Uncle Remus wrote back to me after my letter detailing the events of the second task to say that he was glad he brought up water dwelling demons in his lessons the previous year. It was good to hear from him so after reading his letter twice through, I then sent Orion with a reply. Things at Hogwarts were having their ups and downs. Hermione had been Rita's newest victim, painting her as some kind of heartbreaker who toyed with boys' feelings as she flit between Viktor and Harry. There was more about me as well, though there was no new material, it seemed to just be old information that vile woman had recycled to keep up the public's interest, though it did a severe amount of damage as now we were both receiving an alarming amount of hate mail.

They called Hermione names and basically told me I deserved to be sent to Azkaban with my dad to rot forever. Nasty. Anyway, a few of the letters were actually cursed and one had been filled with undiluted Bubotuber pus which poured all over Hermione's hand and she had to go to hospital wing to have it treated. With an angry flick of my wand, I burned all the letters that had piled up in front of us then vanished the ash, telling Ron and Harry not to let her open anymore of them. "They're all utter nonsense and it'll only upset her, so don't let her open anymore. Either get rid of them or hand them over to McGonagall so that she can deal with them. She went on quite the rampage the first time this happened and hunted down the senders in order to write to them exactly what she thinks of someone trying to curse a student."

It had been quite the picture. As always, it was far more entertaining watching McGonagall lose her temper with other people as opposed to myself and the twins, who were used to it by this point. Still, the letters continued to come for us both, though gradually they began to lessen. Easter was now coming, marking the beginning of springtime which was greatly anticipated since March had been mostly wind and gales storms. Every day I sent food parcels and supplies to my dad, transfiguring them to look like something else with magic to turn back once he touched them. Orion dutifully flew back and forth once a week, since he always got in a huff with me if I tried to use other owls, but now I was starting to get the hang of a rather useful bit of magic.

By turning the food and items into birds, I could make them fly straight to my dad as a flock, meaning that he was promptly supplied with all kinds of things he could want. I bought him a shaving kit, a pop-up magical shower room, books, lanterns, parchment, quills, ink, food, drink – including a bottle which magically refilled itself with water once it was empty – and other things like a shrinkable and expandable chair for him to sit in and relax, a campfire which turned on and off as well as coming with adjustable heating settings as well as extra blankets for Buckbeak in case he got cold.

Helping my dad became another project of mine, so I'd spend hours of my time with Fred and George in order to get them to help me develop new merchandise for their shop, focusing on items that could change your appearance, as well as your hair and eye colour. We worked with items such as glasses, hats, scarves and more, spelling them to try and make them work but so far, every time I tried on a pair of glasses my hair went a shocking shade of purple and the skin around my eyes started to tint itself blue. There was still a lot of kinks to be worked out, but if dad had some of these, then he'd be able to go out in public without being recognised. I just needed to make these work, and with the twins on the case, things were going well.

He'd write back every time that I was doing too much for him but thanking me all the same and I would just smile to myself and tuck his letters away with the rest, keeping them hidden and out of sight. When Easter rolled around, I sent him a big basket full of chocolate selections and eggs, as well as a few treats for Buckbeak in a separate container. I transfigured them into birds, ordinary looking pigeons, then sent them off on their job before turning to the chocolate I'd been sent from both my mum and Molly Weasley. It was huge, the egg she sent me, I had to carry it with both hands and when I shook it, it rattled with all the delectable treats it had hidden inside.

So I carried it down to the common room where everyone else was already starting on their own, and I spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione together. The boys had both received eggs similar to mine, but I noticed that Hermione's was considerably smaller, barely bigger than a chicken egg. Then I remembered that Molly read Witch Weekly, where Hermione's articles about her scandalous ways had also appeared and figured out that Molly must have believed them. "Ah good, I was wondering where you were Hermione." I announced as I walked on over then plonked my chocolate egg into her lap before plucking the one she was holding out of her hand. "Mrs Weasley sent me a note, said there had been a mistake with the eggs, Errol must have muddled it up somehow and yours was sent to me and you got mine…I'm on a diet, see. Have to look after this figure."

