Christmas Day 18:06, Moony & Sunshine

Hi Sunshine. I need to ask you something. The day we all went home from school, I had an alarm, but it stopped a little while later. Do you have any idea why?

I'm not sure. Two days is a long time. I can't remember what happened. What did the alarm say?

Why am I not surprised you can't remember what you did two days ago? The alarm said, "Gonna have to do better than that, old man."

Because you've known me for more than a year and we're best friends? I think that must have been when my dad attacked me just after I got home.

I just reread that and it sounds really bad. He attacked me with a tickling jinx. It was a game. He wasn't trying to hurt me.

I've met your dad, Sunshine. I didn't think for one second he was trying to hurt you. Why do you think the alarm stopped?

Maybe when the game was over? But that doesn't make sense, does it? It's never stopped because the danger has passed before.

I think I have an idea. How did the game end? Did your dad catch you?

He always does in the end, yeah. The game ends when he casts it on me, and I bear it as long as I can before saying "mercy" and he lifts it.

So it ends with you laughing, and feeling all the emotions that go with laughing?

You think that's it? The happy emotions cancel the alarm?

We know the alarm is set-off by fear. It would make sense for joy to cancel it.

Brilliant. We can cancel alarms at a distance, then.

Only if we can figure out a way to feel intense joy on command. We won't always have someone to cast a tickling jinx on us.

Would be pretty hard to explain why we want them to do that, too.

It really would. I'll have a think and see what I can come up with.

Monday 25th December - Evening

'I don't suppose you brought the cloak?' Sirius asked the moment he stepped through the door and saw James waiting for him. The room was a small library. He imagined it was impressive by most people's standards, but it had nothing on the Black's library, and he knew the Potter's was even bigger than theirs.

James shook his head. 'No. Didn't think I'd need it.'

Sirius nodded. He'd expected as much, but the lack of it would certainly make things harder. Not impossible, just harder.

'What did you bring?' James asked.

Sirius shot him a devilish smirk. 'A better question would be, what didn't I bring?' he said, emptying his pockets onto the nearby desk.

James eyed the miniaturised objects sceptically. 'How is that a better question? There's literally nothing here I recognise.'

'Exactly,' Sirius said with a laugh. 'So if you'd asked, "what didn't you bring?" I could say, "anything you've seen before." Much easier than listing everything I did bring.'

James stared at him for a moment. 'But I still wouldn't know what we have to work with. So it's not a better question, just easier to answer.' He squinted at Sirius. 'Are you okay? Did your mum cast some kind of idiocy curse on you or something?'

'Rude,' Sirius said, laughing. 'No, actually it's been okay so far. Managed not to piss her off, anyway.'

'Two whole days without saying or doing anything stupid? I'm impressed. Think you can manage another twelve?'

'Bubbles better hope I can.' Sirius answered. Coming from anyone else, Sirius would have been insulted, but James was just as prone to stupidity as he was, so there was no sting to his words. 'Though I have a bit more help now.'

'What do you mean?'

'One of our house-elves died, and Reg bought Mother a replacement for Christmas.' Sirius paused, waiting for James to express confusion. He was proud of his brother's cleverness and wanted to show it off a little. James did not disappoint.

'I don't get how that helps you.'

'He bound the elf to himself before taking her home and ordered her to obey me over Mother.'

Sirius could almost see all the realisations of what that meant hit James one by one as a slow smile spread across his face. 'So she won't be able to starve you or torture you with fire for hours or anything.'

Sirius grinned. 'Exactly. And if something does happen, Peony can take me to Pete's to cancel his alarm, so he won't have to listen to it for the rest of the holiday.'

'Oh,' James said, his eyes widening with excitement. 'We didn't tell you yet. Remus got an alarm for me on Saturday, but it stopped on its own. We think if the person in danger feels joy, it stops the alarm.'

Hearing Remus' name brought the memory of that morning to the front of Sirius' mind, causing an involuntary grin to break out on his face. He turned away from James so he wouldn't see. 'That makes a lot of sense. Bit hard to feel anything like joy in my house, though.' Not strictly true—he was having trouble feeling anything but joy since that morning—but it was believable.

'True, but Moony's working on it.'

Sirius could picture him sitting at his desk in his bedroom, head bent over a book, hand furiously scribbling notes and ideas with a muggle pen. His hair would be falling in his face, forcing him to push it behind his ear several times a minute, eventually causing him to make that cute little noise of frustration in the back of his throat. He wouldn't tie it back though, or maybe he would at home, without anyone but his mum to see the scar on his neck. Sirius would quite like to kiss that scar, maybe follow it down under his collar and see where it led—

'Sirius?'

