So close to the end! I don't know if I should be excited or not... People who only read completed work will start clicking on the story, but then, you all who are following will come to the end for another six months or so until I get the next story finished! (may actually be a year, but I'll shoot for six months, fingers crossed!)

I don't own!

ENJOY!

Everything was tense after the Triwizard Tournament. Dumbledore kept giving Willow weirdly assessing glances, like he thought Willow was somehow the reason that Voldemort came back in the first place.

Draco Malfoy refused to go home after school ended, and instead followed the Weasleys home, refusing to leave even though he insulted their home whenever he had the chance. Ginny ended up punching him.

When Grimmauld Place became available, it allowed Draco to leave the Burrow without panicking, like he had before. Sirius took it upon himself to teach Draco as much as he could:

"As his uncle, it is my job, no no, my duty, to teach him the true ways of a prankster," Sirius told him when Willow had asked.

Unfortunately, that led to Draco and Harry waging a prank war on Ginny and Hermione. Ron had claimed immunity, since he was Ginny's brother and Harry's best friend. But in reality, he and Willow had taken to throwing small scale pranks and blaming it on anyone else along with the twins, who were appalled at not being invited into the war.

All in all, life between Harry's fourth and fifth year was calm, if not anxiety-ridden.

Willow was waiting impatiently with Sirius as they waited for Harry to arrive. Something had happened while he was staying with Petunia, and if his arrival now said anything about it, it was bad.

Willow had flashes of memory that made him think it had something to do with Dementors, but he didn't want to believe it. He used the time waiting for Harry by observing Ron and Hermione, who were sitting side by side on the couch, their heads bent forward over something in Hermione's lap. Everyone stood when the door opened, Tonx waltzing through with a smirk on her face and the boy they'd been waiting impatiently for trailing in behind her.

"And we're here!" she called out, pulling the kid in farther and pushing him into Draco, who had been walking by the front door when it opened.

The boys grunted as they collided, hard enough to send the both of them to the floor.

"Harry!" Hermione and Ron cried out as they stood, dropping the letter they had been examining onto the table. Willow noted that the writing was sharp and the words long, a mix of English and Bulgarian, a language he only had a passing familiarity with thanks to reading a couple letters from Krum via Hermione. But the letter didn't look to be in Krum's handwriting.

Willow was shaken from his thoughts when Harry's arms encircled his waist, small fists clenching in his robes.

"Missed you," Harry whispered before moving to Sirius, his hug looser, but still desperate. Willow had a feeling that whatever happened at Petunia's was much worse than he anticipated. Willow noted that Harry had gotten along better with Dudley after Willow's intervention; something about bonding over 'Uncle Willow is being horrendous', if their overheard conversation was to be believed. Maybe something happened to him?

"We have a lot to talk about," Willow told his nephew, motioning everyone into the kitchen, they needed to discuss what happened and what they would be doing about it.

With only Sirius, Willow, and the four fifteen-year-olds, the kitchen was silent, the door closed to block out sound and give them the illusion of privacy.

"Dementors attacked me, Dudley was with me at the time, so were a few of his friends," Harry admitted after a minute of awkward silence. Ron and Hermione were quick to comfort him while Draco paled in his seat.

"I did what I could to protect them, but the ministry found out," Harry told them, his arms wrapping around himself.

"They wanted to snap my wand." The silence in the kitchen was deafening. The sound of a couple thuds outside the door told Willow that the twins were listening in, the duo cursing loudly enough to be heard through the weak muting charm.

"Dumbledore stopped them, but I've still got a trial on the sixth," he finished, looking at the table with a narrowed gaze.

Willow cringed. The old man could be annoying, intervening where he shouldn't, but there was no denying that he was an asset they couldn't afford to lose.

"Don't worry Harry, I'm sure Dumbledore will sort everything out," Sirius told his godson comfortingly. Harry's friends shared dubious looks before nodding as well.

Dumbledore did, in fact, sort everything out. Willow didn't have to worry about Harry as the boy rode off with his friends on the train. He did have to worry about some minor problems with his memory though, telling him he shouldn't allow Harry to go to Hogwarts alone (without him) but he ignored them. He had another urge to stay with Sirius because something was telling him he didn't have a lot of time left with him.

He was right behind Sirius when the man bust through the ministry doors. He was right beside him as they fought black-cloaked figures, he was right in front of him when Bellatrix sent the curse.

It was different, he didn't know how, but something was inherently different about what was happening. Lots of things have felt that way for him since coming back from life in the Malfoy basement. Harry and Ginny being Slytherins, Draco and Hermione being friends, Peter being nice. Just, a lot of things... and this situation was no different.

Sirius cried out as the two were pushed backward, but he reached around and used their shared momentum to pull them out of the way before they could go through the veil.

Unfortunately, Bellatrix's curse did something to Willow, and when he landed, his head smacked against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Muahahahahahahaha! Also, the answer to who else made it into Slytherin is in this chapter, did you catch it? Again, I reiterate, Muahahahahahahaha!

OH NO! Next Chapter is the Epilogue! I... I can't even! I thought I'd had more time! I don't, I don't know how I feel about this guys. It's, not a good feeling, but then, I'm super excited to show you all my work. Till next chapter darlings.

Question 8: What gift did Sirius give Willow that his twin ended up borrowing?

Mars