Authors Notes: *ahem* Four months for one chapter? Even i'm ashamed of that! My defense? Ummm it was hard and i was busy, but it's done!!
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Darienetta Stoke
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Chapter Ten
Halloween was around the corner, as was the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. The problem was, Orion had no idea what it was, so she asked as much of Hermione.
"It's the only all-magic community left in England, when you handed your slip in it meant you could come to Hogsmeade." she explained.
"Slip, what slip?"
"The slip that your parents needed to sign, giving you permission to come to Hogsmeade?"
"Oh." So no Hogsmeade then, not to mention the fact that she had no parents to sign any parental permission forms, she didn't remember even receiving it in June either.
The disappointment must have been showing on her face because then Hermione asked,
"Are you okay?"
Absolutely peachy, never been better, "Fantastic."
Hermione smiled and went to join Harry and Ron by the crowd waiting to sign their names.
Half hour later and practically the whole of Gryffindor, well, all those in their third year or above she found out, had signed up to go… unfortunately it was rather noticeable that the new addition to the fifth year wasn't on the list.
"Hey Orion, why aren't you coming?"
She turned around to face Ron, knowing it was going to have to come out sooner or later.
"To where? Hogsmeade?"
Ron nodded but the trio all looked curious.
"I, uh," oh come on Orion, you can do better than that! "well how good can it be?"
Ron's jaw dropped, "How good? How good? Hogsmeade is the best place ever!"
Oh great.
"Why?"
"Why?! Why?!" he paused, "Well, it just is!"
"It's probably just got shops right?"
"Just got shops? You've never tasted Honeydukes chocolate, or been into Zonko's have you?" He kept repeating the last thing she said like a bad record player. He turned away in a fit of indignant splutters and pushed Harry to the spot-light, apparently unable to continue.
"They're not just normal muggle shops, they can't be can they? Since there aren't any muggles living there; every store is full of wizarding stuff, just like Diagon Alley! It's amazing, you've got to go!"
Orion knew it, she was going to have to tell them. She would be the stupid Foster kid again, except minus the Foster because, of course, now she had no one to even go home to unless you counted an orphanage so full of children that it was more like a playground.
"I want to go but I can't."
"What?" Harry was confused, as were Ron and Hermione (the former of which was calming slowly now).
She sighed, "I can't."
"Why not?"
"No permission slip -no parents to sign it… and the Williams kinda stopped the Guardian thing when I got my letter."
"You're an orphan?" asked Harry in disbelief.
"Hay give the kid a plushie doll!" Orion rubbed the bridge if her nose as nerves took over, "So that's why I can't go, okay?"
Wait for it…
"Okay, we could always bribe McGonagall to let you go anyway, y'know, offer her a tartan hat or something…" Ron started, a scheming look crossing his face as Hermione wore her own look, which was disturbingly similar to McGonagall's Disapproving Look.
Orion paused in 'trying to rub her nose away' as a Primary School teacher had once phrased it during a math test, where were the insults? The nasty comments and the taunts?
"Really?"
Ron grinned a grin to make Fred and George proud.
Harry, however, was still processing the information, a chain reaction going through his brain.
Orion was an orphan. He was an orphan. Neville was practically an orphan… in at least two of those cases it was Voldemort's fault. Voldemort revelled in death and destruction, pleasured in causing pain to others.
Harry hated him. Not like he hated Dudley, but a burning hate for someone so cruel and horrid that made him despise him with every breath.
Voldemort was the reason there were so many orphans.
Voldemort was the reason so many parents had lost a child, like Cedric's parents…
Harry resolved, right there and then in his mind, to stop him, but all he said to Orion was,
"Me too, I'm sorry; but we'll ask McGonagall next lesson."
*
During their next Transfiguration lesson, while they were trying to Vanish mice and for the most part failing miserably, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Orion were planning how to ask McGonagall if the latter would be allowed to Hogsmeade despite the lack of permission slip.
Hermione, of course had vanished her mouse on her third try and earned Gryffindor fifteen points, Harry and Orion on their fifth earning Gryffindor five points each (Ron caught on after his tenth try, and he was extremely proud of it).
When the bell rang, all mice were hurriedly Unvanished and put into boxes as the class emptied out to break, but four remained, lingering behind until Neville disappeared out the door (his mouse ran away and he'd spent five minutes trying to find it again just by it's noises because it was still invisible), then they hovered by McGonagall's desk as she locked the mice away.
"Professor, we have a question," Hermione started,
"Actually, I have a question and they're helping." Orion felt obliged to point out.
There was an uncomfortable silence, during which McGonagall stared at them over the top of her glasses,
"Well, what's the question?"
"I never got a Hogsmeade slip, Professor, so I couldn't get it signed and now I can't go next weekend."
She frowned, "That is an unfortunate oversight on our part Miss Taylor, however the rule still stands -if you don't have a signed slip you can't go on the trips."
"But I never even got a slip to get signed, Professor!"
She narrowed her gaze, "An unfortunate oversight as I have said. I'm sorry Miss Taylor, but the rule still applies -go to lunch."
The disgruntled Gryffindors left the classroom quickly and quietly, none more so than Harry.
This was all Voldemort's fault.
*
The Hogsmeade weekend came with a freezing wind and frost, Orion parted with them at the top of the marble staircase, telling them she may as well take advantage of there being hardly anybody in the school.
Harry had a sneaking suspicion it was her who set the on the mantle piece that caught a seventh year -his fingers were stuck to it for two hours before the Touch Activating Glue wore off.
As they made their way down to the village Ron was still spluttering at the obscenity of her not being allowed to go to Hosgmeade.
Harry wasn't going to disagree since he knew exactly how she must be feeling, but they couldn't exactly do anything at that very moment, could they?
"Come on Ron! We can't do anything now, we can help her for the next trip before Christmas, start a petition or something."
Hermione rolled her eyes,
"You really thing that will work? Professor McGonagall didn't let Harry go a few years ago when you both practically begged, and she sounded pretty firm about Orion not coming to Hogsmeade without a slip."
"Yeah, but they did think a maniac was out to kill me," he reasoned, "and it turned out it was just Snuffles trying to murder Wormtail."
"I suppose, but I still highly doubt that she'll change her mind, even if you hand her a petition signed by every student at Hogwarts."
The trio carried on walking, moving on to other subjects -like the first Quidditch match of the season, which would also be Ron's first ever.
Training wasn't going too badly, although in Harry's mind Angelina was almost as obsessed with training as Wood was, Ron wasn't terrible, but if anybody threw a spinning Quaffle to his left or above his head the other team was going to score.
Consequently Angelina was urging him to catch the Snitch as soon as possible so that the Slytherins would have less time to discover and exploit Ron's weakness.
By the time they were in eye-sight of The Three Broomsticks Harry's nose was as bright as Rudolf the Reindeers, without a word exchanged between them they speeded up to where Butterbeer was awaiting and a nice warm fire with no bitter wind to whip at their faces.
There was also the small matter of buying some extra bottles to take out and some sweets from Honeydukes for Sirius and Remus whom they would be meeting up within in half an hour, if the clock on the wall as they walked in was right.
