The next day, Amelia spent a good chunk of it revising. Her and Theo went into Alphard Black's library and tested one another in various subjects, asking each other questions such as:

"What is the incantation for the Locking Spell?"

"What are the properties of Valerian Sprigs in potion making?"

"Describe the main use of the spell Mimblewimble."

"How would you defend yourself against a Hinkypunk?"

By the end of their little study session, they'd asked enough questions to last a lifetime and had knuckled down everything in Charms, Defence, and Herbology. They'd tackle the other subjects another day. In the meantime, they collectively decided to go to the Potions Lab and make a start on trying to brew without any instructions in front of them, to get some practise in for their OWL in the subject.

They were the only ones in there, for now. Blaise would most likely be dying to try it out, so they expected him to appear at some point. "What Potions do you think are most likely to come up in our OWL?" She asked Theo.

"Definitely the Draught of Peace, it's quite common because it's so easy to mess up. Though it only seems to come up every two or three years, and it featured last year.. Blaise thinks they might have us do an Erumpent Potion as well, as it's very difficult, but I would like a Befuddlement Draught to come up." Her boyfriend answered.

She nodded. "We best get learning the ingredients and recipes off by heart soon, so that we don't mess up on the day."

Playing it safe, she decided to start off with a Swelling Solution. It was only three ingredients, and a second year potion, but it was a good starting point. She read over the instructions for twenty minutes before she even started brewing it. Amelia then set herself a challenge - if she was brewing and forgot a step, she could only look at the instructions a maximum of three times. After that, she wouldn't be able to refer to it. It would certainly be tough to stick to, but it was a good revision tactic.

Theo was on the opposite bench brewing an Everlasting Elixir, seemingly with ease. "How on earth do you know all the instructions off by heart?" She asked him.

He smirked. "There's an art to it, babe."

"Tell me it then" She said, smiling and batting her eyelashes at him.

He eyed her. "A little thing called practise." Theo then clicked his fingers, as if gesturing to her cauldron, "Mind and add your water."

Scoffing playfully and shaking her head, she quickly did as he said and added the two tablespoons of water to her cauldron.

By the end, the Swelling Solution looked pretty decent. She was startled when Theo tested it, for he poured it on to his hand which subsequently swelled to the size of a football (which was quite comical, really), but he'd already brewed a Deflating Draught during the Christmas holidays. He simply poured it on to his hand, and within the blink of an eye it was back to normal size. "Well, that would definitely get a passing grade." Theo said, before chuckling a bit.

She eyed him. "What are you laughing at?"

"Oh, well I was just thinking what would happen if I poured it on-"

"-Don't finish that sentence, Theodore!" She nearly shrieked, clamping her hands over his mouth. He still laughed giddily, and tried to push her off but failed, due to his state of laughter. This only carried on for ten more seconds, though, as they were both startled to see somebody in the doorway.

It was Ophelia.

"Oh!" The woman looked surprised, but then she caught on to the fact that she'd just seen them holding hands.

"Erm, hi mum." Theo quickly tried to look inconspicuous, which failed.

Ophelia's face went from a look of realisation to a look of delight. "Are you two…?"

Amelia looked to Theo, and gave him a look which screamed, "Shall we tell her?"

Theo cleared his throat. "Mum, erm… gosh, this is awkward. Amelia.. Is my girlfriend."

The woman made a sound of joy. "I knew it!"

"Wait, you knew?" Theo looked a bit startled at his mum.

"Well, not for sure, darling, but I've seen you two spend a lot of time together. Oh, I'm so happy I could burst!" Ophelia practically skipped over to them. "My dear, I couldn't be happier that my son treasures a girl like you!"

Amelia now felt delighted - she knew Theo's mum liked her, she never stopped smiling around her, but she did wonder if that would change once they eventually told her about their relationship. She heard that some mums were as protective of their sons as dads were of their daughters, and had wondered a few times if Ophelia Fortesque would suddenly kick into protective mode and want to hide Theo from dating. She was gladly proved wrong though - the woman was still grinning.

