Chapter Five
Sirius...Cooks...Something

"Okay, I think that's everything," Sirius said, looking around the kitchen.

"I hope so!" Melody said, looking around. The kitchen was full of bags. There were bags on the chairs, the table, the island, and bags covering every inch of counter space available. "Were we really supposed to buy THAT much?" she asked.

"Who knows?" Sirius shrugged. Melody laughed.

"Where the hell does all of this go?" Alex asked.

"Alex! I don't want to hear you use that kind of language again!" Sirius snapped. Alex looked at him, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Sorry!" he said.

"If you're going to cuss, you should at least do it properly!" Sirius said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You shouldn't say: Where the hell does all of this go? You should say: Where in the hell does all of this bloody shit go?"

"Sirius!" Melody exclaimed as Alex burst out into laughter. "That is not funny!" Sirius just shrugged. He scratched his head and looked around at all of the bags.

"Melody...you wouldn't happen to have any idea of where to put any of this stuff, would you?"

"Well...yeah, I guess. I mean, I know where Mom usually puts everything."

"Wonderful! Well, have fun!" Sirius said, and he waved and left the kitchen.

"Sirius!" Melody screeched. She turned to Alex with her mouth wide open. "Can you believe him?" she asked.

"Uh...have fun?" Alex said, and he ducked out of the kitchen before Melody could do anything.

"Alex! Get your rude butt back here!" Melody yelled, sounding very much like Lily as she chased him out of the kitchen.


Two hours later, they had all the groceries put away, and Sirius had some things cooking. He had something in the oven and several pots on the stove.

Melody, Sirius, and Alex were all playing a game of Exploding Snap in the family room. Melody's stomach was grumbling.

"Sirius, I'm starving. When's dinner going to be ready?" she asked. Sirius froze.

"Uh...ready?" he asked. Melody shot him a Look.

"Yeah. Ready." She said.

"How am I supposed to know?" Sirius asked, taking his turn.

"Well, you're the one cooking it!" Melody said, slightly alarmed. "I mean, you did set the timers, didn't you?"

"Timers? What timers?" Sirius asked confused.

"You didn't set the timers?!" Melody shrieked.

"Relax! I have it all under control!" Sirius lied.

"Did you even read the directions?" Melody asked.

"Directions? There were directions?"

"Sirius! What exactly are you cooking?"

"Some meat stuff and some frozen vegetables and some macaroni and cheese. I think." Sirius said.

"Are you sure about that?" Melody asked.

Alex got a funny look on his face. "Do either of you...smell that?" he asked.

"Yeah..." Sirius said. "Smells like burning plastic. Funny. Wonder where that's coming from?"

"Dunno..." Alex said, looking around, confused. Melody gave them both Looks.

"You two have GOT to be kidding me," she said. "It's coming from the kitchen!" she yelled. "THE FOOD'S BURNING!" Melody yelled, standing up, her face getting red.

"The food's burning?!" Sirius and Alex exclaimed. All three of them ran into the kitchen. They coughed at the smoke coming off the stove.

Melody grabbed an oven mitt and opened the oven door. Smoke came billowing out. She grabbed another mitt and cautiously reached in, pulling out the contents and dropping them on the top of the stove. She turned off the burners and the oven, then closed the door.

"Sirius," she said, coughing. "D'you think you could clear this smoke away? I can barely see!"

She heard Sirius's voice, and suddenly the smoke cleared. They all coughed several more times, then looked at the mess on the stove.

"Nice going," Melody said, looking at the mess that had been in the oven. It was steaks. Or at least, they had all been steaks at one point in time. Now Melody wasn't sure what to call them.

"What, they're not supposed to look like that?" Sirius asked. Melody glared at him.

"Sirius, you melted the styrofoam and the plastic right into the steaks. They're not edible."

"Bummer," Sirius said. Melody rolled her eyes.

"Let's see what you've done with the side dishes," she said, taking the lids off of the two pots on the stove. Steam escaped, and when it cleared, Melody could see a bag of frozen vegetables and a box of macaroni and cheese crammed into two pots, wet with once-boiling water.

"Well, how was I supposed to know how to cook Muggle food?" Sirius asked.

"Okay, the steaks, I can kind of understand." Melody said. "But Sirius, the directions for the macaroni and cheese are right on the box." she yanked the mutilated macaroni and cheese box out of the pot. "Look! Right there!" she said, pointing at the directions on the back, printed in big, bold letters. "Note the helpful illustrations!" she said. "It's not that hard to figure out!"

"Okay, Lily, calm down!" Sirius said. Melody just glared at him and threw away their ruined...dinner.

