"Try again London. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and really concentrate. It will soon come to you," said Dumbledore quietly. London closed her eyes briefly and tried to collect herself before she opened them and tried again.

It had been six weeks since Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys had returned to Hogwarts and four since Mrs Weasley had returned to her own home. Kreacher had been found by Sirius in the last few days before the teenagers had left and everyone except for Harry and London was happy with the answer he gave Sirius as to why he disappeared.

Almost immediately after everyone had left Dumbledore had arrived to begin his private lessons with London. In that first lesson he had explained to her that it was important that she learnt to use her gift to the full extent that she could if she were to be safe from He Must Not Be Named.

The lessons turned out to be nothing like London had expected. Each week London was made to attempt to read the intentions of different animals. It had started with simple animals such as a snail, they were fairly boring as it turned out all they intended to do was eat and crawl back inside their shells, before moving on to slightly harder animals.

"It's just as if you're learning transfiguration. You cannot possibly begin to transfigure larger animals until you have mastered smaller ones," he had said when she asked why she couldn't just start with a harder animal.

"I think, um, I think that she's intending to scratch you," said London as she stared at the kitten she was attempting to read the intentions of. Today was their sixth lesson and after successfully reading the intentions of a snail, a mouse and a guinea pig, Dumbledore had decided that London was ready to read the intentions of her kitten Nala.

"Excellent. And when is she intending to scratch me?" London resumed her staring at Nala and attempted to find out when she was going to scratch Dumbledore.

"Um, she's only intending to scratch you if you attempt to touch her or pick you up. She's perfectly happy where she is." Dumbledore smiled.

"Now, shall we see if you are correct?"

"But, if I am then Nala will scratch you!" exclaimed London.

"It is a small price I'm willing to pay to discover if you can truly read the intentions of your kitten." London watched uneasily as Dumbledore made to pick up Nala. Almost as soon as his hands were in swiping distance Nala reached out with her tiny paw and scratched Dumbledore on the back of his hand.

"Ah, excellent," said Dumbledore as he pulled his hand away and used his wand to dry off the blood. "I am quite confident that you are able to read the intentions of small animals. Next week we shall attempt a larger animal, perhaps we should try Buckbeak?"

"Last time I was up there with Sirius I read Buckbeak's intentions. All he intends to do is eat and sleep, he doesn't even want to try and get out of that room in order to stretch his wings!" replied London.

"Well we'll see about next week then. Now, I must be off. Professor McGonagall will be expecting me. Good day London. No need to see me off."

"Good day Professor." Dumbledore smiled before leaving the spare room they were practising in. London walked over to Nala and reached down to pick her up.

"What do you think Nala? Should I tell Dumbledore that I've been reading Kreacher's intentions? Should I tell someone about what Kreacher's intending to do in a couple of months?" London looked at Nala. "Oh come on that's not fair!" Reading Nala's intentions she saw that the kitten was intending to fall asleep in London's arms. "I was talking to you!" London put Nala back down and left the room to find Sirius.

"How did your lesson go?" he asked when she found him in the kitchen.

"It was fine. I read Nala's intentions," she replied as she took a seat at the long table.

"Did Dumbledore say when you would be practicing on humans?" London shook her head.

"He said that it is almost impossible to practice on humans because you can't really wait and see if what I say comes true. Especially if what I read they aren't intending to act on for a year."

"That seems fair. Now come on, let's have some lunch."

The next few months passed and London mastered reading intentions a little more each week. She could now control how far into the future she wanted to look and she knew exactly how far she looked. Before, when she looked into the future there was a good chance that she didn't even know she was doing it.

As the end of the school year approached there was talk of London returning to live with her family over the summer. Although no one spoke of it around her, London was able to use her gift to find out.

The only thing that troubled her was Kreacher. The more skilled she got at reading intentions the clearer his intentions seemed to become. They hadn't changed from a few months ago when he had been discovered lurking about in the attic yet London still hadn't told anyone. There had been a few times when she had set out to tell Sirius, but she just couldn't bring herself to do so. She was too afraid that she would be in trouble for keeping it a secret this long.

'He'll never be able to pull it off,' she constantly thought to herself. Sirius continued to take no notice of Kreacher and London tried her best to ignore him, but as the day he intended to use drew closer she couldn't help but watch him closely.

