"Well, since we're all family now - not exactly blood related but close enough, I'd like you to meet Granny Potter," James said excitedly. Sirius and I both gave each other a confused look from the bed we were sitting on, James was pacing joyfully in front of us, his hands waving animatedly. "Who's Granny Potter?" I asked nervously.
James giggled childishly and clapped his hands, opening his bedroom door and indicating us out, "You'll see." The three of us all walked downstairs and greeted the two adults when the door bell rung, James got all excited and then I knew why, Granny Potter was there.
Fleamont opened the door to see his mother who was holding on to her walking stick and glaring at him, "Fleamont, still have that moustache I see." She walked inside with the help of her stick and we all followed her into the living room. "Euphemia, how lovely to see you, where's my tea?"
Mia went off to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and Granny Potter turned to us three children, she did a double take and then shrugged, sitting down. "James, you look more like your grandfather every time I see you, shame really, he wasn't very good looking." I coughed in surprise as James tried to hide a smile.
James was usually like this, he could never keep a straight face for long enough. Granny Potter looked to me as I coughed, and said, "Stop coughing child, do you have an illness? Stay away from me, I'm 80," she turned suspiciously to Black, "Mr, Miss? You have very long hair."
Sirius pushed back the front of his hair behind his ears and said, "I'm Sirius Black ma'am." Granny Potter eyed the boy, and I knew that she had heard things about the Black family, especially when they branded the Potters as blood traitors. "Well, you always get one. I do hope you won't be my grandson's friend and then leave him after new opportunities arise."
It seemed she had a personal experience with the Blacks.
The old woman then turned to me and I knew that I should introduce myself, politely and cautiously, "I'm Athena Pattinson ma'am." The grey haired woman leant on her walking stick and had the other hand on the sofa. It must also be knowledge among the magical community that my parents or my family are not nice people. Granny Potter gave me a look, and then said, "I assume your parents didn't agree to you being here. I'm sorry for what they've done."
So she's heard the rumours. The rumours are true. My parents have done the indescribable and they hadn't told anyone but people had heard the screams, seen the scars, in fact my shoulder burned just thinking about it. Sirius and James gave me both confused looks but then something worse happened, Monty and Mia gave me looks of sympathy. I hated sympathy.
I'd already came to them soaking and tired, alone and afraid in the middle of the night. I didn't want any more sympathy, no matter how grateful I was. In fact, I never wanted any from anyone, because I was strong and could easily take on the entire world, all without their help, without their looking out for me.
Later on in the evening when Granny Potter had finally left and the three of us were all sat in James' room, we were all silent and staring into the metaphorical abyss. That was until Sirius broke the silence and asked, "What did she mean Thea?" He didn't need to elaborate for me to know what he was talking about.
I shuffled uncomfortably on the boy's bed, thinking about the question, Sirius looking at me from an armchair near the corner of the room. James had put an arm around my shoulder as he was sat next to me, giving Sirius a pointed look, he said, "It meant nothing, she's batshit crazy most of the time."
Sirius was persistent though, we all knew that much, and so, he asked again, "But it must have meant something, didn't you see your parents? They were giving her the sad look, something must have happened." James threw the black haired boy a glare, and once again went to interrupt but I shook my head.
"It's fine James, if he wants to pity me, he can. I'll tell you exactly what happened."
"Thea-"
"No James, it's what he wants. When I disobeyed, or did something that my parents didn't like, I was hurt. Sometimes it was verbal, sometimes there was no food, or being locked in my room. That was the best of it all. But, when they were really angry, and I had done something they hated to death, they cast the Cruciatus curse on me. You wanna see the scars? Well here they are, go on, pity me. Give me the 'sad look'."
I pulled my sleeve down and showed them my shoulder and part of my back.
There was one long scar that wouldn't go away, of course none of them would, they're magical scars. It was a curse, and I knew how Remus felt, and how James now felt on his stomach from the scratch, it had gone down of course, but it was still slightly visible. The two boys in the room were silent, I pulled back up my sleeve and made to go to the room I was staying in but was stopped.
