Mm...For people asking, I've decided that Bella will get a somewhat major role, but she's not going to fall for Edward Cullen. As for her apparently bully-like attitude last chapter....have you ever met a three year old? They mellow out after awhile, but she was in that "mine" stage, where everything in the world belongs to her. For anyone wondering about Remus, no, he's not going to be homeless. He wasn't homeless in canon, and he's got more than enough willpower to get through it. The Potters left him some money when they passed away as well. The Cullens shall be arriving in Forks after this chapter. (I promise.)

Anyways...thank you for the reviews, and happy reading.


February 20th, 1994

"Dad!!" Rebecca screamed, running across the house and into the living room. Her father looked up from his place on the couch in curiosity. "Harry won't let go of Teddy!" The four-year old was dangling by the nape of his pajamas (they had failed to get him into regular clothes this Saturday; the boy refused to wear anything but his pajamas or rainbows) from her fingers. She held him much like she would hold a dirty sock. His arms were latched tight around the plush bear, his sharp teeth firmly buried in the bear's slightly torn left ear.

Billy sighed and flipped the channel from a game show to a sitcom. "SIRIUS! Your godson is eating Rebecca's dolls again!"

"Sacrifice the doll!" Sirius yelled back from the attic.

"NO! IT'S TEDDY!" Rebecca screamed back. "I've had him since FOREVER!"

Harry chewed on the ear happily. "Nom nom nom nom," he said happily.

"MOM!"

Sarah walked out of the kitchen with a wooden spoon in her hand. "Harry, please....Kite-eating trees eat kites, remember?"

The boy shook his head. "Kites no taste good." Rebecca shrieked. "KITE-EATING TREE? You took him to see our school play, didn't you mom? I told you not to!"

Sarah winced under the onslaught of her daughter and ignored it. "Kites don't taste good," she corrected.

Harry nodded in agreement.

"Harry, why don't you find Jacob and play with him?"

He shook his head. "Jake won't let I eats mud pies." He continued to whine about how Jacob wouldn't let him play with his new green toy truck Jake had gotten for his birthday. Sarah smiled and nodded, but after ten minutes, her smile strained.

Rachel set down her copy of Pride and Prejudice on the coffee table and picked up a red picture book. "Harry," she called. "Why don't you come over and help me read Corduroy?"

The boy cheered, jumped down from his hanging position, dropped the previously hostage teddy bear and ran over to the couch. He settled himself in Rachel's lap and pulled the book to himself.

"Corduroy is a bear who once lived in the toy 'partment of a biiig store..."


May 10th, 1994

"Charlie, hey," Sirius stood up from the seat on the porch and led Charlie to the swinging bench. "Bells, the lot of them are out by the shed."

The girl nodded shyly in her overalls and raced off.

"You alright?" Sirius asked, sitting back down on the bench next to Charlie and tossing a beer towards the man.

"Been better." His fingers popped the can open and he took a swig quickly. "Billy told you?"

"That you and Renée are getting divorced?" Charlie nodded absentmindedly. "Yeah, he told...Don't mean to be rude or anything, but did she tell you why?"

"She doesn't like the rain," he replied.

"You could move instead, you know," Sirius replied. Not liking rain seemed like a stupid reason to divorce somebody. Charlie sighed bitterly. "She's trying not to make this anymore painful than it already is," he explained. "Saying she doesn't like the rain...it's so much easier than telling the truth."

"Which is?"

"She fell in love with the idea of getting married and being in love. She doesn't love me. She hasn't for awhile," he continued. "Won't try to stop her. If she thinks it's better if we got divorced, then we'll get divorced."

Sirius sighed. "You've got it bad."

"Am I that obvious?"

Sirius decided not to reply. "How's Bella taking it? You tell her yet?"

