The Punker and the Prisoner

Chapter 2

Fatherless Once Again

Four days later, Sirius Black was murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry Potter returned to the Dursleys for the summer, and as July progressed toward August, the whole of Britain knew of Sirius's death. It wasn't until July 29 that Remus Lupin paid an unexpected visit to the Moran household bearing the unfortunate news...

It was a completely normal Thursday afternoon in small town Minnesota. Jackie Moran strode back toward her house after a completely normal practice session. She stepped into the completely normal kitchen and picked up a completely normal Chicago oatmeal cookie. She walked into what she expected to be a completely normal living room, but discovered it was not.

To her surprise, Remus Lupin was sitting on the couch, his arm around a crying Lisa Moran. She was rocking back and forth in a nervous sort of way, and Remus was murmuring comfortingly to her. Jackie stared at the odd scene for a moment before commenting.

"Remus, I didn't know you were coming," she said, glancing at her mother.

"Well, a rather unplanned visit, I'm afraid, Jackie," he said gravely.

"What's the matter?" Clearly something was drastically wrong.

Her mother shook her head and continued to cry. Remus's expression went from hard and grave, to sad and weathered.

"Maybe you should sit down," Remus suggested.

"I'm fine standing," said Jackie.

"It's about your father."

Jackie sat down.

Remus took a deep breath. "There were complications concerning the whereabouts of certain people about two weeks ago, and from that has developed good and bad, though the bad far outnumbers the good." He paused. "The British Ministry is now fully aware of Voldemort's return, and it is confirmed as truth."

Jackie stared at him. "You're serious?"

He nodded. "Due to the fact that Voldemort himself was forced to make an appearance at Ministry Headquarters, he and several of his Death Eaters have been exposed. That's the good news." He paused again and took another deep breath. "A fight broke out between several Death Eaters and a number of members of the Order of the Phoenix. You know what that is, I trust."

She nodded.

"Well, unfortunately, this fight involved not only several secret Order members, but six Hogwarts students as well."

"What were they doing in the Ministry?" Jackie asked, perplexed. "And what do they have to do with me and my father?"

"Everything," sighed Remus. "Your father was there that night, along with me and several other Order members, rushing to the aid of Harry Potter and five others."

Jackie threw her hands in the air. "Of course, it's always about the Potter kid."

Remus eyed here sternly. "Don't get that attitude just yet, Jackie. You, Sirius and Harry have a lot more to do with each other than you know. You see, Sirius was Harry's godfather, and they were in contact for a few years since he broke out of Azkaban. Harry was the son Sirius never had. Two weeks ago, Harry and the others were lured to the Department of Mysteries under false pretenses, and fortunately, we were in the area." Remus's eyes darkened again and Lisa sniffed.

"What's with all the past tense?" Jackie asked, a faint sense of foreboding about what Remus was about to tell her meeting her mind.

Remus rubbed his face with his hands and looked her in the eyes. "Your father was murdered that night, by his Death Eater cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange."

Jackie stared at him, as if not quite sure what he had said. It took a moment for this to register in her mind. She had recently found out that she had a father. That had been a tempting prospect. She was now fatherless once again.

But for some reason, this didn't have quite the impact that perhaps it should have, once it sank in. Despite how much she wanted to, Jackie didn't feel unbearably sad. The way she looked at it, she had never met her father, so how could she feel real deprivation and devastation at his death? Sure, she had gotten her hopes up about meeting him and she was sad, but the news didn't leave a gaping hole inside her that seemed to be expected when a parent died. Remus seemed to either understand or have expected this.

"I know he didn't mean as much to you as most people's fathers," he said calmly, though his eyes were still sorrowful. "But there's a lot you're going to have to deal with. You see you are now the last living Black, in a manner of speaking. Therefore, you are sole heir to the Black estate."

Jackie stared at him again. "Black estate?" she repeated. "I have an estate?"

"In a manner of sorts," Remus said, pulling a tattered envelope out of his robes. "It's more of land scattered all over Britain. Ah, here we go." He unfolded the parchment from within the envelope. "Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, is the House of Black in London, but Order of the Phoenix Headquarters is stationed there at the moment. There's twenty acres in Devonshire and a manor house, then four acres of coastline on the Isle of Skye in northern Scotland, three and one-fourth acres just outside of Cardiff, and a tiny island just off the coast of Northern Ireland. With that and the 11,978,983 galleons in Gringotts I'd say you're set, kid."

Jackie's jaw was sufficiently slack by now, and when she looked over, she saw that her mother's was as well. She looked back at Remus.

"So, uh, what am I going to do with all of that?" she asked disbelievingly.

Jackie wondered why, if her father had been imprisoned for life, all of these assets hadn't been handed to her earlier. Technically, if Sirius had been sent to Azkaban, he would have been considered more dead than alive. She didn't feel that she should ask, however.

"Well, that's up to you and your mother, I suppose," Remus answered with a small shrug. "There's a lot to be worked out, given some of what's in Sirius's Order-required written will." He glanced at Lisa, and she seemed to know what he was talking about. She bit her lip and nodded slowly in understanding. Jackie looked between them. She thought she knew at least part of what he meant.

"I have to go over there, don't I?" she guessed.

Remus nodded slowly. "As heir to most of it, you will have to meet with Ministry members and lawyers and such."

"What do you mean, 'most of it'? Which parts don't I get?" Jackie asked. Not that she really cared.

