Chapter 105: 1-2

I had forgotten.

"Maria?"

In the middle of breakfast, I accidentally dropped the spoon I was poking my oatmeal with. Harry couldn't get up due to low blood pressure, and everyone else was still asleep; it was a morning where only Sirius, Professor Lupin, and I sat around the table. (Mum Molly had returned to the Burrow to accompany Uncle Arthur.)

"—Dementors!"

""Dementors?""

At the exact same time, the two older men tilted their heads.

I had been remembering. The current situation was so different from when I was "me"—it was so overwhelmingly happy—and because of that, I was thinking back to the past, reflecting on how "I" used to spend time in this house.

—And then, it hit me. Being summoned to the Ministry of Magic. Facing an unreasonable hearing. —I, Harry, had been on the verge of expulsion.

And the cause of it...

"Dudley!"

""Dudley?""

I held my head in my hands. That's right, I protected Dudley. I summoned a Patronus, and incidentally found out that old Mrs. Figg was a Squib—

But this time, Harry hadn't returned to Privet Drive. He wouldn't even cross paths with the Dementors. Was Dudley safe? Would the Dementors even appear in the first place?

"Sirius. Have you heard any rumors about Dementors loitering around a Muggle town?"

"I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing, nor do I think I ever will."

"The Dementors coming to Hogwarts was an exceptional case, Maria. They are in Azkaban. You should ask your uncle for details. He knows more about them than anyone else here."

"That's not funny, Remus."

"I know that. I know, but—oh, honestly, and I can't even leave this place..."

Without even glancing at the new spoon Professor Lupin had set out for me, I stared helplessly at my oatmeal. 'Last time,' the Dementors had appeared on Privet Drive to frame Harry Potter. In other words, since we were holed up in Grimmauld Place this time, that incident might not happen. —But there was no guarantee.

I didn't like Dudley. Even after our reconciliation, our interactions were purely obligatory and far from friendly. The current Dudley was the absolute worst. I wanted to avoid getting involved with him as much as possible. I didn't like Dudley—but even so, I couldn't possibly think it was okay for him to be reduced to a hollow shell.

"Maria, what's wrong? If something is troubling you, tell us."

As Sirius and Professor Lupin peered at my face with concern, I hesitated. Should I say it? This was an uncertain future. To ask them to watch over Privet Drive on my behalf—guarding against Dementors that might not even come...

"Maria."

"Maria."

Sirius's grey eyes and Professor Lupin's green eyes were both so transparently earnest that, prompted by them, I opened my mouth.

"It's not a certainty. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't believe me."

"We'll believe you. I'm sure I told you that I would believe you two no matter what."

"Sirius..."

He roughly ruffled my hair. Seeing Sirius being scolded by Professor Lupin for handling a girl's hair so carelessly made my own smile crumple into a mess.

"Maria, what do you want us to do?"

"Tell us."

A single breath.

"—I want you to head to Privet Drive."

The two of them looked at each other blankly.

"Privet Drive... you mean where you two were left?"

"Yeah. ...I can't tell you how I know. But Dementors might be loitering around that area."

It was Sirius whose eyes widened. Professor Lupin placed a hand to his mouth, lost in thought.

"Could such a thing really happen?"

"I don't know. It's not a certainty. I don't know when, either. It might turn out to be completely pointless. It would be best if I could keep watch myself, but—"

"We can't possibly let you leave here."

"...Right. And I can't leave Harry behind either."

When I gave a bitter smile, Professor Lupin nodded deeply and patted my shoulder.

"Understood. I will keep watch. The full moon is still far off. I am more suited for this than Sirius."

"Remus."

"It's easy to forget, but Dumbledore ordered you to refrain from leaving this house as well. You should stay by their side."

Currently, this was the best move we could make. Professor Lupin's Patronus Charm is beautiful. Surely, he would save Dudley.

"Thank you, Professor. ...Um, are you really sure?"

"Yes. Let's call it your... well, let's call it a prophecy. I cannot simply ignore your anxiety."

"...Did Dumbledore say that?"

"...My students are all clever children."

Unlike Sirius, he stroked my head with a gentle, smoothing touch.

"Thank you for finding the courage to speak up, Maria."

"————"

Until a sleepy Hermione came downstairs, I surrendered myself to the hands of my two guardians, basking in an overwhelming sense of happiness.

