Thank you to the guest (or two guests I don't know) who reviewed chapter 14 and 27. It would really help if you left a name when you reviewed so I don't give credit to one person if it was two or reverse. To the rest of you thanks for reading.

Chapter 28: Understand What Happened

Days passed and soon it was the middle of April. The days were getting warmer and soon students were sitting outside studying. On one such afternoon the Marauders and their girls were outside studying and Mandy spotted Regulus across the lake. Guilt bubbled up in her stomach. It was definitely time to tell him. Despite the fact that it would make him angry and an angry Sirius was the last thing she really wanted, she knew that it had to be done.

"You and I have to talk," Mandy said suddenly.

"About what?" Sirius asked as all four boys looked up. Lily and Shelly glanced at her but went back to studying.

"And which you?" James asked.

"Sirius. Walk this way?" Mandy suggested. Sirius sighed heavily but put down the book he wasn't really reading then they both got up and walked towards Hagrid's and the forest out of earshot of the boys. "I need to tell you something. A little of it is because I feel guilty I didn't tell you, a little bit is because you love me so much that you deserve to know, and most of it is because I shouldn't keep this from you. It involves you and your family so you have every right to know."

"What did you do? My family is dangerous, I told you to stay away from them."

Mandy took a couple deep breaths and reminded herself that when it came to his family Sirius was very protective over her. The two should never meet or cross paths in his opinion. They both stopped walking and when Sirius looked into her eyes he could see how angry that had made her. "I know how you feel about your brother and how you don't like me talking to him." Sirius's jaw tightened. Mandy suddenly realized she was on thin ice with him. She had to be very careful or this could explode in her face. "I, on the other hand, think he's a misguided kid."

"Kid? He's nearly 17."

"And he's not as brave as you are. Over time being exposed to the kind of views your parents have can change a person. You had somewhere to go and friends who didn't believe what your parents did. He's not good at making friends. Not really. He—"

"I can't believe you're defending my brother. After everything he thinks ... You know what he thinks about your mother—I don't want you anywhere near him."

"That's not your decision!" Mandy snapped.

"When it comes to you, I guess there's nothing I can do to stop you, but that is my child too," Sirius growled, motioning to her stomach and the baby bump hidden by her long robes. "I am not going to let you make every decision about its welfare. I know that's the kind of person you are: you weigh the pros and cons and make a decision without consulting anyone but you have to accept that this situation isn't just about you. Like you said when you told me about our little gift, it isn't fair for you to make decisions about it without telling me. I don't trust him and if you were smart you wouldn't either."

"That's not what I wanted to tell you." Mandy gritted her teeth.

"Then what did you want to tell me?" Sirius asked, breathing slowly.

Mandy took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I told him, your brother."

"Told him what? He already knew about us."

"About the—" Mandy swallowed hard. "About the gift."

"You did ... WHAT!" Sirius roared.

Mandy stood and stared at him. Sure, he had every right to be upset, but that didn't mean he had to take it out on her. She hated that he was so angry with her but she wouldn't let him make her regret it. She didn't regret it. Sure, there were a few things that she wouldn't ever tell Regulus for fear he would tell everyone but she was certain she could trust him with this. "You heard me, now keep your voice down."

There was a storm brewing behind his grey eyes, one Mandy wasn't sure she wanted to face but knew she had to. "You told him. How dare you?" He spat.

"How dare I?" she growled in disbelief, "How dare you not trust my judgment. What's this really about? You don't trust me and you're scared that everyone is going to find out that you do care what your brother thinks. He hasn't said a word if that's what you're worried about. "

"I can't believe you'd tell my brother about this. You can't trust him, Mandy. There's no way he's going to keep this to himself. My brother is a Death Eater—"

"You don't know that," she said, stopping him in his tracks. "Have you actually asked him that? No, you haven't spoken to your brother in years."

