Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. I only own the plot and a few characters I made up to help shape our heroes.

It was probably best for the group to apparate in instead of just appearing in the middle of the street on brooms or into the backyard as a whole. The neighbors would have had a field day trying to come up with a reasonable explanation, most likely writing it off as just the normal weirdness of the Evans household. Being the first ones to arrive at the house, there was a screech of surprise as a woman who looked exactly like Lily fell onto the couch. "They really do pop in, don't they?"

Venus couldn't contain herself as she started giggling behind her hand and avoided her brother's pestering for her to be polite. "I apologize for my behavior, I am not laughing at your fall but your words." It was a formal type of talking that protected her from any sort of judgment bestowed upon her by new people because it meant they were the ones who were on a lower road than she. Not that she expected anything bad to come from her time with her friend's family, but one could never be too careful.

"Step off it." A hand tapped her cheek gently in warning as she glided across the floor to say hello to Lily's parents, ever wearing that signature Aphrodite smile. "My name is Aphrodite and I'm a Ravenclaw, this is my twin sister Venus who is ever the Slytherin. We appreciate your hospitality."

The girls ran off together as Eros and the adults talked logistics, so they could figure out more important stuff. "But I want the mattress!" If there was one thing that was more dramatic than truth or dare where you find out two of you like the same person or that the girl next to you has never been kissed, it's sleeping arrangements. Which would have gone fine if they did it when everyone was there. But as each girl was added, they had to change it all over again. It was chaos in a nutshell. Venus had left to get some water after Alice shoved Lily but was completely unprepared for what she walked into, or what smacked her in the face. "I'm so sorry!"

The pillow fell to the floor in the most cartoonish way possible. "What did I just walk into?" An actual sleepover.

To say they got settled wouldn't be quite the right answer, all of the girls had worn themselves out with the pillow fight that took out two tables and gave Kaylie a black eye. The ice pack that was quickly stuck to her face by Lily's mother was passed around in wonder, most small injuries were almost always instantly healed in the magic world by a healer or a parent who knew basics. "I don't know how muggles do it, you get hurt so easily but it takes forever for you to heal."

"That just means we know how to protect ourselves without wands. I can tell you right now that if I saw a wizard pulling out his wand to hurt my daughter, I'd knock him flat on his…" Mr. Evans coughed while Lily's mother looked rather sheepish. "What I mean is, I think we can handle ourselves quite well. It just makes us tougher, though magic would do wonders for extreme injuries."

"I KNOW HOW TO REGROW BONE!" "I know how to fix the tables!" Lily just rolled her eyes while the listed off all the things they knew how to do. "Well guess what I know how to do?" All eyes were suddenly on the red head and she turned a color to put the strands to shame. "I can sew, I can punch, I can do maths and I know how plants grow and…" As she listed off all of the muggle things she knew how to do, Venus felt better about her place. The whole time it was like walking on eggshells because she didn't want to be too much of a Slytherin, but now the purebloods looked as confused as she was.

"Why don't we learn some of that stuff? It could be a fun sleepover activity." And after three hours of pizza and take out and butterbeer and textbooks that were wrinkled by the time they were done, no one felt out of place anymore.

The girls were more than he could have ever asked for, better than all the friends he came up with during the days of recovery where he was feverish and weak. Remus had never laughed so hard in his life when Kaylie and Dua screamed because the telephone rang, Lily racing to answer it. "Yes Mrs. Figg, we have guests over. Sure, if your daughter wants to bring it by I'd love to introduce her." When she hung the phone back up, she sighed. "I love that old lady, I really do, but she's such a nutcase. At least her daughter is friendly and only half as strange."

"What were you talking to?" It seemed to surprise the girls that Remus knew so much about telephones as he went on to explain what they were and how they worked. Which lead into a lot of other conversations about technology and other such things. The two girls had been invited because it was rude not to, but now they were sheepishly apologizing to Lily for the way they acted. "If we knew how different your world was, we wouldn't have made you feel so stupid! We thought it was only magic that you lot didn't have, but it seems everything's different!" It wasn't the nicest apology or the start of a great friendship, but at the very least it made them all laugh and get comfortable in the greeting room to wait for Mrs. Figgs daughter to arrive. "We know you said her Mum's a loony, but what's her daughter like? What's she bringing?"

