Chapter Nine: Halloween Part One

I do not own Harry Potters 1-7.

N. Joy!

"What d'you think is taking Harry so long?" Ron asked on Halloween morning. The three of us were waiting in the empty common room for Harry to come out of the boys' dormitories.

"I dunno, Ron, you're the one who sleeps in the dorm with him," I replied, leaning back on the banister that led to the third year dorms. "Why didn't you wait for him?"

"I thought he was behind me,"

"Look, here he comes now," Hermione said, pointing up the stairs as the door opened.

"About time, Harry, come on," I said, pushing myself off of the banister and into a standing position. "Don't want to miss breakfast,"

"I didn't think you'd all wait for me," he said as he came down the stairs. "I thought you were going to go straight to the village,"

"We can't go until nine thirty," Ron said. "But we wouldn't've left without saying goodbye first," he added hastily as Hermione administered one of her signature glares.

"Oh," was all Harry said.

"You're thinking about that letter again, aren't you?" Hermione asked sensitively. Harry made no reply. He had come back to the common room two days ago, holding the letter and looking upset. Ron had asked what was wrong and the three of us ended up with the letter while Harry made straight for the boys' dormitory, slamming the door loudly behind him.

"I'm sure she just did what she thought was best, Harry,"

"Yes, Hermione, because assisting a murderer in escaping so that he can come and find me is definitely the best thing," Harry snapped. We walked in silence for a moment. "I'm sorry," Harry muttered.

"It's okay, Harry," Hermione answered quietly.

"No it's not; none of this is your fault. I shouldn't be snapping at you for trying to make me feel better," he said, holding up a hand to diffuse any interruptions.

We continued our walk in silence and ate breakfast in the same fashion. Harry walked us to the entrance of the school grounds where Filch was accepting permission forms from the third years. Harry stood back a little as Filch looked over the group of Gryffindors.

"You'll be able to go next time Harry," I said walking over to him after Filch had approved Snape's signature. I reached out and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "I promise,"

He grinned, if a little sadly, and took his hand back to wave goodbye as we, the third years, made our way down to the village.

"I feel terrible," Hermione stated once we were out of Harry's hearing range. "It's so unfair,"

"Agreed," Ron said, nodding his head.

"What's terrible?" Fred Weasley asked, coming up from behind us with George.

"It must be horrid for you two to be agreeing," George added.

"Harry can't come to Hogsmeade," I informed them.

"Why not? Didn't anyone sign his form?" George asked.

"No," Hermione answered.

"Why not just write to Keena? I bet she'd do it," Fred suggested.

"She's not in contact," Ron said, but he said it in such a way that made it sound as though he had an idea.

"That's a shame," George said, in the same tone of voice as Ron.

"A right shame," Fred added. "We'll see you lot later," he added and the two of them headed in the direction of Zonko's Joke shop.

"What d'you suppose they've got up their sleeves?" Hermione asked, looking after them curiously.

"Who cares?" Ron asked. "I've just had an idea,"

"What?" Hermione and I asked in unison.

"Why not just write to Keena asking her to sign the permission form? She's his legal guardian whether the ministry recognizes it or not,"

"It's not the ministry she's got to worry about though, Ron, it's Dumbledore," I countered, shaking my head.

"What makes you say that?" Hermione asked, her curiosity directed at me now.

"She said so in that letter, remember? Remus and Dumbledore don't trust her so why wouldn't her signature be void?"

Ron shook his head. "Not in the magical world. Legality doesn't work like that. If Harry's parents made her his godmother, she has the final say. The only one who would have authority over her would be his godfather and she's never even mentioned him," he explained.

"So what you're saying is that despite anything anyone says, if she signed a Hogsmeade form, Harry'd be allowed to go?" I asked. "Legally?"

"Yeah," Ron nodded.

"Why do you even know that? I don't even know that!" Hermione asked.

"You weren't raised magical," Ron shrugged. "So, now that we've discussed my genius, let's go to Zonko's or maybe we could go to--"

"Let's go to the Shrieking Shack," I said, cutting Ron off. "Let's see if it really is haunted," I gave a wicked grin and began making muggle ghost sounds.

"Alright," Ron said with a shrug.

"How close d'you think we can get to it?" Hermione asked as we started off towards the end of town.

"Depends," I said airily.

"Depends on what?" Hermione asked.