"But you don't know that he isn't, do you? My parents believe in all this pureblood nonsense. If he believes it too, he's going to be a Death Eater. Even if he's not, you still can't trust him. I know what I'm talking about, Amanda."

Mandy bit her lip to keep from saying something she'd regret but seconds later it came out anyway. "And you wonder why I never tell you things like this. I knew you'd react this way." Mandy spun on her heel and stormed off into the forest, angry.

Sirius watched her go not feeling the least bit upset or worried about her. In his opinion she had caused this and should have known better than to talk to his brother. He sighed, frustrated, then walked back to the group. He flopped down on the ground and went back to reading his book. James and Remus looked at him carefully, watching for any sign that he was going to say something, but Sirius continued to stare at his book quietly. James and Remus eventually decided it was better not to ask.

Lily on the other hand was curious. "Everything all right between you and Mandy?" Lily asked gently.

"Fine!" Sirius snapped, glaring at her.

Lily and Shelly looked at each other but went back to studying. Shelly was laying on her back with her head resting against Remus's leg. She looked up at Remus and he smiled down at her. He leaned down towards her, seeing the look in her eyes. "Sometimes, it's better to just let him calm down. He'll talk when he's ready," Remus whispered to Shelly. She nodded and kissed his cheek gently. Remus smiled softly then went back to his Charms book.

Meanwhile Mandy walked deep into the forest still stewing over how angry Sirius had mad her when she suddenly tripped over a root. Her heart caught in her throat, her stomach clenched, and she suddenly and instinctively tried to twist herself around to protect the baby but somehow ended up falling on her hands anyway. She looked down and they weren't hands anymore. She was staring past her bear snout at bear paws. All the tension and stress evaporated from her body as elation sank in at her ability to transform again. She shifted back into her human form then back into her Animagus form. She transformed back and forth a few times before settling back into her human form. Her first instinct was to run and tell Sirius until she remembered it was his fault she had almost gotten hurt. She continued walking through the forest more and more surprised that she didn't come across any creatures. It was unusual for a forest like this.

Mandy finally calmed down enough to go back to her friends and ignore her boyfriend. When she got back to the lakeside she found it was just James and Remus. "Where's everyone else?" Mandy questioned.

"Inside. We agreed to wait for you," Remus answered.

"Thank you." Mandy smiled. "Oh guess what?" She sat down between the two boys and motioned them closer. Looking around carefully and seeing no one she told them. "The bear is back."

"Bear?" James asked.

"You're right Rem, she does need a name."

"That bear." James couldn't believe he had forgotten. He was very glad she could transform again.

Remus was more pleased than James. With the bear back he didn't have to worry about taking on Prongs or Padfoot. Though Padfoot was almost as big as the bear, he didn't have the sheer muscle mass the bear did. "We could call her Ursa," Remus said softly.

"Ursa?" James asked.

"It's Latin for bear," Mandy explained.

"She-bear," Remus corrected.

"Yeah," Mandy agreed.

"I like it," James said.

"Come on boys, I'm hungry," Mandy told them. They got up and went inside. Mandy thought about everything that had happened that day wondering if she had gone too far. She loved Sirius, well was starting to realize that she loved him, and keeping what she had done from him probably hadn't been the best idea. She wondered when and more importantly if she would ever get it right with him. "You'll tell him?" Mandy asked James as they reached the Great Hall.

"Of course. Don't worry, you two will figure this out." Mandy smiled the best she could and they went to dinner. James followed her feeling stuck in the middle. They were his best friends and he always knew they'd be good for each other, but he always tried to keep his mind from remembering they both had a tendency to put him in the middle. He had to find a way to stay out of it from then on.

A few days later was a Sunday and James sat down with Sirius under their favorite tree. "Don't start," Sirius said. He looked at James and the older boy swallowed. "What Mandy and I talked about the other day is none of your business, but I bet she told you." Sirius snapped his defense book shut and stared hard at James.

"She didn't actually. After the two of you talked she stormed into the forest remember?" James asked carefully.

