AN: Well, hello, hello, hello, long time no see! I'm awfully sorry for my absence but it seems that I have rediscovered my own story, so therefore I am back! For good! This is one of the longest chapters I have ever written so I hope you enjoy it! My love always padfootqueen

"Alice!"

".. then he gave me a …"

"…new robes…"

"So, where did you go?"

"…went ice skating!"

"Michael!"

"Over here!"

"…bloody amazing!"

Joyous vibes and happy voices filled the large hall and everywhere people were embracing. Streams of students pushed, shoved, yelled and screamed their way into the Hogwarts Great Hall. With rosy cheeks and chapped lips from the cold outside, they moved towards their tables bearing grins and sparkling eyes. A certain lightness was in the air and as the students took their seats, their headmaster stood to make his usual speech.

"Welcome, welcome! It is wonderful to have all of you back here with us again. I assure you that you were all surely missed." The headmaster began smiling down at his students with a blissful expression on his face and that famous twinkle in his eye. "No rules have changed and since there are no more further announcements, tuck in!"

With that, foods of all sorts were presented to the students and staff. Conversation started up again and the students ate their delicious feast. At the Griffindor table a bunch of friends ate happily with each other and were deeply in conversation. Or at least Lily was.

"….absolutely horrible! Honestly, Petunia is the biggest cow ever! Her arse of a boyfriend is such a whale!"

"Well that was colorful…" Bethany said with an amused look. Everyone laughed and Lily faked getting angry with her friend but then gave up and just laughed.

Lily told the rest of her story of her awful vacation. Then, everyone went around in a circle telling what he or she did. Cory just said she spent all of her time avoiding Snape and Malfoy, which was partially true. She wasn't sure if she was going to tell her friends about the Vanes' deaths and she didn't know how they would react if they knew Cory had special powers, let alone if she was taking lessons from Dumbledore. Cory knew she would tell Lily but she wasn't sure about the rest of her friends. As for Sirius…. well she would have to think on that one.

Remus finished his retelling of his Christmas and then it was Sirius' turn. In all honesty, Cory and Sirius really didn't talk much about anything important the whole day they spent with each other. It seemed to them both that they didn't want to talk about their Christmas breaks just yet. So subconsciously, they avoided the subject gladly.

Sirius cleared his throat and said with a slight frown on his face, "Oh, I didn't do much. Just tried not to die of boredom, y'know it was like being in History of Magic, trying not to fall asleep or anything." This made everyone laugh, well almost everyone. One James Potter forced his laugh and looked his best friend straight in the eye.

Sirius froze. He looked in his best friends' eyes and knew he was done. He was never able to hide anything from James. At that point, Emma had taken out a gift that she had been given and everyone looked over at her and was studying it. No one noticed when James mouthed across the table, You're lying; and raised an eyebrow.

Sirius looked over at his other friends and made sure that they were all still focused on whatever Emma had received and mouthed back, Not here. And looked over at whatever Emma's gift was. The rest of the meal was spent without any real problems or serious discussions, though that might have been because half of them were extremely tired from the days events. Soon they finished and started their journey back to the common room. Or at least that's what everyone but James and Sirius were doing.

Remus turned around and saw that his friends had stopped at the bottom of a moving staircase and yelled down, "Hey, guys hurry up before the staircase moves again!"

"James, what are you doing?", Lily shouted down at them. By now, everyone in their little group had turned to look down at them and all wore puzzled expressions. After about a minute of private discussion between Sirius and James, Sirius turned and walked in the opposite direction they needed to go in.

Cory stood at the top of the stairs and looked after her boyfriend's retreating back. Where was he going?

"Sirius?" Cory yelled after him. Merlin, she was confused.

After hearing Cory's yell, Sirius turned around and faced her. "I'll be back in little while." He called to her and with that he started back down the hallway.

James came up the stairs and said, "He's just going to do something, relax."

They looked hesitant to believe it but then decided what could be going on that they wouldn't be told about? Everyone turned and started going back to the common room, except for Cory. James' explanation hadn't caused her to stop focusing on what her boyfriend was doing. Where is he going? Her mind asked after him.

Suddenly someone touched Cory's shoulder and she jumped about a mile and half off the ground. She turned, and there was Lily looking taken aback.

"Whoa, Cory are you okay? I didn't mean to scare you or anything. Sorry." Lily said quickly, looking down after she finished.

"Lil, it's fine. I was just thinking about where Sirius was going and I guess I was in deeper thought then I imagined." Cory said and laughed a little.

