Chapter One
The black dog had been tailing them for blocks now. It had been a simple enough errand in the beginning. There was a package at Flourish and Blotts—a new book on potions. Without Snape around, the Order was hard-put to replace the former professor's expertise. The trip had taken the three friends a matter of minutes to complete.
"Go on, shoo!" Ron lunged in the dog's direction. Though it took a few uncertain steps sideways, it kept following.
"Bloody beast." He muttered under his breath. "C'mon, Harry." He gave a few limp waves of his arms before stamping his feet on the mat in order to go inside. Harry followed. Something in the animal's eyes had made him uneasy. It was a look he recognized, an almost human air he had seen so many times in the eyes of another huge black dog…
Sirius. He thought. The dog stared at him dumbly.
"Harry?" Ron's voice brought him back from his trance. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Harry's best friend was tapping his foot in annoyance. "Harry, it's just another dog." He shot Hermione a strange look. Harry dully realized it was his "our-best-mate's-gone-mental" look. Hermione ignored him. "Harry, Sirius is…gone. That dog, I hope you're not thinking it could be…"
"NO!" Harry shouted. "I'm tired of people thinking I've lost my mind! He's gone, I know he's gone! He's not coming back!" The outburst had taken both Ron and Hermione aback. Harry continued to glare. Sometime during Harry's tirade, the dog had obviously taken advantage of their distraction and slipped past them and into the house.
"Well, come on, then." Ron said grimly. "Mum really will go mental if she thinks we've let some mangy beast in the house." The trio trooped inside quietly. There was a faint rustling coming from the kitchen ahead.
"Wands out, then," said Ron. "We'll take it by surprise." Harry took his wand out quietly. "On three." said Hermione, from in the lead. They had come to the doorframe leading into the kitchen. "One… Two…" On the count of two, all three burst noisily into the dark kitchen, preparing to stun the hapless animal. Instead, all three stumbled at the doorway. Sitting at the table, regarding them all calmly, was no dog. It was the most beautiful woman any of them had ever seen.
"Hello Harry." She said quietly. "It's been a long time since we've last met."
She stared at them comfortably from under her long lashes. They could make out faint lines around her eyes. From where they were standing, she couldn't have been more than twenty, but if they looked closely…
She stood up, extending a hand. "You must be Ronald and Hermione." Her accent was odd to place, almost like a little bit of everything. It certainly wasn't unpleasant. In fact, her voice was beautiful, rich and melodic. They shook hands dumbly. They heard a gasp somewhere in the background.
"My God!" came Lupin's weary voice. "That can't be Rainey Caligo!"
"In the flesh, Remus." Her eyes had a special sparkle for what was obviously an old friend. "You don't look so well."
"And you look better than ever!" The strange woman stood on her toes to hug him, completely wrapped in the werewolf's embrace. She appeared to be bouncing on the tips of her boots in excitement, almost like a child.
"REMUS!" came Mrs. Weasley's shocked voice. Her outrage faded at the sight of the visitor. Her eyes dimmed. "Oh my..." she said. Rainey untangled herself long enough to eagerly shake Mrs. Weasley's hand. The older woman looked flustered. "Why, I never expected to meet one of you… And in my very own house! Oh, it's such a mess! Ronald dear, will you straighten your cloak! Arthur, oh, where is that man…" Mrs. Weasley bustled into the next room, madly flicking her wand at stray objects in a last-ditch effort to clean up for their unexpected guest.
"WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT IS GOING ON?" Harry's restraint broke at the sight of the odd visitor kissing his former professor fervently on the cheek.
"Oh…" she paled a little. "I'm quite sorry, I suppose I should have explained…"
"No, no, allow me." Lupin interrupted. He took a long look at their dumbstruck faces and laughed. "You see, Rainey and I aren't lovers." He said, interpreting their silence. "We're best friends… from quite a long way back. I don't suppose I could see that map of yours, Harry?"
Confusedly, Harry surrendered the familiar worn piece of parchment from his cloak pocket. "I don't see what good it'll do." He muttered. "It's just a map of the grounds…"
Rainey's eyes widened in recognition. "The marauder's map!" she exclaimed. "I though you'd lost it!" She tapped it fondly. In response to her touch, new writing appeared, ink spidering from the two fingers she'd used to gently prod the faded parchment.
"NO!" yelled Ron in utmost horror. "You've ruined it!"
