DISCLAIMER: Yeah, I'm definitely gonna stop putting these in, they're a pain. You know what I mean, I've said it like 10 times before, so look at one of the other chapters.

On with the 11th installment…

Sit Vis Tecum—Chapter 11

The next week was the most miserable that Sara had spent since the deaths of her parents. She carefully avoided the Gryffindors that had become some of her first friends in the country; she knew that they would blame her for nearly killing Remus. Since the incident with the necklace had occurred, she hadn't spoken a word about it to anyone except for Professor Dumbledore. Some of her Ravenclaw friends had asked her about what had happened, but she held her silence.

Only a handful of people, Sara knew, actually knew the whole truth about what had happened to Remus that day. She constantly heard rumors flying in the hallway; rumors that he was clinging to life, that he had been transferred to St. Mungo's for further treatment, and the worst—which gave Sara the feeling of having recently swallowed several large and leaden snakes—that he had been withdrawn from Hogwarts school. She did not know which of these rumors were true, so she settled for simply ignoring them all.

During one particularly miserable lunchtime exactly one week after the incident had occurred, Sara was eating alone at the Ravenclaw table, her friends and most others either studying in the library ("The OWLs are drawing nearer every day!" Lisa squealed when Sara asked her why she insisted on spending every spare moment in the library) or at lessons. She had been pretending to read a Hogwarts, a History, but her eyes weren't moving as she absentmindedly mutilated her slice of spinach pie with her fork. She was so deep in thought that when someone came up behind her and tapped her shoulder, she jumped two feet into the air as her fork fell with a clatter onto her plate.

"Remus!" she exclaimed in both relief and surprise. Before she knew what she was doing, she had gotten to her feet and threw her arms around him. "Thank goodness! I thought—I thought…" He gave her a genuine smile, taking a seat behind her at the table.

"Well," he said, holding out his arms, "here I am, in one piece and as well as I can hope for, thanks to you." A look of bewilderment settled on Sara's face.

"Thanks to me?" she asked, shocked. "This whole thing was because of me." Remus shook his head.

"No, it wasn't," he said firmly. "I know that you think it was all your fault, at least, that's what everyone else is saying. Sirius and James said that you've stopped sitting with them in classes and at mealtimes, Lily told me that you've stopped talking to them altogether, and Rena has been trying to catch your eye all week, but you haven't even been looking at them." Sara shrugged, stuffing a bit of pie into her mouth so she wouldn't have to speak. Remus sighed again. "Look, Sara, this wasn't your fault. I should have thought before I even picked that necklace up. None of the others blame you, and I'm certainly not accusing you of anything except being a good friend."

"What?" she exclaimed, but Remus continued.

"I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't realized—if you hadn't knocked it out of my hand or gotten me to the hospital as quickly as you did, or if you hadn't been able to get into Dumbledore's office…" his voice trailed off as he shuddered. He looked at her with a sudden interest. "How did you know that I was, well, a werewolf?" She shrugged, swallowing her food.

"Well, you're always ill at the full moon, that lame 'visiting my sick mother' thing wasn't a great excuse. And then there was your nickname, Moony, and how James talked about your 'furry little problem.' I will admit, though, I thought at first that you owned a strange pet when he kept saying that." Remus laughed and nodded.

"Yes, a lot of people think that, actually," he said, helping himself to a goblet of pumpkin juice while Sara quickly finished her lunch.

"So what actually happened last week? I've been hearing all sorts of crazy rumors…" Remus looked amused.

"What sorts of rumors?"

"I don't know, like that you were nearly dead, at St. Mungos, and some people were saying that you had been withdrawn from the school because you had a terminal illness. Of course, none of them actually knew what happened," she added, "but I wasn't sure if any of the other stuff was true."

"Well," he began with a hint of laughter in his face and voice. "I don't know if you'd say 'nearly dead,' but I wasn't exactly at my best, either. I did get transferred to St. Mungos because they didn't have the treatments that I needed here. From the fact that I'm here now, it's pretty safe to say that I haven't been withdrawn." Sara laughed with relief and Remus smiled back at her. She knew that everything was understood between them, and knowing that lifted a huge weight off of her chest, and she felt lighter as she gathered up her things.

"Where is everyone else?" she asked him, glancing around at the Gryffindor table.

"They're in the common room," he said, standing up and walking with her out of the Great Hall. "I just came down to talk to you before we go out to Herbology. What do you have next?"

