Sorry about the wait! I'm still writing, I promise! Anyways, here's the next chapter. It's been a while, but I have to say it: Anyone else permanently traumatized and awestruck by the last movie? Still not over it. Also? I got into Pottermore early: GRYFFINDOR! Hope all my fellow Gryffindors (and the other houses, too, haha) are doing well :)

Disclaimer: Didn't come up with most of these characters. No one's surprised.

Chapter 3:

Downtown London in August was just as dreary as downtown London in June. The rain poured down with a patient persistence, as though the water knew that it could flood the town, given enough time. We stood across the street from a neglected pub.

I frowned at the brick building. "But—"

"Don't tell me you're surprised," Harry smirked.

I narrowed my eyes. "Shut up."

"Come along." Dumbledore didn't wait for us as he crossed the street, and after sharing a confused look, Harry and I followed him. I wondered if Slughorn was here for some reason, instead of living in a lavish mansion. It seemed unlikely.

The inside of the bar was nearly as wet as it was outside. I frowned at the excess of neon-lit signs and televisions. This was no magical pub. Just a muggle one. There were three men, including the bartender. One man stared stoically down at his drink, while the other one sang off-key to a folk song.

"What are we doing—" But after another glance at the singer, my words toppled to a halt. Harry followed my gaze and gasped. Dumbledore stood patiently, watching Sirius stumble over lyric after lyric. Eventually Sirius gave up, downing the rest of his beer and letting out a burp.

"I'll have another, Rick," he said, gesturing to the bartender.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Actually, my friend is done drinking."

Sirius turned around and grinned. "Headmaster! Kat! Harry!" He got up at the last name and tried to engulf Harry in a hug. Unfortunately, he missed. Harry caught him before he fell to the floor, and Sirius ended up sitting in a different chair. I sat down next to him and Dumbledore took the seat across from him.

"Whoops!" Sirius said, entirely too late.

"How are you doing, Sirius?" Dumbledore said.

"Inebriated as ever, Headmaster." Sirius chuckled.

"Is this why I haven't seen you at all this summer?" I said. "Have you been drinking this whole time?"

Sirius clicked his tongue. "Kat, your uncle is clearly rubbing off on you. No common sense. A man's got to sleep sometime."

I tried not to roll my eyes. "You know that's not what I meant. This isn't healthy."

"I am living my life!" Sirius pounded the table, the same vague grin on his face as before. "The last Marauder, triumphant!"

My stomach dropped as I thought of Lupin. It hadn't been right, the way he'd gone. I looked down at the table and bit my bottom lip to keep it from trembling.

"Sirius?" Dumbledore said. "I have a proposition for you."

"Are you serious?" he said.

Dumbledore nodded.

"No! I'm Sirius!" He roared with laughter and the bartender shook his head at us.

"Alright," Dumbledore said, taking out his wand. He muttered a quick charm and Sirius' eyes seemed to sharpen. He grabbed his head and leaned forward. "Feeling better?"

Sirius shook his head and groaned.

Dumbledore's eyes held little sympathy. "Apparently not."

"Why are you here?" Sirius spoke into the table.

"Hogwarts is in sore need of a new defense against the dark arts teacher," Dumbledore began.

Sirius sighed and reached for the empty beer mug. Dumbledore waved his wand and the last dregs of alcohol disappeared. Hot liquid replaced it.

"Tea helps," Dumbledore said.

Sirius muttered something that might have been, "Not as much as tequila," and sipped the tea with resignation. "So do you need me to help you find a guy or something?" Sirius said. "I haven't done any Order missions for a while. A bit rusty, I think."

"Actually, I thought you would fill the position quite nicely."

Harry, Sirius, and I stared at Dumbledore.

"Are you bloody serious?" Sirius said.

Dumbledore smiled. "As serious as ever."

"No."

"You haven't heard about the faculty benefits."

"Absolutely, positively, no. I'm not even the bloke you should be talking to. I slept through half that class in Hogwarts! James was alright at it, but the real expert was Lupin." The name came out painfully, and we all winced. "Go get someone qualified for the job." He sipped his tea again, eyes red.

Dumbledore turned to me. "Why don't you and Mr. Potter get something to drink?"

"What?"

"Something non-alcoholic, to be sure."

Harry and I got up and ordered two sodas. We sat as Dumbledore and Sirius talked.

"What do you think Dumbledore's going to say to make Sirius teach?"

I played with the straw, staring over at them. "Probably some sort of guilt trip involving you, and how Sirius is your last father figure, and would James approve?"

