Summary of last Chapter:

- Orion visits Sirius in the hospital after an attack. They discuss Sirius' mother, who had been responsible for his torture, and Orion reveals that she has been assassinated which absolutely stuns Sirius. Orion shares their family's support for Voldemort, but that his view changed after witnessing the Shafiqs' annihilation. Sirius is relieved to learn his siblings are safe. They decide to keep their involvement secret except that Sirius can tell his closest friends while swearing them to secrecy and they promise to rebuild their relationship.

- Sirius tells James, Remus and Peter about what he learned which stuns and even scares them a little while swearing them to secrecy.

Chapter 7:

?,?,?

Evelyn McPhillips was floating in a deep, dark void she knew was probably the afterlife. She was dead after all wasn't she? She had to be. The last things she remembered was the searing pain before the darkness claimed her. Maybe she should explain. Evelyn McPhillips was born in 1982 as the second child of Harry and Emma McPhillips. Her parents had met during a new year eve party and married 3 years later during the height of You-know-who's first rise. Her parents had Henry, her brother, in 1979 and chose to leave Magical Britain temporarily as the future was uncertain. They returned immediately after You-know-who's first fall after had her in the summer of 1981.

Evelyn's and Henry's life weren't easy as second generation muggleborns. They got discriminated against in Hogwarts as soon as they got sorted though Henry must have had it harder as he had no older sibling that took care of him like she had him 2 years later. Anyway her brother got sorted into Hufflepuff and she into Ravenclaw. Her mother was sad that Evelyn didn't get into Gryffindor but Evelyn herself was glad she wasn't in a house with the noisy troublemakers. Especially him.

Both Henry and Evelyn didn't know what to make of their supposed saviour. Harry Potter acted like the average kid, just more shy and introverted but there were a lot of rumours over the years though the siblings doubted that half of them were true. From fighting a troll and killing a professor in his first year, killing a basilisk in his second, beating the dangerous Sirius Black in a duel in his third, killing fellow Champion Cedric Diggory in his fourth to dueling You-know-who himself at the end of his fifth, there were a lot of outlandish rumours. Though she supposed he was very skilled at flying (he even outflew a bloody Hungarian Horntail during the Tri Wizard Tournament) and he wasn't bad as a teacher. Good even for someone that had never done it before. She had seen it first hand after all. And he did eventually kill You-know-who, didn't he? Of course she had developed a crush by then but what girl didn't?

She was too shy to approach him of course.

Though she never had the time to get into a proper relationship anyway since You-know-who came back in 1995 or 1996 depending on if what Potter said in 1995 was true or not.

Anyway You-know-who publicly reappeared in 1996 and between then and his second fall her life had been hell. The situation in Hogwarts wasn't much better. Death eater children had more and more confidence that they wouldn't get punished and muggleborns like her got more and more harassed. She was lucky she managed to get away from it in 1997 after successfully completing her owls.

Sadly her parents would never see her accomplishment. They had been killed in March 1997 by a french death eater named Foucade who was eventually called the Shadow Devil for imperiusing muggleborns and having them attack other muggleborns or muggles. It was kinda his thing.

Her brother then left Hogwarts with her and they were smart to do so. She had no idea if they had made it through the 1997/98 schoolyear. She knew though that some of their friends didn't. They were sad to leave their best friends, Lucia Valakova and Matthias van Bommel, behind. Lucia was a year below her while Matthias was a year above. Both of their best friends refused to leave Hogwarts with them, wanting to finish their owls and newts respectively. They would never see them again.

Matthias was used as target practice in DADA just weeks into the schoolyear and didn't make it. And Lucia? Oh Lucia... Lucia's letters actually informed them of Matthias' death which had been covered up and the letters only became more depressing after that. Lucia trauma dumped her experiences into the letters and everytime she had been raped (which was a lot) you would find that in her letters. So Evelyn and Henry (while dismayed) weren't surprised when they got a suicide letter from her in February 1998.

What Evelyn found worst about the whole thing was how useless the teachers were. Sure she shouldn't have expected much from them since they had been mostly useless even before You-know-who came back but she had hoped that they would grow a spine. Well newsflash, they didn't. Amycus and Alecto Carrow, the death eater – incest couple and the new inquisitors, were given free reign by everyone including Professor well Headmaster Snape.

She still shuddered thinking back to the disgusting things Lucia said Amycus Carrow did to her. Headmaster Snape though was surprisingly mild in his treatment of the remaining muggleborn students, the most he seemed to do was insult the students and well.. they were used to it at that point.

Anyway the siblings' life outside Hogwarts wasn't much better. They turned to the muggle world in search for a better future but didn't have much luck there either, they only had primary school education after all and no money to get tutors. Henry eventually found a job in a coal mine while young Evelyn had to resort to prostitution to earn the money required for their survival.

There was a celebration when they eventually got a letter from a friend who had survived the schoolyear telling them that Potter had defeated You-know-who at the recent Battle of Hogwarts and that the war was over. They happily returned to Magical Britain only to see after a few months that the war wasn't over yet, no far from it. Kingsley Shacklebolt became the new minister of magic in September 1998 but was killed just 5 months later and was succeeded by none other than Lucius Malfoy who somehow had managed to get out of Azkaban. New Anti Muggleborn laws were being pushed through the Wizengamot again starting in Summer 1999 and the fighting started anew. Hogwarts had been rebuild by then and quickly became the bastion against the darkness again. The death eaters attacked in February 2000 but Evelyn didn't remember much of the Second Battle of Hogwarts. She knew though that she must have died sometime during the battle. She only hoped that her brother had made it through and that he'd live a long life.

