(A/N: As promised, a little more happiness, and plenty of those missing characters...)

Chapter 6: Dreaming of You

"Leeta!"

Aletha knelt down to receive an armful of excited one-year-old. "Hello, Neenie," she said fondly, hugging the girl tightly. "Look at you, you're so big!"

Hermione giggled bashfully and put her thumb in her mouth for a moment, then pulled it back out. "Leeta, Dada," she said, tugging at Aletha's robes. "Dada."

"You want me to take you to your Daddy?"

Hermione nodded.

"Is he that way?" She pointed the way the girl had been tugging her.

Another nod.

"All right, come here, you little monster." She scooped Hermione up, making her giggle again, and set off.

This really isn't possible, you know, said some rational corner of her mind. Hermione's been missing for months. She wasn't even one, or walking reliably, when you saw her last. And her father is dead.

But the child in her arms felt warm and real, and Aletha was willing to accept anything happy at the moment, even if it was an impossible dream of what might have been.

Dream. That's what this is. Just a dream. I remember falling asleep.

But it's a nice one, since it has my little Neenie in it...

She was walking across an endless flat plain with mists swirling around her. Hermione was looking around with wide eyes, thumb in her mouth again.

A figure appeared out of the mists ahead. Aletha squinted. Who is that?

"Dada!" cried Hermione. "Dada, Dada!" She wiggled, and Aletha set her down on her feet, watching her take off running, a bit unsteadily, but reach the figure without falling. The man scooped her up and twirled her around, laughing, and Aletha tensed at the familiar sound.

This has just gone to another level of impossible...

"Letha, I'm so glad you're here," said Remus Lupin, coming forward with Hermione balanced on his left hip and his right hand held out.

She hesitated a moment, then took it. It, too, felt entirely real, warm and strong and with a wand callus across the palm. But Remus himself didn't look quite as she remembered him, she noticed. He looked a bit older than he did in their photographs...

Of course he does. Those pictures are all two years old.

"Something wrong?" inquired Remus, and she realized she hadn't let go of his hand.

"No – yes!" She pulled back, suddenly recalling why all the pictures she had of Remus were two years old. "You're dead!"

Remus frowned, then shifted Hermione to his other hip and slid two fingers along his neck. "That's odd," he said. "I seem to have a pulse."

Aletha fought briefly with laughter and lost. Remus' style of humor had always appealed to her greatly. He was far more subtle than James or Sirius...

James. Sirius.

Her laughter choked off.

"What is it?" said Remus quietly. "Is it about James and Lily?"

"You know, then?"

"Yes." Remus looked around at their surroundings. "Here, let's go somewhere a little more comfortable..."

Abruptly they were in a room, a neatly furnished living or play room, though not any place that Aletha recognized. Remus set Hermione down, and the little girl ran immediately to the toy chest in the corner and started digging through it. He led Aletha gently to one of the couches and sat down next to her, then embraced her.

His arms around her sent shivers all through her. She hadn't touched or been touched by anyone since that morning, when she had struck Sirius...

And then she was bawling on Remus' shoulder, sobbing so hard she knew she'd have no voice left tomorrow, but this crying was different than what she'd spent all day doing. That crying had been like trying to climb up a magical staircase oriented for down. You could work at it all you liked, but you ended up exactly where you'd started. This crying was going to get her somewhere. She didn't know where, but anywhere had to be better than where she was.

Remus didn't try to say or do anything until the worst of it was over. He just held her, as he might have held a sister or a cousin, and let her get it all out. But he wasn't ignoring her, far from it; just about the time when she lifted her head and started looking for a handkerchief, one appeared level with her nose, and when she took it and sat up to use it, Remus adjusted his own position to compensate, sitting back on the couch.

"Better?" he asked politely when she had wiped her eyes and blown her nose.

"Yes." Aletha took a deep breath, feeling the shudders which were still shaking her begin to subside. "Yes. Much."

"Then may I dare to congratulate you?" His eyes flickered down to her midriff, then back to her face.

"You know about that too?"

"Yes. You wouldn't believe me if I told you how, though."

"Let me guess. Angels know everything?"

Remus' wry grin appeared. "Not quite. But that'll do."

