《Ballet Shoes》Chapter 19

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With shaking hands, Lilleth reached into her pocket and pulled her wand out, pointing it straight at him.

"You!" she exclaimed, hoping he didn't notice the tremors in her voice and hands.

"Put your wand away."

His voice was husky, as if it hadn't been used in a long time. His lips barely moved, too exhausted to part ways, slurring his voice slightly.

"Why are you here?" Lilleth demanded. "Why did you bring me here? Do you want to kill me?"

His entire body jolted. He had been about to take a step forward, but as she said that, he suddenly stopped, and his face changed.

"Why would I want to kill you?" he asked, his gruff voice suddenly soft.

"You... you killed Harry's parents." said Lilleth nervously. "And... and Peter Pettigrew and those – those muggles."

"No." said Black, lowering his eyes to the ground, and he pushed his disgusting long hair behind his ears. "No, I didn't. And I don't."

"Oh." said Lilleth shortly. "Well – if you don't want to kill me, why did you bring me here?"

"I wanted to talk to you." said Black seriously.

"Why?" asked Lilleth, trying to keep her voice level with her wand still raised.

"You don't know, do you?" asked Black, looking her right in the eye.

Lilleth hesitated, but she didn't lower her wand. "Don't know what?" she demanded.

"Can you please just put that wand away?" asked Black exasperatedly. "I mean, do you even know any helpful spells?"

"I can do the knockback jinx." said Lilleth confidently, almost affronted at the insult. "If you try anything, I'll use it and I'll run away."

"You think you could outrun me?"

"I'm willing to try." she retorted. "And I'm faster than I look."

"I'm sure you are." said Black, and a smile twitched on his face. "However, as I have no intention of harming you or even trying to outrun you, you could perhaps place the wand down. I assure you, if there was any chance of you being harmed, it would not be me you would be trying to outrun."

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"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Lilleth, her voice rising.

"This forest is dangerous." said Black. "But I promise, if anything were to appear, I would protect you."

Lilleth faltered. "Why?" she asked, hesitating slightly. "You still haven't told me why you brought me here. Or why you wanted to talk to me."

"I suppose I should start from the beginning." said Black. "Would you like tea?"

"You're on the run because you escaped from the most secure prison in the world after being accused of killing thirteen people and betraying your best friends, and now you're offering me tea?" asked Lilleth, raising an eyebrow at him.

His lips twitched. "I suppose it does look a bit odd." he admitted. "Perhaps we should skip the tea."

"Tell me the story." she said. "From the beginning. And don't miss anything out. Then I'll decide if I trust you or not."

"Very well." said Black. "At least take a seat. And like I said, you can lower the wand."

Lilleth hesitated, then sighed and put her wand down. Her arm was getting tired anyway. She tucked her warm winter cloak under her and sat, cross-legged, on the snowy ground opposite him, her wand still clutched tightly in her grip on her lap. Black sighed and took a seat on the other side of the strange little den.

"I suppose it would all start when I met James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin." he said. "On the train to Hogwarts, at eleven."

"Wait, Remus Lupin?" asked Lilleth in shock. "As in Professor Lupin? Our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher?"

Black snorted. "We always knew he would make a good teacher." he said. "The four of us were best friends in Hogwarts. James was convinced that he was in love with Lily Evans, a girl in our year who did not have the same feelings for him. Until he sorted out his ego in his sixth year, and she began to realise that he wasn't that bad, and they got together in seventh year, married after leaving Hogwarts and had two sons."

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"Two?" asked Lilleth, remembering the second little boy that she hadn't recognised when she faced her boggart. "Harry had an older brother, didn't he?"

"Edward." said Black, nodding. "Remus' godson. Do you not know him?"

"No, I only saw him in... well, it's complicated, but we've never met him and I doubt Harry knows that he exists." she said.

An expression of pain flickered across Black's face, but he quickly tried to hide it and carried on with his story.

"In my fifth year, I was kicked out of my house and went to live with James." he said. "I believe that coming out as gay was the last straw my parents could take. Especially when they discovered who I was dating."

"Professor Lupin." said Lilleth quietly. "That's who you were dating."

"Indeed." said Black, and a small, sad smile appeared in his eyes. "We were together from fifth year onwards. Then, when we left school and James and Lily got married and had Edward, we got into a situation where we were constantly fighting."

"About what?" asked Lilleth curiously.

"I doubt I'm allowed to tell you." said Black sincerely. "But it almost tore apart our entire friendship group. But then something happened that united us all."

"What was that?"

"A child." said Black. "Remus and I found a baby in an alleyway, abandoned by her parents, I suppose, and we took her home to warm her up. Lily and James helped, of course, as they had two sons of their own and had everything we'd need, and it was that easy to just bring her into our family."

"Did you give her a name?"

Lilleth's voice shook slightly as she asked the question.

"Yes, we did." said Black. "We named her after Lily, and Remus' mother. Lilleth Hope."

Lilleth froze.

"Oh come on, you already knew, didn't you?" he said, his eyes twinkling. "Otherwise you would have hexed me as soon as you laid eyes on me. You were curious. You wanted to find out more, so you listened to my story. And besides, it's not like Black-Lupin is a very common name."

Still, Lilleth didn't say a word. She felt like she couldn't. There wasn't anything left to say.

"Lilleth, you're the baby that we found." said Black, leaning forward slightly. "I can't tell you who your birth parents are, but we gave you a home, even if it was taken away. Remus and I are your parents."

Suddenly, almost as if she didn't realise she was doing it, Lilleth lifted up her wand again and pointed it straight at him.

"Flipendo!" she cried.

He flew backwards, doing half a flip in the air, and crashed into the wall of the den, almost knocking the entire thing down. Before she had time to comprehend what she had just done, she pushed her way through the small hole in opposite den of the wall and scrambled to her feet. Her feet carried her faster than she'd ever moved before as she sprinted through the trees, barely even stopping to spare a glance over her shoulder. Breathing heavily, she finally reached the edge of the forest, stumbling in the slippery snow of the grounds.

She stopped, as soon as she was out of the trees.

What had she just done?

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