Disclaimer: JKR is Queen

Hey guys! So this is the day after the party (it's very heavy on Sirius' point of view) and it's the last chapter before we head back to Hogwarts for the real drama to get started!

By the way, this fic is lined up to be pretty long and will take Lily, James, Dany, and Sirius at least through graduation.

Anyways, enjoy!

Essie

P.S. I felt bad for doing this to poor 13 year old Sirius but alas, there has to be something going on

Late that night she got away
I chased her to the turnpike
Then lost her where the music never plays
And though I rolled upon the stones and fell into the water
I'll love her till my judgment day
Like a sunrise made of white lies
Everything was nothing as it seems
I was shot down in cold blood
By an angel in blue jeans

~Angel in Blue Jeans, Train

Dany watched the last guest leave at almost two in the morning. She yawned and pulled off her heels as soon as they were out the door. Rhaegar immediately excused himself to bed and her mom went to get a shower. Dany and her dad walked up the stairs together.

"He's a nice kid, Dan." Her dad said at the top of the stairs. Dany looked at him. "He's certainly not what I expected and he's certainly not a product of the Black family, not really. I know I was skeptical but here's your 'you were right, I was wrong'. Really, you have a good friend with him." Dany hugged him tightly.

"Thank you for letting him come, Daddy. We all worry so much when we're not at school." She said softly. Her father hugged her back and rested his chin on the top of her head.

"I know you do, Sweetheart, I know you do…he cares for you greatly, you know. I fear that your friendship will have consequences that no one can imagine. A Black and a Masters loyal to each other is unheard of and they will think it's dangerous; it is dangerous to them, you know. Friendship, loyalty, love are all things that put people like Sirius' parents in jeopardy." Daniel said to his daughter.

"Why?" She asked simply.

"Because friendship and love are stronger than the fear they try to use to control people. Would you betray your friends, any of them, to Death Eaters, even if you thought you were going to die if you didn't?" He asked of her. She shook her head immediately. "Exactly. Now go to bed, Dan; it's been a long night." Her father said after he kissed her on the forehead. Dany started to walk away from her father when he said, "Oh, and I really did mean it dear; you looked beautiful tonight and he thought so too." Dany looked at him, smiling but also confused at the last part.

"Thank you, Daddy. I love you." She said as she walked away.

"I love you too, Sweetheart. Goodnight." Her father said before vanishing around a corner. As soon as Dany entered her room, she took off her dress and slung it over the back of her desk chair as she tossed her shoes onto the ground, glad to be rid of the torture device shoes and itchy dress. She changed into one of her father's old t-shirts and pajama pants and glanced out her window, overlooking the currently snow-covered yard. She guessed that James was very likely doing the same thing and Lily was back in her home, safely asleep and dreaming. What Sirius was doing at that same moment worried her; she knew that neither Walburga nor Orion would receive the slights from tonight well and would probably take it out on their son. She thought about what he had whispered into her hair just before he left. "I promise I'll come back. It's okay. I promise you." She crawled into bed, trying to get some sleep reminding herself that it's okay.

The next afternoon, the first signs of life appeared in the Masters' home around 2 o'clock in the afternoon. It was Rhaegar that was awake first, having probably fallen asleep first. The noise from his shower woke up his sister who was only two doors over. Dany blearily checked the clock next to her bed and put a pillow over her head with a groan. Bloody Rhaegar and his showers. Having her loud brother living next to her was something she didn't miss when she was at school. At least the girls attempted to be quiet. She sighed and pulled herself out of bed to find food. She tracked down a bagel and cream cheese and was done with half of it when her brother came downstairs.

"I hope you had a nice shower." Dany grumbled at him. He grinned and pulled out some cereal and sat down next to her at the kitchen table.

"It was delightful, thank you for asking. That's very considerate of you, Danilynn." He said lightly. Dany rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him. He merely laughed. "So no Mom or Dad yet?" Dany shook her head.

"No, I know Dad went to bed around when I did and Mom showered last night so she probably didn't actually fall asleep until around the same time. They might still be a couple of hours." Dany replied, still eating her bagel.

"Hey, speaking of, I heard you and Dad talking last night when I was on my way back to my room from the shower. What was that all about?" Her brother asked in what he clearly thought was a casual voice.

"Well Rhaegar, I do tend to talk to my parents on occasion. You should try it sometime." She quipped and her brother raised an eyebrow.

"I heard the end, Dan. Whom was he talking about?" Her brother pried.

"What when he said that I looked beautiful? I don't know, he never said." Dany shrugged. Trying to push away her suspicions to prevent her crush from getting even worse. Her brother clearly didn't buy that his sister was completely clueless but let it drop nonetheless.