"Well, there's going to be a sort of a party or something in the common room to celebrate coming back to Hogwarts, you want to go?"

Cory looked around; she didn't want to go a party right now, even if all of her friends were going to be there. "Not really-"

"Thank Merlin!" Lily said and hooked her arm through Cory's and started down the stairs in typical Lily fashion. "Cory, let's go somewhere, to talk."

Cory, thoroughly surprised, nodded and continued down the hallway with her best friend.

Sirius cautiously looked around the corner of the corridor. No one was there, so he walked down and stopped in front of the door he was looking for; the door to the Room of Requirement. Walking inside, Sirius found himself in a comfortable place with a table and a few chairs in the corner. A couch and two armchairs were positioned around a fireplace and there was already a fire going. Sirius walked over, sat in one of the armchairs, and waited for James.

What would he say to his friend? He knew he should tell the truth because James would be able to tell if he lied, so why bother? Still there was that feeling deep inside that he thought he should just keep quiet.

Sirius looked up as he heard the sound of the door opening. There was James. Sirius looked back to the fire and James sat on the couch next to him. Sirius glanced at him and saw that James was staring into the fire as well. They sat for a long time in comfortable silence each waiting for the other to start.

"So should I just ask questions or are you just going to flat out tell me what really happened at your house?" James said breaking the silence and looking over at his best friend with a raised eyebrow. "You can choose."

Ripping his eyes from his friends gaze, Sirius gazed back into the fire and thought about where to begin.

"What do you want to know?" Sirius said without looking away from the fire.

Questions, okay, James could deal with that. "Did…." James took a deep breath, maybe he couldn't do questions. Merlin he hated this. It happened every year and he still couldn't mange to get use to it. They asked the same questions and said the same things every year. And every year James was forced to ask the question that he already knew the answer to but asked anyway. Sighing he then continued, "…they hit you?"

Silence ensued. Then, Sirius started laughing. This never happened. This was out of the script. James looked away from the fire and to his best friend instead. James looked at him and was, for the second time in his whole life, actually scared of his best friend. Sirius never laughed like this. Sirius' laugh was always cheerful and full of more life then anything else. However, this laugh wasn't. It was bitter, hollow, and so empty that it was frightening.

His voice was the same as his laugh when he spoke, "I thought that was a given by now." He looked in his friend's eyes and they stared at each other until Sirius continued, "I hate them. Why? Honestly, James, I want an answer, why is my family so bloody fucked up? What the hell did I do in my past life to deserve this! What!" By this time, he was standing and yelling.

"I don't know, Padfoot." Was all James could get in before Sirius started up again in his rant. What was James suppose to say? This didn't come in some handout or book called What to do when your best friend loses it over his family. There wasn't a course you could take to learn about dealing with your pained best friend. James was on his own, damn where was Remus when you needed him; Remus always knew what to do! Though, there was a reason James and Sirius were best friends. So, James faced his best friend and listened to everything he had to say, hoping that he was doing everything he should be.

James' job was made very easy; this time there wasn't any hesitation or need for James to ask questions, it just all came flowing out of Sirius' mouth. Everything that occurred in their time apart. Every painful word. Every punch and hit. Every night of anxiety. Everyday when Sirius couldn't bring himself to eat. Everything, Sirius couldn't bring himself to hold back anything. So, for the next two hours, James sat silently listening to his best friend's retelling of his horrible Christmas wishing he could have done something to prevent it.

Two girls climbed to an abandoned hallway on the sixth floor and stopped to have a look around. Quickly and as quietly as they could, they turned and entered the nearest classroom. Once inside Cory and Lily faced each other.

"Why do I feel like a fugitive or something?" Cory asked and was about to laugh when she remembered her latest dream. An odd internal shiver ran inside her and she did her best for it not to be seen by Lily. Cory must have done a great job because Lily just kept up their conversation.

"Please you're with a prefect, you're untouchable." Lily said putting on a mock arrogant voice. Grateful for her friend not noticing, Cory decided to try to forget what she so desperately wanted to erase from her thoughts; the dementors, those cold iron gates, tortured pained faces and the image of an older Sirius being dragged inside.

"Oh well, when you put it like that…." Cory said laughing and semi-forgetting her previous thoughts.

