Sophie and Vieara trailed into the train after him, staring at each other with wide eyes. "We'll see you later, we're gonna go find some friends." Vieara said rudely. Lupin smiled a little sadly and nodded, sitting alone in a compartment and leaning into his seat, shutting his eyes.

The twins continued on until they found an empty compartment and settled themselves in, finally free to speak their minds and wander among their peers. No one else seemed to want to sit in their compartment, most of their peers looked away rather quickly when they saw them, but the girls were too busy to notice.

"What's he playing at, pretending to be our friend? Right after he snogs mum on the train platform?!" Vieara said indignantly.

"Well he is nice enough, I s'pose." Sophie tried. "Remember that one bloke mum tried to date last year? He offered us pony rides like we were three!"

"Yeah, well that one didn't last when she saw that. Bit daft, wasn't he? Mum's not gonna date someone stupid. I guess he isn't too bad. I guess maybe we should get used to it, you know. Our… father…" Vieara spat the word out as if it were indecent. "isn't coming back, so she'd probably going to be dating."

Sophie ignored the attitude about their dad. "Remember when we used to pretend Dad would come back someday and woo Mum again and take us away to a big, pretty house out in the country somewhere, and we're be normal?"

"Yeah, well, that's definitely not gonna happen. More likely for him to kill Mum than woo her." Vieara snapped harshly.

Sophia shuddered. "He would never…"

"I'm sorry, I didn't, I shouldn't-"

"I know what you mean, though. But wasn't Remus friends with Sirius? How weird is that?"

"You mean Mum's going out with Dad's old pal. Bet that'll make him happy to see her!" Vieara filled in sarcastically. "Who cares what he thinks, he sure wasn't into making good impressions, was he?"

Sophie didn't answer, thinking hard. She stared out the door to the compartment. Kellen was walking by. She raised her hand and waved, and for a split second he caught her eye and then looked away as if he hadn't seen her. He kept walk, past the compartment. She didn't say anything to Vieara. Ginny walked into their compartment and said a cheery hello, but Sophie couldn't help but notice most of the second years, and a good heap of older students, whisper and shuffle by their compartment quickly, as if in a hurry to get away. She swallowed hard. If this was what Hogwarts was going to be like from now on, maybe she'd been better off at Seventeen Dorset Drive after all. At least there she didn't have to face Snape and Charms homework.

Some time later, Ginny went to join her brothers and Sophie and Vieara were left alone once again. Vieara dozed off as Sophie read several old newspaper articles she had clipped. Suddenly the train stopped, and the lights went out. Vieara didn't wake, but Sophie looked around in the pitch-black darkness, trying to see. The air was becoming colder and colder, and it seemed as though it were getting lodged in her lungs, her chest. Someone, or rather something opened the door and Vieara awoke with a start.

"Who's…" but the sentence didn't quite make it out.

The creature, the dementor, Sophie realized, was taking a slow breath, and suddenly it was as if a very loud radio had been turned on in her head, full of static as if the station wasn't quite right. She heard the sound of waves, screams, she felt a little creature, she felt rage pulse though her veins and then pain inflame her body. She felt a bizarre sensation, as if her body was melting, changing. She felt a scream escape her mouth.

"Shhh! Are you alright?" Vieara stroked her hair, still sleepy.

"Is it… is it gone?" Sophie asked, out of breath, as if she had run the length of the train and back. The lights were on again. Vieara nodded.

The compartment door opened, and they cringed instinctively. But it was Lupin who stepped through, not a creature. Sophie felt as if she had never been happier to see him. Even Vieara looked relieved.

"Are you alright? Did they come here?" He asked, looking around, surprised that they were alone in the compartment. He spotted Vieara's freshly-purchased supply of Chocolate Frogs. He handed one to each of the girls. "Eat the frogs, chocolate helps."

"We're ok now," Vieara said. "But thanks," she added in a very soft tone. She peeled the foil off the Frog. She did not need to be told twice to eat chocolate.

"Sophie looked like she was going to slide off her seat, she fainted or something. She seemed more… hurt or affected or whatever you'd call it." Vieara said thoughtfully as she chewed. Her sister sent her a sharp, unthankful glare. Lupin looked thoughtfully in Sophie's direction.

"Eat!" He repeated.

"I'm fine," She protested, biting off the Frog's head. But she was obviously still shivering, her hairline covered in cold sweat. "Those things, they're what they have in Azkaban, aren't they?"

Lupin nodded.

"Is that…" She didn't finish her sentence. Lupin nodded again. Vieara was munching, pretending not to hear a word of the conversation.

"I better go see how Harry is doing. He fainted too." Lupin got up.

"Harry Potter?" Vieara asked, looking a mix of curious and disdainful. Lupin nodded and backed out of the compartment, waving slightly.