"So, I see what you mean about James being completely mad for Lily…I think he was starting to follow her like a lost puppy, honestly." Rae said with a smile. Dany laughed and thought about how true it was.

"I told you! I feel so bad for him; he's completely in love and she wants nothing to do with him. I understand where she's coming from though…James can be a right ass to some people." Dany replied, finishing her breakfast.

"You have to admit it's kind of funny, Dan." Her brother said with a grin. Dany laughed.

"Yeah…it's actually pretty hilarious. I spend half of my time at school listening to both of them complain about the other. If it's not 'That toerag Potter won't leave me alone!' it's 'Lily will never love me and I will be alone for the rest of my life, pining after her'. It's bloody awful! It's a miracle I ever get anything done, really." Dany replied, laughing. It really was strange to hear two people talk about each other non-stop. Her brother looked at her thoughtfully.

"Sounds…strange yet also incredibly boring. By the way, you know Mom is going to wring you out when she gets up for that little misstep you made last night." He casually said. Dany froze. The hug. She had completely forgotten that she had broken an unbroken tradition of formalities. Shit, he wasn't kidding. Her mom was going to kill her.

"Well on the bright side, she can only kill me once." Dany said with the voice of one walking to the gallows. Rhaegar laughed.

"I don't know…she might bring you back just so she can kill you again for your little quip at Orion Black." He told his horrified little sister. She groaned and put her head in her hands.

"I'm so dead. I'm officially done for. It's been a pleasure, it really has…why do I have an inability to listen to the rules?" She said with her hands still over her eyes.

"Aw, it might not be that bad if Dad gets to her before she can get to you. He's the softie around here, after all. And you know how he is; nothing is more important than friendship…and love." Her brother said. Dany's head snapped up.

"What did you just say?" She asked, her voice becoming noticeably louder and sharper.

"Aw, come on Dan. I see how you look at him. Besides, you've never broken any kind of tradition or relatively important rule before, at least not in front of Mom or Dad. You literally couldn't stop yourself, could you?" Her brother said slyly. Dany felt her face turn red.

"Please don't tell Mom or Dad. As accepting as they are, that wouldn't go over well."

"Hey, I'm not saying anything to anyone, but don't think that means I approve…because I don't. He has a sketchy past and an evil family; you could do better Dan." Rhaegar said, not joking at all. Dany looked at him critically.

"You know, Mom and Dad would both say not to judge someone solely on the things they can't control. He couldn't pick his family or how his childhood was. Lay off, Rae."

"Alright, alright whatever you say. Out of curiosity, who else knows?" Her brother said, looking generally displeased with his sister's choice in crushes. Not like she could control it, she thought. If she could bloody control it, none of this would be an issue because she would just go on her happy way with a nice platonic friendship. She said none of this to her brother.

"No one else knows; at least that I know of. James might have guessed but I haven't said anything to him or anyone else." She said instead, judging her brother's expression.

"Good. Keep it that way; everyone knows that Dad would do anything for you, even at risk to his own life. Sirius Black is leverage the Death Eaters don't know they have living under their own roof." Rhaegar said and Dany realized how right her brother was.

Sirius lived with them; they had complete access to him for three months of the year. If Walburga or Orion smelled something fishy, they would run straight to their buddy Voldemort. Then the threats would come. Everyone would tell her father to let the Black boy die; everyone from his advisors to his friends to his own wife and son would tell him the same thing: the child of Death Eaters was not worth risking so much for. Charlie, Dorea, and James would be devastated but that wouldn't sway the Minister enough to ignore council from so many people. It would be his daughter; it would be her to change his mind. She wouldn't have to do or say anything, but Daniel Masters would not let Sirius Black go, simply because his daughter cared for him and he couldn't bear to do that to her. The Minister would comply with Voldemort for his daughter's happiness. All of this was on the verge of possibility, teetering on the edge of becoming reality, and no one knew it.

"Yeah…I just can't really control it, you know? I don't even really know when it started, to be honest. Why can't I have a crush on some random dorky Hufflepuff whose parents are shopkeepers or something?" She groaned, wishing, not for the first time, that she could pick lower maintenance guys. Of course she had to have a thing for the black sheep of the Black family. Of course she did.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Dan. You're right, you can't control it, but at least try to be mindful of it. Besides, you'll grow out of it eventually." Her brother said. Both siblings abruptly looked up as someone could be heard walking down the stairs. Dany flung her head back in her hands, waiting for her mother to come into the kitchen and snap her head off for being 'so disrespectful and unrefined last night'.

"Good morning, you two." A definitively male voice said and Dany sighed in relief. It was just her dad. Her dad who had no plans to kill her for her 'uncouth' actions.

