Rory felt better when she woke later. She climbed out of bed and headed into the dining room. Sirius was there, clearing the table.

"Ah, you're up," he said. "They tried to wake you about an hour ago before they left, but you were out of it."

"That's fine," Rory said taking a seat. "I'm more of a bystander in all this anyway."

"Right," Sirius said with a nod. "I was wondering about that."

"What about it?" Rory asked.

"How is it that you were the one that brought Harry to McGonagall's office rather than, say, Ron?" Sirius asked.

"Well, as I told Dumbledore, I got the feeling that something bad was going to happen, so I wasn't exactly sleeping. And I knew that…" Rory frowned because she hadn't told Harry this. "I knew something bad was going to happen outside of Hogwarts, but I also knew that Harry…"

"You knew Harry was going to be the one to raise the alarm about it?" Sirius asked.

Rory nodded. "I didn't tell him that because… Well, he's already upset as it is. And I had no idea he was going to see what he did. His scar always hurts. He's been able to read Voldemort's feelings somehow. I thought it would just be-."

"I know, I know," Sirius said before she could get herself worked up. "Just remember, you didn't get Arthur attacked and neither did Harry."

Rory let out a deep sigh. "I really feel like being a seer I should be able to stop things from happening, not explain them after the fact. Even when I do see things beforehand, I've never been able to stop it."

"I know. I'm sure it's frustrating," Sirius said. "Do you want to know what else is frustrating?"

"What?" she asked.

"That you think you can change the subject from my original question," he said.

"That was not my intent," Rory said. "I was just being honest with you."

Sirius nodded. "Which I appreciate. Now continue your honesty."

"Well, it's like I told you. I knew Harry was going to be the catalyst. I was waiting. I simply positioned myself to be in the right place at the right time," Rory replied.

"The fact that you're being so evasive makes me suspicious," Sirius said.

"You were suspicious anyway, that's why you asked," Rory said. "Whatever you're thinking, it's nothing like that. I'm only being evasive to protect the location of our illegal club that the Weasleys are definitely not a part of."

"So, you admit that you were not in Gryffindor Tower and were alone somewhere else in the castle alone, with Harry, at midnight?" Sirius asked.

"I know it sounds suspect, but it was totally innocent. Harry will even tell you he was asleep. That's how he saw the attack after all," Rory said.

"And yet-."

"Being somewhere, asleep, with my boyfriend does not imply that anything illicit happened," Rory said. "We even had a whole conversation about nothing happening."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her, seeming dubious. "Really?"

Rory nodded. "Really, really. You can even ask Harry. His face will turn all red and he'll be super embarrassed, but he'll tell you the same. We're not there. Not anywhere near it. Literally textbook definition of sleeping beside each other."

"'Perfectly annoying and annoyingly perfect?'" Sirius repeated.

Rory shrugged. "Not perfect. Just annoying."

Sirius seemed surprised at this. "Everything alright with you two?"

"Of course," she said.

"Truly?" Sirius asked.

"Does it seem like we aren't?" Rory asked.

"No," he said.

"Is this about what I said to Tonks when she came to see me? Because things have improved significantly since then," Rory said.

"Okay, and see, that's the problem. Because he shouldn't have asked you to lie for him in the first place," Sirius said.

"He didn't ask me to lie," Rory said.

Sirius grabbed her hand and looked at the scarred words there. She snatched her hand away.

"You should've told us. He shouldn't have insisted you handle this by yourselves," Sirius said. "At the very least we needed to know."

"I know," Rory said. "And I told him that but he-."

"But he said not to say anything?" Sirius asked. Rory sighed. "I adore Harry. And obviously, you do too. But he-."

"It's not an issue anymore, Sirius. We've talked about it. He knows it was stupid to ask me-."

"It was stupid of you to go along with it," Sirius retorted.

Rory shrank away from him. "I'm not stupid."

"I didn't mean to say that you were," Sirius said. "But when you're young and in love sometimes you overlook things that under normal circumstances you wouldn't."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't think you give either of us enough credit."

