Effervescence | h.p.

i | vii. the day for apologies

After explaining the problem to her sympathetic, understanding dad, she felt much better and had even felt slightly happy. But, she had also felt extremely guilty.

She felt guilty towards her fathers, who only wanted to help her whenever they heard her gentle sobs from her room after shutting them out. She felt guilty for not wanting to see Harry and not even thinking about how awful he must feel when hearing her father talk about Harry's pleas for forgiveness after she stormed up the stairs.

She decided to apologize to her Papa, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation to make sure his pup was okay, but Lyra never had to know that in Sirius' opinion. After, she would floo to her godparents, requesting to go to Diagon Alley so she could shop for school supplies with the Potter's, and so she could talk to Harry in person about her going to Hogwarts, regrettably leaving him behind.

Remus decided not to spoil the surprising news of Harry being offered a spot at Hogwarts as well, meaning that she wouldn't actually be leaving the small Potter behind. He thought it best that the kids told each other what they wanted to, and deemed acceptable to, discuss with each other. They could pick and choose what they talked about with their parents, godparents, and each other by themselves. As long as the discussion topic was not concerning to the point of needing to involve, possibly, unwanted listeners.

Walking downstairs, hand-in-hand with her Dad, Lyra approached her Papa Pads, who sat at the island in the kitchen, 'Daily Prophet' in hand.

"Papa?" she asked quietly, ashamed of her overreaction and how she had acted towards him the last few days. Or, more so, the lack of action towards him, with her locking herself in her room and allowing her sorrows to silently drown her.

Sirius, almost immediately, let the Prophet double-over and allowed his head to snap up at alarmingly quick rate.

"Are you feeling okay, sweetheart?" he questioned, showing his concern and worry for her mental health after all the time in self-caused isolation.

He just needed her to be okay and for her to know she was allowed to feel however she needed, whenever she needed. She shouldn't feel like she has to hide from her fathers.

"Yes, thank you for asking. I actually needed to tell you that — that I'm really sorry about how I've been acting the past few days. It was wrong of me to let you and Dad worry so much without even giving you an explanation as to what happened. You only wanted to help and I know that, so I'm sorry," she said, clearly.

She meant every word she had said and she needed to be sure he understood that.

Sirius only moved forward, tightly embracing her in a bone-crushing hug, to ensure that he didn't need an apology; he just needed reassurance that she would come back to him and wouldn't be lost, forever trapped in her own guilt and anger.

"I love you so, so much. I just wanted my pup back. That's all I want and need from you."

Sniffling slightly as she pulled away from her Papa, she asked, "Can I invite Harry, Lily, and James to Diagon Alley so we can all shop together?"

Slightly surprised by her immediate want to speak with Harry, he responded, trying to sound as normal as possible, "Yeah. Of course, yeah. That would be a great idea, don't you think, Moony?"

Suddenly dragged into the conversation, "Yes, that would be great. How about we go pick them up now? We can apparate there — Ly comes with me," Remus said.

Walking out of Lupin Cottage, Remus could feel Lyra's nervousness about talking to Harry practically radiating off of her in waves.

"Hey, he'll understand. It was a simple misunderstanding on both ends, he felt bad about what he said when you left. All he could do was watch where you had disappeared from, muttering his own apologies to you. He really did feel quite badly," Remus tried, but he had, unknowingly, made his daughter feel even worse.

"Not really helping, Dad," she muttered, but he could hear it clearly with his enhanced werewolf hearing.

"Sorry," he grimaced in return.

He gripped her hand tightly, as a warning that he was about to apparate them to the Potter's manor. Quickly, he began his journey with his daughter, through use of magic, to Harry.

Just as suddenly as the horrible feeling of apparation took hold of Lyra, it had discontinued its action. Now, she stood in front of the huge double doors of Potter Manor waiting for someone to answer their knock.

Seconds later, she was face to face with James, who wore a huge smile that didn't completely reach his eyes when they fell on the small frame of his goddaughter.

"I can't say I was expecting you lot to be over today — not that I don't appreciate the drop-in," James reassured quickly. "What can I do for you on this fine afternoon?"

"Well hello to you too, Jamsie," Sirius grumbled, jokingly. "We were wondering if you, Lily-pads and young Harold would be up for a shopping trip in Diagon Alley for the kiddos to collect their school things together," Sirius explained.

"Number one, I didn't name him Harold for a reason, Pads, so don't call him that. And two, we would be happy to go with you lot, just let me collect the others and we'll be off. We can floo there, if you would rather," James suggested.

"Yes, please," the young Lupin-Black spoke up, not wanting to feel the affects of apparation again if she didn't need to.

Leaving before James returned with his son, Lyra quickly hopped into the fireplace, announcing clearly, "Diagon Alley!"

Landing on her butt in the middle of a, surprisingly, quite empty Diagon Alley, Lyra picked herself up off the ground and started towards one of her favorite shops; Flourish and Blotts, a book shop. Whenever the Lupin-Black family decided on heading to Diagon Alley, they would come up with a common location to meet, should anyone get lost or, in this case, leave before anyone else. Lyra had always enjoyed the shop and its variety of wizarding books. she would go to Muggle book shops more frequently, though, quite liking their fairy tales and novels.

Figuring she would pick up her school-assigned texts while waiting for the others to arrive, she wandered around the store and into specific sections. While grabbing the third book on her list, a book called 'Magical Theory' by Adalbert Waffling, she heard multiple voices calling out for her at the front entrance area. One voice belonged to her Dad, one to Pads, and another, surprisingly, belonging to Harry Potter.

"Over here!" She called back, alerting the voices to her location within the shelves of books.

After reconnecting with her party, she indicated to her fathers that she wanted to talk to Harry alone for a moment, in order to say sorry for her reaction to their conversation during her birthday party. After they had moved away, picking up on her signals to leave, she started, "So . . . "

"Listen, I'm sorry about the other day."

"Har, I'm sorry I blew up at you," they both said, coincidentally, at the exact same time.

Both broke into laughter after this, knowing this was a good sign that they could get through this together.

"So, you're going to Hogwarts, I presume?" Lyra said, trying to start up a conversation.

Hopefully, this one would turn out better than their last talk about going off to Hogwarts.

"Yep. Got my acceptance letter on my birthday, just like how you got yours," Harry replied. "Thank you for my gift, by the way. I know we were a little — er— on-edge the last time we spoke, but you still got me a gift. So, thank you."

"You got me a present for my birthday — it was only right," she shrugged. "I would've gotten you a gift no matter the circumstance. I could've been all the way at Beauxbatons getting a killing curse shot at me and I would've still gotten you a birthday gift. Even if I were dead . . . which, as you can see, I am not."

Harry gave a little bit of a nervous laugh at this, knowing she had already been hit with the killing curse once in her life. The curse that supposedly couldn't be repelled magic had already left its mark on her — physically and mentally. He didn't want her hit with it once, let alone twice.

"Well . . . shall we start heading down the alley to get fitted for our robes?" Lyra asked, noticing the tense situation she had put herself and the young Potter boy in.

"Sure," was all Harry could muster up as a reply before they headed off.