Slowly their laughter died and they sat down in chairs that were carelessly left about the classroom. The classroom obviously hadn't been used in a while. There was dust covering almost every surface and the blackboard was void of any writing, diagram or anything that could have told them what this classroom was used for. Light in the room was dim but not too scarce for it to have the feel that something was going to pop out at you. There was also a certain odd comfort that the two best friends felt in the room. It wasn't a very nice room, but it had a feel to it that made them both feel safe. After a few moments of companionable silence, in which both girls took in their surroundings, Cory voiced a question.

"Lily, not to be mean or anything…. but…. ahh… why are we here? Is there something you want us to discuss or are we just discovering abandoned classrooms now for kicks?"

Lily laughed at her best friend. Cory could always make anything seem funny. She was always a good person too have around when things seemed to be getting to serious. However, the truth was, Lily had a feeling that Cory didn't share all that happened over her break with her. Cory over the years had developed a bad habit of not telling the whole story about something. That was something not so good about Cory. If she didn't want you to know something then you weren't going to find it out. Secret keeping was a tendency that Cory had acquired a long time ago. Whether it was just a defense mechanism or something more, Lily wasn't sure, but nevertheless, she was curious about her friend's real holiday break.

"Cory, at dinner, did you tell us about your whole break or just parts of it?"

Cory, who had had a small smile playing on her lips, froze. Then it happened. Something Lily could see shifted in her best friend's eyes. It felt like Cory had put up a shield.

When Cory spoke, her voice had a shield up too. "What do you mean? I meant what I said before; I mostly just tried to stay as far away from Snape and Malfoy as possible. Otherwise, it was just a whole lot of random wanderings around the castle and trips to Hogsmeade by myself."

Cordelia wasn't exactly sure why she was lying to her best friend about something that she could easily enough trust Lily with. Though in the past two weeks and especially since last night's dream, she had been on the edge about many things. The whole break she couldn't help but sink back into her old ways of keeping to herself. Even when she saw Sirius that morning in the Room of Requirement, she was obviously surprised, but she also felt un-nerved by seeing him before everyone else was due to arrive. Cordelia hoped Lily would drop it but judging by the look that Lily was giving her, she knew that Lily wanted the whole story.

After five minutes of last desperations to avoid the conversation of her true 'vacation', Cory caved and decided to just tell Lily. The truth was, Lily was after all the one person Cory could forever depend on. Why should she bother? So, pushing her thoughts of uneasiness out of her mind, she began her story.

"Well, I guess it started the day you guys left, Christmas Eve. I went to dinner and there were only about seven students that actually stayed behind over holidays. All the way to the Great Hall, I kept getting this feeling in my stomach. This sort of signal, maybe, I don't know, but whatever it was I kept thinking that something was wrong. Only, I didn't know what so I convinced myself to try to forget whatever it was. But I couldn't. So, when I finally arrived at the Great Hall, I went over to the table that was set up for everyone who had stayed behind. Only when I got there, there was only one seat left and guess who it was in-between?"

Lily was listening to every word her friend had said and replied, "Knowing your luck, Malfoy and….Snape?"

"Correct." This earned a gagging noise from Lily and then Cory continued her story. "Yea, gag is right and I was supposed to eat in-between them! Well, somehow I did and then quickly left. But once I was outside the Great Hall Malfoy was right there, waiting for me. I'm thinking, 'oh shit how am I going to get away from this guy?' when all of sudden Dumbledore was behind me and asked me to come to his office. He started asking me questions about my life back home in New York and if I was in foster care. When I said yes, he got this really sad look on his face."

She stopped. She had to take a deep breath before continuing. It still shook her that the Vanes were really dead.

Cory's abrupt stop surprised Lily. Lily leaned forward to her friend, placed a hand on her shoulder, and said, "Cor, are you okay? If you want to stop it's okay, we can, I completely understand."

Cordelia shook her head. "No, its fine…just kind of hard to believe. You remember the Vanes right?"

Lily nodded, "They're your last foster parents right? The ones who were the worst?"

"Exactly, that's them. Well, Dumbledore told me that the day before that they were attacked and well, they're dead." Lily gasped. Cory nodded and continued, "I know, it's crazy, right? Well that's what I thought, and then he didn't stop, I didn't even get a real chance to think about it, because then he told me who did it. Lily, it was Voldemort. He's going to come after me we think. I mean he always said he would, but I never thought he really would. No one has even heard from him in like forever and now he's back and he killed my old foster parents.

