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FAMILY COMES FIRST.

"I swear to God, I'll kill McLaggen," Harry grumbled a few days after the accident.

"I already tried," I sighed. "Unfortunately, Remus and Snape wouldn't let me get my hands around his neck. Although, I heard all the Gryffindors are giving him a rough time about that huge loss."

"Good for them," he ran his fingers through his hair, making the dark locks stick up everywhere. "I bloody hate him. Glad Ron's going be playing Keeper for the next game."

"I hope Luna's doing the commentary again," I chuckled. "She really laid it on McLaggen and the other team. At least she's on your side, Harry."

"Yeah," Harry said darkly. He was quiet as we turned a corner. We were wandering aimlessly among the corridors. "I had another meeting with Dumbledore the other day."

"And?"

"You're not telling Lupin any of this stuff, are you?" asked Harry.

I bit the inside of my cheek. "No, I haven't. But I just don't understand why you can tell Hermione and Ron, but I can't tell Remus. That doesn't seem fair to me."

"I reckon it's because Lupin's in the Order, you know?" Harry shrugged. "And he'd probably tell the whole Order if we're onto something."

"You think he'd do that?"

"Don't you?"

"I guess so…" I looked at Harry. "Anyway, what happened this time with Dumbledore?"

"There were two memories this time," Harry said quietly as we climbed the moving staircase to a higher floor. "The first one, it was a younger Voldemort and he was at this woman's house, collecting a locket."

"What would Voldemort want with a locket?"

"Who knows?"

"Well, anyway, what was the second memory?"

"Voldemort came back to talk to Dumbledore," he said and his voice was very quiet. "But he wasn't like Tom Riddle – he was turning into Voldemort – I could see it. He looked more like he does now. And he told Dumbledore that he went by Voldemort, not by Tom Riddle. But he came back and asked Dumbledore for a job."

"A job? As Headmaster?"

"No, here at Hogwarts."

"What job, then? Quit avoiding it!"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"But Dumbledore didn't give it to him," I thought out loud.

"No, he didn't," Harry said. "And it's because he rejected Voldemort as a teacher that Hogwarts hasn't been able to keep a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for more than a year."

"Wow." I looked at my feet and when I looked up again, I realized that Harry had brought me to the seventh floor, in front of a large wall. I glanced at Harry. "Why are we here?"

"I know where Malfoy's going."

"Harry, what are you – where do you find out these things?" I scoffed. "You've got to tell me them right away! How do you know that Malfoy is really in the Room of Requirement?"

"I set Kreacher and Dobby on him."

"Harry!" I hissed. "How could you use Dobby like that!"

"You don't care about Kreacher?"

"Well, I won't lie and say I like them both equally," I hesitated. "But that's wrong! You can't have house elves spy on someone – especially one of the elves not belonging to you!"

"Look, I called Kreacher and Dobby showed up, too!" Harry protested. "Dobby actually offered to do this. He didn't even sleep!"

"Harry!"

"Be quiet, Darcy," he groaned. "You're starting to sound more like Hermione by the minute. Now, shh, I have to concentrate. I need to get in here."

I sat down against the opposite wall, watching Harry walked back and forth in front of the entrance to the Room of Requirement and after half an hour, I was beginning to grow extremely bored. Harry was becoming increasingly frustrated and went up to kick the wall. He screamed out in pain. "Forget it, Harry," I said, standing up. "Malfoy would have made sure that you or anyone else wouldn't have been able to get in."

Harry hesitantly agreed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lupin rolled over in bed and moved closer to me slowly, kissing my neck. I was wide awake, staring at the pitch black ceiling. "You're becoming distant towards me," he sighed, his hot breath tickling my skin. I bit down hard on my lip. "Why?"

"I'm not acting distant towards you," I snapped. He was quiet. "I'm sorry."

"Talk to me."

"About what?"

"What's going on?" he asked. "Did something happen with Tonks or Severus? Or Harry?"

"Look," I said, turning towards him. "I wish I could tell you everything, but I can't, and you've got to understand that."