Despite the dementors' search and the attitude of their classmates, Sophia's spirits soared when she lay eyes on the castle, eager to eat the feast she knew was waiting, to sleep in her bed again, and to roam the grounds freely. Guiltily, she thought of her years of freedom, and her father's long years of confinement in the awful prison, Azkaban. Vieara was too busy chattering to Ginny, Fred and George to notice her sister. Sophia was so intensely conflicted for a long moment that her temples seared with pain. She saw a flash of a great shaggy dog running though a dark mass of trees, a forest, and then white spots burst in front of her eyes, blinding her. No one noticed anything around her. In the midst of the excited chatter, no one saw her face pale and her hairline break in sweat again, or her eyes widen in recognition.

"Snuffles!" So that's why the dog had looked familiar when she first saw him in that meadow. She'd seen him before! On the Hogwarts Express, on the way home from school at the end of the last term, she'd had a flash just like this one. But the dog had been swimming then. But this was ridiculous! Who had visions (were they visions?) of a… dog?

A burst of laughter from the Weasley twins snapped Sophia back to the moment. Vieara had just advised Fred to use an Itching Powder on some poor soul, in addition to a little charm which made nasty pus-filled bubbles erupt on certain nether regions of the body. Sophia grinned. Vieara had read that in Sirius' notebook. They would finally get to use their father's rule-breaking guide to its fullest extent, now that the Basilisk had been killed. Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all.

But things didn't look very good at the feast. Dumbledore warned the students of the dementors guarding the entrances. Sophie shivered, never wanting to go near another one of those awful creatures. And worse than that, nearly all of the second years were muttering and looking at her and Vieara. She heard someone w hisper "His daughters, it's true" as they all gathered in a group to walk to Gryffindor tower. She pretended not to hear, but her eyes filled with unexpected tears which she hastily rubbed away, feinting tiredness. Vieara looked angrily at Kellen, who was talking to Lee, a Ravenclaw second-year. The two were whispering and glancing in Vieara's direction. She glared their way and tried to respond to Ginny, who had just asked her a question. This is ridiculous, Vieara thought, do they think we're smuggling him in or something? We know less than they do, probably.

The next month was decidedly the worst time the twins had ever had. Their classmates did not perhaps, want to acknowledge that the girls had never met Sirius Black, that they could not have. Rumours flew left and right that Sophie was helping him somehow and that Vieara had been taught Dark Magic, so she should not be angered, in case she was to use it against her classmates. This of course, made Vieara even more angry, and more prone to telling people off. Sophia simply pretended she heard none of it, and became consumed by books, her homework, and writing again in Sirius' notebook. If only they knew that she was writing to him…

Vieara took her anger out on the Quidditch pitch where she flew alone after classes when none of the house teams were practicing. She hadn't made the Gryffindor team because none of last year's players had left, so she just flew pointlessly, diving and increasing her speed dangerously until one day she nearly slipped off her broom and got a telling off from Professor McGonagall, who happened to be walking by.

"Miss Black, get off the pitch immediately and return to Gryffindor Tower," She looked around somewhat nervously. "You should not be down here alone, especially not doing such dangerous moves."

Vieara, still stunned at her near-fall from about thirty feet up, nodded meekly and headed toward the castle. She didn't notice the large pale eyes following her steps from the edge of the forbidden forest, and didn't hear the happy little yelp that the large animal whom they belonged to had let loose. She returned to the nearly empty common room. It was a Hogsmeade day and most people from third year up were out. Most of the second years were in the library finishing an exceptionally long Potions essay that Snape had assigned. Vieara kept walking, up into the dormitory. Her sister lay on her bed reading her Potions book, underlining bits of it.

Unlike most everyone in Gryffindor, and everyone that Snape picked on in general, Sophie seemed to love the subject, if not the teacher who taught it. She worked quietly and quickly, often completing her potions before the rest, and nearly perfectly. If Vieara's remarks and curses under her breath annoyed Snape, Sophie's remarkably unpretentious knowledge enraged him. But he could find no reason to dock marks or to correct her. She didn't raise her hand every time he asked a question in class, but nearly every time he called on her, she gave a correct answer.

Snape had no choice but to admit to himself that Sophia Black was an exceptionally talented, and polite, Potions student. He began to think of her as a Black less and less, and realized she was much quieter than her mother as well. He remembered Elly quite well from his schooldays. She began at Hogwarts as a cheerful shy transfer student, but as soon as she began to date Black she had gotten just as obnoxious as the rest of that group, always playing petty pranks and bragging of their misdemeanors. But Sophie didn't seem involved in such childish feats, and she seemed to shrug off Snape's vicious words, as if she saw right through his tough act. She simply did her work, and well. As soon as he sensed that she could have easily been doing fourth year work, he began giving her extra Potions homework and more difficult concoctions to create than the rest of the class. Though he didn't favor her publicly like the Malfoys or his Slytherin students, to himself he had to admit that his favorite pupil was, ironically enough, Sirius Black's daughter.

