The Assassin's Comeuppance #7 (Patreon)

“I saw your ID.”

Elena was perplexed for a second. She wondered why he would be so serious just by seeing her ID, but then realization dawned upon her. Her eyes widened and her mouth parted slightly as she looked at his inquisitive face.

Harry kept his gaze locked with hers. Although they had cleared the air between them and somehow he felt even closer to her than before, he needed to know. He needed to know whether he was thinking right.

“Elena Black...” He began, and she looked at him, her eyes slightly wide, “that’s your full name. A squib of the Black family.”

Elena nodded with a sigh.

“Who’s your father, Elena?”

As she opened her mouth to answer, a loud beat cut her off. Harry’s privacy charms had come undone under the loud cacophony of noises inside the club.

Her heart was beating rapidly in her chest, and Harry clicked his tongue in annoyance as he cast a dark look at the band.

“Let’s take this somewhere else. We’re done here anyway,” he muttered and pushed off his barstool. Helping her down her own stool, he took her hand in his and began walking. Elena quickly grabbed her purse from the countertop and followed after him. They walked through the throng of people dancing on the dance floor, pushing their way through and occasionally shoving people aside. The crowd was so intoxicated that they didn’t even seem to register someone pushing them. Elena wanted to laugh but simply couldn’t. Her mind was in turmoil.

Harry was not faring any better either. He kept praying in his mind that he was wrong, wishing for Sirius to not be among the group of purebloods who gave their squib relatives no thought whatsoever, casting them away from their lives as if they didn’t even exist. He didn’t think he would be able to take it if Sirius was really someone who had disregarded his family, and quite possibly his own daughter in such a manner. All he wanted was for Sirius to have been quite unaware of Elena’s existence, however saddening that thought was.

The pair made their way across the dance floor until they reached the sleek glass doors of the exit. Two guards stood there in uniforms, and they gave Harry small smiles in recognition. Harry smiled slightly and nodded back, bidding them goodnight in silence as the pair made their way out.

The cool, crisp air of a cloudy British night greeted them as they left the bustling club behind. Looking up, they saw the moon hiding behind a curtain of clouds, rendering the land devoid of any natural night light. Though their surroundings and the paths adjacent were highlighted by lights all around the roads and the buildings nearby, giving them no trouble as they walked ahead.

“Where are we going?” Elena asked as she walked alongside him. Her hand felt warm where it was grasping his calloused palm and she looked sideways at his visage.

Harry turned his head a bit and gave her a small smile, however it came out as a grimace. Elena frowned. She found she didn’t like that look on his face.

“There’s a park just around the corner. We can sit there and talk it out.”

Elena nodded, mentally preparing herself for the confession that was surely about to occur.

They walked for about a minute before they turned, and Elena saw the iron gate of the park right in front of them. It was still fairly early into the night, and Harry told her that the park remained open well into the night. Elena found it odd but chalked it off as another peculiarity of the Wizarding World.

They made their way inside the park and walked over the cobblestone path. Small leaves were strewn all over the path as they made their way through. She looked up ahead to see a fountain of a mermaid in the distance. Squinting her eyes, she could make out a wooden bench that had found itself positioned right behind the fountain, under a tree, encasing the bench in its shade and shrouding it in the dark. She wondered whether Harry was taking them there. It seemed private enough.

Harry indeed led her over to the bench and sat them down. Turning sideways, he grabbed both of her hands in his and looked at her. Belatedly, she realized they were not the only people inside the park. Quite a number of couples as well as people solitary were walking around. A few of them had simply looked at them for once as they made their way to the bench before turning around to do whatever they were doing.

It was dark, but not enough to obscure their faces entirely. They could still make out each other’s features flawlessly. Harry squeezed her hand and cast a Muffalito around them.

“Now we can have all the privacy we could want,” he began, “please tell me, who’s your father Elena?”

Elena looked at him with a deep frown. It looked like he was bracing himself for something.

“Sirius Black,”

You could drop a pin on the ground and the sound would’ve echoed in their periphery. Harry stayed still, his eyes wide and his mouth open, as Elena looked at him with a frown.

His hands which were gripping hers firmly until now loosened and dropped down on his lap as he closed his eyes and sighed. His mind was still in denial. He couldn’t believe it. She really was Sirius’ daughter. A wave of dismay coursed through him. 

