disclaimer: HP and it's characters are not mine, just Kaysa, Chitral and a few others by necessity

A/N: hey, so I'm really sorry this took so long to get up. First my computer broke so I couldn't work on it and then I had exams plus tons of homework. but I've been working on it when I can and so here's the next chapter! also you should know that I feel that this is going to be a pretty long chapter so I'm just going to post it in sections so I don't overwhelm you with length or whatever (I've heard that can be a problem sometimes…). Anyway, here's what I have so far. Please read, enjoy, and let me know what you think ^^

Christmas

(Plots)

"Oh, come on, Kaysa. This should be the easiest assignment in the world for you. What do you need it looked over for?"

"You know I can't risk having any of my people's knowledge in there! I have to make sure this is one hundred percent wizard's stuff."

"Okay, fine. I'll look this over, you go practice. Here, turn these buttons into beetles."

"Slave driver," Kaysa muttered mutinously. "Does he do this to you too?"

Sirius, for whom the question was meant, sniffed primly.

"I do not need tutoring," he informed her loftily. "I get excellent grades." Then he ducked fast as Kaysa took a swipe at him. Kaysa pulled out her wand and brandished it at him.

"Are you offering me cheek, Sirius Black?" she demanded.

"Nah, I'm just giving it," said Sirius, laughing. He knew she would never actually hurt him. In the last month and a half, as he'd gotten to know her better and better, somewhere along the line, she'd gone from being the pretty, untouchable girl he daydreamed about to the quick-tempered, playful girl he considered to be a true friend. He wasn't quite sure when this change in his feelings had occurred, but he was glad about it. It made things much easier. And besides, he liked being her friend. It meant he got to do things like this:

Swiftly, he reached out a hand and snatched her wand away from her. Kaysa made a strange noise like a squawk and leapt at him. Sirius jumped up onto the table, pulling out his own wand and muttering, "Wingardium Leviosar." As Kaysa vaulted up beside him, he sent her wand up and out to hover just a few feet beyond her reach. She leapt, reaching for it only to land on the floor again as Sirius twitched his hand. She leapt again, her hands stretching up futilely.

James was laughing. Remus and Peter, distracted from their own homework, cheered, telling Kaysa to try harder or Sirius to make her jump higher. Chitral, sitting by the fire with a book open on her lap, laughed too at first, but then started watching the wand intently as Sirius made it jump about in the air. Sirius grinned; they'd discovered this game a week ago when James, bored of homework, had made the quill Remus had been using fly out of his hand and zoom around the common room. As it had zoomed by Kaysa's head however, she'd looked up, watched for a second, and then pounced, pinning the quill to the ground as it came by her a second time. She hadn't even really been aware of what she was doing. It was instinctual, she'd told them later, after all, she was a cat at heart.

Now, as Sirius floated Kaysa's wand up all the way to the ceiling, Kaysa invented a new way to play. Evidently fed up with chasing the wand, she jumped on Sirius instead, knocking him off the table and onto the floor where she wrestled his wand away and summoned hers back.

"Get off, would ya?" said Sirius, sprawled on his belly with Kaysa sitting on his back. "This is not comfortable."

"Are you saying I weigh too much?" Kaysa demanded, thwacking him on the head with his own wand.

"Ouch! No," said Sirius, "but your arse sure is bony. Get off!"

Instead, she somehow managed to sit even harder on him. His breath went out of him with a WHUFF.

"Help me with Transfiguration?" she asked sweetly.

"Yeah, okay, okay. Can't. Breath. Kays." She got off and he gasped in air for dramatic effect. Kaysa snorted and told him he was pathetic. He just laughed.

"I still get better grades than you," he teased.

"Hmph," said Kaysa, "Only because you don't know a shit-ton of other stuff that keeps getting in the way."

"Kaysa!" Chitral protested. "Language. Their ears are burning."

"Oh la," said Kaysa, "Like they haven't heard worse."

"Yeah," agreed James, "and mostly from you."

Sirius grinned as he went to sit and watch Kaysa practice transfiguring buttons and help if he could. Kaysa did swear a lot sometimes. It was only sometimes, though, because most of the time her now very extensive vocabulary usually sufficed. Her frustration with her inability to manage transfiguration, however, was one of the few things were it either didn't suffice, or just wasn't satisfying enough. Watching her, Sirius sighed. It wasn't even as though she was doing anything discernibly wrong. Her pronunciation was good, her wand movements were fine too, she just didn't seem to be able to get out of her own way.

