Author's note: This is a fairly long chapter, and I still didn't get to include half of the things I wanted to... I guess the part about Sirius took up too significant a chunk. Annoyed. So I'm going to spread the stuff over 2 chapters. Sorry about that ;) Other than that, smiley happy Hannah over here... Is it weird that I just referred to myself in third person? I think it might be. And to use the words of a friend: "Are you ever not happy?"

Yes, I am, is the answer to that one. As soon as I am, you will know about it.

Anyway, rambling, tired... Let's reply to some reviews!

muckabout: Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it. And will do ;)

Isabel: Beauty and the Beast! Yes! I love Disney... Brother Bear has to be my favourite, however. Or jungle book, or Toy Story, or Little Mermaid, or The Rescuers Down Under, or... Yeah, could go on a while, I'll stop. I'm glad you think I've got the hang of writing the chapters waffle free (which might be sad, since I love waffles. I'm going to an Italian Coffee shop tomorrow, where they make the most amazing waffles, and then to see catching fire at the cinema... ugh, so easily sidetracked when I'm tired. Focus!). You might be/will be disappointed when you read this chapter, as I'm trying to include 3 key events and in this one only included two, but yeah... I'm going to do more like the last couple from now on. Never write when you're tired is going to become my personal rule.

Laughing is good. I'm glad I made you laugh! And you're proud of me?! YAY! I did forget to say something about myself... I'll include two things to make up for it! And your dogs sound so cute...

I have a little sister called Katherine, who I call Kit Kat and who everyone else calls Kitty. She's five years younger than me, loves oreos and cookies, is really funny, (think I might have split a few ribs laughing at her jokes in the past few hours alone), is hyperactive and enthusiastic about everything, has red hair and bright blue eyes, is absolutely gorgeous (yep, she definitely inherited all the beauty to be had in this family!) And who I love more than anything. Honestly, she's my favourite person in the world... Pretty much. There's a couple of others who might tie with her, but yeah. I love her to pieces! Except this one time when I wanted to kill her, but that was just once in 10 years. All the rest of the time, it's love her to pieces. Honestly, she's amazing!

I have a pet hate of bus drivers. I wrote it for my English Language controlled assessment, which was on Room 101. Honestly, they're so grumpy all the time, and they always ask for full fare, and make old ladies drop their walking sticks and ask you to repeat everything a thousand times and are always late when you have somewhere important to be and are just generally so uncooperative and... ugh. This could turn into a full on rant, so I'll stop.

As to the riddle, I really suck at those. My first answer was Kit Kat's bedroom, but the bit about there being no death kind of ruined that... So my best answer is a rock. Worst answer ever, but I figured better than no answer at all. I'll keep trying ;)

HattieTheGreat: Updating Ninja... Hahaha I like that! Me and a friend once made 'ninjas... the musical' on Skype chat, because they all move at the same time if you type in the emoticons in a row, and it was so cool! We're going to become millionaires any day soon and oh my I am so easily distracted when I'm tired! So, I'm really glad you're enjoying the story, and that you think Adele is an interesting OC, because that was really the only aim I had writing this story... Other than to, you know, write the story. Okay, can I stop talking now? *Internet blush*. I'm going to shut up. I am ashamed to admit I have never seen Hercules. I've heard the soundtrack, but never actually seen the film. I'm going to have to rectify that, don't you think? I love Tangled, too. And PETER PAN! It is really, completely, utterly perfect for Fred and George, I am so incorporating that into a future chapter! Thank you so much, you're a genius! And you like Bon Jovi?! Oh my... Can't even... THANK YOU! ;)

Okay, so I need sleep. Night guys ;)

I don't own Harry Potter, or, well... Anything. That's depressing. Virtual waffles for everyone! (With golden syrup. Yum.)

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret~ Ambrose Bierce

I was lying on my back with my head in Fred's lap by the Gryffindor common room fire, his hands knotted in my hair as I read a book...