Aletha sighed again. "I don't know, Remus. I just don't know. What kind of life will I be able to offer this child? And will I ever be able to look at her, him, whatever, without seeing Sirius?"

Remus sat up a little straighter, and Aletha sensed a change in his demeanor. "Yes. About Sirius. I'd hoped you might want to talk about him."

"What's to talk about?" Aletha knew she sounded bitter, and didn't care – she was. "He never was what I thought he was. What any of us thought he was. He was probably chosen for the role as a baby, trained up to act the part of the brave rebel, the one who dared to be good, so that we'd all like him and trust him. I was a prop, the undesirable Muggleborn girlfriend, to make it even more plausible. And then, when his master said the word, he came running home. And he took James and Lily, and Peter and a bunch of Muggles, with him."

"And your heart."

"Yes. And my heart."

Remus looked around the room, at Hermione, playing with blocks in the opposite corner, then back at Aletha. He seemed to be getting ready to speak, but he didn't. It was as if –

"Do you know something I don't?"

"Yes."

"Tell me. Please."

Remus held up a hand. "Hear me out first?"

Aletha nodded, hope suddenly reawakened against all odds.

"I shouldn't just tell you what I know. It's very hard to believe, and there's no proof for it. Besides, it would be a bad idea for other reasons that I'm afraid I can't tell you about. But there is another way."

"Twenty Questions?"

"Something like that. I'll give you all the help I can, but there are some leaps you're going to have to make on your own."

"All right. Is what you know about Sirius?"

"Yes. Very much."

All the bitterness and pain she'd been feeling all day spilled into her words. "Why did he do it?"

"Wrong question."

"What?" Aletha stared at Remus, confused. "Why?"

"You're starting from an incorrect assumption."

"An incorrect assumption," Aletha repeated. "All right, let me think."

What am I assuming when I ask why Sirius did it?

Well, for one thing...

"Did Sirius do it?"

"Do what?"

Aletha clamped down on her irritation, reminding herself that Remus wouldn't do this just to annoy her, that there had to be a reason – ghosts, or angels, or whatever he was probably couldn't tell people things directly...

"Did Sirius betray James and Lily to Voldemort?"

"No."

Well, that was direct.

And VERY nice to hear.

But impossible.

"Then why are they dead?"

"Because they were betrayed."

"But you just said Sirius didn't betray them!"

"Yes, I did."

All right. They were betrayed, we knew that already, but Sirius didn't betray them. She repeated it in her mind like a mantra. Betrayed, but not by Sirius. Not by Sirius...

Then by whom?

She looked back at Remus eagerly. "Who betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort?"

"Their Secret-Keeper."

"But Sirius was their Secret-Keeper!"

Remus looked at the opposite corner of the room and whistled a few notes of something melancholy-sounding.

"Wasn't he?"

"Is that a question?"

"Yes."

"No."

It took Aletha a moment to sort through the conversation and figure out what Remus was answering. "Sirius wasn't their Secret-Keeper?"

"I hate questions like that," said Remus with a half-smile. "I never know whether to say yes or no."

Aletha interpreted this as a request to rephrase the question. "Was Sirius the Potters' Secret-Keeper?"

"No, he was not."

"Then who was?"

Remus shot her an apologetic look.

"All right. But it wasn't Sirius."

"No, it wasn't Sirius."

Aletha felt muscles she hadn't even known were tense relax. She wanted to cry for joy, but she was still too worn out from her monster crying jag of a few minutes before. It would have to wait.

Besides, there's still more things I need to ask about.

"Why did Sirius kill Peter? And all those Muggles?"

Remus looked apologetic again. "Er, this could be a problem."

"You can't answer, I understand."

"No, it's not that. I'd tell you if I knew. But I honestly don't know at the moment. Tell me this, are you in any hurry?"

Aletha snorted a humorless laugh. "Hurry? To do what, or go where? My life looks more like a nightmare right now – this is the nicest place I've been in a while. No, I'm in no hurry."

"Then would you be willing to stay here for a little while, maybe play with Hermione? I was just going to meet with someone about what happened in London this morning. I'll be back as soon as I can; if you need anything, just say it aloud and it should show up within a few minutes."

"All right. But before you go..."

"Yes?"