Sirius blinked and refocused on the room to find James waving a hand in front of his eyes. 'Yeah. What?'

'I asked what all this stuff is.'

'Right.' James was looking at him with curiosity but had evidently decided not to ask what he'd been thinking about, for which Sirius was grateful. He wasn't sure he could come up with a good story on the spot. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the first item on the table. 'Engorgio.'

The dragonskin box swelled until it was four times the size, and Sirius picked it and pried the lid off, revealing a silver chain, gleaming menacingly against a green velvet cushion. 'Cursed necklace,' Sirius said.

James tensed a little. 'Cursed how?'

'We slip it around his neck and it'll make him think he's suffocating.'

'What?' All the blood drained from James' face in a second, leaving him as pale as Nearly-Headless Nick. 'You're suggesting we torture him. I can't believe you'd even say it as a joke, but please, tell me you're not serious.'

Deciding it probably wasn't the time for his usual joke, considering how appalled James sounded, Sirius closed the box, shrinking it down again before slipping it into his pocket. 'It wouldn't have actually hurt him.'

'That's not the point. I…' James trailed off, seeming lost for words, and began to pace.

Sirius twisted his wand between his fingers while he waited. The temptation to try to explain was overwhelming, but he knew from experience that it wasn't a good idea to interrupt James when he was thinking that hard.

Suddenly, he stopped pacing and turned to face Sirius, his face serious. 'Okay, first, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that. I was judging you based on my own life experience, and that's not fair. Especially knowing what I know about your past.'

Sirius swallowed and nodded, accepting the apology even though he didn't think it was necessary.

'Second, I realise that kind of torture might seem tame to you after last summer, but I need you to believe me when I tell you it's not. It's not okay. And it's definitely not funny.'

Sirius nodded again, shifting his eyes to the floor. He wanted to speak, but his voice stuck in his throat. Had he finally blown it? Was this the thing that would show James he was no different from the rest of his rotten family? It was true, after all. He hadn't thought twice about the items he'd pocketed, only avoiding anything that would cause permanent harm or death. He still didn't really understand why James was so disturbed. The chain had been used on him as a punishment several times growing up. It wasn't that bad.

The silence between them was so thick for the next few seconds, Sirius could hear the faint sound of music and laughter coming from the ballroom. His eyes prickled as he tried to keep the tears behind his eyelids. James was never quiet for this long. It could only mean one thing.

'Sirius? Will you look at me? Please?'

Of course. James was noble to a fault. He would want to look him in the eyes when he told him they could no longer be friends. Sirius would just have to bear it as best he could. Swallowing down the lump in his throat, he attempted to mask his emotions and looked up, meeting James' concerned gaze.

James looked him over and then shook his head. 'You think I'm going to ditch you, don't you? For fuck's sake, Twinkles. Come here, you bloody idiot.' He reached out and dragged Sirius into a hug. 'You're my best mate. You'll always be my best mate,' he said. Then he pulled back and smacked him lightly on the back of his head. 'Idiot.'

Sirius sniffed, wiped his eyes with the end of his sleeves, and cleared his throat. 'So..?'

With a heavy sigh, James turned his gaze back to the table. 'Is there anything here that isn't a torture device?'

Wrinkling his nose as he regarded the table, Sirius tilted his head to the side. 'These ones hurt,' he said, picking up three of the items and putting them in his pocket. 'This one causes random spells of unconsciousness, which I guess could be dangerous.' He pocketed another item. 'This one makes you hear insults whenever someone compliments you.' He picked up the only object he hadn't had to shrink, a tiny silver ball, and stopped when he saw James raise his eyebrows.

'Now that has potential. How does it work?'

Sirius shrugged. 'Activate it and put it in the victim's ear.'

'In his ear? How the fuck are we going to do that?'

'It's mostly been done while they're sleeping in the past. If we had the cloak, it wouldn't be hard.'

James' face suddenly lit up like a lumos had been cast inside his head. 'Could your new elf take me home to get it?'

'Yes!' Sirius said. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that himself. 'Peony!'

The elf appeared with a quiet pop a moment later, bowing to Sirius. 'Master called?'

'That was quick. Did anyone see you leave?'

Peony shook her head vigorously, making her long ears flap around. 'No. Peony was cleaning Master's bedroom alone.'

'That's good. I need you to take James to his house to get something and then bring him back. Can you do that?'

Peony was more than happy to carry out his request, and a few minutes later, James was back with the invisibility cloak in hand. Sirius donned it before they returned to the ballroom and stuck close to James' side as he weaved his way through the groups of guests, positioning himself in the eye line of their target. It didn't take long to catch his attention.

'Mister Potter,' he drawled as he approached. 'I see you still haven't managed to tame that bird's nest you call hair.'

