For the entire ride to Hogwarts neither James nor Lily came into the compartment again. We didn't see either of them until the feast that night when they took a seat TOGETHER across from Sirius and I. Maybe they worked things out. I hoped so. I didn't want to have to divide my time with Lily and Sirius. All the first years were sorted and then Dumbledore told us to eat. I wasn't hungry, I still had my headache from earlier. After everyone looked stuffed and bloated Dumbledore stood up and made a long speech. Lily left everyone to gather all the first years around to take them to the common room. I hung back with Sirius who had his arm around me.

"You're amazing." He said out of nowhere.

"Why is that?" I asked laughing at his sudden randomness.

"I just think you are so amazing. No girl has been able to captivate me like you do. I'm used to going out with a girl for a few weeks tops and then I get bored and its over. But I have never once felt bored with you." He said holding my hand.

"Is that why you said you loved me?" I asked. We were seriously lagging behind everyone.

"That… and because I have never felt such energy and electricity or even a type of force between me and anyone. I don't know, it seems like every time we kiss there is something pulling us together…. Don't you feel it." He asked me.

"Yeah…. I do feel it. But I thought I was the only one who felt it." I said laughing at the weirdness of it all. I did feel the force or whatever it was. Kind of like electricity surging through my body.

"Don't worry honey, your not the only one who feels it." He said and he stopped and pulled me close to him. He was a foot taller than me and I loved that. He bent down and kissed me on the lips and I felt the electricity go through me again. Leaving me breathless even though it was a soft small kiss.

"Keep going. No snogging in the halls." The Head Boy said. He was in Ravenclaw, I recognized him as one of Gideon's friends. I felt a pang of guilt when I thought of Gideon. I hadn't written to him at all this summer and I told him I would. He was sure to see me in the Great Hall with Sirius. And I was laughing and talking and Sirius' arm was around me. He probably knew, if not it would be awkward to talk to him.

I went straight to bed even though I wasn't tired. I wanted to talk to Lily and ask what was up. Were she and he together or were they at least on speaking terms? I hadn't seen her in the common room so I assumed that she was in the dorm either in bed or getting ready for bed. But when I got up there no one was in the dorm. Where was she? And what was she doing? I hadn't seen her leave the common room, I hadn't even seen her enter the common room come to think of it. She was probably talking to James or something, I told myself as I got into bed. I thought I wasn't sleepy but as soon as I got in bed I was asleep.

While I was dreaming I had a flash or a little boy who had the same eyes as Lily, and the same messed up hair as James. I had another vision of a little girl that had the same eyes as Sirius but looked like me when I was younger. There was also another two kids that I couldn't see clearly but I knew they were kids. I saw a flash of green light and a dozen people die. I saw a woman leaning over a grave crying. And I saw a group of people honoring a wall that had a bunch of names on it.

I woke up half asleep. I heard someone coming into the room. I opened my curtains and saw Lily getting into her bed. What time was it? I glanced at the clock. It was 3 in the morning.

"Lily? Where were you?" I whispered trying not to wake anyone up.

"I was… I had to… I was talking to Potter… er, I mean James." She said and she had a huge smile on her face that she was trying to hide.

"Talking? Or fighting?" I asked but I knew that it was talking.

"Talking. We were working on everything that had gone wrong." She said.

"Ooo, does that mean you are together again?" I asked with hope in my voice.

"No… we decided to just be friends for right now and not rush into anything. But he gave me a very intimate hug before we left each other." She said giggling. I started to giggle with her. We said good night and we would giggle every now and then until we both fell asleep again. I woke up three hours later and started to get ready for the first day of classes. I was happy to be back in school and able to use my magic again. I loved doing magic.

I washed my hair and pulled it up into a ponytail having a few hairs falling down tucked behind my ears. I applied some lip-gloss and I put on a touch of eye shadow. Not too much, and not a lot of colors. I heard someone getting up, it was Amber's old best friend, Sara. We had been polite to each other since Amber left the school.

"Hi." I said being nice. She waved a small hi and started to brush her hair.

"Listen… I know things aren't so good between us because of Amber… but seriously, I didn't know she would resort to what she did. That was horrible what she did to you and if she was still around, I wouldn't associate with her." Sara said. I knew that Sara had no part in what Amber did and it was possible that she didn't know Amber's plans either.

"I know, don't worry, I don't blame you for anything." I said finishing up in the bathroom. I grabbed my bag with my books and supplies and pulled it over my head to let it rest on my shoulder and rest the books against my side. That was how I liked my bags, all of my purses and bags were the ones that went over your shoulder and rested on your hip. Lily was still fast asleep and I wanted to wait for her but I had an early morning date with Sirius, even though he didn't know about it. I left the room and headed toward the boy's dorms. I softly knocked on the door and a few seconds later Remus came to the door. He gestured toward Sirius half asleep and went back to his bed. I creped up on Sirius and lay down beside him. I was facing him and I was blowing on his face. Occasionally he would move his nose and I silently laugh. I kept doing this until he finally opened his eyes and saw my smiling face.

"Good morning sleepy head." I said giving him a kiss on the lips. He welcomed it and wrapped his arms around me.

"I should be waking up like this every morning." He said giving me another kiss. I giggled and tried to get up but he pulled me back onto the bed.

