Taylor's mother will be brought up later, but yes, good guess.

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I get back to the castle from Hogsmeade at about six and run to the common room to meet Harry.

"You want to go down early?" He asks as I enter the room. I can tell that he has been waiting anxiously to fly some.

"Sure," I reply, heading back out of the portrait hole. "Ron coming?"

Harry shakes his head. "He's writing his paper for McGonagall."

We enter the pitch and stop to look around. There were hundreds of raised seats arranged by house, and three sets of rings on either side. I look at Harry, "So, what are you waiting for?"

I can't help smiling as Harry mounts his broom and kicks off. I watch him from the entrance of the pitch as he races through the rings.

"Who are you?" I hear a voice ask from behind me.

I turn and a boy about 15 walks towards me with a large wooden crate under his left arm.

I gesture to the sky. "I'm a friend of Harry's."

He drops the crate at our feet and holds his hand out. "Oliver Wood, I'm the Gryffindor team captain."

"Taylor Black, I'll be trying out next year."

He studies me for a moment. "What position?"

"Chaser," I reply.

"Ability runs in the family then?" He asks.

"What do you mean?"

This time Oliver gestures up at Harry. "I've heard that his father and yours were two of the best Chasers that Hogwarts has ever seen."

"I wouldn't know," I reply and we stand there in silence for a second.

"Well I should start this," Oliver states, and calls out to Harry. "Hey, Potter, come down!"

We both watch as Harry flies over and lands beside us.

"Very nice," Oliver states, smiling. "I see what McGonagall meant…You really are a natural. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining the team practice three times a week. He looks at me, "if you want to grab a broom out of the locker room, you could help me out here."

I smile at him and run to a door to my right labeled 'locker room.' In the back corner I see a broom rack and I choose a Cleansweep 7 from the bunch. I run back out to join Harry and Oliver, who was explaining the different balls to Harry.

Oliver looks up to me. "That's Fred Weasley's broom you have there. I suggest being careful with it. You don't want to wake up a different color."

"No problem," I reply. "I know how Fred is."

"Alright then," Oliver states, throwing a club at me. "What do you say we teach Harry how to block a Bludger?"

"I'd say it sounds pretty fun," I reply with a smirk, glancing at Harry's worried expression.

Oliver reaches in the crate and unlatches one of the two Bludgers and holds it tight under his left arm. In his right hand he grabs the other club and his broomstick. "Follow me," he says as he flies into the air.

I hold on tight to the club in my right hand and I kick off into the air, enjoying the feeling of flying. Oliver gestures me across the stadium from his and Harry in between the two of us. Oliver lets go of the Bludger and it instantly pelts towards Harry, who quickly dodges it. Having missed Harry, it sends itself towards me. I grab the bat with both of my hands and send it flying back towards Harry who just barely misses it. He steadies himself and glares in my direction.

"Watch it!" Oliver yells out, batting the Bludger back towards Harry again. We continue on this way for about 25 minutes until Oliver catches the Bludger and descends down to the crate. Harry and I look at each other and then follow Oliver back to the crate.

"Nice job," Oliver states, beaming at Harry. "Both of you," he says turning towards me. "Seriously, if you were a year older you'd be on the team as well."

"Thanks," I reply. "As I told you, I'll be trying out next year."

He smiles at me and shakes his head. "Alright Harry, you're going to be seeker. What do you say we practice with these?" He asks, holding up a bag of golf balls. "It's not worth letting a snitch out in an empty stadium and losing it in the dark."

Harry nods and Oliver turns towards me. "I won't be needing your help with this one. You're welcome to stay and fly for a bit or just sit and watch."

"Right then," I say with a smirk, and kick off into the air once more. I fly up so that I'm a good distance above where Oliver is throwing golf balls at and around Harry. I take this opportunity to scope out the three goal posts and to time myself at flying certain distances. I entertain myself this way for a while and look down to Harry and Oliver seeing that Oliver is on his last few balls. Slowly I begin to descend and wait for the two of them at Oliver's crate.

Harry joins me first as Oliver cleans up the golf balls with a summoning charm.

"Have fun?" I ask him.

