• Serena Black •

"The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated
with great caution"

Serena was awakened the next morning by the unpleasant heat of the midday sun, which seemed to have turned her room into a sauna over the night and caused the raindrops on the other side of the window to evaporate completely. Grumbling, she turned around, looking at the clock. Startled, she noticed that she had snored away most of the day.

"Bloody jet lag," she cursed, however, she still didn't make no move to get out of her cozy beddings. Last night's experience wandered through her head. At least, she now knew the answer why her father never had came forward. He had been sitting in prison supervised for an act that caused her blood to freeze in her veins.

Distressed, she pondered about how many people in Hogwarts might have known about her father's whereabouts and thought about her with prejudices. What did they think about someone who had such a relative? Certainly the teachers knew about it, and Serena wondered whether any of them had ever treated her differently.

Professor Snape hated her, she was pretty certain about that. Actually, he seemed to loathe all the Gryffindors. Especially Neville, Harry and her were on his hit list. He hated Neville because he sucked at potions, obviously Harry because he was famous, but Serena never understood the reason he couldn't stand her. She got quite good grades and never really stood out in her first year. It was only when he had made her life miserable that she had fought back. But perhaps he hated her because he knew what her father had done.

Serena was pretty sure that her classmate Draco Malfoy wasn't completely clueless either.
In fact, the words he first addressed to her at Hogwarts Express finally made sense to her. "Black? Well, I better keep on the right side with you. Who knows what might happen to me?"

Malfoy, of course, did not mean what he had said. He certainly hadn't kept on the right side with her. But what about the other students? Would they think Serena would do something to them? Harm then? Or worse?

After all, Serena couldn't even step on a beetle without feeling bad. But what if there was a different side of her hidden deep within her soul? What if bloodlust was in fact inheritable?

Sighing, the late riser finally sat up and came out of her sweaty bedding. Wet strands of hair stuck to her skin and made her think to sleep without the blanket next time it is that warm at night. Nevertheless, she could not deny that sleep was so much better wrapped up completely in a down duvet.

Serena's legs dangled over the bed, barely touching the floor. Since last night's news, she wasn't able to think about anything else.
However, the very reason for this report had nearly bypassed her completely; her father had broken out and was still at large.

The Heart of the Gryffindor skipped a beat and hurriedly she jumped up to ran to her window.
The view was expectedly the same as every day. Some children played in the vast playground in front of her house and some older couples walked along the sunny streets of the suburb.

Serena took a deep breath, not allowing herself to panic. After all, she didn't even know if her father had even received the letter from her mother. He might not even know about her and even if he did, he probably wouldn't even want to meet her. The ice-cold grey eyes, which had looked at her from the TV screen, were certainly not interested in a child. They were
no longer the warm and mischievously glittering ones looking at her from various photos.

Katherine Parker stood on a rather shaky-looking ladder and had been cleaning the windows for at least an hour now. Cleaning always seemed to help her to also clear out her head and distract herself, which she couldn't get enough of at that moment. When her daughter trotted into the living room at noon, she briefly looked up. "Finally awake?"

Serena decided not to answer her mocking question. Instead, she held on to the ladder worriedly. "Do you want me to do this? I'm scared for you if you're standing this unstable."

"And I'm scared for the window if you clean it," her mother replied, again swiping over the glass with a cloth.

"Ha ha." Serena turned away insulted, adding a note for herself in her head to never ask her mother again if she needed a hand.

The blonde woman carefully climbed off the ladder and tucked a light strand of hair that had detached from her bun behind her ear. "As today is my last day off, I thought we might go to London to buy your school supplies."

Surprised by her mother's seemingly relaxed behaviour, Serena furrowed her eyebrows.
However, she had done nothing else for the last thirteen years and had probably been doing some practice in banishing her former partner completely from her memory.

The girl didn't want to destroy her idyllic world, so she decided not to address the last night and its insights. Instead, she was looking forward to go to Diagon Alley and maybe free her mind a little. Serena just nodded and faked a smile.

It was midsummer, but you never knew. With this in mind, Serena had thrown her beloved black leather jacket over and was now impatiently waiting to get out of the car.

