Hello everyone!

It feels like it's been ages... but actually only 1 1/2 weeks.

meowzac, lizy2000, Cae-Leigh Anne, creelluka, Blue Luver5000, MyNightWish, katraj0908, BlueOcean24124437, Guest, TenCents the Bir and CatNerd for reviewing! It means a lot, so yeah, thanks a lot!

TenCents the Bir: I realise most of this is rhetorical, but yes, it's as canon compliant as it can be! (i.e. I wanted to make it possible it happened and Harry never found out).

Guest: HAha, I love your concern for Rabastan. Seems like he's growing on a lot of people. As for Voldy, well he had to find a way to get all of the intelligent DEs in the first place! I get the feeling that he was more cunning before HP. Good point... I can't remember if Emma did try to kill him or not, but he might have seen it that way!

Also, thanks Tigersflames for adding me to your community!

Monday came around faster than Emma had expected. She and Rabastan had spent the weekend following Sirius under the Invisibility Cloak, but to no avail. The older Black brother certainly led a very boring life. That weekend, he had been to the kitchens, to the Gryffindor Tower, and back. And this was supposed to be the party boy of Hogwarts.

Rabastan theorised that the Order of the Phoenix only recruited Gryffindors, since they had the least amount of links to families in the Death Eaters. Emma wasn't too sure. Hufflepuffs were the ones reputed for never turning to Dark magic, not the lions. The idea had merit though, since Dumbledore gave obvious preferential treatment to the red and gold house.

Emma got up early that morning to study the lists without Alecto talking over her thoughts. Though Alecto wasn't deranged to the point of endangering their project, she was inclined to find reasons to hex the Gryffindors. Ordinarily, Emma wouldn't have minded – there was little love lost between the two houses. However, for their plan to work, they had to appear as neutral, so that they would be able to find out information. Going around saying that Mudbloods were dirt wouldn't exactly make the students inclined to talk about Dumbledore's rebellion.

She was certain that Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon were a part of this Order thing. Knowing her brother's tendency to try to save the world, she could safely bet that he was a part of it too. She shouldn't have been surprised, what with their father's indoctrination. Her brother simply didn't know better.

Mary MacDonald had held a grudge against all Slytherins ever since the incident with Avery. Emma couldn't care less about the talentless Mudblood. If she tried anything against one of the Death Eaters, she would be crushed like a worm under Bellatrix's boot.

One worrying person on this list was Benjy Fenwick, from Ravenclaw. Not only was he from a more neutral house than the rest of the candidates, but he would also mouth off to anyone who would listen about the Dark Lord and his Dark ways. He claimed that the Dementors and Inferi would follow the Dark Lord to the end of the world. Ordinarily, Emma would have ignored the self-professed "seer", but there had been hints that the Dark Lord was preparing to use Inferi if necessary.

Emma understood the mindset behind this tactic. Why use live people and risk killing them, if those who had died for the cause could further the agenda? Theoretically speaking, it was less dangerous, more economical and if they were captured for questioning, they wouldn't be able to give anything away. Unfortunately, a lot of wizards just remembered the legends of zombies in South America, who had rebelled against their masters and slaughtered nearly the entire wizarding population.

That wouldn't happen here.

Maybe Fenwick can be discredited somehow, she wondered. He was fairly clever, good grades, respected by the student body enough to become the sixth year Ravenclaw Prefect.

'Did you even go to sleep?'

Lucinda had appeared on the bottom of Emma's bed in her pyjamas, yawning. With a jolt, Emma realised that it was already eight o'clock. The blonde plucked the piece of parchment out of Emma's fingers before she could react.

'I thought Rabastan had told you to leave this alone this weekend,' Lucinda said reprovingly.

Though she never asked about Death Eater business, she always ended up knowing everything anyway. Her inquisitive nature and organisation skills always made her helpful in the end, though Emma found herself wishing more and more often that Lucinda wouldn't intervene. The blonde was still on the fringe of the war, not untouched, but still innocent, awakening a protective instinct within the raven-haired girl that she hadn't known she had.

Emma wasn't the only one – she had noticed Rabastan escorting Lucinda discreetly through the corridors. There was no knowing who would take the opportunity to jinx her, and although Lucinda wasn't powerless by any means, she hadn't received the combat training the rest of them had.

'Why have you circled Fenwick?' Lucinda asked, true to her character.

Emma sighed. There was no use in trying to dissuade her.

