"Have a good first term, sweetheart! See you at Christmas!"
"Remember to write," Clarissa Zeraff called.
William stood next to his parents, waving in that wild way of eight-year-old boys everywhere.
Amelia waved at her family from the train windows until the station vanished from sight before settling herself in the nearly empty compartment. Suddenly faced with the enormity of being on her own, away from her parents, on her way to magic school, she was far too nervous to speak with the girl sharing the compartment.
To cover up her shyness, Amelia changed into her new robes. The other girl followed her example.
"I'm Frannie Kerris," the girl said.
"Amelia Zeraff," she replied, grateful she didn't have to be the one to talk first.
"Was that boy your brother?"
"William? Yeah. Three years younger than me."
"Oh, that's nice. I don't have any brothers. My sister Margaret is five years older than me. I'm also the youngest in my family. And I do mean the absolute youngest. My aunt's grandson is older than me. Nick's two years behind Marge, still three years ahead of me."
"You're lucky you don't have a brother. William can be an absolute pain at times."
Frannie giggled. "Sisters aren't that much better," she confessed. "Especially when they're older and don't want to hang out with their "little tagalong sister" over summer holidays."
"Margaret goes to Hogwarts, too?"
"Yep, everyone in our family comes here. Except one of Mum's cousins, I think, but they moved away."
"Really? My dad's a Muggle. Not Muggleborn, just a Muggle. We think Will takes after his side of the family, because he hasn't shown any signs of magic yet. Mum and Dad were so proud, when they realized how I kept getting into the cookie jar."
The two girls exchanged stories. Amelia felt like she'd found a friend.
"What house do you think you'll be in?" Frannie asked after a while.
"I dunno. I never really thought about it. My Mum was in Hufflepuff."
"Hufflepuff doesn't sound so bad. Nick's there. Margaret's in Ravenclaw, though."
A knock came at the compartment door and it slid open. In the doorway stood a green-eyed girl and a black-haired boy.
"Do you mind if we join you?" the girl asked. "There were a couple of complete toerags in the other compartment, and if we had to sit with them any longer, I swear, I would have hit them."
"It's no problem," Frannie assured them, with a supporting nod from Amelia.
Introductions were made all around and then Lily Evans and Severus Snape took seats on the other side of the compartment.
Amelia turned to look at them as something occurred to her.
The scene jumped forward.
Amelia was standing in line with the other first-years in the Great Hall, watching the line slowly shrinking. She could feel her cheeks burning when her name was finally called. The problem with alphabetical order, she'd discovered long ago, was that "Zeraff" was almost always the last name to be called. The Sorting was no different.
Amelia was the very last one to put on the Sorting Hat. She had to stand there nervously watching everyone else get Sorted. Frannie went to Ravenclaw. Lily was in Gryffindor with two black-haired boys she had pointed out as the arrogant toerags she'd wanted to smack on the train. Her companion, Severus, had sat down at the Slytherin table.
Finally, it was her turn.
"Zeraff, Amelia."
She stepped forward and let the hat drop over her eyes.
"Hmm," said a little voice in her ear. "You've got a good deal of loyalty, yes, and courage aplenty."
Courage? She had courage? She hardly opened her mouth around people she didn't feel comfortable with, which was usually anyone she didn't know well.
"True," the hat whispered, "But the courage is there, nevertheless. Still, you have a great thirst for knowledge. Curiosity in spades, it seems, so the best place for you would be RAVENCLAW!"
With a sense of relief, Amelia pulled the hat off her head and went to sit down next to Frannie.
The feast was excellent. The Headmaster's speech was – eccentric. There was – something – almost familiar about the Headmaster that she couldn't quite put her finger on. As she was leaving the Great Hall with the rest of the new Ravenclaws, one of the "toerags" caught her arm.
"Don't I know you?" the boy asked, a strange expression on his face.
About to shake him off, Amelia stopped. That sense of familiarity was back, and stronger than before. "Sirius?"
"Amelia! What is going on? This – this isn't right. We're not supposed to be here."
At his words, the Great Hall and everything in it faded out. On impulse, Amelia grabbed for his hand before the setting could disappear completely.
Everything was gray. The gray mist was everywhere. Was everything.
"Where are we, Amelia? I was in the Department of Mysteries and – Harry! He and his friends were there, fighting the Death Eaters! What happened? How'd we get here?" Sirius paused and looked around. "Where is 'here' anyway?"
"I don't really know where we are. But I followed Dumbledore to the Department of Mysteries. I arrived just in time to see one of Bellatrix's curses hit you. I think you might have recovered eventually – if you hadn't been poised to fall through the Veil."
"The Veil? But – how did you get here?" he asked in confusion.
