Chapter Forty-Eight

(Present Day)

When darkness settled upon the castle Remus knew what he had to do. In fact, he was currently in his office trying to prep himself for what he was going to say. Simply saying 'well gee, sorry for thinking you betrayed our best friends' didn't sound like a good way to renew their friendship. Yes, tonight he was off to see Sirius Black, who very obviously was not expecting him. Remus could without a doubt understand why Sirius didn't want Kit to tell him, but Remus on the other hand couldn't figure out how Kit was able to keep a secret such as that for so long.

He was also worried about his Kitten, who he hadn't seen much of since the day with the Boggart. How could he have been so bloody stupid? That was okay though, because the next day was when he would begin training Harry to fight off Dementors, and Kit was supposed to be there too...he could only pray that she would be there.

As stars twinkled in the sky, the worn looking Professor pulled on his winter robes and pocketed his wand (better to be safe then sorry) and headed to find one of his old mates, and rekindle a friendship. The castle halls were dark, and even so he didn't need his wand lit to know where he was going. So many years ago he had learned the many different twists and turns in the castle like the back of his hand. Walking in the halls in the dark wouldn't be a new experience...the only difference about then and now was the simple fact he wasn't running from Filch. Now he was a Professor and didn't need permission to wander about the castle.

Outside a half moon hung in the dark velvet sky, in which Remus refused to look at. He knew it was there, but he didn't want to glance up at half of the bane of his life. Worn shoes dipped in and out of the snow, which there was plenty of. It would seem as though this year Mr. Winter was in full swing. For some reason this didn't bother Remus. No, he actually didn't even notice much of his surroundings as he walked towards the Whomping Willow; for he was too busy thinking about what he would say to Sirius.

Heart was leaping in his chest, he hadn't seen Sirius for twelve years...

Twelve years of thinking he was the traitor, when he really should have known it was Peter all along.

Kit couldn't get to sleep. For the life of her, she tried and tried and tried...yet sleep wasn't coming. She knew why too, the guilt felt like it would swallow her whole. The sting from the cuts on her arms made each move she made all too painful. The ring hanging on the chain around her neck felt like a fifty pound rock...

What would James have said if he could see her now? Yell at her for cutting again, tell her that nothing was worth having her cut again, even if it happened to be because he was dead. No...James wouldn't want her to cut again...

So why did she? It had just been a bad day, everybody has them...why did she have to be so drastic about it? Why?

A groan was given and she rolled around in her bed. Now thinking about how bad her day was, she realized how much worse she made it. Severus...ugh, she didn't even want to think about him. He was her professor now, why had she yelled at him like that? Because he deserved it, didn't seem like that great of an answer when it would come to answering Dumbledore.

Great, she was probably going to be expelled...then she could wallow in her pity off in the Muggle world. Kit silently wondered how Remus would react to the whole thing. Did Severus mention her blow up to her Remmy? Or was he bound to find out at Breakfast when all the schools gossip went around? Thinking about it, tossing and turning, and the blood loss from her cuts in general were starting to all give her a major headache.

Finally she moved to get out of bed, pulling the curtains back so she could crawl out and into her slippers. Maybe she would sit in the Common Room for awhile and think. Ever since her blow-up with Severus she had yet to leave the confines of her bed, maybe a new place and position would make her feel better. Let her think clearly.

Although, when she did make it to the Common Room it wasn't as empty as she thought it would be. Spooks and Crookshanks were meowing softly in one corner to each other, and her nephew just happened to be gazing blankly into the fire. Oh that just figured.

For a moments time she thought about simply running back up the stairs to the safety her bed had to offer. She didn't want to be the adult again. She was tired of it...she was fourteen! Fourteen years old (quickly coming onto her fifteenth birthday...or would that be her thirty-first?) she wanted to act like a fourteen year old. But she couldn't, not around Harry, not around his friends, definitely not around Severus, Remus, or Sirius at that.