"Thea, I'm sorry, but you're not going through this alone," Sirius whispered. He pulled up his shirt on his arm, and I saw multiple hits, from the same curse, going across his like veins, it seemed that all blood crazy parents were the same. We both stood in silent, neither knowing what to say, but we didn't have to as I felt an arm pull me in for a hug. It was James, one arm around the both of us, he smelt of broom polish and cinnamon. It was nice.
"We're family now, and don't do that again, you both scared me," James mumbled, his head buried in my shoulder. "Sorry James," both Sirius and I said at the same time, except he cracked a smile while I didn't. After he pulled away, I stood there for another minute, giving them that benefit, before leaving the room, going to my own room, and flinging myself down on the bed.
There was a balcony that usually looked very inviting and interesting, especially when looking up at the stars, but I couldn't be bothered to move, not now, there was too many thoughts swirling around my brain.
Hours later, I looked at the clock and it was midnight, I hadn't slept for so long, the entire day was playing on my mind. I made to turn to the wall, but there was a knock on my room door and then a whisper, "Can I come in?" I got up and opened the door, I hadn't moved, let alone changed from the time I'd first come into the room, on the other hand, Sirius was now wearing grey pyjamas.
"Nice," I teased. The Black sighed in what I guessed was relief, and he looked down at his attire and grinned, grabbing my arm and leading me out onto the balcony. It seemed that I didn't need to wait for another time to go onto the balcony, he had done the job for me.
We both sat down and he opened something, there was a few moments and he pulled out a lighter, and I then knew what it was. "Want one?" he asked. I shook my head, I didn't, I'd heard the worst things about those from Lily and Mary, but the best things from Marlene and that made me even more hesitant. "Suit yourself," he said and he lit up the cigarette and placed it between his lips.
"What do you want?" I asked him. Sirius took a drag from one and then puffed out smoke which I leaned away from, the stuff smelled quite bad. He said, "I wanted to say sorry for earlier, for pushing you. I know it wasn't that nice of me and it was kind of mean of me to make you share something you was uncomfortable with, but I had to make sure my suspicions were correct." He took another drag and let out the smoke.
"You wanted me to show you my scars for what?" I questioned, I didn't know where he was going with this. Sirius didn't answer me at first, he just looked at the moon, it was a crescent moon, so Remus was safe for tonight. Then, the boy said, "You know I'm concerned about you. Or if you don't, you do now. I just wanted to know because I know my parents, and I know their friends quite well. I wanted to make sure you were okay."
"By forcing me to tell you I had been tortured by my parents?" I asked him. I got his point but I didn't believe him, Sirius Black was not a normally caring person. The grey eyed boy shook his head, "You know what, never mind." He then took another turn on his cigarette, becoming silent once again. This time however, I had a small smile on my face, "You care about me, eh?" Sirius raised one eyebrow at me and gave me a playful shove, "Shut up."
I laughed, "I would go and tell James right now that you're an empathetic person but I know he's asleep and I don't want to see grumpy James." The boy scoffed and finished his cigarette, throwing it over the barricade of the balcony and finally breathing in some untarnished air, giving his lungs a break. "Why do you have them anyway? They're bad for you, you know."
Sirius nodded, "I know."
When he didn't elaborate, I just stared at him, waiting for another answer but then it clicked. Well, two things clicked, I didn't like being pushed for answers so I wouldn't push him to tell me to explain. Another thing, he knew that cigarettes were bad for you, he knew they could cause all sorts of problems for breathing and your insides. He even knew that in serious cases, they could kill. That explained enough for me.
However, I had another question for him, something that made me genuinely have to think, it was unsettling to think, but even worse to believe. "Sirius, what if doing all of this. Thinking what I do. What if that makes me a bad person?" I knew myself that I wasn't a particularly bad person, not morally anyway, I hadn't killed anyone, I hadn't cheated or stolen or assaulted anyone. But I may have been a bad person mentally, and that scared me.
Sirius turned to look properly at me, nodding his head like he understood what I was going through in my own head, and he gave me his answer, "You're not a bad person, you're a very good person, who, bad things happen to. You understand that?" I understood. Quite a lot more than anyone could have imagined.