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Chapter thirty six- New Beginnings.
The week of finals James, Sirius, and I tended to keep to ourselves. Lily, Remus, and Peter were driving themselves mad. Lily looked like she was going to rip out her hair. Peter looked like he was going to cry and Remus yelled at everyone he talked too. And right away I knew I was going to keep my distance. And surprisingly Jade was completely confident, she had no doubt in her mind that she was going to pass, so she stuck with us. And I'm glad she did. This last week I got to know Jade, really know her. She is a half blood, her mum was a pureblood and her dad was a muggle born. She was an only child until this year her mom announced she was pregnant which Jade said made her wanna throw herself off the astronomy tower. She lives in down town London and she hates her house. She said her parents are too weird and that she can't wait to move out on her own. She's already looking around for flats! Of course James gave her permission to stay at our house seeing as pretty much all of us were going to live there now. I mean the house is big why not?
Lily, though still has to live at home which is driving James crazy. Her mum is extremely over bearing and can't quite work out why her daughter would want to leave home. Though James bought her ring, so he should be proposing soon! And apparently Peter is staying with his parents too. So it will mostly likely be James, me, Sirius, Remus and Jade. We're going to have a blast. Well in between order meetings and training of jobs. James, Sirius, Lily, and I all got accepted into the auror training program. Peter got accepted as some weird secretary at the ministry and Remus didn't apply anywhere, yet. If I have anything to do with it, and Jade got accepted for healer training.
These 7 years went by so fast and I can hardly believe I'm graduating today. I'm leaving my first real home and I'm actually nervous. But I know that I'll be okay. I'll have Jimmy and Sirius, and my family behind me. My stuff is all packed and ready in my dorm, and my bed is made seeing as I don't even sleep in there anymore. All that's left on the bed is my Hogwarts robes, and today will be the last time that I wear them.
"Xeomara?" I blink my head of my thoughts and turn towards Sirius who was looking quite pale.
"Happy graduation." I say kissing the tip of his nose. He pales even more. "Oh Sirius, you'll be fine!"
"I know, I know. I'm just nervous." He looks down, so he misses when I roll my eyes.
"Sirius, stop being nervous. I'm going to go get ready and I except you down in the common room in a half hour. We have to go to the ceremony!" I get up and slap his butt. "Get moving!"
"Yes dear." He mumbles into the pillow.
"James! Peter! Remus!" I yell loudly. "Get up!" Remus falls off his bed landing hard on the floor. Peter shoots up so fast he hits his head and James just blinks an eye open.
"Alright I'm up, I'm up." Remus says over my yelling. I stop and shoot them all my most charming smile.
"Don't try that on me." James says standing up, at the same time Sirius does. They start racing towards the door to take a shower. The door slams in Sirius' face and he sighs.
"HAHA!" James yells from the bathroom.
"You are such children! See you in the common room." I say walking towards the door. When I enter my own dorm I see Lily just getting out of the shower.
"Happy Graduation!" I say giving her a hug.
"You seem excited." She says hugging me back.
"I am excited!" I say and then add, "A little nervous too but I'll be okay." She just shakes her head and moves around so I can take a shower. The warm water hits my skin and I'm calmed down a little. Just a little. I take my time getting ready, blowing drying my curly hair which is now back to its original length thanks to Lily's hair growing charm. I put on my usual light make up, and put on my uniform. Wearing only the button up and vest leaving the cloak off. Lily does the same. I bounce down the stairs following Lily. Where we meet up with the boys. None of us speak, my excitedness turns to nerves and we walk silently to the great hall where every other seventh year is acting just like us. Everyone is quiet as we eat breakfast waiting for the ceremony to start. My hand is squeezing Lily's tightly underneath the table and she looks like she's going to cry.
"Seventh years, today is a day to remember." Dumbledore begins standing up. "Today is the day where you leave the school behind and enter the world. Where you begin your jobs, get your own homes and use the knowledge we taught you hear at Hogwarts. When you leave this school the protection is gone and you must learn to live with your own protection. The war out there is the cold hard truth. You can either fight it or go along with it, but once you leave here the choice is yours." I exchange glances with my friends. "I'm proud to call myself your headmaster as you were all exceptional students. Some of the best I've ever had. You were passionate, caring, funny," he looks to us as he says this. "And great learners. We all wish you luck in your future years." Lily's hand squeezes mine tighter when he begins calling out the names. One by one the students walk up to Dumbledore and get their diplomas. I can tell Lily is nervous to see whether or not she made top of the class. Which I'm sure she did. Her names wasn't called, Sirius' wasn't, either was mine, Remus' or James'. We all cheered loudly as Jade and Peter were called up and stood in line next to the other seventh years. As he called the last person he smiled brightly and looked in our direction.