Her silent battle was won when she started to think about how much like James he looked like. The last steps were taken down the steps of the girls dorms, and she made her way over to the sofa to plop down next to him.

"Hullo."

"'lo."

Oh yes, both of them were in such joyful moods. Kit knew Harry knew about her and her fight with Severus, but she however didn't know what was bothering him.

"What's wrong?" It was easy to fall into that role of Aunt. In fact it was easy to fall into the role of a thirty year old. Maybe that's what was wrong...it was so easy to forget she was fourteen, and that scared her.

"Do you remember the other day when you took me to see Sirius?"

"I would hope so...hate to think I'm already starting to go senile..." She offered him a genuine smile, and dragged her legs up onto the sofa as he continued to speak.

"He asked me to live with him. When all this with Pettigrew, and things were settled with the Ministry...he wants me to live with him."

Kit nodded, she had figured as much. Harry was all Sirius would have left of James, not to mention the fact that Sirius was Harry's God-father after all. it was fitting. So why did Harry seem so down about it?

"I just...I've gone so long without having much of a family. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon could hardly be called my family...and now, I have you and I have Sirius...it's just..."

"Feels weird because you feel out of place. Going from unloved to loved in a matter of weeks is always something difficult to do." Kit told him, and Harry gave a raise of his brows before speaking.

"That's exactly what it is...it feels so off, and I'm not sure what to do."

Kit grinned ever so slightly, Harry had yet to hear the story of how she came to live with James he just knew that at some point during her time at Hogwarts she was adopted by his fathers parents. Maybe it was time to tell him a story...to let him know, she knew exactly how it felt to go from unloved to loved in a matter of days.

"Your father...was truly one of a kind..." Kit started, and didn't stop talking and telling her tale until the early hours of the morning...

The moment Remus had entered the Shrieking Shack he was thrown into memories of years past. All those horrible transformations spent in the shack, James and Sirius and Peter coming to keep him of a sound state so he didn't hurt himself. So many times were spent in the shack...

He didn't have long to muse about his memories though, because as soon as he took the first few steps into the room, he heard a voice, or a laugh rather.

"Ask her to tell a secret and she tells the whole world."

Remus cocked a grin, maybe meeting with Sirius again wasn't going to be as hard as he thought it would be. "You should have known better."

"I know...I know...but what could I do. She's my cousin, I had to tell her everything."

Finally Sirius stepped out of the shadows and into the light illuminating the room from the tip of Remus' wand. Remus was only slightly taken back by his friends appearance, he imagined what years of Azkaban would do to Sirius, and he wasn't let down by his imagination. Sirius, the dashing young man was gone and replaced with a hallow form of his old self. Remus could still see the features of a Black, but...it was...

"Y'know it is rude to stare..."

Remus grinned, no this wasn't going to be as hard as he thought it would be...not at all.

"Do you have any idea where Wormtail might be?" Sirius asked Remus as the early morning sun started to filter through the beams over the windows. They had been talking all night, mostly about what Remus had been doing with his life; and now just finally were talking about the plan.

"None, Kit told me that she and Harry were planning on looking for him. It would seem that Scabbers ran away from Ron. Although knowing Wormtail I don't imagine he has gone far." Remus explained, taking a moment to stand from the hard floor, his back cracking as he did so.

"Ran away from Ron? Ran away from us more likely. All we have to do is find and capture him, and take him to Dumbledore and..."

"You'll be free." Remus finished for him, grinning slightly. It was nice, having one of his friends back; one that he lost so long ago. In a way it gave him hope.

"Well, I was going to say I'd be able to bathe...but free works for me."

Apparently Sirius Black had yet to loose his humour after all these years. Remus gave a small chuckle, and nodded. "We'll find him, I'm sure of--the map!"

"The map?" Sirius asked before actually getting the point. "The map...it was taken by Filch years ago, it's probably under lock and key or something..."

"A professor could get it from him."

"Yes, but who do we know that's a professor?"

A beat of silence went by and Remus wasn't sure if he should laugh or be annoyed. He waved at himself, "I'm a bloody professor."

