Show Me the World

Chapter 1

Because you loved me
I overcome
And I'm so proud of what you've become
You've given me such security
No matter what mistakes I make you're there for me
You cure my disappointments and u heal my pain

~Beyoncé Knowles, Daddy

The sun slowly sunk down nto the vibrant sea of crimson and gold clouds, bathing the pink-and-purple-tinged hills in its final light. The gorgeous red jewel dipped lower into the horizon, before disappearing in a cloud of fuchsia and violet, the deep blue sky above showing cloudless with the last few stars showing their shy faces after the sun had gone down.

The beauty was lost on the young woman standing on the highest hill, seemingly looking out over the beautiful scenery. Her unbound sun-bleached hair whipped in front of her face, tickling her tanned nose and passing over the black sunglasses covering her blind eyes. She sighed, feeling the darkness of the night pressing around her, and turned on her heel to walk slowly towards the run-down, dusty old castle that was her warm, comforting home.

"Hey, Gin, you home yet?" Her call was answered by a slightly muffled from the other room, and someone stumbled over something as she heard a loud crash! She grinned. That was Ginger all right, her clumsy, older sister just coming home from work, probably not able to see anything over the stacks of papers she always seemed to come home with, and who didn't seem to be able to realize that everything was always in the same place.

The door slammed, almost making the entire castle sway, and Yvonne, still grinning, went out to the living room to help her sister. She moved around the two stubby, flat chairs and the round, cracked coffee table that she had set a huge bouquet of wild flowers on earlier, and carefully stepped over the coat rack that Gin had tripped over before reaching her sister where she was sitting, papers with careful writing scrawled all over them floating around her. Yvonne stifled a giggle and offered her a hand, which she gladly took, and pulled her up, before the two moved around, bent over, trying to gather up all the papers.

"You missed one by the door, Yves," Gin said, glancing over at her sister. After the papers had all been assembled, the older sister re-adjusted her black, horn-rimmed glasses, tightened her long red braid and started to re-organize her work. "Tough day at the office. Stacy left during lunch break saying that she had a "some work to attend to" that prissy, pink little girly-girl, I bet she just wanted to go home and paint her toenails. Joe just keeps on getting in the way, I'd really like to give him a good kick in the-"

"Ginger!" Yvonne cried, trying not to burst out laughing and holding her gasping through her lungs with the effort, and her sister looked over her glasses at her with the biggest green eyes you could ever see. People said that hers were similar, but no one ever saw her eyes. "Well, it's true! The pig lies around all day with his feet on his desk and a bag of chocolate frogs in his hand, complaining that he's stressed and can't work, when he hasn't written a single article all day! I can't wait till we get that new office space, then I will be able to completely shut him out! Honestly, the boss doesn't even notice that I'm the only one with at least some expertise in journalism!" With that she sat back on an old, creaky rocking chair, loaded with pillows, puffing at a few strands of hair that had come out of her braid.

Yvonne shook her head. She loved her sister, but sometimes she could be quite the character. "Well then, why doesn't the boss...whotsisname?"

"Tony," her sister prompted.

"Why doesn't Tony fire them if they're doing such a crummy job?"

Gin shook her head. "Joe and his dad go way back, he could never get rid of him without a fight, and Stacy's loaded with big bucks and her dad helps our office out quite a bit, so Tony can't fire her. Besides, I have a feeling there's something going on between them. Just imagine, finding them shagging in a broom closet..." The redhead looked up into space with a content smile on her face at the thought. "The look on his face..."

"I'm afraid the look would be lost on me," said the younger girl quietly, looking down and immediately wishing afterwards that she hadn't said it. She hated making her sister feel bad about her disability.

Ginger came back down to Earth and stopped rocking, looking over at her sister, her heart nearly braking. Ever since their parents had been murdered by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, they had lived together in the dusty old castle, living off of the small sum of money their parents had left them until she had gotten a job at the ministry as a journalist, luckily having a knack for creative writing and catching good gossip. She earned just enough for clothes, some scraps of food and her sister going to school, though the previous year she had been kicked out for not being able to pay. The Hogwarts headmaster had been kind, however, and offered a spot at Hogwarts for her seventh year, only having to pay half price. He had offered it free, but the two sisters had refused, their pride starting to seep in. They had pounced at the chance, and Yvonne was leaving the next day.