"Calm down? Calm down? I've been hungry for two hours, and I want some food!" she yelled. "And don't call me Lily."

"Whatever," Alex said, sitting on the counter. "Let's just get something to eat. I'm hungry!"

"Yeah. Let's just go out to eat," Melody agreed.

"A great idea, but...I think we spent all the money James and Lily left us," Sirius said.

"Already?!" Melody said. "Sirius! That money was supposed to last us all year! I cannot believe we spent all that money on useless junk!"

"It wasn't useless junk!" Sirius said, defending his shopping. Melody gave him a very pointed Look. "Okay, so maybe the twelve bags of Dungbombs were a bit much. But still! We have enough stuff here to last us! We just have to figure out what to do with it!"

Alex and Sirius both looked at Melody, as if they expected her to start cooking something.

"Oh no," she said, catching their looks. "No way are you getting ME to cook!" They kept looking at her. She sighed. "Fine, I'll make us sandwiches or something, you guys get out of my way."

* * *

Harry nervously walked out to his first flying class with the rest of his Gryffindor friends. He wasn't nervous that he wouldn't fly well--he knew he could--but--what if he messed up horribly when Melody released the Quidditch balls? He wanted to make the team, he was desperate to--but what if someone found out what Melody was doing? That wouldn't be good.

And on top of that, the Gryffindors just had to be stuck flying with the Slytherins. They were pretty tame in Potions, but in the halls and during lunch they were really annoying. And Malfoy loved to pick on Ron, which Harry didn't appreciate much at all. He didn't really seem to like any of the Gryffindors, as a matter of fact. The only person he didn't bug too much was Harry, which Harry found odd, because Alex, Melody, and all the Weasleys were Harry's best friends and the Malfoys' worst enemies-and Draco knew it.

"Harry? Are you okay?" Hermione asked, noticing the tension in his face.

"What?" Harry asked, jerking his head over in Hermione's direction. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"Don't be nervous; I'm sure flying won't be TOO hard. Do you want some flying tips?"

"No, it's not the flying, I...I'm just thinking about that essay we had to write for History of Magic." Harry lied. "I don't know if I have enough notes for it."

"Oh! Well, I took good notes. We can go over mine!" Hermione said. She always loved talking about schoolwork. Harry just rolled his eyes.

"Hermione, can I see your essay? I know you're done already, and I need, like, five more inches." Ron said from Hermione's other side.

"No!" Hermione exclaimed. "You're just going to copy. How will you ever learn anything if you keep copying off of people?"

"Come on, Hermione, Harry's just going to copy all your notes!"

"He will not!" Hermione said indignantly as they reached the field where they were going to be given their flying lessons. "I said we'd go OVER my notes. I never said he could HAVE my notes!"

"Oh, come on, Hermione, it's just five inches!"

"Just five inches! Ron, do you know how much work it takes me to write five inches? If you'd spend half as much time on your essays as I do mine, you'd have nothing to complain about!"

"Oh, come off it, Hermione, your essays are always at least one roll of parchment more than was asked for! Just let me look at it!"

"Absolutely not, Ron, that's cheating!"

"But Hermione--" Ron began, protesting again, but Madam Hooch cut him off as she began their flying lesson.

"All right, everyone, stand by a broom!" she barked. "Come on! Hurry up, what are you waiting for?" Everyone quickly took their place behind one of the twenty brooms lined up on the ground.

Harry looked down at his broom. It was slightly bent and some of the twigs were sticking out at weird angles. What he wouldn't give for his Nimbus right now! Even his old broom would be better than this! He'd heard the Weasley twins complaining about school brooms--how some of them started to vibrate if you flew to high, or always flew slightly to the left. Great, just great...that was all Harry needed; for him to be diving for the Snitch and have his broom veer off to the left, making him miss completely. His stomach started twisting itself into knots.

Madam Hooch told them all how to get their brooms off the ground, sit on them, and grip them. Harry did all of this mindlessly, nervously wondering when Melody was going to let the Quidditch balls go. He was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn't even notice when the rest of the class had lifted up into the air.

"Potter!" Madam Hooch barked. "What's the matter, are you scared of flying? Kick off!" Harry snapped back to attention and kicked off, his cheeks slightly pink.

"All right! Tilt forward on your brooms slightly and you'll come back down." Madam Hooch instructed.

Several minutes later, after a set of strict rules had been laid out for them, the students were allowed a small bit of free flying. Harry lifted himself above the rest of the class and zoomed around aimlessly. Flying always helped him to relax. But he didn't get much time.

"Harry!" came an annoyed voice. Harry looked down to see his friends looking up at him. "Come back down here!" said Hermione, who looked quite uncomfortable on her broom. Harry sighed and reluctantly joined his friends.

