The next two weeks we were all inseparable. We went everywhere together going out to eat, shop, and just spending time together. I always loved vacation because I didn't have to be formal with my dad around the house. That was one of the horrible things about having your dad working at the same school you go to. You always had to be formal around the other students. We had two relationships, father and daughter and teacher and student. I preferred the father and daughter relationship.

"So dad, we kind of had an idea for our family vacation this summer." I said bringing up the idea I had had at the end of school about the muggle amusement parks in America.

"Yeah what's that?" He asked looking over his paper at me. He was reading the daily prophet and eating some toast and jam.

"Well have you ever heard of muggle amusement parks?" I asked him. He nodded. Of course he had, he loved muggle things.

"I thought maybe we could go to one in America!" I said getting excited over it. It only took my family to get my mind off of Sirius. I actually hadn't thought much about him when my dad or Adam surrounded me. Life didn't seem so horrible if I had them around.

"I'm afraid we cant. We have to go back to school in three weeks and I have to do something with Dumbledore in about a week." He said.

"What! DAD! You can't leave us here alone with her again. YOU JUST CANT!" I stood up knocking my orange juice onto the table. My dad flew up trying to get out of the way of the path of orange juice. But he was too slow because when I looked at him the orange juice was all over his robes.

"Ashleigh Corrine!" He yelled using my middle name. He only used my middle name when I really pissed him off.

"Ashleigh, you will stay here and you will behave and when I get back things will go back to normal." He said wiping the orange juice off his robes with some paper towels. I knew I had pushed the limit and I should apologize but something came over me and I just glared at him and went straight to my room slamming the door behind me. I was so mad at him. First he left us with HER for a whole week in the beginning of the summer and now he was going to leave us with her for the last week of vacation! There was a soft knock on my door and my dad came on. I was sitting on my bed with my head hung. I felt him sit next to me.

"Sweetheart, I know you don't want to be around your mom but you have to give her chance. She is a good person and she loves you guys, she just has a lot of things on her mind right now what with the war and everything." He said putting his arm around my shoulders.

"Dad, she doesn't love us. She hates us; I don't even think she thinks about us at all. She's evil." I said finally looking at him. He chuckled and patted my arm.

"She's not evil. And she doesn't hate you. She's just under a lot of pressure." He said. I rolled my eyes thinking 'she must have been under pressure my entire life then.' But I bit my lip so I wouldn't say any more. Adam walked in and sat on my bed also. Soon we were having a huge pillow fight and I was getting the worst of it. After a bunch of blows to the head we all collapsed on my bed in a big pile. We were all entangled and laughing.

"What should we do today?" He asked us when we all stopped laughing.

"I say we go to Paris!" I said being all dramatic.

"Please, I hate that place. I say we stay around the house and we can play that new muggle board game I got." Adam said running into his room. He had just ordered a muggle game board called Monopoly. His last girlfriend, Gabrielle, had introduced the game to him and he fell in love with it. He had just gotten his own copy of the game in the mail the other day. Dad and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes getting up to go play the game with Adam. We had to have been playing this game all day long it seemed, only taking breaks to get something to eat and drink and then returning to the unfinished game. Dad finally won, I was the first one out of money so I just sat around reading a book while they finished their game. After doing his victory dance around the living room and me rubbing the victory in Adam's face we all ate our dinner and spent some time watching muggle T.V. We didn't watch a lot of muggle T.V. but sometimes when we were home and we had nothing else to do we would turn it on.

The rest of the week passed by so fast that I barely had enough time to think about anything but spending time with dad and Adam. Adam and I were sulking because our dad was leaving this morning.

"I'm sorry but I have to go." He said when he saw our sad faces. He sighed and sat in between us on the sofa in the living room.

"I'll be back and we will have a great time before heading back to school. Ok?" He said but we didn't say anything. We loved hanging out with him, not many people loved their parents as much as us but we only had one that we loved and were really attached to. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to him.

