CHAPTER 2
It was August 18. Lily stared out her window into the dark sky, with its tiny pinpricks of light shining back down at her. She loved looking out at the night sky. It was beautiful- the bright moon guiding the lost, the stars placed so carefully in the velvet sky, twinkling, teasing the watchers. Bliss.
"LILY!"
Lily sighed, walked out of her room, down the stairs and into the kitchen where her mother and Petunia were sitting, eating ice cream.
"Yes?"
"Take care of that owl!"
Petunia smirked at her.
"Oh..." Lily said and took the owl and its letter up to her room.
Hey, Lil!
I'm in France for the summer (I forgot to tell you that during school: Lils, I'm going to France this summer). It's so cool here! I can't wait until school starts, though. We'llbe second years! Sirius can finally go terrorize the first years! Oh, my cousin (Sirius' little sister) is starting Hogwarts this year. She's annoying, beware. May be it's just a kid thing. See, we're not kids anymore, we'll be teenagers in a year! Wow, we're gettin' old! I suppose it could be worse. We could be turning 14 in a year- we'd have to break out the ol' walking canes. ANCIENT! Ok, so not really, it's just two years away. Anyway....I'm off to Paris now. Sirius wanted to come with us so he could climb the Eiffel Tower. I told him if he tried it, I'd laugh when he fell off. That shut him up. You can send a reply back with Raven, I told her to wait for you, but it would be a miracle if she actually listened. Well, anyway, bye!
-Heidi-
Lily grinned, wrote a reply, and sent the owl off. Just a couple weeks left, she thought, I can't wait! Petunia is driving me mad!
*
THUNK!
"OW!"
"Oh, hi, James." Lily said absently; she was reading a good book and couldn't be disturbed by miniscule things such as a friend from school falling out of the fireplace. A friend falling out of the fireplace? Lily looked up from her book.
"How'd you get here?"
James grinned. "Floo powder."
"Ok. What's floo powder?"
"Transportation for wizards who can't Apparate."
Petunia walked into the room. "Who is he?"
"A friend of mine."
Petunia glared at Lily. "Yes, just invite your freak-friends over whenever you want, you stupid orphan."
Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not living in an orphanage, I've been adopted, therefore, I'm not an orphan, you great prat."
Petunia 'hmphed' and walked out.
"D'you want to go to Diagon Alley? Sirius is going to me meet there and Heidi'll be there too. Remus is sick, Audrey was going to stay home and take care of him, Isaac's not home and Pete- well, he already had his things and didn't really want to go again."
"Ok." Lily said. "Let me go ask my mum." She left the room and returned a few minutes later. "So how do we get there?"
James explained how to use Floo powder (his father had gotten Lily's home added to the Floo Network) and a couple minutes later, Lily was walking with James, Sirius and Heidi to Madame Malkin's. After they'd bought all of their things for school, they wondered in and out of shops, eating ice cream cones.
"Sirius! There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere!"
Sirius, James and Heidi groaned at seeing the petite girl with shoulder length black hair and brown eyes like Sirius' (but withought the teasing and mischeivous spark) standing with her hands on her hips.
"Lily, this is my sister, Taya." Sirius said.
"Pleasure." Lily smiled at the girl who studied her over in return.
"We have to get back home." Taya said to Sirius.
"Yeah, ok. See you three later." SIrius said and walked off with Taya, 'accidently' tripping her.
*
The train ride was boring, except for when Sirius found a- well, a rather nasty tasting Every Flavor bean, but that doesn't really matter.
"I want to ride over with the first years!" Sirius cried when they saw Hagrid leading the little ones off to the lake.
"You want to ride over with Taya?" Heidi asked.
"Sure! I could push her off the boat!"
"You're so nice." Lily commented. Sirius bowed.
Taya was among the first few to be sorted.
"Black, Taya."
She walked up to the Hat confidently and sat down, placing it on her head. "SLYTHERIN!" it shouted.
Taya took it off, and walked to the Slytherin table in shock, Sirius and Heidi's faces mirrored hers.
"Oh no..." Audrey muttered as the Hall reupted into whispers.
"What's the matter?" Lily asked. "It's JUST Slytherin."
"Nobody in our family, none of our relatives or anybody has every been sorted into any house other than Gryffindor. And now Taya's in Slytherin?"
