:I do not own any of the charachters of this story (other than Anastasia). They all belong to J.K.Rowling. Otherwise someone else would've fallen through the veil in the Order of the Pheonix.:

Chapter 11: Unhappy Halloween

"Happy Halloween, Remus!" Anastasia called throughout the home of her friend, Remus Lupin, "What was SO important that you had to drag me all the way from work?" Anastasia was now no longer a sixteen-year-old, but a radiant and beautiful witch of twenty-two. She walked through the house and saw that the curtains were drawn at every window on the house. "Jesus, Remus are you a werewolf or a vampire?" Anastasia asked jokingly as she walked into his study, where Remus was sitting in front of the fire. "Okay, what did you have t…" she stopped abruptly as she caught the look on his face. It was grave and sorrowful; he looked as if he was on the brink of tears. "Remus," Anastasia said nervously, "Remus, what's happened? What's wrong?"

The only thing Remus could do was bury his face into his palms, he than said in the most mournful voice, "He found them, Anya. Voldemort found them."

Anastasia's heart skipped a beat, "N-not Frank and Alice?"

Remus only shook his head.

Anastasia felt as though a metal baseball bat had just cracked upon her head. It took awhile for her to comprehend what exactly she heard. "Lily and James…." she said faintly, "th-they're d-d-dead?" She then drew her breath in quickly, "Oh God! The baby! What happened to Harry? Is he alright?"

"Anastasia, the prophecy was right. Harry did have the power to vanquish Voldemort." Anastasia gave a shuddering gasp, "Harry survived Avada Kedavra. The curse rebounded and Voldemort just…disappeared." She gave a sigh of relief, knowing that her godson was still alive, but then Anastasia's face became white and her legs felt numb. She collapsed but Remus caught her before she could hit the ground, "Oh, Remus!" she sobbed into her friend's shoulder, "Not my best friends! Not my best friends! Oh GOD! Lily! James! No, no, no…"

Remus held her tightly as they both cried, their shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

"How could he have known? They used the Fidelius Charm! They had their Secret Keeper!"

"Um, Anastasia. I think you'd better sit down for this." Remus said delicately. He lead Anastasia to an armchair and let her sink into it, her body shaking madly. Remus sighed heavily, "Anya, did you know who Lily and James' Secret Keeper was?"

Anastasia shook her head, "Someone they trusted, obviously."

"I thought this person was trustworthy." Remus said darkly, "In fact, I could've thought of no one better…until now." He breathed in deeply and said solemnly, "Anastasia, Sirius was James and Lily's Secret Keeper."

Anastasia felt the same baseball bat take a blow at her chest. This time she really passed out at the effect of these words. When she awoke, Remus was looking at her reproachfully, tears in his eyes.

Anastasia said softly, "Sirius? Can't have been…Sirius. He wouldn't…"

"He did, Anya. I wish it wasn't true, but he did. He's been a double agent for Voldemort. Who knows how long, probably passed information to him about the Order…" Remus paused and then said, "It gets worse."

Anastasia gasped, "Worse? How could it possibly get any worse then my fiance killing my best friends?"

"He killed thirteen other people in a public street." he said somberly. Anastasia wailed loudly, "Twelve of them were muggles, one of them was a wizard."

"Oh no." Anastasia said, "Who was it?"

Remus gave a squeak of pain and whispered, "Peter.."

Anastasia howled even louder at these words. She was knelt upon the rug and cried into eternity.

"The worst part of it is," Remus said, "was that all he did was laugh. He just…laughed." Anastasia's mind was racing with confused thoughts. HOW could Sirius have done such horrid things? WHY? WHY? He had no intention what so ever to kill Lily, James, Peter, or those twelve other people. After chocking out a few more tears, Anastasia got up; her face was pale, her eyes were red and puffy, and her cheeks were stained with tears. She walked out and was heading briskly toward the door.

"Anya! Anastasia, where are you going?" Remus called out after her.

Her hand reached the doorknob when he grabbed her shoulder and turned her towards him.

"Where are you going? It's dangerous out there." he said softly.

Anastasia pushed his hand away and wrenched the door open, she turned to him to say, "I'm going to prove you wrong. I know Sirius wouldn't do those things. I know it."

"How do you know, Anastasia? How?" Remus said angrily.

Anastasia's eyes bored into his but she didn't say anything. She wasn't really sure if Sirius was innocent or not. But she felt inclined to go and see if he really did all that Remus said he did. Anastasia then pulled up the hood to her cloak, made her way down the street and Apparated to the Ministry of Magic.