"She's taking it...better than I expected a seven year old to. I thought she might want to stay here because..well, she grew up in Forks. But, well...she's too smart for her own good sometimes," Charlie said mournfully. "Renée...she can't take care of herself. She can, but...she needs something to depend on. Bella said she wanted to go with Renée instead. They're going to Riverside, California when school ends."

"Daddy, Daddy!" Bella hollered, running up towards them.

Charlie immediately sat up. "Bells, darling, what happened to you?"

She was covered from head to toe in gooey mud that dripped down her face. Her pigtails had come undone, leaving her hair in a floating mess with twigs and leaves. She was grinning all the same and held out her hands excitedly, jumping from one foot to another. "Daddy, look! Jake showed me how to make a mud pie and Harry said to give it to you!"

Bella handed the pie tin to her dad with a smile. "Do you like it?"

"It's beautiful honey, but why are you covered in mud?"

"We had a mud war! Rebecca's really good at shooting, but she's really bad at saving people properly," Bella pouted before running off again. "Talk to you later, Daddy!"

"Okay, sweetheart!" he yelled back. He turned to Sirius, who had collapsed in giggles. "Shut it, Black."

"Seven years of dealing with a kid," he chuckled, "and all you get is a mud pie?"

Charlie glared. "Mud pies are good stuff, you know."

"You're going to eat that thing?"

He laughed. "Not in your lifetime!" He balanced the pie in one hand. "Hey, did I ever tell you I was the dodge-ball king back in high school?"

"Nope," Sirius replied, still heaving from laughter.

Charlie grinned and heaved the mud pie at Sirius.


November 27th, 1997

Thanksgiving was fun, as usual. It's still really strange to go to a big cookout on the beach instead of staying indoors (not to mention dry!) with a turkey and mashed potatoes and stuff. Billy says that everybody in the tribe's considered family, so everybody brings some food and they have a big barbeque, games, races, and whatever else they can think of (pie throwing, ha!).

The twins have been "introducing" me to things. We did football last summer, basketball in the fall, ice skating (my butt still has bruises) in the winter, tennis in the spring, and swimming (Rachel gave me a rubber ducky as a trophy for staying afloat for more than half a second) last season. Now, the duo has it in their minds to teach me baseball. Today was the first day.

I have a black eye.

I think this is Rachel's revenge for turning all her clothes black. She doesn't like being known as a goth apparently.

Rachel's all happy about her scholarship to some school on the east coast, but it's not a full scholarship like the one she has in Seattle and Spokane. She's completely into her studies and bothering the family in her free time. On the other hand, Rebecca's really excited about joining the tennis team. She likes shooting people in the head with tennis balls, and has been training non-stop, even if they don't have any tournaments 'till Spring.

On top of that, today was the day she introduced her new boyfriend, Nathan Cole. He's a pretty decent guy, I think, but Billy still threatened to slit his throat in the middle of the night. I can't help but feel sorry for that guy if they plan to get married for dealing with Billy. He's really nice about it though, and even follows Billy's ridiculous rules, like staying at least three feet away from his daughter, returning at 9 PM, not driving more than 5 miles away (Billy even checks his mileometer!) and not calling his daughter on her cellphone more than three times a day (though he's free to call the home phone with Billy listening in).

I'm sort of jealous of the kid though.

He has a decent tan.

He doesn't really stand out amongst the Quileute (they're all born with darker skin), but I imagine in Forks, he sticks out like a sore thumb. Apparently, he's a transfer student from Hawaii. A surfer kid.

Harry and Jacob are doing really well. They've grown taller, more annoying, and like to prank people (yes! I HAVE SUCCEEDED!). They're pretty good pranksters, even if they're pretty young. Harry turned 7 just a little while ago, and fooled everybody into eating the cake, which ended up being made of dog food and cat kibble. That was amazing!

