Of course I am not JK Rowling and Harry Potter belongs to her, I am just borrowing him for a little while! :)

If you have read this far then I thank you! This is truly the start of my story! The background stuff is all done and we can move into the stuff that truly spewed from my imagination!

Hope you enjoy! :)

Chapter Six

Remembering a Promise

It had been nearly seven years since that Hallowe'en night when the four of them had fought that troll, Taylor thought as she sat at the table watching her three best friends- well, four actually. A person had to include Ginny Weasley as a best friend too.

They were all at the Burrow, Ron's parents' place, because Ron's older brother Bill was marrying Fleur Delacour… in three days. They were all invited. Ginny was even a bridesmaid.

Taylor looked at Hermione, who was talking about the difference between brewing a potion to enlarge the flowers for the wedding or just using an engorgement spell.

Some things never change. Taylor's mind went back to their second year. That had been a very trying year for Harry but, Taylor thought, what year wasn't? Professor Lockhart, now that was a piece of work, and so many witches had fallen for his horrid charm. That was the second time Harry had to face Lord Voldemort, but of course he was Tom Riddle in that diary then. Ginny had almost died because of that diary, Taylor remembered. They had learned a lot about the wizarding world in general that year; well Hermione, Harry and I had, thought Taylor. Ron already knew about most of those prejudices. Harry knowing how to speak Parseltongue still might come in handy though. It sure had that year. That skill had allowed Harry to get into the Chamber of Secrets and kill the basilisk and stop Riddle. Taylor still wished that she could have helped Ron and Harry out more, but McGonagall had almost found them on their way to the girl's bathroom. They had decided she needed to distract McGonagall so that Harry and Ron wouldn't be seen escorting, at wand point, a very unwilling Lockhart to the Chamber so they could try and rescue Ginny.

"Hey, Taylor!" yelled Ron, flicking his wand and sending water spraying all over a startled Taylor.

"Ahh, Ron you, you jerk!" yelled Taylor jumping up from her seat, soaking wet, bringing her mind very quickly back to the present.

"Wow, Taylor, where were you? I've been trying to get your attention now for the past two minutes!" a very exasperated Hermione was saying as Harry and Ron laughed, and Ginny tried to keep from laughing but was failing miserably.

"I was just thinking," said Taylor still trying to wipe all the water off of her face. "Ginny, do you have a towel or something?" her voice tight with anger.

"Oh for goodness sake, here I'll dry you off. When do you turn of age any way," Hermione said as she took out her wand and dried Taylor off.

Taylor made a face at Hermione. She knew how to do the drying spell as well as Hermione, but underage witches weren't allowed to do magic outside of school. "You know as well as I do when I turn of age Hermione," she shot back.

"OK you two, we don't need to go down that road again," said Harry shaking his head at Taylor.

"Yeah, yeah, OK Harry, I know; toe the line," said Taylor but her angry mask had slipped away and she began to smile. It was a sore spot for Taylor though, the restriction on underage magic. The rest of them knew it too. There was nothing that could be done about it, and the last thing they wanted right now was to have the Ministry of Magic poking around here. "I was just thinking back to our second year, that's all," replied Taylor as she tried to put the underage thing out of her mind.

"Oh yeah, that was a wonderful happy year," Ginny said her voice dripping in sarcasm.

"You know I don't mean it like that, Ginny. I was just trying to go over things to see if we have missed anything," Taylor said, looking at Ginny.

"What do you mean missed something? We were all there; how could we have missed something?" asked Ron sounding confused.

"You're talking about some sort of a clue, we might have forgotten about, right?" asked Hermione, getting Taylor's line of thinking right away, her voice becoming thoughtful.

"Yeah, there has to be something we are missing, some clue…" Taylor's voice trailed off. She was thinking again.

"What, besides the fact that Dumbledore is dead, and I," Harry's angry tirade began, but he amended it before anyone could interrupt him, "or we, have to find the Horcruxes; destroy them, and then I have to kill Voldemort!" stormed Harry, getting up and starting to pace angrily around the kitchen.

