My fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was drawing nearer, with only three days left until we boarded the train on King's Cross Station and journeyed to the Scottish Castle. As always, those remaining days of the holiday were spent with friends and my room played host to not just myself, but three other girls as well. Those girls being Hermione Granger, my best friend, and Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, the two other girls that I shared a dorm with at Hogwarts and was closest to.

"So what's the plan for today?" Lavender asked when everyone was fully awake and sitting around snuggled in warm blankets.

"Depends." Parvati said, "How many times have we been to Diagon Alley since school ended?"

"At least thirty, maybe more." I answered. From three years of relentless Quidditch determination, I was slender and fit. I had elbow length, dark brown, somewhat curly hair and dark brown eyes that stood out the most in my face, also matching my hair. My skin was medium toned and my facial features were relatively smooth. I was the type of girl that wad almost never interested in boys, because most of them were my bestfriends. Guys were always so much easier to be around for me.

"Well that rules that out." Lavender sighed.

"What about a game of Quidditch?" Hermione suggested.

"Since when has Quidditch ever interested you, Hermione?" I asked, quite surprised.

"Oh, I won't be playing of course! I'll just observe."

"Of course." I laughed, "We have enough people for a keeper, two chasers and one beater on each team. That is, if the boys and Liza play as well." I said, thinking it through.

"Does everyone have their brooms?" Parvati queried. Everyone nodded.

"Well, it's settled then." I stated, "We'll play at about twelve?" Again, the three girls nodded.

I got out from my makeshift bed and, grudgingly, everyone followed. It was a very cold, crisp morning and we all wrapped up in our warm dressing gowns and put on our fuzzy slippers before shuffling downstairs into wonderful scents of bacon, eggs and other delicious breakfast foods.

Elizabeth, my younger sister by one year who looked just like a slightly younger version of me, was sitting at the kitchen bench chatting away happily to our Mother, Gina Eddie, about her stay at Luna Lovegood's. The boys, being my fraternal twin brother; Tyler, his and my friend; Ronald Weasley, Nate, my older brother by one year and his friend Mackay Williams, were nowhere to be seen. No doubt, still sound asleep, utilising the rest of their holiday sleep-ins.

"Morning all." Mum greeted as we sat down at the table.

"Morning." Everyone pleasantly chorused.

"Sarah, wake up the boys so they can eat too, would you?" Mum directed. Lavender immediately stood up.

"I'll get Nate," She offered, trying to sound casual, "a-a-and Mackay." She stammered, momentarily forgetting.

Although Lavender would never admit it, she was hopelessly in love with my brother. It was the main reason she ever came around to our house, but I got on with her so it wasn't a major problem. I nodded my approval and she quickly disappeared up the stairs to the second floor where Nate's room was across the hall from mine. I went to the opposite end of the house, the kitchen being on one end, and banged loudly on the door of Tyler's room.

"Get up or there'll be nothing left for breakfast!" I shouted at the door. It was then opened surprisingly quickly by a person I was quite shocked to see.

"Good morning, Sarah." Laurie greeted, a bright smile lighting up his face.

"Laurie! I didn't know you where here." I exclaimed, the same smile forming on my face. He laughed and gathered me into a bone-crushing hug.

Laurence Parker was one of my best friends. His family and my family had been friends for years, before both of us were born, and we grew up together. He was quite tall for a fifth year and had the build of a Quidditch player. He had amazing blue eyes and scruffy light brown hair. The blue-eyed boy then proceeded to think it appropriate to pick me up under my knees and my arms, forcing me to cling to his neck, for fear of falling, just as the other two boys walked out of Tyler's room. Tyler looked us up and down, smirked, then continued into the kitchen. Ron, however, was not so outspoken.

"Oh!" He exclaimed, "Sarah is the girl you refused to tell us about, Laurie! I have to say, I'm happy for you both. But mate, you're going to have a hard time dealing with her brothers." Ron taunted. Laurie blushed and put me down. Ron chuckled and followed Tyler out of the hallway.

"I never knew you liked me." I said to Laurie in a fake, innocent voice, turning to face him. He stuck out his tongue and started coming towards me.

"What are you doing?" I asked, backing away. He quickly came at me and grabbed me, picking me up by my waist. I screamed and he laughed deviously.

"Laurie! Put me down now!" I shouted. It didn't faze him in the slightest. He carried me back out to the kitchen where mum was taking everyone's breakfast orders and everyone except for Tyler and Ron, looked up and stared at us. He placed me back on the ground, still laughing, and I quickly sat down at the table, thoroughly embarrassed. Hermione, sitting opposite me, raised her eyebrows in silent discussion.

"Shut up." I mouthed as a plate of food was placed in front of me.

For a short while I ate in silent protest, however, I eventually ended up joining in the conversations and laughing the morning away with the others. Occasionally I shot a dirty glare at Laurie, although, he would just chuckle.


"Hermione, you have to play." I groaned for the thousandth time, "It's not fair otherwise, now that Laurie is here as well."

"Oh fine! But I will not be an asset to anybody." She huffed, finally giving in.

"Captains?" Parvati asked as we gathered in the middle of the field outside my house.

"Sarah and Laurie, they both actually play on the team." Ron answered. Laurie raised his eyebrows at me and I mouthed a 'you're on'.

"Nate and Tyler are the strongest, other than you two, and Hermione and Liza are the weakest." Tyler explained, "So, you pick one of each and then divide up the rest of us."

"You go first." Mitchell offered.

"Tyler." I began.