"Why is Hermione with you? And calling you 'Dada'? I would have thought she'd have ended up with her real parents when she..." She couldn't say it.

Remus smiled fondly at the girl. "A real sweetheart, isn't she? Her real parents are, shall we say, unavailable at the moment. Danger and I are the closest available substitutes."

"So Danger is with you."

"Yes – in fact, that's who I'm going to see. Would you like to see her? We can come back here when we're done."

"I don't care what my mum used to say about there being no stupid questions, that was one – yes, of course I want to see her!"

"And she'll be over the moon to see you. We shouldn't be too long. See you in a few minutes, then." He gave her a casual goodbye hug, then stood up and walked nonchalantly through the wall.

As if I needed more reminders that this place isn't normal.

"Leeta?" asked a small voice by her leg, and Aletha gladly abandoned thoughts of normality to play with the little girl she'd thought she would never see again.

"Sirius!"

Sirius ran across a flat and endless expanse, not daring to look back. He knew what he'd see if he did. James and Lily, looking like avenging angels.

Suddenly they were in front of him. Sirius stumbled back.

"You betrayed us," accused James. "You betrayed us to Voldemort."

"You left my son to grow up with Muggles," said Lily hotly. "They hate magic and everything it stands for – what do you think they'll do to him?"

"But, it wasn't me," Sirius stammered. "Peter, it was Peter..."

"And who suggested to us that we change Secret-Keepers?" asked James, a parody of his wicked grin distorting his face. "Where did your sympathies really lie, Padfoot?"

"I died hoping Peter was safe," came a new voice from behind him. Sirius whirled. Evanie was standing there, her eyes cold and dead, new scars on her face, from her own claws, Sirius knew. "If you had just noticed how strangely he was acting, you could have stopped all this."

"You didn't even try to save us," said Remus, stepping out from behind Evanie. His face, too, was more scarred than it had been, his clothes tattered and wrinkled, his expression one of loathing. "We waited for you, we told each other that you would come. But you never did."

"And what do you think happened to me?" Danger appeared between the two groups, her face pale as the moon, her clothes tattered and covered in blood, gaping wounds apparent beneath them. "Peter was the smart one. He made a deal and lived. I was brave and stupid. Do you know how long one unprotected human survives in a cage with two werewolves?"

Sirius turned away from her, only to meet the accusing looks of the others, who were closing in, leaving him nowhere to run, nowhere to hide – this was torture beyond anything Death Eaters could do, torture of the mind, invading even into his sleep, because he had to be dreaming, having a nightmare, and only one piece was missing to make it the worst he had ever had...

"I cannot believe I thought you loved me."

There it is.

Sirius had to look up, that voice compelled him, even as it repulsed. Aletha was sneering at him. "You're just like all the others. All those cold, heartless purebloods, making their status marriages. You married me because a Muggleborn wife would give your little light side act some credence. I should have seen it coming. I should have known you'd return to the way you grew up. Like a dog returns to its vomit."

Sirius wasn't thinking clearly, wasn't really thinking at all, but the word "dog" triggered something in him, something he'd almost forgotten about. He transformed into the huge, shaggy black dog known as Padfoot, and Padfoot knew exactly what to do about the anger and sorrow and horror all bottled up inside him, and the added fear and shame that the phantoms were inducing.

He threw back his head and howled.

There was an answering howl from nearby.

The people standing around him all turned to look at where the second howl had come from, and a moment later were fleeing for their lives, vanishing into the mists, as a long-furred wolf snarled at them, snapping and slashing with her claws –

Claws?

He took another look. Blunt snout, tufted tail – she was a werewolf, but not one he knew. Evanie in her wolf form was much shorter-furred than this, and built differently, a bit stockier than this graceful creature.

The last of Sirius' tormentors were gone. The werewolf howled again, this time in triumph, and Sirius joined his voice to hers, wishing he knew her name so he could thank her.

The wolf reared onto her hind legs and became human, and Sirius stared.

He did know her name.

Although he'd never expected to see her again.

"Sirius?" Danger dropped to one knee beside him. "You can come out now. They won't come back while I'm here."