"History of Magic," she said, the two of them setting off up the stairs. "I should actually go and get my things, the class is only in half an hour." Remus laughed.

"Haven't you been here long enough to not get lost?" Sara rolled her eyes, smiling.

"Yes, I think so, but I also told my friend Paige that I'd meet her to help her study a few minutes before class." He nodded.

"Oh, okay, that makes sense." To Sara's surprise, he walked with her all the way up the bronze statue that guarded the Ravenclaw common room.

"Thanks for walking me up," Sara said, preparing to go through the passageway to her dormitory.

"No problem, I'm glad that you're back with us again. See you in Transfiguration later," he smiled, turning and walking back down the corridor. Sara beamed to herself, elated that Remus was back and nobody blamed her for what happened.

Transfiguration that day was a happier affair than usual, and she resumed her usual schedule of sitting with the Ravenclaws half of the time and the Gryffindors for the last half (on the pretense, of course, that she was helping them to learn the lesson, which Professor McGonagall accepted as an excuse). Finishing most of her homework in the library after class, she went down to dinner with a light heart.

She had no sooner entered the Great Hall than heard a small chorus of voices calling her name at the Gryffindor table. She found her way toward them and found a seat between Remus and Lily, greeting them and helping herself to fish and chips.

"So, O'Hanlon," Sirius said, his mouth full of Yorkshire pudding, "how does it feel to return from exile?" Sara frowned.

"I was never in exile," she said, which achieved the reaction of everyone else staring at her with their eyebrows raised doubtfully. "Not really," she mumbled, adding salt to the chips.

"Oh, come on!" James exclaimed with his mouth partially full, resulting in bits of whatever he was chewing being sprayed at Rena, who had been sitting next to him and who wasted no time in punching his arm and snatching up a napkin from off of the table. "Of course you were! Why else would you miss eating with us like you usually do?"

"I dunno," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "I guess I just thought—"

"—that we'd blame you for what happened and would never want to talk to you again? Yeah, we figured that much out," Rena said calmly. She sighed, shaking her head. "I'm just really glad that you realized—you know—when you did, before it was too late."

"Well, she is in Ravenclaw—she was gonna figure it out eventually," Peter pointed out before stuffing half a roll into his mouth.

"True, I guess, Sara, that it was partly our fault for not telling anything sooner. I guess," Rena continued, "that we just wanted to make sure that you didn't rat out on us, you know, and go telling everyone." Sara was appalled at this, but tried to keep her body language to a minimum.

"I wouldn't do that, I'd never do that!"

"We know that now, and we had that feeling earlier, but we needed to be absolutely sure," Lily said, resting her fork and knife on her plate. "After Dumbledore told us what happened, we got the proof we needed."

"Please don't hate us," Sirius said, actually looking concerned. Sara felt her expression soften.

"I don't hate you," she said, smiling. "I don't think I could ever hate you, and to be honest, it never crossed my mind to tell anyone about Remus' 'furry little problem,' as James so eloquently puts it."

"Sara, please do me a favor," Sirius asked, looking up from his food.

"What?"

"Stop using big words." Lily and Sara laughed. Finishing his food, Peter stood from the table so suddenly that his leg kicked the table, rattling its contents. He gave them a hurried apology and muttered something about a tutoring session.

The mood lightened considerably after that, but Sara was still feeling a bit uneasy. They felt she was trustworthy, had confided their secrets to her. Not willingly, really, but the fact that they weren't going around threatening to hex her if she told anyone certainly said something about the level of trust that they placed in her. So if they trusted her, why couldn't she confide in them? Why couldn't she tell them about the burden she'd been carrying since she arrived in England? It didn't make sense…

"Earth to O'Hanlon," Sirius said loudly, waving his hand in front of her yes. Sara's attention quickly snapped back.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing, you just looked like you were out of it for a minute." Sara nodded silently. If she told them, she'd feel better; after all, it was better sooner than later.

"Guys," she blurted out suddenly, shifting in her seat and looking up at them.

"What's up?" Lily asked, suddenly looking concerned.

"I know this is kind of random," she said, taking a deep breath, "but I feel like I need to tell you, you know, after what happened with Remus. It's not as important, but you deserve to know the truth." Every one of their eyes turned to her; they seemed to realize that this was important. Before she began, she thought, for a split second, of just saying never mind and not telling them anything at all.

