In her room, upstairs, Kim heard footsteps approaching the door, so he changed into her mongoose form and curled up behind her trunk on her bed. Killer was sleeping a few feet away on her Hogwarts robes.
The door opened and Hermione, Ginny, and Natalie all stepped in.
"I don't think she's in here," Ginny whispered. "Come on, let's put our stuff down."
An idea suddenly popped into Kim's head. It wasn't the brightest of ideas, but, still in her mongoose form, Kim crawled from under the bed and opened the door using her paws, so that it banged against the wall.
"What was that?" Natalie wondered.
"I don't know," Hermione replied, genuinely worried.
Kim scampered over to Ginny's leg and stood there on her hind legs, looking up at Hermione.
"Ginny," Hermione said, wide-eyed, "is it just me, or is there a mongoose near your leg?"
Ginny looked down and saw Kim and screamed. Kim laughed, but instead made that strange screeching noise and scampered over to the door and ran outside. Kim ran into the next room, which she saw was occupied by Orlando, James, and Michael. Kim vaguely wondered why there were only two beds in the room, but three people sleeping there.
"Blimey!" Orlando yelled, "Jamsie, it's the mongoose!"
"That's right," Kim yelled in the screech. She scurried over to Michael since she liked him the best and climbed up his leg onto his shoulder and nudged him with her head.
"Why does it like me?" Michael wondered vaguely in a far-away voice, like he was talking to someone uninterestedly about the weather, and not really caring.
"Kill it!" Orlando yelled and Fred and George Weasley popped in, wondering what was going on.
"What's got to be killed?" George asked.
"The mongoose!" Orlando yelled.
"Mongoose? Awesome!" Fred yelled and tried to swipe Kim off of Michael's shoulder, so she cowered behind James instead.
"We can experiment on it, George!" Fred cried, breathlessly.
"I don't know, Fred-" George began.
"Get it!" Fred roared.
Kim squeaked in alarm as George pulled a large net like the ones Ethan and Eric had tried to catch her in, except larger.
She scampered down the hallway and into a smaller room that Harry and Ron were in and crawled under Ron's bed just in time for Ron to close the door.
Fred and George banged on the door, but Ron yelled, "Go away!" and eventually they did.
"Harry, I've got a bit of a problem," Ron was saying. "It's about Hermione."
"Don't tell me," Harry interrupted, grinning, "you like Hermione."
"How'd you know?" Ron gasped. "Am I that obvious?"
"Yeah, both of you are," Harry replied, "I mean, all you practically ever do is bicker: you're just like a married couple, so to speak."
Ron was blushing scarlet and Kim wanted to giggle, but realized that this would give away her position. Instead, she flattened her body out under the bed and changed back into a human and Disapparated quickly into her own room that she shared with Ginny, Hermione, and Natalie, and was relieved to find it empty.
0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-0
Word of the mongoose incident spread throughout the house quickly over dinner. Mrs. Weasley had made spaghetti and meatballs for her family, all of the kids, and a few Order members who had decided to stay for dinner. One of these people who was staying was Remus Lupin, who was seated right next to Kim.
"A mongoose in your room?" he was saying to James with a smile on his features, "are you sure?"
"Positive, right 'Lando?" he said, turning to Orlando for support.
"Right in one, Jamsie, bloody fuzzy-looking weasel comes in and runs around the room," Orlando replied.
Kim began to have a coughing fit and Remus turned to look at her with twinkling eyes, "Was there a mongoose in your room, too, Kim?"
"Er, I suppose," she replied, offhandedly. "Tan-colored? Black stripe on its face?"
"Yeah," James replied, glad that she was talking to him civilly for once.
"Nope, never seen it in my life," she replied vaguely, brushing a strand of hair from her face and piling some spaghetti onto her plate.
"It was the same mongoose from Gryffindor Tower," James mused, "maybe it followed us..."
"Oh, yes, Jamsie," Orlando teased, "it was attracted to your good looks and couldn't stay away."
James shoved Orlando, who bumped into Michael on his other side. Michael was reading his Transfiguration book with interest.
"Oh, come on, Orlando, you just made me get sauce all over my book," Michael complained.
"What? I'm sorry, just don't bite me or anything," Orlando exclaimed.
Michael paled and looked at his feet. Remus watched him carefully.
"Orlando, you're very rude, you know," Kim snapped.
"Oh, so now you're biting my head off instead of James'? Everybody's ganging up on me!"