"Watch your bag."

"Yes, Mum."

"And don't talk to people you don't know."

"Yes, Mum."

"If anything seems strange to you..."

Serena simply rolled her eyes and looked longingly at the crumbling facade of the Leaky Cauldron. It would probably take a while for her mother to give her usual I-know-you-are-old-enough-but-still-trust-I-don't-trust-humanity-speech.

On a nice day of summer like this, the street was quite well-attended. Children happily came out of the huge bookshop and teenagers chatted animatedly in front of the old-fashioned music shop. In between, the inconspicuous pub, invisible to Muggles, almost seemed to get lost.

In front of the Leaky Cauldron, some tables had been set up, where witches and wizards read the daily prophet and a shaggy black dog watched the people walking by in partial shade vigilantly.

"Okay Serena?"

"Yes, it's okay," mumbled Serena slightly annoyed. Even though she hadn't quite listened to her mother in the first place, she knew the speech by heart anyway. "Bye Mum!"

Finally arriving at Diagon Alley, Serena was, as always, overwhelmed by all the impressions. It felt like she had immersed into a completely different world, which was indeed exactly what she had needed. Well, except for one thing.

Sirius Black seemed to dominate the headlines, with posters and articles hung up everywhere in the street. When passing by, Serena tried not to look when witches or wizards repeatedly almost slapped her in the face with pictures of her father when opening a newspaper.

With a list in her hand, she wandered through Diagon Alley and noticed not only one glance still clinging to her back. Some of her schoolmates whispered so loudly that Serena knew they were obviously talking about her. "That's Serena Black," they hissed, only to be pulled aside by their worried parents shortly afterwards.

With a raised head, the Gryffindor decided to  get her books first, so she turned to Flourish & Blotts. The shopwindow was the first thing she noticed when she reached the bookshop. An enormous cage had been set up with some aggressive looking books inside of it. With an odd look, Serena finally stepped through the old-fashioned door which made a bell ring, announcing her entrance.

A well-known smell of books crept into her nose, making her feel comfortable right away.
She walked up the golden spiral staircase and searched for the books she needed. With one finger she drove over the various backs of the books and let her gaze wander over the titles.

Gilderoy Lockhart

Serena had to smile slightly as an entire shelf of his books piled up in front of her. Behind it hung a large poster on which a man smiled brightly into the camera. That smile had once made so many girls in Hogwarts go crazy. Only a few months ago his books had sold out almost completely and now they were on sale. Harry and Ron had never told her what had really happened in the Chamber of Secrets, only that Lockhart had lost his memory by performing a memory charm. How ironic.

Serena didn't have to search for long, to find the first book she needed for her third year.
She reached for the yellow hard cover which told her it was a book for defense against the dark arts. It looked very nice and especially interesting. She hoped that the new teacher this year would be at least half as interesting as the book looked.

After not finding the last missing book of her list in the entire store, the dark-haired girl consulted an assistant. The other books were pinned under her arm as she showed the employee her list. "Everyone wants this book!" The man sighed, burying his face stressed into his hands which he put in a pair of very thick gloves shortly afterwards.

Armed with a walking stick, he pushed aside Serena and walked towards the cage in the shopwindow. Torn paper covered the bottom where some of the books were battling. They would have been pretty with their green covers, and golden curved writing. Serena couldn't decide if she would find the books cool or rather scary, especially when they furiously snapped at the man.

For a while he struggled with one of the copies before managing to wrap it up and shoving it into Serena's hands as if he was happy to finally get rid of it. Three second-years ran past her as she left the store, so fast that she nearly lost her balance. Serena briefly looked after them. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The perfect mix, she thought grinning as she continued to push her way through the crowd.

The wooden floor rattled under her shoes as she entered the pharmacy. Serena briefly looked at her note, which was crinkled by the many times she had already unfolded it that day.

"Look, it is Serena Black!"

Annoyed, the Gryffindor sighed and looked up from her note. A shelf further on, two older girls from Ravenclaw stood and tussled so loudly that Serena understood every word.
"Do you think she's related to Sirius Black?" Asked the other and horror filled her eyes.