"I dove in after you, tried to get you out. Apparating as an Animagus wasn't one of my more brilliant ideas, I'll admit."
"Apparating as an Animagus? Are you crazy? You're the registered one! You should know that it is next to impossible to work other magic in animal form," Sirius exclaimed.
Amelia shrugged. "I said it wasn't one of my better ideas. I've had good results from Disillusionment and Silencio as an owl, though."
"You would." Sirius shook his head. "So, we fell through the Veil? What does that mean?"
"No idea?" Amelia offered. "What? It isn't like there's a handbook for this sort of thing. What to do on the Otherside. I don't think I've ever read anything about someone who'd gone through the Veil. Not alive, anyway."
The expression on his face would have been comical in a different situation. In the gray mist it looked somewhere between grim and confused. "Are we dead?"
Amelia shrugged uncertainly. "Dunno. Don't think so, though. I mean, I think there were a few legends about ancient Greek wizards who'd gone to the Underworld and returned. I haven't read those in years, and even then, I never believed them. They were all about wizards who had tried to undo death. You can't undo death. Dead is dead."
"But if we aren't dead, how do we get out of here?"
"I don't know!" She brought her hand up to her forehead. She exhaled in frustration. "Maybe we can find our way back? Somehow?"
"You don't think we're dead?"
"No, I don't think we're dead. I said that already!"
"Then why the memories?" Sirius shifted uncomfortably. "The park and the train? I've heard it said that you see your life when you die. But – I always thought – when I died – James would be there."
"We're not dead." Amelia ran her hands through her hair nervously. "We're not dead, but I'm not sure if we're quite alive either. I think – I think we might be caught in between."
Silence followed her words. The silence was eerie here. The mist was noiseless, but the silence seemed to echo.
Amelia shivered. She was just imagining it, surely.
"What happened to you on the train?" she asked to distract herself.
"Slytherin?" a voice in the gray mist said scornfully. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"
Amelia spun around, trying to locate the source of the voice. There was only mist. Sirius had gone rigid, his face pale.
"My whole family have been in Slytherin," a second voice replied unhappily.
It was with a start that Amelia recognized that voice. She had heard it not long before, in the Great Hall. She turned to face Sirius.
"Blimey, and I thought you seemed all right!" the first voice said. Amelia was able to recognize this speaker as James.
"Maybe I'll break tradition," mist-Sirius said, a hopeful grin evident in his tone. "Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"
"Gryffindor," mist-James said loftily, "'where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad."
A small, disparaging noise issued from the mist.
"Got a problem with that?" mist-James demanded.
"No," a new voice said with a sneer. Was that Severus?It sounded like him. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy –"
"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" interrupted mist-Sirius as mist-James laughed.
"Comes on, Severus, let's find another compartment," a girl's voice said. Lily.
"Ooooo . . . " mist-Sirius and mist-James imitated loftily. There was the sound of a scuffle as someone stumbled and more laughter.
"See ya, Snivellus!" mist-James called before the sound of a compartment door slamming emerged from the gray depths, cutting off mist-Sirius' laughter.
Amelia stared at the gray mists in surprise. What was this place? She shook herself. "I take it that's what happened to you?"
"Y-yes," Sirius replied.
"They came into my compartment after that," she said somewhat distractedly.
"Do you mind if we join you?" the voice of mist-Lily asked. "There were a couple of complete toerags in the other compartment, and if we had to sit with them any longer, I swear, I would have hit them."
"What the hell is this?" Sirius asked. "Some sort of Pensieve?"
"Maybe . . . but then why are we reliving the past instead of just remembering it? Pensieves don't operate that way." Amelia wasn't used to being so clueless
"You're right. And the scene changes when we realize it's a memory."
As if his words had been an invitation, the mist rippled.
"Dammit! Bloody he – " Sirius began. The mists fell over them, swallowing the rest of his words.
"It's the only way," James pleaded.
"What about Frank and Alice?" Lily asked.
"They are lying low as well, but Dumbledore didn't think they needed such measures."
"Why us? Why Harry? He's only a little boy! What could Voldemort possibly want from him?" Lily asked on the verge of tears. None of the people gathered in the kitchen flinched at the name.
James took her into his arms. "I don't know, love. But I trust Dumbledore. If he thinks this is the best way, then I believe him."
"I do too," Lily agreed tearfully, "but I hate this. It's been over a year now and we still don't know where the leak is! I hate not knowing who to trust!"
"Meya," Harry proclaimed proudly. Amelia shifted the boy in her arms.
Lily turned toward her, a hint of a smile of her face. "Yes, Harry, we trust Amelia." She pushed the hair back from her son's eyes.
"Siwis," the boy said.