"We meeting in the uh, usual place?" asked Ron as they quickly cornered a table away from the door and near the table, setting their Butterbeers down carefully.
Harry nodded because his mouth now full of the warming liquid.
"Won't everybody recognise Professor Lupin, though?" said Hermione,
"They're not coming down to meet us, we go straight to the cave where they'll be waiting."
Harry tugged on Ron's robes fifteen minutes later, "Come on, we better go."
Ron drank the last of his Butterbeer and looked balefully outside: the wind had picked up and was blowing fiercely down the street as students battled to keep their scarves on, and the sky was looking dangerously like it was about it rain.
"Y'know if I freeze to death going up there, I'm going to come back and haunt you and Snuffles." Ron complained as Harry lifted his newly filled school-bag carefully from its resting place on the floor and laughed.
"You tell him that!"
A quick stop in Honeydukes later and they were on their way, climbing over the fence and wading through the knee-high grass to the hidden cave that Sirius discovered several years ago after his escape from Azkaban.
"We were beginning to think you'd never turn up!" greeted Sirius as they sat on the floor and started to unpack the food and drink.
"Nice to see you too, Sirius." Harry replied, a smile lighting up his face, "How's it going?"
"Funny, I was going to as you the same thing, studying hard for those delightful OWL's?"
Harry, choosing carefully not to answer that question looked at his feet and changed the subject. He really couldn't be bothered with a lecture right now, especially from Sirius.
"So the girl, who is she?"
His Godfather's smile faltered for a second before he waved a hand dismissively, "Just a girl I used to date -you don't need to worry, Harry."
He raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Really."
Liar.
Remus started talking just as he was about to respond as such, so Harry notched up a mental note for later.
"How is your revision going, Ron?"
"Ah -"
"They haven't started yet," said Hermione, an annoying satisfied grin on her face, "but I'm going to get them on it after Christmas, Professor Lupin."
Ron gaped, "You've already started revising? The exams aren't until May!"
"I like to be prepared, Ron! Unlike you, I also would like to pass."
Harry put a placating hand onto his friends shoulder, halting the argument for now at least, and changed the subject once again from their upcoming exams.
"You know we have a new girl at school, Orion Taylor? She says the Ministry overlooked her, or something, and she was at school all over the holidays catching up?"
"She's in our year, and a Gryffindor." Hermione supplied.
"And she likes to play pranks; she's not as good as Fred and George though." Ron said.
"Really? Is she muggle-born?" Sirius asked, apparently interested.
"She's an orphan, so we don't know and we didn't ask." said Harry.
"Starting in her fifth year? How's she coping with the work?" Remus asked.
"As well as most people," said Hermione, "she's like these two -she gets distracted, doodles, and never takes notes in History of Magic."
Harry put on his Innocent Face, "Hermione you are the only one who ever takes notes longer than the title and a sentence in History, seriously, you deserve an award for staying awake that long."
Sirius laughed, "Is Binns still the teacher? The ghost?"
"Yeah." He and Ron chorused.
They fell into a comfortable silence for a while, occasionally broken when somebody drank some Butterbeer until Harry asked,
"Do you know what Voldemort is up to yet?"
Ron choked on said Butterbeer at the mention of You-Know-Who's name and Hermione's eyes widened; the only two who didn't show any sign of shock were Remus and Sirius.
"Why?" said Sirius.
So I can publish it in the Daily Prophet, come off it Sirius,
"He did try to kill me, and is trying to regain his former army y'know."
"Alright, alright, no need to get like that, Harry."
That was Professor Lupin.
"Well?"
The last loyal Marauders looked at each other briefly, deciding on how much, if any, to divulge to the three Fifth Years.
"Not really -don't give me that look, we're telling the truth -he's been lying annoyingly low since the summer,"
"He's taking advantage of the Ministry's refusal to acknowledge his return, which in turn is making it worse for Dumbledore."
"You mean Fudge."
"Yes," Sirius picked up the explanation again, "But you've got to understand, Harry. It's a lot easier to believe he doesn't exist anymore than to believe he's back, and that the fear he instilled fifteen years ago could return, that he or his followers could murder the people you love and care about just because they felt like it."
"So you don't know anything?" Hermione inquired,
"We know some information, of course." said Remus, "Like the Deatheaters you named last year? We've been keeping tabs on all of them, and we've been discreetly trying to find as many people who believe in his return as possible since the summer, especially within the Ministry."
"We?"
Sirius winked, "An old group of friends."
Harry knew exactly what he was talking about; after all he, Hermione and most of the Weasley children spent a lot of their summer listening with Extendable Ears too Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's more private conversations.
He was talking about The Order of the Phoenix. Except he wasn't supposed to know that.
"Is that it? That's all you're going to tell us, isn't it?"
"See, you are smart!"
Remus looked at his watch,
"I've got to go and see Rosmerta, I'll see you guys at the next trip?"
"Sure, Professor Lupin." They said in unison,
"Haven't I told you before? Call me Remus!"
And with that he'd disappeared out of the cave, leaving Sirius alone with the three expectant faces awaiting explanations.
"Rosmerta knows about me, and she has no problem with Remus being a werewolf so he's gone to see about a room we could use for when you come to Hogsmeade,"
"So we don't have to sit in a freezing cold cave?"
"Got it in one, Ron."
They sat talking for a while, subjects varying from Quidditch to Butterbeer, and from Butterbeer to Buckbeak and the Billywig's in Fizzing Whizbees.
By the time they reached a lull in conversation it was getting dark, and getting time to go back to Hogwarts.
Sirius looked at Harry,
"Want me to walk you back?"
Harry shook his head before Hermione could even give a disapproving look to his Godfather as an early Christmas present,
"No it's okay, I'll see you next time, right?"
Sirius' eyes darkened perceptibly at Harry's answer, but recovered their usual pale glimmer at the mention of the next Hogsmeade trip.
"See you then, and be careful Harry."
"Later, Sirius!"
As Sirius rose to follow them to the entrance several things happened all at once: Sirius slipped on an empty bottle of Butterbeer, a photograph fell out of his robes, and Harry's inkling that his Godfather had been lying to him became a concrete truth.
Sirius recovered quickly, shoving the picture back into a pocket and stood up like nothing happened, but nobody said a word as Harry, Ron and Hermione walked down the rocky path and back through the fields, and every time one of them turned around they saw what was presumably a black dog watching over them until they reached the main road of Hogsmeade where it was busier… and also out of eye line of where Sirius had been.
Harry didn't say a word the entire journey back, he was too busy going over and over the lies Sirius kept saying, over and over. First of all, the girl was nobody… just a girl he used to date, and then he completely covered up the fact that he kept a picture of a pregnant woman in his pocket. A woman that looked remarkably like the nobody girlfriend he used to date.
He stormed up the steps to his bed, ignoring the worried looks that Ron and Hermione shared.
Sure enough, the woman was the "nobody" girlfriend in the pictures, just a year or two older and very pregnant.
"Harry, you okay mate?" Ron asked cautiously.