Remus hesitated. "Well, Sirius altered his will when he found out about you, so you're not the only heir. Some of his assets were placed otherwise."

"Who else gets stuff then?" Jackie asked, unperturbed, but interested none the less.

Remus hesitated again. "Well, various people really, but most of Sirius's personal possessions go to Harry Potter."

She wasn't surprised. "Of course. What is it with people and the Potter kid?"

"Like I said before, Jackie, Sirius was Harry's godfather. They were quite close. Harry was the son he never had. It's really a shame you never met him. You'd be surprised at how alike the two of you are, in appearance as well as personality."

Jackie glanced at her mother, who nodded fervently.

"I'm amazed at how alike you are," she said, her voice a bit hoarse. "Even when you were little I could see it. You were a little rebel from the get-go. Sirius was a rebel since before I met him. But still, he was so good hearted. He, Remus, James and Lily are the best people I've ever known. Now Remus is the only one left." She wiped her eyes. "Lord, he'll be after Jackie next!"

Remus rubbed her back comfortingly.

"Who will be after me?" Jackie asked. Great, someone was out to kill her.

"Voldemort," Remus said softly. "Sirius, James and Lily were all killed either by him or on his orders. As you're technically the last Black not in his service, there's a good chance he'll want you hunted down."

"So you guys want me over there so you can keep an eye on me for a while. Sounds reasonable. Guess I'm in the same boat as Potter then, huh?" This was starting to make sense.

Remus nodded slowly. Lisa said nothing.

"So when am I going over there?" she asked calmly.

"As soon as possible," Remus answered at once. "The sooner the better. There's so much to take care of, and we'd really prefer to get it all into place before the summer ends."

"So in other words I'm leaving tomorrow," said Jackie flatly.

"If it's possible," Remus replied, glancing at Lisa, who nodded.

"I don't think I'll go," Lisa said slowly, in an attempted calm voice. "I have a lot of work to do here, and I just can't take any more time off. You're fine with Remus, aren't you dear?" She looked hopefully at her daughter. Jackie nodded. She could tell, however, that having work to do was not her mother's real motive for staying home.

Remus stood up. "Well, I'd best be off. I've a lot of things to do before tomorrow. Jackie, pack enough for two weeks. I hope you need not stay longer than that." He looked around at the two of them and gave a half-hearted smile. "I hate to do this to you. He died a hero's death. I just hope that we can work it all out quickly and smoothly. I'll be round to collect you around noon." He gave another disheartened smile, hugged Lisa, touched Jackie's shoulder and Disapparated with a small 'pop'.

Before she knew it, Lisa had swept Jackie into a hug. The weight of the situation seemed to finally hit Jackie. She suddenly felt oddly saddened by it. And before she knew it, she felt herself crying right along with her mother.

*~*~*

"Right, so when's she coming?" Harry asked.

"Today. That's what Lupin said. He was over yesterday." Ron, who had been watching Harry dubiously for the last hour, glanced up at him again. His brow was furrowed as he looked down at the chess pieces.

"That's rather soon, isn't it?" Harry pointed at Hermione's bishop. "To H4 and you've got him in check."

"Thanks," Hermione said. She hated being helped in chess, but anything to beat Ron for once.

Ron was still watching at Harry. He looked up at Ron.

"What?"

"Nothing," said Ron. "But is something wrong? You've been sort of nervous since you got here."

"So would you if you'd spent two solid weeks at the Dursleys, with Mrs. Figg popping over seven times a day and Order members frequently checking to make sure you're still alive," Harry retorted.

"Hey," said Ron defensively. "I didn't mean - oh never mind."

They fell silent again.

"Checkmate," declared Ron.

"Urg!" said Hermione through gritted teeth. "This is so pointless! I'm done now."

"Oh no you're not," Ron said, resetting the board. "This is very good therapy for you, and we're going to continue until you're cured."

Hermione huffed indignantly, but set up her pieces all the same. Harry smiled to himself. He knew that she only gave in because it was Ron. She would have stood her ground if it had been he, Harry. For the night before, when Harry had arrived, they had decided to come out and tell him that they had finally admitted that they liked each other and had been going out for nearly two weeks. This had not surprised Harry at all. He secretly reckoned that they had liked each other since third year, and Ron's jealousy towards Krum in their fourth and fifth years had given it away without question.

Suddenly, voices could be heard coming from the entryway. One was identifiable as Lupin's, another Moody's, Mrs. Weasley's squeak of delight, and Tonks apologizing for knocking something over.

"Must be her," Ron said unnecessarily. "Let's go and see, shall we?"

The three trooped out of the room, Hermione quite glad to be released from her chess game. Ginny joined them in the hall.

"Is Sirius's kid here?" she asked, scratching Crookshank's ears as he sat regally on her shoulder.

"Dunno," said Ron. "We're going to find out."

"There you are," said Mrs. Weasley as they entered the foyer. Behind her stood Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, Lupin and a strangely beautiful black and red haired girl, with a pierced eyebrow and an electric guitar case on her back, lazily tapping the side of a large black suitcase. She glanced dubiously around at them. When Harry looked at her, despite the odd hair and piercing, it was like looking at a female Sirius. She had the same oddly penetrating stare through light blue eyes, though without the sunken and weathered look Azkaban had given Sirius's. It almost made him shiver.

"You four," said Lupin. "This is Jacquelyn Moran."

"Hello Jack Black," Ron muttered under his breath. Hermione elbowed him.