Yes, Sirius had been imprisoned for the better part of his adult life, but he could’ve at least told him that he had a daughter somewhere. Harry would’ve surely done all he could to find her and at least form some sort of bond with the daughter of his godfather. Fate, it seemed, had other ideas, as said daughter had unknowingly found him and formed a close bond with him in only a few hours. Harry wanted to chuckle at the coincidence but all he could manage was a deep sigh as his mind filled with disappointment in his late godfather.

“I can’t believe it... even Sirius...” he whispered so softly that Elena barely heard it.

“What?” Elena asked, her brows furrowed as she looked at his slumped posture. Harry straightened up and looked back at her.

“I can’t believe Sirius was also among those purebloods who cast their family aside just because they were squibs... and I find it baffling that he did that to his daughter,” Harry muttered.

“Hold on... what do you mean by cast aside?”

Harry leaned back against the backrest of the bench and looked at her sideways.

“Although he spent most of his adult life in Azkaban, never did he mention you after he escaped. I had had lots of time to talk to him about various stuff, yet he never told me he had a daughter. I wish he had done so. I would’ve at least tried to find and befriend you,” he finished, looking up at the tree.

Elena’s eyes widened before a sad smile crossed her face.

“Harry... he never knew...”

His neck turned so fast, that Elena was sure he’d had a whiplash.

“What!?”

“He didn’t even know I existed. He never knew...”

“You mean he didn’t even know he had a daughter?”

Elena shook her head in sadness. Harry kept looking at her with a stunned expression on his face.

“Even I didn’t know my father’s name until I was sixteen, I think. I went by my caretakers’ surname until then. Once I found out, I asked them to change my name in the official records.”

“How the hell is that possible?”

Elena looked at him and Harry could see the sadness deep within her gaze. His eyes softened.

“I asked my aunt about them, my parents I mean. My parents, they never married, Harry. Hell, they didn’t even love each other. They had a fling.”

“That sounds like Sirius,” Harry muttered. Elena smiled, but it failed to reach her eyes.

“Aunt Sophie, that's who I grew up with, gave me a letter from my mother. During a raid. my father got injured and was brought to St. Mungos. My mother was his healer. It didn’t have all the details but they had a fling shortly after. And then the war escalated, and you know how it went. No one knew that my mother was pregnant with me by then.”

Elena looked on ahead, and Harry simply listened. A part of him was relieved that Sirius was probably not one of those people to cast his family aside simply for lacking the ability to wield magic, however, he felt sad for the man. He had a daughter and yet he never knew.

“She gave birth to me in the hospital itself. However, soon after, she contacted Aunt Sophie who she had been good friends with and asked her to take me in.”

Harry opened his mouth but she beat him to it.

“Now as far as my aunt has told me, my mother was not one of those purebloods who would cast their child aside for being a squib,” she gave him a half-hearted glare, correctly guessing what he was about to say, and Harry nodded sheepishly.

“My mother wrote that she had told her to care for me until the war ended. She was concerned about my safety in Wizarding Britain at the time of such unrest. However, she was killed when the Death Eaters attacked St. Mungos one day. That left me in care of my aunt for good. When I asked her why she didn’t take me to my father, she told me what had happened to him.” Elena sniffed, and Harry wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

“I hated him, y’know... how could a man kill all those innocent people like that!? I was ashamed to be the daughter of a mass murderer. It was only later after the new war ended that I came to know just what he had gone through. I was devastated. It was too late though. He was already gone.”

Harry closed his eyes, painful memories gliding up to the surface of his thoughts.

“I thought about approaching you once,” she admitted, and Harry opened his eyes to look down at her.

Elena looked up at him with a small smile.

“Yeah... I’d been initially turned off after reading about you in that newspaper, but Aunt Sophie told me to take those with a pinch of salt. When the truth came out, I got really interested in at least meeting you. But then I thought just what I could say to you? Hello Harry Potter, I’m Elena Black, your godfather’s daughter who no one knows about. I quickly discarded that idea.”

Harry chuckled. He was feeling quite hollow inside. However, he wanted to cheer her up.

“Well, that’s solved now. Here I am, in the flesh. Get to know me as much as you want.” Elena looked at him and laughed, and Harry was relieved to see the tension lessen a bit. She cleared her throat before resting her head back on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her.

“Tonight, when I came to that club, I had no idea I’d run into you. When I saw you, I was shocked and had no idea how to react. I mean, I didn’t know what to say to you.”

