AN: Fair warning, there are a lot of interruptions in this chapter, people opening and knocking on doors, or making loud noises in general. I don't know why, but it just worked out that way. I hope you enjoy it anyway, even though this is a relatively dark chapter.


Chapter Two: A Dark Beginning

The sun was sinking by the time they all reached Hogsmeade. After the train came to a complete stop, Regulus said his goodbyes and then ran off towards the compartment that he had left his trunk in. The boys grabbed hold of their own trunks and pulled them out onto the Hogsmeade platform, Sirius and James also carrying their owls' cages.

"Firs' Years come alon' please! We haven' got all day!" Hagrid called from the front of the train, he was waving a big old lantern around his massive head and earning himself many frightened looks from the first years. James laughed as the new students caught sight of the giant man for the first time.

"Did we look like that?" Remus said, laughing softly as he sidestepped a few gaping boys.

"Yep." Sirius said sadly. "We looked just as stupid."

"I would wager that you looked a bit more stupid." Richard said as he jumped off the train. "But that's just because you are, well you."

"Thanks Rich." Sirius laughed.

"Anytime." The older student winked.

Sirius, James, and Remus added their luggage to the ever-growing mound at the edge of the platform, and then followed the older students in the opposite direction that the first years were headed. James looked round curiously for their transportation, but couldn't see over the mass of people in front of him.

"Four to a carriage." They heard a teacher call out. And that is when they took notice to the carriages. They would pull up to the students, four would get in, and then they would pull away towards the castle. But the odd thing was that nothing seemed to be pulling the carriages. There was nothing but an empty space in front of them.

"Wicked." Sirius said aloud. "Carlee's going to be upset that she missed this."

"Most definitely." James agreed as he pushed Sirius out of the way so that he could be the first one on the carriage. Remus rolled his eyes and waited until Sirius was in before even trying to get in.

When they got to the castle, they bounded up the stone steps like they had so many times before and moved with the crowd towards the Great Hall. The first thing that Remus noticed when they reached the Gryffindor table was that Dumbledore was not sitting up in his usual place. He looked over at James who also seemed to have noticed.

"Where do you think he is?" James asked.

"I don't know. He can't miss the sorting, can he?"

"Well, technically, he can do whatever he wants." Sirius said. "Including starve us to death apparently." Sirius said looking up and down the empty table. "When are we going to eat?"

"After the sorting. Now stop acting like you didn't know that." James sighed but smiled nonetheless.

The second thing that Remus noticed was the new teacher who was sitting in Professor Perkins old seat. This professor looked quite a bit more sinister than Perkins had. Though, truth be told, the tooth fairy would have looked more sinister than Perkins. She had been their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher last year and had stood at just over five feet and had a face that made her look more like a student then a teacher. After her brother had been kidnapped by the raiders last year she had been terribly distraught and, evidently, had resigned from her post at the end of the year.

Remus nudged James' side and motioned up to the new teacher. "What do you make of him?" Remus asked still looking up at the older wizard. He had a fairly long beard that was the color of charred wood and it was beginning to turn gray, so it was peppered with lighter specks of grays and whites. He had large round glasses that covered half of his face. They started just under his thick, dark eyebrows and came all the way down to the middle of his cheeks. His nose was big and red, and his eyes dark and amber colored.

"Much more Defense teacher-ish looking then Perkins, though I will miss those cute little songs that she sang." Perkins had sung to the students at the beginning of last year to help them remember the history behind the spells they had learned. It had been a very effective and amusing tactic.

"I concur." Sirius said. He was also looking up at the new teacher. Actually, many of the students were looking up at the tall, bearded professor.

"Yeah, he looks a bit… harsh." Remus said, not sure if he had chosen the right word to describe the new teacher.

"Bitter more like it." James said nodding.

"I was going to say boring, but whatever." Sirius said tapping his fingers on the table impatiently.

"He does NOT look boring." Remus said raising his brows. "That much is quite clear."

"Alright, maybe he looks like he is actually going to make us do stuff in class." Sirius allowed.

Just then, a side door behind the staff table opened up and Dumbledore came walking in. He looked much like he did the day they all had come back from the Christmas break last year. Remus started shaking a bit. The last time Dumbledore had looked like this, he had told everyone that a student had died.

"No." James said shaking his head, also drawing the comparison from the beginning of last term. "I have been reading the paper this summer, just ask Sirius. He made fun of me for it. There has been nothing, not one blasted thing, all summer. No attacks, no murders, not even a suspicious theft."