'Mister Karkaroff,' James replied with a polite smile. 'I see you still haven't learned how to talk to people without insulting them. Such a shame.'

Sirius tuned out the conversation and moved around behind the older boy before tapping his wand on the silver ball. Six tiny legs sprouted from the sphere, wriggling in the air as they searched for a surface. Biting his tongue between his teeth in concentration, Sirius reached up and placed the activated curse as gently as he could, just below the boy's ear. Immediately, the ball scuttled up and disappeared into his ear canal. Karkaroff must have felt it because he reached up and rubbed at his ear, but it was too late. The curse was in place.

It was hilarious to watch as Karkaroff made the rounds. Compliments were dolled out like sweets at this kind of event, and the rest of the evening flew by as they watched Karkaroff's face grow redder with every conversation. Sirius wondered how long it would take him to work out that something was wrong and seek the help of a healer. Considering how long the boy had been tormenting James for, though, Sirius hoped it took him a while.

The next morning, Sirius woke with enough time to write a note to Remus—who had yet to reply to the message he'd sent when he arrived home from the party, the sleepyhead—before heading down to breakfast. The moment Sirius was finished eating, his father rose from the table and beckoned for him to follow.

Sirius had known it was coming for two days, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. Until now, his father had been nothing more than a foreboding presence in the background of his life, watching silently from the head of the table as he was punished by his mother, or gliding through the drawing-room while Sirius stood paralysed in the corner with his hands above his head, apparently deaf and blind to his pain. He scoured his memories as he followed him up the stairs and into his study, but couldn't recall a single time the man had even spoken to him.

Taking a seat behind his desk, his father stared at him and Sirius hurried to stand in front of the enormous oak table, making sure his spine was straight, his chin up, and his hands clasped behind his back.

'Sirius. You're the eldest son of the House of Black, and as such, you will one day inherit leadership of the family and all the duties and responsibilities that go with it. It is time you learned what that entails.'

Christmas Day 23:30, Moony & Twinkles

I'm finally home from the party. Sunshine was so surprised to see me there, and we did a great job of taking revenge on his tormentor. You're probably asleep by now, but I wanted to say goodnight. Goodnight Moonbeam xx

(Wish I could kiss you for real.)

December 26th 6:15, Moony & Twinkles

Good Morning my gorgeous Moonbeam. I have to go down to breakfast soon, and I have a meeting with my father after. I don't know how long it will take, so I thought I should tell you. Wouldn't want you to think I'm ignoring you. I hope you're enjoying your holiday.

December 26th 8:22, Moony & Twinkles

Good morning. You really need to stop with the compliments. Mum's going to wonder why I'm blushing all the time. I hope the meeting with your father isn't anything bad. Please let me know you're okay as soon as you can.

I've spent most of my time, so far, reading. Or pretending to read while thinking about you. So, yeah, I'd say I'm 'enjoying my holiday.' xx

(I wish I could kiss you for real, too.)

December 26th 14:22, Moony & Twinkles

Good afternoon my gorgeous, beautiful, smart, funny, kind, and sexy boyfriend (I hope this makes it very clear that I refuse to stop with the compliments). I'm back. I'm safe. Nothing bad happened. I'll tell you all about it when we get back to school. It's too much to write it all down.

I'm thrilled that you're thinking about me when you have a book in front of you. I feel honoured. What exactly do you think about? (Imagine me smirking and wiggling my eyebrows at you here. I bet you're blushing).

What do you think I think about? (Yes, I'm blushing. I'm starting to wonder if I'll survive being your boyfriend).

I'm glad you're okay, and the meeting wasn't anything bad. What have you been doing with your time when you're not being forced to attend meals, parties, and meetings?

Mostly hiding in my bedroom, reading about arithmancy or tattoos, and wishing my pillow was your lap.

Surely the pillow is more comfortable.

No. Because it doesn't have hands to stroke my hair.

How are you getting on with arithmancy?

Don't think I didn't notice you changing the subject. Did you get flustered? The arithmancy is going… alright. It's hard, but I'm getting there. At the moment, I think Operation Gateway is going to take a while to complete, but it might be easier once I start Arithmancy classes.

I won't be mad if you decide it's too hard.

Moony, Moony, Moony. (I'm rolling my eyes at you so hard). It's hard, yes. But you're worth it. It might take us years, but we will succeed.

I know you believe that, but I still want you to know that I won't hold it against you if you have to give up.

When we succeed, I'm going to be completely insufferable about it to make you pay for not believing in us.

If you succeed, I'll take that punishment gladly.