On my team, there ended up being Lavender, Tyler, Ron and Liza and on Laurie's there was Mackay, Nate, Parvati and Hermione. Everyone was pretty rusty in their skills because none of us had played a game in ages as there was rarely a time when so many people were at one house. Very quickly into the game we lost track of scores because we hadn't had anyone to referee the game for us, but we continued the game for the fun of it. We had started at around two o'clock, later than planned, packed it in at three o'clock, and it was at four o'clock that we decided to find a spot somewhere in the forest that bordered my house, to set up a campfire for our last night of holidays together at my place.

The next day, our second last day before school resumed, Hermione, Ron and our family were flying to 12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius Black's house and the new headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Hermione and Ron and his family had been staying there for most of the holidays and my Father, Maurice Eddie, had joined them a few days prior.

Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, was also like an uncle to me. When he escaped from Azkaban, Mum and Dad had told us the real story of how he was innocent and that he would be hiding at our place for a while. It took some time to get used to, as we had known him as a criminal for years, but we soon grew to love him like a part of the family. The only people that knew about Sirius's whereabouts were the members and their families of the Order. These people, except for Peter Pettigrew and Lord Voldemort, were also the only people that knew that Sirius was an innocent man, framed by a so-called friend.

Mum had been nine when the Order was originally founded and as soon as she turned eighteen in 1979, she became a member. This was where she met Dad, he was twenty-three when she joined. They fought side by side for three years and according to them, fell madly in love and wound up with four kids and a large house in the countryside of England. They had both again become members of the Order when it was announced that it would be re-founded in 1995.

At that time of the year in England, it starts getting dark quickly by around six o'clock, giving us an hour to find a spot and make a fire muggle style since we weren't allowed to use magic outside of school. We set off, on foot, into the dense forest, each of us carrying a bag of something; marshmallows, chocolates, crackers and a wide assortment of other sweets that we managed to get our hands on.

"This is it." I said as the dense forest stopped and opened into a small clearing.

"Is it safe?" Lavender asked, half cowering behind Nate.

"Usually." Tyler answered before I could. A worried look crossed Lavender's face. I rolled my eyes.

"It is, don't worry, Tyler's just trying to scare you." I reassured her. She nodded, but still wouldn't come out from behind my older brother.

There was an abundance of broken branches lying around and I started gathering some up, as did everyone else. In less than ten minutes, we had acquired enough wood for the fire and we set it all down in the middle of the clearing. Laurie got a few big rocks and placed them around the pile of wood in a circle while Hermione lay out blankets for us to sit on.

"Perfect." I said when it was all finished.

"Who brought the matches?" Nate asked. No one answered. Everyone looked around for the taker.

"It doesn't matter, Nate's seventeen isn't he?" Parvati asked. I shook my head.

"I'm only a sixth year Pav, so's Mackay." Nate explained.

"I'll go back and get them." I sighed.

"I'll come too." Hermione said, probably glad for an excuse to get out of there, for she was looking worried too. We started slowly back through the forest and after a little while of walking she broke the silence between us.

"So..?" She hinted.

"So, what?" I replied, confused. She giggled.

"You and Laurie of course." She stated as if it was completely obvious, which to her it probably was.

"Oh, I don't know." I sighed, "I mean, I fancy him, quite a bit actually, and he's told me he fancies me, but what if say we did get together? What if something happened and we had a really messy break up? What if it ruined fourteen years worth of friendship? I don't think I can or should, for that matter, risk something like that." I explained hurriedly, looking at just about everything except Hermione. She was silent for a short while, contemplating what I had just said.

"When I say this, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, because it's your life and your decision; but if it were me, I'd give it a go. Say it doesn't work out and you did have a messy breakup, I don't think that it could ruin a friendship as strong as yours. Then there's the factor that you could have just found your soul mate, the one you want to marry and if you don't give it a go you could be throwing the one you're meant to be with for the rest of your life away." She said in one breath, the words tumbling out of her mouth. I was absolutely awestruck.

"Since when have you been all 'deep and meaningful' about boys?" I laughed.

"What can I say?" She laughed, just as a shrill scream sounded from behind us. We had just reached the end of the forest and at the same time, we grabbed our wands out and ran as fast as we could back to the clearing.

We burst through the trees with wands at the ready. Everyone was standing around looking quite shocked but apart from that, there were no noticeable changes or signs of danger.

"What happened?" I puffed.

"Nate scared the living daylights out of me! That's what happened." Liza cried, half in hysterics. Lavender, standing next to him, backhanded Nate as punishment.

"Hey!" He shouted, surprised, "Sorry Liz, it was just a joke." She nodded.

"How about no making the little sister scream until we get back?" I insisted. Liza glared, "Or at all." I quickly added. Nate laughed.

"What was taking you so long anyway?" Ron asked, "Surely it doesn't take ten minutes to get some matches." I shrugged, looking at Hermione.

"We were just talking." She answered.

"Well did you even get them?" He asked, clearly frustrated. I shook my head, "Bloody hell, you were taking your time, hu?" I laughed at his annoyance.

"We'll be quicker this time, Ron. No talking, I swear it." I said with a serious tone. He laughed too.

I turned and started back into the forest, however, before I had even covered three metres, a large, black figure glided out from behind a tree. It was just inside the shadow line of the trees, only a metre or so away from me, and I couldn't see exactly what it was.

"Lu-" My spell was cut off as the figure swooped upon me, lifted me off my feet and slammed me into the nearest tree. The figure was now only centimetres from my face getting closer and closer. It seemed from the minute the thing had appeared, all the happiness had vanished from the world, and as I looked over the creature holding me up against the tree, I suddenly knew what it was.


Okay, so I've re-written and re-uploaded this story about ten times now and I'm almost 90% sure this is the final time and I'm actually happy with how it is now. I hope you enjoy, don't forget to review! :)