I'm back! And I apologize for the delay. I just started school last week and had to write an essay. One week of school and they've already got us doing major projects! I swear, my teacher is possessed by Professor Snape.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! And thanks to those of you who answered my question about Draco's eyes. I don't know why I couldn't remember they were silver! Haha. Also, I'm changing the timing on some stuff in the story. Just pretend that Harry had gotten the Marauder's Map earlier. It's not going to screw anything up though, so don't fret.

I don't own Harry Potter.

At the sound of her father's name, Arra's feet took control of her and fought their way through the crowd and away from everything. Before she was completely out of earshot, she heard Dumbledore order everyone to the Great Hall, so she knew to stay away from there. Her legs kept going, even when confused voices of friends called after her in concern. It was like her mind had shut down and transferred the decision making process to her lowest limbs. She ran, and ran, and ran all the while angry tears flowing freely down her face, but she didn't know why. She felt like she didn't know anything at the moment. She turned down a corridor somewhere at the end of the castle and came face to face with a dead end and a brick wall. She continued to run until she reached it, not fully realizing what would happen if she did. Her body slammed into the concrete with full force and the impact threw her limp body onto the floor.

She hit the ground with a thud and the wind was knocked from her chest immediately. Her eyes grew wide as she realized her previous action, then cringed in pain when she felt it run through her body like an electric shock. Her hand slowly came up to her head where she had collided violently with the solid floor. She winced when her fingers came in contact with the back of her head and she pulled them away quickly. She groaned when she saw them covered with red, sticky liquid that was flowing freely from her open wound.

She looked around in confusion, where was she? She didn't recognize this part of the castle. She was in an empty corridor with a large window that looked over the lake. She slowly got up from the floor, which was a bit difficult, as she was a bit woozy from her injury and loss of blood. She leaned on the windowsill for support as she gazed out on the landscape. Her eyes fell on the Forbidden Forrest and she sighed as she saw the tops of trees sway in the wind. About a hundred birds then suddenly took flight from them as the sudden gust must have scared them. She felt jealous of the creatures, as they had the ability to leave at their own will, just go wherever they want without a second thought, and nobody could stop them. Her envious eyes followed them through the sky as they flew overhead the castle to a point where she could no longer see them. She turned around quickly as if expecting to see them again, but instead came face to face with Professor Lupin.

"You're a fast runner, you know. If the family business of murdering doesn't work out for you, you should really take up Olympic sprinting." He joked with a soft smile.

Arra didn't laugh, or smile. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to find you, obviously. You gave us quite a scare back there, just running away like that."

"How did you know where I was? I don't even know where I am!" She said gesturing to the unfamiliar setting.

"I recently confiscated a rather interesting map of Hogwarts from a student that aided me in finding you." He said with a smile.

She turned back to the window. "So, what's going on down there?"

"Dumbledore has assembled all of the students, save for you, in the Great Hall for the night while all of the teachers, save for me, search for our intruder." He explained as he came to stand next to her and gaze out the window.

"So he really is here then?" She asked with mild interest.

"It would seem so. And I am a bit amazed you're so comfortable being out here in the castle, in an unfamiliar area, unprotected, with a killer within the same walls as you." He said with surprise.

She shrugged. "I'm not scared of him."

"Why aren't you afraid?"

"Why aren't you afraid?" She asked skeptically as she turned to stare at him.

"How do you know I'm not scared?" He asked folding his arms across his chest staring down at her with a similar look to hers.

"I'm a very perceptive 13 year old." She answered simply.

"That you are." He agreed.

"So, how about we continue that conversation we were having earlier today?" She suggested with a hint of hopefulness.

"No. I'm afraid that wouldn't be a good idea."

"Why not?!" She flared. "What bad could come from you telling me the truth?! I deserve to know!"

"I know you do, Arra. But I fear that it will make you angry."

"I don't think I can get any angrier than I am right now." She said.

Lupin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Fine. But you must keep this information to yourself, no matter what."

"Ok, I will."

He looked at her with serious eyes and said with a stern voice, "Your father is innocent."

Arra felt like she had been slapped in the face. "What?"

"He was framed. Everything you know is a lie."

"H-h-how is that even possible? He killed those people, he killed his friends, Harry's parents! Peter Pettrigrew!"

"Peter Pettigrew is alive."

The familiar slap in her face sensation came back again. "That's not possible! How do you know?"