"Why did he lie to me?"
"What?"
"The woman in the photo, did you see it?"
He nodded slowly, "Yeah."
"It's the same girl that he was going out with at Hogwarts! The one in all of those pictures!"
Ron paled while Harry's face was still flushed in anger, "Come on mate, let's go see Hermione -we can send him an owl or something."
Harry slammed the album shut and forced it back into his trunk, quickly grabbing some writing materials, "I'm not sending one to him. I'm going to talk to Profes- Remus, there're some things that he's said that are a bit off too." Briskly he set off down the stairs; Ron followed at a small distance and got Hermione to come as well. It was in record time that they reached the Owlery.
"What are you going to say to Remus?" Ron asked as Harry began scribbling.
"Who that girl really was, if she was just a girlfriend why he keeps a picture of her pregnant in his pocket -you saw it right? Good. -why he changed the subject from it really quickly when we were asking Sirius about her, why he changed the subject again when we were talking about Orion… how's that for starters?"
"Just… be nice about it, okay?" said Hermione, "Professor Lupin only does what he thinks is best for you, and Sirius is the same, they just don't always do it the way you like. Remember in our third year? He knew about Sirius being your Godfather but didn't say anything until we were all inside the Shrieking Shack and it was almost too late."
"Right."
"Harry,"
"Okay, okay! Look, I've asked if we can all meet with him on the next trip because we really need to talk without Sirius."
"Even though you told Sirius you'd see him before Christmas?"
Ron asked in disbelief.
Harry steeled himself, "He lied, why does it matter if I lied too?"
"Because then you're doing the same thing that you're mad at him for, Harry."
He sighed, the blaze of anger he felt earlier ebbing away, "I know."
***
Orion sat at the Gryffindor table the next weekend picking at her toast and marmalade. The entire Hall was full of conversations about the recent trip to Hogsmeade, and she couldn't take part in the conversations because she didn't go. On the upside there were a lot more pranks set up about the school just waiting for their unsuspecting victims to set them off.
First thing today was Care of Magical Creatures with Mr. Hagrid outside in the freezing cold. His lessons were always interesting, and usually dangerous (which made them all the more fun for the most part), the only the only downside was that it was with the Slytherins… with Draco Malfoy.
Malfoy was about as over-confident as they came; unfortunately there was one in every school, at least one in fact.
"Orion, are you coming or what?" asked Ron. Apparently the bell had gone.
"Yeah, just day dreaming." she said, joining the trio to go outside.
"About what?"
"Malfoy dying a horrible, embarrassing death." she said dryly, causing Ron to apologise for disturbing such a wonderful vision.
Things at Hogwarts were definitely better than at the last school she was at: what with having friends, learning magic, a whole new way to perform pranks and not living with a family of money-loving not-very-nice-people. In fact, the only downside was the nightmares, which she last remembered having when she was a lot younger but not since then.
All in all? In her opinion Hogwarts rocked. Time flew by, even in the detentions, mad late night homework sessions and Divination… soon the next Hogsmeade trip was nearing and Orion was trying not to think about it.
*
They filed into the Defence against the Dark Arts amidst a light chatter, Professor Tasny sat at her desk writing but put it away as they got seated.
Orion sat in her place (next to Hermione and Neville), pulled out her wand, textbook, a parchment and quill and began to doodle. A moon soon blossomed in the corner, followed by a flower and a smiley face.
"Today we're studying the shield spell. Every witch and wizard has the ability to make a shield, but the strength does vary. Do any of you know how we can test a shield's strength?
Orion held the suspicion that Hermione had a drip feed of information while she slept, because Hermione's hand predictably shot into the air faster than she could slip on a banana skin.
"When a spell is cast at the shield it turns a certain colour according to its caster's magical strength."
"Correct, ten points to Gryffindor." she smiled. Orion shivered, Tasny gave her the same weird feeling that she got from the year seven history teacher that played rugby and was over six and a half feet tall, "Right, the spell is 'protectum' and you just have to point your wand in-front of you and swish it up and down once, when you've cast a shield you'll feel a tingle."
The class began pointing a swishing and saying 'protectum', and although nothing was visible a few shivered.
Orion pulled out her wand,
"Protectum!"
A tingle ran down her spine as well as a question -how did you turn it off?
"Everyone, hold your wands steady and come forward when I call your name; let's see how powerful you all are."
"Miss. Brown."
Lavender went to the front, her wand reaching the desk before the rest of her. Professor Tasny stood up and,
"Stupefy!"
A bubble appeared around her, pale green in colour.
"Mr. Finnigan."
Another bubble, yellow this time, engulfed Seamus.
At Hermione's turn she held a orange shield streaked with red -Tasny clapped,
"Quite a powerful witch, we have here, but I won't describe the shield colours now: you'll have to wait until I've been through the entire class. Mr. Longbottom?"
And so it went on, until,
"Mr. Potter."
Harry wasted no time, walked strongly up to the front desk and steadied his wand.
"Impedminta!"
A blinding light eclipsed him and Orion gaped. What colour was that? It was too bright to be white that was for sure. Professor Tasny barely hesitated before calling the next name,
"Miss. Taylor."
Her name. Here it goes.
"Stupefy!"
A blue and white bubble sprang out from her wand. What did that colour mean?
Last of all, Ron got an entirely blue shield that shimmered around him and Tasny looked to the class.
"I suppose you'd like to find out what all of those colours mean?
An immediate murmur of "yes" rose around the classroom.
"Then if you'll turn to page 113 you'll find a chart of the shield colours in strength order. Please make a copy of that for your notes."
Nobody pulled out their quills right away -not even Hermione- because everybody was too busy reading the chart and finding their own shield colours.
Orion found Harry's without even looking; it was right at the top of the list:
'Silver wizards are very rare and extremely powerful in the art of magic. The last known silver wizards were the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazaar Slytherin. However, it was suspected that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was also a silver wizard.'
Below that there were white wizards, then blue, red, orange, yellow, green, purple, brown and black, though apparently a black wizard was
'purely theoretical since those with that little magic wouldn't have the power to cast the shield.'
So, according to the book she was supposed to be fairly powerful, as was Ron and then Hermione, and even Neville ranked quite high.
She wasn't sure who looked more shocked -Neville (a solid orange shield caster), or Lavender, who'd cast a purple/green shield.
Eventually the sound of scratching quills filled the room, and the bell rang not long after Hermione finished (first, as usual).
Tasny let them out with an essay on 'Why are shields very useful but hard to maintain under constant fire?" as homework, which wasn't too bad compared to the two feet long essay Snape had set the other day (which neither Ron, Harry nor she had done yet), the one and a half feet for Charms and the six palms they had to read for Divination.
Orion found herself in the Common room again that night with most of the other Fifth and Seventh years.
"Argh! Why is Snape such a g-"
"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed.
He threw his textbook across the room, where it skidded next to Lavender with a 'thud'.
"It's hard!"
Orion put the final sentence on her own essay, "Wanna borrow mine? You can nick the ideas and stuff but put it in your own words alright? I really can't be arsed with Snape putting me in any more detentions. That man is detention happy."