Peter stared at the bowl of porridge for several minutes once it was ready. It wasn't until he heard Sirius' voice in his head, 'Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,' that he snapped out of the daze, taking the bag of powder from his pocket and mixing a third of it into the food. It figured that Sirius wouldn't be able to stay out of trouble long enough for Peter to make it through the worst part of the holiday. Although, he felt a little less alone—as he climbed the stairs to drug his mum—with Sirius swearing in his head every few minutes. This was the last time he would do it. Next year, he would find another way.

The guilt weighed heavily in his stomach as he watched his mum greet his nan, aunt, and cousins at the door and lead them through to the living room, knowing she was going to pay for the activity later.

'Stop worrying,' she whispered to him as he helped her make drinks for everyone. 'For the next three days, you get to be a kid. Enjoy it.'

How could he enjoy it, though, when he knew how much she would suffer for it? He tried, but it was hard. He spent some time playing with his younger cousins while his mum, aunt, and nan talked. Robert and Michael were five and seven, and absolute balls of energy. It went a long way towards cheering him up. Polly, his older cousin, sat with the adults, looking bored and speaking in monosyllables when asked a question. Honestly, Peter was glad about it. He felt weird looking at her after watching James and Sirius turning into her so many times.

After lunch, his nan suggested a walk around the neighbourhood, and they stopped at a children's play park for an hour in an attempt to wear Robert and Michael out. It didn't work. Peter spent half his time playing with the boys, and the other half with a worried eye on his mum. Not that he could do anything.

He hated being helpless.

December 26th 21:26, Twinkles & Bubbles

Are you okay?

Yeah, I'm fine. Why?

I've had your voice repeating the word 'shit' in my head all bloody day.

Fuck. I'm sorry. My father called me into his study for a meeting this morning. It was fine, but I guess I was scared on the way there. Are you alone? I can get my house-elf to bring me over real quick.

Yeah, I'm alone. You'll need to be really quiet, though. I've got muggles staying here.

I'll be there soon. Don't worry, Peony knows how to be quiet.

It's not the elf I'm worried about.

Rude!

After his early morning the previous day, James slept late on boxing day and it was past ten by the time he headed down the stairs in search of food.

'Ah, here he is at last,' Effie said as he walked into the dining room, smiling at him. 'Did you sleep well, darling?'

James hummed in the affirmative and kissed her on the cheek before sitting down in front of his steaming plate of food. 'This looks as delicious as always. Thanks, dad.'

'You're welcome,' he said. Then he grinned. 'So tell me, son. Did you start a fan club?'

James looked up with a mouthful of sausage and a confused frown.

'It's just you received no less than twelve owls this morning. It seemed a bit strange.' He waved his wand and in a flurry of parchment, twelve scrolls flew through the door and stacked themselves neatly next to James' plate.

'Ah,' James said after swallowing his sausage. 'I meant to tell you about that. Completely slipped my mind.'

Effie rolled her eyes. 'Well, maybe you can tell us now?'

'It's to help Emhio.'

'The kelpie?' Monty asked. 'The one you're convinced is innocent?'

James nodded. 'She is innocent, but we can't prove it. So we thought character witnesses might help her. We put an ad in the paper asking for testimonies from people she's rescued from the Great Lake in the past.'

They both smiled at that, and Effie reached over and ruffled his hair. 'You never stop making me proud,' she said.

James shrugged. 'I had to do something. She's done nothing wrong and they're going to kill her.'

Monty was rubbing his chin thoughtfully. 'You know. It might be good for her to know there are people in her corner. She's probably feeling very alone right now.'

'You mean write to her?' James asked.

Monty shook his head. 'I was thinking more along the lines of a visit.'

'Would they let us in?'

'I think I can persuade them,' he said, eyes twinkling. 'If you'd like to go? It's not exactly a Christmassy activity,'

'Are you mad? Of course, I want to go!'

'Well, that's settled then. I'll floo the ministry this afternoon and see when we can go.'

'Thanks, dad.' James hesitated, but he didn't think he'd get a better opportunity to bring it up. 'There's something else I need to talk to you both about.'

Effie smiled. 'Oh?'

'I did something yesterday that you're probably going to be upset with me for, but it was for a good reason, and there wasn't time to tell you beforehand.'

'We're listening,' she said, and James let out a breath of relief.

Pulling his notebook out, he showed it to them, flicking through the pages quickly so they wouldn't be able to read any of the messages, but would get the idea. 'Remus made us these notebooks,' he explained. 'They're linked so we can send each other messages instantly.'

'Impressive,' Monty said.

James grinned. It was impressive. Moony was so clever. 'I got a message from Peter yesterday, and it sounded urgent, like he was in trouble.' It wasn't really a lie. More of a misdirection, really. He had received a message from Peter. It had just been in his head, not in the notebook. 'So I flooed to his house,' he said, cringing.