"So what?" That didn't mean she hadn't said something to him later. In fact Sirius was betting that she had told him all about it.

"Well, while she was so mad she wasn't watching where she was going and she tripped over a limb. Suddenly she was falling and then she went from staring at her hands in front of her to standing on her—" James lowered his voice dramatically, "her bear paws."

"I make her angry and she gets her ability back. That's just great. At least I'm good for something," Sirius huffed.

"You can tell me you know." James looked at his friend knowing lately he hadn't really been there for Sirius the way he had been in the past. It was time to make that up to him. "We've been friends long enough that I'm not going to tell her unless you want me too. You both are family. I may have known her longer but I've always wanted a brother too. Tell me what's going on. Please."

"I love her, Man; have for a long time. Then she did something stupid. She told my brother about the—about—about the gift."

James didn't say anything. He wasn't sure what to say. He knew how Sirius felt about his family but he also knew Mandy was rarely wrong about a person's personality. If she felt like she could trust the younger Black then James was sure she had her reasons.

"Why did she have to tell him? How could she trust him?" Sirius threw all kinds of questions along the same vein at James but James couldn't give him any answers. Once Sirius was all asked out, James sighed thinking about what to say. He looked out over the lake and watched the Giant Squid sun himself for a moment.

"Did you ask her why?" James asked.

"What?" Sirius turned to his friend in shock. What did James mean asking her why? Why what?

"Mandy. Did you ask her why she told him?"

"She said she trusts him. That seemed like enough."

"But you didn't ask her why she trusted him," James said curiously.

It was just like James. Of course he'd take Mandy's side. Sirius shook his head. He wished his friend would stay out of it if he couldn't side with him. "Knew you'd take her side. You always do." Sirius planted his hands on the ground and moved to push himself up. This was the end of the conversation. If James couldn't stay out of it or take his side then Sirius wasn't going to talk about it. James clapped a hand on his shoulder keeping him from standing up.

"Okay then, I'll take your side," James changed tracts. Maybe that would make Sirius feel better even if the boy was wrong. "She shouldn't have told him but why are you so upset? Is it really that you don't trust your brother? Or could it be something else?"

"Of course I don't trust him." Sirius stopped and thought about it. Finally he confessed what he had really been thinking. Once Sirius finished James stared at him. It made perfect sense but James knew Mandy would never see it that way. At least not until she really thought about it.

Meanwhile Tiff sat down on Mandy's bed as the girl studied on the window sill occasionally staring out the window at the lawn. "Can I ask you something?" Tiff asked.

"Sure," Mandy nodded looking over at Tiff.

"I know that you're worried about how you feel about Sirius. You think you might love him," Tiff suggested softly.

"I think I might. I definitely worry about him when I think he's in danger." Mandy grinned thinking about her boyfriend.

"Do you want to hurt him? Not physically, emotionally."

"Uh ... I guess not." Mandy thought about it and hurting Sirius didn't really sound like something she wanted.

"You hate fighting with him?"

"Yeah, I never should have done what I did. He's sweet and he trusts me with James; not a lot of guys would. I guess I do take him for granted some times."

"Apologize. You love him, if you did something wrong, apologize."

"You're right. I mean I don't think I did anything wrong in my opinion but I can see where from his point of view that it was the wrong thing."

"Even if you're right, apologize. It makes a guy feel great. Give him a little ego boost and he may come down from his anger."

"I haven't seen you with a boyfriend lately," Mandy accused.

Tiff looked down ashamed. She scratched her ear then peered up from under her lashes. "My boyfriend is a really private person and we don't want our relationship to jeopardize his position or put me in any danger," Tiff said.

"What does he do?" Mandy asked.

"It doesn't matter. I just told you what works for us. Maybe it won't for you and Sirius but it's worth a shot." Suddenly Mandy felt bad. It wasn't any of her business if Tiff didn't want to talk about her boyfriend and Mandy really shouldn't have pushed it.

