Sorry for the long wait. I've lost this chapter twice, I got sick and I had my school trip to Washington DC. And then my computer crashed and we had to take it in. I was part of the growing group insane enough to write a 50,000-word novel in a month, NaNoWriMo. (And now I'm not letting you read because I'm making excuses.)

This chapter has to be dedicated to Spirit of the Northlands, a wonderful person, the one who comforted me after I lost it the first time (and scolded me the second time) and the only other person writing fanfiction on the plane ride to DC.

Disclaimer: I don't own and I really don't deserve to own

I sat on the bed looking out onto the Black Lake. It was still quiet; Fred and George weren't up yet. The sun was barely peaking over the horizon. All was peaceful and calm. I glanced at my watch. I had just a few more minutes of being eleven. So much had happened since last year.

I was heading back home today. It just figured that Rigel and I would spend 5 hours on a train but I'd get to see Nymphy, Mum and Dad, so it didn't really matter.

I heard Lavender stir. I got off the bed. If I wanted the bathroom within the next hour, I had to get in there now. Hermione had already left. She was searching in the library for any information on Nicolas Flamel. She had tried to drag me down as well but I flat out refused. We'd been in there nearly everyday since Hagrid had let the name slip. I had barely anytime for maraudering. I only saw Eloise during History of Magic and Herbology. We all had plans for before we left Hogwarts, well before Lee, Eloise and I left Hogwarts. Fred and George were staying at Hogwarts while their parents visited Charlie in Romania.

I brushed my teeth and skipped down to the common room. Yes, I do mean skipped. I didn't feel like I could do anything halfheartedly. I was surprised when I saw a banner hanging over the portrait hole.

Written in Eloise's elegant handwriting were the words, "Happy Birthday Amira and Rigel! Love, Fred, George, Lee and Eloise."

They really outdid themselves. I hadn't expected anything at all. I forgot I even mentioned my birthday to them. The banner was golden with little red sparkling balloons all over it. It was beautiful.

I ran up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. I pounded on the door. Neville opened it, a sock stuck on his ear.

"Hi Amira. You can come in, though Rigel's still sleeping. Seamus and Dean are down in the Great Hall. Hermione dragged Harry and Ron off to the library not to long ago. Happy Birthday by the way."

"Thanks, Neville. Um, why do you have a sock on your ear?"

"Oh," Neville pulled the sock down from his ear. "I was just packing. Gran wants me to have every thing but I can't seem to find my Remembrall."

"It'll show up. The things we loose have a way of coming back to us in the end."

Neville shrugged, "I guess."

"Then again it could always be the house elves"

Neville cracked a smile and opened the door wide enough for me to slip in.

I approached the bed on tiptoe. Neville was holding in laughter behind me. I pounced on the bed, jumping up down for about ten seconds before getting knocked off.

"Go away, Amira!" he mumbled.

Wow glad to know I'm so loved. Neville let out a bark of laughter.

I tried being threatening, "Rigel if you don't get up, I'm getting the water bucket and we all know what happens then."

Rigel just waved me away at that.

"You have presents," I added, sidestepping out of the way of Rigel as he popped out of bed.

"Why didn't you say that first?"

"I was testing how long it took to get you up."

"So, how'd I do?"

"You," I paused for dramatic effect, "failed. Happy birthday!"

What was supposed to be a Mini Marauder meeting, turned into a massive snowball fight. Eloise joined Rigel and I on a team while the other group was Lee, Fred and George. The only rule was no magic.

Eloise and I packed snow into a small wall. We sent Rigel off to get us some snowballs.

"Be prepared. Here they come!" Rigel yelled as he ducked behind the wall and handed us both some weaponry.

Snowballs were soon cascading through the air. I was throwing them as hard as I could but my aim seemed to be a bit off, though I did see one land in a mass of red hair.

A cold wet mass hit my face. More followed. My face was like ice although everywhere else I was sweating profusely. There was no longer time to form individual snowballs. I was just pelting handfuls of snow into the faces of my attackers as they advanced.