'You left the house without telling us where you were going?' Effie asked, her voice thick with disapproval.

James nodded. 'I know I shouldn't have. I'm sorry, and I'll take whatever punishment you give me, but there's more I need to tell you first.'

His parents glanced at each other, seeming to have a full conversation without words, before looking back at him. 'Go on,' Monty said.

'Pete… Merlin, I don't know where to start.' He ran his hand through his hair. 'He needs help. A few years ago, his dad beat up his mum, really badly. He's in prison now. Muggle prison. I already knew that, but I didn't know how bad it was until yesterday. His mum's really sick still. She has to take a potion for the pain and sometimes she gets really angry and takes it out on Peter. He said it's a side effect.'

Effie gasped. 'Does she hurt him?'

James shook his head. 'I don't think so, just shouts and breaks stuff.' He pulled a small bag from his pocket and emptied the contents onto the table. 'This was his Christmas present. She went into a rage yesterday and smashed it. I was hoping you could fix it?'

She eyed the pieces with a frown. 'That shouldn't be a problem. But I'm more concerned about your friend. Potion induced rage isn't something to take lightly. He shouldn't be dealing with it alone.'

'It's worse than that, Effie,' Monty said. 'There's only one pain potion I know of that causes rage as a side effect. Do you know if there are any adults helping out? Or is it just Peter?'

'Just Peter, I think. Why?'

He sighed. 'Poor kid. The potion I assume she's taking would make her sleep. A lot. If there are no adults helping, I can't imagine how much responsibility is falling on your friend.'

'Someone must be helping. He's at Hogwarts most of the year,' Effie said. 'James, can you ask Peter if it would be okay for us to visit? Make it clear that we don't want to interfere, only offer help if he needs it.'

James gave her a grateful smile and nodded. 'Yeah, I can do that.' He paused and chewed his lip, but there was no point putting it off. 'So, about my punishment?'

'I don't feel right punishing you for rushing to help a friend,' she said, frowning. 'But it wasn't a safe thing to do.'

'Yeah, I know,' James said. 'I didn't think.'

'And that's the problem,' Monty said. 'Punishing you won't do a damn thing if you're not thinking about the consequences until after.'

'We could lock the floo,' Effie suggested.

Monty shook his head. 'That won't work. I'm never going to remember to lock it every time I get home. And we wouldn't want to shut Sirius or Peter out if they need help in an emergency.'

'That's true.'

James' chest filled with warmth. His parents were so lovely.

'What about a charm?' Effie said. 'Some kind of alarm to alert us if the Floo is used?'

'The Floo Network offers a service along those lines.' Monty said. 'I think it records the destination fireplace, too. I'll look into it.'

All things considered, that wasn't too bad, James thought. Having his parents as back-up in an emergency could come in handy.

'Let's see what we can do about this present, then,' Effie said, pulling out her wand. 'Do you know what it was originally?'

December 26th 11:23, Sunshine & Bubbles

Hey Bubbles, mum was able to fix your mug. It looks as good as new, and I didn't even get punished for leaving without telling anyone. I had to tell my parents about your mum, though, and they want to visit you for a chat. When would be a good time for us to come? Hope your mum is feeling better.

December 26th 21:34, Sunshine & Bubbles

Hi Sunshine, sorry for the wait. I have my muggle family visiting for a few days, and couldn't write until now. Tell your mum thanks for fixing my mug. I'm glad you didn't get into trouble. Why do your parents want to talk to me?

It's nothing to worry about. My parents just want to offer you help if you need it. Dad thinks things might be more difficult for you than you're letting on, and, to be honest, that does sound like you.

I'm okay. Really. I have help from my neighbour. I don't need anything.

Mum says she'd still like to visit. Honestly, mate, she's not going to give up, so you might as well give in.

My family is here until the morning of the 29th, so I guess you can come in the afternoon, after they leave.

Mum says we'll floo over at one o'clock. Please don't worry about it. My parents won't do anything bad.

I'll try.

'Level four, Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, incorporating Beast, Being, and Spirit divisions, Goblin Liaison Office, and Pest Advisory Bureau,' a cool, female voice said as the lift doors opened.

James followed his parents as they exited and walked down the corridor to a door marked Beast division. His dad walked up to the desk to speak to the receptionist, and James took the opportunity to look around. The walls of the waiting area were dotted with posters, most showing graphic pictures of dangerous-looking creatures along with text he couldn't make out from the distance he was at. One in particular caught his attention, and he wandered over to get a closer look.

Most of the poster was taken up with bold red letters against a white background.

Werewolf attacks are punishable by death. Lock yourself up or face the executioner's axe.

