Disclaimer: duh.

Dedicated: To my Grandpa. The Depression, 5 wars, hippies, disco, the 80's, 9/11, 62 years with one women, 3 sons, 3 daughter-in-laws, 3 grandchildren, 3 step-grandchildren, 85 years and 13 days; man, that's one hell of a life. God rest his soul. Tawberries!

XxXxX

As their second year came and went, all seven of them had some sort of feat to accomplish. James was not only preoccupied with getting better at Quidditch, but also trying to get Lily's attention. Lily's goal was to ignore him.

Remus, Melanie, and Peter (a/n: yes, he's making an appearance) were trying their best to keep the peace between the groups and keep up on their homework.

Aly and Sirius seemed to be determined to never be left alone together. When they got caught in such moments, they'd always quickly found a way out of them. Since their fight, Sirius had slept with seven different girls and Aly did her best to ignore the fact that they were girls she openly hated.

At the mere age of 12, Sirius had become the schools playboy and soon he became the object of most girls' desire. There was rarely a day when he wasn't cornered in the common room or pulled off into a classroom. If a girl snogged with a boy, she was usually labeled a "slut," but with Sirius a girl wouldn't be named because just about every other girl was envious.

Much to Aly's dismay even Melanie seemed to want to be Sirius' next hook up.

Aly's mind left the whole Sirius thing around January. She was visiting with her dad, something he had request she do once a week, when the Minister of Magic appeared through the fireplace. He started talking very fast about 4 new suspicious deaths. Dumbledore held up his hand to stop him, but he kept on going.

"Dumbledore, who is this Voldemort and how is he doing this?"

"Minister, if you could hold that thought for a moment." Dumbledore told him and turning to Aly said, "Alyson, you can go."

In a sugary-sweet voice, Aly replied, "Oh, but daddy, this is our special time together. I can't just leave. I may not see you again until next Sunday."

"Alyson," Dumbledore warned in a deep tone.

"Fine," she said slamming her book shut and leaving.

While that conversation she heard in her father's office didn't bother her, Aly realized the next day that this Voldemort was a serious threat when a name of one of the dead people jumped out at her from the paper. Lennox Johansson danced in front of her in bold, black ink. Aly felt a lump form in her throat. She looked up at her father and saw that he was talking to McGonagall very seriously and he looked very grave. He turned and caught her eye. He nodded at her and stood and strode out of the Great Hall.

Aly, taking his hint, got up and followed.

The gargoyle was moved when she arrived at his office and she ran up the revolving staircase. Her father was looking out his window at the grounds below when she got there. She was out of breath and as soon as he turned and he looked at her, tears started falling from her eyes quickly and she began to shake. He was at her side instantly and wrapped his arms around her. She cried for a long while and he just held her quietly except for the soft hushing noise he kept making, which was very soothing to her. Aly heard a rustle of wings and a loud cry which made her insides warm. She pulled apart from her father and her pet phoenix, Fawkes, tilted his head and let out another cry and Aly smiled.

"That's better," Dumbledore said softly.

Aly wiped her face with the back of her hand. "Yeah," she sniffed and then looked up at her father, "Why him?"

Dumbledore turned and walked behind his desk. Aly had always loved it when he sat behind the desk. It was large and when he sat behind it he radiated a strong force of power that Aly admired. She had once crawled up into the chair when she was young and was highly disappointed when she didn't feel any more powerful. She had smashed the chair into pieces after that. And now, long past the chairs initial repair, her father sat in it and glowed in all his glory.

"Lennox was known to be close to me," Dumbledore started.

"So?" Aly asked impatiently sitting down quickly in the chair facing him. Fawkes came zooming at her and landed lightly on her knee. She stroked his head as she waited for her fathers answer.

Dumbledore looked at her for a moment and then continued. "We are entering dark times, Aly. Voldemort—"

"Who is he? And what did he have to do with Lennox?" Aly interrupted.

"He is a powerful wizard who is looking for race purification."

Aly looked at him trying to understand what he was saying.

"He wants all pure-bloods," Dumbledore explained. "Absolutely, no muggle borns. And he's willing to do all means necessary to make that happen. He'll kill anyone who gets in his way."

Aly's eyes went wide, "You don't really think he's that powerful do you?"

She paused for a brief moment to let him answer, but not long enough for him to actually say anything because she suddenly gasped, "Lily's a muggle born!"

"I know and so was Lennox," Dumbledore replied calmly. "A powerful one at that. He was said to be the next Minister of Magic. He knew just about everyone in the ministry and was held at great esteem and Voldemort knew this. He could easily convince many wizards that Voldemort had to be stopped. And Voldemort didn't want him doing that."

"But what's that got to do with knowing you?" Aly asked feeling tears well in her eyes again at her father's words.

"I knew Tom, that's Voldemort's given name, I knew him while he was here at Hogwarts. He was a prefect and Head Boy. He disappeared and has now reappeared in his new state. He knows that I will do everything in my power to stop him before he gets too many followers."

"How does he know that?" Aly asked.

"Because I told him," Dumbledore said simply.

Aly looked at her father in confusion. "You told him?" she asked with skepticism.

