The Sunrise of My Heart

The day we all knew was coming, the day we were all dreading, was finally upon us. Harry had his hearing at the Ministry, and none of us knew if he would be allowed back into Hogwarts or not. All we could do was cross our fingers and hope.

As the hours ticked by, I took to pacing all around Sirius' house, cleaning as I did. I stopped when I realized who's bedroom door I was at: Regulus's. I hesitated for a moment, then walked in, looking around the room. It had Slytherin hangings on the wall. I began inspecting all of his things, curious about them. There was an old locket, some letters to friends, old books, and a photograph. Curious, I picked it up and gazed at the three people in it, smiling softly.

"You know, that was one of the only times Regulus and I got along," Sirius said from behind me.

I spun around, my eyes wide. "Sirius, you've got to stop doing that to me! Honestly, you nearly gave me a heart attack." I moved closer to him, letting him see the picture more clearly.

In it, there were two guys and a girl, all of them smiling. The boys were obviously brothers, having the same aristocratic features, dark hair, and eyes. The girl, sitting in between the two, had long chestnut hair and bright, joyful eyes. One of the boys, the older one from appearance, had his arm wrapped around the girl's shoulders, indicating that they were together.

"No matter how much he hated me, he couldn't deny that he wanted so badly for me to marry her, so she could be his sister. Not even my mother could hate Roxanne. Though that was mostly because she came from a very prestigious pureblood family."

"She sounds wonderful," I said with a smile.

"Oh, she was. The most wonderful person I've ever met. I was devastated when she died," he said softly.

"I can imagine." Silence fell after that, both of us staring down at the picture of happy people. "Things were simpler then, weren't they? Before Voldy rose to power and the world turned dark."

He nodded, a small, sad smile on his face. "Yeah, things were much simpler before the world fell into darkness and despair."

After another moment of silence, I placed the picture in his hands and walked away, letting him be alone with his thoughts. Thankfully, all of my pacing and cleaning before I'd made it to Regulus' room had passed a fair bit of time so I only had to wait another fifteen minutes before Harry returned. I immediately bombarded him with questions.

"Harry, you're back! How did it go? Are you expelled? Did they believe you? Are they admitting Voldy's back? Is Fudge still being a douche? Was Dumbledore there? Did he help out? Are you going to Azkaban? Hey, did you see Lucy at the Ministry? If you did, I hope you punched him for me!"

"Riley, calm down and shut up for a moment! No, they didn't believe me, yes Dumbledore was there, yes he helped, no I'm not going to Azkaban, yes Fudge is a... 'douche', no, they're not admitting... 'Voldy' is back, yes I saw Lucius, if that's who Lucy is, no I didn't punch him."

"And?? Come on, the suspense is killing me! Are you expelled or are you coming back?" I asked eagerly.

"And, yes," he answered simply.

"Yes? Yes, you're expelled? Or yes, you're coming back?" I demanded.

"Yes...."

"Harry!"

"Yes, I'm coming back."

"Woo! I knew they couldn't kick you out! Honestly, who do they think they were kidding? Harry Potter, not go back to school? Pfft, what idiots! Come on, let's go celebrate!"

"Wait, I want to tell--"

"No! I want to celebrate now!!" I grabbed his hand and dragged him down the hallway, grinning insanely at him. "We can tell the others and add them to our celebration!"

"Did you say 'celebration'?" Ginny asked, leaning over the stair railings to look at us.

"Yeah! He's not expelled! Go tell your brothers and Hermione! We're gonna drink butter beer and celebrate his freedom and education!"

"I don't think we have butter beer," Harry pointed out.

"Remus!! Get us butter beer!!" I screamed out, hoping he would hear.

"FILTH! MUDBLOOD SCUM! BLOOD TRAITORS!" Mrs. Black went on a tirade at my screaming. Sighing and letting go of Harry, I walked over to her painting, pulled out my pocket knife, and held it to her face.

"Hey, hoe! You might be stuck to the wall, but you sure aren't slice proof. Shut your trap or I'll cut it off!" Without saying anything else, her curtains flew shut again, and she was silent. I nodded, re-pocketed my knife, and went back to Harry, grabbing his arm again and dragging him to the kitchen, where Remus was waiting, grinning.

"Harry, congratulations! Glad to know you'll be returning to Hogwarts. Everything went as hoped, then? Good. Now did I hear you say something about butter beers for a celebration?" he asked me. I nodded cheerfully, so he left to go get us some butter beers.

"Is all of this really necessary?" Harry asked me.

I nodded, grinning. "Absolutely. They hate you now, so it's pretty darn shocking that they let you off. Anyways, we should drink butter beers and have fun! Just for the heck of it! So stop complaining and be happy! I'll make you a cake if you're a good, cheerful little boy like I told you to be."

Harry rolled his eyes but complied, silencing his demands on the necessity of my celebration plans. It wasn't long before the Weasleys, Tonks, and Hermione were all crowding around Harry, congratulating him and getting excited about actually having a party-ish thing going on in the house. Snape, I noticed, was not joining in the joy. Pausing for a moment, I decided to go over and talk to him, even if he would probably bite my head off for daring to come near him.

"Not gonna join in the fun?" I asked.

"Forgive me if I don't feel cheerful that I have to deal with Potter for another three years."

"You know, he might not be the greatest guy in the world, but he's really not that bad. I don't see why you hate him so much." Snape glared at me, making me hold up my hands defensively. "Okay, I do, but still. If you would just get over your anger and prejudice, you might not think he was so awful."

Snape said nothing, the hard look never once leaving his face. I wondered if he would ever stop hating Harry, but pretty much doubted he would. A grudge held for that long didn't simply end just because someone tries to talk you out of it.

"Professor? You know, that... It really wasn't my doing. I gave a tiny nudge, but there had already been a huge push in the same direction. Things had already been set in motion, partially from you, to be brutally honest."

He said nothing for a long moment, and then abruptly turned and started to walk away. He paused though, and partially looked over his shoulder back at me. "I know," he said softly. And then he walked away.

Soon, Remus returned with lots of butter beer for us to drink and the celebration began. But as the night wore on, and the celebration still continued to rage, I noticed that Sirius was standing by himself in a dark corner, still staring at the picture we had looked at earlier that day. If I wasn't mistaken, there were even tears in his eyes as he gazed at the picture of Roxanne, the girl he had loved with all of his might.