"You're right." Mandy nodded and Tiff let her go back to studying.

Two days before the full moon Mandy realized she should probably talk to Sirius. Tiff had made a lot of good points and it was time to see how Sirius would take that. If it didn't work, at least she had tried. She got up off the chair she was sitting on in the library and headed to find him. Of course her first stop was the Common Room and he was right there talking Remus. "Mate," Remus said softly, nodding to Mandy. "Be honest with her."

Sirius nodded back then stood up and walked over to Mandy. "Take a walk with me?" Sirius asked. Mandy nodded and took his hand as they walked out the portrait hole. They walked the halls for a while until he finally pulled her into one of the secret passageways out of the castle.

"I'm sorry," Mandy said suddenly.

"You?" Sirius said stunned. Why would she be apologizing? He thought about the past few weeks and their only fight was over Regulus. Sure, she may have been to blame for it but he was the one that had overreacted. "Mandy, you didn't do anything wrong. Not really. I'm sorry," Sirius answered, taking both her hands in his. "I may have said the wrong thing about my brother the other day. I—" Sirius looked around. "I love you, so much. I don't want anything to happen to you. I don't trust him. He used to look up to me and now—" Sirius took a deep breath through his nose then let it out slowly. "Now his entire mindset has changed. What he believes now could get us all in trouble."

"Sirius, he doesn't know what he believes. Maybe he's lying to me but every time we talk he tells me he's not sure. Part of me believes him. He sounds so confused. I mean he is proud of being a wizard, my dad's parents were too, and that's not a bad thing but he's less sure about the whole pureblood being better than everyone else."

"That doesn't mean that he's going to suddenly change his mind and not support Voldemort."

"I didn't say it did."

"I know how hard this is going to be for him. Even if he doesn't believe all that pureblood crap, he's still in too deep to just pull out. That means doing some pretty dangerous stuff."

"You care about him," Mandy suggested softly.

Sirius took a shaky breath. "He will always be my little brother. You care about Parker, right?"

"Of course I do."

"You'll always love your family. Even if you drift apart. Well, when it comes to my family ... I will always care about Regulus. I wish he wouldn't do some of the stuff he does but I know he has to. It's the life he was pushed into and I do get a little worried when things happen. I don't know what to do. I want to take care of him but at the same time, he's got to stand on his own two feet and I have to understand that. Because of that I do worry about him knowing about our baby." Sirius moved their joined hands over the baby bump that though hidden he could still picture in his mind.

"He's not going to say anything. You know that day that James was injured?" It was a sudden subject change but Sirius wanted to see where it was going.

"Hogsmeade."

"Regulus told me something bad was going to happen. He didn't know what but he didn't want me to go for fear of something bad happening to the baby. He said I could handle what came my way but he thought the baby needed protecting. He told me that he wanted me to promise that I'd stick close to you. He cares about this gift almost as much as you do. Trust me Sirius; it's going to be fine."

"How do you know he won't tell the entire school?" Sirius asked.

"Does your family know you still talk to Andy?" Mandy asked, narrowing her eyes.

"What would that matter?"

"The "perfect Slytherin" talking to her outcast cousin?" Mandy asked, using air quotes.

"Andy's got a five year old daughter." Sirius stared at his girlfriend.

"So she's not a perfect Slytherin anymore but at one time she was still a Slytherin. Not all of them are evil. If I remember correctly your uncle Alphard was a Slytherin too."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"If they still like you and would keep your secrets, why wouldn't your brother?"

"I see your point."

"Thank you. He hasn't told anyone. I know he hasn't. We just need to have a little faith. Okay?" Mandy asked hesitantly.

"Okay." Sirius agreed but he didn't have to like it. On the plus side he had told her part of it. Hopefully he'd never have to tell her the rest of the reason he didn't like her talking to his brother and his fears were unfounded. He'd just have to wait and see.

Again thanks to all that are reading, it would definitely help me out if you reviewed, I'll take what I can get. Any questions or comments?