Chapter Forty-Nine

(January 9th, 1977)

"We should do the third floor tonight." Was said thoughtfully by James in between bites of his shepherds pie at lunch. Currently the Marauders plus Lily and Kit were making the final plans for the Map, which they hoped to have done by Spring. Lily had objected several times to the map at first, but after a careful explanation by James she was swung over. Then again, most of the group was fairly sure this explanation had little words involved and more snogging involved.

"Half the floor could be covered before the Professors do their nightly checks around midnight." Sirius finished, taking a moment to pluck a fried tomato off Kit's plate who jabbed him in the side with her spoon. Unlike their usual seating patterns, James, Lily, and Peter were on one side, while Kit sat between Remus and Sirius. This would have been fine and dandy except for the fact that whenever she wasn't or even when she was looking, Sirius took great pride in stealing food off of her plate.

"Y'know if you just reach in front of you, there is a plate of fried tomatoes you could have all to yourself." Kit told him, in a rather sarcastic tone. Lately she was more outspoken, and no one seemed to be complaining.

"I could do that...but your plate is closer."

"Tomorrow we're sitting like we normally do. These two bicker like an old married couple." Was said by Lily, pointing at Sirius and Kit with her fork. Leaving not only Sirius and Kit to object, but Remus also took the time to object with a loud "Hey!"

"She'll be my wife thank-you very much." This was followed, not only by Remus turning a rather interesting shade of red, but Kit also turned a few shades of deep crimson.

"And the truth comes out!" Sirius proclaimed with a rather large grin on his face.

Being paired up with Regulus in potions was positively horrible for Kit, each time she made one small mistake he was breathing down her neck talking about what an incompetent mud-blood she was. Potions wasn't one of her best subjects to start with, so now it was just ten times worse. She was making mistakes just from being nervous.

"Will you watch how you are cutting the bloody mugwort? At this rate our potion is going to end up eating through the floor..." Regulus said, his voice filled with hate and bitterness. Like his older brother, Regulus was a rather good looking boy. But for Kit, and most everyone outside of Slytherin...well he just went to show that personality often takes place over looks.

All during class he was calling Sirius a muggle lover, and talking about how their mother hated the fact that Sirius was hanging around with Lily and Kit because they were mud-bloods and how it was ruining their family. As Kit added the chopped mugwort to the bubbling mixture in front of them she could only wonder about how awful a home life Sirius had.

No wonder he was always over at the Potters.

Regulus kept talking, he was like the thing that wouldn't shut-up. His voice not yet as deep or playful as Sirius's went on calling her horrible names, loud enough for the rest of the class to hear. He avoided speaking whenever their aging Professor Cadder walked by them. But other then those few minutes, Kit was pained with being told awful things. On occasion fellow Gryffindors would speak up, but it would seem that even they couldn't stop Regulus from speaking.

Kit clenched her jaw, avoiding lashing out and saying something she ought not to. It was hard to think that there was going to be another month left of this. In fact, the only thing that kept tears from her eyes was just thinking about one of the reasons Regulus was saying all those horrible things. He was upset because she a mud-blood was friends with, his older brother. Friends. Sirius Black was her friend, Peter was her friend, James was her brother, Lily practically a sister, and Remus...Remus was her everything. Those thoughts were what kept the tears away. Those thoughts were what occupied her mind as she nearly chopped her hand off on accident.

Her hand was cold, in fact Kit's hands were always cold compared to his. Remus held on tightly to the smaller hand as they checked all the doors and measurements of their half of the third floor. The Professors checked the halls at ten, and now it was almost eleven; leaving the group another hour until the halls are checked once more.

Remus didn't really like sneaking around. In fact, if he could he would have objected; but it was for a good cause. Sneak around, make notes of the rooms and any extras for a map that could actually end up protecting the girls of the group. His girl. No objections would come from him about this, and it didn't seem like Kit or Lily were objecting either.

"Parchment." Kit said, her free hand reaching out to him for the few pages of yellowed parchment in his hand. "I think, that this door isn't exactly in the middle of those doors." She explained simply, offering a small smile as she ungrasped his hand so she could take the parchment and write down her notes. It was agreed that between the two of them she would do all the writing, simply because his tended to...well, no one could read Remus's handwriting, which was odd because one would think that out of all the boys he would have the best. No, that honour went to Sirius who had forged his mothers signature so many times that his hand writing started to look like a girls.

"This one is more to the left then the others." Remus pointed out, flexing his now empty hand. He didn't like that, he wanted to hold her, touch her...

"Almost like there should be a door..." Kit paused, her brows furrowing in a cute way that made Remus grin. "Right over there...either that or this door right here leads to a really big room."