"ATTACK!" screamed Fred as they finally stormed our little fort.

"We surrender!" Eloise shouted. She nearly pushed me over the wall right into the waiting arms of the third year boys.

"If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me," I grabbed the corner of her coat and tugged. We both toppled over the wall, getting a face full of snow. Yet all I could do was laugh. Soon the six of us were rolling around in the snow, without a care in the world.

I stared at the castle. Hogwarts was silhouetted against the icy topped mountains. It was a beautiful sight.

"Oh come on Squirt, I know-"

"-That you'll miss us-

"-Our gorgeous selves-"

" -But that's no use for the long face-"

"-We'll see you soon."

I gave Fred and George each a hug. "I'll see you soon."

"You bet you will."

They turned around to head back to the castle to the castle. Hermione rushed past them carrying a dusty old tome. It was falling apart. I'm fairly surprised Madame Pince even let it leave the library.

Hermione reached the train flushed and panting heavily. I helped her up.

"Thanks, I was just in the library. I know I've read that name somewhere. Do you think Harry and Ron will have any luck with it over the holidays?" She said when she finally caught her breath.

"Hermione, do you honestly think they'll even look?"

"Well not really, but one can hope," Hermione muttered, her voice getting softer.

"Just relax, it's Christmas. You'll get to see your family again. Don't waste all that time worrying over a book."

She nodded but I could already sense her fingers itching for the book. We made small talk as we tried to find Rigel, Eloise and Lee, scratch that while I tried to find Rigel, Eloise and Lee. Hermione tagged along.

They were in the second to last compartment on the train. Lee had his feet propped up on the seat across from him. Rigel and Eloise had started a game of exploding snap. Rigel had already lost his eyebrows because of it. The train started with a lurch that pushed Hermione and I into seats.

Hermione pulled right out the book and flipped through the pages furiously to find where she left off.

Lee gave a general glance in Hermione's direction. "How're are we supposed to pull this off with her here?"

"Lee!" Eloise scolded, "I'm sure she isn't going to be any trouble. We're done planning anyways. We just need to do it."

We all exchanged nods. This was going to be awesome. It's not like there were any teachers to stop us either. The prefects had full reign of the train and they were all cooped up in their compartment at the moment having their end of year meeting and gift exchange. Percy wasn't here either and he was practically the only one who didn't turn a blind eye to our pranks.

Lee glanced back at Hermione, "Do we have to tell her we're leaving?"

I paused, "No we'll be alright. She won't even notice we're gone. Wrapped up in that book of hers."

Eloise marched forward anyway, "um, Hermione, my name is Eloise Midgen. We're just going to visit some of my Hufflepuff friends. We shouldn't be gone long."

Hermione waved her arm and nodded like she understood but didn't take her eyes off the page in the book.

"Told you," I sang. Eloise just stuck out her tongue at me.

We walked down the hallways with a purpose. We traveled between cars until we were at the very front of the train. We all ducked down so the prefects could not see us when we passed their compartment. It was soon after that where we reached the goal of it all, the speaker system.

The plan was genius, although I doubt it required so many people. Several flicks of a wand and muttered words later, the announcement system would only speak in Pig Latin.

We made our way back to our compartment before we burst out into laughter. Hermione lowered her book and raised an eyebrow, "What did you do?"

"Nothing," we said in a purely innocent tone.

"Yeah, sure. Is anything going to explode?"

"Why would you think that?" Eloise asked, "The Hufflepuffs aren't particularly into that sort of thing. We'll just leave that to you Gryffindors but Ernie had some great jokes.

The announcement system came on just them erasing any hope of continuing to pass as innocent. "Eway areway alfwayhay oughthray ethay ourneyjay. Ebay uresay otay angechay ackbay intoway Ugglemay attireway eforebay eway arriveway atway Ingskay Osscray. Away eminderray otay allway udentsstay: Agicmay isway otnay allowedway uringday ethay olidayshay ueday otay ethay estrictionray ofway underageway izardryway. Avehay away easantplay ayday."