We'd just had a hogsmede visit, and everyone was feeling in high spirits. Christmas seemed to be dawning fast, and in the traditional end of term way, Fred and George had set off an entire bag of dung bombs. Despite this, I was feeling especially happy, reliving the afternoon spent with Fred in Hogsmede.

That was when the bombshell dropped.

Harry's face... I don't really know how to describe it. There was so much poorly supressed rage there, it made me feel as if a lead weight had dropped into my stomach, as if I was looking upon my mothers face again. For a moment, I couldn't concentrate, before remembering where I was.

Sitting up (accidentally brushing off Fred's hands rather abruptly, and causing the book to fall out of my lap and onto the floor with a distinct thump), I narrowed my eyes, calculating.

"What's up with you?" I asked.

"Can I have a word please?" He asked, as if he was having great difficulty restraining himself. Increasingly perplexed, I shrugged, though my heart was thumping in my mouth. What on earth had happened to make Harry look like that?

Actually, not so much what had happened... The way he was looking at me, you would've thought that the correct question was what had I done...

"Sure. Won't be a minute." I told Fred, kissing him on the cheek and trying to avoid feeling like I was walking to my death. Lee made a retching sound in the back of his throat, which caused Angelina to punch him playfully and me to roll my eyes at him.

Silently, I followed Harry up the staircase, biting on my lip. I couldn't help but flashback to my conversation with Dumbledore, nearly a month ago now, concerning Sirius. Couldn't help but think maybe this conversation might be going the same way...

"I know this must be confusing for you, Ada." Dumbledore had told me kindly. "Sirius Black was the closest thing to a parent you have ever know. But he is not a father figure, and it is this that you have to remember. He betrayed Lily and James Potter, he murdered Peter and a dozen other muggles, and he escaped azkaban to come after Harry."

Dumbledore had stated all these things with such assurance, listed all the crimes Sirius had committed and had yet to commit, I had felt a flicker of doubt and considered confessing there and then how I suspected Sirius had gotten in and out of the castle. Then I had pictured his face, the crinkles around his eyes when he smiled and the warmth of his embrace, and known I couldn't bring myself to do it.

At the top of the staircase, I turned to face Harry, and arched my eyebrows. A silent question. His face contorted in rage, as if he wanted to slap the smile off my face...

"What happened?" I asked gently.

For a moment, he was silent. I could feel torrents of rage pushing up against him, feel him trying to restrain himself and try to control what he said. Then the banks burst...

"Sirius Black!" He shouted. "That's what happened!"

For a moment, all that registered was shock. Then I realised... I realised that he knew. Knew that, wrong or right, Sirius had gone to azkaban for betraying Harry's parents, my aunt and uncle.

For a moment, I imagined myself in Harry's shoes. Imagined finding out that my parents best friend had supposedly stolen them from me, taken them from the midst of life and sent them to an entirely different plane of existence, somewhere I could never follow. I imagined that best friend had betrayed them to Voldemort.

And then I remembered. I didn't have loving parents. My mother hadn't smiled at me, a twinkle in her eye, as if I was the best thing that this earth had ever given her. My father hadn't burst with pride as he grabbed me and swung me around, high above his head. Neither of my parents had thrown themselves in front of a wand to save me.

They'd been the ones causing the hurt.

"Harry, I-"

"Did it never occur to you that the fact my parents best friend betrayed them to Voldemort, the fact that he's the reason they're dead, might be something I'd want to know? Might be important, somehow?" I tried to interrupt, but he was on a roll. Completely incoherent with rage, he carried on regardless. "Ask any question, Harry! If I know, I'll answer! But what you weren't telling me was, you were withholding information, and that that information was safe! Safe, because poor, innocent Harry would never think to ask! Safe, because little Harry Potter could never dream up something this horrible! Poor me, my mother tortured me and my dad hated me and Voldemort tainted my childhood! Well, you know what, you're not the only one with problems, Adele! Yours isn't the only childhood Voldemort wrecked, and you are not the only one who faints when dementors come close! And whatever your reasons, you should have told me this!"

Harry was breathing hard. I reeled back as if I'd been slapped, feeling anger and guilt churn inside of me as I stared at Harry's face. Already, I could see he was regretting his words. But it was too late to stop the images flashing by my eyes...

