It's one week to the Christmas break, and I'm sitting here with my PC and my new book. Not wanting to read the last two fairytales yet. It's so sad to finish another Rowling books, and the Tales of Beedle the Bard is an excellent book! I'm surfing the PC, without internet! What do I do then? I write… It's such a long time since last time. (I only write in holidays though. Last time it was the Autumn break.)

By the by, readers. I'm soooo sorry that there are breaks hither and thither in the story, but it suits me well…. I can't remember how many Christmas breaks I've written about, but at least I can say that I've never written about Easter before! (Right?)

----- This top part was written during the Christmas break, now it's Easter. Serisously. Time is flying away from me. Like the Ticking Crocodile of Peter Pan!!

My hand aches like hell (too much PC typing and piano playing I guess…), but since I got a lot of reviews from bill560682 I'm going to update!!

(See… reviews do help me! I haven't written for months but a bunch of reviews set me going. I'm going to fix this mess of a fic, just you wait and see!)

Chapter 11- A Black melody

James panicked. Of course he panicked. Tell me… if you'd been in his situation what would you've done? You can't blame him right? This was not a proud moment for poor James, but as he looked at all the Death Eaters he realised the wisest thing would be to get away.

He ran down the hall and rushed into a room. Luckily there was a fireplace, or this could've been the last thing James Potter had ever done. With floo-powder in his hand, he yelled the first place he could think of: "Grimaulds place 12!"


Lily wasn't serious about loving Regulus (the truth is that she simply couldn't sort out her feelings). She just wanted to help him, but to get her friend understand that she had to tell her it was love. Sometimes Mary didn't understand anything else than love.

This was more like loving a little brother.

She couldn't just visit him at home but she could at least talk to him, right?


James was trembling as he entered the kitchen in Sirius' parents' house. He had been surprised, but now he was starting to gain his old self back. "Pøh, I could've fought those easily, it was just too surprising, that's all!" he said out loud.

"Did anything happen?" asked a familiar voice. Slippery and pure evil. It was Snivelus Snape, sitting there, grinning. "This is your fault, you grease ball," James yelled at him. "There was no object of yours in that house!"

"Bravo, took you long enough to figure…" Snape said calmly. "But I'll warn you, Potter! I'll not let you near any pensive anytime soon," Snape laughed a little bit at this, and got to his feet. "I'll be leaving you. Black is upstairs talking to Tonks."

As he was about to leave the room he said: "I'll never let you go back. History will be changed and you will not marry Lily Evans, nor make my life a hell!" Then he left, and James was standing behind, biting his lip.


Harry Potter (A/N: somehow I just like looking at that name as a whole. It is just… such a good way of putting letters together!) had woken up, and had now very few bruises. Sirius, who somehow got out of most situations looking like he'd never been involved sat next to his bed.

"All right, mate?" he asked, and grinned. "I got a letter from my father though. My cousins are getting married this summer, so I'll have to go back to the lot with the Hairy Hearts!" (A/N: Look who's just read The Tales of Beedle the Bard!)

"I'm sorry Sirius, but you can come and visit me and my grandparents! You're always welcome!" Harry really wanted to see them again himself.


Lily wanted to learn more about Regulus Black. She thought for one second about asking Sirius. But then again, he could be such an idiot sometimes. But who else was there?

She'd been thinking about that for a while, until she realised that Sirius had one other relative at Hogwarts who was not so bad. Andromeda Black was a Ravenclaw, deeply in love with a muggle-born.

Surely, she'd want to help her cousin!

Lily had found her outside by the lake all alone one day. Perfect! Lily'd thought and had gone straight over to ask. At first she didn't want to tell her anything, but then…


After an evening consisting of eating sweets and playing exploding snap (and even some chess because Remus wanted to) they were all quite happy. Right now they were just talking (girls and pranks as main subjects….), and joking around.

Peter dragged forth a muggle device (imagine a gameboy or a PSP), and started playing. It wouldn't normally have worked at all around Hogwarts or anything, but Remus, who is, as we know, very smart, managed to make the potion that makes it work at Hogwarts. (A/N: It's complicated. I don't bother to explain, just visit JKR's site.)

Sirius had been fascinated from day one, but he didn't get the hang of it, even though he'd tried a couple of times. "Muggles are odd! Imagine throwing away all their life to play a stupid game where small people are running around beating others and taking money!"