We tried to pass off innocent grins. Hermione gave us a stern look similar to McGonagall's. "Someone could be extremely hurt by that or at least in deep trouble with the Ministry if they didn't know about not doing magic outside of school."

I was stunned. "You speak Pig Latin Hermione?"

"Of-way Ourse-cay" She said with a sly smile.

Rigel and Lee left to fix the announcement system. Eloise brought out her book of codes and a pencil. Hermione became reburied in whatever library book she was reading. I grabbed Eliana Scott's journal. I hadn't told anyone about it yet. It felt like my own special little gift.

Hogwarts amazes me sometimes. Maize, Laura and I were on our way to potions class, when we got lost, incredibly lost. We had to sidestep a disaster in our usual corridor. The Marauders (four Gryffindor boys in the year above us) set up a forest there. A real live forest with wild animals running through it. You could hear the howling of wolves and the barking of dogs from the entrance.

It was Laura's idea to trust the winged libliats to get us through the forest. Needless to say Maize and I both rejected that pretty quickly. We ended up using a corridor going in the general direction and then planned on using "Point me" the rest of the way. Of course it didn't go as planned.

We ended up at a dead end. The only thing in front of us was a stretch of bare, damp stone wall. I might have started on a slight rant about Slughorn, potions and Slytherins in general.

Laura had just said something along the lines, "Well, everybody is a bit prejudiced," when a door appeared. Yep it came right out of the wall. You have to love magic.

The door was kind of begging for us to go through it. So we did. We were in a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling, from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. It would have been creepy but it was kind of cozy with a fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of us, and several empty carved chairs around it. We were looking around before we were interrupted by a boy, who came bursting out of a stairwell. He was about to push past us when he noticed our ties.

"You aren't supposed to be here," the boy said. He had black hair and fair skin. He was in our year, a Slytherin. "This is the Slytherin common room. Shouldn't you be in potions?"

"We're a tad lost," Maize said staring at the boy. "Um, could you help us?"

The boy seemed to hesitate. "Well since I'm going there anyways."

When we got to the forest, the boy began to chuckle. He waved his wand in an intricate figure eight motion. The forest disappeared.

"How'd you do that?"

He smirked at us. "My brother was working on it all summer while hid- while he was home."

I couldn't really place him. He looked awfully like Sirius Black, but Sirius hadn't mentioned anything about a brother and you could hear that Marauder's boisterous complaining about his evil family anywhere you went.

We walked in silence the rest of the way. The boy pushed open the door and walked into the classroom first.

"Ahh, Regulus," Slughorn said looking at the boy. "Try to be more on time."

Regulus shrugged, "I was just cleaning up some of my brother's mischief."

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant your brother…" Slughorn began one of his they're destined for greatness speeches, the ones no one wanted to listen to. I watched Regulus as his fists clenched and unclenched. His discomfort was obvious but I seemed to be the only one who saw it.

Christmas is the best time of the year. We always spend it with dad's family. Mum's family is "a bunch of raging lunatics who were dead or wishing they were in Azkaban."

A couple days before, we always gathered at Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jacob's house to bake sweets and go caroling. It was the most centralized location.

I followed Mum up to the little house. Rigel was giving me the evil eye. We had started a debate in the car over who would have to play with Abbey. She was adorable at the age of seven but there were only so many tea parties and princesses someone could take. I could already see her bouncing wildly in the window, waving ecstatically.

Dad rang the doorbell. I could hear furious running coming from inside (most likely Abbey.) Aunt Sarah opened the door. She pulled Dad into a hug before messing up the little hair he had left.

"Ah, Ted you're early," Aunt Sarah smiled. I couldn't remember a time when she wasn't smiling. She winked at Rigel and I, "How's your new school going? Practically magically, right?"