"Maybe somebody pranked the Hat. Or maybe it's pranking us and getting revenge for the cleaning it got last year." Heidi said.
"Yes, and I have seven heads." Sirius said.
"Really?" James asked. Sirius glared at him.
"Sirius, it'll be all right. The House just has a bad reputation."
"It's SLYTHERIN, Lily! It doesn't 'just' have a bad reputation! Taya will turn out like all the others!"
Lily ignored Sirius throughout the rest of the feast.
*
"So."
"Only if you say so."
"Oh, but I do."
"Well, all right then."
"Thanks."
"Anytime, chap."
Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm taking this avoiding the topic to mean you don't want to talk about it?"
"Verdad."
"Spanish?"
Heidi nodded. "I only know about five words. Verdad, hola, dice que si and adios."
"Dice que si?"
"'He says yes' or something like that."
"Ah, the classic 'change the topic by speaking Spanish.'"
Heidi rolled her eyes. "That's classic?"
Lily shrugged. "If you feel like it."
Audrey looked up from her Transfiguration essay. "Are you two going to sit there and talk gibberish all night?"
"Possibly."
"Grand." Audrey said. "Heidi, what was in that letter this morning?"
"Oh, come on, Audrey, that's the topic I've been so cleverly avioding all night!"
Audrey rolled her eyes. "It was obviously disappointing. That's why I asked."
"Doesn't matter. I'm not allowed to tell, though."
"Oh."
*
"What could be more interesting than goblin rebellions?" Lily asked as the Gryffindor 2nd years walked out of History of Magic.
"Wizarding banking methods compared to muggle ways." Audrey responded.
"You mean somebody paid attention?" Remus asked.
"I dreamt it. Is dreamt a word?"
Lily shrugged. "Interesting dream?"
"No. Binns was standing on a stage and there was a live reenactment on the huge silver screen thingy-"
"Television, Heidi, television."
"Ok, right. But hsi voice got really annoying because he was narrarating and, hey, it's Binns. Then an axe flew out of nowhere and chopped his ghost head off. But it reattached itself. I was sad." Lily, Audrey and Remus laughed at her.
"Where's James, Sirius, Isaac and Pete?" Audrey asked.
"Er- I don't know."
When the four reached the common room, they found the missing four boys.
"He attacked again." James said when they walked in.
"Who attacked?" Lily asked.
"Voldemort." Peter flinched.
"That's not nice." Lily said. "Who's Voldemort?"
"The bad dude of the wizarding world." Heidi said.
"Nicely put."
"He hates all Muggles and Muggle borns." Remus explained. "So he kills them." Lily's eyes widened.
"You'll be fine, though, Lil." Isaac said. "He's terrified of Dumbledore. Voldemort--"
"Stop saying the name!" Peter hissed.
"Most people call him You-Know-Who. Voldemort won't come near Hogwarts." Isaac continued.
"No, instead he'll send the Death Eaters." Sirius said.
"Thanks, Sirius, that was very reassuring." Lily said.
Sirius shrugged.
*
"Hey, Sirius, wait!"
Sirius stopped by the door to the charms room and looked at his little sister. "What?"
Taya adjusted her ponytail. "I'm sorry you hate me for being who I am."
"I don't hate you." Sirius said. "I hate that you're in Slytherin."
"I have to have Slytherin qualities to be put in Slytherin and that's where I am, so, really, you hate me."
"Don't you have a class to go to?" Sirius asked coldly and walked into Charms. Heidi, who had hear the whole exchange, gave a half smile to Taya.
"He'll get over it." she said. Taya sighed and walked off to her class.
*
"Quidditch tryouts are next week!" James announced at breakfast. "Who's trying out?"
"ME!" Sirius shouted.
"I am too. " Isaac said.
Lily and Heidi nodded their agreement.
"Audrey, Remus, Pete, how about you?" James asked.
Audrey shook her head, Peter said he was scared of heights and Remus wasn't a big fan of Quidditch.
"How can you not be a fan of Quidditch?" James asked, almost insulted by the idea.
Remus shrugged. "What positions are you going for?"
"Beater." Sirius said.
"Chaser." Isaac, James and Lily said together.
"Seeker." Heidi muttered, looking for her Daily Prophet.
"You're just so enthusiastic." Audrey said.