"I went and saw him and told him to beware and then he started throwing what I assumed as only empty threats,"

"Assume makes an ass out of you and me," Aly said simply.

"Yes it does because he proved me wrong. Lennox was my best friend for almost my whole life, Aly. I went to school with him. I valued his friendship above almost all my others and that's why I named him your godfather, and because of that he was taken from us." Dumbledore shook his head and looked down at his desk.

"What other threats did Voldemort make?" Aly questioned. She felt a sudden weakness when her father looked back up at her. He looked helpless even from behind his desk. Aly had never seen him like this before.

"He said the things I love most will be the first to go."

Aly listened to these words and they slowly started to sink in; the things he loves most--that meant her.

She couldn't voice this aloud, but they had one of their rare connective moments, where they both looked at each other and it was as if their thoughts overlapped without a word said. Aly always thought it was because her dad could read minds, but tonight it hit her that it was because they thought so much a like and so often had the same train of thoughts.

He nodded at her and said, "I think you should head off to class. You missed your first one. Charms, I believe."

She stood up and so did he. "Watch out for yourself." he said quietly. "Come see me if you see or hear anything odd."

"I will," she said almost automatically. She walked to the door of his office as she opened it and was about to walk out he called out to her, "I love you, Aly."

She turned and looked at him. There would have been no doubt in anyone's mind that it was true because he wore the emotion on his face.

"I love you too, Dad."

XxXxX

She arrived at Transfiguration ten minutes late and slipped silently into her seat. McGonagall said nothing to her, but paused slightly in her lesson. She continued once Aly had sat down.

"Wait," James called out. McGonagall turned and looked at him. Her lips pursed tightly together.

"What is it, Mr. Potter?"

"Why is it that I came in 3 minutes late and I got this big long, droning speech, that just kept going on and on and on—"

"Will you please get to your point," McGonagall snapped.

"Yeah, I got yelled at for 3 minutes. She's," he looked down at his watch, "She's 12, no 13 minutes late for class and you completely ignore her."

When McGonagall said nothing, James said, "That's not fair treatment of students. Just because she's the headmasters daughter doesn't mean she should get out of class. I mean that's not fair and it's—"

"My godfather died," Aly snapped starring straight ahead at the board.

James stopped talking and turned to look at her. The whole class seemed to turn and look at her.

"Oh—"

"So," Aly said turning to McGonagall, "Porcupines to pushpins today?"

McGonagall, picking up on Aly's changing of the subject, started back on her lecture on the transformation.

Lily leaned over to Aly, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Aly whispered. "I think this is about as good as I'm going to feel for a while."

XxXxX

Aly had never been to a funeral before and hoped she'd never have to go to another one ever again.

Lily accompanied her since they had to take the carriages. It had been a surprise to Aly when she had walked in to Dumbledore's office and had seen Lily and her father waiting for her. They didn't talk much during the ride there. Lily would occasionally ask a question about something pertaining to Lennox and Dumbledore would politely answer them. Aly, however, remained silent.

The funeral was short and packed with ministry workers. After they had all paid their respects, Aly and Dumbledore made their way out to the grave site. Lily left them off alone. Aly said nothing as they lowered the casket into the ground. She just threw a daisy on top of the casket and a single tear fell from her eyes.

Dumbledore sent Lily and Aly back to the castle without him. He said that the greeting and talking to people afterwards may be too hard for Aly. They made it back just in time to eat lunch. Aly walked silently into the Great Hall and sat down. Lily started eating without a word.

"You should eat, Aly."

"I'm not hungry."

"That doesn't mean you shouldn't eat."

"Lily," Aly said with a note of desperation in her voice, "Please just drop it."

Lily fell silent and continued to eat, stealing glances at Aly every few bites. A draft of cold air swept through the hall and four boys came bouncing into the hall. They walked past Aly and Lily, but one of them doubled-back.

"Aly, are you ok?"

Aly just shrugged and continued to stare down at her empty plate. Remus sat down next to her.

"The funeral was today wasn't it?" he asked.

Aly looked up at him and whispered, "Yea." For some reason, looking into his calm grey eyes, it shook something in her and the tears that had been welling up inside of her all day burst through and she started bawling. Somehow she ended up in his arms and he was patting her on the back.

When her crying turned into dry sobs, she looked up and took in the scene around her. Lily was standing up looking terrified, James and Peter were whispering and starring at her, and Sirius had stood up and looked as if he had frozen in air. He looked very perturbed by the scene before; Aly couldn't tell if it was because she was crying or because she was crying on Remus' shoulder. Aly made eye contact with him and he stood up straight and she pushed away from Remus quickly. They held the eye contact and something sparked inside of Aly's chest.

She jumped up, mumbled some excuse about unfinished homework, and stumbled out of the hall unaware of where she was going. All she knew was she had to leave. Half way up the steps, though, she felt a hand grab her arm.

"Aly," Sirius started.

"No, don't," Aly said pulling away from him.

His grasp tightened on her arm though. "Come'on," he said pulling her up the steps. "We need to talk."

XxXxX

May the trumpets sound because it is complete! Sorry it took so long, but senior year is a killer, but good news is I got into college .:happy dance:.

I hope you enjoyed it. More to come soon, hopefully. Okay, have lovely day!