"Harry, you know that is not what I meant," Taylor said carefully eyeing Harry. He was so explosive these days. She was so worried about him; well, all of them, actually. This was not going to be easy.

"Harry, just sit down. We have to go about this rationally. You can't keep going off half cocked every time one of us tries to help think of things," Hermione replied in her best let's be reasonable voice.

"Yeah, sit down Harry. Maybe we should go over each year and maybe we've just forgotten something. I mean maybe Dumbledore left some sort of clue," Ginny said as she took hold of Harry's hand and guided him to a chair, then sat next to him, still holding his hand.

"I don't think this is going to get us anywhere," grumbled Ron, but he smiled when Hermione sat beside him and took his hand.

Taylor sighed; she didn't begrudge any of her friends the happiness they had found together. Ron and Hermione had been going together since Dumbledore's funeral. Harry and Ginny had reached a truce of sorts until after the wedding, when they would, or more precisely Harry, would go his separate way.

They spent the next half hour talking about their first and second year, the diary was definitely a Horcrux, but they couldn't think of anything else in those years that would be a clue of some sort.

"Well in the third year we thought that Sirius was trying to kill you Harry, I mean at first anyway," Ron said

"That's not quite correct Ron. We thought Sirius was going to kill Harry right up until we went to the Shrieking Shack and found out Scabbers was, in fact, Wormtail," Hermione said as she smiled at Harry, remembering when he had found out that Sirius was his godfather.

"Harry," said Taylor her voice suddenly excited, her eyes lighting up as she remembered, "wasn't that the year you got the Marauders Map from Fred and George?" Fred and George were Ron's older twin brothers.

"Yeah, they gave it to me so I could go to Hogsmeade because I wasn't allowed to go otherwise. Why? The map isn't a clue. We've used it a lot and there isn't anything special about it, other than showing us Hogwarts and the people in it," Harry said as he looked at Taylor, wondering where she was going with this.

"But, Harry, don't you see? The map shows us passageways to the Shrieking Shack and Honeydukes, but where do the other passages go?" Taylor was really excited about this new idea. Maybe there was some of Hogwarts that hasn't been searched.

"I don't know. Fred and George said they were caved in," Harry said, still not convinced that this was getting them anywhere.

Hermione jumped up and grabbed a quill and some parchment. "You're right, Taylor. We should have thought of this before. We need to find out when those passages caved in. We should ask Lupin. He'd know. He helped make the map, after all." Hermione was jotting things down.

"I think we should search the Shrieking Shack, too," said Taylor to Hermione as they looked excitedly at each other. Hermione was nodding her head in agreement.

Ron looked at the two of them and shook his head. Hermione and Taylor always got like this when an idea hit them. They'd put their heads together and talk in that excited way and usually come up with something good. Ron smiled. Hermione was happiest when she was totally absorbed in thinking about a problem. The two of them, Ron remembered, had been doing this for as long as he knew them.

"What? You think that Vo…Voldemort used those passages to…" Ginny began, but Harry held up his hand and she stopped.

Harry drew out his wand and said, "Muffliato!" Then looked meaningfully at Ginny.

Ginny understood instantly. If this was going to be important information they couldn't risk it being overheard, even in the Burrow. The spell Harry had just performed was an excellent spell to keep secrets from being heard by anyone else. I should have thought of that sooner, Ginny thought. "You think that Voldemort might have used those passageways to hide something; maybe a Horcrux?" Ginny asked again.

Harry looked at Hermione, then Taylor, as if he was judging their reactions.

"Now that we have thought of it, yes, we think that might be a very good place to start," Hermione replied looking straight back at Harry. Taylor was nodding her head in agreement.

"But those passageways probably caved in after Lupin and the others made the Marauders Map; it only stands to reason they did, if they are on the map," Ron said, clearly not convinced this was getting them anywhere.