"Knowing Kailey, probably depends on if you want to get in trouble or not," Ron answered.

"You guys know me too well," I grinned, turning around to face them.

"Shouldn't you face forward when you walk?" Hermione said, though she was grinning.

I waved a hand at her. "Where's the fun in that? You guys can pull me out of the way if I'm gonna hit something," I said beginning to skip, the wind blowing my hair in my face.

"Are you sure you want to trust us with that?" Ron asked.

"Well…" I took my hand and rubbed my chin. "Hermione at least,"

"Oi!"

"What? You asked,"

"I didn't expect you to answer like that, though!"

"Um…guys,"

"How did you expect me to answer then?"

"Kailey--"

"Not like that, at the very least I thought you would take a go at both of us,"

"Kailey, you're going to--"

"When I can take it to the oh-so childish level of boys versus girls? I don't--" I collided suddenly with something that was at my knee's height and I toppled over backwards and something yelped as I gave a short shout of surprise.

"Oh, are you alright?" Hermione asked, rushing over to help me up. I held up my hand but she went right by me and began petting a large, slightly messy, black dog.

"Yes, Hermione, I'm fine, I only think I broke my tailbone," I said sarcastically.

"Well, I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen." She said, continuing to stroke the big, old puppy. "The least you could do would be to apologize," I pulled myself off the ground and knelt down next to her and the dog.

"You want me to say 'I'm sorry' to a dog?" I asked. The dog whined and I rolled my eyes. Go ahead and milk it for all its worth…

"I think you may have hurt him," she said worriedly.

"How do you know it's a him?" I asked innocently. The dog gave what could be called an indignant growl.

"Honestly," Hermione muttered.

"Alright, alright," I said as Hermione began to glare. "I'm sorry, boy, I didn't mean to bowl over you," I scratched behind the dog's ear and one of his back paws started thumping. "There, satisfied?" I directed at Hermione as the dog barked in reply.

"Yes," she said, grinning.

"That's great, now can we go to the Shrieking Shack?" Ron asked impatiently.

"Yeah, let's go," I said, standing up.

"Preferably forward this time," Hermione said pointedly.

"Aw, but I promise not to run over any more dogs," I said, clasping my hands together as though I were begging. Hermione just rolled her eyes and we continued our walk. After a moment, I noticed that the dog was following us.

"I wonder whose dog he is," Ron said.

"I don't think he has a collar," Hermione observed. "Maybe we should take him to the school?"

"No, I don't think that's a good idea," I said quickly, thinking of all the ways Remus could react. "What if someone in there is deathly allergic?"

"We can't just leave him out here," Hermione said. "It's almost winter,"

"I bet he has a home, his owner's just don't have a collar for him," I said. The dog nodded his head. I groaned inwardly.

"He just nodded his head." Ron said, laughing.

"Did he?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, wonder if he'll do it again." Ron said, looking at the dog. "Go ahead, show 'em,"

The three of us stopped and the dog sat down, looking from Ron to me to Hermione.

"I don't think he'll do it again, Ron," I said. "He must have just been trying to smell something," Ron shrugged and we came up to the fence that blocked off the Shrieking Shack.

"It doesn't look haunted," Ron remarked.

"I've heard that it's been silent for years," Hermione said knowledgeably.

"Let's go see if it still is," I said, climbing over the fence with practiced ease. Ron followed but Hermione looked hesitant, looking from the dog to us. "C'mon," I said, waving her over.

"But what about the dog? We can't just leave him here,"

"Hermione, are you too nervous to climb over a fence?" Ron asked, grinning. Hermione grumbled under her breath but said nothing to either of us while Ron and I shared a smirk.

"Easily solved then," I said, walking down the fence to where a locked gate was waiting. "Alohomora," The gate creaked open and I stuck my head out. "There, now you and the dog can come through,"

Hermione heaved a sigh but walked over, the dog bounding along beside her. "There, now we are officially breaking and entering on somebody's property. That's brilliant, now when can we leave?"

"Just as soon as we knock on the door," I said, heading towards the house.

During one of the Marauders' and my full-moon wanderings, we had discovered that if anyone touched the house, the entire thing would shudder and then appear as though it burst into flame. If it was a person who wished ill on the house or whatever was inside it then they would be covered in a blue-gray slime that took weeks to come off completely (we'd experimented with Snape). If it still did that, then next Hogsmeade trip I would have a dare ready for Malfoy.