"Dumbledore continued and said that because of this, I should build up my powers as a unique. Then, this guy came in. It was a guy that had been at dinner but wasn't introduced to us. Dumbledore told me his name was Alastor Moody and was his very close friend who was visiting him for the holidays. I left because they were going to have a meeting and when I went outside, there was Malfoy. Again. He started walking with me as I was going back to the common room and he just kept talking about how I was a pureblood and should be more in touch with how much of a gift it really was. When we reached the main staircase Snape was there, apparently they had to go somewhere. You know me, normally I would just forget about my whole conversation with him, but for some reason, the things he was saying and how he had attacked me, just caused me to take in everything he was saying. But what really got me was the last thing he said. He said something like that every pureblooded witch or wizard eventually turns evil or black."

Cory stopped to let all she said sink in for her best friend. Cory had to ask Lily the question that had been in her head the whole holiday, "Lily, you don't think he meant Sirius do you? When he said 'black'? I mean…."

By that point Lily had decided to answer, "I'm not sure Cordelia. I mean, I don't know really how to say this but, you know Sirius is pure blooded, right?" Cory shook her head yes. "Do you know about his family at all?"

"No, we really haven't talked about stuff like that yet. He doesn't know about my parents yet either."

"Cor, I wouldn't be so sure."

"What!"

"I'm not saying that he knows, but he might. Cory, his parents…well, their not exactly good people. Or, for that matter, good witches and wizards. I learned this from Alex, you know from Quidditch, and he's a pureblood too. He told that Sirius' parents were privately in the inner circle for You-Know Who. He told me this a while a ago, in like third year I think, and I wasn't going to tell you, but well, if Sirius' parents were that close to You-Know-Who, then maybe…."

"They might have been there that night." Cory finished for her best friend and sat in shock. This couldn't be true. It just couldn't. Granted, yes, fate could be cruel, but come on, enough! "No, Lily, that can't be true. I mean look at Sirius, he's one of the most anti-purest people I know. I-"

Lily interrupted her. "But don't you remember that day we ran into Snape that day when we were leaving Defense and he said that Sirius was a blood traitor? Yea, well it makes sense. His family is obsessed with the dark arts and he isn't. It fits. I'm not saying Sirius is a dark wizard, he's my friend. Now as hard as it is even for me to believe, I wouldn't say that about him. But just because he isn't dark doesn't mean that his family isn't. I think that they very well could have been there that night Cory."

Cory's head swam. Could what Lily was saying really be true? Could Sirius' parents be that evil? Could they have killed her parents? It was all too much.

Lily noticed Cory's expression and said, "Look, why don't we just think about this later. What else happened over the holiday?"

Cory was a bit hesitant to continue, but then decided she would just think about Sirius' parents later. "Well…. the next day was Christmas and Dumbledore sent me a message asking to meet with me again. Only in this meeting, we actually did things with my magic. He gave me all sorts of spells to do and I did them all easily. He said he was surprised and then the same guy, Moody, came in. I left and then came to realize that I left my sweatshirt in Dumbledore's office. When I went back I heard him and Moody talking about my parents! They said how much I look like my father and how it freaked them out. Also they said that they were scared I remembered too much about the night my parents died. Do you think they knew my parents Lil? I really think they did."

"I think they did too. But why wouldn't they just tell you?"

"I'm not sure but it just confused me so much that I left. I had lessons with Dumbledore every other night for the rest of the break but I just couldn't bring myself to say anything about it to him. At our last lesson, I learned how to produce a patronus. When I was done, I asked where I would ever meet up with a dementor because that's what the charm repels. Dumbledore then told me about the British wizard prison, Azkaban. Lily, I couldn't stop thinking about Azkaban for the whole day."

"I know, dreadful place, right? We learned about it last year." Lily said and waited for Cory to continue.

"Well…that night, I had this dream, but only it felt so real. Lily, I dreamt that I was at Azkaban. I wasn't a prisoner; I was just kind of standing there outside of it. There were thousands of dementors and I could see the people inside the prison looking out at me." Cory stopped, she knew she had to say the next part of her dream, but she was scared to. If she said it aloud then it would really feel like it happened. But, she drew up her courage and continued. "Lily, when I turned around, I saw- well- I- I saw Sirius being taken in there. He was being dragged inside."

Finally, she had said it and Lily looked at her, her eyes the size of galleons and her mouth hanging open.

"He was being taken in?" Lily asked, her voice soft and filled with curiosity.

"Yes, only he was older, maybe twenty…I'm not sure. But he was there and he was fighting to get away from the dementors but they were stronger. Then I woke up."

"Cory…. wow you had quite a break…. are you sure you're okay?"

