Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.

The betrayal:

Ron came down several minutes after Harry, he sensed his friend was not longer in the room. Looking around he realised Sirius wasn't there either. He felt glad for his friend, Sirius meant very much for him and there was a high probability that Dragon was trying to work things out with his godfather. He didn't have the courage that his friend had, he saw his parents looking at him hopefully, but decided it wasn't the right moment and went to sit in a corner of the common room. Phoenix joined him a few minutes later, in her arms were the parchments they had been working on. Griffin looked relieved to see her, at least he wouldn't have to sit down staring at nothing. She sat down next to him and put the parchments on the table.

"Where's Dragon?" Griffin shrugged his shoulders, everyone was looking at them.

"No idea, my best guess is that he's with Sirius." Hermione looked around and nodded.

"Ok." She took one of the books she had brought downstairs and opened it on the place she had been studying. Ron followed her lead and took another book, the potion they were hopping to achieve was very hard and required a very good understanding of potions and charms. So they had made it a point that whenever they had a moment they picked up the books and studied. He had no idea how advanced they were, but he didn't really care.

Mrs. Weasley and her husband were looking in wonder at their youngest son, seeing Hermione with a book wasn't strange, it was in fact a very normal occurrence, but her son had been one of the most anti-books she had ever known, and did never pick up a book unless Hermione forced him or he had to do homework. Their attention was soon drawn to the door once again, McGonagall entered the common room and looked around. Her gaze fell upon the two kids, she looked a bit startled at Ron. He seemed to sense it for he looked up.

"Something wrong, professor?" McGonagall shook her head.

"No, the headmaster just wanted me to tell you that tonight there's going to be a feast in your honour, you will have to wear dress robes, if you don't have them you can go..."

"Don't bother, we bought some yesterday." With that he considered the conversation ended and returned to his book. The professor looked a bit startled but with a sigh went out. Just when she was going, she noticed Sirius walking with a boy, she realised with a start that it was Harry. They were walking next to each other but weren't talking, even so McGonagall saw that Sirius was looking much better than he had that morning. They stopped next to her before the entrance.

"Good evening Minerva." Sirius gave her a smile while Harry just nodded his head in greeting. "Is there something wrong?" She smiled back at them.

"No, I was just delivering a message from Dumbledore, they will tell you what it is about inside. If you excuse me, I have things to do." With a last smile in their direction she went away.

Harry entered the room followed closely by Sirius. He quickly went to settle himself besides Phoenix while Sirius went to join Remus after having looked at him. Dragon picked up one of the parchments and began to read and write notes in another. Griffin looked at him and softly asked.

"Dragon?"

"Mmh?"

"Is everything alright between you and Sirius?" Phoenix also looked up at him, he looked at his godfather, and smiled a little.

"We are on the way, he apologised to me and I've accepted it, now we'll see how it works out. How about you two?"

"I've agreed with my mother to go talk with them in half an hour, I get the impression they don't understand what's going on. We'll see how it works out."

"Griffin?" His friend was looking at his parents and seemed to not have heard him, but before he could resume his reading he talked.

"The two of you are lucky." Phoenix and Dragon exchanged a look but waited. "I mean, Phoenix, your parents don't really understand what's going on, they are muggles and if something I've learned about muggles is that what they see is usually what's happening. They don't know anything about pollyjuice potion and all those things. And you Dragon, Sirius has been betrayed before, it must have felt like going through that of Wormtail all over again, no wonder he was paranoid." His two friends nodded in understanding. "But what about my parents? They know very well what can be achieved by magic and they have never been paranoid, they didn't have a reason to be. But even so they turned on us. And I can't easily forgive them for it." There was a long silence. "Am I being selfish?"

"No, you certainly are not. Even if I know that Sirius has a more or less good reason to turn on me, that doesn't mean we are all fine and dandy, I'm mad at him for letting me down when I needed him the most, but I'm also ready to try and forgive him. In your case it's more difficult, and I knew it from the start. If it makes you feel better, I'm not very happy with your parents either, and they were very important to me too." Ron let out a small smile. Hermione caught his hand and squeezed it.

"Don't worry Griffin, let things go the way they are meant to be and just be ready to talk to them, to try to understand them. Maybe it would make it easier to talk to one of your brothers or your sister first." Ron nodded.

"Thanks guys." They both smiled at him.