"Oh shove off it, Mrs. Figg sound like a nice lady. You should respect people more." Padma crossed her arms and pouted, racing off to answer the door when a knock interrupted the snappy remarks aimed in her direction. "Are you the neighbor?"

The girl in the doorway wasn't much taller than them, though it was very clear that she was an adult if the pregnant belly protruding out at them had anything to say about it. "I don't know if I've meet anyone named 'the neighbor', that would seem quite rude. Even a half-blood should know that." If the chatters about the person in the doorway had quieted when she arrived, they were dead as Avada Kedavra victims when she made that statement. "What, never seen a pregnant girl before?"

"So let me get my head on straight, Mrs. Figg is a squib? Which means a magical blooded person without magic. And you graduated Hogwarts the year before we went off to school?" So far all of that was very obvious but it seemed like Lily was a broken record with what was happening. "All this time you knew magic, and you didn't say anything? Why? I don't understand."

As there was nothing more interesting to a group of pre teen girls than a bit of gossip especially when they weren't personally involved in it, they had all made a circle around the new arrival, who had finally introduced herself as Miranda Figg, when she sat down. They looked like children watching an interesting show on the tellie. Remus on the other had was only half listening as he read one of Lily's books in her father's arm chair, enjoying the new characters as he was never allowed to read muggle books with magic in them. His father thought they were rubbish, which was true mind you, but more entertaining than some silly boy talk.

"So when my mother found out I inherited her family's magic, she kicked him straight out of the house and set us up here. Not long after I started seeing you show the same signs, troublemaker you were in those woods. But you've met my mother, as much as she loves people, she's as trusting as Alastor Moody with some in snake's clothing."

Miranda might have only been nineteen but she was already stronger than most of the men Remus' father worked with. Her mother was a paranoid squib in a muggle town while people who ran around torturing people like her neighbors ran wild. And yet Miranda still went to her job everyday with her head high. Or at least, she went to her job everyday from what Remus had heard and he imagined her holding her head high. "This baby is going to grow up in a world where magic folk like Tom Riddle exist and where Muggles burn down anyone they don't like. Someone's got to put pants on, even if I can't see my legs anymore."

All the girls giggled while Remus stuck his nose back in his book.

It was about Three AM when Remus woke up for that day, his head feeling like the wolf was clawing at the inside of his skull to get out. He was alone in the front room because the Evan's had politely asked him when his parents were picking him up again, Lily glaring at them and making it very clear that Remus was staying no matter what. He was the one who suggested the sleeping arrangement, but he was regretting it. A wolf isn't meant to stray far from his pack.

He got up to grab some water and check to make sure the girls were okay where they were, even though he knew they had no reason not to be, but was stopped short when he glanced at the foggy windows besides the front door. Blood dripped like some cheap horror stories waterfall, a body leaning against it and slipping gently down. A drowned one. His scream would have gotten the police called on them, if not for worry than a noise complaint "Officer, it's three AM and this little boy is screaming about a murder!", if he hadn't shoved it down. He was glad for his control when the knocking started, pounding fists that seemed too tall to be friendly. Control was good. But Remus Lupin was an eleven year old boy with a bloody body leaning against his friends house in the middle of the night, he was alone and suddenly someone was knocking on the door. So he did the natural thing and screamed his head off, sprinting to where the girls were and waking them all up if they weren't already.

"What the fuck, Remus?" He wasn't sure who said it, but when the pounding started again they shut up. Wands were drawn, Mr. Evans ran down the stairs with a gun. It all happened so fast one everyone else was awake, bodies clumped together in the dark and yelling. So much yelling.

And then the world stopped all at one when the porch light was on and they saw who was on it. James was drenching in mud and caked blood, tears streaming down his face as he tried to prop up the dead man beside him. "Took you long enough, he needs a healer." A dead man? "But when James collapsed into Mr. Evans arms, the boy flipped over and they could see his face.

Aphrodite screamed again, holding her head tightly as she started rocking. "What did they do?! Why would they do that? Sirius!" Sirius Black was the dead man on Lily Evans porch. What were the odds?