"Next I will call the students that made in top three of their class." I look towards the boys and nod, letting them know to get ready for our last bang! "The top of the class," Lily squeezes my hand again, almost breaking it. "Our Head girl this year, Lily Rose Evans!" She jumps up out of her seat as we cheer loudly and walks over to Dumbledore, and McGonagall. Then goes to stand with the other students. "Second in the class, Remus John Lupin!" Moony grins at us before walking up the steps to Dumbledore. Surprisingly McGonagall hugs him which causes him to blush and Sirius to whistle. "And for third in the class, we have more than one student. Firstly, our Head Boy James Harry Potter!" I stand up and hug him before he walks over to Dumbledore, who hugs him before handing him the paper. Everyone was quiet as that happened because Dumbledore never hugged anyone. I grinned wider. "Next, Sirius Orion Black!" I kiss his cheek as he stands up.
"Love you." He whispers in my ear.
"Love you too." I whisper back before he too walks up. Dumbledore and McGonagall hug him. Dumbledore turns to Sirius and whispers something in his ear which makes Sirius laugh loudly. The sound of his charming laughter bouncing off the walls. He nods and turns to grin at me. "And Lastly, Xeomara Elizabeth Black!" My own laughter joins Sirius' as I walk up to Dumbledore. I should have known he would somehow hear about that! Everyone in the hall looked between me and Sirius with shock. I could hear the whispers as I walked through the isle. The whole time laughing. When I reached them I hugged McGonagall first and then turned to Dumbledore. I hugged him tightly.
"Thank you for everything." I whisper to him.
"You're very welcome Mrs. Black." I look at him stunned.
"How'd you hear that?"
"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies." I laugh out loud at the motto the marauders used.
"Zee!" I turn around and she Sirius at the bottom of the stairs holding his hand out to me. I take it, and at the same time we face McGonagall and bow.
"It's been a pleasure Minnie!" We say laughing. At that moment Fireworks boom in the enchanted ceiling. Creating M's and our names in the sky. James takes Lily's hand and starts sprinting out of the hall, followed by Peter and Remus who was holding Jade also by the hand, then Sirius and Me holding hands. Everyone was looking at the ceiling with shock as the fireworks kept booming loudly.
"Excellent work Mr. Lupin!" Dumbledore calls.
"Thank you Sir!" Rem yells over his shoulder.
"Xeomara, Good work teaching him!" I stop briefly and turn towards him.
"I'm glad you recognized my work Sir!" he laughs and Sirius takes my hand again and we don't stop until we reach the Marauders compartment. Where we break down in laughter. Finally we stopped laughing all of us wiping the tears of our faces.
"Merlin, that was a laugh!" Lily says. "I can't believe you didn't tell us!"
"That's not all flower." I say and both her and Jade exchange looks. "Those names won't go anywhere."
"Come again?" Jade asks. I exchange looks with the boys and they nod.
"It's permanent. It's going to say The Marauders: James, Sirius, Xeomara, Peter, and Remus up there forever! There is no way to take it down. You can move it, and flip it upside down but you can't take it down!" They looked shocked.
"That's really advanced magic! Zee you taught him this?" Jade says pointing to Remus.
"Sure did, it's one the same spells I used over top of my bed to enchant the ceiling with stars."
"Wow." I grin wider.
"I know." I says smugly.
"Great, now you guys are going to make her head even bigger!" Sirius says. I turn and smack him on the back of his head.
"Ow! See what I mean James! I don't know where the power comes from!" James just shakes his head.
"Who knows!" Eventually it gets quiet again leaving us all to our own thoughts. I assume we were all thinking about how this was our last time on the Hogwarts express, and how we were never going back. This was it. Our lives were officially starting. I start auror training in July, as does everyone else and Jade starts her healing training next week. This was it we were officially adults. And tomorrow marks the most important day of our lives. The day we become official members of the Order of the Phoenix.
