Natalie stared up at the clock tower above the Hogwarts entrance. It was five in the morning on a Saturday. For her first day, she had on a blue dress, with flared sleeves. Her hair was in a tidy ponytail as usual and she had on black stockings and Mary Janes. The size of Hogwarts made her feel small. And when she thought of all the students and staff, it made her feel even smaller.

Her father, Gregory Wilds, came over and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. He was a friendly looking man with slicked back chestnut brown hair. He had on dark blue pants and a green button down. He was also wearing a dark green cloak.

He looked up at the clock tower with her and commented, "It really is something; Hogwarts." They locked eyes and he promised her, "You'll have fun here."

She smiled a little for him, "It is really pretty. It's kind of like being in The Secret Garden."

He looked at her, sympathetically, "That's a good way to think of it."

She nodded and they looked over at Isaac and her mother talking by the fountain. Isaac was frowning and Ashley looked exasperated from their conversation.

Her mother, Ashley Wilds, had wavy, dirty blonde hair that fell a little past her shoulders and the same light blues eyes as Natalie. Unlike Isaac and Severus, Ashley didn't wear all black. She did have on black stockings and one inch heels, but she also had on a knee length lavender skirt and a white cardigan. Her cloak matched her skirt.

As for Isaac, he was in all black. He had on the same kind of shoes and pants Snape would wear. But Isaac had a softer shirt, with a waistcoat in the same shade of black. His cloak was also more fitted and didn't make him appear bat like.

Natalie and her father locked eyes.

Gregory told her, "This might do him so good."

Natalie pointed out, sadly, "It didn't do him that much good, being here the first time, Dad."

Gregory sighed. He told her, "Well, maybe, being here will finally help him get over things."

"And maybe he'd stop cutting himself?" Natalie asked, half hopeful.

"Yes." He added, apologetically, "Maybe."

Natalie looked disappointed and turned away.

Her father called over to her and mother and uncle, "Shouldn't we be going inside now?"

Ashley replied, "Yes! We're coming! just take Natalie inside! We'll only be another minute!"

Gregory glanced, apprehensively, at Isaac. Then, he looked back at his wife, "Alright! We'll see you inside!"

He turned to Natalie and forced a smile on his face. She shrugged and smiled for him too.

Gregory took her hand and led her inside. No one was there. They saw the marble stair case first, the entrance to the Great Hall on their right, and the entrance to the dungeons on their left.

Gregory scanned the room, "You heard us tell them we would be here at five, didn't you?"

She looked up at her dad and suggested, "Yeah, but maybe, we're supposed to go up to Professor Dumbledore's office. Why could go see if Uncle Severus is up and ask him."

He pressed his lips together, like he always did when he didn't want to tell her something. Then, he told her, "Well, we'll see what your mother and Isaac want to do, when they get in."

Just then, the door opened and Ashley came in, followed by Isaac.

Ashley swept her eyes over the room, "Do you think we told them the wrong time?"

Gregory answered, "I don't think so. They probably just forgot, being Saturday and all."

Ashley banged her hands against her sides. She remarked, bitterly, "Well, at least Severus could have remembered us!"

"He might have been up late." Isaac commented. They all turned to him and he explained, "He might have been working for Dumbledore, pretending to work for Voldemort."

Gregory looked down and Natalie suddenly understood why he had pressed his lips together.

Ashley decided, "He still could have got up to see his own family!"

Gregory touched her shoulder, cautiously, "Ashley-"

Ashley spun around and glared at him, "I am not going to feel sorry for him, Greg. We're here. We don't know where to go." She suddenly looked hurt as she added, "He promised he'd be here. So, he should have been here."

"Mum, its ok." Natalie told her, cautiously. "We'll see him eventually." She motioned to the dungeons, "We could also just go down there and look for him."

Ashley took a deep breath and smiled at her daughter, "You're right. I'm sorry I got so angry." She looked at Gregory, "Sorry I took it out on you. It's not you who I'm mad at."

"It's fine." Gregory told her. Natalie nodded.

"Oh! You're here!" They all turned and saw McGonagall, in her signature emerald robes, at the top of the stairs. "I'm sorry." she said as she made her way down. "I hope you haven't been waiting long. I'm usually very punctual, but I was told late last night that I was going to be the one to come and get you. So, I forgot and I over slept."

"That's fine. It's Saturday. And we haven't been waiting that long." Ashley said sweetly, feeling a little embarrassed after her outburst.

McGonagall smiled, "That's good." She folded her hands together and swept her eyes over the adults and Natalie, "Professor Dumbledore's waiting for you in his office. Follow me."

