Does talk about abuse. Just waring ya. I've read through my story so far and I'm so sorry. All of those mistakes and things that make future things difficult in the story. You must be strong to deal with me for 10 chapters and hopefully plenty more to come.

Chapter 10: Family Problems

I was shocked. Sirius was acting so strange and Harriet left so abruptly. Harriet said that we would talk soon and then winked. Was she saying that she would "call" me? I hope so because I want some answers.

I numbly walked out to the living room and plopped down on the couch. I exhaled loudly and ran a hand through my hair, making my hair stuck up even more than normal.

"Harry? Is everything okay?" Lupin asked worried.

"Yeah. It's just that I miss Harriet and she doesn't seem to want to eat at Sirius's. Maybe you could go visit her soon? If she is stuck with only Sirius for company she'll start to get really annoyed with him and might do something rash. Especially if he is keeping as close of an eye on her as she says." I said to Lupin.

"She doesn't like being watched any more than you, huh?" Lupin said with a small smile. "Yeah, I was thinking of visiting Harriet before... Well, to keep moods light, before my "time of the month" I guess you could say."

With a slightly mortified look I said to Lupin, "I wouldn't say that around Harriet if I were you. I don't think that she'd like it. She's already suffering with being stuck with Sirius and Kreacher and she'll have a short temper. That might push her over the edge."

Lupin, while chuckling, said, "Why? I'm not saying that it's her time of the month."

"Well, er." This was awkward. Now I know how Harriet feels when she has to talk about it to adults. "She, and me, find it awkward to talk about and if, on chance, it is her time of the month, she wouldn't want to talk about it. Can we change the subject? I rather not talk about my sister and her time of the month. Please?"

While Lupin was chuckling, I remembered something. "Hey, Lupin. Professor Lupin, I mean." I quickly said when Snape gave me a pointed look.

"Harry, you know that you don't have to call me professor. You can call me Lupin or Moony or even Uncle Lupin if you wanted. Anyway, what did you want?" Lupin said. I smiled. I liked the idea of calling him Moony or Uncle Lupin. It made it sound like I had a family besides Harriet or Sirius.

"Harriet said that she thinks that Sirius has been acting weird. She doesn't know if she's just being paranoid or if it's actually happening. She-" I started before being interrupted by Snape.

"Did she say this today? Did she say how long this has been happening? Why didn't she try to contact us earlier?" Snape said, getting louder and angrier with each question.

"He's probably just acting that way because he hasn't seen us for a while and wants to make sure she's okay. It's nothing real-" I said before I was once again interrupted by Snape.

"Did she say that he seemed to forget things about her that he should know? Even the littlest things?" Snape demanded.

"Uh, yeah. She said that he forgot that she likes to cook the muggle way and he doesn't call her princess nearly as much as he used to. I've also noticed that he has been acting weird like when we talked through the floo. He forgot that Harriet doesn't like to eat when feeling ill, nervous, sad, or worried. He also had a cold tone when he was talking to me. He-" I started before being interrupted again. At least this time it wasn't Snape.

I looked down at my wand that was in my hand after I grabbed it from my pocket. It was vibrating slightly and the tip was glowing. Weird. I would have thought that Harriet would have waited till later at night to call.

"Harry? What's your wand doing? It was doing that a couple of days ago and you ran into the bathroom." Lupin asked warily.

"Er," I started. Should I tell them? If I ran to the bathroom, I would have to explain myself afterwards. If I answered it, then I would still have to explain. Even if I ignored it I would have to either explain or lie.

"Well. Harriet made a spell after she learned that we would be separated that allows us to talk using or wands. She's trying to call me now. Can I answer?" They nodded and I pressed the wand to my ear and before I answered, I touched the bottom of my wand to make it "speaker phone" so the adults could hear.

"Harriet? Harriet, are you there?" I asked into my wand.

"Harry? Harry, are you there?" Harriet asked, worried. Was Harriet sniffling? Had she been crying? I looked up at the two adults; Lupin looked worried and Snape looked curious.

"Yeah, I'm here. What's wrong? Are you crying?" I nervously asked.

"Y-yeah. I'm crying. Something's really wrong with Sirius. It's almost like it's not him. Like it's someone pretending to be him. I-I'm scared, Harry." Harriet said through sniffles.

"What did he do to make you think this, Harriet? Why are you crying?" I was freaking out. What happened to make Harriet act this way?

"H-he hit m-me." She said before starting to cry again. I must have heard wrong. Sirius wouldn't hit Harriet or me. I know that Sirius liked me a little more than Harriet but that doesn't mean he would ever hit one of us. He loved us. Right?

"When? Why?" I didn't understand. Why would he hit Harriet?

"It was super time but I wasn't hungry. I made a big lunch for us and we ate it late so I only had a small dinner. Sirius didn't like that and he started to yell at me, trying to get me to eat more food. I told him that I wasn't hungry and he called me a liar.

"I got up and I walked away from the table and was making my way up to my room when my legs and arms got stuck together and I fell. He had sent a full-body binding spell at me. I couldn't stop my fall so my head ended up hitting the railing to the steps and I got a black eye from it.

"He turned me to face him and he pinned me to the ground and let up the binding spell. I called him some names and he slapped me. He said that I needed to be nicer to him because he had to put up with me for so long. Then he said that I should pack because we would be leaving to see a "friend" of his and that he would finally be free from me. Harry, I'm scared." She said as she finished.

I looked over to the adults to see how they were taking it. Lupin was shocked and as white as a ghost. Snape looked murderous.

"Harry? Say something, Harry. Let me know that you're still there." Harriet's voice called out from my wand.

"Uh, ok Harriet. Lupin and Snape's going to tell us what we are going to do. Right, Lu-" I stopped once my wand started shouting.

"Harriet? What are you doing? We need to leave, now! I thought I took your wand? Well, I'm taking it now." A voice that sounded a lot like Sirius's said. It couldn't be Sirius though. He encouraged us to use our wands. He would never take them away and he would never sound that harsh to us.

"No! It's my wand so I'm going to keep it, you-" Harriet couldn't finish because there was a loud sound that sounded a lot like skin slapping skin.

"What did I say about talking back to me you little-" And that's all we heard before the light on the tip of my wand turned off, signaling that the call ended.

I slowly put down my hand with my wand and let it hang limp by my side. Harriet just got hit again and I'm not there to protect her. She didn't want to separate. It's all my fault. "We have to go get her! Something's obviously wrong with Sirius. He would never normally act like that." I said as I started to pace. We needed to go get her!

"Harry, I think that Sirius is either under the imperious curse or is someone pretending to be him and is using polyjuice potion. By the time we get there, they will already be gone." Lupin slowly said to me, trying to calm me down.

"We can still try! She's my sister! I can't let anything happen to her! I-I couldn't live with myself if anything really bad happened to her." I ranted. I wasn't going to stop until we got her.

"Potter. Sit down. We need to think of a plan." Snape snapped at me. I finally sat after Snape gave me the harshest glare he could. "Sirius is obviously either under the imperious curse or someone is pretending to be him by using polyjuice potion, like Lupin said. I have a feeling I know who he is taking her to and they wouldn't do anything to her, yet. I will be able to find out soon, however."

"Who do you think he is taking her to?" I asked with dread. Please don't say it. Please don't say it.

"I believe that he is taking her to the Dark Lord. If he is, the Dark Lord will be calling all of his Death Eaters-" He stopped to wince. "Like he is now."

I was thinking about making Harriet a Hufflepuff. She is based off of me greatly and I happen to be a Hufflepuff. I'm not for sure though because I don't think that she would have reacted so badly at the thought of being separated from Harry.