"You know," he said, as Kaysa concentrated on her buttons, "it is Professor McGonagall. You said she knows about you two. Why not just hand in an essay with some of your own people's views on things. It's not like she'd freak, and then maybe she could help you better."

"You're joking, right?" said Kaysa glowering at the buttons. "This is Professor McGonagall we're talking about. If I give her a paper that she not only can't make heads nor tails of, but isn't even on the assigned subject, she'll fail me. I'm supposed to be learning Transfiguration from her, not pointing out to her all the problems of shape-changing due to retained essences."

"Because of what?" said James, looking up.

"Retained essences," said Kaysa. "Take these buttons for example. They know they are buttons, that they're supposed to be buttons. Of course they don't want to be beetles. And I shouldn't make them be."

"But you can change your shape," Remus pointed out. "It doesn't seem to bother you."

"Yes, but we're born shapeshifters," said Chitral. "We're meant to be able to handle it. It's built in to our essences. And, Kaysa, you're getting too hung up on the details. It'd work if you'd just relax and let it."

"I've tried that, Little Miss This-Is-Just-How-It-Is-Here-So-It-Doesn't-Really-Matter," Kaysa snapped. "And it does matter and it doesn't work!"

"Well, keep trying anyway," said Chitral shrugging. Kaysa glared at her, but Chitral ignored her and turned to James. "Are you staying here for the holidays?" she asked.

"Staying?" echoed James. "Why would I be staying?"

"Oh," said Chitral quickly, "no reason, I guess. I just wondered…"

"Ha!" said Kaysa, still glowering at her pile of buttons. "She just hoped we'd finally have some company for once, that's all."

"What do you mean?" said James looking confused. "Don't you two go home for Christmas?"

"Of course not, numbskull," Kaysa snarled. "I mean, what would we say? 'Hi, everyone! We've just come from one of the restricted planets. We're on vacation just now and we have to go back soon but we'd thought we'd just pop in to say hello anyway!' Yeah right. That'd go over real well."

Sirius blinked and looked at James. His friend seemed equally taken aback by Kaysa's sudden anger.

"Oh, shut it, Kaysa! It's not his fault we can't go home," Chitral snapped. "We chose this, remember?"

"I know that!" Kaysa snapped right back, "I just didn't realize we'd be alone for all the major holidays, that's all!"

Sirius frowned. "You mean you stay here alone every year?"

Both girls nodded glumly.

"We can't risk going home," said Kaysa quietly. "If someone found out — guessed or something — we'd never be allowed to come back."

"But — but it's Christmas!" said Peter. He looked shocked. "It's a time for family."

"We know that," said Kaysa morosely. She seemed to have run out of anger. She plopped down on the floor by the table. Cahi, who seemed to swing back and forth between being the most well-behaved and the most independent two-month-old ever, yipped in distress and leapt off the table where she'd put him and into her lap. Kaysa trailed her fingers distractedly though his fur. "Our people have our own solstice festivities. But we can't go back."

"We haven't seen any of our family for the last two and a half years," added Chitral. "I haven't heard from my parents or my sister…"

Oh, thought Sirius, no wonder they were upset. Kaysa and Chitral didn't talk about home a whole lot, at least, not specifically, but they had explained about various parts of their culture and Sirius and his friends knew that for them — for their people — nothing in the world was as important as family.

"We don't even know if Takamburry got recruited by the military," said Kaysa.

"You have a military?" said Remus, sounding startled.

"Not much of one," said Kaysa, momentarily distracted. "I mean, we're not supposed to interfere, but sometimes… Anyway, Takam was always a talented fighter."

"Yeah," said Chitral, "but I don't think war is in his personality."

"Mnh," mused Kaysa.

Sirius frowned, thinking. He wasn't exactly thrilled to go home for the holidays. In fact, these days, he wasn't actually thrilled to go home period. It meant dealing with his father's silent but oppressive disapproval (at least, whenever the man was home) as well as his mother's, which was much more vocal. Going home meant being a disappointment.

"I'll stay," he said.

"What?" said Chitral, looking at him. "Don't you want to spend time with your family?"

"Yeah, you don't have to," said Kaysa.

"I don't mind," said Sirius. "It'll be better than spending the entire holiday with my kid brother."

"What, Regulus?" said Chitral, "But he's cute."

"He's a twerp," said Sirius. "And he's a Slytherin. Seriously, I don't mind. I'd love to stay. We'll have fun."

"I'll stay too," Peter said suddenly. "My mom and my grandmother keep trying to teach me things like cooking and knitting. I'd rather stay here than deal with that."