"This is wonderful, you two! Come here!" They were suddenly pulled into a hug. Amelia Potter felt nothing but lovely and grateful.

At twenty minutes to eleven did Dorea finally rise from bed. She never really slept in so late, her bed was just so comfy she didn't feel like rising from it. Quickly getting dressed, she jogged down the staircase and moved towards the kitchen, stomach rumbling.

When she entered the kitchen, only her uncle was in there. He was sitting at the table with what looked like a copy of the Daily Prophet. "Hello," she said in welcome briskly, before moving to put a bagel in the toaster for herself.

"Morning, Dorea," Regulus replied back, smiling gently.

"Where's dad?" she asked him.

"He's gone out. Lupin called through the Floo an hour ago, and said there had been an attack on a magical community living in the Scottish Borders. Highly suspected to have been conducted by Death Eater's."

That alarmed her. "He's gone to fight them?"

Her uncle shook his head quickly. "No, I'd never let him. I should have clarified earlier, sorry, - the attack happened in the early hours of the morning. The Death Eater's are long gone. He's gone to see if he can help the Auror's investigate and provide support."

That relaxed her slightly. Dorea hoped that there weren't Hogwarts students that lived there - and if there were, she hoped they didn't get hurt in the chaos. "When do you think he'll be back?"

"Dunno, dear. Depends on how much damage was done to the village and the people there. I'm sure he won't be gone hours though." Reggie replied, getting up to make another coffee. "What's on the agenda today then?"

"I'll do an hour or so of revision, I think, relax a bit, and then do a bit more revision." She replied, mapping out her day out loud. "OWLs are looming up fast."

Her uncle chuckled. "I remember them well. They're nowhere near as bad as NEWTs though, trust me, they're a walk in the park compared to them."

She giggled, and suddenly remembered those pictures she had seen back at Grimmauld Place - the whole album dedicated to Regulus, filled with photos of him. She remembered the ones of him holding his OWL and NEWT results, looking proud in his pose. He was as young as me in those photos, she thought, more sensible than dad, but equally as smart as him.

She sat and had breakfast with her uncle, and they spent half an hour nattering about whatever came to mind. They caught up a bit on their lives, and Dorea told him all about their first year at Hogwarts (it was fair to say, Regulus was gaping at half of the stories), the start of second year, and about Kaspar and Sofia, who had been her guardians up until the end of fourth year. In exchange he told her about his life as a partial fugitive, due to faking his own death. It was both interesting yet scary at the same time that her uncle felt the need to do that, to hide away and live locked away, but she understood why it was necessary.

Eventually she had to get started on revision else she would fall into a habit of never starting anything, so cleaned her plate and cup away before going back up to her room. She guessed that Amelia was in the Potions Lab or somewhere else, as her door was open but she wasn't in her bedroom. Dorea decided to do some Astronomy study for today, so she grabbed her textbook, notebook and quills before sitting down at her study desk. After forty-five minutes, she had taken key notes and thought of some questions for herself to answer regarding the first two topics in the subject. After answering the questions, she thought that was good enough for an hour's work, so she took a break.

Going downstairs to make herself a cup of tea and to grab one of Ophelia's cookies, she was surprised when she heard noise coming from the living room. Poking her head around the door, it was her father back from the village.

"Oh, hi dad!" She chirped cheerfully. Dorea noticed that he was holding something, a piece of paper.

He didn't look up straight away. In fact, he had to tear his eyes away from the piece of paper. "There's a letter here for you, Dorea, it was lying in the fireplace when I came through." Sirius Black replied, sounding puzzled.

A realisation hit her - it could only be Fred's reply. She tried not to let her eyes widen too much. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, who's it from?" Her dad asked as he handed it to her.

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, she thought, internally screaming, think of something, you dolt! "Daphne and Astoria."