James laughed. He came over and plucked Harry from Amelia's arms. "And we most definitely trust Sirius."
The man in question put down the pumpkin he was carving and laughed. "I should hope you trust me, James. There's more than a few embarrassing tales I've refrained from telling your lovely wife about you."
James smiled. "I know, Sirius. That's why we wanted to ask you to be our Secret-Keeper."
Sirius looked to be more resigned than surprised. "Of course, James. I wish it hadn't come to this, but – you know. Best man, and all that. If you're going to do this, I certainly am not about to let you do it alone."
An awkward silence descended upon the kitchen.
"How long?" Amelia asked past the lump forming in her throat.
"Another week or so to make sure we're ready – and then however long it takes for him to stop hunting us," James said grimly.
"Daa saad?" baby Harry asked.
"Of course not," James replied in a determinedly cheerful voice. He kissed his son's forehead, causing Harry to coo and flail.
Lily stepped in to rescue her son from his father. "If you get a chance, Amelia, stop in with Sirius and pay us a visit. I'm sure Harry would appreciate his favorite babysitter."
Amelia knew her smile didn't entirely diminish the worry in her eyes. "You mean you'll be bored sick of being stuck in this house after a few weeks on your own?"
"Well – there is that," Lily admitted.
James smirked. "You don't take confinement well, do you, sweetheart? She nearly drove me mad when she couldn't leave the house during her pregnancy."
Sirius snickered. "Drove you mad? She was sending me owls three times a day! Kept alternating between telling me to keep you safe to wanting me to send you home immediately to demanding to be allowed out on a mission herself!"
"That's nothing on what she was sending me!" Amelia exclaimed. "She kept asking me to send her the most absurd things! I'm glad I never got married. The things pregnant women crave! Tea and pumpkin pasties, pickled toad and sausage, Fizzing Whizbees and butterbeer – all on the same day! I have to say, though, I think the chocolate-covered brussel sprouts might have been the most amusing. And Alice wasn't much better! But at least she wasn't bothering me with all her fancies!"
James' cough sounded suspiciously like laughter. "No, Alice had to go through Augusta. Talk about a monster-in-law."
"I was not that bad!" Lily indignantly exclaimed. "I did not send you three owls a day! Not every day at least."
"No," Amelia agreed with a straight face. "Some days you wouldn't send three owls, some days you would use more Floo powder than I went through in a month." One look at Sirius' face and the two of them burst out laughing. After a moment James joined in. Eventually Lily gave in and had a few laughs herself.
"I suppose I might have done that," Lily admitted amidst the laughter.
Something clicked in Amelia's head. Tears started rolling down her cheeks, blurring her vision of the kitchen and its occupants. A pair of hands reached for her, offering her a shoulder to cry on.
"This was the last time you saw them, wasn't it?" a voice murmured in her ear.
"Yes," she told Sirius in a small voice. She tried to refocus on the scene. To her astonishment she saw she had moved. She and Sirius were now in the doorway, watching younger versions of themselves conversing with the Potters. Now it was similar to a Pensieve memory.
"I was with them most of this week," Sirius said. "Did you know Dumbledore himself offered to be their Secret-Keeper? James turned him down, said he'd prefer me instead. And what did I do? Convinced them to put their lives in the hands of that – lying little rat! I thought I was so brilliant, thought it was the perfect plan, the perfect decoy. I killed them. I killed them as surely as if I had been the one that betrayed them to Voldemort."
Sirius looked with anguish upon the group in the kitchen.
"I remember," Amelia said, trying to pull herself together.
Sirius gave a mirthless chuckle. "That's right. Little ex-Auror Amelia, sneaking into Azkaban to break into my head."
"You would have died if I hadn't come. You were locked inside your worst memories." It still haunted her. What she had seen in his mind. Their house – the bodies –
"What will they do?"
"What?"
"What will they do?" Sirius repeated. "Harry and Dumbledore and the Order? They surely think we're dead, mustn't they?"
"I guess . . ." There was no way to tell time, no way to know how long they'd been here. "If they think you're dead – and at the very least you're not in that world – what happens to headquarters? Your house, I mean."
Sirius surprised her by grinning darkly. "Family tradition be damned. I'm the last Black. Technically the heir would be Bellatrix, I think – "
"What?! No!" Amelia exclaimed. "She's the one that almost killed you!"
Sirius gave a dark chuckle. "I left everything to Harry."
"Harry?"
"Yep. Take that Mrs. Walburga Black. The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black passed to the one who brought about the downfall of your precious 'Dark Lord.'" He laughed sinisterly.
"You know that's seriously creepy, right?"
"'Sirius'-ly?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
Amelia punched his shoulder, just as the world turned gray again.