"You have to let me go." I said.

"No, I want to stay like this forever in this moment. This is when I am my happiest." He said holding on as if I were going to disappear on him.

"I wouldn't mind that," I whispered and I closed my eyes. This was also the happiest I had ever been. It reminded me of those times when you think you have to be at your happiest and then 5 horrible things happen to that one happy thing. I didn't want time to move on to bring those 5 horrible things.

"Ashleigh?" I heard Drew's voice. Shit, I should have remembered that he was in this room.

"Yeah?" I said. He looked at me as if I was going too far.

"What are you doing in here?" He asked.

"I was just giving Sirius his wake up call." I said. He shook his head and went back to his bed. I knew he want to talk to me later about how I wasn't being responsible enough or something like it.

"I better get going. Hurry and get ready so we can go to breakfast together." I said leaving his room. He whined a little before I left but he got up fast and ran to the bathroom to get ready. I raced back to the girl's dorm to catch Lily grabbing her stuff before coming down.

"I thought you already left for breakfast." She said.

"No, just had to give Sirius a wake up call… and everyone else in the room." I said. We left giggling about the boys. We were such girls to be giggling so much. But I guess when you are in love… or like you giggle a lot because you are so happy. And that was what I was, happy. Sirius was down by the portrait hole waiting for me, James was half asleep until he saw Lily and then he perked up. Drew was already gone and Remus was still sleeping.

"May we escort you two lovely ladies to breakfast?" Sirius said holding out his hand.

"No." I said joking around. He grabbed my hand anyway and we ran down the hall. He picked me up and started to twirl me around.

"Stop it." I said laughing. Lily and James finally caught up. They looked to be deep in conversation about something.

"… yeah, he isn't going to get re-elected… I mean with his policies and everything…" I heard James say. Were they talking about politics? Did James know about politics? I didn't know that he kept up with the current events so much. That was definitely a surprise. We ate breakfast and the mail came. I got a letter and I opened it. It was from Micah. My good mood left me suddenly.

'Ash, I know that you probably don't want to talk to me but I have to explain what happened…'

I read that first sentence and I debated with myself whether or not I should continue. I was very interested in knowing why they had betrayed us. I needed to know really.

'… He had taken my dad and he told us that he would kill him if we didn't play along and then I remember just blacking out and I don't know what I did but I do know what my mom told me. She said that you guys did get away and I was happy that you did because I love you guys to no end. But because you guys left he killed my dad and he killed John's whole family. He left and said he would be back soon. We ran, we didn't want to be near him or work for him or whatever. We NEVER told him about you or Drew's other abilities. We didn't tell him anything. I promise you. Please, just write to me to tell me you are ok. Only this owl knows where I am. I'm sorry… but you can understand right?

Love always,

Micah.'

I tried not to cry as I read the letter. I was right she was being controlled and he was threatening her. But why didn't he kill her and John? Why did he let them live? It didn't seem like his M/O at all. Unless he needed them for something else in the future. I felt myself trying to forgive her but my mind was still filled with many questions. What could it hurt to write to her? Just to say that I was alive. That's not a big deal. I pulled out a piece of paper and wrote that I was ok and so was Drew and that I hoped she would survive and to be careful cause this guy was horrible. And then I sent it off with the owl that had stayed the entire time. Drew hadn't noticed the look on my face and Sirius and Remus were talking about the next full moon. Lily and James were still talking about politics. This would be a secret that I would keep to myself unless someone brought her up. I looked toward the head table and Dumbledore was looking straight at me. I knew that he was trying to read my thoughts but I wouldn't let him. Sirius looked back at me and smiled. I gave him a weak smile back. He turned back to his conversation and I looked at my letter again. Could I trust her? Maybe I should talk to Dumbledore before I write to her again. I would talk to him, I knew I could trust him.

"I'll meet you in class." I said leaving before he could ask any questions. I approached Professor Dumbledore.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked him. He put down his tea and we left the Great Hall to go to his office. Once in there he offered me a lemon drop but I politely declined. He sat down and I did too. Before he could say anything I handed him my letter. He took a minute to read it before setting it down.

"And what do you think?" He asked me. He was supposed to tell me what I think, I wasn't supposed to think about it. I didn't really want to.

"I don't know. Do you think she may be right…?" I slowly asked him.

"I don't know her. You do." He said simply.

"I don't know what to think anymore. I want to trust her but what if it's a trap?" I asked him.

"Well, it says that she kind of blacked out…that could be the result of the imperious curse. It might be part of his M/O but I doubt it. He doesn't leave behind survivors unless he needs them in the future. But I doubt that he would just let them carry on with their lives." That didn't help me at all. I was thinking all those same things before I came to him.

"Just tell me what to do… I need some advice." I said desperately. He shook his head.

"I can't tell you what to do. You just have to trust your instincts." He said.

"You're not that helpful." I said joking around. He laughed and I just went to my next class. I had just stuffed the letter into my book bag. It was the first class of the year and we had double potion with the Slytherins. I sat next to Lily and in front of Sirius.

"Hey." He whispered and I just smiled at him.

"Why did you leave the Great Hall?" He asked but I didn't answer him because the professor had come in and started to talk. Hopefully he wouldn't ask again later, I didn't feel ready to explain yet.