Shakespeare ❆ Sirius Black [1]

Chapter Twenty Four

Konstantin Volkov was sitting on the couch in the living room of their home grading some of the papers that his students had handed in a couple of days ago. After the events of last night, he needed something to take his mind off of the attack made on their neighbours by a group of wizards. While the news of the attack that happened during the night made him horrified that he had slept through all that, a part of him was also highly relieved that it happened at a time when neither Catherine nor Nadia were home.

Nadia was in school, and Catherine had gone to see her parents for a couple of days. It took some convincing, but he managed to reassure his wife that there was no need to rush home and that he was perfectly alright. However, he soon discovered that he would not be alright for long because as a green fire burst out in his fireplace, the shock sent the papers flying from his hands as he jumped to his feet in surprise. If there was one thing he hated it was that darn Floo Network Catherine demanded they have a connection to. Konstantin warily watched the flames die down as he waited to see who it was using their fireplace as transportation and as he did, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Dad!" Nadia exclaimed happily as she rushed into her father's arms, throwing her hands around his neck and squeezing the breath out of him, but he did not mind one bit as he embraced her with a large smile on his face.

"Nadia, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in school, in class no less." He questioned her in worry, pulling away and looking her over for any sign of something being wrong.

"Professor Dumbledore let me come, I just had to check on you and mum." Nadia replied with a happy smile on her face as she looked at her father. Seeing him now was making up for all the days in Hogwarts during which she missed him. It was as she spoke did Konstantin notice yet another person standing in his living room, dusting his school uniform off from the residual ash from the fireplace.

"And who's this?" He asked curiously, his words making the boy look up with wide eyes. So far Sirius had let Nadia reunite with her father as he stood back, but he didn't even realize the man had by now spotted him.

"My name's Sirius Black sir, it's a pleasure to meet you." Sirius approached quickly, and politely extended his hand to the man. Konstantin shook the boy's hand with a raised eyebrow, now that last name was one he recognized from some of the stories Catherine had been telling him about what has been going on in the Wizarding community.

"Black?" He couldn't hold himself back from asking. If this was a member of the Black family that his wife had told him about, he couldn't for the life of him understand why he would be here along with his daughter. He watched the boy's face pale at his question. Sirius had already thought that it was highly possible that some of his family members participated in last night's attack, and if Nadia's father knew that he was ready to be kicked out of the house in a blink of an eye.

"Yes dad, he's my friend." Nadia said pointedly. After coming to Hogwarts, Nadia had discovered that her mother had been in school around the same time as Walburga Black, and there was no love lost between the two. It was why she hadn't mentioned being friends with Sirius, because she wanted her parents, primarily her mother to meet him before they make assumptions about him. Sirius was nothing like his family, and Nadia wanted them to know that.