Harry gaped, "Snape's a man? And all this time I thought he was a slimy thing!"
Those in the surrounding vicinity laughed, which smothered Hermione's disapproving look as Ron gleefully took Orion's essay and started scribbling madly.
"Do you want us to bring you anything from Hogsmeade tomorrow?" Harry asked, finishing off his own essay.
Looking up, Orion shook her head, "Nah -don't need anything and don't know what's there. I'll see you tomorrow, g'night."
***
The weekend couldn't have rolled around quick enough for Harry, and despite the gruelling Quidditch training they went through on Friday night (preparation for the upcoming match against Slytherin) he couldn't help but bounce on his toes in anticipation of the answers from Remus.
Since their last trip, when Sirius dropped a photograph that proved he was lying about a girl in the photo album, Harry had been sending letters to Remus about meeting up with him early, and then with Sirius slightly later.
As well as strict instructions to not let Sirius know.
"Harry, Remus might not know anything." said Hermione while they discreetly went through the back door of The Three Broomsticks. Just like Remus had said, Rosmerta was more than willing to rent a room out to Remus and Sirius -which, in turn, Harry, Ron and Hermione were also more than welcome to meet with them in.
"Or he might know everything."
Remus stood in the corridor just outside the room, waiting patiently for them, "Sirius has gone for a run, and he'll be back in time for a Butterbeer, now, what is it that you can't ask him about? He pushed the door too and settled into the chair, waiting patiently for one of them to speak.
Ron and Hermione looked expectantly at Harry, who was questioning his decision to ask Sirius now that he was on the brink of possibly discovering, after all, Sirius said it wasn't important, but, said a voice in the back of his mind, if it wasn't important, why does he keep a picture of her in his robes? Why did he go all quiet afterwards?
Besides, no one would get hurt by a few questions, right?
Mind made up, he looked at Remus resolutely,
"We wanted to know about some of the pictures in the photo album."
"What do you mean? I thought we'd already talked about those?"
Pulling the leather bound photo album from his backpack he opened it to a page they'd marked earlier -it held a photo of Lily in James' arms on the floor, and Sirius with his arms wrapped around a brown-eyed brunette; the lake behind them. All four faces beamed happily at the camera, waving and occasionally kissing each other. The caption read 'The Two Happy Couples, taken by Remus'
She's in loads of the photos from your sixth year onwards," said Hermione, turning pages to prove her point, "But she's in it before then as well but not quite as much."
"And Sirius had a photo of her in his pocket; it fell out when he slipped on the water."
"She was pregnant," said Ron.
"Very pregnant." Hermione added.
"Sirius said it wasn't important, but we reckon he's lying -he went weird after."
Raising his eyebrows at the last statement, made by Harry, he gazed at the original photo they'd shown him.
At length, he spoke.
"That was Sirius' girlfriend, like he told you. They officially got together at the beginning of our Sixth year. Her name was Jessenica, but we usually called her Jess."
Sensing an explanation that didn't need to be interrupted, Harry, Ron and Hermione relaxed into their seats.
"They started going 'steady', and we told her about my lycanthropy in our Seventh Year because we all trusted her, and I trusted not to hat me afterwards. We were right," he smiled sadly, "She slapped me too -for not explaining sooner, said she'd been worrying about my sick, dead or dying relatives for over six years when she should have been panicking about me. Sirius didn't escape either -she gave him the silent treatment for two days.
"About a year after we graduated you mum and dad got married, and Jess was living with Sirius. They said marriage was too formal and gave each other personalised eternity rings instead." Remus shook his head, "Even amidst a war Sirius managed to defy the norm.
"The Jess and Lily got pregnant-it was the first time either Sirius or James had been truly lost for words. Jess had a little girl a few months before Lily had you, but I don't suppose you remember her? You used to play together a lot."
Harry shook his head mutely. Sirius had a daughter?
"Jess and Lily were always exchanging tips on everything baby-related," he laughed, "And your father and Padfoot were trying to teach you both Quidditch when you were barely a year old."
"Then, as you know, your parents were betrayed and you were orphaned. Sirius went after Peter and was framed. There was a reason he chose to try and kill Peter in broad daylight, Harry."
"Before he went after him, he went home to tell Jess -the only one, he tells me, who also knew of the switch, only to find her and the baby gone, the Dark Mark hovering not above his house, but in the nursery, above the crib."
Hermione gasped, Ron blanched, and Harry gripped the table in front of him.
"How -Voldemort? He was gone -"
"But not his followers -who knew of Peter and therefore hot to hurt Sirius the most, what better way than to kill his best and his wife, as well as his partner and child?"
Silence hung over the group like a heavy curtain. Up until then his Godfather had just been that, and his dad's best-friends. Now he was a father to a murdered child and 'partner' as Remus had phrased it.
Eventually, Hermione found her voice, "Did they find the bodies?"
Remus looked up, "That, if I tell you, is something you can never tell another soul, diary or even a wall. It must not leave this room."
Hermione frowned, "If it's such a secret why are you telling us at all?"
"Because you'd just find out by yourselves -I know what you three are like -and then you'd go straight to Sirius, which would be bad and against s certain persons wishes."
The way he said those last words shocked Harry, it was the closest he'd ever heard Remus to spitting a sentence.
"Why?" That came from Ron.
Remus sighed, the lines on his face suddenly making he appear even older than usually so, "How would you feel if you found out that there was the smallest chance that your child, whom you'd presumed dead for nearly fifteen years, was alive?"
It was a rhetorical question.
"What do you mean." asked Harry.
"Jess was found in a muggle hospital, several miles from where Sirius' house is, about a week after Sirius was caught. The Ministry say they never found his little girl."
Liar.
""Did she have a name."
He shifted in his seat, "This is something else that can never leave this room. Okay?" They nodded, rapt with attention, "Orion. Her name was Orion. Sirius wanted to call her something else but Jess insisted on naming her after a constellation like her father."
"But Sirius is a star's name," said Hermione, "Orion is a constellation."
"It was the only one they both liked."
Harry's mind was not on such details however, he was on their new friend.
"Orion like Orion Taylor? It's not exactly a common name."
And right then, even as he was saying the words, he knew. The similarity that Hermione saw between he and Orion, was the same similarity that there was between Sirius and his dad Orion was an orphan, who had never known her parents, she loved to play pranks like it was a part of her DNA, which while impossible, was now scarily similar to how many described Sirius.
"Remus, are you lying about the Ministry? Don't lie to us."
The werewolf across from them grimaced, a look akin to shame flashing across his face, "What would you do if I said yes?"
Before any of the Gryffindor's could respond there was a 'thunk' from behind the door, making everybody jump. By accident, Remus hadn't shut the door entirely. Through the tiny slit, Harry made out a shadow, which suddenly became clearer when the door was pushed open further by a shaking hand.
Now, an ashen faced man walked through the threshold, a torrent of emotions on his face and in his eyes, the darkest of blue.
Hope. Pain. Anger.
Betrayal.
Remus paled considerably, and Harry swore he could hear Ron's jaw hit the floor.
