A\N: I have to give my full thanks to Lyria Padfoot and her story "Before They Were Legends" published here. She was my muse this time around and added a few lines here and there...seeing as she is Lyria she understands the character better than anyone. The entire flashback scene is pasted directly from her story with her permission. THANK YOU MOMMY!!!!!!!!!

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Dumbledore sat across from Lyria and Sirius. "As per normalcy your children should live here at Hogwarts throughout the school year. I do know however that you want to get to know them so I have a proposition to make for each of you. The term started last week and already we've had two retirements. Of course, with our luck with Defense Against Dark Arts Teacher the one we had quit. Miss Strider you are an Auror and did very well in that class. How would you feel taking it over? Unless you'd rather teach Potions in which case I'd have Severus do the job."

"Which would he prefer?" Lyria asked, trying to control her excitement. To teach Defense Against Dark Arts would be perfect.

"Defense Against Dark Arts." Dumbledore answered.

"Good, than that's what I'll take." She said, with a mischievous grin.

Dumbledore laughed and his eyes twinkled. "How did I know that that is what you would say. Now Sirius, Professor Binns has finally resigned and I would like you to take over for him."

"Professor Binns resigned? No way he's been here since...well forever." Sirius said, surprised.

"I know, I was just as shocked. But he mumbled something about kids today and disrespect. I was just happy to see him go." Dumbledore admitted. "He was very smart but I hear very boring as well."

Sirius and Lyria both laughed but Lyria stopped when she heard him. Sirius looked over at her sadly but Lyria turned away. "When do we start?" She asked Dumbledore, forcing down the desire to comfort Sirius and tell him it would be alright. It wouldn't be alright ever again, but she still loved him, very much. She'd tried being with other men but it hadn't worked. She was always thinking of him, his dark eyes, his tall handsome figure. Stop it! She yelled at herself. Don't do this. He's not that man anymore. Even if he didn't kill all those people he still betrayed Lily and James. Her memory sped off to the night they'd fought.

~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~

"I don't believe you!" Lyria snapped. "He's your best friend, and you're passing off the most important thing he's ever asked of you to someone else!"

The night had started wonderfully. Sirius had come home, armed with flowers for Lyria's birthday. Over dinner, he'd casually brought up that he was trying to convince James to use someone else as Secret Keeper. Big mistake. The beautifully decorated flat had become a war zone.

"I'm trying to protect them!" Sirius bellowed. "No one's going to think they'd use someone else!" He tried to calm down, but with little success. "Lyria, I don't know if I trust myself with..."

"So you don't trust yourself? Then how the hell am I supposed to trust you?!?"

"How is this about me now?" He demanded. "And if you agreed to marry me when you don't know you can trust me, you're the stupidest person I've ever met!"

"THEN WHY DID YOU ASK ME TO MARRY YOU? Huh?!? Any reason you moved in here, or were you just after me for sex? Or information? Someone's been passing it on to the Death Eaters!!"

"AFTER YOU FOR... ARE YOU ACCUSING ME?!?" That was it. He'd take almost anything from Lyria, but her accusations of betrayal he would not stand for.

"EVERYONE ELSE SEEMS TO BE!" She barked. "And you aren't denying it."

"I'M NOT DENYING IT?!? I shouldn't have to, we're engaged!! Ever since your damned Auror training, everyone's a traitor, aren't they??" He snapped.

Lyria's eyes narrowed. "Maybe you should take your little motorbike and fly it the hell out of my life."

"Sounds like the best idea you've had all night," He replied, slamming the door behind him.

Lyria sat down on the bed in a state of shock, glancing at the flowers that rested on the pillow. So much for a nice night... and so much for telling him the news.

What did it matter, anyway? She could raise a baby just fine all by herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~

But she couldn't raise her baby...babies. She hadn't known at the time they were twins. No, because of him they'd taken her babies away. He had ruined her life and led to it's destruction. "Lyria? Lyria are you okay?" Dumbledore asked looking at her in a concerned fashion. She seemed to have faded out.

Lyria's head snapped up. "Sorry, yes, I'm here." She said quickly, focusing only on the Headmaster.

