"This doesn't make any sense. How could one of my dad's best friends be a Death Eater?" Sirius asked aloud.

"Sirius, none of this makes sense, remember? We should have seen something like this coming."

"Maybe Pettigrew has something to do with what happened between my dad and yours," Remus said to Sirius.

"Maybe."

Sirius flopped back down onto the grass, arms folded under his head. A group of fourth year Hufflepuff girls walked by on their way to Care of Magical Creatures, and Sirius winked at them. They immediately burst into giggles and several blushed. Jamie and Remus rolled their eyes.

"Sirius, why do you do that? You're such a prat," Jamie sniffed indignantly.

"Yeah, seriously Sirius," Remus added.

Padfoot smiled.

"Seriously, are you serious about what you're saying about your best friend, Sirius? You seriously can't be serious that anything that Sirius does is just a joke, and isn't done seriously? I'm seriously offended."

Both Remus and Jamie flung their History of Magic textbooks at him.

"Ow!" Sirius exclaimed as the edge of Jamie's book grazed his head, "That seriously hurt."

"Shut up Padfoot," Jamie and Remus replied in unison.

Remus returned to staring out across the half frozen lake. It was nearing the end of March, and the three friends had spent the greater part of the last month (interrupted by only one full moon) searching the school's records for any other history concerning Peter Pettigrew and his relation to any of their parents.

He was an average student. Had a fair few detentions. But this didn't surprise any of them, especially considering he was once a Marauder. But when it came to finding out why he was in Azkaban, the search became difficult. All that was mentioned in the old copies of the Daily Prophet that they were able to procure was that Pettigrew had been a Death Eater and had participated in several attacks on Muggles as orchestrated by Lord Voldemort. This did nothing to tie any of their parents to him, or give any clue as to how it was related to what happened between the four friends.

Jamie flipped open the copy of the Hogwarts records of 1975 for what seemed like the millionth time. She randomly turned the pages, lost in thought, until Remus suddenly stopped her.

"Wait, go back to that one page," he said, leaning towards Jamie and beginning to ruffle through the book.

"That 'one page'? Yeah, that's oddly specific of you there, Moony," Jamie said sarcastically.

Remus growled and took the book from her. Sirius sleepily opened one lazy eye to watch Remus in his frantic search.

"What? What did you see?" Jamie was now interested as well, especially because it seemed as if Remus was now looking down the list of seventh year Gryffindors.

Remus stopped, and peered at the page closely, as if he had found what he was looking for.

"Come on, what is it?" Jamie asked impatiently.

Remus had a strange look on his face.

"That's my grandmother."

"Oh…kay? What's so special about that?" Sirius asked and sat up. He took the book from Remus in order to get a better look at the picture.

He peered closely at the picture, his mouth opening slightly.

"What is it??? What's the big deal?" Jamie couldn't stand it any longer. She grabbed the book from Sirius, who didn't seem to notice, but was now staring strangely at Remus.

Jamie glanced at the page.

" 'Black, Andromeda'….Are you serious? You have to be kidding me," Jamie quickly looked from Sirius, to Remus, then back to Sirius.

"My grandmother's name is Andromeda…and that's her picture…," Remus began slowly, "She married my grandfather who was a muggle born, his last name was Tonks, and then had my mother only a year later."

"Andromeda is my dad's favorite cousin. She was the sister of Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy," Sirius said, looking a bit dazed.

"So…so…," Jamie faltered, attempting to process this new information, "…so you and Sirius are related? Distantly. I mean, Remus, your grandmother is Sirius' father's cousin. But still…weird…."

Remus faced Sirius. "That means that my mom is your dad's second cousin."

Sirius pretended to tear up and gave a sniff. "I always knew we were like brothers!"

And with that, Sirius threw his arms around Remus and squeezed him tightly.

"This – is – just – not – normal – anymore," Jamie stared at Remus' amazed face.

"My mom has never mentioned any of this," Remus said.

Sirius shook his head. "Neither has my dad."

Jamie let out a frustrated sigh and held her head in her hands.

Far away, the bell tolled for the end of class, and in their case, the end of break, and the trio got up quickly in order to make it to Potions on time.

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Jamie sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall on Friday, which was buzzing with conversation. The Easter holidays were finally upon them, and today had been the last day of classes. Despite that the next week would be free of classes, they certainly weren't free of work. The OWLs were drawing ever closer for the fifth years, and their teachers had piled on an extra load of work to be completed by the end of break.

Not only did the end of year terms put a slight damper on the usual bright atmosphere of Hogwarts, but the increased report of Muggle attacks had begun a whole new wave of hushed conversations between huddled groups of anxious teenagers. The final straw came when a third wizard that had ranked high in the Ministry mysteriously disappeared, and another witch turned up with no memory of where she had been for the past three months. She swore she had been attacked by a group of hooded wizards, but couldn't recall what had happened afterwards. Aurors had arrived at her house only moments after the report of a disturbance had been reported, the Dark Mark hanging above her house.

For a week afterwards, all Hogwarts talked about was the story, the picture of the eerie green serpent and skull hovering ominously on the front page of the Daily Prophet.

More students filed into the Great Hall now that dinner was drawing closer, and Sirius and Remus arrived together and sat down on either side of Jamie.

"Anything?" she asked.

"No. I've never thought that the library would fail me." Remus looked grim.

Sirius rolled his eyes, but didn't seem all too pleased either. The two had spent the afternoon in the library, going through old periodicals to no avail. Jamie hadn't gone with them because her head hurt and scar had tingled uncomfortably, and felt it better to go lie down until dinner. Yet she was afraid to sleep, and instead was left turning the pages of the photo album Hagrid had given her when she was eleven. Several tears had splashed onto the surface of a photograph of her parents on their wedding day, surrounded by Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew; her vision had blurred before she realized she was crying.