"Kailey, I'm not so sure about this part," Ron said just as I raised my fist. "What if it is still haunted?"

"We live in a castle full of ghosts and poltergeists and Filch, I think we can handle this," I smirked over my shoulder. I knocked on the door and the house began to shake, weakly at first before it started to look as though it were in a high level earthquake.

The three of us and the dog backed up away from the house when it suddenly burst into blue and green flames. Hermione gave a small shriek and Ron had turned deadly pale. I just looked up at the house, wide-eyed for appearances sake. Hermione tugged on my sleeve and grabbed onto Ron's arm and began to drag us away from the house at an extremely fast pace. The dog followed us out back onto the road. As soon as we were on the other side of the gate, the flames went out and the Shrieking Shack was quiet once more.

"Wicked," I grinned. "We should get Malfoy to try it next time we're here,"

Hermione and Ron exchanged glances before looking back at me. Then understanding dawned over Hermione's face.

"You knew that was going to happen didn't you?" she accused. "So you thought you'd test it out for yourself, scaring us half to death!"

"Well, it was a pretty cool show if you ask me," I shrugged. "But seriously, imagine Malfoy's reaction," Hermione paused, though she still looked angry, but Ron was now wearing a huge grin.

"Bloody brilliant idea, Kailey," he agreed as we started heading back towards the village, the dog still following us. "But we'll have to tell Harry ahead of time and make sure he makes it in here,"

"Only if Black is caught," Hermione added quickly. The dog began to sound as if it were choking on something. We all looked at it for a moment before we resumed walking and our conversation.

"But I promised Harry he could come on the next trip," I argued.

"How do you propose he gets here then?" Hermione asked. "There are too many dementors around for him to get here with his cloak and there's no other way out of Hogwarts,"

"He'll get here," was all I said.

"I don't think he should come out of the castle at all if Black is still out there. What if he did manage to get into Hogwarts somehow? Harry would be in so much danger!"

"That's making the assumption that Black is a bad guy at all," I cut in. "There isn't any proof for us that he did commit those murders, for all we know Keena could be right,"

"Do you know something that you're not telling us?" Ron asked.

"You'll have to be a bit more specific, Ron, I know a lot of somethings that you guys don't,"

"Something about Black then?" Hermione specified.

"Still too vague,"

"Is Black as bad as everyone has made him out to be?" Hermione asked.

To answer or not to answer…well, I vowed not to lie…but will they believe me…?

I looked at the dog, who was sitting very still now and staring at me with unblinking eyes, waiting…

"No he isn't," I answered quietly.

"Then why don't you tell anyone?" Ron asked.

"I tried telling Snape and he told me I was being ridiculous. He said I had no idea what I was talking about and then he told me to stop talking about it," the dog growled angrily.

"What about Dumbledore? He'd believe you," Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"No, he just agreed with Snape saying that some matters I was not experienced enough to know fact from fiction," I replied bitterly.

"Maybe they're right," Hermione said.

"What?" Ron and I chorused and the dog barked loudly.

"Since when is Snape ever right about this stuff?"

"Since when is Kailey ever wrong about this stuff?"

"Hear me out," Hermione said. "They both knew Black, right? They knew how he acted and how he is capable of acting. Maybe it's just better that we leave this to the ministry and Dumbledore,"

I couldn't think of anything to say so I just let my jaw drop. Then a few words came to mind. "You don't believe me either?" Hermione didn't answer but gave a non-committal shrug. "You don't. Just come out and say it. I've been wrong on enough accounts that it isn't logical for anyone to believe me anymore. Go ahead, that is what you're thinking right? Well, forgive me for not being perfect,"

"I didn't expect you to be perfect," Hermione replied calmly. "But you can't be right about everything. You've said that yourself. This is probably one of those times,"

"It can't be, though," I answered. "You don't understand why and I can't tell you, but I know that Sirius Black is an innocent man,"

"But you've never even met him," Hermione argued. "You don't know what he could be like. He could just be deceiving wherever you got your information from,"

"I'd never met any of you and I still knew all about you," I retorted. "Look, it doesn't matter. I think I'll just go back to Hogwarts, I need to think to myself for a bit,"

"We'll see you later then, I suppose," Hermione replied.

