A/N: Thank you for reviews! Here's another chapter for you, hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Sky played with his cufflinks as he waited for Dora to come out of her dorm. He didn't know why he felt so nervous, it was only Dora after all. She was his best friend, he had known her all his life, she was the love of his life, but still he felt the butterflies in his stomach.

Suddenly the door opened and Dora stepped out.

Sky forgot to breath.

She was gorgeous. She had morphed into her natural looks with black hair, which was put up in a beautiful bun, and blue eyes. She was wearing a violet dress that hugged her figure and heels that made her almost as tall as Sky.

"You look amazing." Sky breathed finally and saw a small blush graze her cheeks before she caught control of it and made it go away.

"You don't look too bad yourself." Dora smiled and took his offered hand. She had been so surprised when Sky had asked her to be his partner for the Yule Ball. She had not even thought about going as she knew he would not be able to attend other than being one of the Aurors stationed there and she would not want to go with anyone else. As Sky had reasoned though, no one would notice another foreign face among all the other foreigners from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Besides the students were allowed to bring a partner from outside the school.

What made the evening even better was that Sky had showed up in his normal looks, just as he looked when they were in private. He was not in any disguise. He was tall, dressed up in dark green dress robes. His natural emerald eyes sparkled as he looked at her and his hair was longish and drawn back. He looked nothing like the world expected Harry Potter to look like. There was no clear resemblance to either of his parents as had been confirmed by both Sirius and Remus.

As the couple stepped out of the Hufflepuff common room they were assaulted by disguised Sirius and Remus who had their cameras flashing.

"Oh, you two look fantastic!" Sirius said. "Your dad is gonna love these pictures!"

"Perfect." Remus echoed from beside him with a fond smile.

"Thanks." The couple muttered embarrassed.

"Now have fun tonight and don't do anything we wouldn't do!" Sirius winked at them before dragging Remus away. They were in Auror duty for the night.

"There's not much we wouldn't do, Padfoot." They heard Remus mutter at Sirius who answered with a wolfish grin and then they were gone.

Sky shook his head in amusement before turning to Dora.

"Shall we?" He asked and she nodded.

The Great Hall was filled with students when they entered. Everything was decorated beautifully.

"Wow." Dora gasped.

"Wow is right." Sky echoed but he was looking at her instead of the decorations.

Dora noticed and slapped his arm. "Stop that." She said though Sky knew she was pleased.

"What? I'm not allowed to admire my beautiful girlfriend?" He asked.

Dora rolled her eyes and dragged them to their seats. It wasn't long before the Ball started. Dora and Sky ate and chatted happily for the duration. It wasn't often they got the chance to just enjoy each other's company in public.

Then the dance started and Sky led her to the dance floor.

"You know how to dance, right?" Dora asked teasingly on the way.

"Of course I know how to dance." Sky said but something in his expression made her give him a look. "Fine, Remus has been giving me lessons for the past weeks… or months." He admitted making Dora laugh.

"Really, there is something you are not naturally good at?" She laughed.

"Shut it or I will step on your toes." Sky pouted before taking her by surprise by drawing her close and starting to lead.

"Not too bad, mister." Dora said as they danced for a while.

"I had a good teacher." Sky smiled.

"Yeah."

"When did you learn to dance?"

"A few years after I got home. Dad taught me. He said every girl should be able to dance. Apparently we were practicing for my wedding." She laughed at the memory.

"Wedding huh?" Sky raised a teasing eyebrow. "You're gonna get married?"

"You're saying you're not gonna marry me, mister?" Dora asked challengingly.

Sky's face softened to pure adoration.

"Someday. Someday I will definitely marry you Nymphadora Tonks." He said seriously.

"And someday I will marry you Sky Marcus Lee." Dora said and was pulled into a sweet kiss.

Christmas morning found Sky lounging on a loveseat by the fireplace in the Room of Requirement with Dora on his lap. She was feeding him chocolate from one of his just-opened Christmas presents that lay on the table next to him. He kissed her temple as a thank you.

"Can you two be any more disgusting?" Emily complained rolling her eyes from her position on the floor where she was happily polishing her new broom that Sky got her as a present.

"Shush you, or I will take your broom away." Sky commented half-heartedly to his sister not taking his eyes off Dora. "Besides, don't think I didn't see you dancing with Dean Thomas last night." He said finally removing his eyes off his girlfriend and giving her a pointed look. "I will be having words with him."