"I love you guys so much. I am going to miss you." He said giving me a kiss on the forehead and hugging Adam.

"I have something for you guys." He said opening his bag and reaching in to get something. I was hoping it wasn't another animal because Tickle was already running wild in the house. He turned to Adam and handed him something small and gold.

"My father gave this to me when I was about your age. It's a pocket watch and I want you to have it. Inside is a picture of me, you and grandpa at the lake. Remember that day?" He asked Adam and he nodded I couldn't see the watch that well but I knew I would see it later once Dad left. Then he turned to me.

"Grandma wanted me to give this to you… its been in our family for a long time. It's a locket and it has a picture of me you and Adam in it." He said opening it. On the back of the locket it said 'To Grace, Love, A'.

"Who is Grace?" I asked him.

"Your Great Great Grandmother." He said rubbing the lock with his thumb. I gave him a kiss and a hug before he got up.

"I want you guys to know that I love you and no matter what I will always be there for you. I'll never leave you guys… ever." He said and he had a weird look on his face.

"Dad, what's going on?" I asked him. I was really confused as to what had brought that on.

"Nothing, I just want you to know that you aren't alone and even if I am gone. You guys have each other." He said giving us one more hug and kiss. I suddenly felt like something bad was going to happen but I didn't know what.

"Dad, don't go." I blurted out. He sighed and shook his head.

"I have to. I made a promise to Dumbledore." He said. And then he left us in the house alone. I collapsed on the sofa in a huffy mood.

"Don't worry, he'll be back soon and then it's off to seventh year!" Adam said thrusting his fist into the air. I rolled my eyes at him. He was so excited to be going into our seventh and final year at Hogwarts. He had become steady friends with a girl from Hufflepuff who was actually a rival Quidditch player but that didn't matter to him. She was a sweet caring girl. And thinking of them together and being happy put me in a depressed mood because I wasn't going to be happy going back to school. I would have to see Sirius and his latest slut everyday. What was going through my mind when I agreed to go out with him? I had a crush on him for so long and hanging out with him and the guys was like heaven. I loved hanging out with guys rather than girls because they were so laid back and they meant what they said. There was no hidden meaning in their words.

Sometime in the middle of the night I had a nightmare and I woke up screaming and crying. Adam must have heard me because he ran into my room trying to calm me down.

"What's wrong?" He asked trying to calm me down after I had been sobbing for the last five minutes. He knew what was wrong but he didn't want to repeat it. I could feel his heart beating as fast as mine. He saw what I saw too.

"You know." I said through my tears. He nodded and hugged me and we fell asleep. No more nightmares woke me up in the middle of the night. I woke up sometime in the morning; both Adam and I were sleeping in my bed. My nose felt stuffy and my eyes felt puffy. I moved and Adam woke up. We got up and got ready for the day without mentioning what had happened last night. I knew that if I even thought about the nightmare I would have started to cry again, it was too unbearable for me think about. I was afraid if I thought about it then it would come true and I didn't want that to happen at all. There was a knock at the door while we were eating our breakfast in silence. Adam got up to answer it and I followed because I had nothing better to do.

"Uh, Hi." He said to our Headmaster.

"Hello, may I come in?" He asked. He didn't look too good; he looked older than I had ever seen him before. I had always thought that he was the strongest person besides my dad but right here and now he looked as if part of him had died. We stepped aside and let him come into the house.

"Can I offer you some tea?" I asked him. I admit I was intimidated and my words were getting mixed up. He shook his head no and we sat down across from him.

"Something has happened. I am sorry to be the one to tell you that your father had passed away." He said and then he said something else but I didn't hear. My mind went blank and I felt numb all over. This wasn't happening, this was just another nightmare. I tried to wake myself but I couldn't. Adam just grabbed my hand and we sat there staring at Dumbledore as if he was an illusion. Dumbledore stayed with us all day contacting people from the ministry trying to get a hold of our mom. By nightfall the death of our father was all over the ministry but they still couldn't get a hold of our mom. Adam and I didn't cry or move or even talk. We just sat there both quiet not moving, barely breathing and trying to feel numb. I knew that if I thought about it then I would cry. And if I cried then it would make it all real and I couldn't stand for it to be real.

