The Empath

Chapter 3: Lily Black - The Empath

"Harry, it's all right. Everything is going to be fine," Sirius said with tears running down his face. Harry fell into Sirius' arms.

All of the pain and sorrow he felt over the last few months seemed to be coming out. The visions of watching Sirius die; it was all wrong, all of it. Sirius wasn't dead.

Harry had his godfather back. The person that was more like a father to him than anyone had ever been was alive! A rush of joy came over him, and he stopped crying. "I thought you were dead. What happened? How did you get out of the Ministry? Where have you been?" Harry asked him.

It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of his chest, and he could finally breathe. Sirius looked up at him; he had stopped crying too, but he still had tears in his eyes.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you later once we get - LILY!!!" Sirius yelled as Lily fell to the ground.

Harry ran over to her. "She fainted," he told Sirius.

"There's not much time now. You must get her out of here NOW!!" he told Harry in a very urgent tone.

Harry looked at him confused. "Why? What's happened to her? What about you? I can't -"

"Harry, my legs broken, and I'm too weak to get out of here on my own, but you have to get her out of here!" he said quickly, nodding in Lily's direction.

Harry didn't know what to do. Should he leave his godfather to die and help the girl that found him or let her die and save his godfather?

"I won't leave you!! There must be another way!!!" he shouted at Sirius.

"You have to save her now Harry, go!!"

Harry was quickly trying to come up with a plan as something appeared in the entrance of the cave. It looked like a very large silhouette of a man. For a moment Harry thought it was a wizard, Voldemort or one of his followers perhaps. Fear struck him as he realized he couldn't do anything now. As it got closer, it got smaller and smaller, and it started to run to him.

"Miss Lily!! What's happened to Miss Lily, Harry Potter?" asked a small squeaky voice.

"Dobby? What are you doing here?" Harry asked the small house elf.

"Dobby was worried about Harry Potter and Miss Lily, so he went to find them, sir. How is Harry Potter going to get away from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," Dobby shuddered, "with Mr. Black and Miss Lily, sir?" Dobby asked Harry fearfully.

"Could you help me Dobby?"

"Dobby - help Harry Potter? It would be an honor, sir."

"Dobby," called Sirius, making Dobby jump. "Dobby, do you think that you could bind me to you and fly a broom out of here? We need to get out of here using a little magic as possible."

"Sir, Dobby has never flown a broom. Dobby could use his magic to bind the broom to Harry Potter's broom."

"Yes, that would work. Harry, you take Lily on your broom, and we'll trail behind."

"Okay," Harry stood up and took out his wand. "Accio Firebolt."

Harry's broom flew through the cave and floated in the air next to him perfectly leveled for him to mount it. He put his wand in his pocket and picked Lily up. He mounted his broom and turned her around as if she was riding it herself. He held her with one hand around her waist and one hand on his broom.

"Dobby is ready, Harry Potter," Dobby told him.

"So am I," he replied.

Dobby turned to look at Sirius. "Dobby has heard many bad things about Mr. Black, but if Harry Potter and Miss Lily love him and wants to help him, than Dobby loves Mr. Black too. And he will save him," Dobby said proudly.

"Thank you, Dobby," said Sirius as Dobby and Harry flew out of the cave with Harry holding Lily and Sirius bound to Dobby flying behind.

Harry tried as hard as he could to remember how to get out. He hadn't really paid much attention before. It was harder for him to keep on course because the wind was fiercer than it had been before and this time he only had one hand to steady himself.

It was so cold and he felt as if his face was frozen. when he remembered that Sirius hadn't had a cloak on he stopped.

"DOBBY?" he yelled over the loud thundering of the wind and snow.

"What's wrong Harry Potter?" cried Dobby.

"Can you put something on Sirius to keep him warm?" he asked Dobby.

"Dobby already used his magic to keep him warm, sir."

"Okay, thank you." He instantly felt relieved. What would he have done without Dobby? He could have lost Sirius again.

"HARRY, IS EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT?" he heard Sirius yell.

"YES, I'VE JUST LOST MY WAY," he answered.

"TAKE OUT YOUR WAND, POINT IT TO YOUR BROOM, AND SAY 12 GRIMMAULD PLACE YOU KNOW THE WAY," Sirius yelled.

"OKAY," he yelled back.

He leaned down so that the arm holding Lily could also hold the broom handle. As hard as it had been to keep his broom steady when he was flying, it was even harder to do it staying still. He managed it, got his wand out, pointed it at his broom, and said, "12 Grimmauld Place you know the way."

It was as if his broom took on a life of its own and started soaring through the sky. He had no time to put his wand back in his pocket. He had to hold Lily with his arm that he was holding his wand with and hold on to his broom with his other hand to keep from falling off.

It got warmer and brighter as they went, but he was getting very weak. His grip on his broom was so tight that he lost feeling in his arm, but he put every last bit of strength that he had into staying on his broom and holding Lily. Then his broom came to an abrupt stop and he fell off with Lily in his arms.

