It was a warm, sunny weekend in late May and, as most of the younger students were enjoying Honeydukes and The Three Broomsticks, the 5th and 7th years were trying to study for their end of the year exams. Students were using all free space to their benefit; they crowded the common rooms and the tiny alcoves in the hallways, especially the tables in the library. Eleanor knew it was going to be impossible to find a table, but she went searching for one anyway. After searching down every aisle, Eleanor and Suzanne, who had decided to come at the last minute, managed to find one in the back of the library. Eleanor sighed in relief, sinking down in her seat and vowing to stay there until at least lunch. She immediately went to work and was surprised when she peered over her stack of books two hours later to find an empty seat.

Leaning over the desk, Eleanor pushed aside her books, quills, and parchment to look down the aisles of bookshelves. "Suzanne?"

She ignored the "shh"s from her classmates and slowly stood up, making sure not to stray from her table in case someone was ready to take it.

"Eleanor!"

Eleanor turned at the familiar voice and blanched at the sight of Olivia sprinting in her direction.

"Oh, hello," Eleanor said slowly, trying to gauge why the girl was running over to her.

Where was Suzanne?

Olivia skidded to a stop in front of Eleanor and then, with a smile, plopped down in Suzanne's seat. Eleanor raised an eyebrow at her when Olivia made a motion for Eleanor to sit down. With a dramatic roll of the eyes, Olivia pulled something out of her bag and set it down with a flourish.

Eleanor slowly sat back down, leaning forward to catch a glimpse of the object. "Ivy's book," she exclaimed, eyes darting back up to Olivia's smiling face.

"My aunt and uncle own a bookshop in Diagon Alley, Obscurus Books. Heard of it?"

Eleanor's eyes widened in recognition; she remembered spending all those days with Alexander and Phoebe Bishop and their two girls at the small bookshop last summer. "The Bishops are your relatives?"

Olivia grinned, cleared her throat and pushed back her hair with both hands. "I come here on official business." Her hands rested on the book. "My aunt and uncle want to put together a full display of Laurel Hills. The novel, some similar reads, things like that. They also want to put together a full biography about the author and I told them I knew the perfect person to write it."

Eleanor paused at the grin on Olivia's face and then dropped her gaze down to Ivy's book on the table. "I don't know-"

"And, of course my family loves you and thought my idea was wonderful." Olivia must have noticed the look on Eleanor's face because she quickly added, "You can't say no because they don't want anyone else to write it. There's absolutely no one better-"

"There's-" Eleanor hesitated for a second, trying to find the right words, the right name after all this time. "Remus Lupin. He knew her. He's-"

She meant to say "alive" but the word caught in her throat. He wasn't the only one alive. He was the one who stayed loyal.

"They want you," Olivia exclaimed, her voice softening as she placed the book in Eleanor's unmoving hands. "You don't have to write it right now. I know you're studying for N.E.W.T.S., so wait until the term is over. Just think about it right now, okay?" Before Eleanor could respond, Olivia disappeared back behind the bookshelves.

Although Eleanor helped design the book and its title, it almost seemed foreign in her hands. Eleanor did a quick calculation: it had been three years since the book was published. Three years since Sirius-

Eleanor's hands curled around the book, her thumbs pressing hard into its cover. Biting down on her lip, she released her grip and set the book down in front of her.

"Hey, sorry."" She heard the approaching footsteps, but didn't look up. "I had to go find a book and – what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Eleanor exclaimed, glancing up at the girl in front of her. Suzanne looked worried – it must have been Eleanor's pale complexion. "I'm just – I'm going to go back to the common room. I think I'm getting a headache from being here."

Suzanne's eyebrows rose in surprise. "A headache from the library? I never thought I'd see the day."

Eleanor managed a weak chuckle as she stuffed her books into her bag. "I just need a change in scenery," she told Suzanne, swinging the strap over her shoulder. "I might come back before dinner."