"Hey, Dad." Rae said through a mouthful of cereal.

"Morning, Daddy." Dany said, picking her head up out of her hands. She looked at her father as he sat down in his usual chair and he grinned at her.

"I see you're waiting for your mother to get up, Dan. I love her to death, but that woman really is a stickler for tradition, isn't she?" Their father said with a laugh. Rhaegar waved his spoon in the air as he replied to his father.

"Of course she is; she should be. Traditions are just that, Dad; they're traditions. They're intrinsically made to not be broken." He argued. Dany rolled her eyes but said nothing. She wasn't getting in the middle of the father-son argument that was on the horizon.

"True…they are meant not to be broken, but I've found that there's usually a circumstance that calls for a break in tradition, no matter how rare that situation might be. Would you not agree with that?" Her dad said, clearly humoring her brother. Rhaegar hesitated; he clearly hadn't expected their father to admit that traditions were not meant to be broken.

"I can agree with that, but you can hardly say that last night was an exceptional circumstance, can you?" Rhaegar argued, still clinging onto hope that he wasn't completely in the wrong in their father's eyes.

"I agree with you on that; last night was not abnormal in many ways." Dany and Rhaegar both raised their eyebrows. Their father hardly ever took his son's side, or anyone's side for that matter. They were both unsurprised when he continued. "However, I don't think you understand how much danger Sirius Black is in when he is not at Hogwarts. Your sister, Lily, and James worry for him greatly, and they have every right to; Walburga and Orion Black are neither accepting nor loving. Even towards their own children, they cannot help but be cruel and inflict pain. You cannot imagine the relief they all felt when they saw him alive last night; you cannot understand and nor can I, not until we have lived it." Their dad said softly. Dany raised her eyebrows in surprise. She hadn't been expecting that sort of lecture from their father. He was usually very laid back and relaxed with most things with his children. He hardly ever took a clear stance on points of contention in the household, allowing his children figure it out on their own or simply letting them agree to disagree, whatever the case may be.

"But still, all of this over the Black heir…it just seems like misplaced worry." Rae protested.

"He cannot control his family. He was given a lot in life and he simply was not as fortunate as you both were; to be born into a family that loves you and supports you is a privilege that not everyone one has." Their father replied, not raising his voice or looking annoyed or angry with his son.

"Dan said you'd say that actually. It's because you two are connected on some weird spiritual level." Rhaegar said and the tension broke as soon as Dany laughed in agreement.

"It's just because I'm smarter than you are, Rhaegar." She retorted, "Not everyone can be as perceptive as yours truly." Their father laughed.

"Ah, my two children…someone help us all when you two take over your mother and mine's positions." Both kids laughed and nodded in agreement. If Rhaegar didn't marry before he became Minister, Dany would take over for their mother if she so chose, as the second-in-command at the Ministry. That was a tradition that was never broken. They all looked up when more footsteps started to walk down the stairs and they all groaned, knowing that they'd just be rehashing the argument that they just had finished. Rhea Masters walked into the kitchen wearing her lecturing face.

"Danilynn Charlotte Masters—"

"Don't start." Dany, Rae, and their father all said in unison. She looked at them all curiously but said nothing.

Lily woke up the morning, well the afternoon really, and stretched out her muscles that were sore from the heels she had been standing in all night. She got out of bed and sincerely wished that she had bothered to shower before she had gone to bed last night. Her dress was thrown onto her desk, her heels were in a corner and the makeup she hadn't bothered to take off was smeared all over her face and pillow.

"Fantastic. Bloody fantastic." She muttered as she looked in the mirror, eyeing the mascara that had smeared down her left cheek. She pulled the pillowcase off her pillow and left it on her bed, planning on brining it downstairs with her later. She pulled her pajamas off and got in the shower, thinking about last night. Dany hadn't been kidding; it had been one hell of a night. She didn't think that the Yule Ball could ever really match up.

There had been so many people there. And they had all been of some importance. Lily had read of many of them in her textbooks, and heard people talk of the lineages of the families that had been present. It was an understatement to say she had felt quite different from almost everyone there. People like Dany and Sirius and James belonged there; people with long, rich family histories of wealth and power. But at the same time, she had felt very included, like she had nothing to fear or be intimidated by. Daniel and Rhea were eternally pleasant and Rhaegar, though scary, was somehow a reassuring presence. Maybe because he looks so much like his sister.

