Crookshanks | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 01

It was raining that night, just like how it had been the last time Jenna Potter was there, twelve years ago. She never expected to one day come back to her childhood home again.

She had thought that she would never lay another finger on her wand again. She had promised herself that she would have nothing to do with the world she belonged to, until the day she died.

The truth was, Jenna had been peacefully living in a small Muggle town near Carolina for over a decade, where no one even bothered to believe in magic. And that was exactly what Jenna wanted.

She just wanted to forget everything and everyone. Even her old self, for that matter.

Everything had been going as planned and she had finally gotten accustomed to the life she had made there, but things took a shocking turn one evening.

That night, Jenna had returned home after a tiring day at work, where she was the secretary of a small company. She poured herself some coffee and sat down on her small couch, turning on the TV.

She changed the channels to look for a good show to watch, but she was frankly disappointed when she saw that nothing good was on. So she moodily changed the channel to UK's BBC news, just to see how things were going back at her own country.

But her heartbeat sped up and her eyes widened at what she heard next on the news, the color draining from her face.

    "...The public is warned that Black is armed and extremely dangerous. A special hot line has been set up, and any sighting of Black should be reported immediately."

Jenna couldn't believe her ears at first, trying to reason that 'Black' was a common surname and that a Muggle channel wouldn't talk about him.

But then, they showed a picture of the escaped prisoner. His hair was black and ruffled, his face dirty and dangerous. He was almost unrecognizable.

But Jenna knew those grey eyes. There was no mistaking it. She knew exactly who the man was.

Sirius Black.

       The cup of coffee she was holding suddenly fell from her trembling hand, smashing into pieces as it landed on the floor. But she couldn't care less.

Jenna wasted no time in taking her wand out of a box at the back of her small closet. She didn't even bother to pack her stuff. She just made a Porkey to get her back home. Her real home.

It was pouring rain, soaking her wavy brown hair and old clothes as she stared up at the ever so familiar manor. Her childhood home.

As the thunder roared across the sky, Jenna saw that a few of the house's windows were broken, the bricks looked old and didn't hold the same pride as they once used to, and that where it had once been a home full of light, joy, and the sound of laughter, it was now dark, grim, and quiet.

As she walked across the field of wet and overgrown grass, Jenna remembered how their parents taught them to play Quidditch when they were kids, right in that yard.

As she widened the front door which was already open, she remembered all the times she left that door with her school trunk in her hands, ready to go to King's Cross station for another year.

The inside of the house was — if possible — even gloomier than its outside. Jenna tried to hold back her tears as she walked inside, trying to block her memories from gushing into her head.

But just then, she came to a halt when she heard scrabbling noises from upstairs.

So she held out her wand, holding it firmly in her grasp. She hesitantly started walking up the staircase, her heart pounding in her chest.

It's probably just another thief, she thought bitterly to herself, here to take whatever that's left of this house.

She then remembered how their mother had chased them down the same stairs on their first day of Hogwarts, when they had dumped dungbombs in their parents' bedroom.

But Jenna quickly shook the thought away as she reached the second floor. The noises were coming from her old bedroom.

She started taking slow steps toward it, her wand raised. She hid herself behind the wall, breathing heavily and waiting for the right moment.

So with one last deep exhale, Jenna jumped from behind the wall, pointing her wand up at the man who was searching her drawers urgently inside the room.

"Stay where you are!" Jenna shouted, causing the man to jump up in shock, jerking around to face her with surprise.

He raised his hand up defensively, staring at her with pleading eyes, looking rather scared.

But as the two stared at each other a moment longer, their eyes widened and their lips slightly fell apart, both lowering their arms in unison.

The man watched her in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe his eyes, his whole body shaking.

"Jenny..." he whispered under his breath, his lips trembling at her sight.