"What are you going on about?" Sirius asked, then, catching Remus's eye, he looked up and saw Dumbledore, who was now pacing back and forth behind the teachers. "Carlee isn't here." He said quietly. James shook his head again quite uselessly.

The Great Hall was then flooded with the first years who came in looking all the same. Shocked, a bit scared, and completely awed. But Sirius couldn't laugh at them now. Dumbledore hadn't even looked up at the sound of their entry. Something had happened.

McGonagall stopped in front of the staff table and began to prattle off what was about to happen to the group of nervous new students and then pulled out the sorting hat. The song it sang was lost to a large majority of the students in the hall who had all become aware of Dumbledore's pacing.

"Professor Dumbledore please!" McGonagall called, snapping the headmaster out of his trance. He looked around the room and saw that everybody was focused on him before smiling apologetically and sitting down in his chair. "Now, as I was saying. Black, Regulus."

Sirius had been zoned out for so long that he almost missed his brother being sorted.

The hat was placed upon Regulus's head, and instead of instantly calling out Slytherin, like it had tried to do for Sirius, it seemed to have to think about Regulus. Sirius wished that he could hear what the hat was saying. The seconds ticked by, and everyone was silently waiting for the hat to make its decision. It normally did not take this long. Dumbledore was looking down at the eleven year old boy with great interest.

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat finally yelled. Sirius moaned slightly but then he noticed that Regulus was looking at him. He looked sort of worried. Sirius stood up and started to cheer along with the Slytherin table. James and Remus did so as well; none of them paid any attention to their housemates, who were looking at them strangely. Cheering for a Slytherin wasn't exactly commonplace amongst the Gryffindors. Regulus, who didn't notice the looks either, beamed at them before bounding down the stairs and joining the Slytherins. After Sirius had sat back down he noticed that Dumbledore was smiling sadly at him. Sirius wanted to scream. Where was Carlee? What had happened to her? Why was Dumbledore looking at him like that? He settled for banging his fist on the table instead.

After all the sorting was done, Sirius, Remus, and James were so wound up that they hadn't even been able to cheer for the last four first years who had been placed in Gryffindor. Then, finally, Dumbledore stood up at the owl podium and its wings spread out. The hall fell silent more quickly then it had last year and the students all looked up at the old wizard with worry etched in their faces.

"Hello and welcome to yet another year at Hogwarts." Dumbledore started off his speech in the traditional way, only looking slightly graver then usual. "I am very glad to see you all here. I would like to take this time to welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Professor Seresin!" A few students clapped half heartedly as Professor Seresin stood and nodded at them. He didn't look at all put out by the lack of response, he seemed to have sensed that something was wrong as well. Dumbledore paused for a moment after the clapping had stopped and looked over the sea of faces.

"Now, I was debating over whether or not I should let you eat first, but judging by the looks on some of your faces, I think that now is the time to tell you. Though, this may not be the right time to tell you. But then, with these things there really is no right time, or right way." There was a crash at the Slytherin table and everybody looked over just in time to see Daniel Baker run from the Great Hall, leaving a bench overturned and some disgruntled students on the floor. Dumbledore did nothing to stop him and only sighed. Remus made a strangled noise and grabbed Sirius's arm. Sirius couldn't look at him. "You may have noticed that there are some students missing. Dylan Baker, who would be a fifth year Ravenclaw and Ella Baker, a second year Gryffindor." The boys didn't know whether they should be relived that he didn't say Carlee's name, or horrified. Either way, they were still all holding their breath.

"Dylan and Ella were both-" There was a cry from the front of the Gryffindor table. James looked down and saw Savanna and Mary hugging each other and Lily staring off into space, looking shocked. He couldn't see Coral but he knew that she was probably crying. "Both students died in a horrible accident." Dumbledore said quietly, watching the girls comfort each other. James looked over at Sirius and saw that he was shaking, Remus was still holding his arm, and looking frantically from Dumbledore to the girls.

"Where is Carlee?" James asked standing up, not being able to take it anymore.

"She is safe James." Dumbledore said softly. "She told me that she wished to take a break from Hogwarts. We can talk later if you would like." James nodded dumbly and looked over at Sirius who now had his head on the table and Remus who looked somewhat relieved. Dumbledore went on but the boys didn't hear much else of his speech.


