Crookshanks | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 06

The next day, Jenna woke up with a smile on her face, feeling the familiar arms wrapped around her waist. She slowly turned her head over and glanced behind her shoulder, looking at Sirius who was fast asleep, breathing peacefully in and out.

     She then struggled to turn over in his arms and face him, nuzzling into his bare chest.

       "Morning, Kitten." Jenna heard Sirius mutter in a deep husky voice that made her giggle.

      She hummed happily, closing her eyes once again, feeling more at peace than she had in many years.

       "Why are you all giddy?" Sirius asked with an amused grin, watching her through half-open eyes.

        "Just... you know..." she muttered.

       "Yeah, I know, but I want you to say it," Sirius said playfully.

       "I — well — you — ugh, I'm not good with words, all right!?"

       "After last night, I think we can confirm that you're pretty good at saying a few specific words, Jenny, including my name."

      Jenna raised her head from her pillow, giving him a look as Sirius smirked teasingly at her.

      "Anyway," said Jenna with an eye-roll, trying to change the subject. "I forgot to ask what you were doing here last night, searching my closets."

      "Trying to see if I could find a spare wand around," Sirius answered.

      "Oh... no, I don't think we have any," said Jenna before rolling over and laying down on his chest. "So... what's your plan?"

       "Well, I wanted to see if I could find a wand to Apparate to Hogsmeade and somehow get to Hogwarts and find Wormtail. But now that you have a wand —"

        "We can't Apparate with it, Sirius," said Jenna, with a small frown. "It's been over a decade since either of us have tried it. It's too dangerous. We could Splinch!"

       "Then I'll go on foot," he shrugged. "Or you know... paws."

      "You mean we will go?" Jenna raised a brow at him, smiling mischievously. "I could transform into Crookshanks and come with you!"

      "Look, you said couldn't even change your hair color after —" he stopped himself in mid-sentence before bringing on her Lily and James's death, knowing how sensitive she was about that subject.

      "I could still try!" Jenna argued. "I haven't given it a go for years. Maybe I can do it now."

      "All right then," said Sirius, "do it."

      "I — what?"

      "Do it now. Change your hair color."

       Jenna hesitated at first, but then moved away from Sirius as she wrapped the blanket around her chest and closed her eyes, trying to focus to turn her hair into blue.

      But when she opened her eyes and looked down, she saw that it was still brown.

      "It's — it's okay, Jenny," said Sirius gently, sitting up and placing a strand of hair behind her ear. "You don't have to come with me. I'll go by myself. That's safer for you —"

      But he didn't get to finish his sentence when Jenna angrily started to get dressed and left the room without any other word.

      Her feet carried her forward uncontrollably, until she found herself at the end of the enormous yard, where her parents were buried. Her vision became blurry at the sight of their graves as she kneeled down on the ground, letting down her tears.

"I feel like I let Lily and James down," she said, looking down at her fingers. "I promised them I would take care of Harry... but I didn't even —"

Jenna didn't get to finish her sentence as she let out a loud sob uncontrollably.

"I-I just wish you guys were here... I feel like... things would've miraculously fallen into place... a-and I don't know what I'm supposed to do... I'm so lost..."

Jenna sat there for long minutes, staring into nowhere as her tears streamed down.

After what felt like hours, she finally got to her feet and went back inside the house and walked into the kitchen, where she could hear noises.

When she got there, she saw that Sirius was setting the breakfast table and had made pancakes, using everything he needed from Jenna's shoppings.

"Hey," he said, smiling at her and she returned it weakly, sitting down behind the table. Sirius joined her, saying, "Let's see if my pancakes are still awesome, shall we?"

"Is 'awesome' the new word for saying 'terrible'?" Jenna joked as she sat behind the kitchen table.

"Haha, very funny," Sirius said flatly, making Jenna chuckle as he put some on her plate.

She took the first bite, but then put her fork down, staring down at her plate.

"Okay, it's not that bad," said Sirius defensively.

"No, it's not that," Jenna muttered, shaking her head slightly.

"Then what is it?" Sirius asked worriedly.

"What if Harry doesn't want to meet me?" she finally said after a long pause.

"What?" Sirius frowned at those words. "Where did you get that idea from?"

"Even if he finds out that I'm alive, he would think that I abandoned him!" Jenna reasoned. "And even worse, what if he has heard from the people he's living with that I'm a traitor who used to work with Voldemort!?"

"Look, I'm sure those people have told him good things about you." Sirius shrugged. "I've heard from the Ministry officials who visited Azkaban every once in a while that Harry's living with Lily's sister now. Petunia, was she?"

"What!?" Jenna exclaimed. "So you're telling me he's been living with the stupid Dursleys all this time!? They hate magic and anyone related to it!"

"There you go then," said Sirius with a grin, trying to be comforting. "Then with a bit of luck, they wouldn't have mentioned us at all!"

"That's not helping, Sirius!" Jenna huffed, burying her face in her hands miserably. "I can't believe I've been missing all his big moments... from getting his Hogwarts letter to taking him to Diagon Alley for the first time... he's going to hate me... my own nephew..."

      A silence fell between them, but it was broken after long moments when Sirius let out a light gasp.

"Jenna," Sirius whispered in disbelief, watching her brown hair slowly turn into silver. "Your hair..."