You’re my Candle

As the game continued, the rain was easing slightly and Kayda could hear the shouting voices around her more clearly—including the one belonging to Marcus Flint, who was now stood just behind Draco.

"Wood'll lose this—they're too far behind and poor little Potter is bound to tumble off his broom soon," Flint jeered, leaning in to shout into Draco's ear, who laughed along with him.

Unfortunately, he was probably right. Gryffindor were fifty points up but without the snitch the match would go on into the night—and Hufflepuff's seeker was an older and larger boy who didn't seem to be getting pushed around as much by the wind.

Freya was yelling beside her—at the rain, the wind and every player in the air.

"LOOK! DIGGORY'S SEEN IT!" She shouted, pointing up at the Hufflepuff seeker zooming through the air towards a small golden glint.

Oliver was the next to shout—he was telling Harry the same thing.

In seconds, both seekers were so high in the air it was difficult for even Kayda to see them. They were at least forty-feet above the pitch and climbing.

"Do you feel that?" Freya grabbed Kayda's arm as a strangely familiar cold settled over them all.

"Yeah," Kayda said, her eyes briefly leaving the sky to glance at Freya. When she looked back up, her breath caught in her throat. A swarm of dementors, at least a hundred of them, was closing in on Harry.

The crowds' yelling, now laced with panic, only got louder the higher above them the seekers went, neither having seen the dementors yet—until Harry was suddenly plummeting back down to them.

Her shining eyes were locked on the falling boy—who looked so peaceful despite it—with a hasty breath, it was as if some sort of instinct kicked in when her hands gripped the wooden wall in front of her and hurriedly began to pull herself up onto it.

Draco grabbed her wrist in the same second, trying to tug her back down.

All sound was drowned out by her heart beating in her ear—even her own unsteady breathing was silent to her. It was no wonder that she couldn't hear those close to her calling her name.

It all happened so quickly—Kayda was barely over the wall when there was a sudden tightness around her torso that yanked her back—she felt her bones crack when she landed on the hard wood beneath them.

Draco's hand was gone.

"HEY! GET OFF HER-!" Freya yelled. Kayda could see her hair blowing around above her.

The arms around her chest were painfully tight, and familiar—they shouldn't have been. After the impact of hitting the floor, her entire focus was taken from Harry's unconscious body and she could hear Flint's voice in her ear.

"Let him fall, Black." He whispered, combating her every writhe to escape his grip—he spoke bitterly through gritted teeth, Kayda could even hear his grin. "Let him fall."

She didn't hear the crowds go silent.

"Fuck you!" She fought against him more—and managed to grab ahold of his hand and break his finger, more easily than she expected.

"You BITCH!" He screeched, holding his hand close to his chest and freeing her without thinking—by the time she'd stood up and slammed herself against the wooden fence to find Harry; his body was laying on the middle of the pitch, surrounded by both teams.

─ « ⋅ » ─

He was fine. It was a miracle—seen as the boy fell fifty-feet—but he was fine.

Kayda watched from a distance as almost all of the Gryffindor team surrounded his bed in the hospital wing, once he'd woken up—telling him what'd happened over one another.

Flint was sitting at the other end with Pomfrey wrapping a bandage around his finger—it wasn't the first time the nurse had to mend his broken bones.

"Can't you just...use magic?" He asked quietly, glancing down the room towards where Kayda was leaning against the wall. "Like the last times."

Pomfrey tutted, "I could, but I think there's a lesson here that you've not quite learnt."

After a while, the Gryffindor team were kicked out by Pomfrey. Kayda waited for them to say their goodbyes to their seeker and as they walked past her out the door each of them gave her a slight nod and smile–while Flint, purposely, hit her shoulder with his own and shot her a nasty glare.

Hermione and Ron were the only two who stayed, despite Pomfrey shaking her head disapprovingly.

"Black?" Harry said suddenly, he had only seemed to notice her when he was watching his team leave.

Kayda's head had been turned, watching Flint as he walked away with a slight limp. Her focus was taken from the older boy when Harry called her a second time.

"Black, what're you doing here?" He spoke with a smile, as he often did.

