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xxi. the next step
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"Sirius? About time you've shown up?"
Sirius was standing there. His face was white and gaunt as it had been when he had escaped Azkaban. In one swift moment, he had crossed the room. "Matilda, are you alright? Where's Harry? I knew it ─ I knew something like this would happen."
Matilda swatted out at the hand that Sirius had reached out to check the spot on her cheek that turned out to be just dirt. She rolled her eyes as she found herself further into the familiar office.
"Yes, well, you and me both it seems like," Matilda crossed her arms over her chest and turned back to face Sirius. "I pleaded with him ─ Harry, not to go into that maze. I begged Dumbledore to stop it..."
Sirius' grey eyes locked on Matilda as his dark eyebrows drew together curiously. Just like her, he'd crossed his arms over his chest creating a striking resemblance between the two.
"You knew something was going to happen?" he asked Matilda.
She shook her head, "I had a feeling that something was going to happen ─ something bad. As usual, I was right."
"You remind of someone that I ─ a friend," said Sirius, a glint of a smile played at the corner of his dry, cracking lips. "She always prepared herself for the worst. Made for great intuition."
"You're talking about Rosaline..."
Sirius' head snapped upward. The name rang through his ears and his eyes widened in shock and horror. He hadn't been expecting Matilda to know the name, let alone who he was speaking about. Had she been told? Does she know the story?
"She was friends with my dad, I think," said Matilda, when Sirius didn't go to speak before her. "He tells me that I remind him of her. I'm named after her too."
Sirius nodded, "Matilda Rose Winters. I am aware."
A saddened and pained expression crossed over Sirius' ghostly features. His mind wandered back to Rosaline, Matilda's namesake. It didn't surprise him that Rueban would keep her intact through Matilda. In fact, it made perfect sense. Rosaline had been Rueban's most cherished friend.
Before anything more could be said about the mysterious Rosaline, Dumbledore appeared, opening the door to his office, Harry standing, barely visible behind him.