Remus nodded in agreement, and Kit took a moment to write something down before looking up towards him. Blue eyes, her eyes were so blue...that's what made her special to Remus. She wasn't a beauty queen like Lily, Kit was the farthest thing from a beauty queen and that's what he liked...and her eyes...they were so blue..."Remus?"

At that he jumped and gave a slight laugh, "Sorry, what?" Kit looked at him oddly for a moment, and mumbled something under her breath that sounded a tad like 'boys' and glanced at the door they were currently making notes about.

"Check it please?"

"Why do I have to check it?" He asked, a grin slowly appearing on his face.

"Other then the fact that I'm currently making the notes about it?"

"Yes, other then that fact. What makes me so special that I get to open the door and check what's inside. What if there are monsters in there."

Kit cocked her head to the side and shrugged, "I'm a girl."

"Yes, you are." He nodded making it a point to let his hazel eyes drip down to her chest for a moment.

"Well, I'm the girl in this relationship. And your the man. Unless you want to be the girl too."

"No, I'm quite happy as a man."

"Okay then, as a man it is your job to protect me from monsters. Therefore, you are supposed to open that door and tell me what is in it. Because if on the off chance there are monsters in the doorway just waiting there for someone, they can eat you and give me time to run away."

"Your logic is strange."

"Open the door."

"Yes master."

The door, as things turned out did not house a monster. Instead, the room beyond the door was a tad larger then an average room (just as Kit had thought) and it was filled with books, spare chairs, desks, and dust. The room was deemed a storage room, and Remus and Kit had went on their way checking more doors and halls on the third floor before the midnight hour struck.

After getting back, the group had traded information and piled all their notes together in the common room. At the rate they were going, James proclaimed that they would have the map done by early spring. Which was good news, because with each passing day there were more attacks on muggle-borns according to the Daily Prophet that Lily and Kit read during breakfast.

"Regulus is a git." Kit said, snuggling closer to Remus in his (their) bed. While Remus might have hated his scars, loathed them, Kit adored them. She wasn't a fan of why and how he got them, but they made him look...Kit honestly wasn't sure how they made him look, like Remus. That was the only way to explain it. Everything about Remus shouted "Remus!" and in a way, it made sense to the orange haired teen.

"We're in bed together and you think of Regulus?" Remus replied, his tone raspy and sleep filled as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I was just thinking about Potions and how happy I am because I don't have it tomorrow. He just makes it so unbearable." She explained with a sigh, as she nuzzled her face into his chest.

"Still. You think of this as we lay in bed together? That's a little off-putting."

"Yes, well at least I'm not thinking of Hagrid."

Remus made a noise, and Kit grinned looking up from his chest. "Bad...bad...mental image." He told her, with a look of utter horror on his face. A look that was soon transported onto Kit's face as well.

"Ew...didn't think of it that way. Ugh, that's just...I mean, Hagrids nice and all...but...ew."

"Yes, I do think that 'ew' sums it up rather nicely."

"Indeed." Kit responded with a giggle, feeling quite content with life. So what if life had been a problem before hand...it was great now, with the occasional bump of a Slytherin student, things were simply fine. Even worrying over the muggle-born attacks wasn't that bad, because Kit for once in her life felt utterly safe.

"If we don't get to sleep soon we are going to be walking zombies tomorrow." Remus told her, and Kit just grinned. His voice, it was nice...it wasn't as deep as James's, and it wasn't as playful as Sirius's, and it most definitely wasn't as squeaky as Peter's...but it was respectful, thoughtful, and it had a certain rasp about it that made Kit rather happy she could share a bed with him.

"Yes well, at least this zombie won't have Potions. Although maybe that's a bad thing, because as a Zombie I could eat Regulus's brains and not get in trouble...because, well zombie."

"Strange...strange logic." Remus pointed out, causing Kit to start laughing.

Soon after, something rather large and fluffy hit them both. "Some of us are actually trying to sleep." Was said by James, which was quickly followed with, "Toss me back my pillow."

The morning came all to soon for Kit, who had to leave with Lily a half an hour before most of the Gryffindor students started to get up. This was mostly because, being caught in bed with their boyfriends would not only be bad, but would probably mean detention...and neither of them were very keen on that.

"You look tired." Lily commented as they trudged down the boys dorms stairs, and towards the girls dorms. Kit looked tired, and felt tired. Her limbs felt heavy, and she already missed the warmth of Remus's arms. Vision blurred as sleepy eyes tried to focus on her friend.

"I feel tired."