Heidi glared at her and continued reading an article in the paper.
"Can I see that?" Peter asked.
Heidi, who was pale when she finished, looked up at Peter. "I have to go." she whispered, stood, and exited the Great Hall, Lily following her.
"I just wanted to see my horrorscope!" Peter said.
"Just go find Trelawney." Sirius said wisely (or so he thought).
"How'd you know about Trelawney?"
Sirius grinned.
"What's the matter with Heidi?" Isaac asked.
"Er- well, Heidi's brother...well, you'd have to ask her." Sirius said.
*
The Saturday Quidditch tryouts were being held finally came.
James, Sirius, Isaac, Remus, Lily, Heidi and Audrey were sitting on the grass near the lake, all were glad tryouts were over (even though Remus and Audrey hadn't tried out, they were still glad because their friends could stop worrying). All five had made the team but were reserves in order to let the 7th years play.
"I'm sooooooo bored!" Sirius moaned.
"You're always bored." Isaac said.
"Don't you get bored of being bored?" Audrey asked.
Sirius paused. "Did that make sense?"
"What's that?" Lily asked, pointing to a dark figure coming toward them. Heidi and Sirius stared at the figure in shock.
"Michael?" Heidi asked. Sirius nodded. Heidi stood up and ran to the boy, not much older than she.
"Who is that?" Lily asked Sirius.
"Her brother." he said as Heidi and Michael hugged. "You guys should go inside."
"Wait a minute...." Remus said. "Isn't he the guy the Ministry's looking for?"
"Shh!"
Michael and Heidi walked back to them, glaring at each other. Michael's robes were worn and dirty and he seemed much thinner than he ought to be. "Sirius," Michael said, "explain to Heidi why I can't stay here."
Sirius bit his lip, looking from one cousin to the other. "The Ministry expects him to come here, Heid." Heidi stared at him in disbelief.
"I have to go talk to Dumbledore and then I have to leave." Michael said.
"You aren't going to try to hide for a little while?"
"I can't risk getting Dumbledore into trouble."
"But-"
"Heidi, stop." Michael said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Dad won't listen. There's no evidence. I have to hide."
Heidi sat down on the ground. "Fine." she said.
There was an uncomfortable silence in which everybody was trying to figure out something appropriate to say. Afterall, it was beginning to rain so they couldn't leave Heidi there- she'd be there all night as a protest.
Heidi had once spent the night outside in a snowstorm because she wasn't allowed to talk to James and Sirius at the next dinner party that would be helf (the trip had put frogspawn in the Brazilian Minister of Magic's wine and Michael had accidently set off a Filibuster Firework that had hit the man, lighting his clothes on fire) and, as a result of spending the night outside in the snow and was now somewhat hypersensitive to cold weather. But back to the story.
"Heidi, come on, you know I have to do this." Michael said warily.
Sirius and James looked at each other and picked Heidi up. Heidi, being the stubborn and temperamental twelve-year-old that she was, began kicking and scream for the two boys to let her down.
Lily placed a silencing charm on her and received a glare.
"Heidi, you can come with me to Dumbledore's office or you can go with your friends to the Common Room." Michael said.
Heidi rolled her eyes and walked off with Michael.
"Think I should take the charm off?" Lily asked.
The group laughed as they walked into the castle. "Why'd you laugh? It wasn't even funny."
Isaac smiled. "You better take it off." he said.
Lily shrugged and removed the charm.
As the six walked into the Common Room, Lily asked why Michael was hiding.
"He was accused of stealing a bunch of valuable things-"
"Like what?"
"The Shield of Gryffindor. There's a myth that if the shield is broken, Gryffindor's descandants will die and the Dark Lord will prevail. The only problem is, there's a Slytherin hammer or axe or something that's the only thing that can break it. Voldemort has the Shield." Audrey explained.
"Right. And Michael was accused of stealing it for Voldemort." Isaac continued. "He didn't actually do, but nobody knows where he was that day."
"That's it, Isaac and Audrey are our official 'explainers.'" Sirius muttered.
"That all happened three weeks after he graduated from Hogwarts."
"He was here last year?" Lily asked. Sirius nodded. "I didn't even see him!"
"It's a big school, Lil."
Heidi stormed into the Common Room and collapsed onto a chair. "I hate my father." she announced.
"Why?" Isaac asked.
