
Peter grabbed hold of Sirius' waist pulling him away from the wall, clutching his bloody hand once Sirius stopped fighting off him.
"It might just be a reaction to what happened," said Peter, "people do and say crazy things when they're upset, Padfoot."
Sirius shuddered a shaky breath as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground, "I thought I was going to lose my baby last night," he cried and nobody stopped him, "but it turns out I had already."
* * *
From inside the hospital wing, Hattie was instantly wrapped up in Charlie's arms and she held tightly onto his shirt covered in holes from where Norbert was being cheeky and sending fireballs hurtling his way the previous day.
"It's okay, baby girl, it's going to be alright," Charlie hushed her as Remus sat beside her.
"Hattie, Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey have arranged some professional help and we all will be there every step of the way. I promised you we would get through this and we will, okay?" Remus whispered pressing a kiss to her head.
Hattie looked up at Charlie, her eyes wide like a puppies and her bottom lip jutting out, not purposely, but naturally. "Will you?" She asked him and in that moment Charlie's heart ripped in two.
"I will be there for you, I will visit every day I can, I will write and use the diary, but I have to be in Romania." He said solemnly, wiping his thumb across her cheekbone.
Her head snapped to Remus, "you?" She asked him.
"Hattie I am not going anywhere." Remus told her.
She dropped her head into his chest as Professor McGonagall entered with Professor Dumbledore by her side.
"Hattie..." Professor McGonagall started, pity in her eyes. "What happened last night was..."
"Stupid and awful. I know," finished Hattie, "I've already had the spill from Sirius."
Professor Dumbledore offered the girl a sherbet lemon from his pocket. She declined.
"Hattie, as soon as Madam Pomfrey deems you fit to leave the wing you will be spending the rest of the school year at home." Dumbledore cut straight to the point, not really knowing how to address Hattie and the situation straight on. He didn't know what to say or do, it was all a guessing game, one where everyone has to tread carefully.
She sighed, "do I have to go there?"
"Where else would you go, dear?" Asked her godmother.
"With Charlie to Romania."
Charlie shook his head, "as much as I would be delighted to have you with me, you can't Hattie, I can't look after you properly not on my own."
"You would be on your own, Remmy could come with."
Remus ran his fingers through Hattie's hair, "darling, no one except Charlie is going to Romania, you'll be best at home around auntie Lily, Uncle James, Uncle Peter and your dad."
"But your my dad."
"I'm not though, Hattie, but that doesn't mean I won't be there, I've told you that."
The girl fell back against her pillows, pressing her hands to her eyes and exhaling, laying in silence for minutes on end. After a while she broke the silence by saying:
"I'm not okay."
It was such a random comment to leave Hattie's lips but at the same time it wasn't. Yes, she had told Charlie she was in fact not okay but she didn't really believe it. Until now. This time it was signalling that she has finally come to terms with the fact of the matter and that she was willing to do anything to bring her from this state except what had nearly been successful the night before.
It was all down to Seamus. He was the reason she was still alive. He stopped her and caught her from falling. The boy who never spoke to her and avoided her day-in-day-out, who she thought didn't like her at all, was the one to save her.