Anastasia had arrived in the Atrium. Many wizards and witches were Apparating and Disapparating. A few coming out of fire places in a great ball of green fire. Anastasia frantically made her way to the lift and managed to squeeze in through the small gap before it closed in on her. Good thing she only had two levels to go, but she always found it irritating when the elevator stopped and that stupid woman's voice came on.

At last, she reached the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She looked around for a familiar face to point her which way to go, "Emanuel!" Anastasia cried out. A rather frail looking, freckled man turned to Anastasia. He waved and gave a sheepish smile.

"Hey Anya, what's up?" Emanuel asked.

"Emanuel, where's Mr. Crouch?" Anastasia asked briskly.

"Um," Emanuel said, thinking, "I think he's interrogating someone in Room 207B."

"Oh thank you, Manny!" Anastasia ran off towards the room as Emanuel waved goodbye and shuffled off.

Anastasia reached the door and tugged it open, and there she found the Minister (or Mistress w/e) of Magic, Millicent Bagnold, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Bartemius Crouch, and held in the arms of two dementors, was Sirius.

"Ah, Anastasia" Barty said airily, "See you've come to wish your fiance farewell."

"What is this Barty?" Anastasia said angrily, "What's Sirius's crime?"

"You know perfectly well of his crime, Anastasia. He murdered those 13 people and the Potters." Mr. Crouch said crossly, "He's also clearly quite insane. He keeps blaming Peter Pettigrew for the deaths of the Potters."

"P-Peter?" Anastasia stuttered. She turned to Sirius, who was staring at her reproachfully, "Minister, I would like to speak to Sirius alone please."

"Absolutely not!" Mr. Crouch thundered, "He is to be taken immediately to Azkaban!"

"Barty," Millicent said putting a hand on his shoulder, "leave her." Crouch glowered at Anastasia and left the room reluctantly.

"Wait," Anastasia said, "take them with you." She gestured toward the dementors. The Minister waved for them to follow, and so they did. The door closed behind Anastasia. As soon as it had, she ran to Sirius and held him in her arms. He immediately broke out in tears.

"Anya, I didn't do it. It was Peter. He sold Lily and James…"

"Shhhh. It's okay, baby." Anastasia cooed,. She lead Sirius to the wooden chair and sat him down. She knelt beside him and asked, "Did you tell him, Sirius?"

Sirius looked at Anastasia and told her, "I was never James and Lily's Secret Keeper."

"What?" her face in complete alarm

"I convinced them at the last minute to change it to Peter." he sighed regrettably, "I good as murdered our friends, Anastasia." Sirius's eyes filled with tears once more and his head hung over in shame.

"But all those people…they say you killed them. Along with Peter." Anastasia said.

"Peter." Sirius said menacingly, "When I confronted him on the street, he began yelling about how I killed James and Lily. And as soon as I had my wand out pointed at him, he had his wand behind his back and he blew half the street away. But before he changed into a rat, he was nice enough to leave his finger and a street full of dead muggles. All of the evidence pointed towards me."

Anastasia had her hands to her mouth. At last she spoke, "But y-you were laughing."

"Oh, that! Augh, I was laughing at Peter. I was laughing out how he thought he was gonna get away with this. Then he left, leaving me laughing like a lunatic."

Anastasia was breathing softly through her nose, she looked as though she was in deep thought, "C'mon. We're getting out of here."

"What?" Sirius said incredulously, "Anastasia, no. They're not gonna let me out of here."

"Why not? You're innocent." she said stubbornly.

"Because they think I'm a mass murderer. There's absolutely NO evidence to save me now. Lily and James are dead, and that coward Peter escaped."

"They're not taking you, Sirius. We can't Apparate out of here can we?"

Sirius shook his head, "No, for obvious reasons. Anastasia, please don't do this…"

But Anastasia wasn't listening, she began pacing around the room, in deep thought, muttering to her self, "How can we get out?" At last she gave a deep sigh and said, "Looks like we're going have to run for it."

"Run for it?" Sirius said, bewildered, "Run where? Anastasia, what are you doing?" Anastasia had taken her wand out and had her hand on the doorknob.

"Be ready to run." she forewarned.

"Huh?"

"STUPEFY!" Anastasia cried out. Her stunning spell hit both the Minister and Crouch. They both fell immediately to the ground. The dementors glided their way toward Anastasia, but before they could reach her, she yelled, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" A smoky white horse came out of Anastasia's wand and charged the dementors down in a single bound. "Come on!" she said as she grabbed Sirius' hand and pulled him towards the lift.