"You're only irritated since you don't understand it. We can look through you, Sirius," Harry said. He was, after all, a little more used to muggle stuff than Sirius.

Sirius found his watch in his pocket and looked upon it, and then yawned, very dog-like. "It's getting late…" Remus was more interested in the device itself, than the actual time. "I simply love your watch, Padfoot."

Sirius gave a dog-like sound. "It has my family crest on it. Was given it by my grandfather Arcturus for Christmas some years ago."

"We'll think about something else for a while, mate," Harry said and switched quickly to Quidditch, and how the Magpies (A/N: my fav. British team! But I've got to stick to the Karasjok Kites in the Cups) had won over the Chudly canons Again, and that it wasn't very unexpected! (A/N: they never win anything after all:)

This cheered Sirius up, since Remus liked the Chudly canons, a lot, even though they always loose!


Lily and Andromeda sat down by the water and Lily tried to find the right words. "What… I mean… could you tell me a little bit more about your upbringing. I want to help Regulus Black out of his misery."

Andromeda was first taken back by Lily. She suddenly remembered something Sirius had told her about this girl. 'She sees something in everyone. She helps people who needs it, and has such an overwhelming kindness….'

"Well… there's not much to tell I'm afraid. You said you wanted to help Regulus? The thing is… Sirius managed to get out of it all. He was fed up with people telling him not to like this and to hate that. Some day it all turned around and he decided to become a Gryffindor.

Regulus was too afraid to do the same. He saw what had happened to Sirius when he returned from Hogwarts the first time, and he was scared. He actually told me all about it. So even though he wished he was all brave like Sirius he couldn't be so.

He has a kind hart too, and I told him that if he just tried to make friends with people and getting a life outside of home he could share the happiness that Sirius had found. One of the problems was that he's never managed to get friends easily.

Somehow… he always becomes arrogant and so on, though he doesn't mean it. Kind of difficult to explain, I'm sorry…" Andromeda smiled her sweetest smile at Lily. "I've got to go. Ted's here…" she got to her feet and said goodbye.

"Thank you!" Lily called after her.

This was interesting. A friend, huh?


James had returned to Hogwarts again, and was angry. Angry at Snape. Angry at Umbridge. "Die, Umbitch, die!" he called out. Suddenly someone had opened a shelf full of new, brightly glowing candles. Or was it even those muggle devices? Or a wand?

Anyways... something was lit inside his head, and he wanted to do something about this new idea. It was an idea to fight Umbridge away. He needed the Toad away so he could focus on Snivelus.

"Fred, George!" he called and told them all about his new idea.

"Don't let Hermione hear you. She'll expel you," they grinned. "It's settled then?" James asked. "Sure, we'll need some time to prepare. And you can't get Harry expelled. Think of something. It's not a trouble for us, we're seventh graders and won't need grades anyways."

James thought about this for a while. A way not to get caught. It'd be very hard indeed. A real challenge for the best prankster Hogwarts had ever seen!


Lily approached Regulus where he sat underneath the large tree in the school park and read a book. She didn't recognise the book, but from the black cover she understood that it couldn't be a very merry one.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?" she asked him.

He looked up. Such deep, black eyes. It was like staring down into the darkest ocean. Like getting lost in a forest. Those eyes that hid so many dark secrets, she just wished… "What do you want?" her thoughts were interrupted by his sharp, cold voice.

"I just wanted to talk to you. You… ehm… seemed so lonely."

He gave her a confused but determined look. There was something in his expression she couldn't quite put her finger on. "We're all lonely, Miss Evans. In one way or the other. Even my brother is lonely."

"Sirius? I couldn't imagine him being lonely for a second!" Lily exclaimed smiling by the mere thought of it.

"Then you're sadly mistaken. Even though we're not close I do understand him very well. He's lonely amongst his friends because they've got a proper, loving family. Unlike… us." He looked away, ashamed of saying these things.

"But, his friends do help him, right. Do you have any friends that are there for you?" Lily asked as careful as she could. Even so her question was met by a sudden reaction by Regulus. He jumped up from the ground, picked up his stuff and left.

"Wait! Please, Black, I didn't mean it like that."

He turned on his heels. "Then what did you mean Miss Evans? Do you say you didn't mean to insult me by insinuating I don't have any friends? Or was your real target just to get information out of me so you could get closer to my perfect brother?"