'I'm worried he'll make people fear the Death Eaters.'

Lucinda raised an eyebrow. Emma hastily corrected her sentence.

'More than they already do, anyway. We have to think of what will happen after the war, after all. He's going around saying that we'll all be turned into Inferi, that Hogwarts will be turned into an Anti-Muggleborn school.'

'Mudblood,' Alecto said automatically, coming out of the shower.

Emma hadn't even noticed the redhead get up. She cast an eye around the room – Helen had already left. Sophie was still sleeping, so Emma motioned Alecto to come nearer. They had dragged Lucinda into this, no need for Sophie to get involved.

'Fenwick's going to be a problem,' she explained again, though she would have preferred to handle this more quietly than Alecto's methods.

'Memory Charm,' Alecto said immediately.

It was what they had used on anyone who looked as though they suspected about their identities. With Bones openly checking the students now, they needed to protect themselves more than ever. Emma shuddered at the idea of Azkaban, still under the control of the Ministry.

'It's not going to be that easy this time,' she shook her head. 'See what Regulus has written here? Fenwick's taking the History of Magic N.E.W.T. and they have to choose a topic on which to do a dissertation. Apparently, Fenwick's chosen to compare the rise of different Dark Lords and their aftermath. He must have stacks of notes on the issue.'

Alecto frowned, biting the inside of her cheek in thought. Emma racked her brain in vain; there was nothing they could do which could fly under the radar, unless they ignored him.

'Easy,' Lucinda said, surprising the two Death Eaters. When they looked at her quizzically, she sighed and elaborated. 'We get him a girlfriend.'

Feeling rather pleased with the results of the morning, Emma walked into Potions with a self-satisfied smirk on her face. All she had to do was get a Love Potion to Lucinda, and the latter would do the rest. Well, first she needed to actually find a Love Potion.

Merlin didn't answer her prayer, but Slughorn did. By now, most of the class had finished their final Elixirs to Induce Euphoria and were just practicing for the N.E.W.T practical.

'Students,' Slughorn's voice boomed with his usual good humour. 'As I've decided to host another Slug Club party, to which you are all, of course, invited, I thought I'd shake it up a bit by playing a well-known wizarding guessing game. I am certain that you will all succeed your N.E.W.T exams, so for this Christmas, I will host the coming-of-age Potions game!'

He waited for them to applaud. A couple of half-hearted claps were her. Slughorn wasn't deterred.

'I'd like each pair to brew a harmless, but potent brew for the party. The effects must not last for over twelve hours and the potion must be found in your copy of Advanced Potion-Making. You have two weeks, and this will count as a bonus mark towards your mock N.E.W.T.s. Questions? No? Begin!'

A flurry of pages and mutterings spread through the class, students pairing up with those that were the best at the solution they wished to make. Severus was already heating the cauldron, whilst Lily was halfway to the ingredients cupboard. Before Rabastan could even open his mouth, Emma ordered him to wait at their table, seizing her opportunity.

'Lily?' she asked, loudly enough to be heard, but not enough for her voice to carry.

'Mmhmm?' Lily hummed, collecting various ingredients into a basket.

It was a much more efficient way than Emma stuffing them into her robes.

'Do you have a minute?'

Something about the way Emma phrased the question made Lily pause, setting down her basket. The Slytherin had practiced this moment all weekend.

'I suppose I can spare a moment,' the Gryffindor wiped some silvery powder off her robes. 'What is it, Emma?'

'I was wondering...' Emma searched for the phrase that would allow her to slip under Lily's guard. If only she knew Legilimency... She decided to go for the approach that had failed with Lupin. 'Have... have you ever felt that you never fit in with your family?'

She knew that it was a gamble, jumping right in, but they had precious few minutes and she couldn't risk James being there when she talked to Lily. The Gryffindor girl seemed to never be alone.

'Emma,' Lily looked torn between her potion and her compassion. In the end, her heart won. 'Why... has James done something?'

'Not exactly,' Emma replied, inwardly rejoicing at the first victory. 'I was just wondering at the differences between me and the rest of my family. If I didn't physically resemble my brother, I would have thought I was adopted.'

'And you're telling me this because...' Lily's brow was furrowed in incomprehension.

Emma delivered the coup de grace.

'Well, James told me that the rest of your family are Muggles. Not only your parents, but your sister too. Usually Muggleborns run in the family, so I just assumed...'

