A/N: Okay, I know I already said it, but this story contains MAJOR HBP SPOILERS, just decided to warn you once more
Chapter One: The Album
Harry groaned and collapsed onto his bed. It was only the second day of school, but he was already exhausted. Not only was the coursework tough, he was head boy (Hermione was head girl-no surprise), and the quidditch captain. Now add that all to the obvious stress about Voldemort and the horcruxes, and you could see why Harry was so swamped.
After lying on the bed for what seemed like ages, Harry was just about to get up to take a shower when Hermione burst into his room, holding a thick book in her hands.
"Hermione, you can't just barge into people's rooms like that" Harry said.
Hermione thrust the book under Harry's nose, ignoring what he just said.
Harry looked down at the book and saw that it had the word Album written on the front in ornate letters.
"What's so great about an album?" Harry asked
Hermione just laughed and opened the book to the front page. On it, written in neat, flowery handwriting was:
Property of Lily Evans, age 17
Harry read this and gasped, grabbing the book from Hermione.
"I found this in a secret compartment in my bedroom. All the head girls from the past put something in it. Did you know that Draco's mum was a head girl, where did she go wrong? What do you think I should put in it? A book?" Hermione rambled, completely ignored by Harry, who was flipping through the pages eagerly.
The album filled with pictures of happy, untroubled teens enjoying their last year at Hogwarts. Harry yearned to be like them, so care-free. He flipped to a page that showed his dad, Sirius, and a very pretty girl with auburn hair and turquoise eyes all dressed in quidditch robes, hoisting the trophy, smiling broadly at the cheering crowd. Harry noticed that that girl was in a lot of pictures, there was one with her standing next to a very young looking Alice Longbottom; one with her sleeping, her head rested on the shoulder a very bored looking James; and another with her riding what seemed to be the giant squid. Below that picture Lily had written,
Tarrant Potter, fulfilling her life long dream of riding the giant squid, and she only received three months detention for it.
When Harry read that he gasped and dropped the book, his eyes wide. He looked up to see Hermione staring at him, a worried look on her face. Wordlessly he picked up the book, and showed it to her. She saw the picture and looked up at Harry, Her surprised expression mirroring his own.
"My god Harry! I…I've seen her" Hermione whispered. Harry was quite taken aback by this.
"What? Where, are you sure it's her? Does she teach in Hogwarts? How come I haven't seen her?" Harry shot.
"Slow down Harry, yes I'm sure it's her, no she does not teach at Hogwarts, and the reason you haven't seen her is because she's a portrait near my ancient ruins class!" Hermione said, her eyes bright.
So, after badgering Hermione about a hundred times, she took Harry to where the portrait was. Harry looked at it and smiled. The women in the portrait looked a little older than the one in the album, but her auburn hair and face was the same, and even though she was sleeping at the moment, Harry was certain that her eyes would be a very bright aquamarine. Below the portrait were the words
Tarrant Black, Auror and senior advisor to the Minister of Magic
"Senior advisor, golly, I always thought that they had to be really old, but Tarrant looks like she is in her mid-twenties at the most" Hermione said, perplexed.
Harry, though wasn't looking at what Tarrant did as much as what her last name was.
"Look Hermione, here it says Tarrant Black, but in the Album it clearly said Tarrant Potter" Harry said pointing. Hermione looked at Harry, her eyes wide.
"Do, do you think that she might have..?" Hermione started, but was cut off by Harry shaking his head.
"No, don't you think he would have told us?" Harry answered.
"It might have slipped his mind?" Hermione said, shrugging.
"Oh please Hermione. Do you really think that something like that would slip Sirius's mind, he would have told me." Harry said firmly. Hermione once again looked back at the portrait.
"I wish she was awake, then maybe she could tell us" Hermione said. Harry looked at the picture, wishing it to wake, but it was in vain.
"I wish, I wish that Dumbledore was still around, he would know what this was about" Harry said bitterly. Hermione looked at him, he was still very touchy on the subject of Dumbledore, hell he was still touchy from Sirius's death.
"Well, maybe we could look in the library tomorrow and see what we can find out about her" Hermione said softly. Harry shook his head violently.
"No, that would take to long, I want the information now" Harry said. Hermione sighed.
"Look, Harry that is just not possible. It…" Hermione started but was cut off for the second time by Harry running down the hall, away from her. Left with no choice, Hermione followed him.
"I think he's seriously cracked" she muttered. She ran after him all throughout the castle until she finally caught up with him as he was going through one of the secret passageways that lead to Hogsmede.
"Harry, what in Merlin's beard are you doing!" Hermione exclaimed, grasping his arm, trying to tug Harry away from the passageway.
"I'm going to go talk to a person who will know about her" Harry said trying to get free from Hermione's grasp.
"Who, Harry, who knows about her, and why do you need to go to Hogsmede?" Hermione asked.