"Nothing of that sort, I just wanted to be your friend," Lily said helplessly.

"I don't need any friends. At least no one like you. A mudblood like you. A Gryffindor on top of it. Mingling with bloodtraitors! It's a disgrace to Hogwarts and to the entire magical world that people like you is permitted to learn magic. Filth like you, I wouldn't even manage to call you a lady. Pretending to care about others! Messing around in their life…."

He stopped and sighed. "I have nothing further to say. Goodbye Miss Evans!"


"James, I need to speak to you," Remus came up to talk to Harry. "and Sirius for that matter. He's involved too…" They walked out of the common room. "Have you seen him lately?" Remus asked.

"Actually, I was following his moves on the map. He's in the room of requirement. What he's doing there is beyond me." Harry said, placing a hand in his hair. "We'll go and find out," Remus smiled kindly.

Some people grin, while some people just smile. A grin is wider, brighter and more carefree. Maybe sometimes a little vicious. But smiles can also be happy, but they are, as far as a description goes, more sad, or comforting. These kind of smiles Remus Lupin possessed.

Harry was interrupted in his thoughts when they reached the hall on the eight floor. "I think I know what he wished for," Remus said and started walking, turning, walking, turning…

A door appeared and they went inside. "A piano?" Harry asked.

Remus turned towards him. "You didn't know Sirius played did you Harry?" he said. "No, I… wait a second. You called me Harry?" he stared at Remus for a moment. "Oh come on, I'm brighter than Sirius after all. Give me some credit."

"How long have you known?" Harry asked.

"I believe before Sirius ever realised. Though he's doglike, he doesn't rely much on smelling. I do." Remus smiled at him. One of those half happy, half sad smiles.

They were walking towards a grand piano. Sirius was playing very passionately, and didn't seem to have noticed them. "What are you playing?" Remus asked. Sirius just continued on the sad piece, but spoke: "It's called Kiss the Rain and is written by a Korean composer and pianist called Yiruma."

The sad, but beautiful song got to an end and Sirius turned. "I may not know much about muggles but their music I know a little of," he smiled. "And no, Remus I do not rely on my sense of smelling. However I'm quite proud of my ears."

"You heard everything then?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, and it didn't surprise me you know it all, Moony. You're a very smart boy." Sirius grinned.


James sat punching a chair thinking about Snape. Oh, how he hated him! He was trying to come up with some great plan to sneak murder him, but seeing as he was a teacher now it would be very hard. When he came back to his own time he would…

He punched the chair extra hard again. He sighed heavily and lay down on one of the sofas next to Fred and Geroge.

"Now why no one has ever mass murdered the Slytherins is beyond me. It's not like it would be hard to do at all! You sneak into their common room late at night and put silencing spells around their beds and then murder them.

Then you drag their bodies into the common room and stage an internal house war. And make sure you use the dead student's wands to cover the room in spell fire.

Then you just have to clean up the dorms and have someone erase your memory of the fact you killed them and you get away with murder!" James cried out. (All credits to my fantastic reviewer: bill560682)

All this James said without even breathing once.

"He's gone mental, right?" Fred and George asked each other.


Later that evening after everyone else had gone to bed Lily just couldn't sleep. Her attempt to talk to Regulus and become his friend had turned out so very wrong. She had touched some nerves she shouldn't have touched and she knew that, but…

Those words!

She gave up trying to sleep and went down into the common room. She cuddled up into the chair in front of the fire and started to cry. She was sobbing louder than she should in the silence, and that was probably why she didn't notice the other person in the room.

"Why're you crying?" someone asked.

She jumped out and met Harry's green eyes, the ones that so perfectly mirrored her own. "What're you..?"

"Lily, why are you crying?" Harry asked again. He wanted to know. He sat down next to her in the large chair. "You can tell me, Lily. I'm not a bad guy like you think I am." He started playing lovingly with her hair.

Lily choked out: "I just wanted to help!" and then she placed her head on Harry's shoulder and started to cry again. He didn't know why she cried, but he liked to sit there and comfort her, even though the scene was very upside-down.

When should a son ever hold around his dead mother and comfort her?

Right, so I promissed didn't I?

Well... a new chapter. Originally I wanted to post yesterday evening, but it didn't work for some reason. Some problems on FF i guess. So I posted now in my French lesson.

So long,

The Artful Fox

Padfoot

JRL