"You never told me you knew how to fly!" Hermione accused. Harry shrugged.

"You never asked."

" I feel like an idiot! There I was, trying to give you tips, and you can fly better than the rest of this class put together!" she said, shaking her head.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Hermione," Seamus said, turning upside-down on his broom and flying around her in circles.

"Finnigan! Right side up!" Madam Hooch yelled. Seamus flipped back over.

"I don't see why I'm having so much trouble with this!" Hermione said, urging her broom slowly forward, but it was very wobbly.

"You're thinking too much, Hermione!" Harry said, zigzagging through the air in all directions. "Just be loose and let the broom take you where you want to go! Don't try so hard."

Hermione sighed and took a wide turn, nearly running into Draco, who was going in the opposite direction. She jerked her broom off to the right just in time, and glared at Draco as he yelled, "Watch where you're going, Granger!"

Parvati wasn't having a much better time of it. She was flying low, in circles, near the ground, with Lavendar hovering off to the side, giving her a few tips.

Harry and Neville got bored and started playing Chicken, zooming at each other across the sky and turning at the last possible second.

"No goofing off!" Madam Hooch yelled, blowing her whistle. Neville and Harry rolled their eyes, and went back to helping Hermione, who was now with Lavendar and Parvati.

Just as Hermione and Parvati were starting to get it, a black ball came flying out of nowhere and knocked Parvati off her broom. She screamed as she fell five feet to the ground, clutching her arm. The black ball flew off and tried to attack Pansy Parkinson, who dodged. Melody had let the Bludgers out.

"Land!" Madam Hooch yelled furiously, motioning at the first years. "All of you, land right now!" Some of the Slytherins were having fun dodging the bludgers, and Madam Hooch was yelling her head off at them.

"GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW! I HAVE TO TAKE THIS GIRL TO THE HOSPITAL WING! YOU'LL ALL GET DETENTION! COME HERE AND LAND!"

Everyone reluctantly landed. "Weasley!" she yelled. "Get your brothers! They're in Herbology! Granger! Come with me! The rest of you, STAY HERE!" Madam Hooch took Parvati into the castle, Hermione trailing behind, and Ron ran off to the greenhouses.

"Who would let the Bludgers out to terrorize the first year Flying Class?" Lavendar asked. "Fred and George love jokes, but they wouldn't do this, would they?" Seamus, Neville, and Harry shrugged.

"I SAW THE SNITCH!" screamed a Slytherin. Everyone jerked their heads over and looked into the sky.

"This is rubbish, standing around here!" Draco said. "I'm going to find the Snitch!" he mounted his broom and soared up into the sky, looking around. Harry's cheeks flushed. He wasn't going to let Draco take this away from him!

"Draco, come off it!" Harry yelled. "You're just going to get in trouble!" Draco looked down at Harry.

"Come up here and make me, Potter!" Draco yelled back, and Harry gladly accepted the challenge. He mounted his broom and pushed off, but he didn't go after Draco. Instead, he started looking for the Snitch.

After a couple of seconds, Fred and George Weasley came zooming out of the equipment shed with brooms and their Beater equipment.

"Oi! You two!" Fred yelled, seeing Harry and Draco in the sky, dodging Bludgers and looking for the Snitch. "Get out of the sky! We'll handle this."

Harry and Draco ignored him. Harry just circled higher and looked for a glint of gold.

George flew just below Harry and knocked a Bludger over to Fred, who caught it and landed, wrestling it back into the equipment box.

"Harry, what are you doing?" George asked.

"Looking for the Snitch!" Harry replied.

"The Snitch is out too?" George asked, whacking the other Bludger over to Fred.

"Yeah!" Harry said.

Just then, two things happened at the same time.

First, Hermione, Madam Hooch, and Professor McGonagall (whom Harry didn't see) came out of the castle, Madam Hooch yelling furiously about something. Second, Harry spotted the Snitch, hovering by Lavendar's knee.

"Lavendar! Move!" Harry yelled, and he rocketed into a spectacular dive. Lavendar looked up, saw Harry coming for her, shrieked, and ran. Harry scooped up the Snitch, grazed the grass with his feet, and flew back up to come in for a better landing.

He got off his broom, holding the Snitch triumphantly in his hand. His classmates cheered (all except for Draco and his friends) and Fred and George landed, congratulating Harry and putting the Snitch back in the equipment box. But Harry didn't have much time to be happy, because next thing he knew, Professor McGonagall's shrill voice was echoing over the lawn.

