Harry Potter and The Forgotten Friends

CHAPTER NINE: SUSPICION

Around nine o'clock Sirius arrived home, only to arrive to a house in pitch dark. He walked inside, and turned on the light in the foyer. He quickly took his shoes off, and placed his hat in the closet and looked around. It didn't look like anyone was awake.

"Oh, hi honey." Arabella said, walking out of the living room, and over to Sirius. He looked at her and knew that something was wrong.

"Hi," He said, hugging her. "Bella? What's wrong?" He asked, looking down at her, with a look of confusion.

She sighed, and ushered him into the living room. Sirius looked at her with confusion and followed her into the living room as well, and sat down in a chair facing Arabella.

"I think Riley is catching on to us. I didn't know she was home yet, I thought she was still with Harry. When your owl came, I took the letter, and sent the owl out to re-find you. She saw the owl go by the window, and questioned me on it, but I tried to play dumb and I don't think it worked. She ran upstairs afterwards, saying she was tired – at eight at night!" Arabella said, putting her face in her hands, which were resting on her knees.

Sirius sighed and walked over to her, sitting on the arm of the chair. "Don't worry about it. Riley won't find about our pasts and everything that we're hiding from her. She'll know when the time is right." Sirius replied, rubbing her back. Arabella looked back up at him and smiled; "Now, that's the guy I married." She said, hugging him.

"Oh course! I haven't changed one bit." He said, smiling down at her.

Arabella rolled her eyes, and got up out of her chair. "I'm going to head up. I've been awake since seven a.m. See you." She said, and started her way up the stairs.

Sirius sighed and sunk down in the chair. "What am I going to do now? Riley's catching on, and Alexis already knows. Harry's in the dark and has no idea what's going, who we are… who he is." Sirius muttered to himself. He sat there thinking for a while about what would happen if Alexis –or maybe Riley- spilled the truth to Harry. After about an hour, he got out of the chair and made his way upstairs. As he passed Riley's bedroom door, he failed to notice that her bedroom light was still on.

*~*

Riley was still well awake, and planned to be awake for a while. Well, at least, until she fell asleep. She knew something was up with her parents, ever since she had moved to Surrey they had started to act weird. But weirder, when she made friends with…

"…Harry," She muttered to herself, "Why are they acting weird? Is it because I'm friends' with Harry? But, they like him, and everything. But, they've never met him before… only when I brought him home." Riley continued on, muttering.

She muttered to herself for some time, and then something hit her. That photo book! It would have to have some ideas in it.  Riley slowly got out of her bed, and made her way slowly across the bedroom floor and over to the door. She put her ear up to the door. There was no sound there, so her parents must have been in their bedroom. Riley put her hand on the door handle and opened it. She pulled the door back, and slipped out the door, closing it quietly behind her. She turned around, only to walk into something squishy. She looked up to come face to face with…

"Dad!" Riley said, in shock. She jumped back in surprise.

"Riley? What are you doing up? I saw your light on, and was just coming to see if you were OK." Her dad said, looking down at Riley.

"Oh… I was, um, I heard something outside and I wanted to see what it was." Riley said, trying not to say what she was really doing.


"O…K…" Her dad said, raising an eyebrow at her. Riley smiled, and walked back into her room, closing the door behind her. Her dad stood there until he saw that Riley's light went out under the bottom of the bedroom door. When it went out, he walked back into his room. He closed the door behind him and sunk down into the bed. Arabella turned over and looked at him.

"What happened?" She asked, sitting up and crawling across the bed to him. He turned and looked at her. He hugged her and pulled her closer. He then started to explain how Riley was acting weird in her room, and how the truth would soon start to come out.

*~*

"Alexis!" Riley shouted, as she saw her friend walk into the schoolyard.

Alexis turned and looked over at the person who was calling her name. She smiled when it was Riley and waved at her. She walked over to Riley, who was looking rather disturbed about something.

"Riley? What is it, you look very disturbed about something." Alexis said, looking over her friend.

"My parents… I know what they are! All the pieces fit in!" Riley started off, as Alexis raised an eyebrow at her. "They always get so weird when Harry comes over to my house. They act as if they know him – I mean before they ever knew he was my friend.  So, they must have known Harry's parents or something when they were around our age." Riley said.

Alexis sighed, glad to know that Riley hadn't figured the *truth* about her parents and their actual relationship with Harry. Alexis smiled at Riley.

"Are you sure Riley? Did your parents look like they knew Harry when you took him to your house?" Riley shook her head. "Then you have nothing to worry about. You're probably just thinking you see it." Alexis said, trying to get Riley to believe that.

Riley nodded, and smiled. "I sound pretty crazy, don't I? How could my parents know Harry, if I had never even seen him before? Anyways, do you want to come over after supper tonight?" Riley asked.

"Sure thing. I'll be there. Hey look, here comes Harry." Alexis said, pointing to their friend, coming into the schoolyard. 'What's going to happen now? Oh god… what if she knows? Great… just great?' Alexis thought, and ran over to where Riley and Harry were, talking animatedly about what they should do to Dudley and his little friends.