Lily scrubbed her scalp with her nails, feeling the hairspray start to finally come out and wash down the drain. Damn, Potter's dad looks like him, she thought to herself. It was uncanny, really. He certainly seemed nice enough and his mother, Dorea, seemed like a lovely woman. Dany had always laughed and said, "James may be a right ponce Lils, but his parents are lovely. Really, I don't know how such a bratty boy came out of that marriage." That was usually when Potter would jokingly shove her and she would laugh and push back. Despite Lily having a long and varied list of issues with Potter, he was Dany's Godbrother and she was eternally fond of him and treated him very much like she treated her blood brother.

The ginger finished her shower and got dressed quickly, taking her pillowcase downstairs with her. She checked the time: 1:30 in the afternoon. She walked downstairs to see that no one but Petunia, who hadn't attended the party last night, was awake; for her part, the eldest Evans sister muttered, "freak" and left the room with a sniff. Lily rolled her eyes. It had been almost three years since she had received her Hogwarts letter and her sister still hadn't gotten over it. Dany had always maintained the position that Petunia was simply jealous of how much better than her Lily was. Lily had always found this quite flattering yet remained doubtful of her best friend's theory nonetheless.

"Good morning to you too, Petunia." Lily muttered long after her sister had left the room.

She walked to the laundry room and threw her pillowcase in and then went to find something to eat. It was…lunchtime she supposed (after checking the clock and decided it was too late for breakfast) and started looking around her cupboards. She found some leftover potato salad and settled on that. She heard the front door slam and figured that her delightful sister had decided to leave the house and go see her grossly overweight boyfriend. She seriously doubted that Petunia would be letting Vernon go that easy; he was so boring it made Lily want to cry, which is exactly what Petunia liked.

Lily's parents finally came downstairs an hour or so after she did and they all discussed the previous night.

"Really, I had no idea that there were so many things that wizards have different solutions for than we do."

"Yeah, Dad. We have all kinds of spells and charms to do things that appliances and machines do in the Muggle world. I'd show you if I could use magic at home." Lily told her dad.

"I honestly didn't know how important Dany's family was…did you have any idea, Lily?"

"Yeah, I knew…Mom, her dad is essentially the magical Prime Minister. Her brother is probably going to take their dad's job within the next 10 or 15 years…they've led the magical community since, well, since forever." She said and all of a sudden, her mom's eyes lit up.

"I saw James Potter there. He's a cute boy, you know…he seems nice, Lils. Where's your big hatred of him coming from? He definitely loves his Godsister and that friend of his." She asked her daughter.

"James is…he can be really nice, like he adores Dany and he certainly cares about Sirius, I mean they're practically brothers. But he also tends to bully people…like you know Severus, right?" Both her parents nodded an affirmative, "Well, he kind of picks on him…a lot. They have an unspoken kind of hatred and it wouldn't be such a big deal if he weren't so much better at dueling than Severus is. He just mercilessly beats him in front of almost the entire school. Of course, Dany does nothing to stop him, she has no love for Severus and is James' Godsister and neither does Sirius, because he despises all Slytherins purely on principle alone. Remus and Frank sometimes half-heartedly try and Peter does nothing. I just…have a hard time with that fact. I can be cordial for Dany's sake, but he's definitely not my favorite." Lily told her mother, who listened to her daughter's uninterrupted thoughts and nodded thoughtfully.

"You're all still so young…he might still surprise you yet. What was the Diggory boy talking about at dinner? What's this war that he mentioned?" Her mother said. Lily winced. She hadn't told her parents about the war; she had been hoping to let them live oblivious for as long as possible, within the realm of possibility. She wasn't lying per say…she just didn't bother to mention it at home.

"The war? Yeah it's kind of a big deal in the Magical Community at the moment…I was going to tell you if it got any worse than it is now, honestly. It's nothing for you guys to worry about; you're not magical and it's not your fight." Lily tried to skirt around directly saying what the war was about. Because the truth was if her parents found out that Voldemort was after Muggleborns, they'd have a hemorrhage and she wasn't sure if her mother's heart could make it through anything more stressful than a bad growing season for her tomatoes.

"What's this war over? Is it a civil war?" Her father asked keenly, not falling for his daughter's vague answer.

"Yeah, it's pretty much civil war." Lily said, trying to tell them as little as possible.

"Lillian. What is it over?" Her father said again, this time with noticeably less patience.

"Okay, so there's this guy, he goes by Lord Voldemort but most everyone is too scared of him to say his name so they all say 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. And he…never mind, there's a better way to explain this. So there are some families, Pureblood families with all Wizarding blood, that think they're 'the superior Wizarding race' or whatever and this guy, Voldemort, is kind of going militant with that idea. He's essentially going after anyone who isn't a Pureblood." Lily said as quickly as possible, hoping that her parents wouldn't notice the implications. They noticed.