Her eyes glinted mischievously. "Not quite, Mr. Weasley."
"How does she know our names?" Hermione whispered to Harry. "Something about this is very funny…"
Slowly, the ink solidified into readable words. It was a hand Harry recognized. Under her fingers, the words 'Welcome back, Miss Caligo.' had appeared in Sirius unmistakable writing. Harry gaped in astonishment.
"May I present," said Lupin suddenly. "The fifth and final Marauder… Miss Rainey Caligo."
A few minutes brought most of the Order rushing into the room. Rainey exchanged fond embraces with most of its original members. Harry, Ron and Hermione all wisely decided to retreat to the parlor. Rainey caught them sneaking out. "Harry!" she called, amid the many old friends frenetically hugging and talking around her. "A word, please." She stepped quickly from the circle of men and women and vanished into the parlor. "We'll just leave you for a bit." Hermione said uncertainly, still standing in the dank hallway. "I think I forgot to let Crookshanks out from his cage, he's probably gone crazy by now. Come on, Ron." She grabbed his friend by the hand and pulled him away. Ron gave an apologetic shrug. "Good luck, mate," he said as he vanished.
Harry entered with trepidation. He wasn't sure he wanted to talk with this woman. The room was dim, lit only by the fire. The uncertain lighting cast odd blue shadows on the walls and the lone figure standing to the right of the grate. Harry felt an unbidden anger rise in him. He didn't know why, but he took out his wand, hiding his hand under his cloak. Hermione was right. Something about this woman was off. There was something about her that just didn't feel as it should. As if to sense his thoughts she turned suddenly.
"You can put your wand away, Harry." She sounded weary. As Rainey turned to face him, he noted the remarkable change emotion had made in her eyes, which were brilliant under normal conditions, but under the weight of some unknown sadness they had been transformed, the clear chocolate color deepened. She tapped the picture hanging over the fireplace.
"So many are missing." She told him sadly. "So many of our old friends…" It was a familiar picture, featuring the original Order of the Phoenix, the underground resistance that sprung up to fight Lord Voldemort when he first came to power.
Harry didn't say anything. She continued to talk as though he weren't there, reminiscing about the Order in its earlier days and its members. After a few minutes, she shook her, smiling brightly to dispel the odd feeling. "That's not what I've come to talk to you about, Harry." She paused, obviously expecting him to say something. At the sound of her voice, he was once again filled with an unwelcome anger. He didn't have anything to say to her, in fact, he had a headache. He wished she'd go away. He heard himself ask, "Then who are you?" and continued, his voice rising. His first question only brought a torrent of things to ask from the hidden corners of his mind. "How do you know Professor Lupin?" "Are you an Order member?"
"Harry, if you'll please let me explain…"
"Voldemort came back two years ago, where were you then? We could have used all the help we could get!"
"Harry, please calm down…"
"NO!" he shouted. "I WON'T LET YOU EXPLAIN AND I WON'T CALM DOWN! WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"
"Harry," she gave his shoulders an empathetic shake. "I know you've been through more than any boy your age—any boy of any age—should ever have to endure in the past few years. And I heard about Si—your godfather's death. And I'm sorry. I'm not here to make you relive anything or tell me anything. I am here to tell you something." She bit her lip. "Something you might not know." She thrust a small wrapped box at him. "Here." She told him. "Maybe this might explain something." Quietly, she left the room. She stopped at the doorway, turning once more to face him. "Happy birthday, Harry. You certainly deserve one." She sighed, and then she was gone, the sound of her footsteps fading from the dim firelit parlor and into the shadowy hallway.
Harry stared at the box. It was just an ordinary cardboard box, wrapped in a plain silver foil. Slowly, as though dreading what might be inside, he opened it…
Inside, he found a sheath of brown oiled paper. Under it was a normal, ordinary birth certificate, the birth certificate of a certain Harry James Potter, son of Lily and James Potter. It listed his weight and height in inches. He looked to the bottom of the certificate, a lump rising in his throat. To his shame, he found hot tears stinging his eyes as he looked to the line in the bottom left corner. Above the printed word 'godfather' was Sirius name. Yes, it was a normal, ordinary birth certificate, but that wasn't what floored him, because next to Sirius' name was another blank above the word 'godmother.' And printed in the space was Rainey's name.
Rainey Caligo was his godmother.
