A/N: I'd say I'm 'bout half way done with this story...in fact, I'm probably well past the half-way mark! If anything there will be a minimum of 5 more chapters left before this story comes to a close. Of course, this is only a rough estimate~

This chapter is simply a bridging chapter. So not a lot of excitement. XP

Chapter Fourteen

In Which She Returned

Sirius was happy that Christmas time was drawing nearer. The house wouldn't be empty anymore, with the children staying at Grimmauld Place for the holidays. The thought made him evidently more cheerful, however one person kept him from feeling truly excited.

Arabella.

A few weeks or so after Arabella had her memory erased by Snape, Snape reported at a meeting that Arabella was caught by Lucius Malfoy. The news caused an immediate uproar at the meeting. Everyone worried if any of the Order's secrets were revealed or if Malfoy had given the girl to Lord Voldemort. However, Snape informed that he had already confronted Malfoy on the matter; apparently she was to be kept a secret and so a plan was hatched. Snape would sneak a portkey to the girl.

Sirius was more than upset that the plan didn't work. He was furious. According to Snape, Lucius had pushed past him and managed to stun Arabella. She fell into the pond and disappeared.

Since then, Malfoy had been keeping an eye out for the girl, as did the Order, but she hasn't been seen in five months. Dumbledore even allowed Lupin to check Arabella's residence to find that she was not home and that her father was worried beyond belief. It was a mystery. How could a muggle disappear in an instant? Where could she have gone?

Remus had brought up the matter several times, mostly trying to get Sirius to forget about the girl. But how could he? He was with her for only a few days and yet he cared strongly for the sweet Arabella. Many nights, in his dreams, he simply held her in her arms, other nights he'd go a little farther than simply holding her. But lately, in his dreams, he only saw her sleeping in a bed with two shadows standing beside the bed. Her sleeping face was angelic, and a few times he saw her, he thought she might have been dead. However, every so often she'd sigh his name.

"Sirius."

"Sirius."

"Sirius."

Was she waiting for him to rescue her? Was this why she called out to him through his dreams? He had voiced to the other members of the Order his desire to help her, but he was shot down. It was too risky for him to go outside. So inside he stayed, worrying about Arabella behind his smile and sarcastic remarks and humor.

On another note, he was very glad that Harry was doing alright. After the dementor attack in the summer, which happened around the same time Arabella's memory was wiped, Sirius was slightly worried for his godson. But Harry inherited much from his parents, especially the ability to protect himself. Harry no doubt heard about Arabella from Ron and Hermione, but Harry had not mentioned it to Sirius once. Of course, Harry did have a lot on his mind anyways. Sirius couldn't help but wonder what Harry would think about Arabella, especially since she was probably only about a few years older than Harry.

Sirius shook his head as he walked down the stairs after giving Buckbeak his dinner. Everyone else, the Weasleys, Harry, Lupin and Kingsley, were already in the kitchen eating dinner. He walked in and sat down at the end of the table.

"'Bout time you got down here Sirius, I was afraid Buckbeak ate you for dinner instead." Remus said, passing Sirius the mashed potatoes.

"I was just thinking about some things and lost track of time."

"Ha ha, no need to hurt yourself Sirius," Kingsley laughed.

"Ha ha, you're so clever Kingsley. I hope you don't hurt yourself with your 'sharp wit'."

Dinner proceeded smoothly. There were smiles and laughs all around. However, the group had barely started desert when a knock sounded out from the front door. Everyone froze and stared at one another.

The knock came again, louder this time.

Sirius was the first to speak and shouted. "Kreacher! If that's you, then you better stop making that racket!"

"Sirius!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed.

"It's probably Kreacher anyways…" He mumbled.

The knocking at the door started again.

Remus got up and took out his wand. "I'll go check it out."

"No, no, allow me," Kingsley said, getting up from his seat as well.

"Hold it! I want to answer the door!" Sirius exclaimed. "I barely do anything anyways…"

Remus refused Sirius' offer immediately. "And what if it's a death eater out the door? You can't be seen Sirius. And don't worry about it Kingsley, I can handle this."

Sirius grumbled how he'd take out the death eater anyways, but sat down as he was told.

Remus left the room and everyone else waited in silent suspense. They all jumped when they heard Remus exclaim. "What in the world!? How did you…!?"

Everyone at the table stood up at once because of Remus' sudden exclamation. All were wondering who it was on the other side of the door. All eyes were locked on the kitchen door, waiting to see who Remus would bring with them. The door creaked open and Remus walked in with none other than Arabella Roland.

"Molly, we'll need something hot for Arabella to drink…"

"Of course! Right away!" Mrs. Weasley hustled about to get a tea kettle going.

Sirius was in shock. Arabella was shivering from head to toe and her hair and clothing were wet, stuck to her skin. Remus had draped his coat around her. She had been looking around the room at the many people before her eyes rested on Sirius. Sirius felt very nervous. Did she remember him?

She walked forward to him, step by step, until she had her arms wrapped around his waist. "Sirius…" She began to cry, hot tears rolling down her cheeks.

Was he dreaming?

Arabella shouldn't be able to remember him, and yet…here she was. He slowly wrapped his arms around her. "Come sit down okay?" He urged gently.

She shook her head and buried her face into his chest. "You're warm."