Below the text was an image of a vicious-looking wolf, complete with red eyes and drool. A woman and small child wandered into the frame and the wolf leapt on them, tearing them into shreds as fountains of blood spurted from their bodies. When the violence was over, the wolf morphed into a feral-looking human and laughed at the remains of his victims. A second later, four people in auror robes appeared, surrounding him and pinning him to the ground as a fifth person walked in wearing executioner's robes and carrying a massive silver axe.

'Merlin,' James muttered, turning away as the axe swung down to find his mum standing behind him.

'A bit over the top, isn't it?' she said. 'Not exactly accurate, either.'

'It's awful,' James said, imagining what Remus' face would look like if he saw it. 'I can't believe they purposefully put that where werewolves will see it.'

She smiled kindly at him. 'They want them to see it. To scare them into confining themselves on the full moons.'

'It's stupid and pointless.'

'How so?'

'Werewolves suffer, right? It hurts to transform. So why would they ever risk giving lycanthropy to someone else? The way I see it, the type of person who would pay attention to a poster like this is already locking themselves up, and the type of person who isn't locking themselves up isn't going to be swayed by the poster.'

'So, it's stupid and pointless?'

'Exactly.'

'You make an excellent point.'

'Thank you.'

'So what do you think the poster is really for?'

James frowned at her. 'What do you mean?'

'It's obviously not for the purpose it appears to be on the surface, because, as you pointed out, it's pointless, so what's it actually for? Why make the wolf look so evil? Werewolves don't have red eyes, and they don't drool to that extent. Why make the image so violent? Wolves don't generally kill, you know? It's a virus. It wants to spread, not kill. It's quite rare for an adult to actually die from a werewolf bite, even if left untreated. And why make the human-werewolf look so animalistic? Unless it's a full-moon, werewolves are just normal people, like you and me.'

'It's to spread hate,' James said, understanding what she was getting at. 'They want people who see it, to be afraid of them.'

She nodded sadly. 'Exactly. And I'm proud it didn't work on you.'

James shrugged. 'Hard to hate werewolves when you're best friends with one.'

'You're..?' She trailed off, pausing for a few seconds with a frown. 'Remus?'

James nodded, his stomach churning. Why had he said that? He wasn't supposed to tell anyone. He'd promised. If she flipped out about it, Remus would hate him forever. She'd seemed like she was pro-werewolf, but maybe the reality of her son being friends with one, going to school with one, sharing a dorm with one, would cause her to take a less tolerant stance.

'I'll need to check the dates of our summer holiday to make sure he can come. I think I may have booked it over a full moon. I wouldn't want him to feel excluded. You should have told me sooner, James.'

'I wasn't supposed to tell you at all,' James pointed out as relief flooded him. 'He's going to be mad when I tell him.'

'That's understandable. I'm sure he's experienced a lot of prejudice. You will tell him that dad and I don't care a jot, won't you?'

James grinned. 'Speaking for dad, now?'

'I know your father quite well, cheeky. He won't care.' she said, just as his dad walked up behind them.

'I won't care about what?'

'James just told me his friend Remus is a werewolf.'

'Oh, the poor boy.' His expression filled with sadness, but then he startled and looked at Effie with wide-eyes. 'The holiday! He won't be able to come if there's a full-moon. You have to check! He shouldn't have to miss out!'

James laughed. 'That's pretty much what mum said, too.'

'Told you he wouldn't care.'

'Mr and Mrs Potter?'

They all looked around at the call to see a tall man with blond hair standing in front of the reception desk. Taking the lead, Monty stepped forward.

'Yes. That's us.'

'Good afternoon, my name's Brian Ashdown,' he said with a smile, offering his hand to Monty. 'But, please, call me Brian. I'll be escorting you to the holding cells today.'

His dad shook Brian's hand. 'Thank you. I'm Monty, and this is my wife, Effie, and my son, James.'

'It's nice to meet you both,' he said, smiling at them before turning back to Monty. 'I understand you wish to visit the kelpie inmate known as Emhio?'

'That's correct, yes.'

'Well, if you'll follow me, I'll take you through.' He lead them out of the Beast division and they started down the corridor. 'It's unusual for our Beast inmates to receive visitors. I hope you're not expecting too much, though. It hasn't spoken to anyone since it was brought in.'

'She,' James said, annoyed. 'She's a she, not an it.'

Brian gave him a condescending smile. 'I do apologise young man. She hasn't spoken to anyone since she was brought in.' He smirked at Monty and rolled his eyes.

Monty raised his eyebrows at Brian. 'My son isn't fond of injustice. We're very proud of him.'

The man responded with a polite smile, and James grinned back at him. Putting assholes in their place was his favourite activity.