Her dad raised one of his eyebrows. "Oh, really? That's weird, because they're not on the security wards, so they couldn't have sent it through as they have no access."

Shit, she thought, cursing as she felt her face flush a bit. "They said they were spending today at the Burrow, as they're good mates with Ginny and all that. Ginny must've sent it through for them."

Her dad just outright stared at her. "Do you have something to tell me, dear?"

Heart hammering, she responded, "No, why?"

"Because why does it say 'aka babe, bubba and darling' under your name on the envelope?"

She really was screwed now. How on earth am I getting out of this one? "Oh, you know the twins, they must've jokingly wrote on it when the girls weren't looking."

"You know, I can tell very well when you're lying, Dorea." Her dad crossed his arms.

"I'm not lying!" She said, though her tone faltered a bit.

"Then why do your eyes dart to the side? They don't do that any other time!"

She sighed, trying ever so hard to fumble her way out of this. He's going to flip his shit if he realises. "You're being a bit unreasonable over nothing."

"Why were you in the living room late last night?" Her dad asked, seemingly casually.

Uh oh. "I was writing the original letter to Daph and Astoria, and sent it off in the Floo."

"To the Burrow?"

"Yes, so it would be there when they arrived." She replied, trying to sound as earnestly as she could.

"What's the need for secrecy? You were being awfully quiet and secretive about it."

"Well, you know, I didn't really know if sending it off in a billowing of Floo powder would work or be very efficient." She said. Dorea really didn't like where this questioning was going. It was as if Sirius already knew.

"What would you even be writing to them about anyway? You saw them just over twenty four hours ago."

"Oh you know, just girl things. I'm sure you've seen Daphne and Anthony Goldstein together - she's a bit puzzled, as she doesn't know if they're a couple or not or if they're still in the talking stages."

He snickered. "And how on earth would you know about that sort of thing, eh? Assuming you wrote back giving her advice?"

She tried to play it off again. "Well, I offered her support, I didn't really instruct her in anything as I have no clue what I'd even say."

Sirius sighed. "That better be all that you said."

"It was, dad. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to write back to Daph and Azzy." She said, and went to calmly leave the room.

When she was safely back in her bedroom, Dorea's heart was still racing. Her dad had almost caught her in the act, red handed. Hells, if she had acted worse, he would have opened that letter right there and then and begun reading it. Then he would have realised that it wasn't the Greengrass sisters writing after all, but that it was in fact Fred,

I have to be more careful next time, she thought, this clearly isn't a good way to go about it. She decided there and then that she would only write to Fred if it was necessary. He would understand, definitely, especially if he knew just how close it came to Sirius finding out about their relationship.

After Dumbledore left, Romulus was left feeling bewildered. His mum was probably feeling the same too.

He knew who his father was at last. He felt nothing but hate towards Rabastan Lestrange; the man who led his mother on, drugged her with a Love potion in order to get her back, and then left once he'd gotten her pregnant. He was nothing but scum. In fact, Romulus would have gladly carried on in his life without knowing that tidbit of information.

It only made him feel worse that he had another blood relative - in his uncle, Rodolphus Lestrange. The man was notoriously terrible, and one of Voldemort's trusted allies. His wife, Bellatrix Black, was no different; she was probably one of the top Death Eater commanders. St David's had been very on-edge the day the Prophet announced that those three and seven other Death Eater's had escaped Azkaban prison.

"He was nice once, you know," his mother murmured from the doorway.

"Mum, please don't talk of him." He said, gently yet firmly. "He bragged about doing terrible things to muggle women, and then drugged you and left. He's not worth getting sad over."

She twiddled her fingers. "I know, dear, but sometimes you have to think of the good times you had with people rather than the bad. It's healthier that way."

"Yet it still pains you. I don't want you being sad over a man like him, mum."

She smiled as if she understood. "I know, dear, but I can't help it. You look just like a younger him as well."

That just made him feel a bit worse. Romulus tried to think of something else to change the subject. "So, do you think I should transfer to Hogwarts?"