The three started across the yard, and onto the pavement. As soon as they stepped onto the pavement, the bell rang. The three sighed, it seemed like the bell was their death sentence. They walked into the school, threw their stuff into their locker, grabbed a couple books and trudged back down to Miss. Snape's class. When they opened the door no teacher was in there except for the students.

"Where's Snape?" Riley said, as she slammed the door behind her. 


Everyone looked up at her, and shrugged their shoulders. Riley smirked over at Harry and Alexis who were putting their things in their desk. Riley walked across the room and sat down in Miss. Snape's moveable chair. She put her muddy boots on top of the desk, and smiled at everyone.

"I'm your teacher for the day. Miss. Black." She said, getting up and walking over to the blackboard. She picked up a piece of chalk and wrote her name on the board. "But, you can call me Miss. B if you want." She said, wiping off the 'lack' of the board and smiled at the class.

The door then swung open and everyone went into silence, including Miss. B who stared at him in shock, she then got her voice back.

 "What are you doing?" She huffed. "I'm trying to teach my class." She said, stifling a laugh, while Alexis and Harry were doing the same in the back.

The man looked down at her, and up at the chalkboard. "Miss. B," He sneered, "Take your seat." He said, and walked past her to wipe her name of the board. Riley scowled at him and huffed and took her seat beside Alexis.

The man walked over to Miss. Snape's desk and picked up the attendance sheet. He looked down it and stopped when he saw three very similar names; Black, Lupin and Potter. 'Not them again, in smaller versions.' He thought as he sneered down at everyone.

"Well, Miss Snape is away for reasons you need not know. Today I will be looking over your class. I'm Mr. Snape, her brother." He said, looking at the nine year olds, and sighed. This was going to be a long day.

The morning continued on slowly with English (Novel Study, with Snape made go through recess) then onto Math and History. Soon enough it was lunchtime, and everyone was dismissed for lunch, which they were grateful for, for missing recess. The cafeteria was slowly finally up with people while the halls were mostly deserted except for the hall monitors. The three musketeers walked down the hall and to their lockers.

"What'd you bring for lunch, guys?" Riley asked as she grabbed her lunch pail and closed her locker; leaning on it.

"I have…" Harry peeked inside his lunch. "A mustard sandwich and a couple smashed cookies and a orange juice box." Harry replied, looking up, and closing his locker.

"A ham sandwich, couple cookies and a orange 'crush' pop. What about you, Alexis?" Riley said, as she closed her locker up.

Alexis looked over at them, and held her hands out, which where empty, but she had a backpack on her back. "I'm going home for lunch. I have a dentist appointment this afternoon, so I won't be here this afternoon." Alexis smiled.

"Lucky for you. We'll see you tomorrow, unless Mr. Snape gives us all detentions and hides us down in the basement and chains us up until we fall and die!" Riley said, trying to grab onto Alexis' shoulders before falling on her knees on the ground. That sent Harry and Alexis into a laughing fit. Riley got up of the ground, brushing the dirt of her jeans. Alexis smiled, and looked down at her watch.

"Oh! I have to go. My dad's waiting outside. Bye!" Alexis shouted, as she turned and started to run the other way.


"Tell your dad I say hi!" Riley shouted. Alexis nodded, and walked out through the double set of doors and out of site. Harry and Riley sighed, and made their way down the hall and into the cafeteria.

*~*

"Hey Dad!" Alexis said, as she opened the car door, and threw her bag into the backseat. She then sat down in the car, smiling.

"Hey Alexis. How was school today?" Her dad asked, as he put the car in drive. They pulled out of the school parking lot, and down the highway that leads into the town.

"School was so boring today. Our class wasn't allowed out for recess, because he said that we were being too loud, when we were just talking amongst ourselves. I hate supply teachers, especially is they are a brother to Miss. Snape." Alexis huffed, blowing her hair out of her face.

"You had a relative for a teacher? Did he have black hair that looked greasy?" Nod. "A hooked nose and a sneer 24/7?" Another Nod. "Black Clothes, Expressionless look, and a glare?" Another Nod. "Severus Snape. That's the only other Snape it could be." Her father replied, sighing.

"Oh…" Alexis replied, and went back to staring out the passenger window. After ten minutes of driving they were pulling into their driveway, and into their garage. They grabbed their things from the car, and walked into the house, through the garage door.

"Remus! Alexis! Welcome home!" A woman with light brown hair and blue eyes called, walking into the hallway where Remus and Alexis were.

"Hi Mom!" Alexis said, as she went down the hall to get rid of her shoes and backpack.

Remus looked up at his wife and smiled. "Hi Viola." He said, as he magic-ed his things into the hallway closet. Alexis scowled at her dad, for using magic when she couldn't.

"How's Harry and Riley? Still in the dark, I hope?" Viola said, looking down at Alexis, ruffling her brown hair.

Alexis smiled up at her mother and sighed. "No, well, kind of. Riley is starting to catch on. This morning she said that she thinks that her parents knew Harry before he came over to their house, because they act so weird when Harry's around. So, she thinks that her parents knew Harry's parents when they were our age." Alexis explained, as she walked into the living room, sitting down in one of the chairs.