Dobby ran up to him looking very exhausted himself. "Is Harry Potter okay?" he cried at Harry's side.

Harry just laid there too tired to move or speak. Dobby got up and ran to the door of the house that they were in front of. "HELP!!" he pounded on the door, screaming and crying. "PLEASE HELP HARRY POTTER AND MISS LILY!!! PLEASE HURRY!!"

The door opened, and Dumbledore stepped out. "Where are they?" he asked Dobby as he saw Harry and Lily and ran to their sides. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley ran outside.

"HARRY!!!" Mrs. Weasley screamed.

Harry tried to get up and say something, anything, but he couldn't.

"It's all right Harry; it will all be all right." Harry heard Dumbledore say as he drifted off into a deep sleep.

Hours later he woke up and reached for his glasses on the table next to him. After putting them on he looked around and saw that he was at Black Manor in the room he stayed in the last time he was there.

"It's about time you woke up!" said Ron with a grin on his face. Harry looked over next to him and saw that Ron and Hermione were sitting next to his bed.

"How are you feeling?" Hermione asked him concerned.

"I'm alright," he reassured her. Then he remembered everything that had just happened, and he quickly sat up. "Where are Sirius and Lily? Are they okay?"

"Dumbledore got the letter from Lily and Madam Pomfrey was already here when you got here. She healed Sirius. He wouldn't let anyone near Lily, and he made a potion and gave it to her to help her. He's in with her now; she's not awake yet. Madam Pomfrey doesn't know if she'll be okay or not. She keeps saying how she's never seen anything like it before. Whatever that means," Hermione informed him.

"I want to go see Sirius," he told them. They nodded and showed him to the room without saying anything.

"We should go tell everyone Harry's awake and help your mum with dinner, right Ron?" Hermione asked Ron implying to him that they should leave Harry alone with Sirius.

"Yeah, we'll see you later," Ron told Harry, turned around, and walked down the stairs with Hermione.

Just as Harry had opened the door, he heard Ron shout half way down they stairs, "Oh and Harry, Happy Birthday." They smiled at each other, and Harry went into the room.

Lily was lying on Sirius's bed, and Sirius was sitting on the bed next to her, just looking at her, and holding her hand.

Harry walked over and sat in the chair that was next to the bed. "Who is she?" he asked Sirius.

Not looking away from Lily he said, "She's my daughter.

"When your father and I went to Hogwarts, I met a girl named Hannah. She was your mother's best friend, and she was in Hufflepuff. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. We started going out in our third year and were together ever since.

"Lily and James got married and were expecting you when I asked her to marry me. She said yes, and a few weeks later she told me that she was pregnant.

"It was dark times, but I was the happiest man alive. Her brother was a Death Eater. When he found out she was pregnant with my child, he kidnapped her, one-week before our wedding."

Harry couldn't believe everything that Sirius was telling him. He had never even thought to ask him about his own life. A feeling of guilt came over him as he realized that he a Sirius never really talk about anything other than Voldemort and the impending war. At least they had a second chance as he listened to his godfather tell him about his past.

"I tried to find her. We all did, James, Lily, Remus, Peter, Dumbledore, all of us, but we never found her. I thought she was dead. I called off the search, but I myself never stopped looking for her." He paused, took a deep breath, and continued.

"I searched when I escaped from Azkaban, and when I was in hiding I searched for her everyday. We were going to go to the Bahamas on our honeymoon, so when I went into hiding that's the first place I went. I never found her.

"I assumed her brother had indeed killed her and our child. That was until I saw Lily. She found me in the dungeon where Voldemort kept me. She looks so much like her mother; I thought she was at first. When she told me her name was Lily, I knew she was our daughter. I can't think of any other name that my Hannah would have given her, but the one of her best friend," he paused again with tears in his eyes and a smile came across his face.

"She has my hair," he laughed. "Hannah had gorgeous white blonde hair. You would have sworn she was a veela upon first sight. When I first met her I thought I was in some sort of trance. I couldn't move or breathe; it was all the love that she possessed that made her so wonderful. She was so kind. The kindest person I ever met. She was so beautiful; I can honestly say that our daughter is as beautiful as she was." Smiling down at Lily, he gently stroked her hand.

"What happened to her? Why did she faint?" Harry asked quietly with tears in his eyes, imagining the pain Sirius must have been feeling. Sirius looked up at him and began to explain.

"You see, my Hannah wasn't just a normal witch, she was an Empath." Seeing the confused look on Harry's face he started to explain. "An Empath is a woman who can channel into other people's feelings and know what they're feeling. If they don't know how to control their power and they're around people with strong emotions. . ." He stopped briefly searching for the right words to explain. "If the emotion is strong enough, then it can be too much for them to handle, and they become weak, and it can even keep weakening them until they die.