"He's the bloody Minister of Magic, has no time for his kids and even if he did, he wouldn't care. He would at least have had the detective guys try to figure out where Michael was instead of sicking the Aurors on him."
"Doesn't Michael know where he was?" Lily asked.
"There was a Memory charm placed on him and they can't break it without making him a useless blob of mumbo-jumbo," Heidi muttered. "so he doesn't know."
* Meanwhile *
Alexa grinned at Casey. "What wonderful news we have for the Minister of Magic. Michael Addington is at Hogwarts."
"Er, 'Lexa, isn't this a little bit mean? I mean, everyone knows he didn't actually do it. And if Heidi finds out..."
"Are you scared?" Alexa asked, sneering.
Casey grimaced. "Don't do that. You look like a Slytherin."
Alexa frowned. "Well, come on, let's go send an owl off for Minister Addington."
*
It was after midnight. Heidi was still in the Common Room, alone now, and glaring at the fire.
The portrait hole and Daniel Addington, Minister of Magic, strode in. Heidi didn't look up.
"You should be in bed." he said.
"Amd you should be at home with Mum."
"Don't use that tone with me, young lady."
Heidi glared at him. "What are you doing here?"
"A couple of your classmated informed the Ministry that Michael was here." (Nevermind the fact that he was in the Common Room after midnight).
Heidi's eyes widened. "He's not here. I haven't seen him since summer."
"Nice try. You needn't worry, he escaped before we were able to find him."
Heidi sighed in relief. "Who snitched on him?" she asked, remembering what he'd said about two of her classmates.
"Alexa Ostin and Casey Neviner."
*
Heidi stormed up to her dormitory. Alexa and Casey were in an unimaginable amount of trouble. Her father had left, telling her to thank the girls. Heidi had no intention of thanking them. She was going to bash their heads together and, to put it plainly, beat the living daylights out of them. THEN she would thank them for ruining her brother's life.
Alexa ended up with a broken nose and Casey had a broken arm, both had numerous bruises, scratches, black eyes and were extremely sore. And Heidi? Heidi had four detentions. McGonagall ha been lenient because even she was outraged with the traitorous behavior of Alexa and Casey.
*
Christmas holdiays had come. Michael still hadn't been caught, much to Heidi's relief. The Marauders, Lily, Audrey and Heidi had all decided to stay at the school.
"We should have a snowball fight." Sirius said at lunch in the Great Hall.
Heidi rolled her eyes. "There's no snow."
"I'm sorry to disappoing you, my dear cousin, but there is."
Audrey looked outside. "No snow." she said.
Sirius grinned. "There is. Look above you."
Heidi, Lily and Audrey looked up at the ceiling. Snowflakes were beginning to fall....inside.
"It's snowing inside." Lily commented.
"Sirius, you twit, it wasn't supposed to snow inside!" Isaac muttered.
Sirius just grinned, packed some snow into a snowball and dropped into down Lily's robes.
"SIRIUS BLACK!" Lily shrieked, standing up and dancing around to get the snow out of her robes. Heidi was laughing hysterically at her. "Oh, so what do you do, Heidi? Just sit there and laugh? I don't think so." Lily said and threw a snowball at her.
Heidi blinked as the snowball hit her shoulder. The 'marauder' look showed itself on her face and she began to throw snowballs at every person in the Hall, teacher or not. After Dumbledore was hit in the face by Heidi, he too joined in. The rest of the remaining students, after seeing their Headmaster throwing snowballs, they too joined in. McGonagall slapped a hand to her face and said, "That's it, Dumbledore has gone bonkers."
*
The snow was cleared out, the Marauders had gotten detentions, and before anyone was ready, it was time for exams.
Audrey could be heard running through the halls, shrieking: "I'M GONNA FAIL!!! HELP!!"
To Audrey's relief, she passed with satisfactory grades.
James, Sirius, Isaac and Peter had found out about Remus being a werewolf and were spending their extra time researching Animangi.
School was over and at the end-of-the-year feast, Audrey stood. "May I have your attention please?" she shouted in order to be heard over the students. When the Hall was silent, she continued. "I PASSED!"
Disclaimor: You know the drill, I own whatever you don't recognize as an actual Harry Potter character.
A/N: That was fun. I hope you enjoyed that...Thanks to everybody who reviewed! Review, please!