Harry chuckled.

“And here I thought you were too starstruck to form any response.”

Elena chuckled and slapped his chest.

They stayed there in silence, their minds occupied with various thoughts.

“Can I ask you something, Elena?” Harry asked after a long moment of pause.

Elena turned her head to look up at him.

“Hmm?”

Harry looked at her face and sighed.

“Were you ever planning on telling me who you really were?”

Elena frowned.

“I wasn’t. I didn’t even know you a few hours ago, and I had no plans to change that. But...”

“But?” Harry was looking intently at her.

Elena took a deep breath.

“After... our uh... moment on the dance floor...” they smiled faintly at one another, “after that, I thought I should tell you about myself... but then you dropped that bombshell on me and I lost any desire of telling you, and then you asked me yourself...”

Harry sheepishly nodded at the reminder of how he had made a fool of himself back then.

“I have an idea then.” Harry began and he pulled away from her and turned toward her.

“What?” Elena asked as she turned around to look at him.

“We should start over."

She looked at him owlishly.

"That's stupid."

"No it isn't. Here." He straightened up and extended his hand out, his palm upward.

"Hello, I’m Harry Potter.”

Elena chuckled and rolled her eyes.

“Hello Harry Potter, I’m Elena Black,” she said and placed her hand on top of his, palm down.

Harry smiled and brought it back up to his lips and planted a soft feather kiss. Elena blushed.

“Elena, would you go out with me?”

Elena couldn’t stop herself. She laughed. Harry’s indignant shout of ‘Hey!’ only made her laugh harder.

Bringing herself under control, she looked at him with a small smile on her lovely face.

“I’d love to, Harry,” she smiled gently, and Harry felt his own grin creep up his face, his lips stretching wide.

“How’s Wednesday evening for you?”

Elena looked thoughtful for a moment before giving a small nod.

“Yeah, that would work,” she smiled.

“It’s a date then,” he said, and she nodded happily.

It felt like a massive weight had been taken off their shoulders as the pair cleared the air between them. Harry took her hand in his and pulled her up with him. Elena told him that she could go back home on her own, but Harry insisted on dropping her off. Even though he couldn’t apparate with her yet since he didn’t know the location, his car was enough.

The pair found themselves in his lavish car and Harry helped her in. He walked around and got in the driver’s seat before smiling at her. At her nod, he drove off.

The car tore through the road at a rapid pace, the traffic minimal. It took barely fifteen minutes until they reached her apartment. Harry got out of the car before he helped her out. He shut the door once she stood on the pavement and turned to face her.

“I had a lot of fun tonight,” Harry began.

Elena blushed faintly.

“Me too,” she looked up in his emerald pools, a lovely smile etched on her beautiful face.

“I really want to kiss you right now.”

His voice was deep and slightly gruff. Elena flushed before nodding slightly.

Harry wasted no time and pressed his lips against hers. He felt her lips move slowly against his and his arms wrapped around her waist. Elena brought her hands up and wrapped them around his neck as her fingers played with the ends of his hair. The pair continued to kiss each other for a long moment before they slowly pulled back and rested their foreheads together.

Harry pulled back and opened his eyes to find himself looking into her grey orbs and smiled. Elena gave a soft smile in return.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through her temple, and Elena hissed, grabbing her head and closing her eyes. Quickly Harry was in front of her, his concern clearly on display.

"Elena, you okay?"

The woman in question furrowed her brows and kept her eyes closed, wiling for the headache to abate.

"Y-yeah, just a minor headache, due to the drink perhaps..." Elena mumbled, slowly opening her eyes to gaze into his concerned ones.

"You sure?"

"Mm-hmm," she nodded and Harry smiled softly. 

“Alright then, I’ll pick you up on Wednesday at six?”

“Mm-hmm,” they kept eye contact all the while and realized they didn’t want to let the other go away. However, they knew they couldn’t stay like that for long, and reluctantly, they pulled away.

“I’ll see you then,” Harry whispered. Elena simply nodded with a small smile on her lips.

With a smile, Harry leaned forward and gave her one final fleeting kiss that left her wanting. Still smiling softly, he walked back to the car. He looked out and waved, and revved the engine up. Elena blinked and he pulled away. The car drove down the street and turned into the main lane as she stood there, smiling softly.

*****

To be continued...