"I bet you made a very adorable vampire, Nymmie!" crowed Sirius.

Remus smiled. "I am not taking you up on a bet that I know I have already lost." He said. That made me blush; I wasn't used to this type of banter.

Sirius' face suddenly sobered. "I remember this day," he said quietly.

I really wanted to hug him or tell him that what happened that night wasn't his fault but I didn't know if he would accept that sort of thing from me. I mean, I'm his baby cousin who he barely knows and remembers.

"Why don't you continue on with that night, Nymphadora?" Remus suggested, looking worriedly at his best mate.

I nodded quickly, eager to move onto happier topics.

"Well, it must've been soon after you left me and dad came back…"


Date: 31st October 1981

Ted had swung Dora onto his shoulders as they plodded slowly back to the house, all excitement for Halloween had more or less vanished and now the eight year old was tired out.

"Did you have fun, Dora?" Ted asked, hoping his daughter was not asleep; he did not want to be scolded by his wife in front of his daughter, again.

"Mmm, yeah. Loads 'a sweets," replied Dora through a jaw breaking yawn.

Ted chuckled, "We'll have to hide them from mum,"

Dora nodded, just wanting to sleep now. They slowly approached the house, all the lights were on.

"What the?" muttered Ted, shifting Dora so he was carrying her in his arms.

"What's the matter, papa?" asked Dora worriedly, all sorts of creepy things happened on Halloween night or so she'd been told.

Ted just shook his head at her and quickened his pace. He set Dora down on the ground when they reached the gate. Andromeda met them at the door.

"Oh, Dora! Ted!" she cried out, hugging each of them in turn.

Dora was incredibly confused, why was mum greeting them as if they'd disappeared for years and years?

"Ted, Sirius came by and he was acting very strange. You should've heard what he said to me," babbled Andromeda, more or less dragging the two of them into the warmth of the house.

Dora noticed that there were cleaning supplies all over the place and the floor was shining as if it had just been washed. There was a lemony bleach scent lingering in the air. Dora wrinkled up her nose and sneezed, the clean smell made her nose itch. The sneeze made her lose concentration and her appearance turned back to normal, Dora was too tired to add more colour to her hair.

"What's with all of this?" asked Ted, waving his hand around the very clean area. Dora did not see her wellies at the foot of the stairs, mum must have moved them back upstairs which Dora thought was quite pointless considering that she would need them tomorrow.

"I needed something to take my mind off things," explained Andromeda. What on earth was she talking about?

"Off what?" asked Ted curiously, only a couple of things set Andromeda off like this; tests, her family and hospital appointments being a few of them.

Andromeda gave a pointed look towards Dora.

Ted suddenly clapped his hands and announced, "Time for bed, Dora! Go get into your pyjamas and I'll come up to tuck you in a bit, little bloodsucker." He gave her a nudge towards the stairs.

Dora ran up the stairs and bounced onto her bed so her parents would think she was doing as she was told. When she heard movement from below her (her room was above the living room) she crept down the stairs, praying that they wouldn't creak or groan (She didn't fall once, aren't you proud?). Noticing that the door was open just enough so that she could hear their voices she settled herself on the stairs to eavesdrop.

"..Sirius, he was here..."

"...when? Why didn't he stay?"

"...know. He was awfully upset and..."

"..is a 'Wormtail'?"

"...do you know where James and Lily are? It sounded like they were in..."

"...disappeared of the face of the earth a few weeks back. No one knows..."

What on earth had got her parents so upset? Sirius was here? Dora felt extremely annoyed that he hadn't hung around to say hi to her. He was her most favourite person in the world and he didn't even wait to say hi! The big meanie!

Dora was really annoyed now. Her previously limp mousey brown hair was turning deep red I her annoyance. It wasn't fair! She wanted to stomp her feet but didn't want to draw attention to herself.

"What should we do, Ted?" asked Andromeda worriedly as her parents came out of the Living Room.

Ted had a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Nothing until tomorrow. We all need a good night's sleep," he said firmly.

Then, as luck would have it, both of them turned and immediately caught sight of her.

"Nymphadora!" exclaimed Andromeda and her face said that she was about to scold Dora but Ted put a stop to that before she could begin.

"Little girls need to be in bed," Ted told her and held her upside down so she shrieked. He soon held her the right way up again and she snuggled into him.

"Daddy, where's Siri?" she asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes

"Don't know, sweetheart," murmured Ted. "We'll figure this out tomorrow."


"So, did you have any idea what was going on?" asked Sirius after a moment's silence.

I looked sadly at him. "None at all," I replied. "But something didn't seem right. You always stayed and had a little chat with me no matter what. And mum and dad rarely worried for you."

We were all silent for a moment, each of us recounting our own memories of those two days.

"I didn't know you cared so much for me!" joked Sirius, as he always did to relieve tension.

I smiled widely at him, eager to cheer him up, "Of course! You were like an older brother to me!"

Remus coughed lightly, making me and Sirius jump. He was so quiet I had forgotten he was even there!

"What next?" he asked hesitantly.

I really did not want to recount this next memory. The whole Halloween of '81 was definitely something I wanted obliviated from my memory forever.