Sarah and Billy are doing pretty well too. They're getting a bit up in years though, and Sarah's been keeping track of Billy as best as she can. She retired from teaching just this year since Billy was diagnosed with diabetes, and she's fixed his diet to something more healthy. Billy's been accommodating, but he's been honest with me; he doesn't think it's working all that well. He hasn't told Sarah (he plans to soon, he swears), but sometimes, his feet go numb and he ends up falling or tripping, and he's not all that sure why. He's been passing it off as him getting old, but he's getting more and more clumsy and worried. Just the other day, he nearly fell down the stairs.

It's really reminding me of Mrs. Potter and Mr. Potter, and I'm desperately hoping it doesn't turn out the same way. Muggles haven't found a way to cure it (they're trying), so I scheduled an appointment in Seattle with a professional who will probably know what's going on with Billy. We plan on going on the weekend under the cover of a fishing trip (let's completely ignore the fact I hate smelly dead fish) so we won't worry Sarah.

Well, anyways, this entry's gotten depressing enough. Rebecca and Billy are yelling at me to watch the football game, so I better get going before Rachel kicks me down the stairs just to get them to shut up.

Sirius


January 3rd, 1998

Remus stared blearily at the map. He, Flitwick, and McGonagall had long since gotten the coordinates of Harry Potter, and by association, Sirius Black. They'd destroyed anything else they could find that used to belong to them. They'd used an obscure ritual that Flitwick only recalled because Lily had approached him about it for extra studies. It wasn't something easy to do and often was looked down on by the Ministry because the ritual was considered an evasion of privacy. It served their needs though.

The ritual only had to be used once. It would track a registered being on a map with a dot and a label (much like the Marauder's map) and it would follow them wherever they were. When they died or went somewhere off the map, the dot would disappear. It was very, very similar to the Marauder's map. He remembered skimming through the schematics of it as a student, and later modifying the same ritual to relabel each being depending on their appearance on a defined area (Hogwarts) instead of manually registering every person that walked into the building. The only things they needed was an object used by the being they wanted to register, a difficult potion (with the rather pricey Demiguise venom as the base ingredient), specific runes, and three magical people.

Because of this ritual, they'd known for nearly six years where Harry resided.

However, Dumbledore was fine with the idea of Harry being simply alive. He was too busy trying to rebuild the Ministry of Magic from the inside out and protecting muggleborn rights to really do any real action about it. He was the Headmaster of Hogwarts, a Light icon and the Ministry's conscience; it was hard to find free time to go to Washington. Not to mention, the man was getting up in years, even for wizards. Remus didn't resent the old Headmaster for having his hands tied.

Minerva and Filius were teaching for most of the year, and when they weren't, they had often had other issues to deal with. Minerva's nephew had a bad track record, and she was trying to straighten him out, as well as assisting the Unspeakables in their research (which she wasn't allowed to talk about). Filius, on the other hand, was busy teaching his apprentice about the more advanced and obscure charms. None of them had the time to request, register (which was more than enough stress on its own), and then take an international portkey to Washington, and then try to find two people in a population of five million, not including unregistered, magical households that dotted the forests.

On top of that, Remus wasn't sure if he really wanted them to find Harry first. It was sort of selfish of him, but he really wanted to know the truth for himself, not from somebody else's mouth. Minevra and Filius would be willing to listen to Sirius, but whether or not they'd believe him was an entirely different story.

He dropped his head down onto his open copy of Hogwarts, A History. He really was pathetic....he opened his eyes blearily and caught the Gryffindor bookmark he had placed in the tome.

...Dear Lord, was he a Gryffindor or not?

Remus tore the large world map from the wall and rolled it up in his satchel. Screw it, he was pulling a Sirius. He snatched the phone from its' cradle and dialed.

"Hello, Mr. Masen? I'm sorry, but I'm resigning."


January 25, 1998

Ding-dong!

"Hey! Will someone get that?"

Ding-dong!

"Aw, come on! I'M NOT LEAVING MY SUPER BOWL!"

Sirius threw his cuddled football at the man. "I'm not leaving either, so stop looking at me!"