"I just don't understand why you aren't able to tell your own boyfriend," he laughed like I was acting ridiculous.

"I don't understand, either," I murmured.

He rolled away from me again and laid on his back, turning his head to look at me. "I love you, Darcy."

I looked at him. "I love you, too. Don't think I'm trying to be distant from you, because that's the last thing I want to be." I hesitated and looked away. "And remember, Harry comes first. You said you understood that, so prove to me that you do."

"Sure, Harry comes first," he argued. "But can you at least prove to me that I come second? Prove to me that I still matter in all of this."

I breathed in and held my breath. Lupin was giving me one of the saddest looks I had ever seen. "What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to prove that? You know I love you."

"Do you?"

I sat up and looked down at him, on the verge of tears. "I put my dreams on hold for you. The one thing I've wanted to do since I was a little girl – I did that because of you."

"Well, if you want to become an Auror, I'm not stopping you now."

"Don't be like that!" I yelled, my voice shaking. "How could you say that I don't love you? I gave up my dreams for you and that was a hard thing to do. I don't think you realize how much I didn't want to do it and then I thought of having you and it seemed so much better – having you compared to having my dream job. I'd rather have you."

Lupin looked defeated.

"How can you even suggest that?"

"I just – I'm sorry, I just got mad. You're my number one priority and I'm your number two and that hurts a little bit."

"Remus, family comes first," I replied. "It's not like I'm putting Snape before you or Tonks. I'm putting my only family before you and I'm just asking you to respect and understand that. He needs me – he needs more protection than you do."

Lupin rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. "Darcy, I feel the same way. I don't have anyone else but you," he said with a loud sigh. "Your parents – my best friends – are dead and Sirius is dead and Peter – Peter was never my friend… I need you… I need you to be here for me."

"I am!" I told him desperately. "I'm always here for you when you need me! I heal your wounds and brew your Wolfsbane, I listen to you and comfort you, and I love you! And it breaks my heart to hear that you don't really think that I love you."

"No, Darcy, listen –" He stopped abruptly, apparently thinking what to say next. Instead of speaking, he sat up and touched my hands, pulling me to him. I placed my ear to his chest, listening to his rapid heartbeat. "Please, don't leave me."

"I don't want to leave you."

"I don't want to leave you, either."

"Then please, just understand that I can't tell you everything even though I want to. I'm not hiding it from you because I don't want you to find out; I'm hiding it from you because I'm not allowed to tell you."

"Says who?"

"Dumbledore," I whispered.

He dropped it right away.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Oh no," I moaned as Harry, Hermione, and Ron showed me the note from Hagrid. Lupin and I were sitting in the courtyard after lunch. "This is not good."

"What's happened?" Lupin asked, raising an eyebrow. He flattened his hair and looked over my shoulder.

"Aragog's dead," I said quietly.

"Oh… you're not thinking of going, are you, Harry? Or any of you three?" Lupin looked at them carefully.

"You'll all get in serious trouble is someone finds out you're down there," I told the three of them. "And why would you want to go down there anyway? That bloody spider told its friends to eat us!"

"That's what I said!" Ron announced, holding out his hand. I high-fived him. "At least someone agrees with me!"

"He'll just have to bury Aragog himself," Hermione shrugged. "Besides, Harry, you can try asking Slughorn about the memory this evening while we're taking our Apparition test."

"Fifty-seventh time lucky, you think?" snapped Harry.

"Lucky…" Ron and I said at the same time. We looked at each other and he spoke first. "You're thinking what I'm thinking, right, Darcy?"

"Liquid Luck!" I said happily.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Hermione threw her hands up and sounded stunned. "Good thinking!"

The bell rang throughout the castle and Lupin and I stood up. Hermione and Ron bid us goodbye, going with the other students to take their Apparition test. Harry stayed behind. "Ready for Potions?" I asked Harry and he nodded reluctantly. We said goodbye to Lupin as he walked up the stairs to our quarters and I walked down to the dungeons with Harry.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Potions was a nice relaxing break from everything. Only three people were in class that day – Harry, Malfoy, and Ernie. Harry and I packed up after class and headed back up to my quarters, waiting for Hermione and Ron to return from their tests. Harry held the Felix Felicis in his hands, silently thinking.