"HARRY POTTER! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

* * *

A rat scurried through a dark forest, carrying a small slip of paper in its mouth. It came to the end of the forest and into a small, quiet, slightly dirty town.

The rat crawled down into a sewer and ran along the edge. It crawled up out of another drain and ran out of the town. It kept running, running, running across the countryside.

After about an hour, the rat's destination came into view. At first it was just a speck in the distance, but as the rat got closer, he could clearly see a fortress coming into focus.

Most people didn't even know the fortress existed. It was Unplottable, of course, and on top of that, it was someplace you couldn't get to unless you knew exactly where it was and that it was there.

The rat reached the entrance to the Fortress and turned into a human as it reached the gate, taking the piece of paper out of its mouth. He showed the guard the Dark Mark on his arm and the gates opened for him.

Voldemort's fortress was crawling with Death Eaters. They had all segregated themselves from society, and nobody in the wizarding community knew where all of Voldemort's followers had disappeared to. Only one thing was certain: everybody now knew who was a follower of the Dark Lord, with very few exceptions.

The Malfoys, for instance. Lucius was and always would be a faithful Death Eater, but he had so much power in the magical community that Voldemort wanted him to stay there rather than at the Fortress, so that he could get news from inside the Ministry. Lucifer Malfoy, of course, was Voldemort's right hand man, and he was long-gone from society, which was just as well, because very few people knew Lucifer Malfoy even existed, let alone that he was Voldemort's brother--half-brother, really.

But that wasn't important. What was important was that Peter gave this message to the Dark Lord before he became obsolete.

Voldemort wasn't really too impressed with Peter these days. Several years ago, Voldemort had actually counted him as someone important, someone he needed. Now Peter was just the messenger boy.

Ever since James and Lily had chosen Sirius as their Secret-Keeper and figured out Peter wasn't really trustworthy (they didn't know Peter was working Voldemort-all they had were their suspicions), Voldemort had been rather sour with him. But he figured being messenger boy was better than being dead.

Peter entered the fortress and made his way to what he jokingly called Voldemort's DPR (Diabolical Planning Room). (Needless to say, Voldemort didn't appreciate the nickname.) He burst in right in the middle of a meeting. Voldemort was less than pleased, but let Wormtail go without a word, taking the message.

As he read it, a vicious smile spread over his face.

"What is it?" Lucifer asked.

"It's Mr. James Potter, my dear brother. It seems we've intercepted an owl from the Ministry to him. They're trying to tell him to leave Transylvania." Voldemort's eyes turned a more malicious shade of red than they usually were. He burned the parchment, laughing. "I guess we're going to Transylvania, Lucifer."

* * *

Melody Potter woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible knot in her stomach. Her heart was beating ten times faster than normal, she was breathing hard, and her hands were clammy. She put a hand up to her forehead and closed her eyes, thinking...trying to remember.

She slid out of bed and walked over to the window, opening the blinds. She looked at the half-full moon up in the sky. She gasped, and the knot in her stomach got tighter. There was blood on the moon, and a ring around it.

Melody rushed downstairs. "Sirius!" she yelled. "Sirius!" she rushed into the family room and found Sirius snoring on the couch.

Lily and James always gave Sirius the master bedroom when he stayed, but he rarely slept in there. Most of the time he ended up falling asleep on the couch, listening to the radio.

Melody switched off the radio and shook Sirius awake. "No, James, don't get me up. I don't care if we have a Quidditch match today..." he mumbled.

"Sirius!" Melody yelled. He sat up so fast she fell backwards over the coffee table. "Ow," she said rubbing her back and standing up again.

"Sorry. What is it?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Dad's in trouble!" Melody said.

"James? What do you mean?" Sirius sat up straighter and suddenly got more alert. "Did we get an owl? What's going on?"

"I don't know...I...we didn't get an owl, but I just woke up from a dream. I can't remember what happened, but...Sirius, there's a ring around the moon! And there's blood on it!" Melody exclaimed, her voice breaking.

"That's just superstition," Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "Blood on the moon, yada yada-it doesn't mean anything!"

"But Sirius, I just-I have this horrible feeling something's wrong!" Melody insisted, desperate for him to believe her.

"Calm down, Melody. It was just a dream."

"But what if it's not just a dream?!" Melody cried. Sirius sighed. As much as he was sure this was just some sort of nightmare thing, you never knew with witches.

"Fine, you win, we'll bug Lily." Sirius said. "Are you happy now?"

"Yes," Melody said.

Sirius yawned, stretched, and got up. He walked over to the fireplace, lit a fire, and threw in some Floo Powder. "Potions dungeon at Hogwarts!" Sirius yelled, stepping into the flames.

