Disclaimer:  I do not own Harry Potter, etc., etc.  I own my stuff, JK owns hers. 

Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

BURN THE RUM:  Yes, I read her story, and it was sweet!  She's the one who Will is obsessed with, right?  Besides Lizzie McGuire, that is :).  And, I think I told you in a review, but just in case, the academy awards are on abc on the 29th of February.  I've been getting a fan support group for Johnny (all of my friends are pretty much backing him up – along with about 100,000,000 other people!).  And POTC is nominated for FIVE academy awards (LOTR is also nominated for best picture – fingers crossed!).  Yep, definitely watching them.  Everything about Mel will be explained later.  Vanessa will also have some stuff to tell.  There are going to be a few different stories going on in this fic (one of them circling around Remus), so keep on a look out for how they come together!

Writingangel203:  Oh, Neli, just come out and say it.  YOU PRACTICALLY ARE BRITISH!!!  Thanks for leavin' the love in the review.  Tell Liz I said hi.  Hey, you know what happens!  So why are you reading this?  Hehehehehehe

Siriusforeva:  Hmmm…interesting topic, I knew that was going to come up.  Well, a lot of stuff is going to happen between Harry and Vanessa.  Will it be what you hope for?  Keep reading and find out!

Mel walked through the darkened clouds.  They were a pure black, as if someone had poured ink at its core, and let the flowing blackness spread.  She looked up at the sky.  It was a deep purple with a hint of pale pink (much like a sky after snow has fallen).  Mel stared at the bright stars.  Her eyes fixed upon the brightest one.

"Sirius…" she whispered.

There was a noise.  A small pop, if you will.  She stared across the clouds to see a dark figure standing perfectly still.  Melissa wasn't able to see his face, for he was too far away.  Then, a sudden feeling swept over her.  A feeling of yearning, desperate want…desire.  Her heart pounded loudly in her chest, and beads of sweat began to form along her hairline.  This feeling hadn't been with her for so long.

She took a step closer, but as soon as her foot touched the surface, the figure ran off.  She tried to run after him, but she accidentally stepped through what seemed to be a hole.  She fell fast towards the lights of the city under her, but she didn't scream…

Mel woke up, tearstains on her cheeks.  She sat upright quickly, and looked around the room, as if searching for the dark figure.  Finally, her eyes rested upon her wedding goblet, half full of wine.

"Oh, I should know better than to drink before sleeping."

She slowly lay back down, pondering her strange dream.  Who was the figure?  She already thought she knew the answer to that question…  What kind of dream was that?  It felt so…real.  In fact, she was shaking from the aftermath of her desiring feelings.  Oh, she just wanted to get back to sleep…

Knock.  Knock.

"Mum!  Mum, are you alright?"

"Yes, Vanessa, I'm ok.  Come in."

The door opened, and in stepped a beautiful 16-year-old girl, almost the spitting image of Sirius, except for a lot of womanly features.  Her long, dark hair was pulled back into a low ponytail.

"What made you think I was in trouble?" asked Melissa.

"Well, I heard you crying.  I thought, maybe you were having another bad dream…you know…about Dad."

"N-no, it's ok," she said quickly.  "That's funny.  I never cried in my dream…"

"Anyway," continued Vanessa, "I just wanted to check on you, because you seem, well, depressed lately."

"Trust me, honey, I'm fine.  It's just stress, that's all."

"Ok," Vanessa said as she left, still not quite believing her mother.

"Well," said Melissa, as she turned over to go back to sleep, "it's going to be a crazy year."  She fell asleep, almost wishing for her dream to come back.

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"All aboard the Hogwarts Express!  The train leaves in exactly 5 minutes!"  The man controlling "traffic" blew his whistle to give a warning to those not yet boarded.

"Hurry up, Mum, we're going to miss the train," squealed an excited Vanessa.  She was carrying about five bags in her arms, and pushing a trollie full of them at the same time.  Despite this physically impossible task, she was able to run as fast as her legs could carry her.  Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Melissa.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm carrying about two thousand more bags than you are, and you've got the only trollie."  You see, Melissa and Vanessa had made, in very bad judgment, the decision that they only needed one cart.  In hindsight, Mel knew it wasn't one of her smartest moves.