"I suspected your father's innocence for a while, but recent information has showed me that Peter Pettigrew is alive, and he is here, in the castle. And if you reach down deep inside your head, you will remember the truth. You were just a baby, but you're a witch for God's sake! Just try to remember something, anything!" He placed his hands on Arra's shoulders and gently shook her. "Don't you see? We must find him! Pettigrew! If we show everyone the truth, your father will be free!" He said urgently.

"I-I don't believe you." She said as she wriggled out of his grasp. "You're lying! You are probably working with my father, and you're lying so I will help you too! But I won't!" She yelled walking away quickly.

"Arra! Please listen to me!"

"NO!" She shouted as she ran away. She heard a scuttling sound like tiny claws on the floor as she saw Ron's rat Scabbers scampering away from her. She figured he had been running away from Crookshanks again, and that he would find his way back. She ventured around the unfamiliar part of the castle until she finally found an area that she recognized. Her head with filled with questions. What was Lupin talking about? There's no way that Sirius Black is innocent. Peter Pettigrew gave up his life to save Harry's parents, but that murderous raving lunatic had to kill him too! He's responsible for everything. Then why would Lupin make up a story like that? I like Lupin, I wouldn't have suspected him to be the accomplice to a criminal, but I suppose you just can't trust anyone these days. She yawned as she glimpsed out of a nearby window. Through the tops of the trees she saw the days first sunlight shine upon the castle, which told Arra that she had been up all night. She figured that her father had not been found within the castle, or else there would have been quite a commotion. Her stomach started to rumble with hunger as she realized that she was in need of some breakfast.

"Good morning." A voice said from behind her.

She jumped and instinctively placed her hand over her heart. "Oh my goodness, you scared me Professor Dumbledore!" She said as she turned to see the headmaster standing near her.

"I'm glad to have found you, Miss Black. I was quite worried after you left."

"Yeah, I just didn't want to be around everyone with all of this hullabaloo."

"Understandable. But I also wonder why you don't be with your friends during this hard time. I'm sure they will be supportive of whatever you need to talk about." He said with a knowing look. Arra frowned a bit. It was as if he knew she was thinking about the information Lupin had told her.

"I highly doubt that Professor. I'm not sure anyone would want to listen to me. I'm the daughter of a criminal, remember? The criminal who just broke into Hogwarts and now everyone thinks I'm his main accomplice." She said with a sad sigh.

"Everyone thinks that?"

"Well, not everyone. But definitely majority of the school." She said trying to defend herself.

"Do the opinions of strangers matter to you?"

"No…maybe? Oh, I don't know!" She said a bit confused.

"Will your friends think of you differently?"

"No." She said confidently.

"Well then I see nothing for you to worry about." He said simply. "As a wise man once said, 'Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.'"

She smiled. "Thanks professor. I feel kind of better."

"Good, because I'm afraid I have a bit of bad news."

Her face fell. "Did you catch him? Is something wrong? What happened?" She asked quickly.

"No, no, no, my dear. You have a, er, visitor." He said.

"A visitor? Who?"

"That would be me." The voice of Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic came from a nearby hallway.

She glowered at him. The Minister was possibly the one man in the world that she hated just as much as her father, if not more.

"Oh. You." She said with disgust. "What do you want? Come to take me away again until the matter is resolved?" She asked rudely.

"No." He said trying to stay calm. He hated how this 13 year old child could aggravate him so. "But we, the ministry, are here to ask you for your help."

"My help? What could measly old me possibly do for the great and all powerful ministry?" She asked sarcastically.

"We would like to work with you in order to retrieve information about your father."

"Information? Like from me? I can tell you now I don't remember anything from when I was with him. I was just a baby."

"We knew that you wouldn't remember, but the memories are still preserved in your mind somewhere, and we would like to find them." He said looking at the floor as if he thought Arra might explode.

"What?! You want to do a bunch of spells and probe around in my brain just so you can try and find a bunch of old memories from when I was a baby?! I thought the ministry was mad, but now I'm convinced you're all of your rockers!" She yelled as she walked away.

"Please Miss Black, the more information we have, the closer we are to catching him! Don't you want your life back to the way it was? Don't you want him back in prison? Don't you want Harry to be safe?"

She stopped. She could almost hear a slimy grin spread across Fudge's face as he knew he had gotten her. She turned around with one of the meanest scowls she had ever delivered. "Fine. For Harry. Not for you."