As for himself, Harry could only breathe on word.
"Sirius."
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Chapter Ten
Halloween was around the corner, as was the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. The problem was, Orion had no idea what it was, so she asked as much of Hermione.
"It's the only all-magic community left in England, when you handed your slip in it meant you could come to Hogsmeade." she explained.
"Slip, what slip?"
"The slip that your parents needed to sign, giving you permission to come to Hogsmeade?"
"Oh." So no Hogsmeade then, not to mention the fact that she had no parents to sign any parental permission forms, she didn't remember even receiving it in June either.
The disappointment must have been showing on her face because then Hermione asked,
"Are you okay?"
Absolutely peachy, never been better, "Fantastic."
Hermione smiled and went to join Harry and Ron by the crowd waiting to sign their names.
Half hour later and practically the whole of Gryffindor, well, all those in their third year or above she found out, had signed up to go… unfortunately it was rather noticeable that the new addition to the fifth year wasn't on the list.
"Hey Orion, why aren't you coming?"
She turned around to face Ron, knowing it was going to have to come out sooner or later.
"To where? Hogsmeade?"
Ron nodded but the trio all looked curious.
"I, uh," oh come on Orion, you can do better than that! "well how good can it be?"
Ron's jaw dropped, "How good? How good? Hogsmeade is the best place ever!"
Oh great.
"Why?"
"Why?! Why?!" he paused, "Well, it just is!"
"It's probably just got shops right?"
"Just got shops? You've never tasted Honeydukes chocolate, or been into Zonko's have you?" He kept repeating the last thing she said like a bad record player. He turned away in a fit of indignant splutters and pushed Harry to the spot-light, apparently unable to continue.
"They're not just normal muggle shops, they can't be can they? Since there aren't any muggles living there; every store is full of wizarding stuff, just like Diagon Alley! It's amazing, you've got to go!"
Orion knew it, she was going to have to tell them. She would be the stupid Foster kid again, except minus the Foster because, of course, now she had no one to even go home to unless you counted an orphanage so full of children that it was more like a playground.
"I want to go but I can't."
"What?" Harry was confused, as were Ron and Hermione (the former of which was calming slowly now).
She sighed, "I can't."
"Why not?"
"No permission slip -no parents to sign it… and the Williams kinda stopped the Guardian thing when I got my letter."
"You're an orphan?" asked Harry in disbelief.
"Hay give the kid a plushie doll!" Orion rubbed the bridge if her nose as nerves took over, "So that's why I can't go, okay?"
Wait for it…
"Okay, we could always bribe McGonagall to let you go anyway, y'know, offer her a tartan hat or something…" Ron started, a scheming look crossing his face as Hermione wore her own look, which was disturbingly similar to McGonagall's Disapproving Look.
Orion paused in 'trying to rub her nose away' as a Primary School teacher had once phrased it during a math test, where were the insults? The nasty comments and the taunts?
"Really?"
Ron grinned a grin to make Fred and George proud.
Harry, however, was still processing the information, a chain reaction going through his brain.
Orion was an orphan. He was an orphan. Neville was practically an orphan… in at least two of those cases it was Voldemort's fault. Voldemort revelled in death and destruction, pleasured in causing pain to others.
Harry hated him. Not like he hated Dudley, but a burning hate for someone so cruel and horrid that made him despise him with every breath.
Voldemort was the reason there were so many orphans.
Voldemort was the reason so many parents had lost a child, like Cedric's parents…
Harry resolved, right there and then in his mind, to stop him, but all he said to Orion was,
"Me too, I'm sorry; but we'll ask McGonagall next lesson."
*
During their next Transfiguration lesson, while they were trying to Vanish mice and for the most part failing miserably, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Orion were planning how to ask McGonagall if the latter would be allowed to Hogsmeade despite the lack of permission slip.
Hermione, of course had vanished her mouse on her third try and earned Gryffindor fifteen points, Harry and Orion on their fifth earning Gryffindor five points each (Ron caught on after his tenth try, and he was extremely proud of it).
When the bell rang, all mice were hurriedly Unvanished and put into boxes as the class emptied out to break, but four remained, lingering behind until Neville disappeared out the door (his mouse ran away and he'd spent five minutes trying to find it again just by it's noises because it was still invisible), then they hovered by McGonagall's desk as she locked the mice away.
"Professor, we have a question," Hermione started,
"Actually, I have a question and they're helping." Orion felt obliged to point out.
There was an uncomfortable silence, during which McGonagall stared at them over the top of her glasses,
"Well, what's the question?"
"I never got a Hogsmeade slip, Professor, so I couldn't get it signed and now I can't go next weekend."
She frowned, "That is an unfortunate oversight on our part Miss Taylor, however the rule still stands -if you don't have a signed slip you can't go on the trips."
"But I never even got a slip to get signed, Professor!"
She narrowed her gaze, "An unfortunate oversight as I have said. I'm sorry Miss Taylor, but the rule still applies -go to lunch."
The disgruntled Gryffindors left the classroom quickly and quietly, none more so than Harry.
This was all Voldemort's fault.
*
The Hogsmeade weekend came with a freezing wind and frost, Orion parted with them at the top of the marble staircase, telling them she may as well take advantage of there being hardly anybody in the school.
Harry had a sneaking suspicion it was her who set the on the mantle piece that caught a seventh year -his fingers were stuck to it for two hours before the Touch Activating Glue wore off.
As they made their way down to the village Ron was still spluttering at the obscenity of her not being allowed to go to Hosgmeade.
Harry wasn't going to disagree since he knew exactly how she must be feeling, but they couldn't exactly do anything at that very moment, could they?
"Come on Ron! We can't do anything now, we can help her for the next trip before Christmas, start a petition or something."
Hermione rolled her eyes,
"You really thing that will work? Professor McGonagall didn't let Harry go a few years ago when you both practically begged, and she sounded pretty firm about Orion not coming to Hogsmeade without a slip."
"Yeah, but they did think a maniac was out to kill me," he reasoned, "and it turned out it was just Snuffles trying to murder Wormtail."
"I suppose, but I still highly doubt that she'll change her mind, even if you hand her a petition signed by every student at Hogwarts."
The trio carried on walking, moving on to other subjects -like the first Quidditch match of the season, which would also be Ron's first ever.
Training wasn't going too badly, although in Harry's mind Angelina was almost as obsessed with training as Wood was, Ron wasn't terrible, but if anybody threw a spinning Quaffle to his left or above his head the other team was going to score.
Consequently Angelina was urging him to catch the Snitch as soon as possible so that the Slytherins would have less time to discover and exploit Ron's weakness.
By the time they were in eye-sight of The Three Broomsticks Harry's nose was as bright as Rudolf the Reindeers, without a word exchanged between them they speeded up to where Butterbeer was awaiting and a nice warm fire with no bitter wind to whip at their faces.
There was also the small matter of buying some extra bottles to take out and some sweets from Honeydukes for Sirius and Remus whom they would be meeting up within in half an hour, if the clock on the wall as they walked in was right.