As they staggered along as best they could, a boy of about 16 years old called out to them.

"Oy!  Those are the Blacks!  I saw them in the newspaper."

Ever since the funeral, word had gotten out that Mel was still alive, and had a 16-year-old daughter.  Even the Daily Prophet had managed to make it to America before they moved to sneak a snapshot of them.  Dumbledore had sent them a copy of the article.  Anyway, Mel and Vanessa chose to ignore the boy and keep walking.  But the lad wouldn't give up so easily.

"In my opinion," he said loud enough to make sure Mel and Vanessa could hear, "it wasn't one of Fudge's smartest moves to clear Black's name.  The man was a bloody liar and a traitor.  I don't care what stupid Harry Potter or Dumbledore says.  I don't believe a single word of it."

Vanessa stopped dead in her tracks.  "What did you say?"

"Oh, you're going to get mad at me now?  What're you going to do, kick me?  Or are you going to be like your Dad and run to You-Know-Who to plot my downfall?"

Ness dropped all her baggage and walked right up to the boy.  He was displaying a sinister smirk.

"If you're so tough, why don't you say Voldemort's name to my face?"

"Oh, I thought the offspring of his followers weren't allowed to use his name.  Then again, neither were his actual followers."

"You son of a – "

"Now, now is that any way for a lady to talk?"

By this time, Vanessa was enraged, her hands clenched into fists.  "Why don't you tell me?"

"Oh, is the little girl mad?"  He stepped closer.  "Go on, hit me."

As her hand reeled back, Melissa screamed, "Vanessa, NO!"  But it was too late.  Vanessa's rock hard fist collided with the boy's jaw, and he fell down.  She got on her knees and punched him repeatedly in the stomach.

Two strong wizards had to come and pull her off, and as they dragged her towards the train, she yelled, "IF I EVER HEAR YOU SAY ANYTHING ABOUT MY FATHER AGAIN, I'LL…"

But the men threw her into the train car before she could finish.  Melissa joined her after a few minutes.  Soon, the train began pulling away from the station.

Vanessa didn't look up.  She hung her head low, almost ashamed.  She'd promised herself that things like this would never happen again, but then this happened.  Would she ever redeem herself from her old ways?

"I'm sorry, Mum," she said, her voice quiet.  "You made sure we would be able to get to Hogwarts and live a safer life.  And then I had to go and blunder it all up."

"That is true, Ness, I did make sure we would get to Hogwarts to rid ourselves of all this.  I'm not saying what you did was right…"

A tear trickled down Vanessa's cheek.

"…But he deserved it."

She looked up.  Was this really her mother speaking?

"However – "

Oh well, so much for that.

"This is our last chance.  Dumbledore was gracious enough to let us live at Hogwarts.  And after all he's done for us, we can't repay him like this.  We just can't.  You understand, right?"

"Yes," she said in a near whisper.  He thoughts hadn't been entirely with her mother.  There was just something that the boy had said that she couldn't get out of her mind.

"Or are you…going to run to You-Know-Who and plot my down fall?"

More tears trickled down, and soon she fell asleep.

-----------------------

By the time they reached Hogwarts, news had already buzzed around about Vanessa's little incident with the boy.  She'd already grown quite the reputation with the kids, seeing as how she was so new, and on her first day she beat the crap out of one of the vainest students.  The boy's friends got quite the kick out of it, actually.

Anyway, when they arrived there, Vanessa was led to Dumbledore's office, where she was to be sorted.  She sat on a hard stool, the raggedy old hat sat upon her head.

"Aha, a Black.  I haven't seen one of you in a while.  I see tragedy caused that…  Ah, you are very courageous, which can be rare nowadays.  You've got a very outgoing personality."  The hat paused.  "Yet, your scars run deep."

Vanessa's eyes fell to her left hand.  There was a faint, but visible mark across her palm.  It was a long line, going diagonal.

"Not just those, dear child.  You've got scars and battle wounds inside of you…  One's that'll never fully heal.  But you've kept a brave face, and you remain tough.  You've managed to keep a smile despite all your setbacks.  For this, you deserve no less than GRYFFINDOR!"