In Ron's room, Harry and Hermione made themselves comfortable while Ron shut the door, taking a careful look around outside to make sure no extra listeners (in the form of Fred and George's Extendable Ears, of course) were present. Harry didn't really want anyone else to know what he had discovered in the parlor. At least, not yet. Ron locked the door, stowing the key in his too-small sweater.
"So if she's your bloody godmother," said Ron, sitting on his bed, "Then why haven't we heard of her before now?"
"Professor Lupin said she'd been away on some sort of business," replied Hermione anxiously. "Still, something like this is awfully suspicious, isn't it Harry?"
"Of course not!" The familiar voices of Fred and George bounced off the walls of the small, cramped guest bedroom in Grimmauld Place as the two let themselves in. Ron's face turned an alarming shade of puce at their arrival.
"How did you get in here?"
"Well, if I told you it wouldn't be a secret anymore, now would it." Said one of the twins, winking at Harry and Hermione.
"Well, I hope you're not going to make a professional go of it," replied Hermione primly. "I would certainly hate to see your Mum bailing you out of prison."
At the mention of their mother, the twins paled. Fred, chagrinned, explained that the only person they would ever have the chance to waste their talent on—here he pinched his brother's cheeks—was ickle Ronniekins.
"Besides," tossed in George, "She's already distracted by that Rainey girl. I say if the Order trusts her, so do we."
"What's the big deal about her, anyway?" asked Hermione as she stood from her place on the bed. She came to stand next to the windowsill. Lowering their voices to conspiratorial whispers, the twins began to talk.
"Well, we've heard talk, and they're saying she's not human."
"What do you mean, not human?" Ron asked in horror. "Is she a dementor in disguise or something?"
Fred and George grinned. "Much better, mate. She's a—"
Their conference was interrupted by the arrival of Ron's sister, Ginny. "Mom says to come down for supper." She said, somehow managing to avoid Harry's questioning gaze. She disappeared down the stairs and into the kitchen.
The three trooped down. "Harry." said Hermione, stopping him before they reached the kitchen. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I-I just want you to know, whatever all this means, Ronald and I will be here for you." She gave an awkward sort of nod and rushed ahead.
"Right." said Harry as he entered the kitchen.
As luck would have it, Harry's seat was placed on the opposite end of the table from his godmother, who was comfortably ensconced between Lupin and Mad-Eye Moody, Harry's ex-professors. For some unexplainable reason, he found himself dreading their next meeting. He was already miffed enough over the last one. But if she really was his godmother, where was she when his parents died? Hermione was right, something about her was off… To his delight, he found that Tonks, who was sitting to the right of Lupin, wasn't fond of her either. The metamorphagai was staring at her with a mixture of dismay and dislike as her boyfriend continued to laugh and joke with the other woman as though Rainey were his long-lost sister instead of just another old friend. With a pang, Harry realized she was something more than an old friend—she, along with Lupin, were the only surviving Marauders. He wondered again why he had never heard of her before. Sirius had never mentioned her. She wasn't visible in any of the old photographs of his parents and their friends. She was his godmother, for goodness' sake! Where had she been all this time? What would life have been like if he could have lived with her instead of the Dursleys? He felt angry again, his temperature rising. The last time he had felt this way, his aunt Marge had ended up a human balloon. He wished she would float away, too…
"Harry?" Ron whispered from across the table. "Are you alright, mate? You've got this funny sort of look on your face, like you've just eaten an acid pop."
He snapped out of his trance. "I'm fine, Ron."
Hermione shot him a warning glance. Fortunately, the meal was over quickly. Afterwards, the adults remained in the kitchen. The three friends trooped back into Ron's room.
"So," began Hermione casually. She had a look on her face that told Harry she was out for information. "Don't you all think it's a bit odd that, as Harry's godmother, we've never seen her before? And what do you think Fred and George meant when they said she wasn't human?"
"Hermione's right. Something is definitely funny here." Ron shifted on the bed. "I mean, after all, we don't know who we can trust anymore."
"Well," said Hermione. "I think we should find out." She smiled mischievously. From behind her back she brought out three Extendable Ears.
"Where did you get those?" Ron gaped at her.
"I nicked them off Fred and George at dinner," she replied matter-of-factly. "Now come on!" Hermione grabbed both of them by the wrists and dragged them downstairs to the kitchen door. It turned out the ears were unnecessary. The adults were talking loudly enough to be heard even through the heavy oak door.