"You know what, Harry, if that's how you feel!" I threw my hands up in the air then let them drop, as if to indicate washing my hands of the entire thing. Then I turned and ran back down the stairs, and, ignoring the calls of my friends, fled all the way up the stairs and threw myself onto my bed to cry for about an hour.

Christmas should have been one of the best of my life that year... Fred and George were staying, as was Angelina. Long hours were spent by the fire, roasting marshmallows and talking about anything and everything and yet nothing at all. I caught up with Uncle Lupin, who taught me to produce a Patronus, a charm to ward off dementors. But the thought of Sirius was haunting me. I couldn't seem to concentrate on anything, and whenever I did, the thought of him would pull me back, and my moral dilemma would begin again.

Meanwhile, my nightmares had returned in full force, and nothing Madam Pomfrey did seemed to do anything to stop it. McGonagal offered me a dormitory to myself so that I at least wouldn't wake the others, but Angelina and (when she returned from the holidays) Alicia overrid her. They saw how disoriented and afraid I was each time I woke myself up screaming, and wanted to be there for me when it happened. Though I was more grateful than I could say to have such amazing friends, I couldn't help feeling that it might be kinder to all of us to have seperate sleeping arrangements for a while.

After the fiasco of the first Quiddich match, I wasn't even tempted to stay indoors with a book... Though Uncle Lupin had taught Harry, too, how to produce a patronus, I wanted to be there... Just in case something went wrong. And, of course, the whole school was seething with interest about Harry's new broom.

"I just want to know-" I said, for the millionth time, staring at the broomstick in Fred's hand. "Who sent it? Who'd be willing to spend that much money on one chirstmas present, and not even write a note?"

Harry shrugged, yet again... We'd made up quickly, after our brief argument over Sirius, but it still seemed potent. It hung in the air between us, and every now and then, his name would creep into a conversation like poison and taint the air between us. There was nothing I could say to make it better, and a whole lot I could say which would make it a whole lot worse. So I opted for saying nothing at all.

There was a huge air of anticipation as I followed the rest of the crowd towards the Quiddich pitch. Seating myself in the stands with Hermione, I noticed that she seemed especially down today, more so even than she had been over the past couple of weeks- which was saying something. Ron was sat as far away from her as was possible on the row, occasionally turning to glare daggers at her. Every time he did so, she wrapped her arms around herself, as if the air had turned especially cold.

Ever since the so called 'assassination' of scabbers the rat, Ron wasn't talking to her, and Harry seemed to be making things better rather than worse. Still raw after his broomstick was taken away from him due to Hermione telling Professor McGonagall, perhaps his heart wasn't entirely in it... In any case, Hermione had to be the most miserable young girl I'd ever seen, overworking herself more than ever, and rendered isolated and virtually friendless. Scooting over to her, I nudged her.

"Penny for your thoughts." I asked. She laughed bitterly, a somewhat hysterical sound, then her eyes flicked to the horizon.

"You don't want to pay a penny, Adele. They're not worth your time."

I smiled at her. "I think they are. I think anything you have to say is worth my time, and my money."

For a moment, she looked at me, her eyes filling over with tears and her bottom lip trembling.

"Thanks."

I shrugged. "Just telling the truth. Harry and Ron'll come around, and as for that time tuner you're wearing around your neck-"

"How did you-?"

"Please, Hermione." I rolled my eyes. "You may fool Harry and Ron, but you're not pulling the wool over my eyes. I've been visiting the ministry since I was 5 years old, I've been in the department of mysteries plenty a time. How else would you take all those classes?"

"But-" She stammered, looking at me in bewilderment.

"All I'm saying is that what you're doing is amazing. But it also might be asking too much of yourself. You're a human, not a machine. And you're not confined to Harry and Ron when it comes to friendships. There are plenty of other who love you, who appreciate how hard you're working and how amazing you are."

She looked at me a moment, before sighing. And because she needed it, I reached out and gave her a hug, ignoring the racket around us as Gryffindor won the match.