"What if they were already caved in? If Lupin, Sirius and ah… and James," stuttered Taylor, I almost said something I shouldn't, thought Taylor quickly. "If they just found the entrance to those passageways, and they were already caved in. Then there is a possibility that Voldemort did hide something in them," Taylor finished in a rush, heat rising up her checks. Harry was watching her with his eyes narrowed. He knew what she had almost let slip.

"It will all depend on what Lupin has to say. If the passageways were open when they made the map, then Voldemort definitely didn't hide anything in them, and we won't have to go check it out. That's the biggest reason, isn't it; us going back to Hogwarts to look?" Harry said, his voice becoming belligerent again. He knew why Hermione and especially Taylor wanted to find something at Hogwarts to search for, so he would go back for their last year of school. Well, he wasn't going back. There was nothing for him to go back for. Dumbledore was dead. He still had trouble with that and he didn't think that there was anything at the school that would help him find the Horcruxes. They had already searched hadn't they?

The five of them spent the next hour and a half going over their fourth, fifth, and sixth years. They got a couple of ideas that were worth thinking some more about. One was the Room of Requirements where Harry had hidden the Half Blood Prince's potion book that he had used last year. That room was full of all kinds of things, or maybe they should see what the Room might produce if one was to look for information about Horcruxes. Another thing they wanted to do was go see the portrait of Dumbledore in the Headmaster's office, and ask it, or him - they weren't sure how to address Dumbledore as a portrait - some questions too.

Hermione was just jotting down the last idea when there was a noise in the fireplace and Mrs. Weasley stepped out of the flue, looking a bit sooty from the trip. Hermione quickly slipped the parchment into her shorts' pocket and gave her wand a flick to dispel the silencing spell.

"I hope you all have had an enjoyable afternoon," Mrs. Weasley said brightly smiling at them. "Ron please go out to the garden and fetch me some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers. I am going to make a salad for supper."

Taylor jumped up, "I'll get them for you Mrs. Weasley. Do you want any green onions or peppers to go with your salad?" Taylor wanted an excuse to be alone for a bit. All the talk about last school year had painfully reminded her of the promise Dumbledore had finally fulfilled about her parents.

Mrs. Weasley frowned at Ron but said, "Ok, Taylor, if you would like to. Please see if there are any carrots left that the gnomes haven't gotten." Mrs. Weasley was already at the sink waving her wand to cut up other vegetables for supper.

When Taylor was finally outside she leaned back against the house and breathed deeply, trying to make the knot in her stomach loosen up. She always got this way when she thought about what Dumbledore had told her about her parents, and the fact that she had promised never to tell anyone. Taylor remembered that evening like it was yesterday. It had been the first Saturday of their sixth year. She had received a note telling her to go the Headmaster's office after supper was finished. Taylor remembered being so excited; Dumbledore was going to keep the promise he had made to her back in first year. She had done as he asked and never asked anyone about her parents, and if someone did ask she told them they had been muggles. She wasn't entirely sure why she said they were muggles; it just seemed like the right thing to tell people to keep them from asking more questions. Most witches and wizards never dwelled long on the families of muggle-borns or their muggle parents.

Taylor moved away from the wall and walked into the garden looking at the vegetables and picking them as she came to them. Her mind still on that night. She remembered going up to Dumbledore's office, opening the door, and seeing Harry standing there. He had smiled at her when she went to stand beside him. She remembered feeling incredibly curious as to why Harry was there too. Surely Dumbledore planned to tell her about her parents in private. If Dumbledore waited six years for it to be the right time, and her parents' identity was such a secret, why have Harry there? Just goes to show you how off-base you can be, Taylor thought as she looked for another ripe cucumber.