21st May 1975, England, Ministry of Magic, press room:

„I thank all of you for coming here today" Arcturus heard Minister Jenkins say

„This press conference will be about You-know-who's continued rise and about my role in Britain's fight against him. In response to the attacks that have recently increased in both quantity and cruelty, I have proposed a bill to the wizengamot that would increase the DMLE's funding by 35%. I acknowledge my past failure to deal with him quickly when it was still possible and my failure of protecting the citizens of Magical Britain. [sigh] Over the last 4 years I have found myself increasingly overwhelmed by the situation at hand and have recently come to accept that I am no longer the right person for my position anymore. Because of that I, Eugenia Jenkins, step down from my position as minister of magic effective once my replacement has been found by the wizengamot. I thank you for your time, there will be no questions answered today. I wish all of you a good day" she said and left the room as pandemoniom erupted all around Arcturus.

Arcturus had to give it to her, she knew the limits of her capabilities and when to call it quits, he could respect that.

26th May 1975, England, Black Manor:

Arcturus sighed. In the end Harold Minchum had been elected and sworn in by the Wizengamot as new Minister of Magic. It could have been worse. At first Arcturus thought about proposing his own candidate but when Lord Greengrass proposed Minchum he decided not to take the risk of either Voldemort or Dumbledore getting their own man on the position and so he had decided to throw his faction's weight behind Harold Minchum. He knew he would get some question about it as he was expected to vote for Benjamin Nott that had been proposed by Voldemort's stooges. But no he couldn't allow Voldemort more power in the Wizengamot. He knew however that this would paint a target on his back and he knew that Voldemort might want to meet with him or outright assassinate him.

18th October 1975, Scotland, Hogwarts:

They had finally done it. Over the past weeks first James, then Sirius and finally today Peter had managed to become full animagi.

„I guess this calls for a celebration boys, what do you think?" asked James grinning at his friends who grinned in return.

„The next full moon is soon, I really hope we will be able to keep Remus company." said Peter

„True true but let's keep it a secret from him for now alright? I want to surprise him" said James with his two friends nodding in agreement.

„How about we explore the castle for now? We could also finally start our very own map of Hogwarts." said Sirius and again the friends nodded in agreement. Creating their own map of Hogwarts had long been something the Marauders wanted to do eventually.

15th December 1975, Scotland, Hogwarts:

They had finally done it. The Madauders Map was finally complete and it had been a difficult thing to do. To think that it had only been possible because they managed to get Professor Flitwick to help them and still the past 2 months had been exhausting. But now they could focus on their studies.

OWLs were around the corner after all.

„Guys I think we should stop harrassing Snape for a while, let's focus on our studies instead" said Peter later that evening.

„Come on Wormtail, Snivellus deserves every bit of harrassing he gets. Don't you see it? He is hanging around with those guys that are definetely going to join the dark wanker when they graduate" James said in response.

„I will choose to abstain from this as usual" said Remus holding up his hands and trying to avoid conflict. Now normally Sirius would back up James and they would lead the other two Marauders into another adventure but this time... Sirius had felt himself change over the year.

'It probably has something to do with my new relationship with father and grandfather' he thought 'or maybe I am just maturing... hah as if'. Sirius had in fact had a chance to really hurt Snape recently. He found Snape at the edge of the Whomping Willow and had approached him. Snape had actually demanded to know what Remus was doing there every month and Sirius had actually thought about telling Snape how to get past the Whomping Willow for a while but then he remembered how Snape was. Snape wouldn't let his curiousity ebb away and instead actually go to Remus. Remus was in his wolf form that night and Sirius would have sent Snape to an almost certain death. Now in another timeline he might have done it... but not in this one.

He was brought back to the present by James looking at him with an expression that told Sirius that James wanted him to back him up.

He shook his head however „I'm sorry James but I have to back Peter up in this case. We really need to prioritise our studies over harrassing Snivellus" he said and got shocked faces from all three of his friends in response.

„What? Look guys I don't like him either but he isn't that much of a threat, is he? Besides the only thing we do is bully him around and making him retaliate and I really want to do well in the exams in a couple of months. So lets just keep to our studies for now guys." he continued his little speech.

„I can't believe it, is Sirius Black actually growing up?" asked Remus with a smirk getting a playful shove from Sirius in response. James clearly wasn't too happy however „Sirius what the hell is the matter with you?" he demanded to know.

„Well I guess being held under the cruciatus for half a minute by your own mother tends to change your outlook on life." Sirius said with a low voice which shut James up for a while.

Eventually he said „Fine we'll stop pranking Snivellus for a while" and Remus could only nod, grateful that atleast one of his friends was finally seeing reason.

**End of Chapter**

Characters in this chapter and the amounts of chapters they have been in:

- Evelyn McPhillips / ? (1)

- Arcturus Black

- Eugenia Jenkins (1)

- James Potter (2)

- Sirius Black

- Remus Lupin (2)

- Peter Pettigrew (2)