Vanessa pulled the hat off her head and quickly wiped a few tears off her cheek before Dumbledore could see.

"Well, Miss Black, you should head up to your room.  I've already summoned someone to help you find your way.  You will see him as you step out."  Dumbledore motioned towards the door.

Vanessa felt an odd sensation creep through her when the Professor looked directly in her eyes.  She felt as though he bore into her thoughts.  Despite his cheery tone, there was no smile upon his face.  His mind must've been elsewhere…

She stepped out of the office to find a seventh year, his head hung, almost in shame.

"Er, we'll show you the, er, way to Gryffindor T-tower," said the boy.

"I know who you are," Vanessa whispered slowly.

The boy lifted up his jet-black head of hair, and stared at her with his startling green eyes.  "I know."

God, what was Dumbledore thinking, making him do this?  She would hate him…  This was just too much to bear.  He was tired of being burdened.

Harry led Vanessa down the long corridors, and finally to the portrait of the fat lady.

"Password?" she said with a yawn.  The two had obviously disturbed her nap.

"Oh, er, Marauders," mumbled Harry.

Vanessa flinched upon hearing the term "marauders".  They entered the common room.

"If you go up those stairs, a girl named Hermione will help you get settled."  Harry had wanted to ask her something, but he was too preoccupied to question her, until now.  "Why did you hurt Adam?"

"Adam?" she asked with a puzzled expression.  "Who's Adam?"

"Adam Galway.  He's a Gryffindor from Ireland.  You beat the crap out of him at King's Cross."

"Him?  How the hell did he become a Gryffindor?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, Adam's got to be the rudest, most disrespectful person I've ever had to absolute displeasure of meeting," she said with a scowl.

"Are you kidding?  There's nothing wrong with Adam!  From what he says, you insulted him, and when he fired back, you just punched the living daylights out of him."

"I thought that – he – you would have done exactly the same thing!"

"I don't think so.  I've gone through way too much to do something like that on the first day of school.  That's just dumb."

"Oh, you've gone through too much, have you?" Vanessa said in a sort of hurt voice, yet still very sly.  "Don't think for one second that you are the only burdened person at this school, Harry Potter."  She turned to step out of the common room without even going to her room, but before she left, she yelled back to Harry, "Let's see if you can contain yourself next time someone insults your father!"  And with that, she was gone.

"What?!"  There was no way the Adam he knew would say anything about Sirius.  Oh God, what was happening?

------------------------

"Hey, ADAM!"

A boy with neat brown hair and nice hazel eyes turned around.  Not bad looking, thought Vanessa.  Too bad he's a jerk.

"Yes?" he said.

"Who the bloody hell do you think you are?  Why are you telling people that I just attacked you for no reason?" cried Vanessa.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" he asked, a clueless look on his face.

"What are you – YOU INSULTED MY DEAD FATHER!"

"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get to class."  And he turned on his heel and walked off.

"YOU BLOODY JERK!" Vanessa screamed, hot tears of rage on her face.  She stormed off, hands clenched into fists.

----------------------

Vanessa had been at Hogwarts for a few weeks, and she had let her happier personality slip out more and more.  Harry was beginning to find her a bit intriguing.  She seemed to be this fiery girl with just a love for life.  Most times, she was clever to a fault.  Her wits could beat that of a seventh year!  But she had this deep, dark side that only Harry and Adam had ever seen (except, of course, for Melissa).  And Harry was burning to find that secret out.  It might help him to understand more about Sirius's death.

He grabbed his wand and headed for the common room.  He raced down the stairs, not knowing exactly what he was going to do.  But as he saw her sitting on the couch reading over her homework, he figured it all out.

"Harry, what are you-"

But before she could finish, Harry pointed his wand at her and muttered the spell.  The nest thing her knew, he was racing through the memories of Vanessa Black. 

A/N:  You're probably thinking that's an odd place to stop, right?  Well, it'll be easier with the next chapter.  Anyway, I'm sorry about the late update, but my schedule is PACKED.  I've got tests, Dessert Theater, more school, and a bunch of other stuff.  Sorry, it might take a little bit for the next update, but I'll try my absolute best!!