"Aurora," Sirius sighed, "you are perfectly welcome to make your own decisions and do what you like. We all trust you."

"Do you? Because this feels a lot like an interrogation," Rory said.

"I'm not interrogating you. I'm just trying-." Sirius paused and took a deep breath. "I'm trying."

Rory let her anger simmer down a bit. He was trying, in general, to just be in her life. He'd had that taken away from him. And now he was trying. She wanted him to try. She wanted to be able to talk to him. She was still frustrated but tried with all her might to see this from Sirius' perspective.

Yes, Harry had spent the start of term being a pretty shitty boyfriend. She'd told Tonks as much, and even Neville had been concerned that Rory didn't tell her dads about the detentions and said that Harry hadn't been being very nice to her lately.

Rory felt like things were fine now, but maybe Sirius was worried that she was overlooking all of that.

"I know Harry sounds like he's been nothing but a jerk since we got to school, and I'll admit that sometimes he has been, but you always talk about the negative stuff more than the good stuff, not to mention this has been an unquestionably horrible term," Rory said. "Would you be in a good mood if your unqualified Defense Against the Dark Arts professor was making your write lines in your own blood?"

"No, I don't think I would," Sirius said.

"So it's understandable that he's not been great. And I've told him he's not been great. He gets it," Rory said. "And besides… No one else understands us. Like, really understands how all these dominos falling, these nightmares and predictions and people coming out of the woodwork might be making us feel… Sometimes it feels like we've only got each other."

It was strange to admit this to Sirius, but it was true. She didn't want to rely solely only Harry to manage all the things that were going on with her right now, but no one else was able to look her in the eye like they really understood.

Although many times now it seemed like Harry forgot that she understood him as well.

It hadn't seemed that way last night though. She didn't know what had overtaken Harry in Dumbledore's office, but she knew it was not her Harry. And she knew that whatever it was, Harry wanted no part in it, just as he'd wanted no part in those nightmares he'd been having or in his scar hurting. And if it was somehow Voldemort trying to worm his way into Harry's mind she was going to stick with Harry and do whatever she could to stop it.

When it well and truly counted, they both knew they had each other.

"Neither of you is alone in this," Sirius said. "Don't think that way for even a moment, alright?"

Rory nodded, though she wasn't certain she believed it entirely. She wanted to change the subject. She didn't want to talk about Harry anymore.

"I haven't asked you about the Goldfinches yet," Rory said.

Sirius nodded. "Yes. That is a lot to unpack."

"Especially for you," Rory said.

"For me?" Sirius asked.

"My mother could've kept you out of prison and she didn't. Instead, she ran off and disappeared into the ether," Rory said. "That's complete crap."

"I'm sure she had her reasons," Sirius said.

"Me. For whatever reason, she didn't want to be associated with me," Rory said. "It has to be because I'm a seer right? Levi all but alluded to it in his letter. She must've known somehow and freaked."

"The Theo I'm hearing about these last few weeks is nothing like the woman I knew. Maybe she wasn't meant to be a mother, that much is true. But to leave you like she did, leave me. I truly believe something frightened her," Sirius said.

"Something about me?" Rory asked.

"Don't jump to conclusions," Sirius said.

"I'm supposed to be a harbinger of bad things to come," Rory said. "Maybe she knew and wanted to get away from whatever I was forewarning people of."

"I suppose you'll have to ask Levi that," Sirius said.

The door opened and in walked Remus.

"Aurora, I expected you to be at St. Mungo's," he said.

"They couldn't wake me," Rory replied.

"Can't tell if that means you're sleeping better or worse," Remus said.

"It's pretty hit or miss," Rory replied. He walked over and kissed Rory on the top of the head.

"How are things?" Remus asked. "I appreciated the letter I got from Lucius Malfoy about you breaking his son's nose."

"He deserved it," Rory said. "And for the record, I also fractured my hand, so I got my cosmic comeuppance for that."

"Please try to restrain yourself," Remus went on.

"As many times as I've hit him at this point, you'd think he'd restrain himself," Rory said. "Although having a girl break your nose in front of all of your friends probably sufficiently emasculated him enough that he won't try me again."

