Chapter 3

Remus sighed and stared at his watch. Five minutes until the bell. Five minutes until he could run from the Ancient Runes of Romania. Remus shook his head. Why was he thinking like that? He had always liked Ancient Runes. James and Sirius must have finally started to effect his brain.

"Remus Lupin and Lily Evans wait behind after class!" the teacher called, interrupting Remus' train of thought.

Remus glanced to the front of the class where Lily Evans sat gaping at the teacher. Lily slowly turned and looked at Remus. Remus shrugged and she turned away again. Lily was in as much disbelief as he was! Remus glanced to his watch. Three minutes to go.

"Wormtail, have you…PETER!" snapped Remus.

Peter jumped and timidly smiled at Remus, "Yeah?"

"Have you any idea why Evans and I would be getting kept back?"

Peter shook his head, "Not unless they are giving you a reward!" he suggested.

Remus pondered the thought for a moment before slowly shaking his head. "Not a chance!"

Less than a minute left.

Remus scraped his books from his table into his bag. The bell suddenly rang and there was a flurry of movement. Remus quickly stood up and marched to the front of the room.

"I have decided class that you have an essay to write on The Ancient Runes of Romania to complete for next day," the teacher shouted to the few in the class that remained.

Remus groaned and looked to Lily who came marching to the teachers table. Remus swiftly produced a quill and wrote a reminder on his arm.

The teacher glanced up and smiled. "Lily, Remus, I'm glad you waited." The teacher fished a small letter from a drawer and handed it to Lily. "That arrived not long ago. It's from Dumbledore."

Lily quickly read the note before handing it to Remus.

"And why would he want to see us?" Lily asked Remus.

"I don't know, but apparently a similar letter has been sent to James, Sirius and Jackie's teachers," Remus said, handing the letter back to the teacher.

"You may go."

The pair swiftly marched out of the room and down the corridor. They ignored the late comers that sauntered past them. Remus' mind ticked. Why would Dumbledore suddenly want to speak to them? Remus cursed as someone pushed past him, knocking his bag from his shoulder.

"Watch where you're going! It's not as if there is not…enough…Bellatrix?"

"What's wrong?" Lily asked, handing Remus his bag.

"Well if it isn't little Remus Lupin! My favourite friend!" a rather tall, thin girl smiled spitefully at Remus.

Remus smirked, "What are you doing here Bella? I thought you were following…"

"Oh not just now. I have other business to attend to. And shouldn't you be in class?"

"Professor Dumbledore sent for us," Lily interrupted.

"Did he now? I shall walk you to his office then, since he also called me." Bellatrix smirked. She then turned on the heel's of her knee high black boots and strutted off down the corridor.

Lily growled and looked to Remus who shrugged and walked after Bellatrix. Lily sighed. There was something about Bellatrix that wasn't right. And Remus knew it. There was something dark, something…evil. Bellatrix didn't try to hide it so concealed it well. Her insane black hair and eyes rimmed with black eyeliner and eye-shadow made her looked even more daunting.

"Remus," Lily whispered, "How do you know her?"

"She's Sirius' cousin. Me and James met her when we were going to the Black family house."

"Am I right to assume that she was in Slytherin?"

"All the Black's were, apart from our dear…"

"Sirius Black!" Bellatrix beamed, "My favourite cousin!"

Sirius drew her a quizzical look. "What put you in such a good mood? Did someone you hate die?"

Remus ignored them as they argued and made his way towards the statue that his the stairs to Dumbledore's office. James stood with his back to Remus. Remus could just see the top of someone's head over James.

"Hey," Remus said tapping James' shoulder.

James whirled around to face him and Remus saw the other person. He smiled cheerily at her. Jackie smiled grimly in return and began to once again stare into space. Lily joined her side and the two began to speak quickly in hushed voices.

"I didn't know Dumbledore had sent for you and Lily," James said.

"Yeah, we just got the letter. What's going on? What's wrong with Jackie?"

Remus once again glanced at Jackie. She looked stressed and worn out. Her hair looked as if it had been hastily tied back and dark circles clouded her eyes.

"Well…"

Everyone stopped and the statue ground its way around to reveal the stairs that led to the headmasters room. Jackie moved like lightning and had disappeared up the stairs before anyone else got a chance to move. Lily dashed after her closely followed by James and Remus. Sirius bolted up the stairs away from Bellatrix. The five cautiously walked to the tall door that stood at the landing. Jackie wrapped on it three times and as it swung open she hurriedly marched inside.

Dumbledore sat at his desk calmly talking to Laura who sat on a chair in front of him. As he looked up at Jackie, Laura followed his gaze. She leapt to her feet and ran at Jackie. They met halfway and Jackie picked up the smaller Laura as they hugged. Jackie lowered Laura to the floor and they walked to Dumbledore's desk. The other's, including Bellatrix, filtered through the door behind them.

"I'm glad you came, I have something very important to discuss with you," Dumbledore said, producing a small bag of sherbet lemons from his pocket. "And Bellatrix, I see you made it here."

"I got your letter and rushed here."

Sirius looked at Bellatrix curiously. As far as Sirius could remember, Bellatrix hated Dumbledore. Jackie turned and smiled at Bellatrix, Bellatrix returned the smile heartily.

"Now we are here, as a few of you may have guessed, because of Miss Moon. I believe Lily, Remus and Bellatrix don't know of what I speak," stated Dumbledore.

Remus looked to Sirius and James and Lily looked expectantly at Jackie and Laura.

"We just found out!" James whispered to Remus.

"Laura are you going to tell them or shall I?" Dumbledore asked. Laura nodded in his direction. "Well…Laura is a vampire."

Remus' jaw dropped, Lily's eyes widened in shock and James noticed that a large malevolent grin had grown across Bellatrix's face.

"And I have decided that since you three girls exam marks have fallen considerably, other teachers have suggested that I split you up. Laura shall be moved to Ravenclaw and Jackie to Slytherin,"

"What?! How can you justify that?" barked Jackie.

"By moving you into the houses that you were almost put into, you will not be in the same common room as each other and when you study you will not be so easily distracted."

"But…"

"I have made my decision and if it does not prove to be a success I shall move you back to Gryffindor!"

"You have no reason that is valid enough to do this! You are a teacher, you can't split a student from her friends, it is not your place!" roared Jackie.

Dumbledore gazed at Jackie through his half-moon spectacles. "And I think you should remember your place Miss Prince!" Dumbledore moved his index finger to the right as if underlining something and the quill that had been hanging patiently in midair began to flail about excitedly before it settled and wrote neatly on a piece of parchment, "You may leave, Professor McGonagall is waiting to show you to your new common rooms."The six of them silently left the room. No-one spoke.

Sirius tried to untangle the knots in his stomach. Bellatrix had done something, or was about to do it, and he was certain it would be bad…