"People like you, you mean." Her father said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah…Muggleborns and half-bloods are on the top of his list…but the Ministry is fighting against him, trying to take him down before he can start genocide. That's why Dany's dad is so important; because he's the greatest hope the Ministry has. Their entire family is our greatest hope for salvation. Daniel, Rhea, Rhaegar, and Dany are all people that Voldemort would love to get his hands on." Lily said softly.

"You're joking. You accidentally became friends with one of the most sought after people in the war?" Her father asked disbelievingly. Lily nodded.

"You say his name." Her mother said softly.

"I do. And so do Dany, Marlene, Alice, James, Sirius, and Remus. Frank and Peter don't though. I don't see how not saying his name will make anything better. People are just hiding and by not saying his name it makes it easier to pretend that none of this is real and nothing bad can ever actually happen to them. Besides, Dany's dad always tells us that fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself. He doesn't deserve all of this fuss to be made over him." Lily replied. Her parents exchanged a look. Neither of them were sure where in the family Lily had picked up her bold, courageous streak but it sure looked like she'd be needing it sometime soon.

If someone bothered asking Sirius if it had been worth it, going that night, the morning after he probably would have said yes. Likewise, if someone bothered asking Sirius if he'd would like to black out and die, just to get rid of the pain, he probably would have said yes again. The threat of the Minister's wrath had passed for Walburga and Orion, and as far as his parents were concerned they now had carte blanche to deal with their child however they saw fit. The Minister and his family had seen him and he had been healthy and well; now no one would see him for another week. No one but his crazed parents and passive brother. His mother was livid. Sirius honestly wasn't sure what it was that had happened that night to make her so mad.

She had seemed irritated when she had come to retrieve him but by the time he finally had walked away with her, and his father and brother, she was downright furious. They had Apparated back to Grimmauld and as soon as they walked in the door, she slapped her oldest son across the face. He had winced slightly but had said nothing, even when blood started to ooze down his cheek from where her engagement ring had cut him. He was still wrapped up in where he had just been and whom he had been with.

Even if his parents were terrible and barely human, there were other people who cared for him. James, Dorea, and Charlie had greeted him like family and called him "brother" and "son". Even Lily, who got along with James on a temperamental basis at best, had been thrilled to see him. And Dany had clung onto his neck before he had left, whispering, begging him to promise that he'd come back. How small she was had surprised him; she was short, and they all knew it, but she wasn't just short. For the moment he had hugged her back before he left, she had felt tiny, almost breakable, like he could snap her in two if he hugged her back too hard. And when she had let him go, he had seen the concern on her face; she knew there was going to be hell to pay and he'd have to pay it. He found that he didn't particularly care what his parents had to say on the matter of his friends.

But the happiness he had felt when he was at the party, surrounded by his friends, was long gone. He had been tossed in the basement as his new bedroom for the rest of break and by the next afternoon, he was pretty sure he had at least three broken ribs, from being literally thrown into the basement, and maybe a concussion because nothing in the basement particularly wanted to stop spinning all morning. He sat on the ground up against the wall and prodded his head. He couldn't find any blood so he dismissed the concussion and decided that it was probably hunger and dehydration instead, which was simultaneously better, because he didn't have a fractured skull, and worse. You could go a week without food if you had to…but water? He guessed that was closer to pushing the limits of possibility. Eight days was about the maximum that just about anyone had survived without water, he was pretty sure and seven was getting a little too close to being dead for his liking.

Damn, everything bloody hurt, he thought to himself. He checked his ribs by poking them experimentally and winced, pulling back a slightly bloody hand. Great. Not only broken ribs, but the skin's open in some capacity. This is a one-way street to some horrible infection he thought absently. Suddenly, the door to the basement opened and he hoped for a wild second that Dany had gotten a wild hair up her ass and had convinced her parents to authorize a raid on the house. Unfortunately it was his mother that entered, not an Auror or ministry worker. He looked up at her in the dim basement from where he was sitting. She still didn't look particularly happy with her oldest son.

"Sirius."

"Mother." He said back, wishing she'd just get on with it and not bother trying to talk to him. He'd rather her just pound his face in than listen to her run her mouth about how she likes to kill people in her spare time. It made him nauseous most of the time.

"Tell me about these friends of yours." She said and Sirius felt his mouth drop open in shock.

"What?" He said dumbly. That was like her asking to go on a lunch date with Dorea Potter. It would never happen. Except it just did.

"Don't make me ask twice, boy. Tell me about them." She said and he got the distinct impression she didn't want to be this civil and was waiting for a chance to become her usual monstrous self.

"What do you want to know?" Sirius responded, cagily.

"I don't know…what about Danilynn Masters?" And then Sirius got it. She was digging for info on the Minister. Like hell he was going to give it to her.