"Anastasia!" Sirius yelled as he wrenched his hand from her grip, "No! I'm not going anywhere."

"No, stop it. Let's go!" Anastasia said, reaching for his arm again.

"Anya, I can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because I deserve to be sent to Azkaban!" Sirius yelled, "I deserve it because I killed Lily and James, Anya!" Anastasia, hardly standing what Sirius was saying, slapped him on the face, hard. "OW! What was that for?"

"You know perfectly well, why!" she gripped his arms tightly and said, "Sirius, it wasn't your fault, James and Lily died." She gripped his shoulders, "You and me are going to find Peter. We're gonna make sure he is sent to Azkaban. We're going to make sure HE gets what he deserves. There's NO WAY in hell am I going to let you suffer for what he did!"

These words seemed to have impacted Sirius because he turned and walked toward the elevator with a determined look on his face. Anastasia followed him into it; they gripped each other's hands tightly as the door closed and the lift clattered it's way to the Atrium.

When the wrought iron doors opened, Anastasia looked around to check to see if the coast was clear. The entire Atrium was empty. Apparently, everyone had gone to see about the sudden attack on the Minster of Magic and the Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"C'mon. It's all clear!" Anastasia said.

Sirius stepped out of the lift and said, "What now? Where do we go?"

"Grab my hands." And so he did, "On three, we Apparate. One-two-three!"

Crack!

Sirius and Anastasia suddenly appeared on a barren empty street in front of bar with a sign that read "The Three Broomsticks."

"HOGSMEADE!" Sirius yelled, his face horror-stricken, "You brought me to an all-wizard village when you know the entire wizarding world is on the alert to look for me! What are you thinking?"

"Shut up! You're going to wake up the whole town! Don't worry, I have a plan." She said hastily, "Now this is what I want you to do; turn into your Animagus for."

"What? Why?"

"DO IT!" Not daring to disobey his sweetheart, Sirius changed into the shaggy black dog, "Now," Anastasia said, "how sad can you make yourself sound?" Sirius moaned sadly and pitifully just as a real dog would have. "Excellent!" Anastasia then whipped out her wand, pointed it to her face and murmured, "Lagrimas." Instantly she burst out in sobs, tears spilling out of her eyes uncontrollably. "C-c-c'mon. L-lets g-g-go in-inside." Anastasia pulled open the door to The Three Broomsticks and saw that it was dark and empty, "S-Sirius, b-b-bark n-now."

Sirius let out loud booming barks that echoed throughout the pub. Almost instantly, a light turned on from a corridor leading to flight of stairs. A tousle-haired Madame Rosmerta emerged in bathrobe with a bat reared high over her head.

"Who's there?" she shrieked loudly.

"Madame Rosmerta," Anastasia sniffled, "It's me, Anastasia Summers."

"Anastasia?" Madame Rosmerta said as she squinted her eyes, "Oh my goodness! Anastasia, dear, it's been so long!" she cried as she ran to hug the sobbing girl, "Oh, I heard about what happened! Oh, you poor darling! I knew that Sirius Black was nothing but trouble!" Anastasia hiccupped at these words and next to her, Sirius barked loudly. "C'mon, let's have a drink," Madame Rosmerta said as she led Anastasia to the bar, "What would you like?"

"Alize, please," Anastasia sobbed, "and some fire whiskey for-for-uh, Snuffles."

"The dog drinks fire whiskey?"

"Well, he's a tough old dog!" she said winking at Sirius who wagged his tail happily, "But seriously Madame Rosmerta, I came to ask you something."

"Anything, darling."

"D'you think me and Snuffles could stay here? Not long!" she said as she saw the apprehensive look on Madame Rosmerta's face, "Just-just until I can pull myself together."

Madame Rosmerta shot a look at Sirius, "But the dog…."

"….if fully trained," Anastasia interrupted, "Please Madame!" Her eyes filled with tears again as she spoke, but before they could fall, Madame Rosmerta conceded.

"All right! All right! You can stay. Snuffles too," she said as she gave Sirius an affectionate pat on the head, with which he responded with a slobbery kiss on Madame Rosmerta's face. "YUCK!" she cried.

They both laughed the rest of the night away, reminiscing about the days when Anastasia was in school with the Marauders and Lily, which Sirius observed with a sad glint in his eye.