"Don't you dare! It was just a dance!" Emily exclaimed, muttering something about having another overprotective big brother.

Sirius and Remus laughed at the conversation from their spot on the sofa across from Sky and Dora. They were positioned quite the same as the younger couple, only Remus refused to share his chocolate.

"You know Emily; I think they are being quite mild with their PDA. You should have seen your parents. When they finally got together they were at it all over the place. It didn't matter where they were." Sirius shuddered remembering all the times he had walked in on them.

"Catching up for lost time I imagine." Remus chuckled.

"Definitely."

"Ugh, thanks for that mental imagine." Emily groaned.

Sirius chuckled.

"You know, I remember that one time when Remus, I and Peter…" Sirius stopped short when he realized he had just said the traitor's name.

"It's fine Sirius." Sky said with a gentle smile. "He was your friend once."

"That's what makes it all the more difficult." Remus sighed. "He was our best friend. We thought we knew him."

"I should have killed him when I had the chance." Sirius muttered.

"How exactly did he escape?" Emily asked curiously. "I know people said you killed him Sirius, but since that wasn't true, what exactly did happen? Nobody ever told me." She asked wanting to know what really happened with the traitor who sold out her real parents.

Sirius then launched into the story of his confrontation with Pettigrew.

"He got the better off me. I underestimated him completely. He cut off his finger, blew up the whole street killing the Muggles, changed into his Animagus and went down the sewer leaving me there to get arrested." Sirius said bitterly and Remus took his hand in comfort.

"So he's a rat Animagus missing a finger?" Emily clarified.

"Yes, that's how he can be now recognized." Remus said.

"Scabbers was missing a finger." Emily mused out loud.

"Scabbers?" Sky inquired.

"Ron's rat. Or he was Percy's first but he gave it Ron when Ron started Hogwarts. He's been moaning about it all term. Apparently it has gone missing. I suspect one of the cats ate it."

Sky and Dora exchanged a glance.

"How old was Scabbers?" Dora asked.

"I don't know, I think Percy was around five when he found him, so that would make him 14 or so. Why?"

"Normal rats generally don't live longer than five to six years, Emily." Sky said sitting up.

"You think...?" Emily trailed off horrified.

"It's more than likely."

"Oh my god, he slept in our house!"

"We don't know if it was him for sure." Dora said comfortingly though, she was thinking the same as the others, it would have been a convenient place for him to hide.

"It's Christmas. Let's talk about something else." Emily said shaking her head at the disturbing image. "Like how you two are as disgusting as Sky and Dora!" She groaned happening to glance at the two Marauders and seeing them exchange a sweet kiss. "Gosh, you're just as bad!" She complained. "I'm surrounded by lovey dovey couples. Where's Marcus? I need some support here."

"Yeah, where is Dad? It's Christmas!" Sky looked up.

"He had some kind of emergency at the DoM last night." Remus said. "He didn't elaborate and we haven't seen him since. He promised to come here in the morning, though."

Sky opened his mouth to speak but cut off as the door opened and Marcus stepped in.

"Dad!" Sky exclaimed happily and stood up. He walked to his father. "Merry Christmas, Dad." He said and hugged him.

"Happy Christmas, son." Marcus smiled slightly and hugged him back. "Happy Christmas everyone."

"Happy Christmas Marcus!" The others chorused.

"What held you up for so long?" Sky asked settling back on the loveseat with Dora.

"Crouch Jr. finally broke last night." Marcus said with slight relief. For weeks now they had tried to get the death eater to talk but the devil managed to go around all their questions about Voldemort or his location even with Veritaserum. "I sent a team to the location, but it had been abandoned. We found a body of an unknown wizard along with ritualistic evidence. The researchers are working on it but I think it's safe to say that Voldemort is back." He continued grimly.

A silence fell between them for a moment before Sky spoke:

"Well, it's not like we weren't expecting this."

"Wormtail must have helped him." Sirius spat through gritted teeth.

Marcus nodded. "We will have to take all safety measures and precautions. Non-active agents will have to be called back to duty. We will start doing raids more frequently and we need more manpower. It will not be long before Voldemort makes his move. We are at war now."

"No mercy." Sky said his eyes hard.

"No mercy."

Suddenly Shadow flashed into the room carrying what looked to be a newspaper. Sky took it from her and spread it out for everyone to see:

Mass breakout from Azkaban!

There was only one name that stood out to Sky:

Mallory.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review and tell me what you think.

- Dalnim