You have to love Aunt Sarah. She's the middle child, the next born after dad. Aunt Sarah knows about the wizarding world, not everything but just enough. Uncle Jacob knows a fair amount too. He lived down the street from Dad growing up. When he was finally told about the wizarding world, Uncle Jacob just said, "Well, that explains it all."

I got pulled into a hug from Aunt Sarah too before being tackled by Abbey. "MIRA! MIRA! MIRA!"

I cringed at the sound of my abbreviated name. Abbey hadn't been able to say my name when she was little. She would just call me Mira. And the name had sort of stuck.

"Our teachers taught us a new song in school. We got to go all around the halls singing the song. I got a 100% percent on my spelling test. I know how to spell the word holiday. See H-O-L-I-D-A-Y!"

"That's very good, Abbey," I said, calmly.

"Will you play with me? Please!" Abbey stuck out her bottom lip and tugged on her blonde hair. She was irresistablely cute. I almost said yes but Rigel cut in like the gentleman he was.

"Here Abbey, I'll play with you. Amira is going to help your Mummy make those biscuits you love so much." Abbey skipped away perfectly happy but Rigel shot me a you-know-you-owe-me look.

Aunt Sarah gave me a knowing look. "Just play a little with her later okay. Abbey has been talking all about her 'bestest' cousin Mira. She really misses you two now that you're off at as she calls it 'the very special school.'"

I nodded.

Mum started talking to Aunt Sarah. I walked into the kitchen. I'd get started on the fudge before Tally and Linnea got here with Uncle Dave and Aunt Karrie. They always seemed to do it every year and it was the best part. I turned into the kitchen and felt myself lifted off my feet.

I started looking around for exactly who was doing it. Uncle Jacob was sitting at the table smirking so that only left,

"DAD! Put me down!"

I felt myself being gently lowered to the ground. "Sorry about that Squirt," Dad apologized, "I just had to show Jacob some of the stuff you kids can get into at school now."

"That's alright-wait what is it with everyone calling me Squirt?"

Uncle Jacob got an odd grin on his face, "Well I guess it's just a tradition up and coming Squirt."

I rolled my eyes at that and pulled out the ingredients necessary.

"So you're liking it then? Changing desks into pigs or whatever it is you kids do these days."

"Absolutely!" I dried my hands before pulling over the flour. "My friends Fred, George, Lee and Eloise, not to mention Rigel get into-" I paused and glanced at Dad. "Maybe I should tell you later."

Dad gave me an amused smile. "Oh I know. Just be careful about what you say though. You're mother doesn't know yet."

"That explains where my howlers went."

Uncle Jacob looks slightly puzzled. Dad quickly explained, "It's like a letter with a recording of someone yelling at you in it, that plays for the entire Great Hall to hear."

He gave out a laugh before the doorbell rang.

I ran to the door to see who it was. Aunt Karrie, Uncle Dave, Tally, Linnea and little Timothy were waiting on the stoop impatiently. They were different from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jacob. Uncle Dave was a couple years older than Dad. He was always envious of Dad. Uncle Dave was the apple of Granddad and Grandma's eye until they learned about magic. I doubt he would have ever told Aunt Karrie at all if they hadn't lived during the height of the Wizarding War.

Tally, my older cousin, was just as envious as her father. I think she wanted to be a witch because she went out of her way to prove herself better than us at anything and everything.

Tally's now a couple years ahead of her year. She plays 3 different musical instruments. She's a budding actress already taking the leads in several of her school's musical productions but it never seems to be enough for her.

Linnea is fairly quiet considering the rest of our family. She stopped worrying about being outshined a while ago. She'd rather just sit in the corner with her notebook or stay upstairs with her cello than anything else. (The cello was one of the instruments that didn't make the cut with Tally. Though Linnea has the skill to make it sound like the most beautiful thing in the world.) Linnea's the closest to Rigel's and my age. She's ten.

Timothy is only three. You have to be careful around him. He's at the stage where he repeats absolutely everything because he thinks it's terribly funny. Timothy carries around a stuffed monkey named Bert everywhere.