"Don't worry, brother, everything will work out in the end."

"And while Dragon continues with his speech about fate, I really have to go away, I have to talk to my parents. See you guys at the feast." And she went away. Dragon frowned.

"What feast?"

"Mmh?" Griffin looked up. "Oh, McGonagall came in a while ago to tell us there was going to be a feast in our honour. Figures, first Fudge goes nuts and now Dumbledore." Harry let out a snort and looked again at the parchment.

"Do you think we will figure this out before Christmas is over?"

"Phoenix is confident we will, don't worry, she's always right."

They both returned to their studies and for a long while they could only hear the hushed voices of the other occupants of the room, it seemed they didn't want to bother them and didn't dare to rise their voices. Suddenly Dragon sensed someone was standing next to him and Griffin. Looking up he saw Lupin and Sirius standing there.

"Can we sit down?" Dragon looked at Griffin and the last nodded.

"Sure, go ahead, that's if you don't mind sitting between all those books." Sirius laughed softly.

"Don't worry Ron, I don't mind and Remus loves the books."

"Are they muggle books?" Dragon looked up once more from the parchment.

"No, why should they be?"

"We thought you had been in the muggle world all this time." Remus looked at them.

"Oh, we were there, but that doesn't mean we can't have magic books."

"True, but wouldn't it have been dangerous, what if someone had seen them?" Dragon looked at Griffin, they both knew that muggles would never have been able to see anything strange in the books because for muggles they just talked about normal subjects, but admitting that to Lupin meant admitting they could do a lot of magic without a wand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry." The two boys sighed in relieve, and Sirius and Remus exchanged a look, it was obvious that there was more to this that the two boys were willing to admit. Remus looked like he wanted to say something, but before he got the chance, Bill approached them.

"Hey." Dragon saw Griffin draw a fist but he quickly put his hands under the table.

"Bill." Dragon just nodded his head and turned to his parchment.

"Can I sit down?" He was looking directly at his brother and Ron looked back. Bill had always been his favourite brother, his confident and one of his best friends, he wasn't even there when Ron had been accused, so it was a bit easier for Ron to accept his presence.

"Sure." It came out a little reluctant but if Bill noticed, he didn't give it away. They sat in silence for some minutes, the two younger boys had returned to their reading but Griffin couldn't concentrate for he clearly felt the gaze of his older brother on him. With a sigh he closed the book and locked eyes with Bill.

"What's the matter Bill?" The man didn't say anything for a few moments. Griffin frowned. "If you don't want anything could you please stop staring at me? It's making me nervous."

"Sorry. Ron?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry."

"I know." Bill looked a little startled at his little brother. "You are here, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess so. It doesn't really change things does it?"

"It's a start." Bill just nodded and stood up.

"If you ever want to talk I'm here to listen."

"I know. Thanks Bill." The older man just nodded and left to go sit with his parents. Griffin was looking at them with a pensive look. Lupin and Sirius were looking a little uncomfortable at the exchange, but didn't want to leave Harry's side just yet, even if the boy barely acknowledged them it still reassured Sirius that it would come good in time. Dragon looked up from his parchment another time and nodded to Griffin.

"Don't worry mate, all will come right."

"I hope you're right brother, I really hope you are." With that he stood up too and began to pick up the books. "Come on, we better go change clothes it's nearly time to go downstairs."

Most of the room heard his words and also stood up. Everyone went up to their own rooms to get dressed up. The two boys entered the sixth years room and quickly put out their dress robes. In twenty minutes they were ready to go, Dragon looked at his reflection in the mirror and locked his gaze on the Phoenix necklace. He touched it and wondered if they shouldn't make some more of them, at least he would like for Sirius and Remus to have one, just in case. He would talk about it with Griffin and Phoenix later. Griffin taped him on the shoulder and he looked at him.

"Are you coming Dragon? Phoenix is already downstairs." Harry nodded his head and the two of them went to the common room were Phoenix was indeed waiting for them. They looked at each other with slight grins on their faces, it was a little disturbing having her wearing the same clothes as them, Ron and Harry were used to that, but Hermione had always flat out refused to wear pants, now with the robes there was no difference.

"Well guys, that's a nice change. How about we go?" They nodded and made their way out of the common room.

To be continued...

Author's notes: Thanks for all reviews.