"Just sit down…" He pushed over towards the chair he had been sitting in previously. He was more than happy to see her, but having everyone's eyes on them was rather unnerving. He was wondering what Harry was thinking at the moment.

Kingsley grabbed his coat from the back of his chair. "I'll go notify Dumbledore of this immediately."

"Please do," Remus said with his arms crossed. He had a grim look on his face, even though he was relieved that Arabella was alive.

Sirius stayed closed to Arabella. She seemed to be a bit dazed, her expression almost vacant. Her teeth chattered as she reached for the tea Mrs. Weasley handed her. "T-Thank you, Mrs. Weasley."

"No problem my dear…what happened to you?"

"It's snowing outside and I don't have any other clothes. I was close, so I came straight here." She managed to say, still shivering in her robes…robes!?

"But where have you been the last five months? We were so worried about you and when you didn't turn up we feared the worst."

"I need to talk to the leader first." She said. "The leader of the Order of the Phoenix."

Remus frowned. "How do you know of the Order?"

Arabella fidgeted. "The…fairy queen told me."

One of the Weasley twins snorted, and was smacked upside the head by their mother.

"The fairy…queen?" Remus repeated.

"Remus," Sirius stepped in. "She's tired. Let her rest first and we can question her later."

"Sirius is right. Arabella have you eaten at all yet?" Mrs. Weasley didn't even wait for an answer. She began piling a plate of the left-overs from dinner. "It's not much but…"

"It's fine Mrs. Weasley…" Arabella took a shaky hand and began to eat slowly.

"Wait…" One of the boys said. Arabella looked up to see a boy with wild black hair and green eyes staring at her. She didn't remember who this was or meeting him before for that matter. "Who are you?"

"Arabella Roland."

Harry couldn't help but notice how close Sirius stayed to this Arabella person. He couldn't help but notice the look on Sirius' face when she first came in the room. And he couldn't help but notice the way Sirius looked at her now, and all she was doing was eating. He remembered both Hermione and Ron talking about her. Apparently she was able to get into the house, but the Order had her memory modified. She was a muggle, but it struck Harry as odd, after all a muggle wasn't supposed to see the magical world.

"And…you are?" She asked.

"Harry Potter."

"Oh…" Arabella could sense something was amiss, but simply dismissed it. "Sirius, what day is it?" She asked instead.

"The 20th of December."

Arabella sighed and put her fork down. "I really need to speak with the leader and I…don't have anywhere to go…I don't know what to do when I get home…"

"You can stay here!" Sirius really liked the idea of Arabella staying.

"Hold on, Miss Roland." Remus cut in. "You owe us an explanation about what happened to you. How did you even meet Lucius Malfoy?"

"Remus…"

"I'm sorry, but this is important information that we need to know."

"I'm afraid you won't believe me…this story is even stranger than the last one…"

"Go ahead…" Remus pushed her.

"Well…I was shopping for a dress for Ethan's party…"

"Wait a minute, who's Ethan?" Sirius had to cut in.

Arabella jumped, a bit alarmed. "He's just a friend. Anyways, I was shopping for the party when I came across the invisible pub on Charing Cross Road. Usually I wouldn't have gone in, because you never know what might happen, but before I could leave I just bumped into him." She shifted a bit, before continuing. "He asked me why I was blocking his way so I went inside…but only for a moment! I left soon afterwards, but he followed me and found out that I wasn't a witch…he invited me to join him there the week after…"

Sirius was shocked. "You…you…"

"To a muggle a world of magic is fascinating! And since he was a wizard…" She tried to defend herself.

"Just continue with your story," Remus urged.

"Well we met again, talked a bit. He said he could bring me into your world and find some work for me…stuff like that, but I turned him down. The next I saw him was at Ethan's party of all places! I couldn't believe it. He made me so nervous and when he got me alone he took me away to his manor." She finished.

Everyone already knew what happened next, for the most part, from Snape's reports.

"Miss Roland, I hope you realize the severity of your actions. You had put yourself in great danger." Remus said stern faced. "According to Snape, you had managed to escape your room at the manor, but Mr. Malfoy hit you with a stupefying spell. After that you fell into the pond and disappeared…"

"I heard Tamesis' voice from the pond so I went to look. The next thing I knew, I was falling. I think it was his magic that made me disappear."

"And after which you were taken to…"

"Avalon. That's where Tamesis is from."

Remus seemed to be satisfied with her answers, and didn't push her any further. However there was one question nagging at the back of his mind. "I just want to be sure on this, but you did not meet You-Know-Who at all during your…stay at the Malfoy Manor?"

Arabella shook her head.

The table fell to silence, before Mrs. Weasley clapped her hands together. "I think that's enough of that. Arabella, you'd probably want to wash up. You can take a bath if you like…seriously Sirius? She'll only be a few."

Mrs. Weasley dragged Arabella upstairs, while everyone's eyes turned to Sirius.

"So..." Harry started. "That's Arabella?"

"I didn't mention it, because I didn't think I'd ever see her again. We wiped her memory." Sirius muttered.

"Then how did she get it back? Can you do that?" Harry wondered.

"Memories are never removed from the mind. They're merely repressed," Remus explained. "It'll take some complex magic to reverse the spell, not to mention a lot of time. I'll have to ask Miss Roland about it when she returns."

Sirius made no objections.