"Spying. Obviously." She smiled back, not moving from where she was standing against the wall. "The Slytherins have me updating the opposition's status."

Hermione scoffed.

Harry, however, laughed, then winced, after shaking his head at Hermione. Kayda took a step towards where he lay. "Well, tell them that I'm alright," he nodded, his hand lifting slightly off his stomach before dropping back down again.

Pomfrey was sitting at her desk just through the main door, but she was still able to lecture Harry about being careful.

Ron opened his mouth to talk but it was a minute until any sound left it. "Where's Wood?" He was looking at Kayda. "The others said they didn't really know."

Kayda smiled, "he's just trying to drown himself in the showers–nothing new."

"Oh, so that's a frequent thing, then?" Harry coughed, holding back a laugh. Kayda shrugged. "He hates me, doesn't he?"

Kayda rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Oliver isn't capable of hating you, Potter. The Slytherin's love you now though, if that makes you feel any better."

"Only 'cause you'll have a chance now." He sighed, slouching back into his pillows.

"Oi-" She laughed, "we had more than a chance before, thank you very much."

Harry looked up at her with a silent laugh, his face contorting as he begged it not to sting in his bones if he allowed himself–and nothing could've prepared Kayda to have seen Lily when he gave in.

She felt her legs shake, threatening to drop her–her own smile faltered and she was staring blankly at the injured boy.

Harry's own face fell slowly, his eyes blinking as he glanced between her and his friends.

"Black?" Ron coughed.

Hermione took a few steps towards the girl and just before her small hand grasped Kayda's arm–she was back.

"Sorry," she said quickly, forcing a smile, "not sure what...happened there."

Harry said something along the lines of it being alright after sniffing a few times and wiping his nose with his sleeve despite the box of tissues on the table beside him before he leant back again and took a deep breath.

He didn't allow the silence to swallow them though, he was quick with moving the conversation on. "Y'know, I was actually expecting to be told that a mysterious dragon caught me when they said I'd fallen, I'll be honest." He coughed, smiling at her again. "Are we not good enough friends for that yet?" He laughed wearily.

"I tried, Potter." She sighed, falling back and leaning against the wall again. A laugh of her own dying on her lips. "Flint," her head turned to glance down the hallway, "stopped me."

"Is that why his finger's broken?" Ron grinned, tilting his head.

"Maybe." Kayda let out a small laugh, looking at the ground. "He's such a prick, but," she took a deep breath and glanced up at Harry, "it was probably better that I didn't–y'know, save you."

"I'm in a lot of pain right now, Black." He chuckled. "I'd have preferred not being—"

"The dragon can't keep making appearances, Harry." She cut him off sharply. Their eyes were locked now. "You're fine. There was a more...subtle way of saving your life."

Harry only stared at her for a moment, his lips parted and eyebrows furrowed. He sighed, and his eyes never looked away from her–he watched her own dashed around the room frantically.

"People would stop giving you such a hard time about your Father if they all saw her, but you know that." Hermione said quietly, almost whispering even though there was nobody except them in the room. "Why? Why don't you show them?"

"'Cause then they'll just be afraid of me," Kayda sighed, "I don't like how people look at me when they're afraid of me."

Ron shook his head, "your name is reason enough to be afraid of you, Black."

"Yeah," she muttered, shifting her weight to the other leg, "yeah, I know."

─ « ⋅ » ─

That afternoon, as Kayda found herself immobilising the Weeping Willow and crawling into the passage below, she felt a heavy weight on her shoulders. Sirius was waiting patiently for her on the other side, his arms a comforting embrace after the stress of the game.

"Hey, baby girl." He hummed, instantly wrapping his arms around her smaller body. "Horrible match. Is Harry alright?"

Kayda nodded as best she could with her head wrapped in her father's arms.

"I can never seem to have a conversation with him that isn't about his parents, I barely stopped myself today." She whispered as the old wooden walls creaked around them in the wind. "It's just–so hard to look at him and not think of them."

Sirius leant back and took hold of her hands tightly. "I know." He muttered, squeezing her hand. "I've seen him, when I sneak into the Castle and Merlin...it's uncanny."

