A/N

This first chapter is based on the chapter in the order of the pheonix where Ron is thrown his prefect celebration. The rest of the book follows, not harry, but Sirius and the main protagonist. This just sets up the flashback to the main story. Without further ado, enjoy!

Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire

Only when Moody had left did Harry realise he hadn't mentioned anything of the three individuals in the very center of the photo, two wizards and a scowling witch. It was surprising, as something about them seemed to draw the eye, but whether it was just their placement within the picture or an innate quality in the air around them, Harry couldn't be sure.

Even though nothing about the photograph thus far had struck Harry as "neat," as Moody had put it, he found he wanted to know about those three, if only because Moody had glossed over their presence with his magical eye like they'd never existed. It certainly didn't seem like Moody to shy away from anything, nor make such an obvious mistake.

Harry peered over the clusters of Weasleys. Fred and George trailed tragically around in all black, dogging Ron's footsteps and talking in raised voices about him as if he were dead and singing funeral hymns. Moody was nowhere to be found. Finally, his eyes landed on Sirius and Remus drinking copious amount of firewhisky in the corner, and he decided to settle. Surely they'd know the answer, too.

"Sirius?" Harry asked his godfather, striding up to them with the picture clutched tightly between his fingers. "Moody gave me this and I was wondering if you might explain something about the people in the middle."

Sirius, and Remus over his shoulder, looked over the photo with great interest. When he saw the wizard Harry indicated, the oldest of the two, a handsome man who appeared to be in his mid to late twenties, a flicker of something like caution flashed across Remus' eyes. Sirius, on the other hand, gazed at the man, transfixed.

"I'm not surprised old Mad Eye neglected to mention him," Sirius finally managed, tearing his eyes away. "People don't like to talk about him, or the rest of his family, for that matter."

"Who is he?"

Sirius hesitated. "Caius. Caius Gryffindor."

"You mean he was in Gryffindor, right?" Harry reiterated, growing more puzzled by the strange way Sirius was behaving by the second.

Sirius barked out a laugh that was strangely devoid of warmth. "Yeah, I reckon he was in Gryffindor. What else could he possibly have been in?"

Remus shook his head, sensing Harry's confusion, and answered as if Sirius hadn't spoken. "Yes... and no. He was certainly in Gryffindor, but he was, in fact, the direct descendent of the Hogwarts cofounder, and shared his same last name."

"They're still around?" Harry was floored, feeling oddly betrayed by the new surge of information. How could he have been in Gryffindor for what would be his fifth year and not have heard about the surviving line of his own House's founder? "Why have I never heard anyone mention him before?"

"Was around," Sirius corrected. "Theirs was one of the many lines that died out during the last great wizarding war." He paused, adding softly, "Caius died only few days after this picture was taken."

"You knew him, then?"

"Not well," Sirius said slowly. "He was already graduated by the time we entered our second year. I was friends with his sister." He pointed to the scowling girl, who was batting away the hands of the third person Moody had failed to mention, while her brother looked on with a benign smile gracing his lips. "Aeliana."

The way he murmured her name made Harry realize it wasn't Caius Gryffindor his godfather had been so transfixed with when he'd seen the photograph.

"She was in our year, and that's her brother, Godric," Remus explained, indicating the third fellow.

Harry would never have guessed they were related were he not told. Caius had wavy chocolate colored hair to compliment his naturally tan skin, while Aeliana was his foil with impossibly straight blond hair and skin like parchment. Godric seemed to be a mixture of the two, except with an impish grin. Only upon closer inspection did Harry finally realise they all shared the same shade of blue eyes, like wild bluebells.

"Why does nobody like to talk about them?" Harry asked after a few moments.

"I suppose at some point after I was carted off to Azkaban it became a taboo subject. Wizards, when it counts, like to forget unfortunate truths and hide from painful pasts, like how people refuse to call He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Voldemort. People would rather forget what happened to Lia and her family."

"But why?"

Remus took the picture out of Sirius' hands and gave it back to Harry without looking at it. "There are no wizard kings, Harry, as I'm sure you know, but the Gryffindor family was as close to royalty or nobility as we've ever had. Far richer and more influential than even the Malfoys, people looked to them for protection and guidance. If they said they lost faith in the Ministry, there would be a complete overhaul of our entire government. Their children were treated like celebrities, much like you are, Harry."

"Lia loved the attention," Sirius cut in sarcastically.

Remus gave his friend a wry look. "She most certainly did not. That was part of the reason we discovered so many secret passage ways through Hogwarts, so she could get from class to class unbothered."

Sirius grinned fondly at the memory. "She definitely had a reputation for being an unabashed fame seeker, though. As soon as people thought she loved the fame, they got over her real quick. No one likes to listen to a pretentious prick going on about how wonderful they are. It takes away from the mystique."

Harry got a sharp mental image of Gildedoy Lockhart and couldn't help but think that Aeliana Gryffindor might have been on to something. Nothing inoculated Lockhart fans faster than actually meeting him.

"The Gryffindor's were notorious for churning out one genius after another, although," Remus pondered thoughtfully, "I'm not sure if that was more a result of them winning the genetic lottery time and time again or the spirit crushing expectations and training they placed on their children."

"The Gryffindor Curse is what Aeliana called it," said Sirius, looking as though he thought the notion was amusing. "She swore the Sorting Hat "cruelly" placed her in Gryffindor, despite her pleas to be put in Hufflepuff."

"Why would she have wanted to be in Hufflepuff?"

"Lia was all about trying to prove a point. She wanted to test whether the hat was biased in placing all her relatives in Gryffindor solely because they shared his blood, and swore that she proved it when he refused to go along with her wishes, but it wouldn't have worked anyway."

"Why not?"

"She may have been going through an ongoing House identity crisis," Remus began, "but she really was a true Gryffindor at heart."

Harry wasn't liking all this past tense.

"What happened to her?" he said tentatively, fearing the answer.

Remus looked away, watching the Weasley's celebrate Ron and Hermione's new prefect status'.

Taking a weary breath, Sirius cautioned, "It's a long story, Harry. I'd have to start at the very beginning for it to make sense, and even then, I'm not sure about some of the details."

"Where does it begin?" Harry prompted, not one to be deterred.

Sighing, is if to say, "Well, you asked for it," he began.

"The 22 of May, 1977. The day Lia lost whole the world... The day of the Gryffindor family massacre."