"We meeting in the uh, usual place?" asked Ron as they quickly cornered a table away from the door and near the table, setting their Butterbeers down carefully.
Harry nodded because his mouth now full of the warming liquid.
"Won't everybody recognise Professor Lupin, though?" said Hermione,
"They're not coming down to meet us, we go straight to the cave where they'll be waiting."
Harry tugged on Ron's robes fifteen minutes later, "Come on, we better go."
Ron drank the last of his Butterbeer and looked balefully outside: the wind had picked up and was blowing fiercely down the street as students battled to keep their scarves on, and the sky was looking dangerously like it was about it rain.
"Y'know if I freeze to death going up there, I'm going to come back and haunt you and Snuffles." Ron complained as Harry lifted his newly filled school-bag carefully from its resting place on the floor and laughed.
"You tell him that!"
A quick stop in Honeydukes later and they were on their way, climbing over the fence and wading through the knee-high grass to the hidden cave that Sirius discovered several years ago after his escape from Azkaban.
"We were beginning to think you'd never turn up!" greeted Sirius as they sat on the floor and started to unpack the food and drink.
"Nice to see you too, Sirius." Harry replied, a smile lighting up his face, "How's it going?"
"Funny, I was going to as you the same thing, studying hard for those delightful OWL's?"
Harry, choosing carefully not to answer that question looked at his feet and changed the subject. He really couldn't be bothered with a lecture right now, especially from Sirius.
"So the girl, who is she?"
His Godfather's smile faltered for a second before he waved a hand dismissively, "Just a girl I used to date -you don't need to worry, Harry."
He raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Really."
Liar.
Remus started talking just as he was about to respond as such, so Harry notched up a mental note for later.
"How is your revision going, Ron?"
"Ah -"
"They haven't started yet," said Hermione, an annoying satisfied grin on her face, "but I'm going to get them on it after Christmas, Professor Lupin."
Ron gaped, "You've already started revising? The exams aren't until May!"
"I like to be prepared, Ron! Unlike you, I also would like to pass."
Harry put a placating hand onto his friends shoulder, halting the argument for now at least, and changed the subject once again from their upcoming exams.
"You know we have a new girl at school, Orion Taylor? She says the Ministry overlooked her, or something, and she was at school all over the holidays catching up?"
"She's in our year, and a Gryffindor." Hermione supplied.
"And she likes to play pranks; she's not as good as Fred and George though." Ron said.
"Really? Is she muggle-born?" Sirius asked, apparently interested.
"She's an orphan, so we don't know and we didn't ask." said Harry.
"Starting in her fifth year? How's she coping with the work?" Remus asked.
"As well as most people," said Hermione, "she's like these two -she gets distracted, doodles, and never takes notes in History of Magic."
Harry put on his Innocent Face, "Hermione you are the only one who ever takes notes longer than the title and a sentence in History, seriously, you deserve an award for staying awake that long."
Sirius laughed, "Is Binns still the teacher? The ghost?"
"Yeah." He and Ron chorused.
They fell into a comfortable silence for a while, occasionally broken when somebody drank some Butterbeer until Harry asked,
"Do you know what Voldemort is up to yet?"
Ron choked on said Butterbeer at the mention of You-Know-Who's name and Hermione's eyes widened; the only two who didn't show any sign of shock were Remus and Sirius.
"Why?" said Sirius.
So I can publish it in the Daily Prophet, come off it Sirius,
"He did try to kill me, and is trying to regain his former army y'know."
"Alright, alright, no need to get like that, Harry."
That was Professor Lupin.
"Well?"
The last loyal Marauders looked at each other briefly, deciding on how much, if any, to divulge to the three Fifth Years.
"Not really -don't give me that look, we're telling the truth -he's been lying annoyingly low since the summer,"
"He's taking advantage of the Ministry's refusal to acknowledge his return, which in turn is making it worse for Dumbledore."
"You mean Fudge."
"Yes," Sirius picked up the explanation again, "But you've got to understand, Harry. It's a lot easier to believe he doesn't exist anymore than to believe he's back, and that the fear he instilled fifteen years ago could return, that he or his followers could murder the people you love and care about just because they felt like it."
"So you don't know anything?" Hermione inquired,
"We know some information, of course." said Remus, "Like the Deatheaters you named last year? We've been keeping tabs on all of them, and we've been discreetly trying to find as many people who believe in his return as possible since the summer, especially within the Ministry."
"We?"
Sirius winked, "An old group of friends."
Harry knew exactly what he was talking about; after all he, Hermione and most of the Weasley children spent a lot of their summer listening with Extendable Ears too Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's more private conversations.
He was talking about The Order of the Phoenix. Except he wasn't supposed to know that.
"Is that it? That's all you're going to tell us, isn't it?"
"See, you are smart!"
Remus looked at his watch,
"I've got to go and see Rosmerta, I'll see you guys at the next trip?"
"Sure, Professor Lupin." They said in unison,
"Haven't I told you before? Call me Remus!"
And with that he'd disappeared out of the cave, leaving Sirius alone with the three expectant faces awaiting explanations.
"Rosmerta knows about me, and she has no problem with Remus being a werewolf so he's gone to see about a room we could use for when you come to Hogsmeade,"
"So we don't have to sit in a freezing cold cave?"
"Got it in one, Ron."
They sat talking for a while, subjects varying from Quidditch to Butterbeer, and from Butterbeer to Buckbeak and the Billywig's in Fizzing Whizbees.
By the time they reached a lull in conversation it was getting dark, and getting time to go back to Hogwarts.
Sirius looked at Harry,
"Want me to walk you back?"
Harry shook his head before Hermione could even give a disapproving look to his Godfather as an early Christmas present,
"No it's okay, I'll see you next time, right?"
Sirius' eyes darkened perceptibly at Harry's answer, but recovered their usual pale glimmer at the mention of the next Hogsmeade trip.
"See you then, and be careful Harry."
"Later, Sirius!"
As Sirius rose to follow them to the entrance several things happened all at once: Sirius slipped on an empty bottle of Butterbeer, a photograph fell out of his robes, and Harry's inkling that his Godfather had been lying to him became a concrete truth.
Sirius recovered quickly, shoving the picture back into a pocket and stood up like nothing happened, but nobody said a word as Harry, Ron and Hermione walked down the rocky path and back through the fields, and every time one of them turned around they saw what was presumably a black dog watching over them until they reached the main road of Hogsmeade where it was busier… and also out of eye line of where Sirius had been.
Harry didn't say a word the entire journey back, he was too busy going over and over the lies Sirius kept saying, over and over. First of all, the girl was nobody… just a girl he used to date, and then he completely covered up the fact that he kept a picture of a pregnant woman in his pocket. A woman that looked remarkably like the nobody girlfriend he used to date.
He stormed up the steps to his bed, ignoring the worried looks that Ron and Hermione shared.
Sure enough, the woman was the "nobody" girlfriend in the pictures, just a year or two older and very pregnant.
"Harry, you okay mate?" Ron asked cautiously.
"Why did he lie to me?"
"What?"
"The woman in the photo, did you see it?"