Isaac and Natalie had trailed behind the others as McGonagall led them to the Headmaster's office. They were also the last ones to get on to the staircase to his office as it moved. They had locked eyes and understood that they were both feeling anxious.

Dumbledore was petting Fawkes, when they entered his office. He looked up and smiled, "Hello. I'm glad to see all of you arrived. I hope you didn't have too much of a bad time getting here. I was beginning to wonder if I had gotten the time wrong."

"No, Dumbledore." said McGonagall. "I over slept this morning and was late getting them."

Ashley commented, "It was fine, really."

"She wasn't really that late." Gregory added.

Dumbledore told McGonagall, "It's alright. It happens to the best of us." McGonagall smiled at him, appreciatively.

Natalie asked, quickly, "Excuse me. May I go look around the school?"

Dumbledore looked over at her, "It's fine with me if you don't go too far off from my office," he looked at her parents, "if it's alright with you."

Gregory and Ashley turned to each other to see what the other one thought and shrugged. Then, they told him it was fine with them.

Natalie tried not to smile to much, "Thanks."

As she turned to leave, Isaac asked her, "Do you want one of us to come with you?"

She looked over at him, tried to look casual, and shook her head, "No, I'll be fine."

"She's right. There's no need to worry, Isaac." Dumbledore assured him. "Hogwarts is perfectly safe."

Isaac nodded once and Natalie made her way out of Dumbledore's office.

Natalie strolled through the halls, looking determined. She ran down the stairs, jumped over them as they started to move to get to the next set, and paused in front of the third floor.

She looked over her shoulder and saw the stairs disconnect themselves. Then, she looked towards the corridor and took a deep breath before she headed down it.

She stopped just right outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and took another deep breath. Then, she leaned over and peered in. Lupin was sitting at his desk, going over some papers. Natalie moved, so she could stand fully in the door way.

She had had a flood of things she wanted to say to him when she left Dumbledore's office and the whole way there, but they were stuck in her head. Natalie noticed the gray flecks in his hair and the tired look on his face first. Then, she saw the patch on the left elbow of his cloak. It was a shade darker than the rest of his cloak.

"Natalie!" she heard her father calling.

Lupin heard Gregory too and immediately looked up. He saw Natalie briefly before she leapt out of sight. She joined her dad a short distance from Lupin's room, where he started brushing lint off her shoulders and straightening her clothes.

"I thought you wanted to look neat for today." he said, with a smile.

She glanced anxiously over her shoulder. Then, she turned to him, "Ok, Dad, we can do this back at Dumbledore's office."

"Alright." he said. Gregory took her hand and led her down the hall. He told her, "The Headmaster really wanted you to come back up anyway."

Back in the classroom, Lupin was still staring at the door way. He felt uneasy, but didn't want to admit it. So, he just went back to looking over his papers.

Natalie and her father left the third floor, found McGonagall waiting for them, and got onto the stairs with her. As her father and McGonagall talked, Natalie discreetly looked back towards the third floor and was relieved to not see Lupin trying to follow them.

McGonagall, Gregory, and Natalie rejoined everyone in Dumbledore's office and Natalie went over to stand with Isaac by a case of glass figurines.

"You went looking for Remus Lupin, didn't you?" he whispered.

"Yeah," she whispered back, "but I was too scared to talk to him."

Isaac paused to consider what she said. Then, he told her, "You don't need to be afraid of him."

"No, not like that kind of scared." she explained. "I meant I was nervous. I just didn't know what to say to him."

"Well, I'll talk to him with you." he offered. "I would have gone with you this time."

Natalie told him, "I know that, but I thought that it would make it look really obvious that I was going to look for him."

"It kind of was already. It didn't take everyone else that long to figure out where you were going." he explained. "As soon as they did, Professor Dumbledore asked Professor McGonagall to take one of your parents—it ended up being your dad—to get you."

Natalie squinted and asked, "What did they think I was going to do?"

"I don't know. Maybe, they weren't worried about that." He informed her, "Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall just said you should be back here before the students and other staff saw you."

"Well," she pointed out, "that does kind of make a lot of sense."

"It shouldn't." he commented.

She looked at him staring at the figurines. Isaac was frowning, not at the figurines, but at his own thoughts.

"Try thinking positively." she told him and he looked at her apologetically. She continued, with a half-smile, "I'm sure they'll be some fun things here."

He thought it over a moment and nodded.

Then, they looked back at the figurines.

Natalie looked around at the paintings of past headmasters and headmistresses and whispered to Isaac, "You could honestly go crazy in here."

Isaac took a look at the paintings and whispered back, "I always thought so too."