"Well to answer your question you start on Monday." Dumbledore said. Lyria nodded and stood up. "Well if you could show me to my chambers I'll just go and get my things from home."


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Hermione smiled at the overwhelmed Athena. "You'll love Hogwarts. I have to say that I'm very glad you're a Gryffindor, I try to be impartial but if you were a Slytherin this would be hard. But you seem nice and I'm glad to help you."

"Thanks.." Athena said quietly. They walked up to a painting of a fat woman.

"Hello Hermione." The painting said, smiling. Athena jumped back and choked.

"It's okay. She guards our door." Hermione said.


"But she talked...and smiled...." Athena stuttered.

"That I did, who is this girl?" The Fat Lady asked.

"Athena Black. She's a newbie." Hermione responded.

The Fat Lady looked at her confused because the girl looked so old. "Password?"

"Fluffernutter." Hermione said and Athena laughed.

"The password's fluffernutter?" She asked as the painting swung open and Hermione led her into the Gryffindor common room. The entire room was decorated in red and gold and a huge lion was on the wall. A few people were sitting around talking, studying and doing other things. All wore long black robes. Athena looked down at her clothing and realized she must look very strange. Two boys stood up and walked toward them, one had red hair and was fairly tall, the other brown hair and a funny shaped scar on his forehead.

"Hey Hermione, who's this?" The dark haired boy asked.

"This is Athena Black...as in the daughter of Sirius Black..." Hermione said. "Athena, meet Harry Potter and Ron Weasley."

"Nice to meet you." Athena said shyly. Boy he's cute... She thought as her gaze rested on the one called Ron.

"Wait just a minute. Sirius Black has a daughter?" Harry asked. He was confused, this girl looked about their age...but he'd never seen her before.

"He didn't know either, but yes. And this is she." Hermione smiled. "She's my project."

"I'd like a project like that..." Ron said and then turned as red as his hair. Athena did too. "Erm...I mean..."

"Erm?" Athena giggled, her nose wrinkling slightly. "What kind of word is that?"

Hermione and Harry started to laugh, they were always bugging him about that. Also they hadn't seen Ron look at a girl like that since Fleur Delacoeur. "It's...erm...an erm word..." Ron stuttered, blushing harder.

Athena laughed again. "Harry's kind of your brother...Sirius is his Godfather and he's an orphan." Hermione tried to explain.

"Me too. Or I used to be." Athena said. It slowly began to hit her, she was no longer an orphan. She had parents, two...real live...though maybe slightly dysfunctional...parents. "How'd you get that cool scar on your forehead?" She asked Harry.

Harry looked at her in shock. "You mean you don't know? I was shocked when you didn't recognize my name...where've you been living? Under a rock?"

"Um...nope an orphanage in Liverpool." Athena said.

"A muggle orphanage." Hermione added, she then turned to Athena. "Muggle is what we in the magic world call the non-magical folk."

"That's why she's dressed funny." Harry said laughing. "I'm sorry, I grew up in the muggle world too, as did Hermione. You'll get used to robes and things. The hats are the strangest but you only wear them on occasion." Athena laughed again. "So you're like my sister...that's cool."

"Yeah...I have a twin brother...but they haven't found him yet." Athena said. She smiled at Ron.

"Erm..." Ron managed to squeak. What a smile...what a laugh...those eyes.

Harry laughed and pushed Ron. "Hey, you alive?" He asked him. Ron blushed again.

"Come on, we'll leave Ron to breathe again and I'll show you our room." Hermione said, she led Athena up to her room, where there was an extra bed. "You should probably change into your robes and shoes."

"Can't I wear my sneakers?"

Hermione shrugged. "Go ahead. You may as well try it til someone yells. So, let's get started on this magic thing. We'll do it here, I don't want you to get covered in Ron's drool."

"He is cute..." Athena said softly.

"Ron Weasley? Cute?" Hermione laughed and then thought a bit. Ron had filled out a little and his hair had darkened. "Maybe."

"Are you and Harry a couple?"

"Me and Harry? Oh Lord no." Hermione laughed. "No, we're all just really good friends."

Athena looked at her dubiously. "Sure." She laughed and set Artemis down on the bed. "Okay, what first?"