She knew that Suzanne wasn't convinced but, instead of saying anything, her roommate only nodded with a slight smile.

Clutching the book to her chest, Eleanor stopped outside of the library doors to take in a deep breath. She thought about going back to the common room, but she knew it would be impossible to find a seat and she couldn't go back to her dormitory. Marnie would be there with her newest bout of girl drama.

Eleanor slowly began to make her way up the nearest staircase, her eyes transfixed on the book in her hands.

How could she write an biography of Ivy?

She didn't know enough about her sister's life. They only spent a couple years together before Ivy got her Hogwarts letter. Then they only saw each other during Christmas and summer break. And when Ivy finally graduated, she had Sirius-

But then she was killed.

And Sirius murdered Peter. Was sent to Azkaban. Betrayed his friends.

It made no sense. How could Sirius throw away everything after living the pain caused by a friend's death? Did he have any ounce of humanity? Why would he ever betray his friends like that?

She tried to understand him. She tried to put herself in Sirius's place – if Liam was killed by Death Eaters and she had to go through that pain of losing someone close to her – but she still couldn't justify killing a friend. She'd never kill Suzanne or Jared. She'd never kill anyone.

Why would Sirius betray her sister? Her sister who died – how could he -

Instead of turning the corner up to the Ravenclaw tower, Eleanor made her way down the corridor toward a familiar statute. She just needed to hide away, to think and get her mind off of this whole fiasco.

I want somewhere to be alone, I want somewhere to be alone, I want somewhere to be alone. She stepped forward to grab the doorknob, but nothing appeared. Taking a deep breath, she paused and then repeated it out loud. Again, nothing. A door always appeared when she asked for it, and Eleanor didn't have time to theorize why the room was locking her out; she just wanted in. Dissolving quickly into desperate pleas, she tried everything to get a door to appear, but when nothing happened again and again, she quickly lost her patience. Grabbing Ivy's book with both hands, she slammed it against the wall.

"I want in," she shouted, not caring who heard her, "I want in, I want in!"

And then it finally appeared. Eleanor grabbed the doorknob in her hand and pushed against the door with her shoulder. It swung open; she stumbled into the room, gasping and furiously wiping away the hot tears that were burning her cheeks.

"Eleanor?"

She blinked rapidly, glancing up to see she was standing in a replica of the Ravenclaw common room. Someone had already changed the Room of Requirement into their own studying space.

"Are you crying? What's wrong?"

Before she could respond, Eleanor was pulled into a familiar embrace. Letting out a slow breath, she burrowed her face into his shoulder and closed her eyes. Eleanor knew she was being stupid for getting this upset – it happened years ago and she wasn't supposed to be thinking about this now. She was supposed to be concentrating on exams, her studies, school.

Not this.

"She wants me to write a biography about Ivy," Eleanor finally murmured, her words muffled, "I can't – I don't know anything - I never knew anything about her - "

"Who wants you to write a biography?" Liam asked, pulling away slightly.

Eleanor shook her head, trying to dislodge the words in her throat. "I was in the library and Suzanne went to get a book, so I was alone and Olivia decided that she was going to come up and ask me to write a biography for her aunt and uncle's shop in Diagon Alley that I was in last summer and I can't say no, I really can't-"

"Whoa, whoa." Liam's hands moved to her shoulders. "You're rambling. Come on, sit down and relax."

She immediately pulled out of his grasp. "I can't just relax, Liam. There's N.E.W.T.S. and this biography and leaving Hogwarts and everything with – everything that happened with Sirius and Ivy and Remus and-"

"Everything that happened?"

Eleanor met Liam's concerned gaze; he had no idea why she was so upset. She didn't even know why – maybe because it made no sense, she still wanted to believe it wasn't true, she couldn't understand how things would change that drastically. She didn't know. She couldn't understand anything with her head spinning and stomach churning.

She never answered his question and he didn't try to press it. Instead, he just stood in front of her, almost as if he was waiting for her to move.

"Were you studying?"

