"You look absolutely wonderful, Lily!" Emmeline Vance exclaimed.
"The ceremony was lovely!" said Marlene McKinnon.
"It was, wasn't it?" Lily said, a happy smile on her smile.
"Of course, Mrs. Potter," Mary Macdonald teased.
"Whatever happened to the arrogant toerag you wanted to smack so much?" Amelia chimed in.
"Evidently he grew up," Alice replied, "And he grew up quite handsome, too, I might add."
"Oh, Alice!" Amelia exclaimed, giving her friend a light shove. "You have no right to moon over James Potter's unruly hair when you caught quite a fine young man yourself! Where is Frank, by the way?"
"Over there talking with the groom and best man."
"Sirius looks so strange with short hair," Marlene remarked.
"Doesn't he? Five galleons says he grows it out by the end of the month!"
"The month? Really, Emmeline, that's giving him too much patience. It'll be long again in a week at most," Lily said assuredly. "James had the hardest time convincing him to cut it in the first place for the wedding."
"Who was the flower girl?" Amelia asked.
"The little girl with the pink hair?" said Marlene. "She was adorable!"
"Especially when she tripped on the hem of her gown and the flower petals went everywhere," Mary added with a giggle.
"That was Nymphadora, Andromeda's daughter."
"Andromeda Black? Didn't her family disown her for marrying a Muggleborn? Ted Tonks, wasn't it?" inquired Alice.
Lily laughed. "Yes, and yes, the Blacks did disown her. That's the reason she is one of the only members of his family that Sirius is still on friendly terms with."
"Don't you have a sister?" Mary asked. "Why didn't she come?"
"Petunia and her husband don't really like 'my kind,'" Lily answered, her smile fading slightly.
"Well it's a good thing they didn't come, then!" Amelia said decisively. "Now they can't mar your special day."
"It would have been nice to have someone from my family here, though," said Lily a little wistfully.
"That's right, your parents are dead, aren't they?" Marlene noted.
"Yes, my father over the summer, shortly after graduation, and my mother two years ago."
"And your sister really couldn't come, if just for the ceremony?" Emmeline pressed. "She wouldn't have needed to stay for the reception!"
"Her husband, Vernon, doesn't particularly like James," said Lily. "Vernon is – very much a Muggle. He was – very fond of his car – and when James said he had a racing broom instead of a car – well, I thought it was amusing, but Vernon couldn't tell if James was mocking him or not. Vernon and Petunia stormed out and have been avoiding me ever since."
"Did she really not want her own sister to be a bridesmaid?" Amelia asked in amazement.
"Nope, and then Vernon had the nerve to call me an 'amateur magician' at their reception." James sniffed for effect. "I am hardly an amateur. I would consider myself something of an expert."
"That would be a fair estimate, I'd say, mate," Sirius replied with a grin, coming over.
"Anyway, may I steal my wife for the first dance?" With a giggle, the gaggle of witches released the new Mrs. Potter before breaking up to find their own dance partners.
Over the next few hours, Amelia felt she must have danced with every man at the reception, including James' elderly father. Stopping for a glass of pumpkin juice, she noted, "You really did look strange with your hair short."
Sirius' laugh was cut off by the encroaching mist.
A distinctly odd procession of people made their way down a tunnel. Ahead of Harry, Sirius, and Hermione, Severus floated along, his lolling head repeatedly bumping against the low ceiling. In front of the unconscious Potions Professor there appeared to be an unusual mass of limbs, which Amelia realized must be Ron, Remus, and Pettigrew. This, therefore, was the night Sirius had almost received his sentenced Kiss from the dementors.
"You know what this means?" Sirius asked Harry as they made their slow progress along the tunnel. Amelia had never been in the tunnel between the Shrieking Shack the Whomping Willow, though she had heard of it. "Turning Pettigrew in?"
"You're free," Harry said.
"Yes . . ." Sirius replied. "But I'm also – I don't know if anyone ever told you – I'm your godfather."