But really, she thought, what was the point of keeping a secret from them? She'd do a lot better just to get it out and off of her chest, tell them everything and get it over with. Sara had known these guys for more than a month; hadn't they taken her in and treated her like one of their own, even if she was in Ravenclaw and they, Gryffindor? They had been great friends, and she didn't think it likely that they would shun her if she told them the truth, the truth about why she had come here, to England, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"The truth about what, Sara?" Lily asked in a gentle voice. Nobody else seemed to dare to make a sound.

"Why I'm here, about why I had to leave the States." Without warning, thinking about the incident brought a burning lump into her throat that wouldn't disappear, even after she swallowed hard.

But it was now or never.

"I thought you said that your dad had a job transfer," Sirius said, alarmed. There was a thud; Rena seemed to have kicked him under the table, then turned to look at Sara with concerned eyes. Sara shook her head.

"No," she said. "My parents—" her voice became shaky without warning and her eyes began to involuntarily shimmer with tears, "My parents died last July." There, she had said it. A tear fell into her lap and she quickly wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her robes.

The rest of them were sitting in a shocked silence. Sara swallowed hard and shrugged.

"It was stupid…I mean, I guess I'm overreacting," she began, starting to make a hasty apology and stopping suddenly, another tear dropping into her lap. This is not how it was supposed to go; she wasn't supposed to break down in front of her friends. She felt a comforting arm around her shoulders as Lily pulled her into a sort of sideways hug, and Remus lay a comforting hand on her arm.

"Sara," Lily said quietly, looking shocked and appalled, her eyes full of pity and concern. "It's not stupid at all. Losing one parent would be terrible, but both—that's unfathomable." Sara sniffed and nodded. She knew how right Lily was and she was grateful for the comfort.

She noticed that Sirius was starting to open his mouth to ask a question when he received a sharp jab in the ribs from Rena, who muttered something about being insensitive; both fell silent once more.

"Their car was hit by a semi, an 18-wheeler," she continued with great difficulty, her voice still shaky. "The guy driving was drunk, blood alcohol nearly five times the legal limit. There was nothing that the paramedics could do." She kept her head down as the burning lump in her throat seemed to grow larger.

"You don't have to tell us any more," James said as soothingly as he could. Sara shook her head, but she knew that she needed to keep going, to finish what she had started.

"The police came to my house late that night. I kn-knew that something was wrong the minute that I s-saw them, when they took off their c-c-caps out of respect," she pushed on in her explanation, knowing that though it was difficult now, she would feel better once she had relived the incident. She covered her face with her hands, unable to look at them.

"Ariana was there with me," she said, speaking through her fingers and causing her voice to sound strangely muffled. "I was scared, but I knew that no matter what happened, she would be there. I f-found out later that I was wrong," she sniffled and she felt someone offer her a tissue, which she took gratefully and crumpled in her left hand after dabbing her eyes.

"Sara," Remus said quietly, his voice almost inaudible though the concern in it was certain. "You really don't have to say any more if it's making you uncomfortable. We understand."

"No," she said shakily but firmly. "I'll feel better if I do, and you will know the whole truth." And she did; Sara told her friends everything, from the officers coming to her door, to packing and coming to England for the first time. After she had finished, she found that they were all looking at her with expressions mixed with alarm and pity, but the looks of pity on their faces weren't like those that she usually faced. In fact, these were gentler looks of understanding, of shared sorrow, as if they were helping to share her pain.

"But why didn't you tell us all this when you met us?" Sirius asked in bewilderment. Sara shrugged, taking a calming sip of tea that someone had set in front of her.

"Because I hated the pity that I got in the States, and I didn't want people to be my friend just because they felt sorry for me." He nodded, understanding. "Besides, I really didn't know you very well, and I guess it was something I liked to keep to myself."

"That makes sense, I guess." Sara looked around at them all again; Lily still had her arm around Sara's shoulders, and Remus and Rena looked like they wanted to hug her. She smiled. They were true friends, and she was glad.

"Have you told your other friends this?" James asked, nodding in the direction of the Ravenclaw table. Sara shook her head.

"Nah, my relationship with them isn't quite there yet. They still look amazed with every bit of magic that I do, even if it's second-year stuff. It gets really annoying after a while." She smiled a little, and Sirius actually laughed. Lily hugged Sara again and took her arm off of her shoulder.

"Wow," Rena said, still looking stricken. "So when you told Arabella that you understood more than she knew—wow."

"And I was wondering why it was your grandparents who took you to Platform 9 ¾," James said sympathetically. "I wasn't expecting that, though."