"Dany is none of your business." Sirius said shortly and his mother didn't take to this well.

"She's a close friend."

"She is. And I'm not outing her entire family to people who would love nothing more than to butcher them in their sleep." He snapped. Walburga Black raised her eyebrows.

"You care for her."

"We're friends…that's what I just said, isn't it? Friends generally do care about each other, not like you'd know anything about that. She's none of your concern." He snapped again.

"You insolent brat. You would pick a blood traitor over your own family." She said, slapping him in the face for the second time in the last twelve hours. His head snapped back and hit the brick wall and he saw black spots appear in front of him. He guessed that if he hadn't had a concussion before, he definitely did now. "That's what she is, what they all are, you know. Blood traitors. They can't even betray their own people over something worthwhile. Those silver-haired monstrosities are starting all this fuss over some dirty mudbloods." His mother goaded him. He tried not to rise to it; he had a promise to keep and hitting is mother wasn't a good way to do that.

"Go to Hell, woman." Sirius said and even he heard how tired he sounded.

"It appears that I've been going about this wrong for years…physical punishment won't do anything to you. You don't care about yourself. Your only sense of self-preservation comes from them. You try to stay alive because you know how your death will affect them. The real question is what would happen to you if something happened to one of them?" Sirius froze. He knew what his mother was suggesting. It was 'let's talk about all the horrible ways your friends could die' time. It was like a sick game to her.

"Don't." He was ignored. His mother was on a roll. She was punishing him for how he had behaved last night. And now he refused to say anything regarding Dany or her family, which further fueled the fire.

"Where to start? How about with the mudblood girl? Lily, is it? Pretty girl, too bad she's essentially filth. Or how about with Potter? That family is one of the greatest disasters in pureblooded history…or how about with little Dany Masters? The Minister's precious daughter?"

"Stop." He snapped at her again but she continued to ignore him, apparently enjoying having found something that he had a real soft spot for: his friends.

"It's her, isn't it? Evans is a good friend and you think of Potter as a brother but it's the Masters girl that really gets to you. I saw you last night; you couldn't keep your eyes off of her."

"She's not that important. More than anything she's just James' Godsister. She doesn't matter to me." Sirius said, trying to bullshit his way out of having to listen to all of the horrible ways his mother would enjoy killing his closest girl friend. She laughed at this.

"You're such a liar and you're not even good at it. Your thoughts are louder than you can imagine. You can't stop replaying it in your head, that hug she gave you. You can still feel it. You can still feel her arms wrapped around your neck. It's all you've been thinking about. I can hear her in your mind, you know; 'promise me, Sirius. Promise me that you'll come back.'" Her voice took on a mocking tone that sounded nothing like the girl she was mimicking. "And you did, didn't you? You promised her that you'd come back to them…ah yes what was it? Oh, here it is, right inside that hollow little head of yours. 'I promise I'll come back. It's okay. I promise you'. That's sweet of you, especially for a girl that's going to be hopping beds until she's thirty."

"Enough." He said and he realized that his hands were shaking. He tried to quiet the thoughts, calm them down enough that he didn't want to snap his mother's neck. Unfortunately, she ignored his warning.

"Surely you have to know by now. All the women in that family are whores; can't stop themselves from spreading their legs—" Sirius' self-control finally snapped and he suddenly stood and pushed his mother into a wall, getting in her face. Even at thirteen, he was as tall as his 5 foot 10 mother. Being a beater had made him strong, something his mother had forgotten. He didn't miss the flash of fear in her eyes that went as quick as it had come.

"Shut your mouth." Sirius hissed at her, no more than 6 inches from her face. She raised her eyebrows, trying to look in control even though her teenage son currently had her pinned up against a wall and was seriously considering strangling her. Suddenly realization struck her across the face. Sirius felt his stomach twist; it was never good for anyone when his mother had a moment of revelation.

"You're in love with her. You're in love with a mudblood-loving whore. And I thought you could go no lower. And you really love her…there's no puppy love in your head; it's the real deal, isn't it? That's why you didn't try this little stunt earlier; you promised her that you'd come back to her." His mother said softly and finally he hit her. He hadn't only hit her because of the shit that was spewing out of her mouth, but because she had been right. He had promised to come back to school, but he had also promised to come back to her. As soon as his hand connected with the side of his mother's face, he knew he was done for. The last thing he remembered before blacking out was a single word: crucio.

Sirius groaned and felt his eyes try to open. After a minute of struggling to wake up, he finally opened his eyes to the unfortunate sight of the ceiling of his family's basement. He carefully tried to move all of his limbs, one at a time and had relative success, so at least he wasn't paralyzed. He slowly sat up, wishing that he was still passed out on the ground and looked down at the damage.