"Then go get the map! If Wormtail is still on the grounds you'll find him."

Harry and Kit were no longer in the Common Room, nor were they tucked in their nice warm beds either. No, Harry and Kit were under the safety of the Invisibility Cloak; as they walked along the empty castle halls. The reason for this?

A simple little map, a map that Kit hadn't seen in ages. After all, the boys had only used it a few times before it was confiscated by Filch. The simple idea had came in the three AM hour, when Kit had stopped telling Harry the story of how and why she was adopted by the Potters, only to tell Harry a new story...about how big of trouble makers they were...and that they had a map.

The very same map that Harry apparently had in his possession. The very same map that could tell them if Peter was currently wandering around the grounds of Hogwarts. While Kit might have still been confused about herself, her true self; she knew one thing for sure. Sirius was her friend, and if they could find Peter...well they were going to find Peter.

Besides Kit could always wallow in her sorrows later. Funny, after talking to Harry she didn't feel full of sorrow and anger like she had been earlier. Now...she felt calm and normal. She could only assume that was because of how much Harry was actually like James...

Her brother might have been dead, but his son; a piece of him remained.

And maybe hanging out with Harry for just a little while was enough to get her out of her funk. At least with him she didn't think about Severus, or if she was ever going to go back to Potions again.

"Ouch."

"Sorry Harry." Kit shook herself out of thinking about things in order to keep from breaking Harry's feet. It was hard enough to do as it was, Harry holding the cloak around them and she kept scanning the map for Peter.

Soon enough, their wandering around led them outside where the sun was rising over the horizon. A few steps out the castle door Harry made a noise, and Kit looked up...sure enough, Remus was walking out from under the Whomping Willow. Sure enough, it was written on the map Kit held in her hands. RJ Lupin was walking straight towards them.

She had half the mind to run and jump on him and tell him over and over again that she was sorry. For what? Ignoring him since the night with the Boggart? Flipping out at Severus? Cutting herself? Keeping secrets from him?

But, she stayed just as still as Harry who was trying hard not to breath to loudly. But, Kit knew, that in a few more steps Remus would know that they were there...just by their scent alone. It wasn't so much that his senses were heightened so horribly much, no it was the fact that Harry was James son, and James had been around many times while Remus was a werewolf, the scent was permanently etched in his brain. Meanwhile, Kit always felt him nearby, therefore he would feel her...

What would she tell him? Oh, they were just out for a five in the morning stroll after a sleepless night? Not to mention the fact that Kit had done a very good job of hiding her relationship with Remus from Harry who would very obviously be suspicious...

Peter Pettigrew.

It was on the map, the name the name that they had been searching for. Kit seen it just as Remus turned from heading towards the Castle doors, to them. He knew they were there, and she knew where Peter was. Kit elbowed Harry who was watching Remus intently, the boy who lived made a strained noise, he had been holding his breathing as carefully as possible...maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to elbow him in the gut.

But he seen it too...those two words that would be the freedom to Sirius.

"What in the world are you two doing out here?" The cloak had easily been pulled off by Remus who actually looked rather flabbergasted in Kit's eyes...he also looked every bit as handsome and sexy as he ever was to Kit. She felt like melting into the snow, suddenly she couldn't remember why she had been avoiding him as his gaze caught hers. "Is that the map?"

"We've found Pettigrew, Professor. From the looks of the map he's in...wait, how did you know this was a map?" Harry took a moment to glance down at the map along with Remus. It was obvious that when Remus asked if it was the map that he hadn't been close enough to see if it was actually a map...

"He helped make it." Kit told Harry, she frowned slightly...it looked like Harry was going to find out some things about how close Remus actually was to James and Sirius now. He was also going to find out how close she and Remus were...because no matter how hard she might try not too, all she wanted to do was be close to him now, and Kit was currently inching closer and closer to Harry's professor.