After they had sold their house for some extra cash after the death of their parents, the two had set off, Yvonne being merely fifteen and Ginger eighteen, to find a cheap home to settle down in and let the shock of the death wear away. After much searching and stretching of money, they had stumbled upon the Old Castle, as they called it, an unoriginal name but fitting. The landlord, after seeing their state, had generously offered to "forget" the rent, and they had settled down happily, enjoying the old and medieval aura it had.

"What is it?" Yvonne asked, and Ginger snapped out of her reverie, looking in the reflection of her sister's glasses and realising she had deep worry lines on her forehead. She smoothed them out and switched the subject. "That Dumbledore must be an angel from God, don't you think? I mean, offering all that, and at the finest school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the continent, it all seems so much!"

Yvonne laughed softly, her mood becoming more serious. "Yes, I agree. I'm not sure what we would have done if, you know, no one wanted to take me...this is a great opportunity."

Ginger reached over and touched her sister's smooth, sun-browned skin. "Anyone would take you, and you know it, so stop talking like that! Sure, it might be a bit hard at first, getting to know you're way around as well as you do here, but make a couple of friends and I'm sure it'll turn out fine! Oh, did I just say that? I sound so old!"

The two laughed, but it sounded fake even to them, and the blonde girl sighed, picking up a pencil and winding it through her hair to make a bun. When she was done, she lifted her head, noticing that the other was sitting very still. She frowned. "Something wrong?"

"No, it's just...can you take those horrid glasses off?" Yvonne obliged, though reluctantly. Even though it was only her sister, she often sensed a sense of vulnerability after she took off the glasses, as if a strip of her had been torn off to reveal something within that she didn't want to be seen. It wasn't that she had ugly eyes, she was lucky with that, the tiny scars had healed, but she could often hear the short intake of breath that accompanied her whenever she took them off, knowing that the pupils would be facing some other way during the entire conversation. It was easier to leave the glasses on.

She took them off, revealing bright green eyes with long, pale lashes, making her eyes seem even bigger. Ginger smiled to herself. Just like her own. She hated those wretched glasses, they his the expression from her face sometimes so she felt like she was talking to a wall, even though they were only small ones. There was a certain thing about looking someone in the eye while you spoke to him or her that made you feel more...understood? Special?

"Now that I can talk to you eye-to-eye, I was just thinking about, well, you going off to a school that's huge with tricks and magic positively floating in the air," she paused, as if thinking of the reason they only ever used magic if it was very important. The stuff holding the building up was so fragile, that a spell or two wouldn't hurt every once in a while, but if the air was humming with it like at the school, then the place would probably collapse. "and that, well, you know, kids can be mean..."

"You know that I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself, having been trained in self-defence without my sight, and in case you haven't noticed, I just happen to be seventeen. Now, goodnight!" She stood up so suddenly that the chair was knocked over, one of the legs coming loose, muttered something along the lines of "stupid old chair" and shoved on her glasses before leaving in a huff, climbing the back stairs that led up the room they shared.

Ginger looked down at her work, tears threatening to spill over her eyes and onto the page. She told herself that everything would be all right in the morning when they both had clear heads, then leaned down over the story she was working on, the strands of hair falling in front of her face, and she pushed them back on her scalp angrily. She set her mind and tried to concentrate.

The minutes ticked by on a little clock over the fireplace on the other side of the room, and by eleven o'clock she was exhausted. She put together her work in a neat pile on the table in the kitchen she had been working on, and dragged herself through the living room and up the stairs. She opened the door, made sure her sister was asleep, then shrugged out of the muggle sweatpants and sweater she had been wearing and kicked off her slippers. She slipped on a nightgown and climbed into bed beside Yvonne.

She softly stroked her sister's cheek for a minute, wishing for a moment that they could have lots of money so that they could pay the rent and have decent meals and not have to accept offers from headmasters and maybe, just maybe, be able to get her sister's sight back, but it was nothing but wishful thinking, and slowly her eyes became heavier and she let her hand fall from her sister's face. Though she was both comfy in the big, old-fashioned canopy bed that no longer had drapes and she was completely wiped, she took a long time getting to sleep.

***

Sirius Black ran a hand through his sweaty black, shaggy hair, reminding himself for the sixth time that month that he should get a haircut. It was almost passed his shoulders now. He stood over the little sink in the cramped but clean bathroom that led out to his small room that had a bed, a sink for dishes and the like, and a small table with two chairs. It was simple, but he loved it, and the fact that Albus Dumbledore had given it to him as his quarters for while he taught at Hogwarts made it even more special.