" —As I thought, Maria is..."

Remus Lupin stood facing the handsome man in the private room of the house's master, Sirius Black.

"The power of prophecy, huh... It would be troublesome if the enemy camp found out about it."

"Prophecy... is it? Truly?"

"What do you mean?"

At the question raised by the man who had been the most thoughtful and cautious among their old group of friends, Sirius straightened up from where he sat deep in his chair, prompting him to continue.

"I remembered something from when we got rid of the Boggart the other day... Maria can use the Patronus Charm, can't she? I was the one who taught Harry. But then—who taught Maria?"

"Wasn't it you?"

"I didn't have the time for that. —She knew it from the very beginning."

From the very beginning. For the Muggle-raised Potter siblings, who didn't even know magic existed until they turned eleven, it should have been practically impossible to learn advanced spells through self-study. In that regard, even taking his talent into account, Harry was a perfectly normal boy for his age—but Maria had far too many mysteries surrounding her.

"I tried asking her. When I did, she—Maria—answered as if she had been taught by 'me'."

"Huh? You just said—"

"Yes. I didn't teach her. Absolutely not."

Remus denied it resolutely.

"This cannot be explained by prophecy. If the power of prophecy allowed someone to master advanced spells like the Patronus Charm, then all Seers up until now would have to be monsters on par with Merlin. Rather than seeing the future—it's as if she has already experienced it."

It was an absurd fantasy. One impossibility piled upon another. Though he loved both Maria and Harry equally as the children of his late best friend, it was also a fact that he felt something unfathomable coming from the girl.

"Even when it came to Cedric Diggory—"

"............"

On that day, Maria had been terrified. While everyone around her watched the match as a form of entertainment, she alone had been looking ahead, completely on guard. Sirius had been right by her side. —He had felt Maria's abnormality acutely.

And then, there was one more thing, Remus continued.

"A Boggart shifts into whatever its target fears most. In my case, it's the full moon; for Harry, it's a Dementor. You know that, right?"

"Yeah."

"Her fear—was a 'baby'."

"A baby?"

Looking at Sirius's furrowed brow, Remus spoke in a low groan as he dredged up the memory.

"And it wasn't a normal baby, either. It was hideously ugly. Covered in blood, like a mummy with its bones showing through—anyway, it had a shape completely beyond common sense. It sent a shiver down my spine."

He described it as a baby due to its shape, but even that wasn't certain. It was something that could never be loved—a physical manifestation of pure revulsion.

"Many creatures exist in the wizarding world, but I have never seen anything like that. When and where did Maria learn of such a thing? Why is she terrified of it?"

A girl who loved and cherished Harry, willing to act as a shield to protect her beloved family as an older sister. For someone so resolute to feel a terror great enough to make her abandon even an exam and run away... —What on earth had Maria experienced in her short fourteen years of life?

And then—right. One thought leading to another, Remus remembered one more person.

"Draco Malfoy concerns me too. His Boggart—turned into James."

"Haaah?!"

Sirius finally stood up. Draco and James? He couldn't see any connection whatsoever.

"Why would Lucius's brat fear James? When could he have even seen him? When James was alive, that kid would have been a mere one-year-old."

"How should I know? Even if Maria had shown him a photograph, why would that make James the object of his greatest fear?"

James Potter and Draco Malfoy. Threads that should never have connected were tangling together.

"And what's more, James was covered in wounds—looking as if he were on the verge of death."

"...Was that really James?"

"Without a doubt. There's no way I could mistake him. That back, that untidy hair—it was definitely James."

"............"

Sirius collapsed back onto the sofa as if all the strength had left his body. There was no way Remus would mistake James. That was true. Sirius wouldn't mistake him either.

Just how many times... had they looked at his back?

"...As for that, to Draco..."

"I can't exactly ask him, can I? It's a highly delicate matter of privacy. Even regarding Maria's baby, I don't know the truth. In the first place, it's a mystery why Draco—who is supposed to be doted on by Lucius and Mrs. Malfoy—is on such good terms with those two."

The more they discovered, the more complicated it became. Harry, being hailed as a hero. The presence of Maria in his shadow. And Draco Malfoy, distancing himself from his parents to involve himself with the Potter siblings.

"Just what... are those children fighting against in order to survive?"