"Yep," Sara said, trying to sound nonchalant about it. "So we were all happy and I had to go and be depressing again." She gave a strange, dry laugh.

"No, it's okay," Rena said comfortingly. "We're glad you told us. It certainly took a lot of courage to relive that sort of memory."

"You should have been in Gryffindor," Sirius said, nodding to himself as if confirming his own thoughts.

"I almost was," Sara said glumly. "I mean, back at Beaumore, I was in Gryffindor—I mean, Andromeda; that was the sort-of Gryffindor equivalent, anyways."

"But then, why--?"

"The Sorting Hat didn't feel that I was up to the challenge, I guess," she said, shrugging. "It said that my parents' deaths had hampered my courage, or something."

"That sucks," James said, and he sounded like he truly meant it.

"It's okay," Sirius said, helping himself to a dish of apricot crumble. "You can be an honorary Gryffindor."

"Our honorary Gryffindor!" Rena chimed in, laughing.

" Okay, then" James said, his voice taking on an air of nobility and superiority. He held up the large silver spoon that had been in a tureen of Yorkshire pudding, tapped it with his wand so that it shone clean, and held it like a saber. "I, James Potter, Prongs of the Marauders, here with Sirius Padfoot Black and Remus Moony Lupin and in the absence of Peter Wormtail Pettigrew (we can pretend like he's here), as well as the beautiful and noble Lily Evans and Rena Lupin, hereby bestow upon you, Sara O'Hanlon, the official and noble title of Honorary Member of Gryffindor House." Sara, going along with it, bowed her head and James touched each of her shoulders once with the spoon, resisting the strong urge to laugh.

"You may rise," Sirius and Remus said together, grinning at one another.

"And now, may I present to all who have witnessed this event," James continued in the same pompous tone. "Miss Sara O'Hanlon, Honorary Member of Gryffindor House!" She lifted her head, smiling, as Remus and Sirius both gave enthusiastic applause. James replaced the spoon in the tureen with a dignified air and sat at his seat again. Sara laughed with Lily and Rena.

"Why thank you, Sirs Prongs, Moony, and Padfoot," she said, taking on a similar air as the one James had had moments before. "I don't think that I've ever been knighted by a spoon before."

"You guys are crazy," Rena said, polishing off a dish of crumble.

"And proud of it, babe!" Sirius said, smirking at her. This earned him a kick under the table.

"I swear, Padfoot, if you ever call me 'babe' again, I'll—"

"You'll what?" he smiled with a false sort of sweetness.

"You still haven't answered my question from before, Sirius," Rena said pointedly.

"Which was—?"

"Do you want to be buried or cremated?"

Several days after Sara was dubbed an honorary Gryffindor, James and Sirius decided that they needed to do something to celebrate the occasion. One particular breakfast as they sat munching on sausage and toast, James asked Sara if she had brought a swimsuit to Hogwarts with her.

"No," she answered, puzzled. "Were we supposed to?" Sirius and James exchanged glances of mock disappointed.

"You know," Sirius said, "you should always be prepared."

"For what?"

"You'll see," James said, helping himself to a kipper. Sara grimaced; she had never really gotten used to the little fish gracing the breakfast table. He made a point of ignoring her disgust. "Just make sure that you write back to your grandparents as soon as possible, and get them to send swimwear back to you here. Then we can have some fun." Sara looked at Lily questioningly; one look back told her that she knew about the plans, but was not going to reveal anything.

"You'll see," she said, repeating James' words.

"It's going to be a ton of fun," Rena said, grinning. "We've all been doing this for a while, since the second year, at least, when we found out the password…"

"The password to what?" Sara asked with interest. She wasn't sure what they were talking about, but she was already making silent plans to draft the letter in History of Magic; she had given up trying to understand what Binns was saying, and simply tried to resist the soporific power of his voice.

"Nothing, nothing," Sirius said with an air of superiority. "You'll find out soon enough."

As it turned out, she didn't have to wait long. The package from her grandparents that Sara had been awaiting arrived speedily in the mail the following morning.

"Excellent," said James in response. "We'll do it tonight, then, since tomorrow is the weekend. Sara, meet us outside of the Gryffindor common room at 10:30 tonight. Make sure you wear that swimming suit—it's important."

