"It's only been a day and I already miss you."

"Oh, Sirius, calm down," I laughed. It was the middle of the night, after the first day of Christmas break, and I'd taken James's mirror to talk to Sirius.

"I don't know how I'm going to cope," said Sirius, "Oh, and what about in summer? Two months! That's going to be awful!"

"We'll see each other over summer," I said firmly. "Besides, how about we think about the present for once! Summer is half a year away!"

"Oi, Remus!? What're you doing in there?"

"Shit," I muttered. "Pretend to sleep."

"Why?"

"Just trust me, please," I hissed. Sirius shrugged, turned his light off, and closed his eyes.

"Remus?" James came to where I was sitting and looked over my shoulder. "Oh my god, seriously? That's creepy. I mean, it would be if you didn't just tell him to pretend to sleep."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh, come on Moony, I think it's time for bed."

"Oh, shut up," I said, looking back at the mirror, but handing it back to James.

"Sorry for ruining your moment, but it's still noise, and my parents won't appreciate us not getting enough sleep if they find out," said James.

"It's alright," I said. "Night…"

The next day, James and I went into the muggle town near Godric's Hollow for pure entertainment purposes. Having a mum as a muggle, I knew what most things were, but James barely came here, so his reaction to everything was entertainment in itself.

"Look, that's the belly-loan, right?" said James, pointing at a payphone box.

"That's not what it's called, but yeah," I laughed. "Want to go have a look?"

James nodded enthusiastically, and we walked toward the phone. There were a bunch of muggle boys standing around it, one of them with the phone pressed against his ear.

"No, I love you more! No, baby, I love you more! Pumpkin! You know I love you!"

"Get on with it," said one of the other boys. "People are waiting!"

"It's alright," I said.

"No, can he please hurry up!" James cried, jumping around like an impatient toddler. "I want to go on the belly-loan now!"

"What did he just call it?" one of the boys asked, giving James a funny look.

"Yeah, just ignore what he calls it…" I said, just as the boy on the phone finished his call, and James immediately picked it up and pressed it to his ear, the boys all staring at us.

"You don't know how to use a phone, do you?" one of them said in disbelief. James didn't know how to use a phone at all, and I didn't properly know how to use it. I knew what it did, I just didn't know how to do it.

One of them started laughing, then grabbed out a muggle coin and placed it in the slot.

"Alright… dial the number by twisting this thing around," he said.

"I don't know the number," said James.

"What, you don't know their phone number?" said another boy.

"We're not… calling anyone in particular," I said.

"Oh. Just put in a random number then," said the boy who'd put his coin in, "I don't want my money wasted."

"Um… how do I…?"

The boy reached across, twisted the dial, and put in a random number.

James was silent for a second, pressing the phone against his ear so hard it would leave a mark. After a few seconds of silence, his face lit up suddenly and he pointed at the phone with his free hand happily.

"Hello? Hi? Oh, my name is James Potter… yeah! Um, yeah, sorry for bothering you… alright, Henry, call me back if you get the chance… er, no? Um, OK… alright, bye Henry… Henry? Henry? Henry!?"

James removed the phone from his ear, his mouth widening.

"Henry disappeared!" he cried.

Every single one of the muggle boys put their face in their hands.

"He hung up on you," said one of them. "He didn't disappear!"

"Oh, OK," said James, nodding and pretending he understood. "What are you lot doing today?"

"Nothing really, just hanging out around town," said one of the boys. "Why?"

James exchanged a look with me. I knew what he was thinking, and I nodded.

"Could you show us around? I'm a bit dumb, I don't know much about anything, so if you could show us around, that would be really cool…"

The boys all exchanged a look, then shrugged.

"Sure, why not. Come on then, we'll show you how the world works," said one of them.

"Wait. We've forgotten to introduce ourselves," said another. "I'm David."

"Scott," said another.

"Terry."

"Adam."

"Paul," said the final guy. "And you two?"

"I'm James."

"And my name's Remus," I said.

"Remus?" Adam repeated. "OK…"

Yeah, just because you're muggles and have bland names… I thought, internally rolling my eyes.

"Alright, we'll show you around town, then… you two got bikes?" asked Scott.

"Er…" James started.

"No, we don't have bikes," I said.

"Alright, let's go to my house and you two can borrow my sisters' bikes," said Scott, and James and I followed the group.

"God, we actually have to walk?" James muttered.

