The Last of the Blacks

Chapter 8: Storytelling

"Why are you sounding like that?" Cassie said confused. "I just wanted to know you the way you are. Not the way my aunt wants you."

Sirius blinked at his daughter several times. His pupils were small dots that were barely visible in his blue eyes. "Remind me again. Why aren't you in Slytherin?"

Sirius saw Cassie freeze in place. He could have sworn he could even hear her heartbeat. But she didn't grin almost immediately and said, "I'm obviously braver than cunning."

"I hope so... I just don't want you to end up like your uncle Regulus..."

"There is one main reason why I won't end up like him. I don't like Voldemort."

And she moved forward, leading Sirius somewhere. After a few minutes silence walking through a forest, the ex-prisoner saw a village.

"Where are we going?"

Cassie nodded at the village opposite them. "There's a cafe where Daphne and I go in the summer. They make the perfect hot chocolate."

Sirius saw a blissful smile on his daughter's lips. She turned her head to the sky, closing her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold, and Sirius immediately thought she would be the perfect Slytherin. And when he said 'perfect Slytherin,' he didn't mean Regulus. He mean of Andromeda and Narcissa.

Cissa was raised to believe in that pure-blooded nonsense like Andy and Sirius, but when they were children, she was more normal than Bellatrix and Regulus. And when she married Lucius... Sirius remembered the tears in her eyes when she said that she wanted to be just like him, that she wanted to have the courage to run away from home and live a Happily ever after.

Sirius knew that Narcissa was lying that day.

"So. What do you want to talk about?" Sirius asked when they sat in the cafe. "Your mom or the Marauders..."

"Let's start with Lydia Greengrass."

"Kol's mother? Why?"

Cassie leaned back in her chair with her eyebrows raised. She tapped her fingers on the table. "There's something neither Daphne nor Cole wants to tell me. Like ... Why did Peter mistake Cole for Voldemort?"

"And you didn't want to risk your aunt hearing that conversation. I'm impressed, I admit," Sirius laughed. "Your mother would be proud."

"Oh, shh!" his daughter rolled her eyes. "Not to mention now ... I feel like I'm coming back and while I'm here, I want to know some things. And when I return to Hogwarts with joy, real joy, I will allow Harry, Ron and Hermione to have me. "

Sirius frowned. What was the meaning of this 'I'm coming back'? However, he decided not to ask. Not her. He decided to ask Andromeda. If anyone knew, it must be his cousin.

"OK. Lydia was a Slytherin," Sirius started. "The same year as us. She was best friend with your mother and Severus Snape..."

"Professor Snape?!"

"Mhm," Sirius nodded. "After he called Lily 'mudblood'. Somehow, your mother became sick of them in our sixth year. I saw her and Lydia fighting about something. When Lydia went away your mother needed someone to comfort her. That happened to be me."

Cassie looked at the big cup hot chocolate in front of her. "I suppose you know what we're fighting about?"

"Nope," Sirius drank a little from his hot chocolate. "This is good. Anyway. Your mother said that the two of them aren't friends anymore... And that's how we started dating. One thing let to another and here you are, my precious little daughter."