I sat on the couch beside Lupin, his arm around me, reading the Daily Prophet. "Harry?" I said suddenly and he looked up from his spot on the armchair. He hummed. "I'm coming to Hagrid's with you tonight. I'm coming with you to get this memory."

"No, you don't have to."

"I'm coming with you."

Harry chewed his lip. "Fine."

"I don't need the Liquid Luck. As long as one of us drinks it," I said quietly and Harry nodded.

Hermione and Ron joined up later in the afternoon. Hermione passed, but Ron had just failed, leaving behind an eyebrow. We all got right down to business and Harry held up the small phial with the Liquid Luck. "Are you going to drink it or what?" Ron asked and Harry breathed in deeply, nodding.

"Here it goes." He opened the phial and drank the clear liquid, sticking the stopper back in the phial when he was done.

"How do you feel?" I asked hesitantly.

"Excellent," he said with a grin, getting to his feet. I felt Lupin's hand tighten on my waist as I tried to get up, but he let go reluctantly. "Really excellent. I'm going to Hagrid's."

Lupin got to his feet and grabbed my hand. It was clear he didn't want me to go and I looked at him with a pleading look. He kissed my cheek and let go of my hand. "What? No!" I protested. "We've got to talk to Slughorn!"

"We're going to Hagrid's," Harry said, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the door. "I've got a really good feeling about Hagrid's, like it's the place to be tonight."

"Harry, he's burying Aragog tonight!" Hermione reminded him.

"Trust me," Harry told us all. "I know what I'm doing – or, Felix does."

I walked behind Harry, looking suspiciously at him and then looking around to make sure no one was watching us. Amazingly, the front door was open and Harry led the way outside as we began walking down to Hagrid's house.

"Do you want to walk through the vegetable patch?" asked Harry suddenly, stopping at the bottom step.

"I thought we were going to Hagrid's!"

"I'd love to walk through it, though," Harry shrugged, turning towards the vegetable patch. "It's not exactly on the way, but we'll still make it to Hagrid's."

"Harry, are you sure you know what you're doing?" I asked cautiously. He nodded with a great big smile and I followed him slowly towards the green houses. As we walked down the vegetable patch path, I was extremely surprised to see Slughorn on a tall ladder, his rear end sticking out of a window. Harry and I looked at each other. Slughorn began stepping down the ladder and when he saw us out of the corner of his eye, he jumped, placing a hand to his heart.

"Merlin's beard, you two! Scared the daylights out of me!" Slughorn gasped. "How did you two get out of the castle?"

"Through the front door," Harry said eagerly and I shrugged at Slughorn, raising my eyebrows. "Well, we'll be on our way now."

"No!" I hissed, grabbing Harry's shirt, but before we could get much further.

"What?" Slughorn said. "Where do you two think you're going?"

"Hagrid's," Harry explained. "You see, he's a very dear friend and it's this giant spider – he's had him for years – it died last night and he's devastated. He would like some company while he buries it."

"Well you two, being Potters, can't just be out at this time of night!" Slughorn protested, walking towards us. I looked at Harry, not believing it. Felix really knew what it was doing! "Come on, come on."

As the three of us journeyed to Hagrid's, Aragog's body was outside his hut, dead, but still scary. I jumped a bit at the sight of him. Aragog seemed to have grown bigger. Slughorn seemed amazed. "I'm glad you two came," Hagrid said, wiping his eyes with a huge, table cloth sized handkerchief. He cleared his throat. "Horace."

"Magnificent!" Slughorn exclaimed. "Hagrid, my friend, do you mind if I extract a few drops of acromantula venom? It's extremely rare – although, the last thing I want to be is indelicate…"

"Don't suppose it'll do him any good now…" Hagrid cried.

Slughorn went over to Aragog confidently, taking some drops of venom into a vial and he tucked it back into his cloak, walking over to the three of us. "Shall I say a few words?" Slughorn asked and Hagrid nodded. "Farewell, Aragog…"