After the rather subdued feast, Dumbledore came and collected the boys and took them to his office.

"What happened?" Sirius asked as soon as the oak door was closed behind them.

"I don't know. Nobody would tell me." Dumbledore sighed and conjured up three chairs for the boys to sit on, before taking a seat behind his desk. James and Remus complied, but Sirius started pacing back and forth.

"What do you mean you don't know? Ella and Dylan are dead and nobody has a clue what happened?"

"I didn't say that nobody has a clue. I only said that I didn't know what happened." Dumbledore said quietly.

"Well, how do you know that Carlee is safe?" Sirius asked.

"She told me." There was a pause and James and Remus looked at each other. Sirius had stopped pacing as well.

"She lies." Remus said quietly, having decided before James and Sirius that Dumbledore needed to know the truth, whether Carlee would have liked him to or not. "She leaves things out and she is evasive. Just because she says she's safe- She lies." He repeated quietly.

"I am aware of that." Dumbledore said. "But everybody lies, do they not?" He looked over the top of his half moon spectacles and smiled at Remus.

"We know." James said. "We figured it out last year." Dumbledore seemed a bit shocked by this pronouncement. "Remus is a werewolf." Dumbledore smiled at this.

"I knew that you would work it out eventually. I am glad that you boys were able to overlook that. Many great wizards have fallen to awful prejudices. You would have missed out on a truly remarkable friend."

"Yeah, we know." James said looking over at Remus, and smiling.

"We are here for Carlee, what do you know?" Remus asked, looking at the floor whilst trying to divert the attention from him.

"I know that Ella, Daniel and their father were murdered and that Carlee saw it happen and is not saying who it was that killed them."

"Carlee wouldn't just not talk." Sirius said shaking his head. "Do you think it was the same people who were wreaking havoc last year? The raiders?"

"I have no way of knowing for certain." Dumbledore answered quite evasively.

"When is she coming back?" Remus asked. Dumbledore looked between the three faces and frowned.

"I don't think she will be coming back any time in the near future."

"She has to." Sirius said, taking a step towards the headmaster's desk, his voice much quieter. "Let us talk to her, we can get her to come back-" But Dumbledore interrupted him, before he could say anything more.

"Now, I do not wish to make you feel any more upset but what would you say to a girl who just lost a significant part of her family?"

"She didn't like her family anyway." Sirius muttered.

"She liked her dad and Ella." James said. "You saw her dad, everybody liked him. Why would anybody kill him?"

"I don't know! Why would anybody kill two children?" Remus added.

"Ella was murdered in front of Carlee?" Sirius said, it seemed to have finally sunk in. "That is going to destroy her." He grabbed fistfuls of his hair and spun around so that he was facing the wall. "We have to go talk to her, she needs us right now!"

"I cannot send three students to a different country, Sirius. Surely you can understand that." Dumbledore said gently.

"Surely you can understand that I am not going to just stay here while one of my best friends is hurt and alone." Sirius shouted at the older man. Dumbledore just smiled at him.

"You are a very good friend."

"No I am not. If I was a good friend, I would have realized that something was wrong when she didn't answer any of my letters for the last two weeks." Sirius said bitterly. "I sent four of them! She didn't respond to any of them. She always wrote back. I should have asked my dad to take me over there or something."

"And done what once you were there?" Dumbledore asked.

"I don't know. Talked to her!" Sirius said.

"She still has Chris, she isn't alone." Remus said suddenly. "She does still have Chris, correct?"

"Yes, to my understanding, he is completely unharmed."

"You didn't say that about Carlee." James said, snapping his head around to the headmaster.

"She was slightly injured but she is fine now." He replied carefully.

Sirius looked like he was about to explode. "Were you going to keep this from us?"

Dumbledore was saved from having to answer this question by a knock on the door. "Come in." He said airily.

Professor McGonagall came in and looked the boys over, a soft look on her face. "I hope you don't mind but the girls had some questions as well and I found myself with no answers to give them."

"Well he hasn't got much either." Sirius huffed.

Dumbledore ignored this comment and nodded at McGonagall who stepped out of the doorway and let Mary, Lily, Savanna and Coral enter the room. They all looked like zombies and Remus couldn't blame them. He hadn't been close to Ella, he had only talked to her a couple of times when Carlee had insisted on her eating with them, or when the boys had come up to take her away from the girls. He didn't really know how he felt about her death. It was upsetting but not for the same reasons that it was upsetting to the girls.