"Lupin, Hermione, Lupin will know about her, and I just got an owl from him telling me that he'll be staying at the Three Broomsticks for a few weeks" Harry said, finally getting free of Hermione and scrambling down the passageway.
"Well I'm coming with you; somebody needs to make sure you stay out of trouble" Hermione said to Harry's receding back as she too followed him down the passageway.
After a good few minutes of crawling in the dark, Harry and Hermione made their way into the cellar of Honeydukes. The cellar was lit by candles, so the two teens had no trouble finding their way to the stairs and into the main room. The main room of Honeydukes was locked for the night, but with a few simple spells, Harry and Hermione found themselves on the streets of Hogsmede, completely alone.
"Harry, I don't think we should be out here at night alone like this. I mean You-know-who is still here and stronger than ever, and you don't even have your invisibility cloak!" Hermione squealed.
"I don't think and invisibility cloak would save us if we met Voldemort" Harry said darkly as he made his way to the Three Broomsticks. When they reached there they saw that it too, was locked up for the night. After groaning in frustration, Harry started banging on the doors. Hermione jumped back in surprise and started to look around nervously.
"Harry, don't do that, you'll wake everybody up!" she said.
"That's the whole point" Harry said just as a very irritated Madam Rosmerta opened the door.
"We need to see Lupin, it's an emergency" Harry breathed. Madam Rosmerta suddenly look worried and ushered the two teens into the pub.
"Has there been another attack?" she asked Harry
"What? No, no there hasn't" Harry said. Rosmerta looked relieved as she led them towards a hall.
"Remus's room is the last one on the left; I think he should still be up, call me if you need anything else" Rosmerta said as she left to her own room. Harry called out a thanks to her as her rushed down the hallway, Hermione hot on his heels. When he reached the last room on the left, he knocked tentatively, hoping that Lupin would still be awake.
Almost as soon as Harry knocked, the door was opened by a very surprised looking Lupin. He looked just as scraggly as ever, though he did not seem to sport any new gray hairs.
"Harry, Hermione, what brings you all the way here? Lupin asked.
"Lupin, we want to know about Tarrant Potter" Harry said. A look of shock and pain crossed Lupin's face as he looked down at Harry.
"How…how did you figure out about her?" Lupin asked softly.
"We found a picture of her in my mum's album" Harry said
"Ah, yes, so you found the album" Lupin said smiling, "Well come on in" he said, leading Harry and Hermione into the small room. The both immediately sat down on a small sofa that was near the door. Lupin sat on the bed across from them and sighed.
"I guess you have every right to know about Tarrant, but where to start?" Lupin said after a while.
"Was she my dad's sister? Where they twins? Is she alive? Why was her last name Black in the portrait in Hogwarts? And why haven't I ever heard of her?" Harry asked. Lupin laughed.
"One question at a time Harry, please" he said.
"How as she related to my dad" Harry asked.
"She was his sister, his little sister; they were one year apart, but exactly alike. But they weren't like normal siblings, they got along fine, it was Tarrant and Sirius that were always fighting" Lupin said, smiling at the memory of his two old friends.
"That's another question, why was her last name Black?" Hermione said, speaking for the first time since they got into the Three Broomsticks.
"What? Oh, Tarrant and Sirius were married a few years after they left Hogwarts" Lupin said. Harry looked at him in surprise.
"Why, didn't Sirius tell us about it then?" Harry asked. At this Lupin shifted uncomfortably.
"If you knew the circumstances, well you'd know why we had to take drastic measures. It was for Sirius's own good really, you know.."
"Just spit it out" Harry said.
"Well…well we erased his memories" Lupin said softly
"you WHAT!" Hermione cried.
"Listen if you knew the story, you'd see why we had to" Lupin said.
"Try me" Harry answered.
"Better yet, I'll show you" Lupin said, pulling out a small bowl from a rather shabby looking suitcase.
"This is one of the only rare things I own, I had to trade an arm and a leg to get it" Lupin said, holding it in his lap.
"It's a Pensieve!" Harry cried as Lupin took out a small bottle with silver substance in it.
"Yes, it is, and this is Sirius's memory, from that day" Lupin said. Harry's eyes grew very wide.
"You mean, the day when…"
"Yes, when Voldemort attacked your parents" Lupin said softly. Hermione gasped.
Lupin uncorked the lid from the bottle and poured the memory into the Pensieve.
"I assume you two know how to work this?" Lupin said looking at Harry and Hermione. Harry nodded but Hermione shook her head shyly.
"Oh, well just look into the Pensieve" Lupin said.
"That's it?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded, eager to see the memory.
"Okay, some of the things you will see here might disturb you quite a bit, so you have been warned" Lupin said. Harry and Hermione both nodded solemnly and walked towards the Pensieve, towards the day that Harry had been thinking about his whole life.
Harry looked into the swirling silver in the Pensieve and felt the familiar feeling of falling throughout darkness.
A/N: So how do you like it, I know this chapter may not have been great, but I promise that it will get better, trust me and please, please, please review, don't make me beg, because I will.