He nodded slowly, "Yeah."
"It's the same girl that he was going out with at Hogwarts! The one in all of those pictures!"
Ron paled while Harry's face was still flushed in anger, "Come on mate, let's go see Hermione -we can send him an owl or something."
Harry slammed the album shut and forced it back into his trunk, quickly grabbing some writing materials, "I'm not sending one to him. I'm going to talk to Profes- Remus, there're some things that he's said that are a bit off too." Briskly he set off down the stairs; Ron followed at a small distance and got Hermione to come as well. It was in record time that they reached the Owlery.
"What are you going to say to Remus?" Ron asked as Harry began scribbling.
"Who that girl really was, if she was just a girlfriend why he keeps a picture of her pregnant in his pocket -you saw it right? Good. -why he changed the subject from it really quickly when we were asking Sirius about her, why he changed the subject again when we were talking about Orion… how's that for starters?"
"Just… be nice about it, okay?" said Hermione, "Professor Lupin only does what he thinks is best for you, and Sirius is the same, they just don't always do it the way you like. Remember in our third year? He knew about Sirius being your Godfather but didn't say anything until we were all inside the Shrieking Shack and it was almost too late."
"Right."
"Harry,"
"Okay, okay! Look, I've asked if we can all meet with him on the next trip because we really need to talk without Sirius."
"Even though you told Sirius you'd see him before Christmas?"
Ron asked in disbelief.
Harry steeled himself, "He lied, why does it matter if I lied too?"
"Because then you're doing the same thing that you're mad at him for, Harry."
He sighed, the blaze of anger he felt earlier ebbing away, "I know."
***
Orion sat at the Gryffindor table the next weekend picking at her toast and marmalade. The entire Hall was full of conversations about the recent trip to Hogsmeade, and she couldn't take part in the conversations because she didn't go. On the upside there were a lot more pranks set up about the school just waiting for their unsuspecting victims to set them off.
First thing today was Care of Magical Creatures with Mr. Hagrid outside in the freezing cold. His lessons were always interesting, and usually dangerous (which made them all the more fun for the most part), the only the only downside was that it was with the Slytherins… with Draco Malfoy.
Malfoy was about as over-confident as they came; unfortunately there was one in every school, at least one in fact.
"Orion, are you coming or what?" asked Ron. Apparently the bell had gone.
"Yeah, just day dreaming." she said, joining the trio to go outside.
"About what?"
"Malfoy dying a horrible, embarrassing death." she said dryly, causing Ron to apologise for disturbing such a wonderful vision.
Things at Hogwarts were definitely better than at the last school she was at: what with having friends, learning magic, a whole new way to perform pranks and not living with a family of money-loving not-very-nice-people. In fact, the only downside was the nightmares, which she last remembered having when she was a lot younger but not since then.
All in all? In her opinion Hogwarts rocked. Time flew by, even in the detentions, mad late night homework sessions and Divination… soon the next Hogsmeade trip was nearing and Orion was trying not to think about it.
*
They filed into the Defence against the Dark Arts amidst a light chatter, Professor Tasny sat at her desk writing but put it away as they got seated.
Orion sat in her place (next to Hermione and Neville), pulled out her wand, textbook, a parchment and quill and began to doodle. A moon soon blossomed in the corner, followed by a flower and a smiley face.
"Today we're studying the shield spell. Every witch and wizard has the ability to make a shield, but the strength does vary. Do any of you know how we can test a shield's strength?
Orion held the suspicion that Hermione had a drip feed of information while she slept, because Hermione's hand predictably shot into the air faster than she could slip on a banana skin.
"When a spell is cast at the shield it turns a certain colour according to its caster's magical strength."
"Correct, ten points to Gryffindor." she smiled. Orion shivered, Tasny gave her the same weird feeling that she got from the year seven history teacher that played rugby and was over six and a half feet tall, "Right, the spell is 'protectum' and you just have to point your wand in-front of you and swish it up and down once, when you've cast a shield you'll feel a tingle."
The class began pointing a swishing and saying 'protectum', and although nothing was visible a few shivered.
Orion pulled out her wand,
"Protectum!"
A tingle ran down her spine as well as a question -how did you turn it off?
"Everyone, hold your wands steady and come forward when I call your name; let's see how powerful you all are."
"Miss. Brown."
Lavender went to the front, her wand reaching the desk before the rest of her. Professor Tasny stood up and,
"Stupefy!"
A bubble appeared around her, pale green in colour.
"Mr. Finnigan."
Another bubble, yellow this time, engulfed Seamus.
At Hermione's turn she held a orange shield streaked with red -Tasny clapped,
"Quite a powerful witch, we have here, but I won't describe the shield colours now: you'll have to wait until I've been through the entire class. Mr. Longbottom?"
And so it went on, until,
"Mr. Potter."
Harry wasted no time, walked strongly up to the front desk and steadied his wand.
"Impedminta!"
A blinding light eclipsed him and Orion gaped. What colour was that? It was too bright to be white that was for sure. Professor Tasny barely hesitated before calling the next name,
"Miss. Taylor."
Her name. Here it goes.
"Stupefy!"
A blue and white bubble sprang out from her wand. What did that colour mean?
Last of all, Ron got an entirely blue shield that shimmered around him and Tasny looked to the class.
"I suppose you'd like to find out what all of those colours mean?
An immediate murmur of "yes" rose around the classroom.
"Then if you'll turn to page 113 you'll find a chart of the shield colours in strength order. Please make a copy of that for your notes."
Nobody pulled out their quills right away -not even Hermione- because everybody was too busy reading the chart and finding their own shield colours.
Orion found Harry's without even looking; it was right at the top of the list:
'Silver wizards are very rare and extremely powerful in the art of magic. The last known silver wizards were the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazaar Slytherin. However, it was suspected that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was also a silver wizard.'
Below that there were white wizards, then blue, red, orange, yellow, green, purple, brown and black, though apparently a black wizard was
'purely theoretical since those with that little magic wouldn't have the power to cast the shield.'
So, according to the book she was supposed to be fairly powerful, as was Ron and then Hermione, and even Neville ranked quite high.
She wasn't sure who looked more shocked -Neville (a solid orange shield caster), or Lavender, who'd cast a purple/green shield.
Eventually the sound of scratching quills filled the room, and the bell rang not long after Hermione finished (first, as usual).
Tasny let them out with an essay on 'Why are shields very useful but hard to maintain under constant fire?" as homework, which wasn't too bad compared to the two feet long essay Snape had set the other day (which neither Ron, Harry nor she had done yet), the one and a half feet for Charms and the six palms they had to read for Divination.
Orion found herself in the Common room again that night with most of the other Fifth and Seventh years.
"Argh! Why is Snape such a g-"
"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed.
He threw his textbook across the room, where it skidded next to Lavender with a 'thud'.
"It's hard!"
Orion put the final sentence on her own essay, "Wanna borrow mine? You can nick the ideas and stuff but put it in your own words alright? I really can't be arsed with Snape putting me in any more detentions. That man is detention happy."
Harry gaped, "Snape's a man? And all this time I thought he was a slimy thing!"