Her parents sighed, and followed her into the living room and sat down in the chairs across from Alexis. The three of them were silent for a while, knowing what was at stake if Riley found out, and even worse if Harry found out. If he did find out, he would run away, most likely, and might just run into Voldemort or some of his followers that would do anything to get rid of him. The silence was broken when Viola spoke up.

"Maybe we should call Sirius and Arabella? Then, they'll know what's going on and then to try and figure out how much Riley really knows?"

Remus nodded, and stood up. "I'll go and owl them right now." He said, before going up the stairs and disappeared.


Viola turned back to Alexis, who was starting to fidget in her chair. "Did Riley say anything else?" She asked.

Alexis shook her head, and then stopped immediately. "Wait. She said she was going to ask her parents tonight and then she wanted me to come over after supper. Can I go?" Alexis said, looking up at her mother.

"Ask Sirius and Arabella when they come over." Her mother replied, as Remus slipped back into the living room.


"Ask us what?" Sirius asked, as he appeared in the living room with Arabella. They had just appearated (sp?) there.

The three in the living room looked up at them, and smiled. "So nice of you to come so fast." Viola said, sarcastically.

Sirius rolled his eyes and her and flopped down on the empty couch. "You never change do you, Viola? Moony, you better get out here before she gets you too." He laughed.

All he got was a whack on the head by Arabella. "Honestly, Sirius, come of it. Sometimes I have no idea why I married you." She replied, sitting down on the couch beside him. He rolled his eyes and looked back at the others.

"So, what was so urgent that we had to come right now?" He asked, eyeing Remus and Viola. He hadn't seen Alexis sitting in the corner looking at him.

"Riley's starting to catch on to you." Alexis said, in a quiet voice.


Well that got their attention. Both Sirius and Arabella looked over at her, surprised. At first they hadn't even seen her in that chair.

"What? How do you know?" He asked, looking at Alexis. Alexis looked over at the Blacks and sighed.

"She was talking about you guys and Harry. She is starting to catch on. This morning she said that she thinks that you both knew Harry, before he came over to your house. She says that because you act so weird when Harry's around. So, she thinks that you both knew Harry's parents when you were my age. And, she said that tonight after school she's going to ask you something about why you both act weird when Harry's around, or something like that. And then, she wants me to come over tonight to try and help her figure it all out. But, I can't help me out to much, if she catches on, we're going to have a small problem." Alexis said, fiddling with the hem of her sleeves.

Arabella and Sirius looked at each other then over to Alexis, Remus and Viola. "What are we going to do? We can't tell her now, at least not for another two years." Arabella said.

"I don't know. I never thought that this would come up. We should ask Dumbledore. Maybe he would have some ideas for us?" Sirius said, looking around.

Silence took over again. This was the last thing the five of them had ever thought would happen; if Harry ever found out before it was time, the worst would happen, and Riley wouldn't be much better. Being very close friends with Harry, Riley might accidentally say something.

"Well, we better get home," Sirius said, glancing up at the clock. "Riley will be home soon, and we have to sort this all out." Sirius said, standing up.

Arabella got up from the couch as well. "Thank you for telling us, Alexis. Now, we might be able to prevent something from happening, when it's all over we'll tell you what happened. Bye everyone." Arabella said, as Sirius took out his wand.

He took hold of Arabellas' hand, and with a swish of his wand, they disappeared back to their house. Alexis sighed, and sunk back into her chair, looking at her parents.

"What's going to happen to Harry?" She asked.

Viola sighed, and looked out the window, not knowing how to reply.

Remus sighed, and looked over at Alexis. "I don't know… hopefully, he'll be OK."

*~*

Sirius and Arabella appeared back at their house, just in time. The front door of the house swung open.

"Mom, Dad. I'm home!" Riley called, walking into the house.

Sirius quickly put his wand into his pocket, as the front door to the house closed and Riley walked into the living room. She eyed her parents, and sighed. They both looked so weird, so close together, and they had that look on their face. The look, it was what she always put on when she had been up to something. She soon shook it off, and took a seat in one of the chairs, and looked up at her parents.

"Mom, Dad. I have a question to ask you." Riley said, staring them down.

Her parents tried to look mildly confused on what she wanted, but failed miserably.

"What is it, Riley?" Sirius asked, looking at her. He only hoped that Riley wouldn't bring up Harry, and Arabella thought the same thing.

"Why do you two, always act so weird around Harry?"

Sirius and Arabella paled slightly. They hoped Harry wouldn't be brought into this conversation, but they were wrong. Harry was brought into it, and there was no way around it.

TBC…

Thanks to everyone whose reviewed so far! I can't thank you enough, and keep R&Ring! Oh, and thanks to Danielle, for thinking up a name for thinking up a name for Remus' wife. Ugh, I was just on ff.net, and half my reviews are missing!! I am not a happy camper. 17 reviews left, and I had 33! Thank ya, thank ya! By the way, if you want to check out a picture of what Harry, Riley and Alexis look like you can go here: http://www.boomspeed.com/firespirit/hpatff.JPG

Fire Spirit.