It was Dumbledore's eyes that told Taylor that this wasn't going to be the happy tale she wanted it to be. When Dumbledore spoke, his voice was weary, resigned as if he wished he didn't have to tell her the truth even now. "Taylor, thank you for coming, I know you have waited a long time for the promise I made to you to be fulfilled, but first I must finish talking to Harry. You shall, however, find this is the beginning of your tale too, Miss Porter." Dumbledore turned his eyes to Harry, and spoke with the same tone. "Harry, at the end of last term, I told you all about the prophecy, and Voldemort's obsession with it. I take it you have talked about this with Miss Porter, Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley," Harry nodded but he had glanced sideways with a questioning look in his eyes. Dumbledore continued, "I didn't, however, tell you everything there is. I felt that it was not the right time with Sirius having just died, so please forgive me yet again if I have made the mistake of trying to protect you. But I believe that I can not hold off any longer. You two deserve to know the truth even if no one else can." Taylor had glanced at Harry, but Harry was looking angrily at the Headmaster. "The night that Hagrid took you to the Dursley's, Harry, I had already arranged for them to take you, such as that was, but when Hagrid arrived at the Dursley's, he had not one, but two babies with him."

As Taylor stood in the garden in the waning sun of the late afternoon, she trembled slightly, as she had in the headmaster's office. Dumbledore's words still ringing in her ears as if he were here saying them right now. "James and Lily, your father and mother, Harry, had another child, unknown to anyone, even myself." Harry had been white when Taylor turned to look at him, her eyes wide, her body trembling. Those green eyes, in a face I should know, was all that went through Taylor's mind. Harry had exploded, Taylor couldn't remember much of what he said, her mind had been bogged down with the fact that her parents now had a name, James and Lily Potter. They now had a face too, with green eyes and mahogany hair.

When Harry had finally stopped yelling and Taylor realized that Dumbledore was again speaking, her ears started to work again. Dumbledore was telling them about the importance of never telling anyone about their newfound relationship as brother and sister. Harry had interrupted and asked, "How can Taylor be my sister? Mom couldn't… I mean there wasn't time to have another…" his voice had trailed off. Dumbledore then told them that they were about eleven to twelve months apart, and that, yes, that was very humanly possible.

"But her name, I mean it's P. O. R. T. E. R. not Potter," Harry had said, still sounding like he didn't believe; didn't want to believe, Taylor had thought. Dumbledore had just nodded his head then told them that he had gone to great lengths to erase everything that he could about Taylor's past; her parent's names, her name, and her date of birth. "So Taylor is really only 15 not 16?" Harry had asked. Dumbledore again nodded then told them how he believed it was safer for her to be here at Hogwarts even though she had been a year younger, and having erased her date of birth, it had been easy to work around the age limit set for the school. "But her name," Harry began. Dumbledore had looked at Taylor with the saddest eyes that she had ever seen and when he spoke again his voice was filled with sorrow, "Taylor, I am sorry but I do not know what name James and Lily gave you. At the time I thought it safest to not find out and send it with you. I feared that somehow one of Voldemort's followers would find out about you, so when I sent you to your great-Aunt and Uncles', I told them that you were just an orphan. They gave you your name. I suspect, however, that your uncle guessed who you were and having the wit that he had, gave you the last name of Porter.

Taylor remembered standing there rooted to the spot on the floor, trembling, not uttering a word. It had been Harry who asked all the questions and Dumbledore had answered them. Taylor couldn't find her voice. Her mouth just wouldn't work, and her mind was in such a whirl that she doubted if she could have formed a coherent sentence anyway. They had stayed in the headmaster's office for a little while longer Harry asking more questions about how and why Dumbledore had kept this from them for so long. Before Dumbledore had told them they had better be getting back to their Common Room, he made them promise to never tell anyone, not even Hermione and Ron about being brother and sister. They had agreed. They didn't have a choice.

A/N Well what do you think? This is the first chapter of how I seen Seventh year happening. Like it? Hate it? Have any questions? See any mistakes? Grammer or story wise? Please tell me! I'd love to hear your oppinion! As I hinted at before this is a long story! And it truly is just getting started! It gets better... or I think it does as this first bunch of chapters was some of my very first attempts at writing. Remember I wrote them all before Deathly Hallows ever came out and I decided to keep them. I'll let you know when we reach the "after" chapters! :)

Thank you to my bata barbc! And thank you for reading, until next time, cytpotter