"I assume Lily has her mother's gift. When we were in the cave, the emotions you and I were feeling were almost too much for us to handle, and she had to handle both of our emotions along with her own."

"Will she be okay?" Harry asked him.

"There is an ancient potion called the Carisara Potion, this will help her weaken the emotions instead of the emotions weakening her. Her mother had to use it often when I first met her, being in a school full of teenagers, at least until she learned how to control her power. I made the potion and gave it to Lily. It will take awhile, but she should be fine," Sirius told Harry who instantly felt relieved.

Sirius then turned back and stared at Lily with tears streaming down his face, and the room went silent. The next morning Harry awoke in Lily's room. He had fallen asleep in the chair next to her bed. He looked up and saw Sirius still watching her. His face was stained with tears and he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

He was pale, his eyes were puffy, he hadn't washed since he'd been back, and it looked as if he hadn't moved from that same spot since he'd been back, and indeed he hadn't.

"There hasn't been any change in her?" Harry asked Sirius softly, startling him.

"Harry, I didn't know you were awake," he said not looking up from Lily. "No, there hasn't been any change."

"Sirius?" he asked apprehensively.

"Yes, Harry?" he responded, wiping the face with his hand and looking up at him.

"I'm sorry for what you had to go through losing your fiancé and everything," Harry told him, and at these words Sirius stood up and went over to Harry who stood up as well.

"Thank you," Sirius told him and put his arms around him and hugged him, the way a father would hug a son.

Harry was so happy to have his godfather back. He wanted to talk to him, to tell him everything that he went through since he had seen him last, to ask him what had happened, but it wasn't the time or place. Sirius was going through his own struggle right now, but that was okay he would wait. He had all the time in the world.

Sirius pulled away and smiled at him. "Harry, you've been like a son to me since the day you were born, and your father was a brother to me since the day I met him. We have all suffered from the hatred of Voldemort, but this time we will defeat him. We will do whatever it takes to defeat him, for the ones we have lost and for the pain he has caused us."

"I don't know about you, but I think that sounds exhausting," they heard a soft, faint voice say. They both looked at Lily, who had just woken up.

Sirius got a big grin on his face. "How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"Well that's a bit of a stupid question to ask a girl who's been in a coma for a day," she told him sarcastically as she tried to sit up. Sirius went over and helped her, propping her pillow up behind her.

"How did you know it's only been a day?" Harry asked her.

"Well, I don't really know how to explain it, but it was like I was watching myself sleep. Like I was someone else looking down at me," she explained. "I heard everything you said about Mum." She looked up at Sirius tearfully.

"I'm sorry Lily. I would have done anything to find you and your mother. I would have died myself, if I knew it would ensure your safety," Sirius told her as he sat down on the bed next to her.

"I know. It wasn't your fault," she said to him softly as tears started to gently fall from her eyes.

"Where have you been all these years? What happened to your mother? Is she -"

"I don't know. I don't remember her. I was told she died. When Voldemort was well - gone I guess my uncle was killed. A man found me at his house and brought me here to live with my grandmother. The man said that he knew my mother. He had come to visit me from time to time, and though my grandmother didn't like him, she let him see me.

"When my grandmother died, he adopted me, and I moved with him to France. He worked at Hogwarts, and he Flooed there everyday, leaving me with Mother's house elf, Quincy.

"He never let me go to England. He said that it was too complicated for me to understand why. When it was time for me to go to school I went to Beaux batons. A few years ago I asked him again about who I was and he told me everything that he knew. He said that my mother had been killed and that you were my father. He never told me anything bad about you even though it always seemed like he wanted to. He just told me about how much you loved Mum and would have loved me if you had met me. I love him dearly, and he's done the best to raise me, but I still felt like I was missing something.

"When you escaped from Azkaban it was all over the papers, so I confronted him and asked him why he had never told me that you were still alive. He told me that you did it because you had gone mad after Mum was kidnapped and that he didn't tell me because he didn't want me to think poorly of my you."

"That's not true. I was innocent, but no one knew that until after I escaped," Sirius quickly added in his defense.

"It didn't matter to me. I wanted to find you either way, just to talk to you. It took me a few years to invent a potion that would help me find you, and I did. I planned everything out, left a note explaining myself on my desk, and went to get you."

"I still can't imagine how a witch as young as you, could invent a potion to find me," Sirius told her proudly.

"Well, Uncle Severus is the Potions Master at Hogwarts -" At this Sirius' eyes widened and he was completely shocked, but Lily still went on. "- so I've always been good with potions, and I started to create my own when I started school."

"I'm sorry; I must have heard you wrong. Did you say Uncle Severus was the man that raised you?" Sirius asked her, hoping he had heard her wrong.

"Well he's not really my uncle now is he? But I call him that anyway," she said matter-of-factly.

"Severus Snape?" Sirius asked in shock.

"Yes, Severus Snape," she answered him.