"Yes, because the threat of violence is how you want people to listen to you," Remus said.

"Nothing else has worked on him," she said.

Remus rolled his eyes. "How did your exams go?"

"Excellent, as per usual," Rory said. "Thankfully Umbridge only gives out multiple choice exams so she can't lowball me on my grades because I'm certain she would. She's a certifiable nightmare. Somedays I don't even have the emotional energy to go to that class. I mean, I still go, but I'm mentally checked out. Hermione and I have read that book backward and forwards. It's all nonsense. Theoretical defense against the dark arts is bogus."

"Well, you've taken matters into your own hands I heard," Remus said. "I'm sure I don't need to explain what a dangerous game you lot are playing."

"You do not," Rory said. "But we're all going to do spectacularly on our OWLs as a result," Rory said.

Remus sighed. "I don't disagree with what you're doing, but please be careful."

"Where are you having these meetings anyway?" Sirius asked.

"That's confidential," Rory replied.

"Why is it confidential? Who are we going to tell?" Sirius asked.

"Dumbledore," Rory replied.

Sirius frowned. "Touché."

"We're being super careful. Pretty much no one in the castle aside from us knows the place we're having our meetings even exists."

"You're certain of that?" Remus asked.

"I'm certain of most things," Rory replied.

Sirius chuckled. "I hope no one has ever doubted if you're in the proper house or not."

"No chance of that," Rory replied.


Rory was reading on the couch in the lounge when the Weasleys returned. She waited for Harry to turn up and was surprised when it was Ron that found her instead.

"How's your dad?" she asked.

"He's good. Looked better, but he'll be fine. Won't be out before Christmas unfortunately," Ron said. "Lucky they found him in time."

"Good, I'm glad," Rory said. "Did he say what happened, I mean, aside from the obvious?"

"Reckons he dozed off," Ron said. "Tonks feels bad. She was supposed to be on watch last night, but Dad took her spot because she was exhausted. Not her fault though."

"Of course not," Rory said. Ron seemed a tad uncomfortable as he stood there in front of her. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Ron rolled this thought over in his head and then sat down beside her.

"It's just something we overheard them talking about," Ron said. "I guess the Order's wondering if You-Know-Who is… Well possessing Harry."

Rory blinked at him in confusion. "What?"

"Well, how else is it that he was able to see what happened to my dad?" Ron asked. "They think Dumbledore's been waiting around for something like this to happen."

"Good of him to give Harry a head's up then," Rory said, rolling her eyes. No wonder he'd looked so unsurprised when Harry told him about his dream. Dumbledore was starting to irk her more and more every single day. "We've all known that Harry has some connection to Voldemort."

"Yeah, but what if he's figured it out and tries to look back on our end?" Ron asked.

"That doesn't mean he's being possessed. I mean, Merlin, it's not as if he's the one who attacked your dad. He just saw it happen," Rory said.

Ron nodded. "I know, I know."

"Then stop sounding as if he's some sort of puppet for Voldemort. You're his best friend," Rory said. "I'm sure he feels bad and weirded out enough by all this."

"He did look a bit pale when we got back. Mum sent him to nap before dinner," Ron said.

Rory rolled her eyes and got to her feet. "I'm willing to bet he's not sleeping."

Because all Harry did was worry. And he would undoubtedly worry over this.

She made her way, quietly, upstairs to his room and tapped gently on the door before pushing it open. Harry was sitting on his bed staring at his trunk.

"Nap is going well I see," she said. She stepped inside and, though she knew she would likely get in trouble for this later if she were caught, she pushed the door closed behind her. "Ron told me what you heard at St. Mungo's." She sat down beside him. He continued to stare at his trunk.

"What if I'm that weapon Voldemort is planning on using?" Harry asked. "What if he's somehow wormed his way inside of me and can just use me to do whatever he likes?"

"Harry, you're not a weapon," Rory said.

"How can you be sure of that?" he asked. "Just because you're a seer doesn't mean you know everything."