"Bullocks," Harry said, but sure enough, Sirius glanced over to Harry, then back to Dumbledore. By the time my grandfather waved us back over, Sirius looked quite serious.

"It looks like I'll be seeing you both in September," he said.

"Lovely," Dumbledore said. "Now if you'll excuse us, I must get these two back to the Burrow."

Harry was more than eager to leave Dumbledore once we got to the Weasleys', but I eyed my grandfather with suspicion.

"Why didn't you get Slughorn to teach?" I asked.

"Does it bother you that you don't know everything?" Dumbledore asked, smiling slightly.

"Immensely."

He cleared his throat. "It seems that Horace is missing. Now whether he's hiding from me as well as the death eaters, or if the wrong side has finally found him is unclear. I thought I'd found his location, but judging from the state of the place, he'd long since vacated it."

I frowned. "How are you going to find out about horcruxes?"

He pursed his lips. "It seems I already have a source for that, whether I want one or not."

I crossed my arms, glancing at his hands. They were both unmarred. "Well here's a piece of advice, whether or not you want it. Don't go trying on any suspicious looking jewelry. You never know where it's been, or who might have cursed it." I turned on my heel and left my grandfather outside.

He wanted to neglect his best insight into his biggest problems? Fine. He wanted to speak cryptically and avoid direct answers? Fine. Two could play that game.

When I returned to Hogwarts the next week to train with Snape, I avoided Dumbledore like the plague. A few minutes into my lesson, however, it felt as though Snape was the one I should have been avoiding. He cast each spell with the force of someone badly scorned. His mood was sour, and it was obvious why.

"That dog should not be allowed to teach," Snape said as we dueled.

I huffed and aimed a curse at Snape. He deflected it easily. "Sirius might be a good teacher," I said. "You never know."

Snape's next spell hit me square in the chest and I went sprawling. Once I got up, Snape glared at me. "Sirius Black is an incapable sod of a man. He is under qualified and treats life as though it's a game. It's a miracle he passed through primary school, let alone Hogwarts."

"You really wanted that position, didn't you?"

"What I want or do not want is not under debate." Another curse hit me. Another fall into stone. I was bleeding, and Snape knew it. He would take his own sweet time to heal it.

"Fine. I don't really care, but you have to understand how desperate Dumbledore is for a teacher."

"Sirius will run Hogwarts into the ground, and he won't even need his pathetic Marauder friends to help him."

His last curse made me trip over a stack of cauldrons. They toppled noisily to the ground and Snape clicked his tongue. "You could have blocked that."

I stood up and restacked them with a quick levitation charm. "And you could have chosen to not take your anger at Dumbledore and Sirius out on me."

Snape didn't apologize, not that I'd expected him to. Instead, he pocketed his wand and headed to the potions room. When I followed him, he frowned. "I won't be needing any help from you today."

"Are you going to escort me back to Grimmauld place?"

"You are perfectly capable of flooing there on your own," Snape said. "From Dumbledore's office, of course."

As the wooden door to Snape's classrooms closed, I shook my head. "I guess I'm capable of doing anything on my own if he's pissed enough."

I made my way through the grey courtyard, up winding staircases, and through dreary stained glass corridors to Dumbledore's office. Taking the scenic route helped me think, and there was nothing more serene then the castle during summer holiday. Unfortunately, when I reached his office, no one answered. The door opened without much force, and for the first time in forever, I was in Dumbledore's office alone.

Ever since McGonnagall confiscated the diadem last year, Dumbledore watched me like a hawk whenever I was in his office. On one hand, I was positive the diadem was in here somewhere. On the other, I'd never had a moment to look for it.

Until now.

I took a peak out of the window and saw Dumbledore trudging down the main path in purple roads. "Like taking candy from a baby," I muttered with a smile.

"I think not," someone said behind me. I whipped around to see an old headmaster glaring down at me. "Students think they're so clever, especially when they possess a slightly above average intellect."

"Did you just call me smart?" I said, batting my eyelashes.

"But you're all brats, aren't you?"

I clicked my tongue. "And I was hoping we could be friends." I took out my wand.

"Mark my word, child, I'll tell Dumbledore you were here!"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," I said, "I'm just flooing home is all." I waved my wand and the curtains were drawn on each and every portrait. They all shouted indignantly, but they could see nothing. "Much better."

First I hit up his desk. It seemed the most obvious place for Dumbledore's most precious possessions. After a few minutes and several drawers of boring papers, however, I realized that it was exactly why he wouldn't dare put anything of value in there.

I pulled my hair back and looked through his bookshelves. Though they were chockfull of books, there was also the rare statue or other equally mysterious yet unidentifiable item. Every title interesting, every statue begging for further inspection, but I had a limited amount of time.