"We'll bring some sweets back for you and Harry," Ron added. I just nodded my head and made my way back towards the dirt road that led to Hogwarts.

I was halfway up to the gates when the dog began tugging on my robes.

"What is it?" I asked, a little snappishly, looking down where the dog was sitting. "If you want to talk to me you'll have to figure out how to speak human as a dog,"

He barked. Twice. Not exactly what I meant.

"Do you want me to follow you somewhere?" he wagged his tail and stood up. "Alright, but if we're followed I'm blaming you," he barked again but began trotting towards the forest.

Wonderful…now I either get to explain myself to Lily and James along with Sirius or to just Sirius…either way, I think I may need a headache potion when I get back to the castle…this day has been amazingly fun…

We were deep within the forest now, on the familiar route that I had only taken two or three times before. Padfoot was still leading me in dog form so I opted to change into a wolf in case any forest creatures happened to be in passing. We arrived at the small cabin fit for two or three people to live in and Padfoot gave a bark once we were at the door.

"About time you got back here," a voice said from inside as the door opened. "Sirius, I told you to try and find Keena, not some wolf," James had his wand out and pointing at me as Sirius transformed back.

"I did find her. Well not her, but her other self," Sirius said as I transformed back. "See? No wolf,"

"Just an animagus," I added. "Hello, Mr. Potter,"

"Um…could you perhaps change into Keena?" James asked after a moment.

"If I do, will I be reprimanded by perhaps the fiercest woman on the face of the planet?" I asked carefully.

"Probably," James and Sirius said in unison.

I sighed before willing myself to be Keena again. "Better?"

"For us, yes, for you, not so much," James said. "If Sirius hadn't found you today, you'd be receiving a timed Howler tomorrow at breakfast,"

"Fantastic," I said, entering the house. "Any hints on how to diffuse this anger?"

"Let her say everything without interrupting and you should be good. That's what I did," Sirius said. "Though that was after I had had my turn." He added as an afterthought.

"Should I expect to be yelled at by all three of you at some point today?"

"No, my anger at you pretty much fell apart after I remembered that you gave me my wand," Sirius answered, shaking his head. I chose to get a better look at him then. He was clean-shaven once more and his hair was back to an acceptable length. His eyes weren't nearly as sunken as they had been in Azkaban and his skin had gained back much of its color.

"I'm glad. And you're looking and sounding much better by the way," I commented.

"I'd say the same expect you didn't look bad when I saw you in the first place," he replied flirtatiously.

"Down boy," James said. "She's thirteen, remember? Same age as Harry and everything,"

"You know, James, when you say it like that it makes me feel, I dunno, impure," Sirius replied with a hint of humor.

"Sirius, you've never been pure." Lily had come up from their basement and was in the stages of looking livid. "And you, Keena, you have been so silent lately that I was beginning to think you forgot about us."

"Well it isn't as if I live with Remus anymore, Lily, I'm either at school with my friends or in my father's quarters," I replied. "Er…Kailey is anyway. I kind of am supposedly out of the country at the moment,"

"You think that just because you have different living conditions you can just cut us out? Unfortunately life doesn't work like that! And your friends are no excuse, seeing as they probably would understand that you want to be in touch with Sirius or Remus! And who is your father that you can't tell him about us? No, you've got no excuses whatsoever, Keena McIntosh!" she stopped yelling and was just staring at me, glaring with her vivid green eyes that matched her son's perfectly.

"No excuses?" I repeated. "Pardon me, but it was you and James who didn't want Harry to know about you and telling him that I wrote letters to the two of you would probably give that away. As for my father and his 'understanding' I don't think that Snape would be too satisfied if he knew I was in contact with a fugitive or his school rival, he's already trying to separate me into two separate people so that I'm just Keena and Kailey is just Kailey. Not to mention the fact my friends didn't believe me when I told them that Sirius is innocent so I can't write him a letter around them either. I'd use the Remus excuse with them expect for the fact that Remus is working at the school as a teacher. I'm sorry, but I haven't found the time to write a decent letter," I finished fuming and was proud of myself for not yelling everything.

We all stood silent for a full minute before James gave a little cough.

"Sorry, but did you just put the words 'father' and 'Snape' in the same sentence?" I nodded mutely, raising an eyebrow. "Then you must have inherited everything from your mother,"

Another minute of complete silence later we all broke down laughing.