Rory took a deep breath and silently wished that he didn't get so snippy and mean whenever he was annoyed. Still, seeing as these were extraordinary circumstances today, she was not going to press the issue.

"I don't know everything, but I know you," she said. She took his hand. "If there were something evil inside of you I'd have seen it, wouldn't I?"

"But you did see it," Harry said. "Last night in Dumbledore's office. I know you felt that."

She conceded this. "But that wasn't you."

"That's the whole point," he said letting go of her hand and getting to his feet. "The whole point is that there's part of him in me that I can't even control. I wanted to attack Dumbledore last night. I wanted to hurt him. If we hadn't left who knows-."

"But we did leave, and you didn't do anything," Rory said. "You saved Mister Weasley's life. He's alive because you saw what happened to him and were able to get him help."

"And what if next time I'm the one who ends up hurting someone?" Harry asked.

"You would never," Rory said. Harry shook his head. "So what's your solution then, Harry?"

"I dunno, but I think it's pretty clear that it's dangerous keeping me around," he said.

"So you'll just leave then? Run off somewhere and hide from this?" she asked.

"Maybe," he said. Rory rolled her eyes. "What is it?"

"You're just incredibly frustrating is all," Rory said. "You are impossible to reason with when you're like this. You're not being possessed by Voldemort, and if you were running off wouldn't solve any of your problems. You'd just be alone and be possessed by Voldemort." Harry frowned. "Every time you get like this it always turns into an argument, but I'm just trying to help you, and you always talk to me as if I'm acting like I know everything when really I'm just trying to remind you that you don't have to endure this alone."

Harry sat down on his trunk and stared at Rory. "What would you have me do then?"

"I don't know. But last year you were upset with me for not telling anyone I was getting hate mail and that I don't have to do things on my own all of the time," Rory said.

"This isn't me just getting stupid hate mail, Rory," he said.

"Exactly. And if I needed help with a problem as comparatively insignificant as that, what on earth makes you think you can possibly handle any of this all by yourself?" she asked.

Harry continued to frown, though she could tell he knew she was right. But there was hardly any chance of him admitting to that right then.

There was a knock on the door and a second later Sirius poked his head in. Of course. She'd just gotten through telling him that things with her and Harry were perfectly fine and back on track, and here he came, walking in on them glaring at each other from opposite sides of the room.

"Everything alright in here?" Sirius asked.

"Splendid," Rory grumbled. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Uh… Are you sure?" Sirius asked.

"We're fine," Rory and Harry said in unison, both of them sounding a bit harsher than they meant.

"Okay…" Sirius trailed off, clearly not believing that things were fine because they obviously weren't. "Just… Leave the door open."

"Sorry," Rory apologized.

Sirius looked between the two of them and then they heard his footsteps quickly retreating.

"Well, I'm certain this will improve your standing," Rory said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"This may come as a shock to you, but my dad and Sirius aren't thrilled that I didn't tell them about the detentions after you suggested we keep it a secret," Rory said. "Among other things."

"What other things?" he asked.

Rory motioned between the two of them. "We've had a lot more interactions like this lately."

Harry loosed a breath and buried his face in his hands. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't want to argue with you."

"I don't either," she replied.

"I feel like I'm going mad," he said. He lifted his head and looked up at her.

"Can you just try listening to me without feeling like I'm attacking you?" she asked.

Harry nodded and got to his feet. He opened his trunk and dug through it a bit. There was the sound of paper ripping and he closed the trunk. Then he turned and held out one of the coupons she'd made him: Kiss and Make Up.

Rory sighed and took the coupon. "I only made you two of these, you know?"

"Well, I don't want to keep arguing in front of your dads," he said. "And I'm sorry for being an ass. For probably the hundredth time. I'll save the other for when I really screw up."

"Or maybe you won't need it," Rory said.

"I think if that were true you wouldn't have made two of them," he said.

Rory got to her feet, pushed herself up onto her toes, and kissed him. "I'd like to be wrong."

"Me too," he said. "I love you, Fish."

"I love you too," Rory said. He pulled her into a hug and she squeezed him tightly.