His mum seemed pleased they were no longer talking of Rabastan Lestrange. "It is ultimately your decision, my boy. Though we've never been apart from one another, I think you should go only if you truly want to. You are ultimately my son, so I'll support you whatever the decision."

He smiled, thankful for her support at least. At the moment, he still didn't know what his decision was going to be; in fact, Hogwarts hadn't occupied his mind at all since Dumbledore told him of his father. Rabastan Lestrange was all he could think of for the past ten minutes. Now that he was thinking of the school again, his mind kept changing opinions every two seconds - one part of his brain urging him to transfer to Hogwarts, the other half conflicting and demanding he stay at St David's. This really isn't helping, he thought.

"Thank you, mum. When do you think is the latest I could leave it to decide?"

"Well, there will be some paperwork involved, I'd imagine. To be safe, I wouldn't leave it any later than the first week of summer holidays, just to be sure." She replied. "You'll have to tell your pals about this."

"I'll tell them about the school situation, but not… my father. They'll probably freak out." He intervened immediately.

"Oh honey, if they were your true friends they wouldn't be put off by it. Surely they'd know that just because your father is a Death Eater, it doesn't mean you align with him and his beliefs?" His mum said, moving to sit down next to him. "Isn't Stefan from a family of vampires?"

"Yes, but being from a family of blood suckers is not the same as being related to a wizard pureblood supremacist." He said a bit sharply, before quickly saying, "sorry."

His mum sighed, but not in an angry or frustrated way. "It's a lot to take in dear, don't stress out thinking about it now. Besides, it's the holidays now, you should spend it relaxing."

"And revising," he said, near shuddering at how much work he had to revise and get through."

"You're a star student, Rom, revision won't be a problem." His mum giggled slightly, before kissing the top of his head, "now go unpack your stuff."

So he did. Lugging his trunk upstairs, he breathed a sigh of relief when he flopped down on his bed. Staring up at the ceiling, he felt himself at ease. The thoughts of Hogwarts and the ones of his dad left him. You'd have thought that one of the world's most powerful wizards hadn't just been in his living room, casually telling him he could transfer to his dream school and revealing all about his absent father.

The next day, his mum went to work early in the morning. She ran her own florist business in the town, though there was a knack to it: the muggles could only see the non-magical part of the shop. At the back of the premises, through a door that the muggles seen as being labelled as 'staff entry only' (though to wizards, they saw the words 'MAGICAL BLOOMS & HERBS'), was where his mum ran her herbology shop. As the name of the business suggested, she sold a lot of magical plants, herbs and seedlings to witches and wizards. It kept her busy, though Romulus helped out when he could. Business had bloomed significantly in the spring and summer months, which kept their heads well above water and provided them with a stable cash flow, meaning they were quite comfortable living-wise.

Getting up at quarter to nine, he got dressed and headed down to grab some breakfast. The house was quiet, as you'd expect, but he liked the peacefulness of it. It was a bright and sunny morning too, so it added to the niceness of it all.

After breakfast, he quickly skimmed through the morning edition of the Daily Prophet, though this time he combed through the paper to see if there was any mention of his father. There was no mention of him that he could see, but he assumed the Death Eaters were still lying low and not wanting to come out until it was safe. He wondered just when that would be.

Just before he closed the paper, something caught his eye on page thirty-three. A brief news report of an attack upon a magical community that lived up near the Scottish Borders, which Auror's suspected was carried out by Death Eater's or their associates.

Could Rabastan have been involved? He wondered, with slight curiosity. Probably, his brain said in a filthy tone, attacking people and instilling fear is his speciality.

Closing the paper in disgust, he finished his apple juice and went upstairs to start a bit of revision. Pulling all of his books out of his trunk, he quickly decided to make a start on Transfiguration, since he considered it his worst subject (he'd only gotten one E in it, and that was during a test in third year). Settling down on his bed with his notes and textbook in front of him, he made a start.