He only smiles at me as Oliver walks over towards us. "Well it's pretty dark out now, so let's get back up to the castle." We make a stop in the locker room to put the crate back along with Fred's broom and then exited the stadium for the walk back up to the castle.

The three of us talked about classes on our way back to the common room and when we reached the portrait of the fat lady, Oliver held me back as Harry went in to most likely join Ron.

"What is it?" I ask him.

"Listen," he states. "You're better than all the players who tried to fill empty positions this year. I was wondering if you'd be willing to be a reserve player if someone on the team got injured or something and was unable to play. From the looks of it, you'd be a decent replacement for any position."

I stare at him. "Sure," I reply. "But is that allowed? I mean, I know that Harry is a special case, but I thought that first years weren't allowed."

"I'd manage it," Oliver states. "But remember, this would be in a last case scenario."

"I understand," I reply, nodding at him. "Thank you, Oliver."

"No, thank you. If you're coming into a game I'm obviously in your debt as you'd be doing me a huge favor."

"Well," I start with a smirk. "As much as I hope it won't be that case that you'll be needing me, I also hope that maybe you will."

He smiles and gestures through the portrait hole. "Let's just hope it won't come to that. I have some homework that I need to be finishing, so I'll see you later then?" He asks as he reaches the boys stairs.

"I'm assuming so," I reply with a smirk.

He shakes his head at me and ascends the stairs to his room.

I laugh at him and shake my head as well, watching as he climbs the stairs.

"Something going on between you two?"

I jump at the voice behind me and glare as I come face to face with George.

"Do you have a problem with simple conversation?" I ask.

"Not at all," he replies, sitting down in an armchair.

I follow and sit in the couch to the left of Fred and the right of George's armchair. I turn to Fred. "I hope you don't mind, but I used your broom at Harry's practice today."

"No problem," he replies. "Who am I to mind when a cute girl voluntarily sits on my broomstick?"

"Funny," I state sarcastically as George cracks up laughing. I watch as George gets up and joins two girls I recognize as Angelina and Alicia, two chasers on the Gryffindor team.

"I was just joking, you know," Fred states, placing his hand on my arm. "I'd rather you not think I was disgusting."

"Why's that?" I ask, looking down at where his hand is still resting on my arm. He notices where my gaze is and quickly recoils, blushing.

"I think you're a pretty nice girl, I wouldn't want you to get the wrong impression of me," he replies softly.

I stand up and ruffle his hair. "I haven't, however, I've got a letter I need to mail tonight before curfew," I state pulling my reply to my father's letter out of my robe pocket. "Care to take a walk to the Owlery with me?"

Fred smiles and stands up with me. "Why not? Just let me tell George that I'll be gone for a bit, I think we had something with Lee planned for tonight."

I watch as Fred approaches George and gestures in my direction. George says something and Fred elbows him and shakes his head.

"What was that about?" I ask Fred as he walks up to me.

"Nothing," he replies and we walk out of the common room. "George and I just like joking with each other."

"I didn't notice," I reply sarcastically.

"I can see why you have so many friends," he replies, bumping into me.

"Hey," I state, bumping back into him. "Some people find my sarcasm to be endearing."

"Hah. Which people?"

"Hmph."

I ignore him until we reach the Owlery. "Do you see Onyx at all?" I ask, looking up into the rafters.

"Up there," he says pointing up to my right.

"Onyx, I have a letter for you."

I watch as she fluffs her feathers and coos at me. She flies down from her perch and lands on my shoulder, sticking out her leg.

"Hey girl," I say, petting her head. I take the letter back out of my pocket and attach it to her leg. I look behind me where Fred is watching and put my mouth to Onyx' ear. "Deliver this one to Azkaban, Onyx. Okay girl?"

She coos and nuzzles her head against me, spreads her wings, and takes off into the night.

"So," Fred says walking up to me. "Is there a reason that I shouldn't know who that letter was to?"

I look down at my feet, trying to come up with an explanation.

"Does it have anything to do with the letter you received on your birthday?"

I don't respond and he lifts my chin up with his hand. "You don't need to tell me, but if you ever want to talk to someone, you can talk to me. I know that you really don't talk to people here."

I sigh and gesture to the stone wall around the bottom of the tower, and sit down. Fred follows sitting down next to me on my right.