"What are you doing Kreacher?" she asked one evening. Even as she said it she read his intentions carefully and saw that he was intending to injure one of Buckbeak's wings.

"Nothing young mistress. Kreacher is cleaning," he replied in his gravelly voice.

"No you're not. You're going to hurt Buckbeak!" she exclaimed. Kreacher looked up at her, his expression blank but not entirely unreadable. "If you take another step up those stairs I'm going to tell Sirius!" Kreacher smiled showing his blackened teeth.

"No you won't," he chuckled as he moved his foot to a higher step. "If you were going to tell Master you would have done so a long time ago. You're too scared to tell him." London continued to stare at him with what she hoped was a threatening stare but she knew he was speaking the truth. She wouldn't be telling Sirius about this. If he or anyone found out that she had kept this hidden she would be in big trouble.

"If I don't tell Sirius then I'll have to stop you myself!" she said fiercely, trying to stop her voice from shaking. Kreacher chuckled again although this time louder.

"No one can stop me! My Mistress commands me to do this and I must do as my Mistress commands!" Before waiting for an answer, Kreacher turned and ran up the rest of the stairs to Buckbeak. London remained where she was; shock filled every bone in her body. She couldn't understand why he had been able to read her so well; after all she was the one with the gift, not him.

Shaking slightly she turned and made her way down to her bedroom. If what she had read in Kreacher's intentions was to happen tomorrow then it was looking like it would be a long day, and she wanted to be plenty rested for it.

The next morning London woke up to the feeling of guilt in her stomach. She knew what was coming; she just really hoped that she was wrong. She got out of bed slowly, as everything she did seemed to take just that little bit longer with the guilt in her stomach feeling like she had swallowed a huge weight. As she got dressed she spotted the locket her family had given her sitting on her nightstand. She grabbed it and fastened it around her neck. If ever there was a day for a good luck charm this would be it.

As she made her way down to the kitchen she looked around for Kreacher but he was nowhere to be seen. This didn't help the guilt in her stomach. If anything it made it worse as it added nerves to the weight.

"Morning London!" said Sirius in a cheerful voice as she entered the kitchen. She gave him a small smile in return before sitting at the table with her arms around her stomach. "Would you like some breakfast?" She shook her head, her stomach doing too many knots to bother putting any food in it. "You don't look good. Do you feel sick?" he asked as he reached across the table to feel her forehead.

London pulled away from his hand and shook her head. Sirius frowned but allowed her to sit in silence, instead focusing on the bag of dead rats and medical supplies he had in front of him.

"W-what's all that for?" asked London when she had found her voice.

"Buckbeak. He's hurt his wing so I'm going to spend the day trying to fix it. Would you like to help?" London stared at the bag of dead rats deep in thought. Spending time with Sirius and Buckbeak would mean that she wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Kreacher, and she wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to be around that many dead rats with her stomach doing somersaults.

"It's okay if you don't; I just thought you might like to help him out." London's gaze moved from the bag of rats to look at Sirius. 'Maybe it would be better to spend time with Sirius, at least for now,' she thought to herself as thoughts of Kreacher's plans circle around in her head.

"Okay, I'll come up and help you." Sirius smiled and gestured up the stairs with the hand not clutching the bag of rats. London stood up and began to follow him up to Buckbeak's room. On the way she kept her eye out for Kreacher, waiting for him to make his next move. She didn't see him and by the time they reached Buckbeak she felt uneasy by his absence.

"Just be careful. Let me go in first to calm him down. Do you remember how to approach a hippogriff?" asked Sirius as he opened the door a crack. London nodded. This wasn't the first time she had come to Buckbeak with Sirius. Sirius opened the door all the way and stared at Buckbeak. He bowed deeply and Buckbeak bowed his head in return. London did the same thing and was met with the same greeting. Both Sirius and London crept into the room and stood beside Buckbeak.

"Do you think you'll be able to handle the rats?" asked Sirius.

"Um-"

"It's okay if you can't," said Sirius quickly. "It's just it would easier to examine his wing if he was distracted by the rats. Do you think you can do it?" London stared at Buckbeak and concentrated on reading his intentions. She was hoping to find that he intended to stay still for Sirius as he examined the damage done to his wing, but that didn't appear to be the case.