"Its what you get for talking when you should be sleeping." Lily pointed out with a grin, and Kit could only sigh in return. The day was going to be long. First was Herbology, and then it was double Transfiguration. She did fine in both classes, but that didn't mean she liked them any. In fact the two classes she tended to like most were Care of Magical Creatures, and Arithmancy.

Both girls continued to move slowly, dressing and doing each others hair. In the end both of them decided to braid the others hair, in order to not look as though they were trying to achieve afro's. Both of them walked down to the Great Hall together, not bothering to wait for the boys. It was so early that no one in their right mind should be up for breakfast so neither was worried about being attacked. The Great Hall was nearly empty, a few Professors were eating breakfast silently and a few Hufflepuff girls were in the Hall as well.

Kit and Lily sat down next to each other, almost leaning on each other and it was silently agreed that they needed syrup. Lots of syrup on everything. Syrup and it's sugary goodness would work wonders on their sleepiness.

And wonders it did work. By the time the time that the Great Hall was nearly halfway filled, and the boys stumbled in...the girls were on a sugar rush. So much so that when James and Remus took their seats next to their girlfriends, James only response was. "Moony, look our girlfriends are speaking in tongues."

In fact, it might have well been tongues that Lily and Kit were speaking in, because after their second plates of French Toast utterly covered in gallons of syrup...well, they were a tad hyper-active. Currently trading words about which look looked better, knee length robes, or ankle length robes.

"Look at their plates." Remus pointed out, and James groaned. "The sugar rush begins."

"It looks like all they've ate has been syrup. Is that all you two have ate?" Sirius asked, as he stabbed a sausage link with his fork.

"Oh look the boy-people have arrived." Kit pointed out, looking up from her conversation with Lily.

The red headed witch giggled, and glanced towards James with a grin. "I like boy-people."

By the end of Breakfast, after their plates of syrup were wrestled away from them Kit and Lily calmed down. No longer sleepy, or hyper they were both perfectly normal. Although James would later come to say that he liked it when his Lily was on a sugar rush, and that she was so happy and upbeat that he could beat up Snivellus and she probably wouldn't care.

Needless to say, in the hands of two teenage girls sugar was a deadly combination.

Now, the boys were finishing on their plates of food talking about the day ahead while Kit and Lily paged through the Daily Prophet that sat in front of them. No news about any muggle-born attacks, which in itself was both a good thing and a bad thing. Bad, because everyone knew that something loomed on the horizon and good, because for a little while muggle-borns were safe.

Most of the articles talked about the Ministry's current affairs and how some famous witch and wizard got engaged...and then there was something near the back that made Kit's heart drop down to her stomach. There was a picture, that held a man that looked exactly like the man in the picture with her mother. Could it be?

Her father a Wizard?

With wide eyes she scanned the article below the picture, learning two key things.

1) This man was a famous author who had currently been out of England for three years doing research in the Australian out-back, learning about magic from the aboriginals there.

2) The man's name was Orion Black.

Kit bit at her lip and looked up at Sirius, and then over towards Lily who had also been reading the article with great amusement, the red-head spoke "Eh, Sirius...are you related to Orion Black?"

Kit's heart felt like it was doing free-falls, jumping up and down, up and down, up and down. It was at that very moment she noticed that if she looked close enough she could see certain similarities between her and Sirius. Sirius had utterly pale skin (But it did fit him), Kit had utterly pale skin. Sirius had a certain dimple in his right cheek, and Kit was fairly certain that if she smiled the way he did she'd have that same dimple...

As Kit was making her list of comparisons, Sirius looked up from his food, and practically yanked the newspaper out of Lily's hands. "He's my uncle."

Kit blinked, if Orion was her father...then Sirius was her cousin. And instead of being a mud-blood, she was half-blood...

"Not well liked by my family mind you, I haven't seen him since I was three. I'm fairly certain he was disowned for being involved with a Muggle for a little while..."

"Well, at least all of your family isn't that bad." Remus went on to say, and Kit closed her eyes...she wasn't sure what she should feel. Happy? Sad? Upset? Scared?

She just didn't know, and like any good brother James pointed something out when he looked at the newspaper over Sirius's shoulder..."Hey, Kit...Sirius's uncle looks a lot like that guy in your photograph..."

Figure it to be James that would open his big mouth.

AN: Yay! Look an update. Yeah, so we now know who Kit's father is. The story behind Orion, and all of that will be in upcoming chapters. As well, as Sirius and Kit bonding. Hopefully you liked this semi-fluffy filled chapter. Sirius-Muse was really active today, and was like "Write or Die." So I wrote...and I'm not dead. So yay! Next chapter should be up soonish, maybe even before the new year if we're lucky!

Also, thank you so much to my reviewers without you guys this story wouldn't be nearly as great (or long)