"Thank you. Now if you will follow Professor Dumbledore and I to the Hospital Wing, we will begin." He said already walking away.

She sighed heavily and Professor Dumbledore placed an encouraging hand on her shoulder. They trudged up to the Hospital and along the way they passed the Great Hall. The doors were still tightly closed, but she could hear some faint rustling, as if just a few people were stirring. How she wished she could be like them for once. She wished she could be in there chatting about the excitement of a mysterious killer within the school. She wanted to be normal, instead of having to have her brain probed by the ministry. And she wanted a family that she could go home to every once and a while, instead of having to stay with friends. Don't get it wrong though, she loved the Weasleys and Grangers as if they were her family and she was sure they loved her equally but, it just wasn't the same as having your own family. Nothing can replace that.

The all entered the Hospital Wing and Arra noticed a comfortable looking chair sitting in the middle of the room and an official-looking man standing next to it. She supposed he had been here for a while, as the ministry was probably praying for her to say yes to their request.

"Arra…uh, Miss Black," Fudge corrected him as Arra glared at him when he called her by her first name. He doesn't deserve to call her that. "This is Vincent Martin, and he will be performing the necessary spells for today. Now the way that this is going to work is that Martin will do the spell, but you will be the only one who sees the memories. Afterwards, you will remember all of them, so you need to tell us what you see. This is very important."

"Let's just get this over with." She said flopping down in the chair.

Fudge nodded at Martin and he went to stand behind the chair and took out his wand. He began to wave his wand around with complicated movements and muttered some words that Arra couldn't understand. She suddenly felt a buzzing sensation in her head before her eyes involuntarily shut and thousands of images that she had never seen before came flashing before her.

Her mother holding her in the hospital after she was born with her father…Her family dog, Padfoot…Her family visiting some friends who also had a child her age, a boy with black hair who looked exactly like his father, except for his eyes…Her father and James Potter talking and laughing together…Her mothers death a few days later…A familiar looking man giving her father as a hug as he mourned his wife's death…the same familiar man with her dad and James Potter, 'Lupin!' Arra thought between memories. 'He was the man in the picture, and I remember him from when I was a baby! He was my dad's best friend!'…James and her dad talking about Voldemort and his uprising, about how he would likely be coming after the Potters…The night they died, and her father took her away to Grimmauld Place… her father talking to her, even though he knew he couldn't understand her… "Arra, I want you to know that I am innocent. No matter what anyone says, I want you to hear it from me that I am innocent. I would never hurt my friends, I was framed. By Peter Pettigrew. It's his fault that everything is happening. Please don't hate me. Someday, I will find you again and fix this all."…

And suddenly she was pulled back to reality, but kept her eyes closed, the images from her past still flashing.

"Arra?" Came Professor Dumbledore's worried voice when they all noticed she had come back to consciousness. "Are you alright?"

"I REMEMBER!" She shouted as she opened her eyes to see and anxious minister waiting.

"What? What do you remember!" He said impatiently.

"I, uhhhh…" She stopped as she remembered what Lupin had told her. 'You must keep this information to yourself, no matter what.' "I didn't see anything that would be beneficial to you." She finally said.

Fudge's anxious grin wiped off his face immediately. "What?! Nothing? You didn't see anything?"

"Would you like to hear about my first Christmas?" She asked sarcastically as she stood up from the chair. "I received footy pajamas!" She said with fake excitement.

"Miss Black, you didn't see anything that could be useful to us catching him?"

"Nope. I suggest you start working on plan B, Minister." She said with a smirk as he walked out of the Hospital Wing with Martin hot on his heels.

Arra let out a small laugh. Either from relief, or from realization, she didn't know.

"Something funny, my dear?" Dumbledore asked with a smile.

"Oh, no. Just glad he's gone." She lied.

"Hmmm, I'm getting the feeling that there's something your not telling him." He questioned with a twinkle in his eye.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, sir." She said with a small smirk as she excused herself. There was someone that she needed to talk to.

Ah-ha! I love throwing twists into the story, they're so much fun! I think it will be interesting to see how Arra reacts to everything now because of what she found out. Hope you all are enjoying reading this story as much as I am!

That quote that Dumbledore says is from Dr. Seuss. I freaking love that guy and I just felt like it would work there.

After reviewing, today I have ice cream for you! (Because High Queen Crystal hates chocolate. :-)