"You're right," I start. "The letter was in response to the one I had gotten earlier. It was from my father."

Fred doesn't respond so I continue. "I've never had any contact with him and he writes me out of no where, telling me that he was framed and that he'd like to get to know me despite being in Azkaban. Twelve years of my life and I hear nothing from him, and now he just-"

I stop myself before I start to cry, feeling it coming, and look down at my hands. Fred still says nothing but pulls me into a hug. I don't respond at first, but when I start to cry I embrace him as well, holding him tight.

Fred pulls away just enough so that he can look me in the eyes. He removes one of his arms from around me and wipes the tears from my face, once I've stopped crying. He rests his forehead against my own. "Are you okay?" He asks.

I nod slightly and close my eyes, feeling Fred's breath against my face. Slowly, I open my eyes to meet his own piercing green ones. It seems at the same time we've both realized how physically close we are to each other. I see him glance quickly away from my eyes and down to my lips and instinctively I turn my head as he does also.

I close my eyes once more as our lips meet. His kiss is soft and gentle. Once we realize what just happened we break away quickly and look down to our laps, sitting there in awkward silence.

Fred speaks first. "I'm sorry, I- I didn't mean to- I mean, I've never- I-that was my first- I…I'm sorry."

I look back up at him and smile. "Me too," I say softly. "That was my first too."

"Really?" He asks, looking back at me.

I nod at him and use the sleeves of my robe to wipe my eyes. "Sorry for crying on you," I state. "I'm not really used to crying in front of people."

"Don't worry about it," Fred replies standing up. "It's got to be about curfew now, what do you say we head back?"

I shake my head at him. "I think I'm going to stay here for a bit. You should get back though; I wouldn't want you to get into trouble because of me."

Fred smiles at me. "I really don't need you to get into trouble, but if you'd like to be alone for a bit I'll leave."

"Thanks Fred." He bends down to kiss my forehead and I watch him as he walks out of the Owlery.

When the sound of his footsteps finally disappears, I stand up and look out onto the dark grounds. I stand there thinking about whether I should tell Remus about writing to my father until the cold air gets to me and I decide to head back to the common room. Just as I turn the corner out of the Owlery I see McGonagall walking right towards me.

"Black," she sneers. "What are you doing out of the common room past curfew?"

"Sending a letter, professor."

She glares at me, "A likely story. To who then?"

I sigh. "My father," I reply shortly.

I am unable to read the look on her face, but it is not a happy one. "Follow me."

She turns on her heel and I follow her down the tower and down the grand stair case until we reach a statue of a stone gargoyle. "Lemon Drops," She states and the Gargoyle moves a side to reveal a spiral staircase. I follow her to the top of the staircase until she reaches a door and knocks.

"Come in," I hear Dumbledore's voice respond.

McGonagall opens the door to reveal Dumbledore's office. He is seated behind a giant cluttered desk with hundreds of wizarding tools and books scattered around him.

"Ah, miss Black. What is the occasion?"

I shrug at him and McGonagall replies.

"I found Black here in the Owlery past curfew claiming to have just sent a letter out to her father."

Dumbledore turns his attention back to me. "Is this so?"

"Yeah," I reply. "That's about it."

He looks back up to McGonagall. "She seems to admit to being out past curfew, so what is the issue here?"

I can't help smiling as McGonagall looks as though she's been kicked. "This girl was writing to a known murderer!"

"Taylor," Dumbledore states with emphasis, "was writing to a family member. We by no means have the authority to restrict that."

McGonagall doesn't reply, seemingly unable to decide on words. "Minerva," Dumbledore states, "Let me take matters from here, please."

She stiffly nods and leaves the office, leaving me alone with Dumbledore.

"That was not a wise decision, Taylor."

"What wasn't?" I ask him.

He pauses. "If you are to be writing your father, I suggest not letting other staff members be made aware, no matter their loyalties."

"Am I in trouble then?"

He shakes his head. "For nothing other than being out past curfew. I am afraid that I will have to assign you a detention for that. Professor Snape's office at seven tomorrow night."

I smile slightly and Dumbledore laughs at me. "That is not the typical reaction that students give when assigned a detention with Severus."

I shrug and he shoos me out of his office telling me to get some sleep. I make my way back up to my dorm and do just that.

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