Disclaimer: Blergh! Do I really need one of these? I mean come on! It's not like you don't all know that obviously don't own Harry Potter…sheesh!

THIS STILL CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE 5TH BOOK…I WARNED YOU LAST TIME…DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT!

Chapter 2: Mystery…and brooding

Harry woke up early the next morning; the sunlight streaming into the room hurt his tired eyes. Across the room on the other bed Harry could see Ron's still form. Downstairs he could hear the rumble of voices and the pattering of feet. He got out of bed and headed off to the bathroom. After showering he quickly got dressed and went down to the basement kitchen.

Mrs Weasley was bustling around when he got there; clearly she was already making breakfast for everyone. Harry stood in the doorway looking around, only Mr Weasley and Lupin were down at the moment and neither of them had noticed Harry. Suddenly Mrs Weasley turned around and caught sight of him standing there.

"Harry dear! I didn't expect you to be down so early! Come and sit down, I'll make you something to eat" she said smiling at him in a motherly way

Not having the strength to argue, Harry let himself be steered into a chair at the table. Lupin and Mr Weasley were both looking at him now and both seemed surprised to see him sitting there. Harry stared defiantly back at them and opened his mouth to speak.

"Why am I here?" he asked

"Ah, I knew you'd ask that" Mr Weasley smiled "well, we've brought you here for two main reasons. The first is that we've been hearing about a lot of disturbances in muggle towns so we thought you'd be better off here. And secondly, well, it's like this Harry . . . err. . ."

"We're holding a kind of funeral for Sirius Harry" Lupin finished for him "we thought we could get everyone together to say their goodbyes"


"oh" was all Harry could manage. He had never thought that wizards had funerals, let alone that he'd be going to one.

"I guess that's ok then" he said quietly "when's it going to be?"

"Two days" Lupin answered "we're just waiting for someone to arrive"

"Who?" Harry asked

"You'll see" Lupin replied smiling sadly "they'll be arriving tomorrow, you can meet them then. I know Sirius would have wanted you to"

"Oh, alright then"

Mrs Weasley came back into the dining area carrying a large stack of toast and marmalade.

"Here you go dear, eat it all now, you still look painfully thin" she said thrusting the plate under his nose.

After breakfast Harry went off to Sirius' mothers' room where Buckbeak was still holding up. He sat down on the floor next to him and leant against the beasts' large legs.

"You miss him too don't you" he said

The Hippogriff nudged his shoulder in reply. His beady orange eyes showed more understanding than he had received from anyone else excluding Dumbledore. Harry stayed in Mrs Black's room for the rest of the day, mulling over thoughts of who would be arriving the next day. It was getting quite late when he finally left the room to get something to eat. As he was passing one of the many rooms on his way to the kitchen he heard Lupins voice coming from inside.

"How do you think Harry will take it?"

Harry stopped dead in his tracks and pressed his ear up against the door. He heard the voice of his Headmaster reply.

"I am not sure Remus. I know that Sirius never told Harry about her, I expect that he will be both shocked and angry. Yet I believe that this will be good for him"

"I agree Albus, but what if he blows up again? I know he hates having things hidden from him; he might not understand why he was never told"

"We shall see Remus; all we can do is let things take their course"

 Harry heard the sound of chairs scraping against the floor and he leapt back from the door. He hurried off down the hall into the kitchen. After grabbing an apple he went to sit in the drawing room.

Who're they talking about? The person who's coming tomorrow? Why did Sirius never say anything about her? Who is she?

All these thoughts ran through his head as he munched on his apple. When he finished he went back up to his bedroom. Ron was already fast asleep, Harry could tell by the steady slow pace of his breathing. Congratulating himself on successfully avoiding everyone for the whole day he got into bed and drifted off to sleep.

Again Harry woke early, got dressed and went down to breakfast. Inside the kitchen he found Moody, Tonks and Kingsley Shaklebolt all talking with Lupin. When they spotted Harry they stopped talking at once. Feeling his anger bubbling inside of him he turned to Lupin hoping that he would care to explain.

"Good morning Harry, we were just discussing the best way to fetch our guest" Lupin said, obviously he had understood Harry's pointed look.

"Right, well when are they arriving?" he asked

"We were just about to set off to see Dumbledore about picking her up from her drop off point" Kingsley replied.

"Well, don't let me stop you" Harry said as politely as he could when all he wanted to do was demand that they tell him who it was. He turned around and went to a cupboard to get his breakfast. He heard a series of 'cracks' and when he turned around again he found the room empty.

On his way back upstairs he heard someone call his name. Cursing under his breath he turned around and saw Hermione standing at the end of the hallway.

"Please don't go Harry. I'm really sorry about what I said the other night. I was just so happy to see you again" she said softly stepping closer to him.

"It's ok Hermione; I've just been feeling so cramped and confused lately. All I've wanted was to be left alone. And tomorrow is Sirius' funeral and I don't know how I'm going to cope" Harry was surprised that he had let so much out.