* * *

Lily Potter carefully measured out 4 cm of dragon blood in a little test tube. Dragon's blood was an important ingredient in Will-Strengthening potions. Maybe if she added some of this, it would help Aurors fight some of the Unforgivable Curses...

One more drop, and then it would be 4 cm exactly.

"Aah!" Lily screamed, jumped, and dropped the test tube on the floor as Sirius Black fell out of her fireplace. It shattered, and dragon's blood flew everywhere. Lily glared at Sirius as she took out her wand and repaired the shattered tube, setting it on the table.

"What have I told you before about just popping into my potions dungeon through the fireplace?" she asked, pointing her wand accusingly at Sirius and walking toward him menacingly.

"Lily, this isn't anything to get so upset about...is it?" Sirius asked, faltering slightly.

"You're not going to kill him, are you, Mom?" Melody asked, coming through the fireplace.

"Melody!" Lily said, jumping. "What are you doing here?"

"I-" but she didn't get a chance to finish. Lily cut her off.

"Oh no, it's the house, isn't it? The house burned down! Where's Alex? Oh God, Alex is dead, isn't he?" Lily said.

"LILY! You're rambling! Stop!" Sirius yelled. Lily stopped talking.

"Please tell me it's not any of those things," she said, crouching down to be eye level with Melody.

"No," Melody said, shaking her head.

"Oh, thank God," Lily said, plopping to the floor, hand over her heart. Then her eyes flew open. "It's James, isn't it?" she said. Melody nodded.

"What happened?" Lily whispered, panic in her eyes. She fingered the pendant on her necklace.

James had given her the necklace when they were both in sixth year. She hadn't taken it off since. Any time she felt afraid, she touched her necklace and felt better.

Now, though, it wasn't helping much. She had a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, like something awful was about to happen.

"I'm not sure, Mom, but I had a horrible dream. I...I can't remember much about it...except that it was horrible, and it had something to do with Dad." Melody said. Her lower lip was trembling. "Have you looked outside?" she whispered.

"No. Why?" Lily asked, scrunching her eyebrows together.

"Blood on the moon."

"There isn't a ring around it, is there?" Lily asked, her eyes growing wide. Melody nodded.

"Oh, no," Lily said. Suddenly, her face changed. She looked into the fire, her eyes tearing up, completely distraught, full of raw emotion.

"Mom!" Melody said. "We have to do something." Lily nodded, tears streaming down her face. She stood up and walked to her closet, pulling out her navy blue cloak.

"I'm leaving," she said. "Sirius, go explain this to Dumbledore. Melody, go home. It's the only safe place for you." She slid on her cloak.

"But Mom-" Melody began.

"Lily, you can't!" Sirius said.

"Stop!" Lily said, holding up her hands. "Melody, you can't argue. I know James and I are being irresponsible and completely ignoring the purpose of the Secret-Keeper charm, but we have to protect you. Now go!" Melody looked as if she wanted to protest, but sighed after a minute, her shoulders sagging, defeated.

"Floo powder's in the blue jar on the bottom shelf," Lily said, pointing at her Potions cabinet. As Melody went to get it, she turned to Sirius.

"Sirius, go to Dumbledore. Tell him James is in danger and I've gone to get him." Lily shook her head. "I should have ended this long ago."

"Lily, it's not safe, you can't go-you're not even sure where he is, are you?" Sirius protested. Lily looked him in the eyes, her face set.

"Sirius, that's my husband out there. I love him. I can't just sit here and wait for an owl to come tell me he's dead! Now, I don't care how big the world is, how hidden he is, or how many Polyjuice Potions he's taken. I will find him, and when I see him, I will know." She said, her voice shaking. She turned to see Melody leave.

"Go," she said, turning back to Sirius. "I'm getting my broom, and I'm going to fly. Now go!"

Sirius turned and walked out of the dungeon, hardly believing that he was doing this-or that Lily was doing what she was doing.

As he passed by a window, he said the moon, and the girls were right-blood. Blood and a ring. And as soon as he saw that, he knew what Melody had felt.

Like a dagger was ripping right through his stomach. Like he was going to be sick. Like he'd just lost something irreplaceable.

Like...

Like his best friend had just died.




A/N: Okay, well, I hope you all liked that! Don't flame me for the ending, just...be worried. Be...concerned. There's definitely something wrong. But it's not all bad! In the next chapter, we find out what happened to Harry, see Lily and James, and maybe even a little Voldemort...(I dunno, I don't really have this planned...)

Well, please R/R! I worked really hard on this chapter! (You have no idea how many times I've proofread and edited this...) Thanks for reading! ^_^

~*Sierra Charm*~