'You assumed wrong!' Lily's voice was suddenly constricted, tears springing to her eyes. 'Sorry Emma, but I'm the wrong person to talk to about this.'

Though she had only succeeded in upsetting her brother's girlfriend, Emma allowed her mind to rest. No one would have had such a strong reaction if they weren't being defensive. It was silly of her to have doubted the Dark Lord in the first place.

Thirty minutes later, Emma and Rabastan were hard at work at their Amortentia. They had to finish the first part that day, as it took nine days to brew properly. If they took some of the potion on the final day, Slughorn would be checking for suspicious activity. Instead, they needed to pretend it was at an earlier stage than usual, aided by a camouflaging spell. Lucinda had instructed them to wait for at least a month before giving it to Fenwick, as it would become more potent over time.

Lucinda herself was working through a list of possible candidates. Administered to fall in love with anyone was easy. Making him feel like he had fallen in love of his own will necessitated a plausible girl. The trickiest bit of the equation was that Emma and Rabastan had to make sure they didn't touch the potion.

Emma had tied her hair up with one of Lucinda's hair bobbles, a pink, diamond-encrusted thing that clashed greatly with her inky black hair. Rabastan had to duck away from the potion with laughter before they had even added the peppermint.

'You idiot,' she giggled, a symptom of Rabastan's infectious laughter. 'This is serious business we're doing!'

'You're right,' Rabastan tried to control himself, before bursting out in another peel of laughter. 'Honestly, the look suits you. You should lighten up a little more. I wouldn't advise wearing it on the Quidditch Pitch though, you'd lose all credibility.'

'Shut up, before I stuff it down your mouth,' Emma joked. 'I'll even coat it in the potion; see how you like falling over yourself in order to please Lucinda.'

Rabastan laughed again, though this time it had a forced quality to it. 'Huh, yeah. Imagine that.'

He skinned the thorns from the rose with more force than necessary. Emma stopped crushing her moonstone, thunderstruck.

'No,' she said in a low whisper.

'No what?' Rabastan asked, smelling the roses. 'You know, this is a bit of a waste of a pretty flower. Maybe I'll keep them.'

'To give to Lucinda?' Emma raised her eyebrows suggestively.

'Not necessarily,' Rabastan replied, too offhandedly. 'There are a lot of girls vying for my affections, you know. It wouldn't do to give preferential treatment.'

'Yeah?' Emma grinned, clearly not believing a word he said.

Rabastan eyed her suspiciously, wondering why she dropped the subject so easily and yet unwilling to continue.

'You know,' Emma went on lightly. 'I could drop in a good word for you. You know, plant the idea in her mind. If you were interested, that is.'

'Why would I want you to do that?' Rabastan snorted. There was a pause, as they peered at the potion, waiting for the exact moment to drop the rest of the peppermint leaves. In a small voice, he added. 'But would you? Hypothetically.'

Emma quashed her instinct to poke fun at one of her closest friends, but she couldn't help the grin from spreading.

'Hypothetically, I might be inclined to do so,' she teased.

'For a price, I'm guessing,' Rabastan replied, watching the peppermint dissolve. 'It's always an interaction with you.'

'It's an interaction with everyone in Slytherin,' Emma snorted. 'But this time... let's say it's a favour. For a friend.'

Rabastan lost all interest in the potion and slowly turned towards the raven-haired girl, searching for some kind of deceit in her face. After a long while, he relaxed. A smile tentatively graced his face, his normally mischievous features looking oddly vulnerable.

'Thanks,' he said, appreciation warming his voice. 'I count you as a friend, too.'

Only a Slytherin would understand the implication behind those words.

'You're coming with me,' James said as soon as Slughorn finished talking. He hooked Regulus's collar with his ladle, forcing the younger boy to jerk backwards.

Sirius gave James his best glowering look, but James ignored his best friend. He would explain later. For now, Sirius would just distract him with his conspiracy theories. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched his friend team up with Marlene McKinnon, the remaining Gryffindor in the room. A girl with long brown hair James vaguely recognised was looking a bit put out. He realised it was the Ravenclaw Prefect, Helen something-rather.

Too bad, he thought. Regulus's girlfriend's going to have to sit this one out.

Regulus's features twisted into a snarl of annoyance before he regained his composure. James had to admit; much as it irked him to see the unruffled Black traits, he kind of admired the Slytherin's self-restraint.