Liam blinked at her and then said, "Um, yeah. You were studying with Suzanne or I would have invited you-"

She rushed over to where all of Liam's textbooks were spread out across the table. "What are you working on? Transfiguration?"

"I just finished studying Transfiguration-" His voice was hesitant, but she didn't stop to decipher it.

"Well, I can help you with whatever you're studying next." She sat down on the couch, leaning forward with sudden enthusiasm. "We can work together on our essays or practice spells if you want." Grabbing the closest textbook, she opened it on her lap and began running her finger down the page. "We can start with these nonverbal spells."

"Don't."

Her gaze snapped up to his. "What?"

"Don't," he repeated, slowly walking over to her. "Don't try to avoid everything with schoolwork. It'll only add to your stress."

She stared at him, trying to determine if he was being serious. He knew that schoolwork was her escape from everything. He knew she needed something to get her mind off of everything. "What am I supposed to do then?" she asked, setting her hands down on the book and narrowing her eyes.

He was still standing a few good meters away as if worried about getting closer. She didn't know why – maybe she was a little stressed but nothing serious. It wasn't like she was going to attack him.

"Breathe."

She rolled her eyes.

"Stop rolling your eyes at everything I say."

"I wasn't-"

"Stop being defensive."

She glared at him this time and she could have sworn he was fighting back a smile.

"Sit back and relax."

Eleanor crossed her arms and quirked an eyebrow.

"You are just making this difficult," Liam complained, crossing over in three strides to stand in front of her. "Sit back." He grabbed onto her arms, pulling her back onto the couch. "And please, relax."

When she refused by crossing her arms again and giving him another convincing glare, he sighed and got up. "Fine. You've left me with no other choice."

"What are you doing?" She couldn't keep the amusement out of her voice this time and Liam definitely noticed with a smirk of his own.

"Every time I come to the Room of Requirement, I ask for the same thing. A Ravenclaw common room with some breaking of Hogwarts rules." Taking his wand out of his pocket, he performed a spell Eleanor didn't recognize.

"What-" Suddenly, a song began playing throughout the room. Liam grinned. "What are you doing?" she repeated as he started to flail.

"Dancing." He spun around in a circle and continued to wave his arms in the air.

"You cannot dance," Eleanor found herself laughing. Liam pulled her up off of the couch and immediately twirled her. "Liam!" she exclaimed as she almost tripped over her feet.

"You know you want to dance," Liam proclaimed, kicking up his feet and snapping his fingers. "Let's hear it for the boy, let's give the boy a hand," he sang along.

Eleanor sighed and then joined in with, "let's hear it for my baby, you know you've gotta understand."

Liam shuffled his feet; Eleanor could only guess was supposed to be a move from Footloose. "You are horrible at this!"

"Hey, the guy from the movie was horrible too." He turned around, waving his arms up and down.

"He learned how to dance through a musical montage. You...have no chance." She squealed as he grabbed her and tried to do a strange tango-like move. "Really."

Liam rolled his eyes dramatically and stepped back to dance on his own. "Fine. I'll just do my own dance moves." He went into a flail-sidestep-thing that made Eleanor dissolve into laughter.

It wasn't long before they were both running around the room, laughing to "Footloose." Although Eleanor knew exactly what Liam did (he probably thought he was being sneaky, but his modes of distraction were always so obvious), she didn't stop to chastise him.

They had only two weeks left of school. She didn't know how well she was going to do on her exams, when she'd make time to write this biography or where they'd be going during the summer. But it didn't seem to matter when Liam knew exactly how to make her laugh again.


This chapter is finally done! I'm guessing that you're all wondering where I went. Nowhere, but this chapter was giving me all sorts of trouble. Uber trouble. It haunted me for about three months. But now, I'm leaving it how it is, posting, and moving on.

So, thanks for reading. I hope you didn't hate it (as much as me), and maybe you'll review.

I'll try to work on the next chapter ASAP. No three month wait!