"MIRA!" Timothy shouted and toddled toward me with his short little legs. "Bert and me took a bath. I look pretty?"

Timothy makes me smile all the time. He has the infectious little kid air about him that makes him adorable. "You look very handsome." I gave him a hug.

"Bert wants a hug too," he said holding up the monkey.

"Of course." I gave Bert a hug as well before giving Timothy a kiss on the forehead.

"Hey Amira," Linnea said, shrugging off her coat. "Where's Rigel?"

"He's downstairs."

Linnea and Rigel get along the best out of all of us. I think it's because they're so alike (quiet, slightly shy) and they enjoy writing stories together. (Well Linnea writes them and Rigel illustrates them.)

Tally brushed past me into the kitchen, without a word. Aunt Karrie made some comments about how I was growing up so fast and so well. Uncle Dave followed his eldest daughter's example.

When they had all left the entrance hall, I heard a faint pop. Within a few minutes, Nymphy was standing on the doorstep.

"I'm not late, am I?" She changed her hair color from the bubblegum pink to raven to match mine. It was just easier for everyone if she did, especially when Aunt Emma didn't know anything about magic.

"Nope!" I pulled my older sister into a hug. I missed her the most over all my time at Hogwarts. I was used to having her there to help with my every problem. Even when she was at Hogwarts, Nymphy had her ways of connecting with Rigel and I, namely the floo network. (Nymphy learned Sprout's schedule and would sneak into her office whenever Sprout went patrolling. It was typically with Charlie's help though.) But now Nymphy was either at Auror training or on classified missions (and McGonagall's office was harder to get into. I guess I could always try the Gryffindor fireplace but that might be blocked.)

I just stood there my arm wrapped around Nymphy tightly inhaling her sweet scent. Her long her tickled the back of my neck as she bent down slightly to look me in the eye. "Well, Squirt how's life treating you? That last prank turn out alright?"

"What's with every one calling me Squirt? I thought you knew better Nymphadora," I over exaggerated every syllable of Nymphy's hated name.

"Ah, but I think it's so fun to mess with you," Nymphy said a bright smile already present on her lips despite being called that horrible name.

"Good to know, I have such a loving family," I muttered under my breath.

"Oh you just don't know what you would do without me!" Nymphy stated loudly enough to let the entire house know she was here.

Timothy was the first to get there. He ran, dragging Bert and he collided into Nymphy. He was shouting, "NYMFY HERE! NYMFY HERE!" the slight lisp preventing him to say Nymphy's name properly.

We went into the kitchen to help with the preparations. I was halfway through helping Nymphy and Tally cut out the biscuits, when the doorbell rang again. Rigel went to go check as my hands were covered in flour.

"It's them"

Mum gave us a stern look. Aunt Emma doesn't know anything about our world. I'm surprised she's survived this long in the family without suspecting anything. It was a surprise to everyone when Uncle Mathew announced their engagement. Uncle Mathew is completely enthralled with his work. There were times when we didn't see him and when we did, he was still on call with the office. Uncle Mathew is a police officer. Dad says he's a natural Gryffindor. Uncle Mathew saw more things about the war than I think even Dad did. Mum, Dad and Nymphy all went into hiding. They set up safe houses, with Fidelius charms and put simple protective charms on the Muggle houses in the neighborhood, but that was their extent of the war effort.

Uncle Mathew saw it all though. He kept pushing against all odds. There were thousands of Muggle catastrophes. Uncle Mathew couldn't really do much to help but the Muggle Worthy Excuse Committee was swamped with all the battles and death eater activity. Obliviators would show up to the crime scene, get the story and wipe everyone else's minds of the incident. Uncle Mathew was left with whatever awful occurrence etched in his mind and the job of covering it all up. Dad offered some help but mostly Uncle Mathew was left alone in the world. You'd think he'd be bitter for all he's been through but he isn't.