"Yeah, I knew that," Harry answered. When did he learn that, Amelia wondered. Everyone around him thought Sirius was trying to kill him; they hardly would informed Harry the madman after him was his godfather.
"Well . . . your parents appointed me your guardian," Sirius said stiffly. "If anything happened to them . . . I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle. But . . .well . . . think about it. Once my name's cleared . . . if you wanted a . . . a different home . . ."
Amelia felt a lump rising in her throat. His name had never been cleared and he'd eventually been reduced to remaining inside a house he loathed as much as the memories it held.
"What – live with you?" Harry asked, accidentally cracking his head on the ceiling. "Leave the Dursleys?"
"Of course, I thought you wouldn't want to," Sirius said quickly. "I understand, I just thought I'd – "
"Are you insane?" Harry croaked. Amelia smothered a laugh. "Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?"
Sirius turned around to look at Harry, uncaring of the fact that Severus' head was scraping the ceiling in his surprise. Well, it was at least partly due to his astonishment. He had never gotten along with the Slytherin when they'd been at Hogwarts together. "You want to?" he asked. "You mean it?"
"Yeah, I mean it!" Harry exclaimed. Knowing what she did about the Dursleys, it was no wonder the boy looked so excited.
Sirius' gaunt face broke into what was perhaps the first true smile he'd had since the deaths of James and Lily. It made a remarkable difference, showing there was still some part of the teenaged Sirius beneath the hardened, half-starved visage.
They didn't speak again until they clambered out of the passageway.
"One false move, Peter," Remus threatened as they tramped through the grounds.
A cloud shifted overhead, bathing the party in moonlight and Amelia watched everything go wrong. Remus changed into a werewolf, Sirius transformed into a dog to keep him away from the children. Pettigrew dived to the ground, Stunning Ron and Hermione's cat before turning into a rat and disappearing into the night. The werewolf ran toward the Forbidden Forest, the black dog ran after him, wounded – and then the dementors came.
Even knowing everything turned out okay, Amelia watched in horror as the dementors closed in around Sirius, Harry, and Hermione. Sirius collapsed under the renewed attentions of the foul creatures and his memory went dark.
Amelia came to in a room she had seen many times during her years at Hogwarts: Professor Flitwick's office. She listened to Sirius tell his tale to Dumbledore – the last request of a condemned man. He knew there was no way out, but he wanted Dumbledore to know the truth before his sentence was carried out.
Thankfully, Dumbledore was a cannier fellow than anyone could have expected.
Sirius sat there, alone in the room at the time, believing he was about to be Kissed by the dementors that had tormented him for twelve years. What must it have been like, Amelia wondered, to be faced with such a bleak end when he had believed, only an hour before, that his future was bright? He had caught a glimpse of the light at the end of a very dark tunnel, only to have it snatched from his grasp by a fleeing rat.
There was a sharp tap on the window. Sirius looked up and Amelia watched the nearly miraculous transformation of his face. The almost accepting, despondent expression replaced by disbelief that gave way to the hope he surely had thought lost. His jaw dropped in amazement and he sprang from the chair to the window, only to find it looked.
"Stand back!" Hermione called from outside. "Alohomora!"
The window sprang open.
"How – how – ?" Sirius said weakly, staring at Harry and Hermione, aloft on a hippogriff he would come to know so well.
"Get on – there's not much time," Harry said. "You've got to get out of here – the dementors are coming – Macnair's gone to get them."
It was lucky Sirius was so thin, for he had little difficulty heaving himself out of the window frame and pulling himself onto the back of the hippogriff behind Hermione.
"Okay, Buckbeak, up!" Harry said, shaking the rope he had tied around Buckbeak's neck like reins. "Up to the tower – come on!"
The hippogriff gave a sweep of its mighty wings and they were soaring upward again, to the top of the West tower, Amelia pulled along with them. With a clatter Buckbeak landed on the battlements and Harry and Hermione quickly slid off his back.