"They would've loved him...so much." The words almost didn't make enough noise for Sirius to hear them.

"They do," he confirmed, pulling her closer to his chest again, his head resting gently on hers. "Of course they do."

There was silence for a while, or as much silence they could get aside from the shrieking shack shaking, and the mice chewing away at the bottom of fragile doors, or the bats fluttering about in the roof.

"Hey, uhm...dad?"

He responded instantly. "Yes?"

"Can I ask you–" She could already feel her throat closing up as she pulled back from his grasp.

"Anything, baby girl," he said, kneeling slightly to meet her eye level, his cold hand cradling her face. "Anything."

Her voice was failing her with every word as the tears welled in her eyes. "Why didn't you take it?"

"Take what?"

"The Veritaserum," she croaked, "why didn't you take it? It would've proved your innocence."

He sighed, loudly. His eyes fell away from her face, but his thumb moved back and forth on her cheek. "I was afraid–"

"Of what?" Kayda's voice cracked, she could feel the heat rising in her chest. He didn't respond, but his hand pulled away from her. "Of what, Dad? Of spending your life with me...and with Remus–instead of inside a cell."

He stood up straight suddenly, his own expression going blank. "I was afraid that I couldn't keep Remus' secret." Quiet fell over them again, and then Sirius was talking in a way she'd forced herself to forget. "If I'd exposed the fact that he's a werewolf; they'd have sent him in my place without hesitation–and I couldn't have lived with losing them both!"

A few tears ran down her cheeks without anything to stop them–the other thing Kayda had never been able to stop was the little selfish voice inside her head. It would win, every time.

"What about losing me?" Her voice broke, the sentence almost wasn't understandable. "What about me losing you both?"

Sirius' anger fell away almost as quickly as it had reared its head. In a second, he'd apologised and taken back every harshly spoken word.

"Oh, baby girl–" he wrapped his arms around her yet again, "I'm sorry...I did what I thought was best and I regretted it every single day, for twelve years–but, in that time, I realised; if I had the chance to go back...I wouldn't change it."

"I would. I would change everything." Sirius leant back and she stared up at him with glossy eyes. "I'd make it so that the war never even happened...that nobody got hurt, or killed."

"Kayda." Sirius whispered, leaning forward and placing a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "I'm afraid without the war, you wouldn't exist."

She nodded, slowly. "They'd all still be alive, though." Her eyes locked onto the floor and when she blinked every tear that was sat on the edge fell over and down her cheeks. "Harry would've had a good childhood. You and Remus would probably have married and maybe gotten a kid of your own by now."

Sirius sighed, cupping her face and lifting it so she'd look at him. "We have a kid."

"I'm not a kid." She looked anywhere but his face, where he wanted her. "Not anymore, anyway."

─ « ⋅ » ─

It was a while until Kayda returned to the Castle, let alone to her Common Room. Her absence had been noticed, and just in case she herself was unaware–Freya told her just that when she walked into the dark room in the dungeons.

"Black!" Pansy shouted when she spotted the tired girl wandering through the door. "Where've you been? We were going to the library, remember?"

Kayda groaned and made her way to where they were all sitting in front of the fire. "Shit. Sorry, Pans. I–lost track of time, I guess."

"But where've you been?" Daphne tilted her head as she spoke.

"Went for a walk." She wasn't entirely lying, they just needed to not ask her where.

"Where?"

"Merlin, guys–do I have to tell you everything?"

Guessing by their faces, she'd said it a bit too defensively. Daphne still had her eyes locked on Kayda even when everyone else gave her a glare and turned around.

Freya took a deep breath and lifted herself off the cushion of the couch and sat on the back so she could talk to Kayda at more of her level.

"It's been a long day, Kayda. Your–cousin, or whatever he is–almost died. Even if he is an asshole." She smiled, whispering as she squeezed Kayda's arm comfortingly. "Sit down, relax for a bit. Yeah?"

She only nodded in response and walked around the sofa to fall onto the floor and sit with Freya and Pansy's legs beside her shoulders.

Sometimes Kayda forgot that she'd told her friends that Harry was basically related to her because of the God-Father thing they had going on–it was them who decided it was easier to call him her cousin.