"I can do it," she replied quietly. Sirius smiled and handed her the bag of rats. London took them and sat down in front of Buckbeak. Almost immediately he lifted his head and leaned in towards her. London giggled. "You can smell these can't you?" As Sirius began to examine the wing she opened the bag and pulled out a dead rat. She fed it to him and giggled at how he ate.

"How bad is it?" she asked as she fed Buckbeak another dead rat.

"It's not good," replied Sirius as Buckbeak gave a small squawk in pain. "But it's definitely fixable. By this evening Buckbeak should be as good as new."

The two of them spent the rest of the day up with Buckbeak. Sirius was bandaging his wing and London was distracting him by feeding him dead rats. By the time the bag was empty Sirius was done.

"There we are, good as new!" he said happily as he stepped back to admire his handiwork. Buckbeak turned his head to inspect the bandage on his wing. He snapped at it and tried to get it off but it was no use, Sirius had tied it on too tightly. "He won't be getting that one off until I take it off." London smiled. She was glad that they had helped Buckbeak out with his wing. "Come on, we're going down to the kitchen for some dinner."

"How can you be hungry?" asked London in disbelief as the two of them began making their way down the stairs.

"Maybe because we missed lunch?" replied Sirius.

"No, I mean because we spent the whole day around dead rats and a lot of blood."

"Iron stomach I guess." As they reached the kitchen they heard the front door open above them. "Oh good, they're here," said Sirius in relief.

"Who's here?" asked London. She didn't remember Sirius telling her anything about them having visitors.

"Mad-Eye, Tonks, Lupin and Kingsley. Didn't I tell you they'd be coming over?" London shook her head. "Oh, well they are." London rolled her eyes and sat down at the table, grabbing the book she had left there last night. If adults were coming over that would mean they would want to spend the whole time talking and would leave her out.

"Hello London," said Lupin as he took the seat across from her.

"Hi," she replied quietly.

"Come on," said Moody gruffly, "we haven't got a lot of time." The adults settled down and began talking while London immersed herself in her book. It wasn't long though before a bright silver light caused her to look up.

"What is that?" she asked loudly.

"Quiet London! We need to hear what it's saying," said Sirius quickly. London put down her book and continued to stare at it. It was large and appeared to have taken the shape of a doe. It was bright and was emitting a sort of silver light.

"The Dark Lord has planted an image in Potter's mind. He intends to fly to the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius from Death Eaters," said a voice that London recognised but couldn't quite figure out whose it was. The doe disappeared and the adults all stood up and began talking quickly.

"No Sirius," said Lupin forcefully. "If Harry believes that you are trapped there then you mustn't go. We need to show him that these visions aren't real."

"He's my Godson!" exclaimed Sirius angrily.

"I know and I promise we will bring him back in one piece." Sirius said nothing and simply watched as Lupin, Tonks, Kingsley and Mad-Eye disappeared with a loud crack. As soon as they were gone Sirius turned to London, a look of urgency in his eyes.

"London, listen carefully. I-"

"You're going to follow them!" she cried.

"Yes-"

"But you can't! If you follow them then it'll happen!"

"Then what will happen?" London opened her mouth to reveal all about Kreacher but she stopped herself at the last second. Even now she couldn't tell him for fear of being in trouble. "London?"

"I- don't know! I just don't want anyone to get hurt!"

"Listen, I need you to stay here and tell Dumbledore everything okay? When he gets here you need to tell him everything. Do you understand?" London said nothing and just stared at him. "For goodness sake, KREACHER!" he bellowed. There was another loud crack and Kreacher appeared beside him.

"Yes Master?" London fixed Kreacher with a nasty stare, hoping to make him uncomfortable enough to tell the truth.

"Kreacher when Dumbledore gets here you need to tell him everything understand? Everything!"

"Yes Master, Kreacher will tell Dumbledore everything." Sirius nodded before turning back to London who tore her gaze away from Kreacher to look at him.

"Promise me that you'll stay here okay? Promise me you'll do what I asked you to do?"

"Why'd you ask Kreacher to do it?" Sirius hesitated.

"Just in case-"

"In case of what? You don't trust me do you? All because I'm only ten!" she cried.

"No! London we're wasting time. I have to go. Just promise me!"

"FINE! I promise!" Sirius nodded and turned on the spot to apparate, hoping that London would be able to tell Dumbledore, but as he vanished into the crushing darkness he felt a small hand close over around his arm. He wasn't making this journey alone.