Vieara on the other hand, competed with Harry Potter easily for the most-hated spot. She landed in detention with him nearly as often as she ate supper, usually for running off her mouth and answering back to his snide remarks. The level of her work was atrocious, she refused to do very much work. Her essays, which were obviously proofread and tweaked by her sister were the only thing that kept her from failing.

"Sophie? May I have a word?" Remus asked softly after the second years' Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. Sophie nodded and stayed behind as the rest of the class trailed out of the room. She stayed in her seat, in no hurry, since this had been her last class for the day.

"Look, I'm sorry if it was awkward for you and your sister for stay with me. I don't know how much your mother told you,"

"She didn't." Sophie interrupted.

"We dated, but it was only temporary. We're not dating anymore. We're just very good friends, like we always have been."

"It's alright, I don't mind. I suppose… I suppose we have to get used to her dating."

"Well, that wasn't quite the reason I asked you to stay behind. Do you remember the train ride here?"

Sophia shuddered involuntarily. "How could I forget?"

"Your sister said… she said you'd fainted for a moment."

"I'm fine!" Sophie tried to protest. But she too had been thinking about why she had fainted and Vieara had not. "But why… why did I faint and Vieara didn't?"

"I was going to ask you the same question. It's curious, that you two, who have been together and experienced similar events reacted differently. Can you think of a reason that you have had more awful experiences in your past perhaps, than Vieara?"

Sophie shook her head. "All the bad things have always happened to us when we were together pretty much. But I didn't think of any of my worst experiences when that dementor came."

"What do you mean?" Lupin asked curiously.

"I mean… I felt things that I don't remember ever happening to me. I felt this feeling, like rage at this little creature. And I felt like I was melting, like I was changing becoming smaller. And I heard waves and water, and my body felt all sore and tired."

"Have you ever had a bad experience with water, when you were younger maybe?"

Sophie shook her head. "I love swimming. But the shape changing was scariest. Why did that happen?"

Lupin shook his head too, still looking puzzled. "I'm not sure. It's quite unusual to feel unfamiliar feelings when near a dementor. Normally, people relive their worst experiences and feel as if though they'll never be happy again."

Sophie considered telling him of the strange, painful flashes she was having of that dog, Snuffles. But she realized how stupid that sounded and kept her mouth shut.

"I'm really sorry about being all… rude… this summer. Vieara and I were kind of restless, and it wasn't right to act like we did. I really enjoyed your stories. And your lessons." Sophie ducked her head, slightly embarrassed. Lupin smiled.

"Thank you," he said.

Sophie stayed quiet for another minute, debating whether or not to bring this up. Deciding she had nothing to lose, she spoke politely. "I know you went to school with mum, so you must have known my dad too. You were friends with him, right?"

Remus suddenly seemed solemn and tired. "I thought I was, yes."

"I'm really sorry, I don't mean to upset you. It's just that, mum won't tell me a thing about him and no one else wants to talk about him, especially now. Could you tell me about him?"

Lupin looked uncomfortable. "What do you want to know?"

Sophie shrugged. "Anything, really. Where was he from? What was his family like? Do I have any cousins? How did he and mum meet, what did they do after they left school? What was he like?"

"In school, he was handsome, he could charm a laugh out of an inanimate object, he was intelligent and restless. He played pranks constantly. Your mum came here in the fourth year, and they didn't meet for a few months. Your mum fancied him for a year before he realized it. He was quite the ladies man before they got together." Did Lupin look resentful for a moment or was that Sophie's imagination?

"What happened when they finished school?"

"They got a little place in Diagon Alley. They lived off of your dad's inheritance while they looked for jobs. Your mum had just gotten pregnant with you two. I didn't see them much then… I went south for a few months looking for a job. But I hear things between them got a little tumultuous. Your mum got restless, being cooped up inside. Everything was getting more and more tense then, Voldemort's attacks increased and become more and more reckless, and they found out he was after you two." He stopped. Sophie didn't want to push her luck.

"Thank you," She hugged him. He stood shocked for a moment, then wrapped his arms around her gingerly.

"Of course," He said. "And I will talk to Dumbledore about your dementor attack, he may understand it better than me."

Sophie nodded.

Ok, so now for some Q and A.

I decided to start this fic up again because I've been home on break and bored out of my wits. I've re-read all the HP books several times, and when I could stomach them no longer I moved onto fanfiction. Then I realized I never finished this fic, and I kinda started thinking of the plot again and what I was going to do before, so I decided to do some editing and start it up again. I'm trimming much of the old stuff away (Thalia is being written out, as she is not really that important to the Sirius line). So now for some Qs I have for you, the readers.

Q. What do you think of the OC s? Which one do you like most/least? Vieara, Sophie, or Elly? Why?

Q. How do you think they tie into the canon portion of the story (the escape, the dementors, etc)? Should the twins be more integrated with the stories from the books or less?

Q. What do you think about Remus and Elly's little escapade? Like? No? why/why not?

Q. What do YOU think is going to happen? What do you WANT to happen?

Thanks for all your feedback, I hope this story is improving