And so she set off from Ravenclaw tower at a quarter after ten that evening, dressed in jeans and a sweater, her bathing suit concealed underneath. Halfway to the portrait of the Fat Lady, she began to wonder whether she should have brought a towel, especially if they would be swimming. This worry was quickly pushed from her mind, however, when she approached the portrait hole and found the Marauders and Company waiting outside for her, not a towel in sight. Sirius, however, clutched a worn piece of parchment in his hand and James had a silvery cloak slung over his shoulder. This, she knew, had to be the invisibility cloak that she had heard so much about.

"Wotcher, Sara," Sirius said excitedly.

"Hey," she said, greeting them all. The seven of them gathered into a circle.

"Right," James said, giving instructions. "So here's what we're going to do. Lils, you're going to go down first, and make sure that the door's open for us. Sara, Rena, and Peter are going to wear the cloak, since they really aren't supposed to be there, anyways; Padfoot's going to lead them, since he has the map. Then Remus and I are going to come at the rear. We should probably do this quickly, so Lily, you're up."

"Yep, I'm on it," she said, snapping into a salute and, smiling, turned and retreated down the corridor. A few minutes later, Sirius whispered, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," and tapped the piece of parchment with his wand.

"Right," he said as James tossed Peter the invisibility cloak. "You three go on, and follow Sirius. I know it'll be a bit crowded, but try—"

"Not to make noise," Rena finished for him. "Duh, James, we know."

"Come on, Sara," Peter said in a squeaky little voice, and Sara gathered close to Rena as Peter tossed the cloak over them. Sirius checked the parchment before turning to look behind him and nodded (though his nod seemed to go over their heads by a few inches).

"Okay, guys, follow me," he said, and turned on his heel with the parchment held out in front of him in one hand, wand at the ready in the other.

It was slow going at first, trying to move crowded between Rena (which really didn't bother her) and Peter (who, for some reason, gave her the creeps) while struggling to keep the invisibility cloak over them. As Sirius led them down three flights of stairs, he had so pause, pretending to examine a tapestry or suit of armor while waiting for them to catch up. After several minutes of this, they arrived in a corridor on the fourth floor, where Sirius seemed to count the doors. When they got to the fourth one, he leaned in close.

"Squeaky clean," he said in a low voice. This must have been a password, since the door immediately creaked open. Sirius pulled the door wide and stepped into the room, allowing Rena, Sara, and Peter to follow. Once Sirius closed the door behind them, Rena pulled off the cloak and began to fold it neatly.

At first Sara wondered where she was. She was standing at the entry to a large room that appeared to be built entirely of white marble. Against one wall, she could see the golden doors to three oversized shower stalls and sinks. The place was lit entirely by what appeared to be large, luminescent bubbles that hovered overhead. In one corner, there was a very large stack of fluffy white towels, and a painting of a blond mermaid asleep on a rock in the sea hung at the far end of the room.

In the center, she saw what appeared to be a very long, sunken rectangle about 18 feet long and 35 feet wide; it was the size of a large swimming pool. The edges of the pool were line with many golden taps, each with a differently colored jewel set into the handle. It was a moment before she realized that Lily was nowhere to be seen. She turned to Rena to ask her this, but she was quickly ushered into one of the large shower stalls. Rena latched the door after them, sitting on the marble seat in the shower.

"Why—?" Sara began in a whisper, but Rena pressed her finger to her lips.

"In our third year," she began in a low voice as Sara sat beside her. "This stupid Hufflepuff prefect walked in while the door was unlatched, and we were waiting for James to come up. He threatened a detention, and after that we all have a system. We hide in the stalls until James, and Remus come and bolt the door. After the door's locked, we have nothing to worry about. That's why we didn't see Lily when we came in; she is in the stall next to us, and Sirius and Peter are in the other one." Sara nodded in understanding.

"Where are we?"

"The prefects' bathroom," Rena said in an undertone. "Shhh…" she said suddenly, pressing her ear against the golden door. Sara also listened intently as she heard the door creak open. For several moments, she thought that somebody strange was in their presence. The lock on the door slid shut and clicked.

"You can come out now!" Remus called through the doors. Rena unlocked her door and Sara followed her out into the main part of the bathroom; from the left, Peter and Sirius joined them and from the right, Lily emerged, shutting the door behind her. They congregated to one side of the swimming-pool-sized bathtub.

"Excellent," Sirius said eagerly. "Okay, on the count of three, everybody find a tap. One—" They rushed to the side of the pool, dispersing equally around it.