'It's just through here,' Brian said, stopping in front of a door marked Creature Holding Cells. 'Please stay behind the white lines. They mark the edge of the wards.'

They followed him inside, and James couldn't hold back a groan. Not that he tried very hard. He rather wanted Brian to be aware of just how appalled he was. The room absolutely reeked, body odour, mixed with faeces, mixed with disease. He could hardly breathe with it and quickly gave in to the urge to cover his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his robes.

'Unpleasant, isn't it?' Brian said.

'That's an understatement,' Effie said. 'Can you explain why on earth it's been allowed to get this bad?'

Brian scowled with irritation. 'The creatures being held here are dangerous. Taking down the wards to access their cells is a risk, and we don't take it unnecessarily.'

'How do you feed them, then?'

'The creatures understand that if they attack us when they're fed, they won't be fed anymore.'

'And you don't think the same would hold true for cleaning their cells?' Effie asked, frowning at him with disapproval.

'They're animals,' Brian said. 'They don't care about being clean.'

At that moment, they were passing a cell holding a man sitting against the back wall with his legs pulled up to his chest. There was an overflowing bucket in the corner, which James didn't want a closer look at. 'He doesn't look like an animal to me,' he said, meeting the prisoner's eyes.

Brian glanced over. 'That's a vampire. He killed a family of five last week.'

'Allegedly,' the vampire said. His voice was bright and musical. Not what James had been expecting him to sound like.

'Did you do it?' James asked him.

The vampire shrugged. 'That's for the Wizengamot to decide, I suppose.'

'Come on. I don't have all day for this,' Brian snapped. 'Your Kelpie is just down here.'

Emhio, much to James' dismay, was locked in a cell containing a pool of water smaller than a bathtub. It was impossible for her to fully submerge herself in such a confined space, forcing her to choose between submerging her legs, or her torso and head. She was still bridled to prevent her from shifting her shape to something smaller, and she looked utterly miserable. James' heart broke for her.

'She needs more water than that,' James said. 'This is barbaric.'

'She killed a professor,' Brian said. 'She deserves nothing.'

'She's innocent. But even if she wasn't, it would be wrong to treat someone like this.'

Monty put a hand on James' shoulder. 'Calm down, son.'

Shrugging him off, James whirled around, his chest filling with fire. 'You can't think this is okay?'

'Of course not,' he said, meeting James' gaze with calm eyes. 'But this isn't the way to fix it. And this isn't the time. Do you want to get thrown out before you've spoken to Emhio?'

James' anger deflated. 'No.'

'Mister Potter?'

James spun around at the sound of Emhio's voice. 'Emhio. Hi.'

'It's nice to see a friendly face,' she said, smiling at him through the bridle.

'I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. I didn't know I could.'

'That you came at all is more than I expected.'

'You have thirty minutes,' Brian said, rudely interrupting their conversation. He turned on his heel and marched back to the door, leaving them alone.

'We'll leave you to talk,' Effie said. 'I want to speak to some of the other prisoners about their treatment.'

James waited until his parents were out of earshot before turning back to Emhio. 'I know you're innocent,' he said. 'My friends and I are trying to prove it.'

Her smile turned sad. 'That's kind of you. It's good to know someone believes I'm not a murderer. But I hope you won't take it too hard if you fail.'

'We've thought of that. We've been gathering witness testimonies to show that you're not evil, in case we can't find the proof you didn't do it. So many people have written to me with stories about you rescuing them from the lake.'

She chuckled, but her eyes were shining. 'It truly is remarkable how many students manage to fall in.'

'Everyone misses you,' James said. He actually hadn't heard anyone but the Marauders mention her, but they couldn't be the only ones who cared, surely? It didn't matter. He wanted her to have hope, and if the lie helped, it was the right thing to say.

'I miss you all, too,' she said, looking away from him. 'I miss Hogwarts. And I miss Marcus. He was a good man. He didn't deserve to die like that. But knowing that his killer is still out there…' she trailed off, looking pained.

'Do you have any idea who did it?'

She shook her head. 'I was in the lake. I didn't even know he was dead until hours later. You were among the group that found him, weren't you? Did it look like he suffered?'

James suppressed a wince as he remembered the sight of his teacher's torn throat. 'No,' he lied. 'It looked like he was dead before he knew anything was happening.'

She gave him a small smile. 'That's something, at least. But I think that's enough sadness. Tell me something happy.'

James happily obliged, filling her in on all the Hogwarts' gossip she'd missed, and making her laugh as much as he could. By the time Brian returned to escort them out, he felt like he'd done some good. And he was more determined than ever to find Marcus Hawthorne's real killer and get her out of that place, back to Hogwarts where she belonged.