His back stiff with indignation, Regulus leafed through the book, looking for a fairly easy recipe. He was under no illusion as to the reason of his manhandling. He chose the Poison Antidote – a Beozar stone would suffice. They would just have to add enhancing agents to the boiling water.

Unfortunately, James didn't much appreciate this stroke of genius. The happy-go-lucky trickster Emma mentioned seemed to have vanished behind this angry teenager, though Regulus knew that deep down it was just worry. The Slytherin glanced over at Lily – she looked mad about something too. He could only imagine how angsty their children would be.

'Hey, wake up,' James said, snapping his fingers in front of Regulus's face.

Cool grey eyes turned towards the Gryffindor. They reminded James of how different the brothers were – with Sirius you could read the stormy emotions flitting through his face, whereas Regulus's were glassy, mirror-like.

'I've been thinking about what you said on Friday,' James continued, trying to remain cordial.

Is he even listening to me? Regulus had poured the water into the cauldron, heating it up to an average boil. James decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

'What did you mean by "you don't understand either"? What is it you don't understand?'

Regulus remained tight-lipped, though he gave James a look that clearly said you won't like what I have to say. Encouraged by the fact that the Slytherin was actually paying attention, James continued.

'Is it the stress from school work? Is she being bullied?'

Regulus snorted. James had to admit that that was a stupid question. His sister could clearly handle herself. James thought harder, frowning, whilst Regulus added a healthy dose of Dittany to the potion.

Dismissing the death of their father – Emma had never been close to him anyway – James found his eyes drifting to the table she was working at with Lestrange. They had been spending a lot of time together recently. Plus, they had the same wild look in their eyes. Right now, they were barely containing their laughter. Was it the result of an Elixir to Induce Eurphoria, or was it something else? James decided to voice his thoughts.

'Am I asking the wrong person here?'

Regulus turned his flat gaze back to James. If looks could kill, he would have dropped dead on the spot. James briefly remembered the time when they were younger, when the gulf between Gryffindor and Slytherin hadn't grown so wide. Regulus had prided himself on being able to find out secrets. James was about to play on the Slytherin's pride and wheedle the information out of him, when he noticed Regulus surreptitiously glancing towards his fellow classmates. Suddenly, James realised he had the wrong emotion...

James would have recognised that look anywhere. He had experienced it on many occasions. But he had never expected it to make its way to the famously cold Regulus Black. Helen isn't his girlfriend, because...

'You're in love with my sister,' James said, jaw dropping in surprise.

Regulus started, the first sign of unease James had seen in him all day.

'Don't be stupid,' the Slytherin hissed, glancing around.

James's mouth stretched itself into a grin of its own accord. Unrequited love? Been there, done that. Regulus Black was now in the palm of his hand. Now, what was so bad about what happened to the Slytherins that Regulus wouldn't tell him?

Unfortunately for the rejoicing Gryffindor, Sirius stuck his foot in it again.

'Ha! I knew it!' Sirius was almost dancing with glee at the table behind. Marlene had gone to fetch more ingredients. 'I knew it ever since the Yule Ball! Oh little brother, you're going to pay for last week.'

Before James could react, Regulus had launched himself at his brother; stuffing something into the latter's mouth. Horrified, James watched as Sirius turned purple, then blue, falling to the floor. His hands flew to his mouth, which made choking noises. James's instincts cut in.

'What the hell are you doing?' he cried, shoving the Slytherin away from his best friend.

Slughorn noticed the commotion, squeezing his bulk between stations. Regulus ignored James, instead picking up a stone and dipping it into their potion. It dissolved into a pebble-sized rock, smooth and black. He dodged James's flailing arms and pushed it between his brother's teeth. Immediately, Sirius stopped scrabbling at his throat and took deep gulps of air.

'What is going on down here, boys?' Slughorn asked, panting slightly.

By then, Regulus was smiling, as sweet as could be.

'Sirius wanted to try our potion. Unfortunately, he took the poison instead, so we had to test the unfinished product on him. Looks like it worked, James.'

'Good thinking, my boy!' Slughorn clapped the Slytherin on the back. 'Ten points to Slytherin and Gryffindor, for you lads' quick thinking. As for you, Sirius, I admit myself to being disappointed. As a N.E.W.T. level student, I expected you to show more caution.'

Sirius's eyes streamed with pent-up rage, unable to express a coherent thought. James sat back on the floor, stunned. What just happened?

'Don't go looking for trouble if you can't handle trouble finding you,' Regulus advised, a glint in his flinty eyes.