He had just come from a long run around the castle grounds after finding that he was more out of shape than he had figured after the horrible years in prison, then the last year spent on the run. It was refreshing to be able to go places in his human form, head high, though he still got glares from suspicious people from time to time. Even after Harry had given a very long, painful interview about the exact order of events that had taken place since the death of his parents, some still thought of him as the criminal who wriggled his way out of prison and manipulated the young Harry Potter into believing that he wasn't a criminal at all.

He quickly shrugged out of his clothes and stepped into the shower, smiling at the feel of the nice, warm water. He scrubbed his hair till he had washed out all of the dirt and grime, then turned the water off and dried himself with a fluffy white towel. After slipping into his scruffy, black work robes he sat down in his chair, relaxed.

An owl flew in the window with a small note, and he quickly read it, a knot of nervousness and anxiety forming in his stomach. He crumpled up the letter and shoved it in his pocket, then went out into the hallway and hurriedly headed towards Snape's office, a worried expression on his face.

The greasy-haired potions master greeted him coldly, sneering slightly at the poor state of his robes. Sirius shifted from foot to foot impatiently.

"I need to use your fire-place, Snape. I have to contact Arthur Weasley and tell him about what's been going on. You know, at the ministry. I have bad news. Just got an owl from Fudge."

Snape raised one black, thin eyebrow. "If you were anyone less than a professor at Hogwarts, I wouldn't let you set one toe in my rooms. However, seeing as our headmaster somehow chose you, I will let you use it for ten minutes. The clock's ticking."

Sirius brushed past him, threw some floo powder into the fire that was crackling along, and when the flames turned emerald green he stuck his head in yelling "The Burrow!"

After a few seconds he could see the Weasley's homey kitchen, Mrs. Weasley standing at the sink, a tea towel in one hand and her mouth in a surprised O shape.

"Molly, I need to see Arthur. He should still be home, am I correct?"

The plump woman nodded and called her husband, noticing the worried tone in Sirius's voice. She soon came back, her husband with her. Arthur bent down next to Sirius. "Good morning, Molly said that you needed to talk to me. What's the matter?"

Sirius tried to tell him, but he felt so sorry for this middle-aged man who looked ten years older than he should, and tried to find a good way to tell him. He decided to just say it straightforward. "It's about Percy. This morning he was found dead, slumped over the fountain in the ministry in a pool of blood. I'm sorry Arthur."

***

Yvonne opened her eyes and stretched, finding her sister not beside her. She assumed she had already gone down, and the faint sound of a quill on parchment confirmed her assumption. She yawned and swung her legs over the bed, grabbed her glasses on the bedside table and moved around, finding her brand new black robes neatly folded on a chair by her already packed trunk. She smiled as she fingered the soft materiel. As a treat, her sister had gotten them for her as an early birthday present, as it was in two months, and since she rarely got anything new, she treated them with special care. Her sister had described them to her; saying that they were a perfect close fit and went down to her ankles and the midnight black of all the students' robes. She brought them up to her face as inhaled, smiling into the cloth.

After getting dressed, she swung through the open door and went down the stairs quickly, lifting up her robes as she went. She entered the kitchen and nearly ran into her sister, but at the last minute a floorboard squeaked and she moved out of the way to let her sister go into the living room with the high stack of papers and started to slowly set the table.

For breakfast they had the last eggs and some bread and butter with warm milk. Ginger was glad that the argument of the previous evening was forgotten, and asked, "All ready for today?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," said Yvonne, grinning. Then, just for her sister, she took off the glasses and her green eyes sparkled. The two went upstairs and dragged the heavy trunk down, laughing the entire time. Yvonne was disappointed that she hadn't been able to get an animal, but she brushed the thought away deciding to be grateful for what she had.

Once the trunk had been shoved into the back of the tiny old car that they didn't even know the type of, and then climbed in, chatting away and laughing. Ginger had taken the day off, and the two sisters had done each other's hair, Yvonne had just brushed her sister's mop of red curls until it shown, and Ginger had done the other's hair in one long braid down her back with some strands coming out. Yves leaned back in the seat, letting the sun warm her face. It was going to be a good day.

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