"I know Harry, we all do. I can't even begin to imagine how much this is hurting you. But I know that you are strong, I know you can beat the pain and the emptiness. I want you to promise me that you'll never forget that we are all here for you. We all loved Sirius, and we all miss him. I want you to know that you can talk to me, whenever" she said, looking as if she was restraining herself from crying.

"I know 'Mione, I know I can talk to you. And I will, but not now ok?"  Harry said knowing full well that he most likely wouldn't ever be able to let anyone know all his feelings.

"D'you know who's coming today?" he asked trying to change the subject.

"No, nobodies told us anything. All I know is that they're a girl. Though I can't for the life of me think how she's connected with Sirius or why and how she knows he was innocent" she replied, obviously taking the hint that Harry wanted the subject changed.

"Oh, ok, where's Ron?" Harry asked

 "In your room. Shall we go and visit him? Last I checked he was trying to build a card tower out of exploding snap cards. Poor boy, he didn't want to disturb you" she said smiling slightly.

"Alright" Harry replied "let's go and check on him before he blows himself up" 

Just as they got to the door to Harry's room there came a loud 'BANG' and a lot of smoke came leaking out from under the door.

"You can do the honours" Harry said turning to Hermione who then opened the door with great trepidation.

When all the smoke had cleared they saw that Ron was sitting in the middle of the room. His face was completely black and both of his eye-brows were singed off.

"Bloody hell" he muttered, apparently still in shock.

"Well" Harry said grinning "I do love the new look, the eye-brows really suit the soot, don't you agree Hermione?"

"Oh yes, Ron dear, this could be the start of a new trend!"

"Shut up" Ron snapped attempting to wipe some soot off his face. Both Harry and Hermione burst out laughing.

"You know Ron, when Hermione and I first met you; you had dirt on your nose. I never thought it would lead to this" Harry said through his laughter. It felt great to be back laughing with his friends. It was as if a heavy weight has been lifted from his shoulders giving him a temporary sense of relief.

"Perhaps you should wash that off now Ron, you wouldn't want the surprise guest to think that you're some crazy derelict weirdo now would you?" Harry questioned trying to stop himself from laughing.

"Oh bugger off!" Ron replied waspishly but he still left the room to wash the soot off his face.

When he came back in he sat down on his bed and looked at Harry.

"S'nice of you to join us" he said "I've been bored out of my brain listening to her go on about how worried she is over her OWL results"

"Yes well, you should be worrying too! These are our futures we're talking about! These results could make or break us!"

"Calm down Hermione, you'll do fine" Harry said soothingly "you'll get 'outstanding' for everything, you have nothing to worry about. I however have heaps to worry about. If I don't get 'outstanding' in potions then my chances of being an Auror are gone"

"You do realise that we get marks for both the written and the practical OWL tests? So you could get an 'Outstanding' for practical, but an 'exceeds expectations' for the written, which would most likely get you into your course. Then again, in some courses there is only one OWL that you can get, like in History of Magic, we don't have a practical exam so you can only get one OWL, or in Herbology where the mark is combined. So basically you are going to get a mark out of fifteen where as I'm going to get a mark out of sixteen"

Ron and Harry both gave her blank stares.

"Oh you'll see! You know, it is all in Hogwarts: a History, if you'd just read it!"

"You should know by now that we're never going to read it. I mean, why should we? You already know it off by heart!" Ron said pointedly.

"Where's Ginny?" Harry asked suddenly, just realising that he hadn't seen hide or hair of the little red head since arriving.

"Oh she's at home with Bill, Charlie and Dad. They're coming over later tonight to meet this mystery girl . . . wonder who she is?" Ron replied looking thoughtful.

Harry, Ron and Hermione spent the rest of the day in Harry and Ron's room talking and playing exploding snap, just being with his friends made Harry berate himself for ever trying to hide away.

Hermione was midway through a long speech about how wonderful her newest book was when suddenly they heard the front door being opened then shut again, then the sound of people walking along the corridor downstairs. Ron, Harry and Hermione all looked at each other before sprinting off downstairs to meet the 'mystery girl' as Ron had dubbed her.

When they got downstairs they saw that the hallway was empty but they heard voices coming from the drawing room. Harry raced off towards it with Ron and Hermione hot on his tail. He burst in and found himself faced with Lupin, Dumbledore, Moody, Tonks, Mrs Weasley, Kingsley and the twins. They were all standing around a figure wrapped in a travelling cloak with the hood up.

"Hello Harry, Hermione, Ron" Lupin said smiling "please sit down, you too" he said to the rest of them.

Everybody sat down except Lupin and the girl in the cloak.

"Ebony, you can take off your cloak now, hear, give it to me" he said

The girl lowered her hood and took off her cloak to reveal a short, slender teenage girl with wavy black hair and very familiar eyes. She gave her cloak to Lupin who placed it on the back of an armchair. He the turned back to the crowd and said.

"Everyone, this is Ebony Black, Ebony is Sirius' daughter"

TBC

A/N: thankyou to the people who reviewed, it's really great hearing your comments. But I'd still love it if more people reviewed because I really need some more feedback on this story. THANKS!!!! =)