"Are you sure you even slept? You look worse than before," Remus commented and put a hand to her forehead.

Jamie only swatted it away and gave a shrug of indifference. Thankfully, food appeared on the table and any other questions were diverted while everyone dug in.

The mood in the Great Hall lightened slightly as everyone ate and talked, and by the time dessert appeared on the table, the sound of laughter that had been so rare in the last couple of weeks could be heard up and down the table.

"Sirius, you're disgusting," Jamie smiled as Sirius sprinkled a third spoonful of sprinkles onto his strawberry ice cream sundae. On Jamie's other side, Remus had squeezed the bottle of chocolate syrup to its last drop, and sheepishly handed the empty bottle to the third year sitting next to him.

"Eat girl!" Sirius commanded Jamie.

"I'm good, I can't eat like a dog," Jamie stuck out her tongue.

Both Remus and Sirius looked offended.

"Watch this Remus," Sirius picked up a brownie in one hand.

"Jamie, what were you doing snogging Malfoy last night on the quidditch pitch?" he asked.

The disturbing thought forced Jamie's mouth open in protest, and Sirius promptly shoved the brownie into it. She choked and was forced to chew and swallow the treat before she could thoroughly throttle Sirius. Several people sitting around them had burst into laughter, Jamie's face still red from coughing, and Sirius wincing and rubbing his shoulder.

Things quieted down in the Great Hall as Dumbledore stood up and looked out onto the student body. The last voices died.

"Dear students, it seems as if its been a longer year than usual, and has weighed down upon us more heavily than in the past. Yes, there are things happening outside these walls that many of you only hear second hand, and perhaps even prefer to ignore. I'll tell you, nothing is more intolerable than intolerance itself."

There was complete silence in the hall. A few students gave each other significant looks.

"But, this does not mean, of course, that we cannot find happiness. Only once we allow others to take away our ability to enjoy those special moments in life have we truly lost, and allowed the other side to win."

There was another short pause.

"And thus, I am happy to announce that Hogwarts will be holding a ball next Friday."

This time Dumbledore was forced to pause as the students, who had been sitting with rapt attention only moments before, suddenly burst into cheers and excited chatter.

Dumbledore raised his hands in order to bring relative silence again.

"Not only is this going to be a celebration for you students, but your parents as well. They have all been invited to attend, and no, not to chaperone and ensure that you do not sneak off with another fellow student during the course of the night," Dumbledore gave a small smile as snickers erupted amongst the boys and several girls giggled. The teachers did not look amused.

"I encourage each of you to propose to your parents that they arrive the day before in order to spend some time with their children. Arrangements have been made in Hogsmeade to accompany any parents that wish to lodge there. The Weird Sisters are scheduled to play (more cheers) and I hope to see you all enjoy yourselves immensely, as well as this will be an opportunity for your parents to see you and meet each other. And for now, I wish you all a good night."

The students got up to leave to their respective dormitories, all chattering excitingly. Most students seemed happy that they would be able to see their parents again for the first time in four months.

There were three students in particular that were the last ones sitting in the Gryffindor common room at two in the morning, filled with an equal amount of excitement and dread.

"The results could be disastrous," Remus said.

"Yeeeeaah…I can totally see your dad and my dad getting into a fist fight, wands aside," Sirius said jokingly.

Jamie shook her head, smiling.

"I'm actually excited. I want to meet your parents. I want to see the looks on their faces when they realize who you spend all your time with during school, especially during full moons," she said.

Remus' face darkened, and he looked around quickly to ensure that they were the only ones in the room. "My father would kill me if he found out that anyone, even my best friends, knew about my lycanthropy. I know he only gets angry because he doesn't want me to experience what he has when others have found out about his condition, but still –"

Remus' sentence was cut short as his owl flew through the open window and dropped a letter into his lap.

All three looked curiously at the letter.

"Interesting time for mail," Remus said, raising his eyebrows and picking up the letter.

He tore it open and began reading, his expression changing. He continued reading more feverishly, then handed the letter to Sirius and Jamie, who huddled around it in order to read it together.

Dear Remus,

How are you sweetheart? I hope this letter finds you well, and that the past couple of months haven't affected you too badly.

I am sure that by now Professor Dumbledore has made the announcement about the upcoming ball. I am more than happy to tell you that both your dad and I will be arriving on Thursday morning. I can't wait to see you Remmy, especially since you didn't come home for the Christmas holidays. Please tell me you haven't grown even taller, or the first thing we'll do is head down to Hogsmeade to buy you new robes.

Speaking of Hogsmeade, I'm meeting an old friend of mine there for tea Saturday afternoon, and would like you to come as well. Please, bring your friends along so that I can finally have a chance to meet them.

I expect you there at 2 p.m. – no excuses Remmy. Don't get into any trouble.

Love,

Mum

"Scooooore! I get to meet your mum tomorrow!" Jamie jumped up excitedly and clapped her hands together.

Remus himself looked rather pleased that he would see his mother again for the first time in seven months. Sirius was rereading the letter.

"Hopefully she'll like me," Sirius said smugly, "I mean, how can she not?"

Remus gave Sirius a look. "Don't do anything stupid, please at least try to make a good impression. She is used to dealing with canine behavior, but please don't act like the mutt you are."

Sirius gave a wolfish grin. "I will be on my best behavior, Remmy."

Remus buried his face into a couch cushion as the other two burst into laughter.

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