Feeling almost timid, Sirius changed back to human, still staring at her. She looked much as she had when he'd seen her last, a bit older perhaps, but that was to be expected, since it had been two years. Her robes were well-worn but clean and whole, and her face was unbloodied, only anxious as she looked at him.

"What are you, my guardian angel?"

Danger laughed. "If you like. No wings, though. And no halo."

Sirius snorted. "You don't deserve one anyway."

"Damn straight."

I didn't think angels were allowed to swear...

Never mind.

"So when did you become a werewolf?"

"What? Oh, that – I'm not. I just look like one. It's a really long story, and not very interesting, and we have more important things to discuss."

"Like what?" Sirius considered standing up, but wasn't sure his legs would hold him yet.

"Like you."

Sirius looked at her. Her eyes seemed to be searching his face for something. He sighed, looking away. "You want to know why I betrayed Lily and James?"

"No."

"No?" Sirius' head whipped around in confusion. "Why not?"

"Because I know you didn't."

He almost stopped breathing. "You do?"

"Yes."

"Then – do you know who did?"

"It was Peter, wasn't it? Unless something's changed that I didn't know about..."

Sirius lunged at her and snatched her into his arms, hugging her ruthlessly. "Thank you," he mumbled into her hair. "Thank you, thank you, you don't know what it means to me..."

"To have someone believe what sounds like an impossible story?" Danger hugged him back, and rubbed her cheek against his, as one wolf might do to another. "Trust me, I know."

Grief rushed over Sirius now, the grief he had been fighting off all day. In Azkaban, sinking into the emotion might be fatal, since the dementors would never let him come up again. But here, wherever here might be, in the arms of a friend, someone who believed him, he could safely cry for James and Lily.

"What I do want to know," said Danger quietly some time later, when Sirius had gotten into the sniffling stage, "is what happened this morning with Peter. It can't have been what it looked like."

Sirius wiped his eyes with the handkerchief she'd lent him. "What did it look like?"

"It looked like you killing Peter, and a dozen Muggles with him. The first part, I can understand – I want to kill him myself for what he did, and you, of anyone I know, might be willing to go through with it. But you are not ruthless, or wanton, or anything else they're calling you in the newspapers. I don't think that even Peter's betrayal would put you so much out of yourself that you would kill a dozen innocent people just to get at him."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence," said Sirius dryly. "Now we just have to convince the rest of the world."

"So what did happen? I know Peter's not dead, I've seen him since, and as I said, I know what you're supposed to have done. What actually happened?"

"Hold on a second," said another voice, forestalling Sirius' explanation.

He looked up eagerly. "Moony!"

"Hey, Padfoot," said Remus, giving Sirius a hand to help him up and returning Sirius' hug heartily. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Sirius nodded as Danger stood up behind him. "So you want to hear this too?" he asked.

"Me and someone else. I'm glad I caught you, she ought to hear this straight from you."

She?

Oh, no...

Remus didn't do anything obvious that Sirius could see, like snapping his fingers or waving a hand, but they were abruptly somewhere else. A small, cozy room, set up like a child's playroom. And it had a child in it.

"Pa-fuh!" Hermione Granger jumped up and ran to him, a huge smile on her face. Sirius scooped her up and hugged her, marveling at how much she'd grown in just the two months since he'd seen her last – she hadn't even been able to walk well then, and she had just barely begun to say "Mama" and "Dada" and "Leeta"...

Motion brought Sirius' eyes back to the corner where Hermione had been. Aletha was slowly standing up, using the wall behind her for balance, meeting his gaze steadily.

He squatted to set Hermione on the floor, never taking his eyes from Aletha's.

She broke the silence first, after they had both been standing for a long moment. "Were you James and Lily's Secret-Keeper?"

"No."

"Who was, then?"

"Peter."

Her lips formed the name silently. "When did you change?"

"At the last minute. Barely a day before Lily did the charm."

"Did you tell anyone?"

"No."

"WHY THE HELL NOT?"

The shout caught him entirely by surprise, and actually made him take a step backwards.

Aletha's face showed an odd mixture of amusement, amazement, and anger. "Do you have any idea how much grief you could have saved everyone, including yourself, if you had just seen fit to tell one other person about this? Someone like me, maybe, since you yourself said there was no chance of my being the spy, and since I'm your bloody wife?"