Ding-dong! Ding-dong!

"FINE!"

Ding-DONG! Ding-DONG!

"LET YOURSELVES IN, THE BLOODY IDIOT BEHIND THE DOOR!" Sirius screamed.

"You're lucky I'm used to Dad," Bella muttered as she yanked the door open. As if on cue, her father rushed past her, threw his coat at the closed closet door, jumped the couch and landed right between Billy and Sirius. The popcorn bowl tipped over onto the police chief, who had snatched Sirius' football and kissed it.

"Please, oh please tell me I didn't miss anything!"

Bella sighed as she hung the discarded coat. "We brought mashed potatoes?"

Rachel came tromping down the stairs. "Bella, is that you?" She took the platter hastily from the exasperated eleven year old and put it on the dining table.

"Nice to see you," Bella grinned. "Where's everybody else?"

"Upstairs in Sirius' room. We're playing a game of Monopoly." She pointed outside at the rain. "Can't make mud pies in this weather. Sorry girlie."

Bella made her way up the stairs. "Not that big of an issue. Teams or singles?"

"Teams," Rachel replied.

"I'm on your team," she declared.

"What, don't want to team up with your boyfriend Jacob?" Bella glared and punched Rachel in the arm. "Don't even joke about that!"

"Aw, he not good enough for you?"

"You be quiet. He might have a little crush on me-"

"Says you. He hasn't shut up about you yet."

"-but it's not mutual. I don't like him that way! He's like my little brother."

Rachel laughed. "But why team up with me? I'm sure Harry would like to have you on your team at least."

"Throwing hotels at Becca is real fun, don't get me wrong, but I'd much rather take over the United States." Bella replied.


April 6th, 1998

"Why won't you let me drive?" Rebecca whined.

"You crashed into a stop sign last time I let you," Rachel replied easily, dropping the car keys into her pocket. Rebecca sulked and yanked her locker open. "It wasn't there before!"

"It's been there since forever."

Rebecca shrugged. "Anyways, to homeroom!" She stalked off towards the main hallway.

"There's an assembly today," her twin reminded in amusement, walking the other direction. Rebecca spun around and ran after her to catch up.

"I knew that."

"Of course you did. Where's that annoying stalker of you-"

As if on cue, Nathan rushed out from the hallway. "Hey Becca, Rach," he said with his good cheer, hugging his girlfriend around the middle and pecking her on the cheek. Rachel sighed, covering her eyes with her fingers. "Speak of the devil..." Rebecca giggled. "Nate, 'member...PDA around Rach?"

"Right, right, sorry. What d'you think the assembly's about?"

"School standings," Rachel informed promptly. "The principal told me that the graduation robes arrived today."

They made their way to the gym doors that were covered in red curtains. Principal Kenly was standing outside the door, a sober look on her face. Nathan looked on in confusion, but pulled Rebecca over the door's threshold regardless as Rachel stopped in front of the authority figure.

"Ms. Blacks, I'm sorry, but I need to talk to you both. Mr. Cole, please, go on ahead."

Nate stared at Mrs. Kenly before sighing. "Uh, see you inside then," he murmured. "I'll save some seats."

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Cole," Principal Kenly said before pushing the protesting senior through the swishing doorway. Rebecca blew a kiss back at him apologetically as another teacher came and dragged her melodramatic boyfriend by the ear.

Rachel ignored Nate's loud begging. "Mrs. Kenly?"

The esteemed principal sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "I have two things to tell you before you can go anywhere. Would you like to hear the first bit of news or the second?"

"First."

She cleared her throat. "Well, the first thing is, Rachel, you're the valedictorian for the graduating class of 1998."

"And the second thing?" Rebecca asked.

"Your father called this morning and requested you meet him as soon as possible at Forks Medical Center."


May 23rd, 1998

Rebecca stared blankly at the crowd as Mrs. Kenly handed her diploma with a small smile that she didn't feel like returning.

