Anne POV

I spoke happily to Baron and he was very kind to me. He laughed at all my jokes and vice versa. He was one of my favorite ghosts. Sir Nick and Helena were my other favorites. I met Helena when I was off exploring the castle the week previous.

I trailed down the winding corridors, happily. I came across an interesting part of the castle. There were pillars everywhere and from few you could peek out upon the grounds. I was staring out of one of the few, when I saw silver apparatus in my peripheral vision. I turned to a beautiful woman floating a few inches above the ground. She hid shyly behind a pillar, staring at me cautiously.

I trailed over to her slowly and she backed away. "It's ok, it's ok. What's your name? I'm Anne." She peered at me curiously and inquiringly. The gears seemed to be working in her head.

"My name is Helena Ravenclaw. I am the ghost of Ravenclaw tower." She still appeared shy, but I was overjoyed that she even answered. I smiled brightly at her, this seemed to ease her tension. "Why are you here? Student presence is not due for another week, although you seem much too young."

"I live here now, ma'am. I am too young, I'm nine years old. I live here with my father and brother, my father teaches here." She looked quite surprised, "I did not know any of the professors to have children. Who is your father?"

"My father is Severus Snape, potions professor, and head of Slytherin house." She nodded, an odd expression flashed across her face. "I did not know Severus to have children. I have known him since he was a boy. He was rather quiet when he attended Hogwarts, would spend much time with me, here. I have not seen much of him in the past years. But your politeness resembles his own." I smiled kindly at her.

"Thank you. Why have I never seen you before, ma'am? With the rest of the ghosts." She seemed to tense suddenly. "Firstly, don't dub me ma'am, Helena is fine. The other ghosts, I do not believe enjoy my presence." I frowned.

"If I may ask . . . Helena, why would you believe that? You are so kind." She smiled almost ruefully at me.

"Thank you, Anne. I have a rather odd relation to them. They all blame me for my mother's death and unhappiness and lack of an heir."

"Why would they do that? What happened?" She seemed to shy away, but answered non the less.

"Have you met the . . . the Bloody Baron? Yes, well he and I have a rather complicated history. He and I were betrothed. My mother, Rowena, I believe you have heard of her, planned said betrothal. Sir Roman was his name then. My mother adored him, I on the other hand did not. I wanted to explore the world. He wanted to settle down at Hogwarts, the place I had been trapped for my entire life and ironically death. Because of my lack of love towards him, I ran away, the only logical thing a trapped nineteen year old girl would do. Little did I know that my mother was on her deathbed. Very sickly. I was hidden, I thought well. Mother sent Sir Roman to find me. He was infatuated with me and wished to marry me, so he had no reservations to fulfill her dying wish. He found me. Dragged me back to the Forbidden Forest, where I fought him. He grew angry and . . . simply killed me. He didn't mean to, he lost control. Then, minutes after he killed me, he killed himself, as to join me. Now, here I am locked in the home of my killer. He finally stopped coming to see me. The other ghosts blame my mother's illness on the stress of my abandonment. I'm sure you will as well."

"Of course not, Helena. Everyone makes mistakes, not that I believe your intentions to be mistaken. You shouldn't have been forced to marry someone you didn't love. You should have been allowed to explore the world. The other ghosts are not right to blame you for such things." She smiled kindly at me and we continued speaking for the rest of the afternoon.

The Baron and I continued walking through the dark dungeons when I chose to ask him about Helena. "Baron, why did you kill the Grey Lady?" He seemed shocked that I asked such a question, but then his tension eased into understanding.

"Been talking to Helena, have you? She told you? She never talks to anyone, must really like you." I smiled with pride at that. "It was an accident, please do not think too poorly of me Anne. I was deeply in love with her, but the feeling was not mutual. She broke my heart. I pulled her home to her mother. In the forest she told me she didn't love me and my rage took control of me. I didn't realize what I had done, till she was gone. I killed myself then. I couldn't grasp living without her." I nodded, I didn't fully understand the concept of that type of love. It must be powerful though to cause that kind of harm.

We finally reached my destination. Baron bid me goodnight and went floating on down the hall. I whispered the password to the portrait and climbed in. The living room was empty, but the lights were on. I checked the clock, eleven. Dad and Harry should be back by now. Harry was probably in our room and dad in his labs so I stopped there first.

I slipped in the room to see him sitting over a potion. "You're back? Good. Did Lupin walk you back? He'll get lost trying to get out." He chuckled. "No, he didn't walk me back. We came across Baron at the entrance to the dungeons and he walked with me. Or floated, I guess. I told Remus that Baron would walk me back because he would have gotten lost." Dad nodded, almost disappointed.

"Dad?" He didn't look up from his potion, "Hmm?"

"Is Harry's godfather alive?" He stopped what he was doing. He turned his head slightly to look at me. "What did Lupin tell you about him?"

"He didn't mean to, please don't blame him. If anything I tricked him. I was asking him about Harry's godfather. I thought they were friends from what I saw in my dream. So I asked him what he was like. He sounded sad when he spoke of him, so I apologized and told him it must be hard to speak of a passed on friend. He looked to me like I was crazy and told me that he was alive, but wouldn't tell me much further. Said he was a jokester, loved to prank people, and just became very odd when the war began. Why did you lie to me? I'm not angry, just trying to understand."

He nodded, he looked angry, but suppressed it for my sake.

"Anne, this man did an extremely awful thing. I was trying to protect you from that." I narrowed my eyes at him. He looked like he was hiding something. "What did he do?" I was barely able to whisper this. "Anne, I can't-"

"What did he do!" I screamed at him, not able to control myself. He stared at me, completely shocked. I was about to rant to him how I deserved to know, when I noticed a stray tear trail down his cheek. I stopped short.

He looked up at me, his eyes full of misery. I wanted to help, but I didn't know how. "Please."

"Sirius Black. That was his name. Your stepfather and him were inseparable. Did absolutely everything together, like brothers, they were. You and Harry were born four years after we all graduated from Hogwarts. By then, the war was full force. The Dark Lord was trying to find Lily and James, desperately. They were very public with their hate for him. . . . Your parents had a charm on them, called the fidelius charm. It hides them from everyone except their secret keeper, but their secret keeper can share them secret, making them findable. The Dark Lord found Sirius Black, their secret keeper-" More tears crept from his eyes.

"What did he do?" I whispered through the tears.

He nodded his head, "He sold them out. He told him where they were. Where you were. I went to your home as soon as I could after I found out he came after you. I was too late." I took a shaky deep breath. "That's not all, is it? Tell me everything." He shook his head at me, but still answered.

"Your parents had another friend, Peter Pettigrew. A cowardly boy, but he grew up. He confronted Sirius, his old best friend. There were thirteen muggle witnesses of the event. Black killed his friend and all thirteen muggles before the Ministry contained him. He's in prison, a maximum security prison, Azkaban."

"So, he's a murderer. He practically killed our mum. Us. How could he?"

Dad looked at me sadly, "The Dark Lord has ways of convincing people to do his will, but I think Black was a Death Eater all along. His whole family worshipped the Dark Lord. I'm sorry, Anne." I nodded my head, swallowing harshly.

"I think I'm going on to bed now. Don't worry, I won't tell Harry. He doesn't need to know." I slipped off my chair and out of the room before he could say any more. I ran to the loo quickly. I closed the door behind me and the lock clicked. I seated myself in the tub and cried harshly. I cried until I fell asleep.

Hello Everyone,

I know dramatic and short chapter, I will update again soon. Please comment. Who wants to start seeing the Weasley or more of Malfoy.

-Bookblaster