What the hell. Might as well play it up a little. Sirius hung his head. "I didn't want you to get hurt," he confessed in a mumble. "If you didn't know, you couldn't tell anyone, so they wouldn't hurt you."

"You thought they wouldn't torture me because I didn't know anything?" Aletha had her hands on her hips. "It's never stopped them before. And your brilliant little plan so that I wouldn't get hurt just caused me to have the worst day of my life, so thank you very much for that."

"Hey, I'm not exactly on a picnic here, either!" protested Sirius, stung. "I'm in effing Azkaban!"

"And it's your own fault, too! You could have told me – you could have told Dumbledore what you were going to do, and then maybe James and Lily would still be dead, but you wouldn't be in prison with no way to get out!"

"Thank you for reminding me, you're so supportive."

"A-hem."

They both looked around. Danger was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, with just a hint of a sardonic smile on her face. "If you're both quite finished," she drawled, "I think there's an explanation coming, about this morning..."

"Yes, what the hell was that?" Aletha's voice pulled Sirius' attention back to her. "Even if Peter was a traitor, that's no reason to kill a lot of innocent Muggles and laugh about it!"

"I wasn't laughing because of that!"

"Then why were you laughing?"

"Because Peter's not dead!"

Three seconds of silence.

"Are you telling me you missed?" said Aletha in a tone of total disbelief.

Sirius couldn't help himself. He cracked up, and couldn't stop laughing until a squeaky toy hit him in the side of the head.

"Enough," said Remus when he looked around. "Just tell us what happened." But his friend had a trace of a smile on his face. The funny side of even the worst situation was seldom lost on Remus.

Sirius took a few deep breaths, calming himself down. "I'd been looking for Peter all night," he began. "I'd just found him. But he was ready for me. He had his wand behind his back, must have had it stuck under his belt or something – you remember, Letha, he had his hands behind his back..."

Aletha nodded slowly.

"He cut off his own finger, to leave it for them to find, and to leave blood on his robes. He blew the street up behind him. And then he transformed. Somewhere in England, there is a rat with a missing toe on its front paw and a lot of deaths to answer for."

"But – how?" Aletha looked confused. "Didn't you tell me once that Peter could never transform when he was under stress?"

"He was probably thinking about his reward," said Remus, now sitting in one of the armchairs with Hermione walking around and around it, one hand on it for support.

"Reward?" asked Sirius, now totally confused. Then he recalled the conclusion he'd come to at Peter's flat. "Do you mean Evanie?"

"You did figure it out!" Danger grinned. "I thought you might."

"What does Evanie have to do with this?" asked Aletha. "Isn't she dead?"

Remus shook his head. "The Death Eaters have been using her as leverage against Peter," he said. "Demanding information in return for her continued safety. When Voldemort decided to move on the prophecy, he offered Peter a deal. Evanie would be returned to him, alive, sane, and unhurt, if he would hand over the Potters."

"And by then, he was in too deep to back out anyway," added Danger. "So he did it."

"Obviously," said Sirius angrily. "And did they follow through?"

"Actually, yes," said Remus. "As far as we know. We saw their meeting..."

"And was that ever an emotional scene." Danger made a small gagging noise. "I would have been a lot more appreciative if I hadn't known what he did to lead up to it."

"And then they left together," finished Remus. "And the Death Eaters swore not to harm either of them on their way home."

"But there's bound to have been a trick to it, there's always a trick to it." Danger stared into the air as if looking for the trick there. "Or maybe it's just that Evanie's almost certainly going to repudiate Peter after she finds out what he did." She sighed. "If we're lucky, he'll get an attack of conscience after that and turn himself in."

"And if we're not lucky?" asked Aletha quietly.

"You wake up," said Remus. "And spend a long time wondering if this dream was true or not."

"And I wake up," said Sirius grimly. "In Azkaban."

"And without Peter, there's no good way to prove you didn't do it." Aletha hugged him tightly. "I'm sorry for what I said," she whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"It's all right. I was stupid not to tell you." Sirius returned her hug, then, feeling bold, brought one hand around to her front, to run it over her belly. "Boy or girl, d'you think?"