Savanna and Mary were still crying but Coral looked as though she had just finished, though her cheeks were still stained with tears and her eyes slightly puffy. Lily still looked in shock. James stood up and went over to stand by Sirius so that one of the girls could have his chair, Remus did the same.

"We're going to go now." James said, as Mary let out a rather loud wail. He felt bad for her but he was at a loss when it came to crying girls. Remus and Sirius were suddenly feeling the same way and neither of them protested when James moved towards the door.

"If you want to talk again, my door is always open." Dumbledore offered. "The password is licorice wand for the time being."

"Thank you sir." Remus said as he and his friends stepped onto the spiraling staircase. Soon the Headmaster's study was no longer visible and they were spinning down. When they exited the staircase, none of them seemed to have anything to say to each other. It was James who finally broke the silence.

"I suppose that explains why Daniel was acting so… hostile." He sighed. "Dylan was his twin."

"Carlee liked Dylan." Sirius said. "He was a Ravenclaw; he was different than Daniel and Alec."

"Doesn't mean that Daniel didn't like him too." Remus said.

"I know." Sirius muttered kicking at the air. "What are we going to do?"

"I haven't a clue." James sighed.


They were, of course, bombarded with questions when they got into the common room. The first few students that attempted to question them were flicked off by Sirius and simply ignored by Remus and James.

Cleo Downing, Emery Brown and Marlene McKinnon, all now seventh years, were waiting for them on a couch in front of the fireplace.

"Well, we were really waiting for the girls to get back but do you lot know what happened?" Marlene asked bluntly. Cleo elbowed her in the ribs and sighed.

"Marlene!" She muttered under her breath and then smiling sadly at the boys. Sirius started to grind his teeth together, trying very hard not to snap at the new Head Girl and Gryffindor Chaser.

"Well, Dumbledore really didn't say anything at the feast." Emery explained, only looking slightly abashed by Marlene's behavior.

"Yeah, we know what happened." Sirius said scathingly. "Three people were murdered and Carlee isn't here." Then he turned and marched up the stairs. James and Remus didn't bother apologizing for his behavior and followed him. James knew perfectly well that his fellow second years would be sitting on their beds, waiting for them to get there so they could ask them more unwelcome questions. He really just wanted to curl up in his covers and ignore them all.

And when they walked into the dorm, it was just how James had thought it was going to be. But slightly different. His bed was directly in front of them against the back wall, with Sirius's to the right and Remus's to the left but Peter was sitting on the bed in front of Sirius's instead of the one in front of Remus's. Frank was now sitting on the bed next to Remus's. They had switched beds. Sirius seemed to have noticed this too because he made a growling noise in the back of this throat, and stormed over to his bed, flung open his trunk, pulled out half of the neatly packed robes and books, grabbed his night things, and then stomped off towards the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. James just put an arm around Remus and pulled the shock stricken boy towards the other side of the room.

"Don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. Peter is a git." James said quietly when they had reached their beds. Thanks to Sirius's show of anger, the other boys didn't ask them anything. They were definitely waiting to do so but they seemed to sense that now wasn't the right time. They slowly started talking amongst themselves again, only now they were talking in hushed tones.

Remus sat down on the edge of his bed and looked at his feet. Peter switching beds was just the cherry on top of this dreadful day. He barely noticed as James dropped to the floor and started pulling random objects out of his trunk and tossing them on the floor, only adding to the pile that Sirius had emptied from his trunk.

"What are you doing?" Remus asked, wondering what on earth James could be searching for at the moment.

"I'm looking for some parchment. We are going to write to Carlee." He said, finding a quill, a new bottle of ink and putting it on the floor next to him. After more then half of his trunk was emptied, he found some parchment, grabbed a piece and the ink and quill, stood up and plopped down next to Remus.

"What exactly do we say?" Remus said. He sounded defeated, something that Remus Lupin never sounded. James cocked his head to the side and scrunched up his nose. Then he sighed and got up, put the parchment back into his trunk, stuffed everything else back, grabbed his pajamas, changed, and got into bed without saying anything.

After a few minutes, Remus got up and did the same. They were both pretending to be asleep by the time Sirius got out of the bathroom and got into bed himself.


AN: And there is that… Sort of depressing. Let me know what you think regardless. Reviews are like sunshine on my cloudy, rainy/snowy, cold, bitter day!