Everything looked relatively the same except for the giant crimson stain that now covered his shirt all across his chest. He still had on the shirt from the party, no one bothering to let him change, so he slowly unbuttoned it and saw that there were now two crisscrossing cuts across the left side of his chest. Someone had taken great care to make sure that he wasn't actually killed but that there would undoubtedly leave scares. When the lines healed as best they could, he was almost positive that it would be in the shape of an X across his heart. His mother wanted him to never forget the talk they had just had. Sirius' one consolation in regards to this was that she was far away from his parents, safe in her childhood home, under the best protection the Ministry could offer and money could buy.

Sirius looked back down at his chest and shivered slightly. He was in a basement in January; it was cold as shit down here, and he was bleeding everywhere. Dany might be far away, but he sure wasn't. It was going to be one long, hellish, week.

James was bored out of his bloody mind and he swore to himself that this was the last time he would wear a suit until he had graduated Hogwarts. He was sitting in the living room with his family, waiting for his parents' friends and coworkers to arrive. He checked the time. 5 minutes. It wasn't that he didn't like having his parents' fellow Aurors over, he actually found what they had to say quite interesting, but it was that every time that they began to talk about anything of relative importance, he was shooed out of the room to sit in the Kitchen until they were done.

It was infuriating. This was his world and his war too. He at least deserved to know what was going on.

His parents didn't see it that way though, so James received his best information on the war from Dany, whose parents were much more willing to keep her informed of the Wizarding World's situation (well, her father was, at least. James suspected that Rhea had no idea that her husband was speaking to his daughter about the war). He supposed that Daniel figured that he and/or his wife could be killed any day, leaving their children as the last of the Masters line and at the helm of the war. They should at least know what they were getting into before it was too late for anyone to tell them.

The bell rang and James heard the house elf go and answer the door. They didn't used to have a house elf, but his parents had hired one because there had been a disturbing spike in Aurors being killed as they opened their front doors. Seconds later, Sally the house elf entered the room with Florence Miller trailing behind her. She was a kind woman with brown hair streaked with grey; he wasn't stupid enough to ignore the steely look in her eyes though. She vaguely reminded James of his own mother. She was a close friend of both the Potters and the Masters'; so close that Florence Miller was named Rhaegar's Godmother.

"Ah, Dorea, Charlie. A pleasure as always…James Potter you've grown at least five inches since summer." She said, hugging all three of the Potters. James grinned at this; he knew he'd probably never pass up Sirius, but he was aiming to at least be taller than Remus, Frank, and Peter.

"Hey, Florence." James said, "It's good to see you. How's the job treating you?" He asked.

"Same as always these days…psychotic blood supremacists trying to kill perfectly good people, and we're still hunting down and locking up the psychotic blood supremacists." She told him honestly. James knew that she thought that his parents were in the wrong by trying to shelter their son.

"So essentially the usual?" James replied with a laugh.

"Yeah, pretty much…how was Moody last night? I was sorry that I couldn't make it, we got a call right before I left the office." She asked all of them. Dorea raised her eyebrows.

"Anything to worry about?" She asked her friend.

"No, nothing out of the ordinary; just some low level Death Eaters having some fun in London…Normally I would have sent someone else and not gone myself but Alastor and the others had been working on the Masters' place all day and were still there…so me and a couple others handled it." She said with a shrug. Both of James' parents relaxed. Florence was an incredibly talented Auror and had been in training with his own parents more than twenty years ago. She was Moody's partner on the job, even though they had some trouble getting along outside the office. Normally when she was called out, there was reason to be highly concerned. "So, how was the old man?" She laughed. James grinned but said nothing.

"Didn't see him for more than five minutes, to be honest. He was on the clock pretty much the whole night I think. Daniel tried to get him to take a load off but I don't think he listened. Then again, he never does." James' dad said with a shrug.

"He didn't sit with you all at dinner?" Florence asked. Suddenly there was a knock at the door, effectively interrupting the conversation and preventing anyone from answering her. Moments later, Sally reentered the room, this time with Amos Diggory's father, Noah, behind her. He was very much like his son. Arrogant and pretentious were the best two words James could think of to describe him. James just thanked his lucky stars that the Auror hadn't decided to bring his son with him. Everyone despised Amos Diggory. Florence shook his hand and James' parents greeted him, starting a conversation with him. James went to stand next to Florence.

"How's your friend, James? The Black boy." She asked him softly, too quiet for anyone else to hear.