The trio could recognize their former professor's voice. "What you're saying makes perfect sense, but Molly and the others just need a bit of time…"
"We haven't got time, Remus!"
"I know what this might seem like, but for heaven's sake, this is NOT the same. Now, if you want to help, there are plenty of things here for you to do, but to move headquarters now will simply finish us."
"Remus," Harry's godmother lowered her voice. "I have it on good authority the location of the Order has been compromised—"
"That is not possible, Rainey."
"It's HIGHLY possible. In fact, it's highly probable." The ex-professor sighed tiredly. "Remus," there was a note of pleading in the woman's voice now. "Please. I'm begging you. I wouldn't ask if I thought this wouldn't help. With everything that's happened recently…"
"You don't know anything about what's happened recently! After you ran off, we lost everything we had at the ministry! You were what kept Cornelius Fudge in line!"
"Then I'm terribly sorry I couldn't stick around and play whore for the Order, my friend. Things happened that were beyond my control. There is an entire nation under my command. Yes, Remus, I left, but you know damn well that I did it for the good of this organization!" Rainey's fist hit the table.
"What about Sirius?" Lupin asked quietly.
"What about Sirius, Moony?"
"He gave everything up for you."
"Sirius understood what I had to do."
"Sirius could never understand why you left. He spent seventeen years looking for you, Rainey!"
"It was for his own good."
"To hell with his own good! Why do you think he let you go? He loved you, Damn it!" Beside him, Harry's two best friends gaped in astonishment. Harry felt his own jaw drop. He had thought his godfather told him everything, but he had never said anything about this.
"I wasn't safe, Remus! You remember what it was like. If I would have stayed, he would have gotten killed."
"Maybe that would have been for the best."
Rainey fumed. "How could you say such a thing about him?!"
"Do you know what he's been through?"
"I couldn't live with myself if I had let my own selfishness destroy him!" Now it was Rainey who sounded tired. "I know everything." Harry, Ron, and Hermione could hear the scrape of chairs as his godmother sat down. This was turning out to be a long argument. Despite his curiosity, his knees were starting to ache from kneeling. He stood up. Still in their positions on the floor, they looked up at him as if to ask him where he thought he was going. He knew if he left they wouldn't continue to listen in. For their sake, he decided to carry on his reconnaissance leaning against the doorway. This turned out to be a bad idea. In the time it had taken for Harry to reposition himself, the conversation in the kitchen had ended. Lupin burst through the door, sending Harry flying. As he rushed out, the first thing his foot made contact with was the side of Ron's face.
"OW! GEROFF!"
The ex-professor jumped back in astonishment. He was clearly taken aback.
"Ron?"
"Yes professor" said Ron, a bit stiffly. Hermione stood up. "We were just coming down for an, um… snack. Ronald tripped on the last step."
"And what about him?" Lupin asked, nodding towards the sprawled lump on the floor that was Harry.
"He, erm… "
"You were listening in, weren't you?" Mrs. Weasley appeared out of nowhere. "Honestly, Ronald, I have come to expect this from your brothers, but from you! Why, I never!" She shook her head in astonishment, grabbing Ron by his collar. "Up to your room this very instant!" She dropped her handful of collar, watching the retreating form of her son as he half-ran up the stairs. She eyed Harry and Hermione disapprovingly. Without another word, they too vanished. Coming from Mrs. Weasley, they all knew what that look meant. They found themselves once again in Ron's room. Redheaded Ron was, by the looks of him, already half-asleep, his lanky figure splayed over the small bed. He was too tall for the comforter; like most of his clothes, a few inches of wrist and ankle stuck out. Hermione prodded him awake.
"Honestly, Ron." The pair began to argue, but Harry wasn't paying attention. He was sitting away from them, a few feet to the right of the bed.
"What do you think Lupin meant?" he asked suddenly, interrupting the squabble. "In the kitchen, when he and Rainey were talking about Sirius…"
"It seemed pretty obvious, Harry." Hermione replied, biting her lip. "What worries me is what she meant."
Harry recalled his godmother's words: I wasn't safe… There is an entire nation under my command... The location of the Order has been compromised. What could she have meant? There were too many questions. What the answers were they would have to discover tomorrow. He was feeling drowsy. He yawned and excused himself, stumbling into his own room just in time to hit the bed, fast asleep.