Linnea and I were co-flower girls at the wedding. Mum had the hardest time forcing me to wear the dress but afterwards I wouldn't take it off (or stop spinning around in circles. Life was s much simpler at 7.) It was all frilly and pastel blue but it was nothing compared to Aunt Emma's dress. Hers was really something taken right from a fairy tale. When I'm older, I could probably use the memory for a Patronus, a shield charm for repelling dementors. Nymphy was having issues with it during her NEWTs. Her memory turned out to be the summer where we tried to go camping. It was a disaster. I don't think Dad should have left us to fish by ourselves. We all ended up soaking wet with nothing else to show for.

Well, what I was saying was that although it is slightly odd trying to hide a major part of our lives from Aunt Emma, she's definitely become a strong part of our family. She was the one who forced us to go caroling though we probably could have lived with out that. We're so horrible at it. Tally gets all snippy because apparently I can't sing. (There's no apparently. I stink.)

Aunt Emma is a petite woman. In her arms was my youngest cousin, Michael. He's adorable at just 8 months. His little head was covered in the fairly common short brown fuzz of our family. Michael was still asleep from the car ride. He'd soon be up and crawling everywhere. He had the natural curiosity that proved he was a Tonks.

It wasn't really Christmas, until we were all there gathered around the table. It was a simple tradition but it brought together all the comforts of the holiday season. And we always seemed to end up having a food fight with the flour. And no it is not always my fault. It's just most of the time. This year Abbey started it. She really looks up to me and that alarms me a little bit.

"So Mira, you had your flour fight. Can we play now?" Abbey smiled up at me.

"Sure. Who do you want to be? The Princess or the bad guys?" I found it cute that she purposely threw the flour in Tally's hair to get me to play with her.

"I wanted to play a new game. How 'bout we play Witches?" Abbey lowered her voice, "That way you can tell me all about your super special school without Aunt Emma knowing. She'll just think we're playing pretend."

"Absolutely, it's like we're talking in a code," I humored her.

"YEAH! We need a super-duper secret code," Abbey skipped into her room. I shrugged my shoulders and followed.

Platform 9 and ¾ was crowded as everyone tried to go back to school. It really had been a nice break. Holiday cheer had been endless. Though, I was somewhat anxious to join my fellow Mini Marauders. Nymphy had given us some amazing pranking supplies, including a necklace with a simple disillusionment charm on it. By the looks of Lee's letter, he had an idea for the silly string I'd given him.

I peered over the tops of the crowd, looking for a familiar head. In the distance was one of a girl with bushy brown hair. She'd want to know right away about Flamel. Oh Merlin, I'd forgotten about Flamel.

"Hey, Mum, What did Nicolas Flamel do?" I stared at the ground, avoiding eye contact. I was sure that if I looked directly at Mum she'd know what we were up to.

Mum gave an exasperated sigh, "Amira did you leave your History of Magic homework off to the last minute? I thought you'd be a bit more responsible."

"Andy, it's fine. Amira still got the entire 6-hour train ride to finish up the last minute schoolwork. I'm sure she doesn't do this usually," Dad covered for me.

Rigel was vigorously trying to convey that my lack of responsibility was a rather common thing. I elbowed him hard. He gave me a sheepish grin.

"Yes, mum, though can I just have a hint? I've looked everywhere," I pleaded.

"I don't really think you're old enough to be learning about it. I'd rather not have the two of you messing with alchemy. Who knows what you'd be able to get into?" Mum shrugged. I felt my heart lift a little bit. We had a clue to what was behind the trap door.

So now you've met Ted's side of the family. There is little to no information on Ted in general, so I based it on my own extended family.

As a quick recap:

Uncle Dave (the oldest of the siblings) ~ Aunt Karrie: Tally (15), Linnea (10) Timothy (3)

Ted~ Andromeda: Nymphy (18), Amira (12) and Rigel (12)

Aunt Sarah~ Uncle Jacob: Abbey (7)

Uncle Mathew~ Aunt Emma: Michael (2)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to anyone in America!