Diadem

On the third Friday of December, Rose received a note from Madam Pince asking her to come back and help in the library after Christmas. At the end, in a line of tiny writing, she wished her a merry Christmas.

Rose added Madam Pince's name to her gift list.

She was considerably better off than she had been last Christmas. At least this year she could afford to buy her friends some decent presents.

In the Gryffindor Common Room, Rose was curled up in the scarlet armchair closest to the fireplace. A plate of steaming shortbread biscuits sat on the little table beside her, and an enormous, uninvitingly thick book rested against her stomach. One hand loosely supported its spine, while the other occasionally picked up a biscuit and popped it into her mouth.

The fire had warmed her cheeks rosy red. Listening to the cold wind batter the glass and window frames and the logs crackle in the fireplace, she felt the letters before her turn into symbols floating in the air.

She had no idea how much time had passed before the book fell, startling her awake.

Her heart pounding, she looked up to see Sirius sitting on the table in front of her, one long leg bent with his foot planted on the tabletop. He was studying a biscuit intently.

"Did you make these?" Sirius asked without looking up. He put the biscuit in his mouth. "They're not as good as last time," he concluded.

Rose finally got her heartbeat under control. She sat up straight and used the book to knock Sirius's foot off the table.

"Don't put your feet up here!" she snapped. "Nobody asked for your opinion. Nina made these especially for me!"

"Who's Nina?" Sirius asked. He barely knew any girls, much less their first names.

"A house-elf," Rose said, stretching. The Christmas holidays were sapping her willpower. She and Lily had made reading plans before the holidays, and she hadn't finished a single one yet.

"Oh." Sirius didn't much care about house-elves. He was starting to regret not accepting James's invitation to spend Christmas at his house. With no one to go on nighttime excursions or adventures with him, he was going stir-crazy.

"Let's go there now!" Sirius jumped off the table and urged her on. "Let's go find 'that thing.' I have a feeling we'll definitely succeed today!"

"You said that last time!" Rose complained, but she let Sirius pull her to her feet. They really had nothing else to do. They couldn't just stay here until the Christmas feast!

The corridors were quiet during the holidays. At last, they didn't have to be so secretive and sneak into the Room of Requirement.

Following their plan, the two of them had searched their way into the deepest part of the room. Everything here was covered in a thick layer of dust. Rose even saw the words "made in the seventeenth century" on a box whose original shape was no longer recognizable.

Using their wands, they wrapped a scarf around each of their mouths and noses-Rose couldn't stop sneezing whenever she smelled dust—and split up.

She waved her wand, using the dust-removal charm she had learned from Practical Household Magic to restore each object to its original appearance. As the dust fell away, an exquisite gilded mantel clock revealed its fine blend of craftsmanship and aesthetics.

"I have an idea-" Rose called excitedly. "How many Galleons do you think they're worth?"

"A few hundred?" Sirius glanced over and deliberately drawled the words. When he saw Rose growing more and more excited, he added, "They were worth a few hundred two hundred years ago, but now they're just a pile of junk."

"You don't understand!" Rose rolled her eyes at him and examined the exquisite piece of craftsmanship closely. "The older something is, the more it's worth. Maybe I can trade it for a new cauldron!"

There were hundreds of things like it in the Black family home. Even the silverware they drank from was three hundred years old. Sirius really couldn't muster much interest in it. He bent his head and searched carefully through a pile of junk, leaving no suspicious object unchecked.

He went farther and farther in, until an old cabinet with a blistered surface caught his eye. On top stood a pockmarked bust of a wizard, its expression worn almost beyond recognition. But on its head-Sirius narrowed his eyes and peered closely-over its dingy old wig sat an antique crown whose color had faded.

"Ha!" Sirius's hearty, excited laughter rang out from deep in the room. "I knew we'd do it today! Rose, come and see what this is!"

Rose's gaze snapped away from the mantel clock. The object in front of her could no longer hold the slightest bit of her attention. She jogged in the direction of his voice.

She rounded a towering structure made from a stack of old cabinets and chairs and saw that Sirius had brought over an old chair. He was wobbling on it as he reached for the old crown on the wizard's head.

"Be careful," Rose warned uneasily. The old chair looked ready to fall apart at any moment, so she hurried over and held it steady.

"It's fine. I've almost got it!" Sirius said with effort. Although he was several inches taller than his peers, reaching that high was still a bit of a strain for a second-year like him.

"Accio Diadem-"

"That doesn't work on it. I just tried!" As soon as Sirius said this, he leaped up and yanked the wig and crown together off the wizard bust's head.

The old chair could no longer withstand his weight. As if he had stepped on a piece of dried wood, it instantly fell apart.

Rose couldn't get out of the way in time. A powerful force pulled her down, and she crashed hard to the floor, her elbow and stomach hurting terribly.

"Ow—I'm really sorry!" Sirius's voice came from above her. The weight on her stomach suddenly vanished, and her body felt much lighter.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Sirius squatted in front of her, grinning foolishly. "Good thing you were there. Otherwise, falling from that height, I'd probably be spending Christmas in the Hospital Wing!" he said, relieved.

The impact had left Rose dazed, and she still hadn't recovered. When she heard his infuriating words, she saw stars, and her ears kept ringing.

"This is for you!"

Rose felt a weight settle on her head. Instantly, a sharp pain pierced her mind, as though her brain had been scooped out and put through a meat grinder. The immense pain made everything go black, and she passed out.

The sound of the wind outside the window woke Rose. She struggled to open her dry, swollen eyes. The pain in her head was gone, but her temples still throbbed with a dull ache.

She stared blankly at the high ceiling, and the first thought that popped into her head was: There must have been a mistake. Sirius Black's Animagus form should be a crow, not a big black dog.

"You're awake?" Sirius's voice came from beside her. Rose turned her head and saw him sitting on a small round stool, his clothes rumpled and red marks from the folds of his clothing on his face.

"Uh-" His gray eyes shifted to the blanket, and he ran a hand over the bedsheet, refusing to look at Rose. "I thought-"

His voice was muffled, stripped of its usual energy and bearing none of the weariness or arrogance it sometimes held. "Headmaster Dumbledore took the Diadem. He gave each of us fifty points, but he looked a little strange when he left-"

"I really shouldn't have done that. I thought it would make a nice Christmas present," he said guiltily. "You missed the feast."

Rose raised her arm and, with some effort, moved her fingers to tug lightly at the hem of his clothes. Sirius turned his head at once, his gray eyes full of apology behind his long black hair.

"It's all right," Rose said softly. "Today was the happiest day I've had, apart from the day I came to Hogwarts." Because they had found the Diadem, there was hope that Dumbledore could make preparations early, and perhaps even change the course of history.

Sirius Black stared at Rose in a daze. Her face was pale, her lips cracked and streaked with blood, and her brown hair lay in a mess across the pillow. A few strands of her bangs had even been matted together by sweat, sticking to her forehead and the sides of her face.

But all that disarray made her deep blue eyes shine with startling brightness, reminding Sirius of the sunlit sea he had once seen, clear and bright, its surface sparkling.

Sirius abruptly got to his feet, the sudden movement giving Rose a fright.

"You must be hungry. I'll go to the kitchen and get you something to eat." Baffled, Rose watched Sirius run out of the Hospital Wing, nearly colliding with Madam Pomfrey at the door.

"How did you sneak in here? You should have left half an hour ago!" Madam Pomfrey shouted angrily after Sirius. "Don't run in the corridors, Black!"