"Hey, I like this better, at least she's not mad at me," James spoke up, tipping in his chair.
Kim pulled out her wand and made a gust of wind fly at James so that his chair fell over, "I'm still mad at you, James, I'm just being civil. Is there anything wrong with that?"
"Ow!" James cried.
"I think she likes you, Jamsie," Orlando said, pulling up James and his chair.
"I do NOT!"
"You do!"
"Don't make me jinx you..."
Orlando continued to tease her and ignored her warnings.
"Larintelli!" Kim exclaimed, finally fed up with the Gryffindor ffth-year.
With a small 'poof', Orlando's mouth disappeared from his face.
Lupin turned to Kim, "How did you do that?"
"That jinx was put on me loads of times when I was little. The guardian that took care of me after my mom died didn't really like kids, so she'd get rid of my mouth. I kind of picked up on it," Kim replied with a little smile.
Lupin looked as though he wanted to say something, but wasn't keen on saying it at the dinner table, "You know the counter-jinx, right?"
"Er... it'll come to me eventually," Kim smiled an evil smile, "I've got a book upstairs that my dad got me for Christmas that might have it... oh, well! He looks better that way."
Orlando shot her a dirty look and James began to laugh. Michael smiled a little bit, but continued to read his Transfiguration book.
"The four of you remind me of people I used to know," Remus said with a chuckle. "Most of them are dead now, but I can remember it very clearly..."
Harry, who was sitting on the other side of Kim and had been silent through most of dinner, looked up, hopefully.
Lupin smiled at him and went on, "I used to have a friend named James, and you remind me of him. It's ironic that you've got the same name," he said to James. "Then James and I used to have a friend named Sirius, who acted somewhat like you do, Orlando. Michael, you remind me of myself, and Kim... reminds me of a girl named Lily."
Harry seemed to smile a little bit.
"Sirius?" Kim repeated, "I've heard that name before. I think I remember the Lestranges mentioning the name once or twice-"
"Wait a minute!" James exclaimed, "the Lestranges are evil!"
"Yes," Kim replied absent-mindedly.
"Go on..." Michael said, hoping Remus would continue.
"Well, I remember the time when James and Sirius made the Gryffindor Quidditch Team," Remus continued, smiling. James' and Orlando's eyes got a bit wider, "they both got pretty full of themselves after a bit. There were four of us; me, James, Sirius, and another boy in our year named Peter."
Kim looked curiously at Lupin.
"Peter used to follow us around sometimes," Remus continued.
James snorted, "Sounds like Colin..."
Remus raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "I remember getting named Prefect because Sirius and James were such troublemakers that Dumbledore thought I could keep them in line."
Michael turned a brilliant shade of crimson and hid behind his book as James and Orlando both turned to look at him: Michael was a Prefect.
"It didn't work," Remus went on with a big smile on his tired face. "They were still as mischievous as ever. Then Lily came into the picture. She was very beautiful and James was immediately attracted to her, but Lily thought he was too full of himself for her to like. In fact, she didn't really like Sirius, either, now that I think of it."
"Why not?" Michael asked, looking over the top of his book.
"I've no clue," Remus replied. "All I know is, I was just glad that I had friends back then. I didn't think I'd get any at all."
"Why not?" Michael wondered.
"Because I was a werewolf," Lupin said without hesitation.
Michael paled as both James and Orlando looked at him in alarm.
"But, like I said, both James and Sirius were trouble-makers. They found me out one day and decided to do something about it. They became Animagai... and Peter, too."
"What sorts of animals did they turn into?" Kim wondered.
"Well James became a stag, Sirius changed into a big, black dog, and Peter," Lupin glanced at Kim pointedly, "became a rat."
Kim gasped, "But, that's like-!"
Remus nodded and continued, "Well, things began to change at Hogwarts soon enough. During our seventh year, James decided to 'deflate his head' as Lily called it. He started dating Lily around then. Soon enough, Lily and James got married and they had a son."
Harry looked to his feet, and Kim was glaring at James, who was smirking.
Remus chuckled, and then he became grave again, "Then... one day, they were murdered."
"What!" James exclaimed, "after he finally got the girl he wanted?"
Remus shook his head darkly, "They'd been hiding from Lord Voldemort-" Kim shivered "-and had entrusted Sirius with their hide-away. Dumbledore was told of this plan and all of the arrangements were made. Then, at the last minute, they changed their Secret-Keeper from Sirius to Peter. They didn't know that Peter was really working for Voldemort, however and they were killed about a week after they'd entrusted Peter with their secret."
