DISCLAIMER: Let's think for a moment, shall we? J.K. Rowling has…a husband, two kids, and lots and lots of money. Now, let's compare that to me: no boyfriend much less a husband, not planning on kids and have none so far anyway, and I'm pretty much broke. So, with that said, who still thinks I'm J.K. Rowling? Besides, myself of course, after all, I am soooooo talented, Harry Potter MUST belong to me. lawyers glare at her Your absolutely right, Harry Potter MUSN'T belong to me, what a silly idea! Who ever said that? nervous giggle

PROLOGUE

"Well, Lucius, this is an interesting position I find you in," the dark lord said, coolly amused. Voldemort had set up base in Riddle Manor and warded the house carefully to prevent spies from going in and out without his knowledge, along with thieves and those who might wish him harm. He had expected to catch Snape, or even Potter or Dumbledore some time in the future within his spell net. But never had it crossed the dark lord's mind that he might find one of his most loyal followers trapped like a fly as his son and wife apparated to safety.

It was early morning and the sun had just barely risen, leaving the earth tinted with a soft pink glow. A bead of sweat rolled down Lucius's head. The pink color was beginning to remind him of red…red blood. Lucius's entire body was spread out, glued to the spider-like web of magic. The dark lord was looking quite impressive in his billowing black robes, the cool morning air blowing through the door entrance, at least what Lucius' body wasn't blocking, his red, snake-like eyes glittering maniacally. Lucius looked defiantly back. Even without the hordes of death eater behind him, Voldemort could still be terrifying and easily kill Lucius.

"May I inquire as to what you were doing in my manor this morning?" Voldemort asked, steel lining his words.

"Guess," Lucius snarled, his mind whirling around for possible ways to escape. He came up blank. Trying to calm himself Lucius knew he was at the mercy of the dark lord.

"Dear me, you weren't upset over my little kidnap of your family, were you Lucius?" Voldemort asked, acting falsely shocked. "Did you think I was going to let them go free, the little traitors."

"Go to hell," Lucius retorted. "You're the traitor, a traitor to your father and to your fellow wizards." Voldemort glared at Lucius for a moment.

"You don't think you're leaving, do you?" the dark lord said, surprising his captive. Lucius's silence was enough of an answer. "Well, don't think you'll be as lucky as that. You'll be leaving, and you'll be taking a little message back to Dumbledore for me…

Draco fought his mother's grip on him.

"We can leave him there!" he cried. "Voldemort will kill him!" But Narcissa would not release Draco.

"There's nothing we can do," she said softly. They were inside Malfoy Manor, the living room, just next to the fire. On the side of it was a jar of floo powder. Draco stopped struggling and went limp in her arms.

"It'll be all right someday," Narcissa murmured to her son. "Now let's go to Hogwarts, Sev will start to worry." Draco hugged his mother forcefully then let go immediately. Breathing hard he took a handful of floo powder and tossed it in the fireplace, stepping in.

"Hogwarts!" he shouted. The green fire consumed him and began to journey to the Hogwarts fireplace.

Severus Snape was pacing nervously in front of the fireplace in Dumbledore's office. The headmaster had been called away by the Order again. The summons had gotten more frequent ever since Sirius had fallen through the veil at the end of term. Sometimes it was urgent Order business, but mostly the werewolf or someone needed to talk to the headmaster, preventing him or herself from contemplating suicide. Severus broke of from his pacing and snorted. Even after all these years it still shocked him that Sirius had agreed to be the werewolf's mate, he had always thought his brother had been smarter than that, but oh well.

The fireplace suddenly filled with green fire and Draco tumbled out, followed shortly by Narcissa. He saw there tear-stained and pain-filled faces and knew that Lucius had been caught. He walked over and embraced both. Narcissa let go after a few moments but Draco began to sob and Severus held the boy for comfort, wishing for Draco's sake that it were Lucius here instead.

"You can't go back, Sev," Narcissa said once Draco had quieted. "Voldemort had but up new wards that catch spies."

"So, that' why…" Severus couldn't finish. It hurt too much to admit that his best friend was gone for good. Narcissa nodded, looking away as new tears filled her eyes.

"Where's Dumbledore?" Narcissa said to change the subject.

"Lupin called again," Severus said bitterly. Narcissa touched his arm in a comforting manner.

"You still should talk to someone, Sev," she said softly. "After all, you've just lost your twin." Severus refused to reply and Draco pushed away gently.

"So now what?" the teen asked. "Are we going to stay here the rest of the summer?" Both adults nodded.

"All right then," Draco said, cheering up a bit. But then he remembered. "What about Blaise, though? We can't leave him with his parents! They'll force him to take the mark!"

"Don't worry about it," Severus answered. "He's already here and waiting for you to arrive. Just go down to my quarters."

"Thanks," Draco said before jogging off.

"So now what Sev?" Narcissa asked once her son was gone.

"We wait for Dumbledore to come back," Severus said. "He says he has something he wants to talk to both of us about."

CHAPTER 1

Sirius blinked. In front of him was an endless black space; behind him was a pearly white realm of clouds. But he could not move toward either. He forced his head up and saw he was stuck in the center of an archway.

