For anyone keeping up with this story, sorry I haven't updated lately. I will try to update more frequently. I've abandoned translation as it probably wrong anyway - sorry !

Hope you enjoy this chapter !

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or related characters - I just wish I did!

Chapter 3: The Impossible is Possible

"Merde alors!"

A sixth year boy swore loudly, having just set the hem of his powder - blue robes on fire as he dropped a cigarette to the stone floor. Kali was standing near the boy, but had noticed Remus standing in the archway. She seemed to observe him with interest. Remus was suddenly aware of his loose robes, revealing an old pair of jeans, faded and torn at the knees, and a worn gray t-shirt that fit too snug. He noticed she had a cigarette in her hand.

"Qu'est-ce tous fais?"

Olivier Demarchelier, a popular sixth year, and a boy he found regularly snogging girls in every corner of the castle, gaped at him, looking guilty.

"Pardonnez, monsieur," he mumbled into his chest, obviously aware that the last thing he needed was another detention. The headmistress had recently warned him the next detention would be his last at Beauxbatons.

Remus didn't speak immediately, not quite sure what to say. They were clearly breaking the rules, but he wasn't sure just how many. The sight of Kali dressed only in a tiny white cotton nightgown and a long black silk scarf draped loosely around her neck as she shivered in the chilly wind, caused some concern.

"Does this mean a detention, sir?" she asked, casually flicking off a bit of ash from the cigarette between her fingers.

"If you go directly back to your rooms this instant - no."

Olivier, obviously keen to avoid expulsion, rushed past him down the stairs.

"Au revoir!" she called after him, clearly annoyed. She took one long, last drag and flicked the butt over the castle wall to the grounds below.

Remus, not sure what to do, gawked at her, incredulously. She obviously had little respect for authority.

Or maybe it was just his.

She exhaled slowly, the smoke circling her wild, dark locks.

At that moment, she looked exactly like Sirius and he couldn't take his eyes away from the sight of her. He was instantly reminded of how his old mate would lean against the owlery wall, smoke swirling around him as he laughed his great barking laugh, and chatted with James, Remus and Peter, having all snuck up to the room just below the rafters of Hogwarts castle in the middle of the night.

"Professor?"

Her voice jolted him back to the present. He looked into her eyes, a sense of dread coming over him.

"Is there something wrong?"

"No." He realized he was staring.

"You should go back to your room." He suddenly needed her gone.

"No detention?"

He shook his head.

"If I find you up here again," he said, trying to steady his voice, "I will have to inform the headmistress. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Go on now." He desperately needed to be alone.

She didn't move, but stared back.

"Why do you always stare at me that way?"

He couldn't deal with her now.

"I don't know…what you mean."

"What do you see?"

She stepped closer to him, not breaking eye contact. He stepped back instinctively and felt the cool, hard wall against his back.

Damn.

"It's nothing." The dread was turning to panic.

She's only a girl.

She said nothing, but he felt as if she was challenging him. She was so close to him now that she had to tip her head back slightly.

"Tell me what you see." She was pleading, but there an angry edge to her voice.

He vaguely felt her moving, as her fingertips found the largest scar on his chest instinctively under the thin cotton and ran them along the length. A feeling of terror gripped him, but he didn't push her hand away. He was mesmerized by the storm in her eyes.

Then he saw it.

It was the same look, the same eyes that had pleaded silently to him years before, as his mate was dragged away to Azkabahn.

He shuddered involuntarily.

Oh Merlin, it's true. She is his. She is Sirius Black's daughter.

"Excuse me."

A low, gruff voice broke them apart, and Remus looked around, bewildered, to see McShane staring at him, a look of severe disappointment on his face.

"Am I interrupting?"

Remus suddenly realized what it must look like. He was mortified.

"Just leaving, sir." She seemed undisturbed by what had just transpired. Then again, she hadn't seen what he had.

"Good idea."

Kali walked past Professor McShane, muttered a "good night" and disappeared into the castle. The older man circled Remus, who had moved away from the wall, determined to look natural.