"Sirius, you'd better go, quick," Harry told him, panting. "They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment, they'll find out you're gone."
Buckbeak pawed the ground, tossing his sharp head.
"What happened to the other boy? Ron?" Sirius croaked.
"He's going to be okay. He's still out of it, but Madam Pomfrey says she'll be able to make him better. Quick – go – "
Sirius was still staring wondrously at his godson. "How can I ever thank – "
"GO!" Harry and Hermione interrupted together.
Sirius wheeled Buckbeak around, before turning back. "We'll see each other again," he said. "You are – truly your father's son, Harry . . ."
Amelia smiled even as she felt a tear roll down her cheek.
Sirius squeezed Buckbeak's sides with his heels and the hippogriff took off into the air. As the West Tower dropped below them, the scene greyed out.
Harry crouched by the fireplace in a room decorated in red and gold. Ron and Hermione sat in the room with him, while Sirius' head sat in the middle of the dancing flames. Amelia guessed it must be the Gryffindor common room; the view from Ravenclaw was better.
The three teens exchanged worried glances at something Sirius had told them.
"Listen, don't go asking too many questions about Hagrid," Sirius said hastily, "it'll just draw more attention to the fact that he's not back, and I know Dumbledore doesn't want that. Hagrid's tough, he'll be okay." Harry and his friends did not look cheered by this. "When's your next Hogsmeade weekend anyway?" he asked with a grin, changing the subject. "I was thinking, we got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could – "
"NO!" Harry and Hermione shouted together.
"Sirius, didn't you see the Daily Prophet?" Hermione said anxiously.
"Oh that," said Sirius, his grin returning as he shrugged off their concerns, "they're always guessing where I am, they haven't really got a clue – "
"Yeah, but we think this time they have," Harry said. "Something Malfoy said on the train made us think he knew it was you, and his father was on the platform, Sirius – you know, Lucius Malfoy – so don't come up here, whatever you do, if Malfoy recognizes you again – "
"All right, all right, I've got the point," said Sirius, looking displeased. He did not enjoy being stuck in Grimmauld Place. "Just an idea, thought you might like to get together – "
"I would, I just don't want you chucked back in Azkaban!" said Harry.
Sirius frowned. "You're less like your father than I thought," he said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. "The risk would've been what made it fun for James."
Amelia suppressed a groan.
"Look – "
"Well, I'd better get going, I can hear Kreacher coming down the stairs," Sirius lied. "I'll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, then, shall i? If you can stand to risk it?"
There was a tiny pop and Amelia found herself in the kitchen of Number twelve, Grimmauld Place watching Sirius sit on the floor, an unhappy, distant expression on his face.
"With all the attempts on his life, isn't it a good thing Harry was more responsible than James?" Amelia asked.
"He still gets into just as much trouble as we did," Sirius grumbled.
"Yes, but no one was trying to kill you or James or Remus, or even Peter when you were at Hogwarts. It didn't matter as much when you skirted the rules. Harry, on the other hand, was almost killed by a professor his first year. Twice. You're the closest thing he has to a father – he didn't want to lose you too."
"See how well that worked out. We're no closer to getting out of here than we were when we started!" Sirius exclaimed angrily.
Before she could respond a voice rang through the room, unnaturally loud, "You'll go wrong, boy, mark my words!"
"Was that – Professor Slughorn?" Amelia asked, startled.
"How did he get in here?"
"He didn't say that to you?"
"Of course not!"
"I hadn't thought so – you were always breaking rules, but the professors still liked you. It was frustrating. But who was he talking to?"
"I – don't know."
Then the voice boomed out again, "I don't know anything about Hocruxes and I wouldn't tell you if I did! Now get out of here at once and don't let me catch you mentioning them again!"
"Hocruxes?"
"Well, that's that," came Dumbledore's voice placidly. "Time to go."
"What the hell is a Hocrux and why were Harry and Dumbledore looking for it in Slughorn's memory?" Sirius demanded just before the grey mists reclaimed the kitchen.