"He was okay as of last night…Dany convinced her dad to let him and his family come to the party. Needless to say, Walburga and Orion Black didn't get a very warm welcome. He sat with us at dinner, that's why Moody wasn't there. Rhea put him with us. That and Moody was probably in 'constant vigilance' overdrive with known Death Eaters being there." James answered her. The older Auror raised her eyebrows.

"He looked okay? Nothing seemed off?" She asked. Florence had been searching for years for a reason to toss the Blacks in Azkaban. She had come up with nothing solid in the past decade and was becoming more and more hell bent on it as time passed.

"Nothing more than usual…at least not regarding his parents, so nothing you'd be very interested in." James said with a shrug. Something was always off with the Blacks but tragically nothing was ever wrong enough to warrant an arrest.

"Oh, see now I'm interested. What happened? Fill me in on the drama." She said with a laugh. James really enjoyed Florence's company. She was probably forty-five but never missed an opportunity to catch up on the gossip in James, Dany, or Rhaegar's lives.

"I don't know…it was probably just my imagination, honestly…"

"James Potter you can't get me interested like that then back out of the story." She said with a frown. James smiled a little and thought about how to phrase it.

"Okay fine. It was just kind of weird is all. It's Dany…well he couldn't stop looking at her." James said carefully, "It was just out of character for him is all."

"Anything else?" She asked, looking interested and slightly amused.

"Yeah, I mean they were both just kind of acting funny. Like you should have seen her when he left with his parents; she was beside herself, bloody hugged him so hard around the neck I was a little worried she might choke him…and the way he hugged her back was different, out of the ordinary even. You've never met Sirius but trust me when I say that he's about as subtle or quiet as a box full of fireworks. But when he hugged her back, it was so…gentle; he put a hand in her hair and one on her back and it seemed really intimate, I guess is the word I'm looking for. It kind of felt like we were all intruding on something. It was just so different than usual. I mean I'm just going crazy, right?" James said, pushing out all of his observations at once, as quickly as possible. Florence didn't give him an answer.

"Aurors trust their instincts, you know; it's what keeps us alive. What do yours tell you?" She asked him softly. James thought about it for a minute and went with his first thought on the matter.

"Well…definitely wasn't normal 'hey you're my friend' behavior. It seemed more, well just more everything, really. And I saw his mother's face after that and she looked less than impressed with her son, I know Sirius saw too, but he just seemed like he didn't care what his mother thought. I mean if I knew that I was going to be at Walburga Black's whim for the next week, I wouldn't exactly be loving on the Minister's daughter. I think that he cares for her, like really cares for her." James said quietly, finally putting his thoughts into perspective and order. Florence nodded.

"It certainly seems so. It also appears to me that she cares for him a great deal, as well." She replied. James groaned.

"Why? Why did he have to pick my Godsister of all people? And of course she had to have feelings for the most dangerous one in our entire friend group." He muttered.

"James…the heart chooses blindly and on its own, regardless of circumstance. She might see in him something we don't because of his past. Dany Masters is an exceptional young woman. She is everything that he never had as a child: light, hope, justice…these are not things to be taken lightly. And like her father, she unequivocally believes in redemption. Surely it's not so hard to see why the child of Death Eaters would be drawn to her." She responded softly. James thought it was rather funny that Florence Miller, an unmarried, single woman who had long given up on marriage or kids, was just like most other women; she was still a hopeless romantic.

"Alright, if you insist…it's just weird is all." James replied, shrugging.

"It's not just strange…you say Walburga Black saw this?" James nodded, "She will not take kindly to her son's affections towards anyone not of her choosing, let alone a Masters. What he sees as beautiful, that she is of the light, his parents will see as dangerous; and they have every right to fear her. She is a powerful witch and when she is older, she will inspire an entire people…There is nothing Death Eaters fear more than one of their own standing next to her as she unifies all wizard-kind once more." Florence said softly.

"I hadn't thought of that." James responded.

"I wish no one had to, but we do…ignoring these facts is simply a risk we can't afford to take right now."

"What do you mean 'she will inspire an entire people'? What about Rhaegar?" James asked suddenly. Florence's eyes widened and James got the distinct impression that she hadn't meant to say that.

"Oh, did I say that? Of course I meant Rhaegar too, I just was talking too fast, my mouth got ahead of my brain again." She laughed and James watched her carefully. She was lying. Granted, she was very good at lying, her job required her to be, but she was trying to push this one out from between her teeth. Florence shifted uncomfortably under his gaze and suddenly James' father called over to him.

"James, why don't you go check on Sally? Just to make sure that everything is going alright." James rolled his eyes but left like his father asked, closing the door behind him. Instead of checking on the elf, he pressed his ear to the door. He only caught a few words.

"…Fatalities…looking for info…tell Daniel…survive?" James felt his blood run cold and went to check on the house elf.