"Two—" Sara rested her hands on taps with blood red and pale blue jewels set into them.

"Three!" Everyone turned their taps, releasing a quantity of water, perfumed clouds and bubbles of all shapes, sizes and densities into the bathtub. There was a lot of laughter, and Sara was fascinated by the effects of each tap. The whole pool was filled in a surprisingly short time, complete with a shocking quantity of foam and bubbles on the surface of the water.

She felt so much time admiring the bathroom that she hardly noticed that Sirius, Remus, and James were already stripped to their bathing suits, which looked a lot like Muggle swimming shorts. Peter fell over as he tripped over his trousers at the ankles, and the four Marauders had a good laugh.

"Come on, Sara," Rena said. Sara turned to find her wearing a scarlet bikini, folding her discarded clothing neatly. Lily, too, was folding her trousers, clad now in a navy blue suit with baby blue accents. Sara smiled and removed her shoes, socks, sweater and jeans and arranged them neatly on the floor, revealing her own sea-green bathing suit. The Gryffindors began to assemble themselves in a line on the six-foot-deep end of the tub. Sara followed, taking a place between Rena and James. They began to link hands, and she followed suit.

"Okay," Lily said from the other side of James. "Now that we are all gathered here--"

"—Let the semi-annual midnight swim commence on—"Remus continued from beside Lily

"One!" Rena shouted spiritedly, squeezing Sara's hand and beaming excitedly at her.

"Two!" James called at the top of voice, also squeezing Sara's hand and Lily's as well.

"Three!" Peter's turn to scream this time.

"Geronimo!" Sirius shouted as loudly as he could as they all leapt off the marble floor and into the pool of water, hands still linked. When they hit the water, they broke apart. Sara plunged below the foamy surface into the pleasantly warm water. Feeling her feet touch the bottom, she sprang up again, breaking through the surface of the water with a grin on her face; Rena and Remus were racing each other from one end of the long pool to the other, Peter, Lily and James were splashing each other, and Sirius came swimming over to Sara when she emerged, grinning broadly.

"So what do you think?" he asked, shaking his head free of excess water.

"It's brilliant," she said honestly, beaming. He smiled back, looking pleased as he ducked under the water and pushed off of the side, speeding toward the opposite end and reemerging with his hair coated with a thick pink foam.

"Nice hair, Sirius," James said; Lily took advantage of the momentary lapse of concentration to pelt him with an equally flattering amount of foam. Sirius laughed and James hit him with the thick pink bubbles again. Soon the air was thick with flying foam, and after a minute every head was coated with pink bubbles and they were laughing hysterically at one another.

Two hours passed with ease as they raced, splashed, played games and just generally goofed around, laughing their heads off until the water grew tepid. When Lily announced that it was nearly one o'clock in the morning, Sara was equally as shocked as everyone else. They quickly dried themselves and redressed, draining the tub and throwing the now-damp towels into the hamper in the corner.

They walked back in a different fashion than they came in, since it was now past curfew and they didn't want to risk Sara getting caught out of bed.

"Don't worry about it," Lily said. "We don't want you to get detention on our account. Plus, as long as we have the map, we know enough secret passages that we'll be okay." Sara was unconvinced.

"How will I get the cloak back to you without someone noticing?" This was met with silence, then—

"I'll take you," Sirius volunteered. "I'll walk with you under the cloak so you don't get lost," he smirked, and Sara rolled her eyes, though she knew that it was true: she still got lost rather easily inside of the castle. "Then I can just meet everyone else back in Gryffindor Tower."

Sirius' plan was quickly agreed upon, and several silent minutes later the two of them had arrived at the entrance to the Ravenclaw dormitories.

'It's been cool, O'Hanlon," he said as she ducked out from under the cloak.

"Likewise," she smiled. "See you around, then."

"Definitely." And he disappeared from view under the cloak.

"Gobbledegook," Sara told the statue, which immediately leapt aside. She ducked into the passageway and emerged into the Ravenclaw common room. She was surprised to find nearly the entire Ravenclaw fifth year sitting around the dying fire, waiting for her.

Okay, that seems like a good enough place to leave off. It was a nice long chapter, and I hope that you enjoyed it.

The next will be up eventually. Any ideas for who Sara should be going to the ball with? I've got two or three ideas, and depending on who it is could change the drift of the story a little.

But the mystery still remains: why on earth is Lily using a fake last name?

You'll have to read to find out.

Don't forget to review and tell me what you think.

Callista Rose