"Don't know. But whichever it is, he or she is going to have a father, do you understand me, Sirius Black? I am not raising this child alone!"

"Yes, ma'am." Sirius saluted.

Remus chuckled. "Welcome to the club, brother. We're whipped and proud of it."

Danger smacked him.

"See?"

Suddenly, Danger's pose changed, as if she were listening to something only she could hear. "Letha, you have to go. Quickly. You have to wake up, something's happening – I'm sorry this couldn't be longer, but this is important, whatever it is–"

"How do I get back?" Aletha asked, accepting Danger's quick hug, and Remus' after her.

"Just go through this." Danger waved, creating what looked like a portal in the wall.

Aletha stepped up to it, then looked back at Sirius. "See you soon," she said, then stepped through and was gone.

Sirius exhaled slowly. "Now what?" he asked, looking back at his friends.

"Now, we indulge in an archaic pastime known as 'hanging around'," said Remus. "While you catch us up on everything that hasn't been in those letters of yours."

"My letters?" Sirius stared. "You've been getting my letters?"

Remus nodded, stretching out his legs so that Hermione could sit on them and be bounced up and down. "Mine are from you. Letha writes to Danger."

"Very nice of you, by the way," added Danger. "It's almost as good as being there ourselves. Well, not really, but you know what I mean."

"Yes – but how are you getting them?"

"Once again, long story," said Danger. "And not one we should waste tonight on, because I'm not sure we'll be able to do this again. So, why don't we get the boys in here and have a good old-fashioned family evening?"

"Boys?"

Remus did wave his hand this time, and a door appeared in the far wall that hadn't been there before. "Go on," he said, motioning to it. "He belongs to you now, after all."

Sirius didn't remember crossing the room, or opening the door, or anything until he was kneeling in the doorway, holding Harry Potter in his arms.

"Hi there, Greeneyes," he said, picking the boy up and willing his voice not to shake. "Told you I'd be back soon, didn't I?"

"Pa-fuh," said Harry happily, hugging him.

Sirius looked at the other little boy in the room, who was regarding him curiously, and began to laugh.

I guess what you can't have in life, you get when you go to heaven...

Aletha came awake with a start. Someone was calling her name.

She rubbed her eyes and listened. It was coming from the music room.

The Floo! I must have a firecall!

She hurried back through the hallway and stopped in front of the fireplace. "Professor," she said in surprise.

"Aletha, I must ask you to come to Hogwarts immediately." Dumbledore's face was a mixture of grave and astonished.

Aletha repressed a snide, Not again, and merely nodded. "Right away, sir."

Dumbledore's head vanished, and Aletha wasted no time. In a few moments, she was in his office, dusting soot off herself.

"When I returned to Hogwarts this evening, I walked up from Hogsmeade as I often do," said Dumbledore, escorting her down the staircase. "On the front steps of the castle, I found what appeared to be an injured animal."

"And you want me to take care of it?" Aletha frowned. "Wait. 'Appeared to be'?"

"I touched the creature, trying to determine if it were alive or dead. When I did, a voice spoke inside my mind. A voice I had never thought to hear again. And she asked for you."

They had arrived at the hospital wing. Dumbledore held the door for Aletha, and she hurried in, feeling a sudden rush of worry and, paradoxically, hope. "Where is she?"

"There." Dumbledore indicated a screened-off bed almost directly beside the door.

Aletha stepped quickly between the screens and went immediately to her knees, placing her hand on the head of the animal lying on the bed.

Letha...

The voice was tentative and sad, not to mention in her mind instead of her ears, and she hadn't heard it for two years. But she couldn't mistake it.

In wolf form, although it wasn't a full moon, and with human mind apparently intact, Evanie Pettigrew was lying in front of her.

(A/N: If you had any idea how many times I've rewritten this chapter to avoid giving too much away too soon... and how much I regret leaving it on a cliffy like this... but hey, at least it's not as bad as last night, right? There was a little happiness here, and hints of more to come, so it's not totally sad anymore. There will, of course, be more sadness, primarily next chapter, but after that it's almost all uphill!

Please remember to review! And have a good time reading HBP – I know I will! See you all on July 19th! (Or watch me post at 11:59 on the 18th! No promises, though.) Hugs!)