We dress quickly in our muggle clothing waiting for the train to come to a complete stop. When it does we all look at each other and Sirius takes my hand.
"This is it." Remus mutters sadly.
"Yeah, it sure is." James says. We look around the compartment we had since first year. I lean forward with my wand and carve the same thing we had on the ceiling in the great hall but added on Lily and Jade's name and the date.
"Now we'll be here forever." I say, as we walk off the train. I'm hit with the bustle of everyone hugging their parents and saying good bye to their friends. This time we don't see Walburga and Orion Black, or James' Mum and Dad. Lily leaves with her parents and Peter with his. And Remus leaves to introduce Jade to his mum. They would be coming over later to start unpacking their things. I walk on with James and Sirius looking at the ground and stop when I see feet in front of me.
"Raes." I look up into the cold eyes of Snape, and standing next to him is Malfoy arm in arm with Narcissa.
"You will pay for what you did to us." Malfoy says. "Welcome to the real world. The headmaster won't help you now." Sirius grips my hand tighter and moves to grab his wand I stop him and glare at the trio,
"Good Luck." Was all I said and walked away James and Sirius falling in my lead.
Xx
The next morning I take a short amount of time getting ready and hurry down stairs to make breakfast. The meeting was at one at we only had an hour to spare. James and Sirius took the quickest shower of their lives and Remus and Jade who were completely unpacked now were getting ready in their own bathrooms. Jade took the room across from Remus.
I just finished setting the table when Jade walked in.
"I was hoping to help, but it seems as though you're already done." She says smiling.
"Yeah I got up pretty early today, or late actually. We have to be there in an hour." She looked at me nervously.
"Are you nervous?" She asks sitting down, and piling food on her plate.
"Yes and no." she raises and eye brow. "I've wanted nothing more than to do this since sixth year but I'm still a little nervous to actually get in on the fighting but I know this is what I want to do." She nods and we sit quietly as we eat breakfast. One by one the boys follow in and also sit down. We talk for a little while but really we were all too nervous to say more than a few words. I clean up with the help of Jade and before I know it we're walking out the door.
"You ready?" Lily asks walking up to door that we just walked out of.
"Yeah, where's Peter?" I hear a loud crack and suddenly Peter is standing right there next to me. "Excellent. Let's go." Everyone nods and I turn on the spot thinking of the burrow, where Molly and Arthur Weasley lived with their two sons.
Suddenly I'm standing in front of the most homiest place I have ever seen. It was magnificent.
"Whoa, check this place out. It's wicked." James says with a grin.
"Damn straight." Sirius adds. We walk up the front door and knock, just like we were instructed to do.
"Who's there?" Asks the voice of Arthur Weasley.
"Xeomara Black, Sirius Black, James Potter, Lily Evans, Jade Green, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew." I answer back.
"Prove it." I roll my eyes at the protocol.
"Open the door and I'll show you." He opens the door and I point to my face, the slightly faded scar from Moony's attack was proof enough.
"Very well come in." I nod and enter the house, where I was led into a large room where many people where sitting on the benches at the table. Dumbledore at the head. I noticed Mad Eye, Hestia Jones, The Prewetts, and a few others who I hadn't seen before. I also noticed Alice and Frank Longbottom who graduated last year and were recently married. They weren't sitting down like the rest of us and I automatically assumed they were joining today as we were. Dumbledore stood and the whole room got quiet.
"Welcome! Today we will have new numbers joining us! They have been properly viewed and I will have no doubt in my mind that they are excellent choices for the organization." Everyone nodded but I could feel Mad Eye Moody's glare on me, I glared back. "Xeomara Elizabeth Black!" I walked to the front of the table and looked across at Dumbledore. I hushed whisper went through the room at the sound of my "new" last name.
"Hello Professor."
"I'm not your Professor anymore Xeomara. Call me Albus." He said lightly. I grin.
"Alright Albus, only if you call me Zee." His blue eyes twinkle and he barks out a laugh.
"Very well. You wish to join the order of the phoenix?"
"Yes."
"Can you handle the life that comes with it?"
"Yes."
"Are you willing to do whatever you can to protect the members?"