It was August 18. Lily stared out her window into the dark sky, with its tiny pinpricks of light shining back down at her. She loved looking out at the night sky. It was beautiful- the bright moon guiding the lost, the stars placed so carefully in the velvet sky, twinkling, teasing the watchers. Bliss.
"LILY!"
Lily sighed, walked out of her room, down the stairs and into the kitchen where her mother and Petunia were sitting, eating ice cream.
"Yes?"
"Take care of that owl!"
Petunia smirked at her.
"Oh..." Lily said and took the owl and its letter up to her room.
Hey, Lil!
I'm in France for the summer (I forgot to tell you that during school: Lils, I'm going to France this summer). It's so cool here! I can't wait until school starts, though. We'llbe second years! Sirius can finally go terrorize the first years! Oh, my cousin (Sirius' little sister) is starting Hogwarts this year. She's annoying, beware. May be it's just a kid thing. See, we're not kids anymore, we'll be teenagers in a year! Wow, we're gettin' old! I suppose it could be worse. We could be turning 14 in a year- we'd have to break out the ol' walking canes. ANCIENT! Ok, so not really, it's just two years away. Anyway....I'm off to Paris now. Sirius wanted to come with us so he could climb the Eiffel Tower. I told him if he tried it, I'd laugh when he fell off. That shut him up. You can send a reply back with Raven, I told her to wait for you, but it would be a miracle if she actually listened. Well, anyway, bye!
-Heidi-
Lily grinned, wrote a reply, and sent the owl off. Just a couple weeks left, she thought, I can't wait! Petunia is driving me mad!
*
THUNK!
"OW!"
"Oh, hi, James." Lily said absently; she was reading a good book and couldn't be disturbed by miniscule things such as a friend from school falling out of the fireplace. A friend falling out of the fireplace? Lily looked up from her book.
"How'd you get here?"
James grinned. "Floo powder."
"Ok. What's floo powder?"
"Transportation for wizards who can't Apparate."
Petunia walked into the room. "Who is he?"
"A friend of mine."
Petunia glared at Lily. "Yes, just invite your freak-friends over whenever you want, you stupid orphan."
Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not living in an orphanage, I've been adopted, therefore, I'm not an orphan, you great prat."
Petunia 'hmphed' and walked out.
"D'you want to go to Diagon Alley? Sirius is going to me meet there and Heidi'll be there too. Remus is sick, Audrey was going to stay home and take care of him, Isaac's not home and Pete- well, he already had his things and didn't really want to go again."
"Ok." Lily said. "Let me go ask my mum." She left the room and returned a few minutes later. "So how do we get there?"
James explained how to use Floo powder (his father had gotten Lily's home added to the Floo Network) and a couple minutes later, Lily was walking with James, Sirius and Heidi to Madame Malkin's. After they'd bought all of their things for school, they wondered in and out of shops, eating ice cream cones.
"Sirius! There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere!"
Sirius, James and Heidi groaned at seeing the petite girl with shoulder length black hair and brown eyes like Sirius' (but withought the teasing and mischeivous spark) standing with her hands on her hips.
"Lily, this is my sister, Taya." Sirius said.
"Pleasure." Lily smiled at the girl who studied her over in return.
"We have to get back home." Taya said to Sirius.
"Yeah, ok. See you three later." SIrius said and walked off with Taya, 'accidently' tripping her.
*
The train ride was boring, except for when Sirius found a- well, a rather nasty tasting Every Flavor bean, but that doesn't really matter.
"I want to ride over with the first years!" Sirius cried when they saw Hagrid leading the little ones off to the lake.
"You want to ride over with Taya?" Heidi asked.
"Sure! I could push her off the boat!"
"You're so nice." Lily commented. Sirius bowed.
Taya was among the first few to be sorted.
"Black, Taya."
She walked up to the Hat confidently and sat down, placing it on her head. "SLYTHERIN!" it shouted.
Taya took it off, and walked to the Slytherin table in shock, Sirius and Heidi's faces mirrored hers.
"Oh no..." Audrey muttered as the Hall reupted into whispers.
"What's the matter?" Lily asked. "It's JUST Slytherin."
"Nobody in our family, none of our relatives or anybody has every been sorted into any house other than Gryffindor. And now Taya's in Slytherin?"