"Yeah, look at her hair." both laughed and shot her a contemptuous glare. Serena smiled as if she found incredibly funny what she just had said. Then she did something she wouldn't do normally. While still smiling, she slowly raised her rude finger.

Outraged, the girls threw their blonde hair backwards and marched out of the store. When they were out of sight, Serena braided her long dark curls into a pigtail. After all, she didn't need to serve the resemblance to her father on a silver tray and she had never been more relieved not to also inherited his cold grey eyes.

Finally, Serena had worked off her long List of school supplies. She was glad to be done with the shopping, as she was sick of all the odd looks following her wherever she went. Even though this was enough to drive her up the wall, the young girl couldn't help but stop at Quality Quidditch Supplies to risk a tiny look into the shopwindow. Quickly the tiny look became a love at first sight when she laid her brown eyes at the greatest broom she had ever seen.

The handle was slender and made of polished ebony. Its lacquer looked quite noble and the birch twigs on the broom tail had been honed to aerodynamic perfection. Next to Serena, the children squealed to catch a glimpse of the new product while they kept shouting its name.

The Firebolt.

In vain, the chaser of the Gryffindor Quidditch team searched for a price tag. In contrast to this masterpiece, her comet 140 looked like firewood. Maybe if she would scrape all her money together... But the moment she read the words, "Price on demand," she knew she couldn't afford this broom in ten years' time.

Serena had to force herself to tear herself away from the shop and decided to get instead something she could afford. She got ice cream from Florean Fortescue's Ice cream parlour as a consolation. After ordering two scoops of butterbeer Ice Cream, two warm hands covered her eyes. "Who am I?"

If she hadn't immediately recognized the familiar voice, she probably would have kicked Harry violently against his leg. Creeping up on her in such circumstances was a huge mistake.

"Dumbledore? Your skin feels fantastic for your age," grinned Serena and turned to the dark-haired boy, who looked offended, before rolling his green eyes and dragging her with him, laughing.

A half-eaten ice cream cup sat on the small table in front of the well-attended ice cream parlour. Serena sat facing Harry, holding a waffle of ice cream in her hands. "Happy Birthday once more! Did they get your aunt down?"

"Apparently, my relatives will even allow me to go back to them next summer," he replied amused, rolling his eyes. His face got serious again when he looked over to the table on his right to a wizard reading the Daily Prophet.
"Serena?"

"Yes?"

"Why have you never said anything?" Harry didn't have to say more, for Serena immediately knowing what he was talking about. She knew that she had to face this confrontation eventually, but at that moment she would have preferred later. The girl shirked from her friend's look and glanced at her ice cream instead. It already had begun to melt in the heat of the midday sun and the milky liquid ran down on the golden-brown waffle. "I had no idea myself."

Serena didn't know what she expected how her friends would react but she certainly didn't expect Harry's reaction. Instead of looking horrified, frightened or even pitying, he just nodded. "Does he know about you?"

She shrugged her shoulders, looking back at her ice cream. The sticky liquid now ran over her hand and hurriedly she tried to wipe it away with a napkin. "I don't know."

"Well, because..." The spectacle wearer paused briefly and peered at her with a look she wasn't able to interpret, "Fudge said that if he knew about you, he probably would want to see you."

The last bit of color had given way to Serena's already pale face, and she froze and sweated at the same time. "He also thinks that..." continued Harry hesitantly and ran his fingers through his messy hair.

Serena rolled her eyes impatiently. "Just spill it out already."

"He thinks you might be a safety issue."

"What?" She asked furiously, "I have never even met this man in my entire life!"

Serena couldn't believe why the ministry thought she would help this criminal break into Hogwarts. She was no less afraid than all the other students, if not even more. Even if her father knew she existed, it wouldn't mean that he was looking for her in the first place. After all, why would a mass murderer want a thirteen-year-old daughter?

"Of course you won't smuggle a madman into Hogwarts and everyone knows that," Harry tried to calm her down, but Serena was still just staring at her ice cream mush. She had this gut feeling that this was only the beginning and she should be proven right.