Smiling to her, I then took a bite out of the egg and promptly consumed it in a heartbeat. Hermione smiled weakly and I hazard a guess that she didn't believe me but appreciated it all the same and insisted on sharing with me. Term continued rather quietly after that, though I picked up the habit of sneaking out of school once or twice every few weeks, turning into my lion form and racing through the Forbidden Forest in order to take a shortcut to Hogsmeade then circled around the village in order to visit dad in his cave, which was now smartly kitted out and looked rather cosy.

He looked a thousand times better now, filling out the new clothes I'd sent to him and had neatened himself up considerably. His cheeks were fuller from all the foods I'd been sending, courtesy of the house-elves who were more than happy to keep it a secret for me, and he looked like a man who was on his way to finding peace. He'd always rush to greet me, running over and pulling me into a fierce embrace before having me sit down on the single armchair in the cave in order to talk, spending hours at a time together and once, we even stayed up the entire night. Of course he'd scold me and tell me I was being reckless, but I smartly replied that he'd do the exact same thing so if anything, it was his fault I was like this.

Then he'd grin at me proudly, unable to deny the truth of the matter then continue with our discussion. Mostly I asked him about himself, wanting to know about his past so I could get to know him properly, and I was startled by just how similar we were, but then gradually also began to notice differences between us which also kept me on my toes, eager to hear every single word. Of course I also kept him up to date on Harry, as I had been keeping a close eye on him and everyone who was suspect of putting his name in the Goblet, but so far no one had made a move, which was frustrating to say the least.

If the culprit would just show himself, then I can hex him and get this over with, though my remark made dad laugh. "That's the Diana in you that is, she never had the patience to wait around for something to happen. Probably why she found me so irritating most of the time." Now that the subject of my mother had conveniently cropped up, I asked him about the two of them, making him frown and scratch his neck a little awkwardly. "Well, we didn't plan for you to come along, though we're both very glad you did. We were casually dating at the time, but then Diana had you and it was like everything in our world was perfect. Even if we got on each other's nerves, we made sure to work together as parents to raise you in a loving home."

"Would you two have ended up married do you think?" I asked and for a moment dad just looked at me closely, as if trying to figure out which answer I would prefer to hear but I betrayed nothing.

"I honestly don't know, Mia. We kept on putting it off, the time never seemed right and although I cared deeply for your mother, we weren't as in love as we would have liked to be. Not like Lily and James. To be honest, I don't think I even knew what real love was until I held you in my arms." This made me smile, unable to help myself. "How is she? Your mother."

"She's fine. She got married when I was eight to a guy called Leo. He's wonderful to her and treats me like his own, so we've been a close family for a long time." I answered honestly, dad going silent in order to listen. "I tried to tell mum about you last summer but she refused to hear it. She's still pretty angry about the whole misunderstanding about you allegedly blowing people up. We had a row over it, the first one we've ever had, and it got pretty intense until Leo stepped in and managed to calm her down. She didn't talk to me for ages after that."

"Well, Diana always was stubborn. Even if the ministry were to give me a full pardon, she'd still believe it in her head that I was guilty." Muttering darkly, I reached out and gave his shoulder a rub to reassure him. "You really argued with your mother over me?"

"Course I did, she was being a prat." This lightened his mood again and we continued chatting away about other things until dawn started to break and I had to return to the castle before someone could notice that I was missing. As always dad would race back with me through the woods, the both of us bounding in our animagus forms, occasionally jumping at each other to play and brawl together until we reached the treeline of the forest, the castle settled in the distance with the pale light of sunrise beginning to create a grey haze of mist. "See you soon dad, I'll let you know if anything new crops up." I promised, shifting back into a human in order to give his dog form a hug, scratching his ears before I took off once more, lolloping across the grass back towards the castle.