"Maybe somebody pranked the Hat. Or maybe it's pranking us and getting revenge for the cleaning it got last year." Heidi said.
"Yes, and I have seven heads." Sirius said.
"Really?" James asked. Sirius glared at him.
"Sirius, it'll be all right. The House just has a bad reputation."
"It's SLYTHERIN, Lily! It doesn't 'just' have a bad reputation! Taya will turn out like all the others!"
Lily ignored Sirius throughout the rest of the feast.
*
"So."
"Only if you say so."
"Oh, but I do."
"Well, all right then."
"Thanks."
"Anytime, chap."
Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm taking this avoiding the topic to mean you don't want to talk about it?"
"Verdad."
"Spanish?"
Heidi nodded. "I only know about five words. Verdad, hola, dice que si and adios."
"Dice que si?"
"'He says yes' or something like that."
"Ah, the classic 'change the topic by speaking Spanish.'"
Heidi rolled her eyes. "That's classic?"
Lily shrugged. "If you feel like it."
Audrey looked up from her Transfiguration essay. "Are you two going to sit there and talk gibberish all night?"
"Possibly."
"Grand." Audrey said. "Heidi, what was in that letter this morning?"
"Oh, come on, Audrey, that's the topic I've been so cleverly avioding all night!"
Audrey rolled her eyes. "It was obviously disappointing. That's why I asked."
"Doesn't matter. I'm not allowed to tell, though."
"Oh."
*
"What could be more interesting than goblin rebellions?" Lily asked as the Gryffindor 2nd years walked out of History of Magic.
"Wizarding banking methods compared to muggle ways." Audrey responded.
"You mean somebody paid attention?" Remus asked.
"I dreamt it. Is dreamt a word?"
Lily shrugged. "Interesting dream?"
"No. Binns was standing on a stage and there was a live reenactment on the huge silver screen thingy-"
"Television, Heidi, television."
"Ok, right. But hsi voice got really annoying because he was narrarating and, hey, it's Binns. Then an axe flew out of nowhere and chopped his ghost head off. But it reattached itself. I was sad." Lily, Audrey and Remus laughed at her.
"Where's James, Sirius, Isaac and Pete?" Audrey asked.
"Er- I don't know."
When the four reached the common room, they found the missing four boys.
"He attacked again." James said when they walked in.
"Who attacked?" Lily asked.
"Voldemort." Peter flinched.
"That's not nice." Lily said. "Who's Voldemort?"
"The bad dude of the wizarding world." Heidi said.
"Nicely put."
"He hates all Muggles and Muggle borns." Remus explained. "So he kills them." Lily's eyes widened.
"You'll be fine, though, Lil." Isaac said. "He's terrified of Dumbledore. Voldemort--"
"Stop saying the name!" Peter hissed.
"Most people call him You-Know-Who. Voldemort won't come near Hogwarts." Isaac continued.
"No, instead he'll send the Death Eaters." Sirius said.
"Thanks, Sirius, that was very reassuring." Lily said.
Sirius shrugged.
*
"Hey, Sirius, wait!"
Sirius stopped by the door to the charms room and looked at his little sister. "What?"
Taya adjusted her ponytail. "I'm sorry you hate me for being who I am."
"I don't hate you." Sirius said. "I hate that you're in Slytherin."
"I have to have Slytherin qualities to be put in Slytherin and that's where I am, so, really, you hate me."
"Don't you have a class to go to?" Sirius asked coldly and walked into Charms. Heidi, who had hear the whole exchange, gave a half smile to Taya.
"He'll get over it." she said. Taya sighed and walked off to her class.
*
"Quidditch tryouts are next week!" James announced at breakfast. "Who's trying out?"
"ME!" Sirius shouted.
"I am too. " Isaac said.
Lily and Heidi nodded their agreement.
"Audrey, Remus, Pete, how about you?" James asked.
Audrey shook her head, Peter said he was scared of heights and Remus wasn't a big fan of Quidditch.
"How can you not be a fan of Quidditch?" James asked, almost insulted by the idea.
Remus shrugged. "What positions are you going for?"
"Beater." Sirius said.
"Chaser." Isaac, James and Lily said together.
"Seeker." Heidi muttered, looking for her Daily Prophet.
"You're just so enthusiastic." Audrey said.
Heidi glared at her and continued reading an article in the paper.