Those in the surrounding vicinity laughed, which smothered Hermione's disapproving look as Ron gleefully took Orion's essay and started scribbling madly.
"Do you want us to bring you anything from Hogsmeade tomorrow?" Harry asked, finishing off his own essay.
Looking up, Orion shook her head, "Nah -don't need anything and don't know what's there. I'll see you tomorrow, g'night."
***
The weekend couldn't have rolled around quick enough for Harry, and despite the gruelling Quidditch training they went through on Friday night (preparation for the upcoming match against Slytherin) he couldn't help but bounce on his toes in anticipation of the answers from Remus.
Since their last trip, when Sirius dropped a photograph that proved he was lying about a girl in the photo album, Harry had been sending letters to Remus about meeting up with him early, and then with Sirius slightly later.
As well as strict instructions to not let Sirius know.
"Harry, Remus might not know anything." said Hermione while they discreetly went through the back door of The Three Broomsticks. Just like Remus had said, Rosmerta was more than willing to rent a room out to Remus and Sirius -which, in turn, Harry, Ron and Hermione were also more than welcome to meet with them in.
"Or he might know everything."
Remus stood in the corridor just outside the room, waiting patiently for them, "Sirius has gone for a run, and he'll be back in time for a Butterbeer, now, what is it that you can't ask him about? He pushed the door too and settled into the chair, waiting patiently for one of them to speak.
Ron and Hermione looked expectantly at Harry, who was questioning his decision to ask Sirius now that he was on the brink of possibly discovering, after all, Sirius said it wasn't important, but, said a voice in the back of his mind, if it wasn't important, why does he keep a picture of her in his robes? Why did he go all quiet afterwards?
Besides, no one would get hurt by a few questions, right?
Mind made up, he looked at Remus resolutely,
"We wanted to know about some of the pictures in the photo album."
"What do you mean? I thought we'd already talked about those?"
Pulling the leather bound photo album from his backpack he opened it to a page they'd marked earlier -it held a photo of Lily in James' arms on the floor, and Sirius with his arms wrapped around a brown-eyed brunette; the lake behind them. All four faces beamed happily at the camera, waving and occasionally kissing each other. The caption read 'The Two Happy Couples, taken by Remus'
She's in loads of the photos from your sixth year onwards," said Hermione, turning pages to prove her point, "But she's in it before then as well but not quite as much."
"And Sirius had a photo of her in his pocket; it fell out when he slipped on the water."
"She was pregnant," said Ron.
"Very pregnant." Hermione added.
"Sirius said it wasn't important, but we reckon he's lying -he went weird after."
Raising his eyebrows at the last statement, made by Harry, he gazed at the original photo they'd shown him.
At length, he spoke.
"That was Sirius' girlfriend, like he told you. They officially got together at the beginning of our Sixth year. Her name was Jessenica, but we usually called her Jess."
Sensing an explanation that didn't need to be interrupted, Harry, Ron and Hermione relaxed into their seats.
"They started going 'steady', and we told her about my lycanthropy in our Seventh Year because we all trusted her, and I trusted not to hat me afterwards. We were right," he smiled sadly, "She slapped me too -for not explaining sooner, said she'd been worrying about my sick, dead or dying relatives for over six years when she should have been panicking about me. Sirius didn't escape either -she gave him the silent treatment for two days.
"About a year after we graduated you mum and dad got married, and Jess was living with Sirius. They said marriage was too formal and gave each other personalised eternity rings instead." Remus shook his head, "Even amidst a war Sirius managed to defy the norm.
"The Jess and Lily got pregnant-it was the first time either Sirius or James had been truly lost for words. Jess had a little girl a few months before Lily had you, but I don't suppose you remember her? You used to play together a lot."
Harry shook his head mutely. Sirius had a daughter?
"Jess and Lily were always exchanging tips on everything baby-related," he laughed, "And your father and Padfoot were trying to teach you both Quidditch when you were barely a year old."
"Then, as you know, your parents were betrayed and you were orphaned. Sirius went after Peter and was framed. There was a reason he chose to try and kill Peter in broad daylight, Harry."
"Before he went after him, he went home to tell Jess -the only one, he tells me, who also knew of the switch, only to find her and the baby gone, the Dark Mark hovering not above his house, but in the nursery, above the crib."
Hermione gasped, Ron blanched, and Harry gripped the table in front of him.
"How -Voldemort? He was gone -"
"But not his followers -who knew of Peter and therefore hot to hurt Sirius the most, what better way than to kill his best and his wife, as well as his partner and child?"
Silence hung over the group like a heavy curtain. Up until then his Godfather had just been that, and his dad's best-friends. Now he was a father to a murdered child and 'partner' as Remus had phrased it.
Eventually, Hermione found her voice, "Did they find the bodies?"
Remus looked up, "That, if I tell you, is something you can never tell another soul, diary or even a wall. It must not leave this room."
Hermione frowned, "If it's such a secret why are you telling us at all?"
"Because you'd just find out by yourselves -I know what you three are like -and then you'd go straight to Sirius, which would be bad and against s certain persons wishes."
The way he said those last words shocked Harry, it was the closest he'd ever heard Remus to spitting a sentence.
"Why?" That came from Ron.
Remus sighed, the lines on his face suddenly making he appear even older than usually so, "How would you feel if you found out that there was the smallest chance that your child, whom you'd presumed dead for nearly fifteen years, was alive?"
It was a rhetorical question.
"What do you mean." asked Harry.
"Jess was found in a muggle hospital, several miles from where Sirius' house is, about a week after Sirius was caught. The Ministry say they never found his little girl."
Liar.
""Did she have a name."
He shifted in his seat, "This is something else that can never leave this room. Okay?" They nodded, rapt with attention, "Orion. Her name was Orion. Sirius wanted to call her something else but Jess insisted on naming her after a constellation like her father."
"But Sirius is a star's name," said Hermione, "Orion is a constellation."
"It was the only one they both liked."
Harry's mind was not on such details however, he was on their new friend.
"Orion like Orion Taylor? It's not exactly a common name."
And right then, even as he was saying the words, he knew. The similarity that Hermione saw between he and Orion, was the same similarity that there was between Sirius and his dad Orion was an orphan, who had never known her parents, she loved to play pranks like it was a part of her DNA, which while impossible, was now scarily similar to how many described Sirius.
"Remus, are you lying about the Ministry? Don't lie to us."
The werewolf across from them grimaced, a look akin to shame flashing across his face, "What would you do if I said yes?"
Before any of the Gryffindor's could respond there was a 'thunk' from behind the door, making everybody jump. By accident, Remus hadn't shut the door entirely. Through the tiny slit, Harry made out a shadow, which suddenly became clearer when the door was pushed open further by a shaking hand.
Now, an ashen faced man walked through the threshold, a torrent of emotions on his face and in his eyes, the darkest of blue.
Hope. Pain. Anger.
Betrayal.
Remus paled considerably, and Harry swore he could hear Ron's jaw hit the floor.
As for himself, Harry could only breathe on word.
"Sirius."