As the minutes wore on, so did my patience. Maybe I was on a wild goose chase. Maybe there was no hope. After all, he was the headmaster of Hogwarts, and the only person Voldemort feared. Gramps hadn't earned those titles without having a few tricks up his sleeves.

Then something shimmered in the corner of my eye. I turned around to face a plush purple curtain with gold tassels. It was anything but inconspicuous. When I pulled it back, however, there was nothing but the stone wall. There was a chance that it was just a decoration. It was possible that the wall was really just a wall, that it wasn't hiding anything behind it.

Of course, there was a chance that it hid exactly what I was looking for. I felt around for a minute or so before my hand bumped into a doorknob I couldn't see. I grabbed the Gryffindor sword and held it in one hand, then went back to the door.

"Geronimo," I muttered, turning it. The door opened with a blast, and a screech resounded in the room so loud I fell backwards. I covered my ears as the various portraits screamed in alarm. Air billowed out of the room with a force that made me feel like I was falling vertically.

Then there was nothing.

Inside was completely dark, and looked more like a safe than a room. Dumbledore's pensieve sat in one corner, mist swirling like silver. A table sat in the middle, full of shiny trinkets. I spotted the diadem quickly and threw it to the ground. As I raised my sword, voices gathered and shadows shifted about, creeping out of the darkness.

This time I faced Fred, bloodied and broken. "He'll find out, love," he whispered, reaching out to me. "He'll find out and he'll kill me, and everyone else you love."

I swallowed. "Then he picked the wrong witch to mess with. I'll never let that happen, Fred. I promise."

The sword cracked the diadem with ease. The whispers rose into screams, and then faded into a soft breeze, and then into silence.

"Not so bad," I said, picking up the now-burnt diadem and shoving it in my bag. It was hard to shake the image of dead Fred, but I tried to push it to the back of my mind as I perused the other objects on the table. There were a few books, and some pictures of Aberforth and a little girl, probably my great aunt.

I noticed a small black drawstring bag, and goose bumps ran up my arms. I didn't know what could be in there, but something told me it wasn't like Hermione's purse; whatever was in that bag was tiny, and dangerous. Not wanting to touch it, I raised the sword and poked the bag.

As a third scream reverberated, I realized that I'd stumbled upon the ring my grandfather hadn't yet destroyed. The bag fell to the floor and the ring rolled out, seaming much heavier than it could possibly be. I readied myself to see a loved one, dead or hurt, but instead, Lucius and Bellatrix walked out of the shadows.

Both figures had smirks on their silvery faces. "You don't honestly think you can escape us, do you kitten?" Bella said.

"Not real," I muttered, shaking. But the scars on my arms and shoulder burned.

"Oops, not to ruin the fun, but your voice sounds just a tad bit unsure." Bella laughed as Lucius watched me.

"Should we kill her friends? Or make her kill them?"

I raised the sword over my head. "That recipe is getting a bit old, isn't it Bella?"

"Never change a flawless method, darling." Her smile was gone. It made me pause. "But maybe we should just kill her alone. Slowly."

"The Dark Lord wants her alive," Lucius said. "Do not forget that." He smirked at me. "Go ahead. Destroy this ring. It won't give you peace when the Dark Lord finally finds you."

They disappeared once the sword dented the small ring, but their words were fresh in my mind. I knew it was just Voldemort trying to get under my skin, but it terrified me just the same. I let out a shaky breath and levitated the ring back onto the table. Then I noticed the resurrection stone laying several feet away. I didn't dare touch it. Instead, I levitated it next to the ring, on top of the black bag. I hoped Dumbledore would know better than to mess with it.

I was more than ready to leave that room. Though I was happy that I'd destroyed two horcruxes, I was seriously shaken by what I'd seen. But as I passed the pensieve, I saw a face I hadn't laid eyes on in almost a year. I dropped the sword and leaned into the watery mist without hesitation. Once I dropped onto the grass, I got up and looked around.

A woman, tall and dressed in a white gown, faced a man with blond hair and a wide grin. Snape sat a few feet behind them, glaring at the people standing near the two in the front. Lily Evans wore a blue dress, while James, Sirius, and Lupin wore robes with blue accents.

"I do," the woman said. She kissed her husband as the audience applauded. Even Snape smiled when no one was looking.

"Mom. Dad," I said, staring at the newly wedded couple.

OOO

So? Yes, it's a cliffie. I hope you aren't TOO mad at me. If it helps, I'm nearing the end of the next chapter.

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Thanks for reading!