What am I doing here? He tried to say, but the words would not come out. Well, this is an interesting predicament you've managed to get yourself in, Padfoot. He thought to himself. What exactly has happened here? As hard as he tried he couldn't remember anything except that he was Sirius Black.

Wait, that didn't sound quite right. Sirius- Sirius Orion something- Black- something. Now what were the something's? He tried to concentrate on finding out what the first something was. An image flashed through his mind, a man who resembled him so slightly it was barely recognizable and with him came a name: Severus- Snape. That was what the first something was! Sirius Orion Snape-Black- something.

Wait, there was something about Severus that nagged at the back of his mind, something he knew was important.

"Padfoot," said an echoed voice near his head. "Harry needs you to remember…as does Severus and the rest of your family." Harry, that sounded familiar. A new image came into his mind, a fifteen-year-old boy with messy black hair and bright green eyes. He seemed almost too skinny but he was still smiling and saying something. It looked like he was trying to say Sirius.

Then it came back to Sirius, everything. His name was Sirius Orion Snape-Black-Malfoy, and he was the only person who knew that Severus Snape was Harry Potter's real father. Only problem with that was how was he supposed to let someone know, and let someone know he had too…otherwise it would be the end of his family for good.

Remus Lupin now felt extraordinarily foolish. The headmaster had better things to do than listen to his whining and crying on a daily basis. But he now felt better to find that Dumbledore had something for him to do.

"Remus," Dumbledore said seriously. "I need you to go and get Harry." Well, that was slightly unexpected, Remus thought.

"Isn't he going to stay with the Weasly's this summer?" he asked. "I thought- I thought we had all agreed that it would be better if he didn't come here this summer."

"And he's not," Dumbledore replied. "In fact, I do believe it would be better if you left here for a while, and not on a mission for the Order either."

"I don't want to go to Hogwarts for the summer," Remus said. "It wouldn't be any better."

"Oh, I don't expect you to spend your summer at the school," the headmaster said pleasantly. "While you'll indeed stop there, I was thinking that you might benefit from spending some time with Sirius's family." Something wasn't right with that statement in Remus's mind.

"Sirius doesn't, didn't have any family," he said, protesting slightly. Dumbledore smiled indulgently.

"Go get Harry and his things then bring him to Hogwarts, I think you might be surprised to find out some things about Sirius that he never told you, with good reason of course," Dumbledore added, not wishing to offend the young werewolf. "See you at Hogwarts in a little while." The headmaster stood up and flooed back to his office, leaving Remus slightly confused at to what the headmaster had been talking about. But nevertheless he got up and walked out of Grimwauld before apparating to number 4 Privet Drive.

Harry Potter wished summer vacation was over and yet at the same time wished it would never end. His mind could not stop replaying Sirius falling into the veil over and over and he knew that being around other people, other wizards, would not help. They would want to be sympathetic and pity him and he did not want that. At the same time, however, he could not wait to leave the Dursley's who would not spend more than three minutes in his presence, perhaps talking to someone might be of some use to get his mind of Sirius. As you can see, his dilemma was currently quite unsolvable.

Harry was sitting on the steps of the house, watching as random people walked by, or worked out in their yards. But he was most shocked when Remus Lupin suddenly appeared on the sidewalk just in front of number 4.

"Harry!" he called, walking over.

"Pro- Remus!" Harry said, quite surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Professor Dumbledore asked me to come and bring you to Hogwarts," Remus answered. "So if you'll go get your things we can be on our way." Harry began to eye him mistrustfully. At the end of the year, when the Order had…talked to…the Dursley's no one had said anything about coming to get him only two weeks into the summer.

"What's my patronus's form?" he asked, knowing that only the real Remus would be able to answer.

"A stag," Remus replied, knowing why Harry had asked that. "Now do you want my help getting your trunk?"

"Ah, no," Harry said quickly, knowing it would not please the Dursley's to know that a wizard was in their house. Of course they would not be happy to know a wizard was just outside their house either, so either way they were already miserable since Remus was there already. "I'll be back in a minute or two." He dashed inside and up the stairs. Entering his room he quickly gathered his clothes and books and stuffed them in his trunk, grabbing Hedwig in her cage and bringing them downstairs. On the way he met Dudley.

"Where are you going?" Dudley wanted to know, actually communicating with Harry for the first time all summer. "Mum and dad won't like it if you leave now and come back in a little while."

"Don't worry," Harry said, brushing past his cousin. "You won't see me until next summer, if ever again." The last that Harry saw of Dudley he was looking quite delighted, possibly at getting full use of the second bedroom again.

"Take my hand Harry," Remus instructed as he came outside. "We'll be apparating to Hogsmeade then walking the rest of the way to Hogwarts." Harry nodded and placed his hand in Remus's. Then they were gone. The next door neighbor rubbed her eyes then shook her head and went inside muttering about over-exposure in the sun driving a person to see things.

Narcissa was seated while Severus leaned against her chair. Dumbledore sat behind his desk.

"They'll be here soon," he told the two younger people. "And then we can begin." But what was going to begin wasn't what anyone was quite expecting.

All right, first off please review and tell me what you think, I simply can't go on without your comments and thoughts on my abysmal writing. snorts not that anyone cares sigh anyhow, Please Review and go check out my bio to read the Twins Challenge, how many of your think you can write it? Remo