"This is the muggle world, I suppose…" I murmured back. "And do you not know what a bike is?"

"It's practically the muggle equivalent of a broom from what I've heard, right?" said James. "That's all I know. It's a way of transport."

"Well, it doesn't fly," I said.

"How boring," said James.

"Alright, here's a challenge," I said, "This Christmas break, you're going to become an expert on muggle culture. Sound like a plan?"

"Oh, alright," said James. "It'll be interesting, I suppose…"

Scott's house was only a five-minute walk from the telephone, and it was a very basic house compared to any wizard's house I'd been to.

"They've got to leave the bloody garage door down, don't they?" Scott muttered, trying to pull up the garage door. "God, and they've got to lock it!"

He led us all to the front door and knocked on it. "Hello? Mum!?"

"I don't think they're home," said Terry.

"They didn't say they were going anywhere today…" Scott muttered, knocking harder on the door.

"Oh, give me a second!" a voice cried. I recognised that voice from somewhere. I looked at James, and his facial expression told me he recognised it too.

A woman in her mid-twenties opened the door. I recognised her immediately and sucked in a deep breath.

"This is my sisters' babysitter," Scott said to James and me. "Morning, Bella, I'm just coming in to grab Sarah and Sophie's bikes."

Bellatrix recognised James and I. I could tell from the way she looked at us. But she stepped aside and let us all through. We went through Scott's house to the garage where Scott pointed to two small bikes.

"Should we tell them…?" I whispered to James as we grabbed the bikes.

"Not everything, obviously," he whispered, "but we need to warn them about her."

"And what about Scott's sisters? We can't leave them here with… her."

James nodded, then turned to Scott. "Hey, does she look after your sisters often?"

"Yeah, usually when my parents are working and I'm going out," said Scott, "but I dunno where my parents are now. Oh well…"

"Why don't your sisters come around town with us?" I suggested.

Scott laughed. "They're seven years old. They'll get bored."

"But you know, we'd love to get to know them as well," said James.

"They're really annoying, you don't want to meet them," said Scott. "Let's go."

"Scott," I said. "We shouldn't leave your sisters with that woman."

Scott rolled his eyes. "What's the big deal? She babysits them all the time!"

"Everything alright, boys?" came Bellatrix's voice. She was standing in the doorway between the house and the garage, raising her eyebrows.

"Yep, everything's good," said Scott, walking back down his driveway and onto the road, the other muggle guys following him.

James and I rode the bikes down the driveway. Well, I rode it down, and James put his feet on the ground and hobbled with the bike, and fell onto the road.

"Scott," said James. "Please believe us, we know Bellatrix. She's… not a good person."

"She's nice, and my sisters like her, so…" Scott continued to walk, ignoring us.

"Scott. We're not going to stop arguing with you," I said. "She is not a good person to leave two seven-year-olds alone with."

"Prove it then," said Scott, turning around and crossing his arms.

"Well, she's our friend's cousin, and when we were eleven, Remus and I snuck into our friend's house, and she was torturing him, then we helped our friend escape, and we ran away and then she threw a knife at me and I ended up in the hospital," said James. "And…"

He approached Scott and pulled the top of his coat down to reveal the scar on his shoulder from when he'd been stabbed.

"Here's your proof."

"I… OK," said Scott, hesitantly nodding. "Let's get her out of my house and away from my sisters… just in case you're telling the truth."

All seven of us walked back into the house, and Scott knocked on the door. When Bellatrix opened the door this time, she was holding a wand.

"I heard you all out there," said Bellatrix, grinning. "Did they tell you something they shouldn't have, Scott?"

"What's she going to do, hit us with that stick?" Adam snorted. "Come on, let's just go."

"Do you have your wand?" I murmured to James. He shook his head. "Shit, neither do I…"

"Oh, don't go…" said Bellatrix. "I think you should go see Scott's sisters."

"Alright, then," said Scott, walking past Bellatrix and into his house, and then we heard him let out a cry.

I went to throw a punch at Bellatrix before she could do anything else, but before I could, she gripped my arm and began twisting it. I let out a cry of pain as I heard a loud cracking noise. She'd broken my arm.

James managed to punch her hard in the head, and she let go of me, clutching her head. James and I ran past her, followed by the rest of the group, to see if Scott was OK.

But he wasn't. He really wasn't.

He was lying on the floor, covered in blood, a knife pierced through his chest, with two little girls standing over him.