"I don't know, I mean I've time to think over everything, but I just can't get this idea of my world changing so quickly out of my head and I can't do anything about it. It's like I just let go of my life and all sorts of people have grabbed on."

Lily hugged her best friend tightly and suddenly Cory started to cry. Lily held her tighter and tried to tell her that everything was going to be okay. They sat like that for a long time before realizing that they had been there for over two hours. Silently they left and started back towards the common room. Lily still had her arm around Cory's shoulders and Cory still had her arm around Lily's waist and her head on her shoulder. They talked quietly about little bits of nothing and both finally felt better just being together again.

Sirius and James sat in the Room of Requirement in silence. Sirius had just finished his story and James had his head in his hands with his elbows on his knees. Sirius just sat across from him in the other armchair looking up at the ceiling.

"My Dad could do something. He's an Auror, he could-" James started but Sirius cut him off.

"It wouldn't do any use James. My parents would lie and get their friends in the courts to get them out of it. I mean honestly, my Dad and Malfoy's Dad have been best friends since birth and he's got the minister wrapped around his finger. My case wouldn't even make trial."

As much as James hated to admit it, Sirius was right, there wasn't anything they could do. Sirius was stuck. After about twenty more minutes of light conversation that James made to make Sirius' thoughts stray from his family, they decided to head back to the common room.

As they walked out, they noticed two people they both recognized walking close to each other just a few feet ahead of them. Sirius and James looked after them and looked back at each other puzzled to why their girlfriends were walking on the sixth floor at eleven o'clock at night.

Raising eyebrows at each other, James started to walk down the hallway and said, "Lily?"

Sirius followed him and said, "Cordeila?"

The two girls froze and turned around to face the familiar voices. They looked at each other and then let go when their boyfriends came closer.

James and Lily embraced. They were both very shaken by what their best friends had just told them and seemed to need each other.

Sirius walked up to Cory and the first thing he noticed was that Cory's eyes were red. Cory all of sudden felt very unsure of her surroundings. She felt like hiding out somewhere for some reason. It seemed like with everything that had happened and with her telling it to Lily, it felt like it all just happened at once. Sirius noticed how Cory's whole body was stiff and tense and her body language was screaming a sort of fear at him.

He slowly walked up to her and said again gently, "Cordelia?"

Cory looked up at the sound of her name. She looked at Sirius and couldn't help but think of the dream she had. She openly shivered.

"Cordelia? What's wrong?" Sirius said with a tint of panic in his voice. He placed a hand on her shoulder and brought her chin up to make eye contact with him.

Cory leaned forward and rested her forehead on Sirius' chest. Immediately she felt two strong arms wrap themselves around her waist.

Cory looked up and said quietly, "Let's go back, please, Sirius."

He nodded and looked over at Lily and James who were looking at Cory, very worried. Sirius gestured with his head for them to start walking and they proceeded to walk to their common room.

As they walked, Lily and James walked behind Sirius and Cory realizing that they needed to have their own private conversation.

After a couple of minutes and Cory still hadn't said anything, Sirius spoke unnerved by her silence, "Cory?"

Softly Cory answered, "Yes, Sirius?"

"Do you need anything? Can I do anything?"

Cory was quiet for another two or three hallways before answering, "Just when we get back to the common room, just stay with me for a little while, please?"

"Of course."

In all honesty, Cory just didn't feel like being alone and Sirius didn't feel very comfortable leaving her by herself. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, because obviously he did. It was just that Cory all of a sudden seemed so unstable and he didn't feel right leaving her.

They were both so caught in thought that they didn't realize when they turned the corner they crashed into two other people. Headmaster Dumbledore and Moody were standing there and surprised Sirius and Cory so much that Sirius lost his grip on Cory and she went straight into them. She hit them and then fell backwards. Before anyone could stop her, she smashed right into the wall next to her.

Cory slipped into unconsciousness and all of sudden was watching her young self crying on her father's lifeless body. She herself started to cry in this dream state and then noticed people coming inside. A man walked right through her and over to the six year old version of herself. He picked her up and held her close to his chest. He had his back to her and another man walked up to the man with young Cory in his arms and motioned them to leave together. As they turned, Cory finally saw their faces. The faces that she had never seen and dreamed of seeing for so long.

She felt herself being pulled up and suddenly she was lying on the floor with Dumbledore above her saying, "Cordelia? Cordelia can you hear me?"

She looked to her right in a state of shock. There was Alastor Moody.

Cory took a tight, shuddering breath and looked at both of them, then spoke, "It was you?"

Then all she saw was black.