"Even if it means death." I answer truthfully.
"Well than I guess I don't need to ask the next question." I grin at him. "Sign the paper right there. And welcome to the order." I quickly sign my name and take one of the empty seats that were left for us.
"Sirius Orion Black!" Sirius grins at me before walking up.
"You wish to join the order?"
"Naturally." He grins and I snort out a laugh.
"Can you handle the life that comes with it?"
"Of course."
"Are you willing to do whatever you can to protect the members?" Sirius looks right at me, and his eyes meet mine.
"Yes."
"Even if it means death."
"Yes." He says not breaking the stare.
"Very Well, welcome Sirius." He signs his name and joins me on the bench. Next they call up James, then Lily, and the rest were called.
"Well, everyone take time to get acquainted with your new order members." Dumbledores says before he sits down.
"Honestly Alice, they're not that bad anymore. They really deflated their heads." I hear Lily says to Alice from where they're sitting across from me. My head shoots up.
"I really don't Lily. I mean all those pranks they pulled and what about Raes? I know the kind of things her family gets up too, how do we know she's not on their side? How can we really trust her, she isn't exactly trust worthy."
The whole table gets quiet and stares at me. I glare at her but my voice remains calm and cool. "Two Summers ago I was locked in my room by my parents who made me the family house elf, when I tried escaping my father used the cruciatus curse on me, I fought back and arrived at Hogwarts after being starved for two weeks. The end of sixth year I saved Lily when she was cursed and endured the cruciatus curse yet again by Regulus Black. That summer I watched the people who I knew as my parents die right in front of my eyes and dueled with death eaters. In the beginning of seventh year I helped Regulus Black defy Voldemort and become a spy for the order of the phoenix. After Christmas I went to go save Reg from Voldemort and endured third degree burns from Voldemort and still managed to curse the nose off of his face. About a month ago James and I broke into the slytherin common room and heard that they planned to have the death eaters attack Hogwarts so they could recruit me to become a death eater. I was put in a coma after capturing some death eaters for two weeks after I endured the cruciatus curse for a third time, for 6 minutes. I lived through more in the last two years that you have in your whole 19 years of living. While you were at home planning your marriage and buying houses and I was actually doing something worthwhile. So don't sit there and accuse me of being like them because they are not my family." Her mouth was hanging wide open and it was deathly quiet. "Everyone does things that their parents don't want them to do. I mean its common knowledge that Mrs. Longbottom doesn't like you and Frank still married you. I am no different. I went against my biological parents beliefs. I am my own person. So don't you dare ever accuse me of that again." When I finish everyone was staring at me, she opens her mouth while looking at Sirius and he tenses. "Before you even ask, Sirius is nothing like his parents either. He lived through the same things as I have. So don't accuse him either or I'll hex you into next week."
"Albus I don't know." Moody says looking at me.
"I don't care if you are my instructor for my training this summer, I will not take your bull shit with your prejudice against my biological family. I except you to treat me the same as you do to your other students." I say with a glare. He suddenly grins and I'm taken aback.
"I know I said that I wasn't too sure about this one Albus, but I like her she's got such a fiery temper. She'll make a great auror." I grinned back at him.
"Damn straight. Who knows I might even be better than you some day." Suddenly the table was loud and talking again.
"I'm sorry about her Zee." Frank said speaking up. I turned and grinned at the boy I played quidditch with the year before and smiled.
"Not a problem I'm sorry about brining your marriage into it I was being rude." He grinned and started to laugh.
"You were right though."
"I guess I was." I say with a laugh.
"Well you handled that well." James says.
"Thank you." I say arrogantly. Jade smiles.
"Xeomara?" My head whips around to Alice who was red in the face. I raise an eyebrow. "I'm sorry. It was wrong of my to accuse you and I shouldn't have said anything you really are-" I cut her off.
"Alice." She blushes again. "No harm done. You don't have to apologize." I give her a smile and she smiles back. Lily rolls her eyes.
"So you're married to Sirius?" She asks.
I ignore the married part; he squeezes my hand and smiles at me. "He's my husband."
Frank opens his mouth but is cut off by Dumbledore who started the meeting. I listen carefully to all the problems that have been going on lately as he assigned jobs. The newer member are too patrol crowed areas, like hogsmeade and diagon alley, and knockturn alley especially. I was assigned first to knockturn alley and Sirius wasn't too excited about this, but I was and I was set to relieve Hestia at 12 midnight.