December 27th 16:09, Sunshine & Twinkles

Hi! Thought you might want a warning. My mum is flooing your mother to invite you over tomorrow.

That explains why I've been called downstairs. Thanks, Sunshine.

Mum said you're allowed to come!

You can play on my quidditch pitch!

Dad's going to bake cookies!

I've been instructed to talk up Lord Voldemort and try to persuade your parents to vote for him.

Ha! That's not going to happen.

Not in a million years. Why are you excited about cookies? You don't like cookies.

True. But you do. I'm excited for you. We're going to have so much fun. What are you doing right now?

Honestly? Been reading my Arithmancy book. Not a lot to do here.

That's cool. I've been reading my Ancient Runes book, too. I think it's going to be a while before I can figure it all out, though.

Yeah, same. Arithmancy is complicated.

Moony's been pretty calm recently, though. I think we have time.

We shouldn't talk about this here. These notebooks don't have any protections on them.

Shit. You're right. We should both cross out those lines.

Done.

Me too.

December 27th 16:34 Moony & Sunshine.

I need to tell you something.

What is it?

Please don't hate me. I told my mum your secret, and she told my dad. They don't care, but I thought you should know that I told them.

Remus?

Shit. You're really mad at me, aren't you? I'm sorry. I'm just so used to telling my parents everything. It just slipped out.

I don't understand how it could 'just slip out.' And it scares me, because if it's that easy for you to accidentally tell someone, how can I trust you?

We were at the DRCMC visiting Emhio. There was a poster in the waiting room about werewolves. It was bloody horrible. I hope you never see it. My mum saw me looking at it, and we were talking about it. She pointed out it was designed to spread fear and hatred, and said she was proud that it didn't work on me. And I just said, 'hard to hate werewolves when you're best friends with one.' It was just because it was my mum, and I knew she wouldn't care. When we got home, she immediately flooed the resort in France and changed our booking so it wasn't during a full moon so you'd be able to come.

I understand that it worked out and your parents haven't turned against me, but can you try to see that isn't the point? It wasn't your choice to make. Please don't write me with any more attempts to justify what you did. I don't want to read it. I need some time to think.

'I fucked up,' were the first words out of James' mouth when Sirius arrived at the Potter's. His eyes were dull, lacking their usual gleam of mischief, and he was so still it made Sirius shiver.

'You fucked up?'

James nodded and put both hands in his hair, gripping it so tightly Sirius worried he'd pull it out. 'I fucked up, bad.'

'What did you do?'

'I told mum and dad that Remus is a werewolf. Then I told Remus that I told them. He hates me.'

'What the fuck, James?' Sirius hissed.

James moaned and flung himself onto the sofa. 'I know. I'm the worst friend ever.'

'What were you thinking?'

'I wasn't thinking. It just slipped out. We were talking about werewolves, and mum said she was proud I wasn't prejudiced, you know? And I said, "hard to hate werewolves when your best friend is one". It was so stupid.'

'And I thought I was the impulsive speaker in the group. Fucking hell, James. You had no right.'

'I know. Do you think he'll forgive me?'

Sirius sat down beside him with a heavy sigh. 'He'd be well within his rights not to. What did he say?'

'I'll show you. It's in my room.'

They passed Effie on their way to James' bedroom, and Sirius stopped to greet her. She gave him a hug and ruffled his hair. He didn't quite know what to make of it, but it was sort of… nice? Sirius made himself comfortable on James' bed while James fetched the notebook and flicked to his page with Moony.

'Hmm,' Sirius hummed when he'd finished reading the messages.

'It's bad, isn't it?'

'Pretty fucking bad, yeah. You realise all you did is try to justify breaking his trust like it was no big deal?'

'I apologised!'

'Yeah, but you also made it seem like he was overreacting.' Sirius sighed. 'Look, you've never had to hide a part of yourself, so maybe it's hard for you to understand, but you took away his choice about who he should trust with his secret, and that's a big thing. Every person he tells is a risk. He's not just risking their rejection. He's risking the possibility of them telling the wrong person, too.'

'My parents won't tell anyone.'

'You're doing it again.'

James put his hands in his hair and fell back onto the mattress. 'Shit. I suck. I'm a terrible person and I don't deserve friends.'

'Now you're being dramatic.' Sirius poked him in the ribs, making him squeal and squirm away. 'Moony will forgive you, but you have to apologise without trying to justify it, or downplay it, and you have to acknowledge why what you did was such a betrayal.'

James sat up. 'Will you help me?'

'Sure,' Sirius said. 'And James?'

'Yeah.'

'It might be a good idea for you to stop telling your parents all your friend's secrets.'