"Can I see that?" Peter asked.
Heidi, who was pale when she finished, looked up at Peter. "I have to go." she whispered, stood, and exited the Great Hall, Lily following her.
"I just wanted to see my horrorscope!" Peter said.
"Just go find Trelawney." Sirius said wisely (or so he thought).
"How'd you know about Trelawney?"
Sirius grinned.
"What's the matter with Heidi?" Isaac asked.
"Er- well, Heidi's brother...well, you'd have to ask her." Sirius said.
*
The Saturday Quidditch tryouts were being held finally came.
James, Sirius, Isaac, Remus, Lily, Heidi and Audrey were sitting on the grass near the lake, all were glad tryouts were over (even though Remus and Audrey hadn't tried out, they were still glad because their friends could stop worrying). All five had made the team but were reserves in order to let the 7th years play.
"I'm sooooooo bored!" Sirius moaned.
"You're always bored." Isaac said.
"Don't you get bored of being bored?" Audrey asked.
Sirius paused. "Did that make sense?"
"What's that?" Lily asked, pointing to a dark figure coming toward them. Heidi and Sirius stared at the figure in shock.
"Michael?" Heidi asked. Sirius nodded. Heidi stood up and ran to the boy, not much older than she.
"Who is that?" Lily asked Sirius.
"Her brother." he said as Heidi and Michael hugged. "You guys should go inside."
"Wait a minute...." Remus said. "Isn't he the guy the Ministry's looking for?"
"Shh!"
Michael and Heidi walked back to them, glaring at each other. Michael's robes were worn and dirty and he seemed much thinner than he ought to be. "Sirius," Michael said, "explain to Heidi why I can't stay here."
Sirius bit his lip, looking from one cousin to the other. "The Ministry expects him to come here, Heid." Heidi stared at him in disbelief.
"I have to go talk to Dumbledore and then I have to leave." Michael said.
"You aren't going to try to hide for a little while?"
"I can't risk getting Dumbledore into trouble."
"But-"
"Heidi, stop." Michael said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Dad won't listen. There's no evidence. I have to hide."
Heidi sat down on the ground. "Fine." she said.
There was an uncomfortable silence in which everybody was trying to figure out something appropriate to say. Afterall, it was beginning to rain so they couldn't leave Heidi there- she'd be there all night as a protest.
Heidi had once spent the night outside in a snowstorm because she wasn't allowed to talk to James and Sirius at the next dinner party that would be helf (the trip had put frogspawn in the Brazilian Minister of Magic's wine and Michael had accidently set off a Filibuster Firework that had hit the man, lighting his clothes on fire) and, as a result of spending the night outside in the snow and was now somewhat hypersensitive to cold weather. But back to the story.
"Heidi, come on, you know I have to do this." Michael said warily.
Sirius and James looked at each other and picked Heidi up. Heidi, being the stubborn and temperamental twelve-year-old that she was, began kicking and scream for the two boys to let her down.
Lily placed a silencing charm on her and received a glare.
"Heidi, you can come with me to Dumbledore's office or you can go with your friends to the Common Room." Michael said.
Heidi rolled her eyes and walked off with Michael.
"Think I should take the charm off?" Lily asked.
The group laughed as they walked into the castle. "Why'd you laugh? It wasn't even funny."
Isaac smiled. "You better take it off." he said.
Lily shrugged and removed the charm.
As the six walked into the Common Room, Lily asked why Michael was hiding.
"He was accused of stealing a bunch of valuable things-"
"Like what?"
"The Shield of Gryffindor. There's a myth that if the shield is broken, Gryffindor's descandants will die and the Dark Lord will prevail. The only problem is, there's a Slytherin hammer or axe or something that's the only thing that can break it. Voldemort has the Shield." Audrey explained.
"Right. And Michael was accused of stealing it for Voldemort." Isaac continued. "He didn't actually do, but nobody knows where he was that day."
"That's it, Isaac and Audrey are our official 'explainers.'" Sirius muttered.
"That all happened three weeks after he graduated from Hogwarts."
"He was here last year?" Lily asked. Sirius nodded. "I didn't even see him!"
"It's a big school, Lil."
Heidi stormed into the Common Room and collapsed onto a chair. "I hate my father." she announced.
"Why?" Isaac asked.