Once we sobered up we made our way into the cozy living room and sat down. I sat on the big chair while Lily and James took the sofa and Sirius sat on the rocking chair. I looked around, smiling to myself at the image in front of me before remembering that it wouldn't be able to last, at least not for me.

"I'm sorry, Lily," I said after staring at the fire for a minute. "I should have found time to write a letter, I found time to respond to one Harry wrote I should have written you one too,"

"It's alright. I'm sorry for snapping at you," Lily replied. "But I think it would be easier for you if you told your friends more about yourself,"

"I know, but I'm just…"

"You're afraid they'll reject you," James said expertly.

"Am not," I replied, crossing my arms.

"Yeah you are. Don't lie; I've known you too long." James argued. "The longer you wait the more likely it is that your friends will be angry, especially Harry,"

"But they won't listen to me. I mean, Sirius, you saw their reaction when I told them you were innocent and they know that I helped him escape. They'll probably report me or something,"

"Dumbledore won't let that happen though," Lily said. "He would never let that happen,"

"The only reason he didn't come out and accuse me is because I'm two people in one and he doesn't want to punish one of us for something the other one did,"

"That's ridiculous," Sirius growled.

"Moony must believe you though," James said. "And if he doesn't, get him to visit us sometime, we'll get him to understand,"

"I'll hold you to that," I said. "By the way, how goes the horcrux hunt? Or the lycanthropy thing?"

"I think we might be closer to the lycanthropy cure than the horcrux problem," Lily sighed. "That's not saying much though,"

"Have you found any others? Besides the cup and the ring I mean?" I asked.

"Nothing," James answered, shaking his head. "But we had a thought the other day, about another horcrux,"

"Which one?" I asked.

"The diary, the one that Harry destroyed in the Chamber last year,"

"Harry destroyed a what?" Sirius nearly shouted.

"Harry destroyed a horcrux in the Chamber of Secrets," I replied. "Using the tooth of a basilisk,"

"The one that petrified you?" Sirius asked for clarification. I nodded. "So it's dead then?" I nodded once more. "And Harry killed it?"

"With the sword of Gryffindor," James added, sounding proud.

"Oh," was all Sirius could manage to say. "I think I need to be filled in on a few things here," he added after a moment.

"So it was a horcrux?" Lily asked, ignoring Sirius for the moment. "And the venom of that basilisk destroyed it? Brilliant, now we know that we have to use basilisk venom because that's so easy to find,"

"Did James teach you how to perfect sarcasm?" Sirius asked. She glared at him but he only grinned back at her and her glare fell.

"So you guys don't have any other ideas about Horcrux locations?" I asked before the two could start a contest to out insult the other.

"We think Hogwarts is a good bet," Lily answered. "But we can't get in there,"

"You mean you two can't," Sirius replied. "I was going to stop in there tonight in any case; I might as well poke around before I go in search of that stupid rodent,"

"Sirius do you know how stupid that would be?" I said. "If you went at all, you'd only have time to do one or the other and either way you could be caught. You do realize that if a dementor gets near you it is going to Kiss you, right?"

"It'd be worth it if I got the rat first," he growled.

"I can't believe you just said that," I snapped, standing up and glaring at him. "Or did Azkaban make you forget?"

"I couldn't forget that no matter how hard I tried in there," he answered quietly, the look in his eyes becoming sunken and dark as they had been in Azkaban, but I refused to apologize for what I said.

"I think Sirius should go into Hogwarts," Lily said after a moment's silence. "But not to look for Horcruxes. I think he should try to track down Wormtail."

"The point of that being what?" I asked.

"The point being that you can't tell us where he is, but if Sirius sees him then we've figured it out ourselves. Is he supposed to go into the castle?"

"That's completely beside the point!"

"Is he supposed to though?"

I frowned before folding my arms like a child and sticking my tongue out at Lily, who smiled triumphantly.

"Can I go too?" James asked eagerly, Sirius nodding excitedly beside him.

"No," Lily and I chorused.

Now it was James' turn to pout.

There is Part 1! I hope you enjoyed it and give me an awesome review (any review at all is awesome really…) and I'm so sorry for not updating sooner, but school is a bit more intense this year than last year. :--( Oh well. Up next is Chapter 10!

:-D