After the meeting everyone was saying their good byes when Albus called for me and James. We followed him into the back room.
"I have something for you both." We exchanged looks. "This was left in my possession given to me by your parents about a few months before they died. She had these since you two were born," I sucked in a breath. He pulled out two rings. One was large clearly a men's cut and the other was for a girl. He handed my ring to me and I studied it. There was a large sapphire stone, as was on James'.
"They had it made for you both. The ring will burn when either one of you is in trouble so you can help each other. She didn't want you two to be apart. It has your names engraved into it as well." I flipped it over and my name was written in cursive in the white gold.
"Wow." James says wiping a tear from his eye, I felt my own eyes welling up. He slipped the ring on his right hand while I slipped mine own on my left middle finger.
"Clasp hands, we have to initiate them." We grab hands tightly and hold them to Dumbledore. He placed his wand over top of our joined hands.
"Do you James Harry Potter swear to protect your sister Xeomara Elizabeth Black?"
"I do."
"Xeomara Elizabeth Black do you swear to protect your brother James Harry Potter?" I grin at him and he grins back.
"Naturally." Suddenly my finger burned and I could feel James' burning as well. Then the light went out.
"Albus." I start. "I've been meaning to ask you." His eyes twinkled and James looked confused. "What exactly do you know about James and I?"
"I've actually been wondering that too." Dumbledore smiles at us.
"You two are actual soulmates. It's rare but not unusual I've only seen it thrice in my life. I've seen it happen three different ways. The first time, the couple got married, the second time they were twins and the third time, which is you two."
"How could you tell?" I asked curiously.
"Oh I think everyone could tell Xeomara."
Xx
"Well that was cool." Moony says as well all plop down on couch when we get home.
"Agreed." Jade says yawning. "I think I'm going to head up to bed. Coming Remus?" He nods.
"Zee, wake me up before you leave I have to go to diagon alley at one." I kiss his cheek as he lifts Jade on his shoulder and walks up to their room.
"I don't like the idea of you being alone in knockturn alley." I roll my eyes.
"She'll have my cloak and besides I'll know if she's in trouble." James says pointing the rings we explained on the way back.
"Well that makes me feel a little better, I guess." Sirius grumbles. I lean over and kiss him.
"Get some sleep, I'll see you in the morning." He nods and gets up. Not before grabbing both sides of my face and staring deep in my eyes.
"Be careful."
"I will." I tell him.
"I love you." He leans in his lips almost at mine.
"I love you too." He kisses me long and deep before disappearing upstairs.
"He is always so worried about you." James says from where he was now laying stretched out on the couch his head in my lap.
"Yeah well so are you." I counter. "And don't act like you aren't always worried about Lily. You're going to blow a casket when she has to go relieve me at 11."
He scoffs and closes his eyes. "See you won't answer me because you know I'm right!" He scrunches his nose up. Still not answering me. "Fine be a child about it!" I say with a huff.
"I'll be a child if I want to be one." He says sticking out his tongue.
"Oh mature James." He just grins. We're quiet for a moment and then James asks,
"Do you think she'll say yes?"
"Are you really worried about it?"
"Yes, of course I'm worried about it."
"Jimmy she already basically said yes. Don't stress it will be fine."
"Yeah but that was when you had just woken up from your coma-"
"James! She'll say yes. I know she will." He stands up and kisses my forehead.
"You better be right Maurie!" he yells from where he was walking up the stairs.
"I always am!" he laughs loudly.
"Be careful! Love you!" I roll my eyes even though he can't see them.
"Love you too."
A half an hour later I'm shaking Remus awake.
"Hey Rem!" he stirs slightly. "REMUS!" he jumps up quickly wiping sleep out of his eyes.
"Merlin Zee-" He starts but I cut him off.
"I have to go, listen take the cloak." I say stuffing the invisibility cloak in his hands.
"Oh no! James told you to use it! I'm not taking it!" He says trying to give it back.
"Remus, take it. It will make me feel better."
"Xeomara I-" I push the cloak at him one final time before picturing knockturn alley in my head and turning on the spot, with a loud pop I'm gone.