"He's the bloody Minister of Magic, has no time for his kids and even if he did, he wouldn't care. He would at least have had the detective guys try to figure out where Michael was instead of sicking the Aurors on him."
"Doesn't Michael know where he was?" Lily asked.
"There was a Memory charm placed on him and they can't break it without making him a useless blob of mumbo-jumbo," Heidi muttered. "so he doesn't know."
* Meanwhile *
Alexa grinned at Casey. "What wonderful news we have for the Minister of Magic. Michael Addington is at Hogwarts."
"Er, 'Lexa, isn't this a little bit mean? I mean, everyone knows he didn't actually do it. And if Heidi finds out..."
"Are you scared?" Alexa asked, sneering.
Casey grimaced. "Don't do that. You look like a Slytherin."
Alexa frowned. "Well, come on, let's go send an owl off for Minister Addington."
*
It was after midnight. Heidi was still in the Common Room, alone now, and glaring at the fire.
The portrait hole and Daniel Addington, Minister of Magic, strode in. Heidi didn't look up.
"You should be in bed." he said.
"Amd you should be at home with Mum."
"Don't use that tone with me, young lady."
Heidi glared at him. "What are you doing here?"
"A couple of your classmated informed the Ministry that Michael was here." (Nevermind the fact that he was in the Common Room after midnight).
Heidi's eyes widened. "He's not here. I haven't seen him since summer."
"Nice try. You needn't worry, he escaped before we were able to find him."
Heidi sighed in relief. "Who snitched on him?" she asked, remembering what he'd said about two of her classmates.
"Alexa Ostin and Casey Neviner."
*
Heidi stormed up to her dormitory. Alexa and Casey were in an unimaginable amount of trouble. Her father had left, telling her to thank the girls. Heidi had no intention of thanking them. She was going to bash their heads together and, to put it plainly, beat the living daylights out of them. THEN she would thank them for ruining her brother's life.
Alexa ended up with a broken nose and Casey had a broken arm, both had numerous bruises, scratches, black eyes and were extremely sore. And Heidi? Heidi had four detentions. McGonagall ha been lenient because even she was outraged with the traitorous behavior of Alexa and Casey.
*
Christmas holdiays had come. Michael still hadn't been caught, much to Heidi's relief. The Marauders, Lily, Audrey and Heidi had all decided to stay at the school.
"We should have a snowball fight." Sirius said at lunch in the Great Hall.
Heidi rolled her eyes. "There's no snow."
"I'm sorry to disappoing you, my dear cousin, but there is."
Audrey looked outside. "No snow." she said.
Sirius grinned. "There is. Look above you."
Heidi, Lily and Audrey looked up at the ceiling. Snowflakes were beginning to fall....inside.
"It's snowing inside." Lily commented.
"Sirius, you twit, it wasn't supposed to snow inside!" Isaac muttered.
Sirius just grinned, packed some snow into a snowball and dropped into down Lily's robes.
"SIRIUS BLACK!" Lily shrieked, standing up and dancing around to get the snow out of her robes. Heidi was laughing hysterically at her. "Oh, so what do you do, Heidi? Just sit there and laugh? I don't think so." Lily said and threw a snowball at her.
Heidi blinked as the snowball hit her shoulder. The 'marauder' look showed itself on her face and she began to throw snowballs at every person in the Hall, teacher or not. After Dumbledore was hit in the face by Heidi, he too joined in. The rest of the remaining students, after seeing their Headmaster throwing snowballs, they too joined in. McGonagall slapped a hand to her face and said, "That's it, Dumbledore has gone bonkers."
*
The snow was cleared out, the Marauders had gotten detentions, and before anyone was ready, it was time for exams.
Audrey could be heard running through the halls, shrieking: "I'M GONNA FAIL!!! HELP!!"
To Audrey's relief, she passed with satisfactory grades.
James, Sirius, Isaac and Peter had found out about Remus being a werewolf and were spending their extra time researching Animangi.
School was over and at the end-of-the-year feast, Audrey stood. "May I have your attention please?" she shouted in order to be heard over the students. When the Hall was silent, she continued. "I PASSED!"
Disclaimor: You know the drill, I own whatever you don't recognize as an actual Harry Potter character.
A/N: That was fun. I hope you enjoyed that...Thanks to everybody who reviewed! Review, please!