"Oh my dear god." I heard my mother's overly dramatic voice. There was not even a hint of concern in her voice. She sounded like this was all one big nuisance. Like my father died on purpose just to piss her off and ruin her day. Adam and I got up instinctively and sat in the corner of the room making sure we were invisible to her eye. She talked to Dumbledore for a few seconds and then turned her attention to us. She was going to put on some elaborate show in front of him to show that she was good mother.

"Oh my poor babies!" She said hugging both of us until Dumbledore excused himself and left us alone… with her. We all sat in the living room.

"Well, um, his funeral is on Saturday… and um I guess you guys should get ready for that and get ready for school on Sunday. So maybe you should go to Diagon Alley and get your things for school… um, its going to be a little crazy around here, so maybe you should stay at the Leaky Cauldron until the funeral. I think it would be best." She said. I looked up and I suddenly didn't feel numb anymore. I felt angry, angry towards her.

"Best for who? Us or you?" I asked raising my voice. I knew that I should have toned it down for a bit but I was too mad. How could she just come in here and act like everything is ok and hen ask us to move out.

"Listen young lady, I know that you are hurting right now but you still WILL NOT talk to me like that. I care about you guys and I just think it would be best for you guys if you stayed at the Leaky Cauldron." She said raising her voice.

"You don't care about us, you don't care that we just lost the best dad in the entire world. You never cared. Where were you when we went on family vacations? Where were you at any time in our lives? We don't even know you and you don't know us. So how can you know what is best for us?" I said getting angry. She looked like she was turning red in the face. She was probably so mad right now, I was afraid she would hit me.

"You ungrateful little brat! I took you in when you were a baby and I took care of you guys. HOW DARE YOU!" She roared. I was determined not to show fear to her.

"Took us in? I didn't know that you "Took us in". I thought it was a duty as a mom?" I said. She looked like she was contemplating something.

"A mom? I'm not even your mom." She said and it seemed like my whole world was slipping away.

"What?" Adam asked.

"I'm not your mom, your mom was some whore bag slut who left you with your dad when she died giving birth. I took you guys in when you had no mom and I took care of you. And then that bloody bastard goes up and dies leaving me with you two." She said.

"Its not like he died on purpose. He was murdered." I said feeling hollow remembering what Dumbledore had said to us. Death Eaters from Voldermorts army had attack him all at once killing him. And he would be put on the memorial wall that was built for people who were killed during the war against Voldermort.

"Yeah and I'm glad about that too. I should have done it earlier." She said under her voice. I felt like throwing up.

"WHAT!" I heard Adam roar. I had never heard him get so angry in my life. I sat down all of a sudden because Adam seemed to want to take over.

"I killed him." She said simply with no remorse at all. Then she got up and Adam raised his wand ready to take action but she was too quick. She stunned him and me and we couldn't move at all. Then we saw her leave with a few bags and that was it. An hour later someone knocked on the door and then entered. My heart stopped when I saw whom it was. Sirius, James and Remus came into the living room and when they saw us they started to laugh. They undid the stunning spell and I looked down to my feet feeling angry but equally embarrassed at the same time.

"What happened?" Remus asked me sitting next to me and grabbing my hand. I shook my head I was too angry to talk and I knew that if I opened my mouth then I would start to cry. Everything seemed to real right now and I didn't understand why my life went from perfect to horrible in just one summer.

"Our dad…" Adam started but he could say it. Remus nodded, obviously they all knew about it.

"Our mom… or um, well, I guess she isn't our mom… she told us that she had been the one who killed him. She works for Voldermort." Adam said. Remus put his arm around me and I just stared. I didn't realize what I was staring at until I saw Sirius' look up. Our eyes met and I looked away.