"Well, I can't let you two have all the fun," said James. "I'll write home and see if I can stay too. We'll have the whole common room to ourselves, you realize that? Practically the whole castle! Just think what we could do!"

"Yeah!" said Sirius, catching James's enthusiasm. "What about you, Remus?"

"You guys, you don't have to do this," Kaysa protested. "We'll be fine. Really. Go spend time with your families." But James had now found his next great ambition.

"No way!" he said. "We could have so much fun. We could find all the secret passageways and maybe sneak into some of the other House's common rooms…"

"We could set up traps for returning students!" suggested Sirius eagerly. "And who knows? Maybe some of the teachers go home for the holidays. Maybe we could check out their offices or something."

"Oh dear," said Remus, raising his eyebrows. "Well, if you're already planning such things, I guess I'd better stay. Someone needs to keep you from getting into too much trouble."

"But—" started Chitral.

"Guys—" Kaysa tried again.

"Nuh-uh," said James, shaking a finger at them both. "We've decided. We're staying!"

Kaysa and Chitral exchanged a look.

"Okay, I guess," Kaysa muttered, looking at the floor. "If that's what you want…"

"Thanks, guys," said Chitral quietly. "We really appreciate it."

Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter all smiled.

"Hey, we're friends, right?" said James.

Convincing their parents was pretty easy, really. All any of them had to do was write home and either make some excuse or else just explain that they wanted to stay and keep some friends who couldn't go home this time company. All except Sirius, anyway. He suspected that his parents probably wouldn't mind not having him at home for the holidays, but just in case he wasn't about to give them the option of not giving permission so he didn't bother asking for it. Instead he simply wrote home informing them that he was staying at Hogwarts and he'd see them the coming summer. Neither Kaysa nor Chitral really said much on the subject, but Sirius could tell that they were touched. They also seemed surprised which made Sirius wonder just how important family was in their culture. After all, to him it didn't seem so strange to spend the holidays with friends instead of family. It wasn't that family wasn't important, but friends were important too. There again though, he supposed he might be somewhat more lax about it given his own home situation. Even so, though, it was something to think about.

James was excited. In fact, Sirius didn't think he'd seen his friend this excited about anything since that time in first year when they'd been planning to sneak into the Forbidden Forest. His excitement was catching too. There were still a few days til the holidays began but for Sirius and the others, they couldn't come fast enough. They couldn't wait to have the whole castle practically to themselves.

Kaysa wanted to play Sardines. James protested that this would be unfair; Peter would always find the best hiding spots. Sirius liked Chitral's idea about making the castle grounds into a kind of obstacle course for broomsticks, so did James and Kaysa, but they both thought that doing it outside would be too easy so why not do it inside. Remus tried to argue that this would get them into way too much trouble, but by that time, the others were far too taken with the idea so the indoor flying obstacle course race had made the list of things almost certain to happen. So had a trip to Hogsmeade, though they weren't sure yet if they would be able to get permission to go or if they would have to sneak out somehow. This presented them with something of a problem because none of the boys, not even Peter, knew of a way to do this and they wanted it to be a surprise for the girls.

"There must be a way," James insisted the evening before break began. Kaysa and Chitral were spending their time with Lily and Heather since they wouldn't see them for about three weeks. "I mean, there's a tunnel to the Shrieking Shack, right?"

"Well, yes," said Remus dubiously, "but the whole point of the Shrieking Shack is that that tunnel is the only way in or out. It's not really going to help us any, is it?"

"Well, no, not that one specifically," said James, "but I meant if there's that tunnel then there ought to be others, right?"

"Don't be thick, James," said Sirius, rolling his eyes. "Remus means that the tunnel was built special. That means that there's no guarantee of there being any secret ways into the village. Right, Remus?"

Remus nodded and James groaned slightly.

"Oh, come on, don't be such kill-joys," he chided them. "This castle is full of secret passages and stuff. There's bound to be a way into Hogsmeade, we just have to find it, that's all. Anyway, we have to find a way. I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet."

"True," mumble Sirius around a mouthful of roast chicken. The one down side to staying was that, since none of them had planned ahead for it, none of them had done any shopping yet, having just assumed they would have time at home. Now they weren't going home and were faced with the prospect of having to make their own time for shopping. But Sirius had another reason for wanting to find a way into Hogsmeade. Kaysa had mentioned at some point that, while her people did have a winter solstice holiday, they did not have a New Years celebration of any kind. She and Chitral had never celebrated New Years before, not even here. As far as Sirius was concerned this was a travesty in need of immediate remedy. Which is to say it was the perfect excuse to set off a boatload of fireworks. And he could only get said boatload of fireworks in Hogsmeade. Well, he'd better just hope that James was right, was all then.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"I can't wait to see Tuney! I wonder if she's learning as much fun stuff as we are. I mean, she always complains about school and all, but if I ask right she's usually happy to show off what she knows so it can't be that bad, right?"