"Oh." Was Harry's simple reply, as he took the time to point at the map where Peter's name was. "He's in Hagrids hut." It would seem as if he didn't want to waste any time in getting to Peter and quite honestly neither did Kit or Remus who quickly trailed behind Harry speaking in rather hushed tones.

"You went to see Sirius?" Kit asked, Remus keeping her eyes trained on Harry's back as they moved towards Hagrids hut.

"For most of the night, we came up with the same idea. But wasn't the map in Filches office? Please don't tell me you've broken more rules." It was playful, but at the same time a little harsh, after all in the past week Kit had practically succeeded in completely ignoring her fiancé, and pissing of Snape more times then not.

"Harry got it from the Weasley twins during the winter holiday's apparently. We were talking, and I was telling him about James...the map came up and he told me we had the map...and we decided it would be a good idea to check and see if Peter was still around."

"I'm sorry."

"What for? I'm the one that's sorry."

"For dragging you around to look for the Boggart with me...why are you sorry?"

"For avoiding you. It's just, I don't know I suppose all of this future stuff has worn down. It's like for a few months it was...okay I'm in the future I can deal with that, but now it's I'm stuck in the future as a fourteen year old when everyone I knew is dead, or in their thirties. I don't think it helps to have Severus prancing around here either."

Remus gave a sigh, and Kit glanced up at him for a moment; stumbling as she did so. Thankfully Remus had rather good reflexes and before she landed flat on her face he grabbed her by the torso. Except he didn't let go. "I don't really think that Severus prances...stalks the halls maybe, but not prance."

Remus understood what Kit meant about being fourteen when she should be only three years younger then him, he understood that it was depressing that James and Lily were dead; but he definitely knew that keeping up with the conversation about it was a bad idea. Humour it was.

"It's funnier to think of him prancing around." Kit commented, and Remus took a moment to nuzzle her neck.

"I've missed you."

This touching scene of them standing knee deep in snow, with Remus clutching Kit in a rather...close manor was interrupted by Harry. "Well...I suppose that explains a little..."'

Lucius Malfoy tapped his hands on the desk in front of him. It was rather early in the morning, but he had to be up early anyway for his work at the Ministry, but his mood was helped just a little by the site of a letter from Hogwarts in his morning post. Now at his desk he studied the envelope. It was obviously from Draco, and for a moment the white haired man could only muse about how his son didn't have the best handwriting in the world.

He would have to fix that sooner or later.

The letter was enough to put Lucius in a rather pleasant mood, in fact his mood greatly improved upon reading it's words.

Dear Father,

Hopefully this letter finds Mother and yourself doing quite well. School is as usual, filled with mud-bloods, and people who shouldn't ever be in the sights of a Malfoy. I am writing this letter due to something I heard while at dinner this evening. According to many fourth year Slytherins, that Potter girl the one you asked me to keep my eye on has apparently walked out on her Potion class with Professor Snape. According to many accounts she told him that he didn't have the right to teach her, or even be in the school.

I'm not sure if this information will be useful, but I figured that you should know since it involves that girl. I'll write again if I hear anything more about this.

Sincerely,

Your Son

Draco Malfoy

P.S: Any word on the trial against that bird?

So Severus pissed off Kit, well that was to be expected...Severus did tend to piss people off. The comment about the trial against Buckbeak made him just smile even more. Lucius really honestly wasn't doing a thing about that bird...mostly due to the fact he was so wrapped up in the spell that he completely avoided doing any extra work then he had to do.

With a small sigh he checked his pocket watch. Time for work, and when he would come home...time to write Severus a letter.

Things were working out wonderfully.

AN: Sorry this has taken me so long. The holiday's have seemed to want more and more of my time. Hopefully I'll be able to write more now. Okay so we have a little bit of Lucius in here, just so you get to know what's going on with him, and hey Harry knows something!

Since this chapter took so long there was a big clue as to who Kit's father is in this chapter. (If you didn't catch it go back to where Remus and Sirius were speaking) it's not a big clue, but it's there...kudos to those who caught it.