"Hey, news for Harry!" yelled Lee Jordan across the room from where George and Fred were feeding first years fainting fancies. Lee casually stepped over the various bodies and walked over to Harry who was wrestling with his homework on his favorite armchair.

Fred was right.

Fifth year was exhausting.

He had foot long essays from each of his teachers and the hand that had the letters perpetually imprinted on it ached when he wrote with it.

Damn Umbridge... The woman was a demon!

And the worst thing was that neither Ron nor Hermione were there to help him with either his essays or his pain...

"Harry, McGonagall wants to see you."

"Huh?"

"In Dumbledore's office. Sounds urgent."

Harry left his books on the floor and made a casual walk to get away. As soon as he was out the door (With the fat lady singing drunkenly behind him, mind you...) he made a run for the gargoyles guarding the office on the ground floor.

Maybe Dumbledore would explain why he had been avoiding him all summer. Maybe he would answer his questions now. Ron and Hermione were on their way up from the library and they exchanged glances as they saw Harry in such a rush.

"Harry, are you quite alright?" yelled Ron from below. Hermione shushed Ron and said none too softly "Why are you running?"

"Uh...Dumbledore wants to see me. Lee says its urgent!"

Harry said without stopping.

He really didn't know how urgent...

"Harry, I want you to listen to what I say with a clear head."

Dumbledore spoke very quietly, so quietly that even the silence in the office seemed deafening. The crackle of the fireplace seemed to have been louder than Harry had ever heard before.

Professor McGonagall sat in the corner sofa, her expression blank.

Harry was slightly apprehensive of the whole scenario. What on earth was going on?

"Yes sir. I will."

Dumbledore took a deep breath before speaking again. His eyes traveled to the clock right behind Harry's head.

"I haven't been completely honest with you Harry. Because I thought she...she was dead...But she isn't and that puts matters into perspective for us."

She? She who? What is Dumbledore on about? wondered Harry. Dumbledore gave him a small, almost invisible smile. He looked over his half moon glasses at Harry.

"Your sister Harry...your half sister."

Harry was motionless for a moment. He had family...he had a sister...A half sister???

"She's exactly your age Harry. Born a few months apart."

Suddenly he felt rage sweep through him... "If she was born a few months apart that means..."

"One of your parents had an affair? Oh, no...not at all. In fact this was before they were married." Dumbledore looked over at his fireplace and standing up sighed...His wand point gleamed as he removed a thought from his head and put it in his pensive.

"James...your father...was a wonderful man...and a brilliant auror, mark you...and he had a fellow auror...those two were...quite a team...And once...just once...he made a mistake in a weak moment. A few months later, James married Lily... The mistake was never mentioned nor talked about. Ever. Not until she was born...and you were born."

Harry calmed down considerably...

"That night...the night Voldemort came to kill you...He killed her mother as well... She had come there to give your father the first glance at his own daughter...He died without knowing that he had another child..."

"We sent her away to another country...Where her relatives lived...and she has been learning magic in another school. I must say...her life hasn't been much different from yours really...I just hope...you will accept her as she has already accepted you."

"The night we left you at the Dursleys, we left her half way across the world...in India...where her mother was from. She lives with her grandparents and has attended a school called Gurukul. Tough institution, that... she's more advanced than any of our students here... She'll settle down..."

Dumbledore looked aged far beyond his years with this speech. He nodded at McGonagall who brought in someone wearing a hood and a cape.

He smiled at the tall figure of a girl in black...she was slightly shorter than Harry who stood at six feet now...but at five feet ten inches she was very tall for her gender.

"You can look at him now, Nikita..."

The girl called Nikita removed her cape and Harry stared and then rubbed his eyes...

Raven hair up till her slender mid back, tan skin, pale pretty pink lips, long eyelashes and high cheekbones...The girl looked like something off the cover of a magazine.

But Harry saw none of that...

What he saw was what he saw.

His father's deep brown eyes staring back at him with a mischievous gleam.