Kaysa chuckled. She and Chitral were sprawled out on Lily's bed while Lily and Heather all packed up for the holidays. Lily seemed both eager and nervous about going home again, a side effect, Kaysa supposed, of being the only magic-user in a family.

"Oh?" said Heather, flinging clothes randomly into her trunk. "I thought you two were on the outs again."

"Huh?" said Chitral frowning. Kaysa frowned too; why would the two be fighting? Lily talked about her sister all the time.

Lily sighed. "She hates me because I'm a witch," she said, tracing a finger around the binding of A Standard Book of Spells, Grade Three. "But she's my sister. She's got to let it go eventually. We used to share everything."

"Oh," said Kaysa quietly, understanding. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be silly, it's not your fault," said Lily, startled. "Anyway, I'll keep trying. We're family after all. She can't possible hold it against me forever, right?"

"Right," said Heather quickly, smiling encouragingly at Lily. "I mean, my brother and I fight all the time but we always make up eventually."

"Yeah," said Kaysa slowly, not wanting to upset her friend, but also not wanting her to get false hope, "but if she's really jealous, well, it might take a while, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess," said Lily, her brows knitting, then she smiled and shrugged. "Oh well. I can wait. And I will keep trying. Like I said, she's family. Anyway, what about you two? What are you doing for Christmas?"

"Oh, we're staying here," said Chitral. "Our homes are too far away for us to go back."

"What? Really?" Lily seemed surprised by this. Kaysa wondered if maybe they should have asked the boys for help coming up with excuses, but there hadn't really been time and anyway, they hadn't thought of it. "Why didn't you say something? I could have asked my parents if you could come stay with us."

"Oh," said Kaysa. Now it was her turn to be surprised. "Well, um, thanks. I guess. Um, I didn't even think of that, I suppose. But I wouldn't want to intrude anyway. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine."

"Yeah, and besides, we're not the only ones staying here this year," Chitral put in.

"Really?" said Lily. "Who else is staying?"

Chitral opened her mouth, but Kaysa deliberately moved to jostle her. It wasn't that it really mattered or anything, but their friendship with James and Sirius and crowd was still a minor point of contention with Lily, who just couldn't understand why they would want to hang out with such arrogant jerks, and Kaysa really didn't feel like getting into another almost argument about it just now.

"Oh, just a few here and there," she said, ignoring the look Chitral shot her.

You did that on purpose! her cousin accused silently.

Of course I did, Kaysa replied. You know how she feels about the boys. Why start it up again?

"Some from our house, I think," she said out loud, "and then I think a few Ravenclaws and maybe an older Hufflepuff or two? I'm not really sure. But we'll be fine, I promise."

Lily frowned at them for a moment, then said, "Okay, if you're sure. But if you ever want to come stay with me just let me know. I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind."

Between you and me, Chitral sent, I'd sooner just ask James or Remus, you know?

Yeah, Kaysa replied with a mental sort of snort, because that would just be so appropriate, us girls staying over at a boy's house.

Ha! Chitral retorted. What do you care? We used to stay over at Wolf and Sierra's all the time!

That was at home, Kaysa pointed out. Besides, I didn't mean me, I meant their parents.

Oh yeah…

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Ah, freedom! Feels so good."

Sirius grinned across the table at James. It was their first day of vacation and they were eating breakfast at eleven thirty.

"Sure does," he agreed snagging a few more pieces of bacon. A soft whine and a small paw on his leg made him look down. Cahiran looked back up at him with soulful brown eyes. Rolling his own eyes, Sirius tore off a small piece of bacon and offered it to the young kitsune, who wolfed it down happily.

"Don't do that!" Kaysa scolded from beside James. "Honestly, it's no wonder I can't get him to stop begging what with you lot always feeding him."

"Oh, lay off, Kaysa," said James as Cahi trotted over to him beneath the table and made puppy-dog eyes at him next. "I mean, he doesn't bite anymore and he's all house-trained and all so what's the problem? Besides," he added, slipping the kit some of his own food, "who could resist this face?"