The word had spread around quickly. Sarah Black was dead, from a drunk driver in a hit-and-run. Quileutes had been visiting their house throughout the week, offering their condolences. The Clearwaters and Charlie Swan had taken over planning the funeral to lessen the load on Billy. Renée and Bella were even flying in for the funeral, and both had simply been sobbing on the phone. Sirius was running back and forth playing chauffeur for the boys, who were simply too downtrodden to do much and often went to school for an hour before wanting to go home.

All the teachers obliged the teary family, and there weren't many in La Push that weren't sympathetic.

So, no one said anything when she didn't smile and wave at the crowd like the other graduates, and they forgave her for walking pass the unperturbed principal and superintendent without shaking their hands. She just wasn't in the mood for celebrating anything.

They had excused Rachel for not making a customary speech, and made due with asking the crowd to congratulate her through their applause for being valedictorian of the year. Instead, they had the salutatorian and the president of the Honor Society representative speak in her place. The students were extremely accommodating; the Quileute tribe was a tight-knit group. Most people knew the Blacks, and those who didn't were easily convinced. They pushed Nathan to sit next to her, even if (according to alphabetical order) five people should have been between the couple.

Nate gave a half-hearted smile as he rubbed circles on the back of her hands. He didn't say a word about her red eyes or dark dress selection, only threaded his fingers through hers. His warm, large hands were reassuring, and she held on them for life. Rebecca wasn't all that sure which god she'd pleased to get such a nice fiance.

He had proposed to her back in April. They were the young couple of the year, and just about everybody thought they were sickeningly sweet. They had planned to get married as soon as October, but their marriage was delayed until further notice. Rachel wasn't up to planning the wedding, and it seemed too awkward to be looking through bridal magazines with Sarah criticizing each one for having too many unwanted, Rebecca-hated ruffles.

However...Rebecca didn't want to stay in Forks anymore. Rachel didn't want to either. It had too many good memories, and made them paralyzingly homesick for the past.

Rachel continued to plan to leave home for Apollo College in Spokane with a full scholarship. Her car was packed to the brim, ready for her 7 hour trip. She'd chosen not to run away from the state, just in case something happened and the family needed her. She didn't want to see La Push, but she couldn't stand anywhere else but Washington. She loved the place and the people to run away forever. She didn't want to be alienated or isolate herself; after being a twin for so long, she wouldn't be able to stand it.

On the other hand, Rebecca didn't have any intention of sticking around. She didn't have much of an idea of what to do anymore. Nathan and Rebecca had talked about what would happen after high school, but the plans seemed dimmer and dimmer. Rebecca had previously been debating on applying for a designing school, and getting into the fashion world a little more with her artistic talent. Nathan was dead-set on being a chef; he just loved to cook (and Rebecca just loved to eat what he cooked) too much not to do it for the rest of his life. He wanted to study in Hawaii to spend more time with his large, extended family.

In the end, they had booked two flights for Lahaina, Hawaii. Rebecca didn't want to follow Rachel to Spokane. She planned to come back, in a few years. Whenever she could stop thinking about the little memories every time she turned the corner. Everything was falling apart, slowly, gradually...She rubbed her red-rimmed eyes. Rachel stared blankly on at the band on the stage as the ceremony continued, gripping the sides of the framed document tightly.

Principal Kenly smiled as the last diploma was handed out. "And now, I'm proud to present to you, this year's graduated seniors!"


Issues, mistakes, questions, random babblings...feel free. Flames make me somewhat downtrodden, but they're okay too.

**Edits: very little, just trying to get the time frame right. Dates have been added, but here's the basics.

1994 - Renee and Charlie divorce.

1997 - Billy is diagnosed with diabetes.

1998 - Rebecca and Rachel graduate. Sarah dies in a car crash. Remus decides to leave Britain to search for Sirius, and I've changed how much information he knows; he knows that they are in Washington in the United States.