"What happened to Sirius and Peter afterwards?" Michael wondered, closing his book and placing it on his lap.
"Well, soon after Lily and James were killed, Sirius had cornered Peter. Everyone had thought it was Sirius who'd done it, though. Peter blasted apart the street and turned into his rat form and escaped, leaving Sirius to be caught by the Ministry and hauled off to Azkaban for thirteen years before he escaped again to try and find Peter."
"Omigosh!" Kim exclaimed, "Sirius Black!"
"Correct," Lupin said with a smile. "You see how things can turn out wrong?"
"Yeah, I see what you mean," Michael said, "I just hope history doesn't repeat itself... I don't think I'll look at Colin correctly again, though..."
Remus smiled and chuckled a bit.
"What ever happened to Peter and Sirius, though?" James wondered, "they're still alive, right?"
"No. Sirius died just last year and Peter is still working alongside Voldemort," Remus replied sadly.
"No, he's not," Kim said coldly. "Peter is a sniveling coward who seems to loose his bone structure when the Dark Lord is within a ten mile radius."
Remus raised his eyebrows at this, "That's no way to talk about your father, Kimberly."
James', Orlando's, and Michael's eyes became as round as coins at this statement.
"So what? I don't think he can hear me. Even if he could, he's such a coward that even I have more control over his life then he does, so he probably wouldn't admit he'd heard me."
"So that's what's become of Peter?" Remus said thoughtfully, "I might have known."
"And all this time I've been wondering what everyone meant about him being a traitor..." she said wistfully, "I've never heard that story before. So then," she turned to Harry, "I hope it doesn't make you mad, was that story about your parents?"
"Yeah," Harry replied in a croaky voice. "I'm, uh, gonna go to bed..."
Harry got up and walked away from the table, looking at his feet.
"Oh, dear," Kim said, worriedly "I hope he's not angry at me or anything!"
"No, he just needs some time alone," Remus replied quietly, "it's not an easy thing to hear."
"No. It isn't," Michael agreed.
Orlando began waving his hand in the air madly.
"Oh, sorry, Orlando!" Kim exclaimed, "hold on," she stood, "I'll get the book," she said, running into her room.
She dug through her things and found the book she needed, a huge, heavy one titled: Advanced Jinxes. She ran back downstairs and dropped the heavy book on the table with a resounding thud and began flipping through it until she found the counter-jinx.
"Oh, how simple!" she exclaimed with a giggle, "Simil!"
Orlando's mouth suddenly re-appeared and he began breathing deeply from it, "So, my question was: Do you think history is going to repeat itself? I mean, all the factors are here and everything."
"Do you plan on becoming Animagai anytime soon?" Remus asked, smiling.
"It sounds like fun," James admitted.
"It is fun," Kim replied absent-mindedly, pouring through the book while she spoke, "especially the part from the animal's point of view."
"And how would you know?" Orlando asked quickly.
"Never mind," Kim said quickly, "besides, all of the factors aren't here. Michael doesn't disappear on the full moon, so he's not a werewolf."
"Yeah, well, Michael's not a werewolf, you're right," Orlando said with a grin that meant he was hiding something.
Kim rolled her eyes, "Whatever. I'm not marrying James. Good night everyone! Thanks for the cold, hard facts, Remus!"
She picked up her book and climbed the stairs up toward her room and pushed open Harry's door. Ron wasn't there, but Harry was.
"Harry, can I come in?" Kim asked.
"Yeah, sure," came a small reply.
She pushed the door open the rest of the way and went inside to see Harry flipping through an old photo album, "What're you looking at?"
"Pictures," he replied simply.
She sat down next to him and peered down. It was a picture of five people standing in front of a large, white Victorian house: a man who looked almost identical to Harry had his arm around a girl with long, auburn hair's waist. The girl was smiling, as was a sandy-haired boy who looked slightly tired and underfed. There were scratches all over his body and a book was tucked under his arm. The man next to him was very handsome with a look of laughter that was plastered onto his face and dark hair that fell gracefully into his face. The last man was very watery-looking and slightly chubby with a pointed nose.
"That's my dad," she whispered.
Harry said nothing.
"He actually looks halfway normal in this picture," she said, surprised. "You should show this picture to Lupin."
"You know, that's a good idea. I think I will," Harry replied. He closed the book and got up. He flashed Kim a smile, which she returned and headed downstairs, wondering why her heart was fluttering like a trapped butterfly.