Chitral giggled as Kaysa frowned. "He is pretty cute still," she said, reaching over to scratch Cahi's head. Kaysa sighed.

"It's rude, that's the problem," she said grabbing her charge with one hand and placing him on the bench in between her and James. "If I don't teach him manners now it'll just get worse. Now stop that," she added, eyeing the kitsune sternly. "It's not like I don't feed you, you know. Actually, you probably eat better than any others of your kind. You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

Cahi looked from her face to her plate and back again. Kaysa narrowed her eyes at him. Evidently realizing that this was not an issue up for discussion the kitsune yawned and settled down on the bench, curling his tails around his nose.

"Babies," Kaysa muttered, turning back to her breakfast.

"He's getting pretty big for a baby," Sirius commented. It was true too; Cahiran was now about three months old and he had gone from being about the size of a kitten to something more like a small adult cat or a rather large and long-legged Chihuahua, though he hadn't quite reached the awkward adolescent stage yet.

"How big is he going to get?" asked Remus curiously.

"Honestly, I don't know," Kaysa replied. "Kettleburn says they tend to be bigger than normal foxes, but I'm not sure by how much."

"Guess we'll just have to wait and see," said Chitral. "Anyway, what's on for today? Christmas is only a week away and I need to do some shopping."

"Yeah, us too," said Peter, "But we don't know how to get to the village — not without permission, anyway."

"What? Seriously?" said Kaysa, looking around at them all. "You mean you haven't found it yet?"

"Found what?" asked Remus.

"Oh my gosh," said Kaysa; she sounded weirdly excited about something. "I can't believe this. You guys seriously haven't — I mean —"

"Hey!" snapped James, "Stop gloating. If you know a way into Hogsmeade then just say so already."

"Wait, what? You guys have a way in? And you never told us?" said Sirius indignantly; he was mildly offended by this.

"We assumed you'd know," Chitral explained as Kaysa grinned hugely. "There's a tunnel that leads to the basement of Honeydukes. It's —"

"Chitral!" Kaysa protested, "Can't you at least let me savor the moment a little? I mean, how often is there anything we know about this place that they don't?"

Chitral rolled her eyes. "James is right, you gloat too much. It's hidden in that statue of Gunhilda of Gorsemoor."

"Who?" said James and Sirius together.

"Where?" Peter demanded. "How come I've never found it?"

"We can show you," said Chitral.

"You ruin my fun," said Kaysa, pouting theatrically.

"Oh quit complaining," said Chitral snatching the last piece of bacon before James could grab it. "We've got weeks of fun ahead of us. You can manage."

"Hey! I was going to eat that," said James, meaning the bacon. Chitral just stuck her tongue out at him before stuffing the bacon into her mouth, crunching loudly.

"Consider it payment for showing you the way to Hogsmeade," she said grinning.

"Hmph!" said James. "Kaysa's not the only one who gloats too much."

Chitral made a noise of indignation but Kaysa just laughed.

"Well she is my cousin," she said. "What do you expect? Anyway, you guys can help us out with the statue. We've only ever used that passage coming back so we don't know how to open it from this end. Probably a password of some kind, but for that we'd more familiarity with your languages."

"Yeah, okay," said James agreeably, scanning the table to see if there was any bacon left hiding somewhere.

"Wait a minute," said Remus, looking puzzled. "If you've only ever used this tunnel coming back, then, well, I mean how does that work? What's the point? And wouldn't Filch notice if you left and didn't come back?"

"Probably, but we just use it for bringing stuff back to the castle that he probably wouldn't allow us to have if he knew," Chitral explained. "We'd both come through the tunnel with our booty during the Hogsmeade trips, then one of us would slip out and stash it back in Gryffindor tower. Then the other one of us would open the passage from the inside when whichever of us left came back. After that we would just have to get back to the village in time to come back the normal way with everyone else and Filch never noticed a thing."

All four boys stared her for a moment, stunned by this level of planning. Finally James said, "You know, you'd think we'd be getting used to this by now…"

"Used to what?" asked Kaysa, looking at him in confusion.

"You guys," said James. "The way your minds work — all twisty and stuff, you know?"

Kaysa and Chitral exchanged mystified glances then shrugged. Sirius rolled his eyes; the girls rarely seemed to understand that that level of thinking and planning wasn't really normal and he and his friends had mostly given up trying to explain it to them. Chalk it up to cultural differences.

"Whatever," he said. "Tell us about the entrance to this tunnel."

"Does it matter?" Chitral wanted to know. "I mean, it's an entrance. It opens, right?"