"What are you thinking, boy?"

Remus, fighting back a wave of emotions, couldn't find the words.

"Any student is bad enough, mate, but that one!"

Remus shook his head. "Nothing happened," he croaked. But that wasn't true. Something had happened. Just not what McShane thought.

McShane looked him up and down, as if trying to size him up.

"You seemed smarter than that, my boy." He sounded disappointed.

"It's not what you think."

But he didn't know how to tell him, if he should tell him. The idea of the truth seemed absurd. She's my old mate's daughter sounded even worse.

The older man took pity on him, wrapping an arm around his slumped shoulders.

"I believe you, boy," he said kindly. "It's just," he hesitated, "she's done this before."

Remus pulled away, unable to understand. "What?"

"The del Fuego women have quite a reputation, as you must know. Well, this one's earning it."

Remus shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.

"She's already gotten a professor fired, just last year," he explained. "Poor, stupid bloke was obsessed. Even professed his love for her publicly, thank Merlin it was only to the rest of the staff."

"You think…she seduced him?"

"Well, Olymphe thinks differently, but I'm sure she wasn't completely innocent, and by what I saw just now…"

"She wasn't…," Remus interrupted, but trailed off, not sure what to say.

McShane looked at him shrewdly, and sighed.

"That girl's got so many people wrapped around her fingers. Even the great and mighty Dumbledore resides on her thumb!" He stuck out his own stubby thumb for emphasis.

The mention of his former headmaster caught Remus off guard.

"What do you mean?"

"You heard how she got here. Why do you think Olymphe fought so hard to get her in?"

"I thought it was that patron."

McShane scoffed.

"That patron, as you put it, couldn't have pulled that off. The man runs a brothel in Paris, for Merlin's sake!"

Remus found himself more confused than ever.

Did Dumbledore know?

"What does Dumbledore have to do with it, then?" He needed to know.

"I'm betting it's got something to do with the grandmother, Celestia."

"What about her?"

McShane looked positively giddy, his eyes sparkling at Remus' curiousity.

"It's all just a guess, but I reckon the girl's the daughter of somebody famous, or her mother is, maybe even Dumbledore himself. It would be scandalous, you know, fathering a child with the likes of one of them."

Remus was very aware of the older woman's reputation, having heard nasty rumours about her inclination to the Dark Arts growing up. During Lord Voldemort's gradual rise to power in the sixties and seventies, there were even rumours that Celestia was his lover. The fact that, shortly after his defeat, she was accused of being a Death Eater, only added to the rumours and innuendo. But Remus couldn't see Albus Dumbledore getting involved with Celestia del Fuego. He was much too clever to be taken in by her beauty, and much too moral a man to be attracted to someone so obviously against what he stood for.

And then everything fell into place.

Remus realized that, of course, Dumbledore knew who her father was, and always ready to do the right thing, or perhaps feeling guilty about never seeing Sirius for who he really was, he'd taken it upon himself to protect the young girl. The girl whose maternal side of the family alone was enough to ensure she would always be seen as a pariah; a girl who no one would ever accept, if they knew the whole truth.

But he must have known that sending Remus to Beauxbatons would only guarantee the truth came out; that Remus would see her father in her eyes. He felt anger rising and suddenly needed to be alone.

McShane, taking his silence for resignation, patted him on the back.

"It's okay, my boy," he said soothingly, pulling Remus out of his reverie and causing him to jump a little at the sound of his gruff voice.

"You don't have to thank me."

Remus wasn't sure how long he stood in the cold November night, or how he got back to his room later on. It was as if the only thing he could see clearly were those eyes and what lay behind them.

The eyes of a girl.

The eyes of a friend.

The eyes of a traitor.

For the first time in eight years, Remus allowed himself to cry.

I wasn't sure of Madame Maxime's first name - even though I reread GoF recently! Hope I got it right.

I hope you liked it, even if you didn't, a review would be nice...hint, hint!

Coming Soon: a bitter Remus, a glimpse into a secret Black's life and a confrontation with Dumbledore! Stay tuned!