"Well, yes," said Remus, "but knowing how it works might help us to figure out the password. Like, if it just opens then we might just need a word that means 'open' or something simple like that, but if it goes up or down or something then we'd probably need something different."

"Hmm," Kaysa mused, "passwords as a function of logic. Sensible, but not very practical. Not if what you want is for the thing to stay secret, anyway. Shouldn't it be more arbitrary so it's harder to guess, like the passwords for getting into the common rooms?"

"Interesting point," said Remus. "I'd never thought of it that way." He frowned for a moment then shrugged. "I suppose for secret passageways it's different. I mean, they were probably originally built as emergency escape routes or something so I guess it makes sense that the passwords would be more logical. After all, what good is an escape route if you can't use it?"

"Hnh, I guess that makes sense," said Kaysa, her brows still furrowed. Beside her James snorted.

"You know, you get hung up on the weirdest things," he told her. "What does it matter if it makes sense or not? Just be glad we can probably figure it out."

"But it's interesting," Kaysa protested. "I can't help it."

"We've noticed," said Sirius with dry amusement as James and Peter both laughed. Kaysa's curiosity was one of her more annoying yet somehow endearing qualities, and, for all they teased her about it, Sirius didn't actually think he'd like it if she stopped asking so many questions. It seemed crucial to her essential Kaysaness, somehow.

Kaysa planted her hands on her hips and fixed him with a stern look. "Do you want us to show you this passage?" she demanded. "Or would you rather laugh some more at my expense?"

"Oh, come on, Kaysa," Sirius cajoled her, "You know we don't mean anything buy it."

Kaysa just glowered at him.

"Oh, shut up, Sirius," said Remus rolling his eyes. "You'll have to excuse him, Kaysa, he's an idiot. Please tell us about the tunnel."

"Yes, really, Sirius," said James, his hazel eyes dancing, "at least don't insult her til after we know how to get to Hogsmeade."

Kaysa smacked his shoulder, but she was laughing. "Honestly," she said. "Not a single gentleman among you! Ah well, can't have everything, I guess. And Gunhilda's that one-eyed witch on the third floor. Her hump opens into the passage. From this end you'd have to go down before you started walking."

"Oh," said Peter. "Well, that's why I haven't found it. That statue kind of creeps me out."

"I don't blame you," Chitral muttered. "She may only have the one eye, but it bloody well watches you."

Sirius laughed; the statue had never really bothered him much, but he knew what Chitral meant. Some paintings – normal ones that didn't actually move and watch you – seemed to always be looking at you. The one-eyed witch's statue was the same. No matter where you stood in that corridor you still felt like she could see you.

"Yeah, yeah," said James, "whatever. So, we have to go down then. Okay, Remus, you're the one's who's good at this sort of thing. Do you think you can do it cold or should we spend some time in the library reading up on spells or words for downward travel?"

"Uh, I'm not sure," said Remus, frowning thoughtfully. "Er —"

"Why not just ask a house elf or something?" asked Sirius. "They probably know stuff like that, right?" He was thinking of his family's own house elf, Kreature, who probably knew more about the Black family house than anyone.

"Don't be thick," said James. "Why would a house elf know about a secret passage into Hogsmeade?"

"Maybe one of the ghosts?" Peter suggested.

"No way," said Sirius, "One of them'd just tell on us."

"Hey, I never said I couldn't do it!" said Remus, looking slightly annoyed. "It just might take a bit, that's all."

"Oh, come on, you guys," said Kaysa, "What's wrong with being a little patient and just letting Remus do his research or whatever so we can figure it out? I mean, if it's for emergency use then it can't possibly be that difficult otherwise it wouldn't be functional as an escape route, would it?"

"Good point," said Remus, looking at her. "I hadn't thought of that. You like languages. Why don't you help me out; it might go faster that way."

"Yeah, okay," Kaysa agreed, smiling at Remus and taking a gulp of pumpkin juice. "Let's go. We'll find you all later in the common room, 'kay?"

Sirius shook his head after them. "What do you bet all she really does is bombard him with questions about Latin or something the whole time?" he said, laughing. James grinned.

"Probably," he conceded. "But it gets us out of helping. I don't really feel like looking up different verb forms today, do you?"

"Nope," said Sirius.

"So," said Peter hopefully, "anyone for Exploding Snap then?"

A/N: okay, so that's what i've got so far, i'll try not to take so long about posting the next section (i'm sorry, i'm sorry!) thanks for hanging with me!

~SilverKit'sFire