At half past eleven, he called it a day, His brain felt like it had been electrocuted twice over with all the information he'd gone over. Should have taken it easier, he thought, slightly regretting his approach of cramming. He was pleased that he managed to simplify his notes, though, as it would make future revision that little bit easier.

Heading back downstairs to start making himself some lunch, Romulus got to the top of the stairs when he heard a noise. Forcing himself still and silent, he tried to listen out for it again. It sounded. It was similar to a tapping sound on a window. Probably just the postman, he shook his head and descended the stairs.

He got the fright of his life when he went into the kitchen, for sitting outside on the main windowsill was their owl, Mitty, indeed tapping the window. "Jeez, girly, you scared me!" He said hand on his chest as if the bird understood a word he said.

Since their kitchen window only opened via the top two smaller windows, Romulus decided to just go out of the back door and see what the bird wanted. She had an envelope in her mouth, meaning there was a letter enclosed. Could it be Dumbledore writing already?

Gently taking the envelope from the owl and letting her inside, he eagerly opened it. It was in fact from his mother. It read:

"Hey sweetie, sorry if I've disturbed your revision, but I have a favour to ask: Can you come to the shop? One of the girls went home sick earlier so I'm extremely busy. If you can, come along as soon as possible.

Mum xxx."

He immediately went to grab his shoes and jacket after putting Mitty back in her large cage. He really hoped that the owl hadn't been tapping on the window for that long, else he hated to think how busy the shop was. Though he didn't mind the customers (except the snobby ones) or the retail work in general, he really didn't like it when the shop was busy - for it was the epitome of stress, stress that he really didn't need during the school holidays.

Locking the house up behind him, he started walking the short distance from the residential area to the town centre. A few of his muggle neighbours were sitting in their front gardens, enjoying the sunshine. They waved and said hello to him when he walked past, and he waved back. For midday on a Saturday, St David's was for once quite quiet - with only a handful of cars driving past him.

When he arrived at the familiar premises, he braced himself for how busy he guessed it was going to be. He hoped that there was enough room to maneuver about, as he hated having to squeeze past people. He breathed a sigh of relief when he entered the door though, for there were only about a half dozen or so muggle customers.

His mother was serving one of them on the till. He waved hello to her, and smiled when she grinned at him. Once she was done serving the customer, he went over.

"Sorry if you were busy, dear, I was going to struggle if I didn't have at least another person in." She said to him.

"It's fine, mum, honestly. I had just overloaded my brain with Transfiguration anyway, I needed a break from the revision." He waved off her apology before lowering his voice, "are there any magical customers?"

"There were a few browsing, but they left. I actually have a few things I need you to do - there's a whole new case of Valerian to go out on the shelf, and I need you to take an inventory of Belladonna, Puffapod and Moly. Could you do that?" His mother asked, wiping her hands on her apron that was a part of the uniform.

He nodded, and went to get started. Once he signed in, he got to his tasks right away. He started with the Valerian, and went through the storage to grab the case full of the newly in-stock plant.

The magical part of the store was very quiet indeed, so much so that Romulus started humming along to a song he knew as he worked, Just as he finished placing the last few pots of Valerian on the respective shelf did he hear the door close.

Romulus immediately poked his head around the shelf, to see who the customer was. The person was a man, who looked to be in his late forties. "Hello." He greeted him politely.

The man looked at him and smiled thinly before looking away. However, within a split second the man's gaze whipped back and he was looking at Romulus once again.

Feeling a bit weird, he just decided to enquire. "Is something wrong, sir?"

Making his way past the filthy muggles to enter into this supposedly raved about florist, Corban Yaxley never felt more out of touch. It was him and his wife's wedding anniversary tomorrow, and he thought he would be a good husband and get her some flowers. He obviously couldn't go out as himself - he was a known Death Eater, and he was going into a wizard shop, - so instead he assumed the identity of some muggle man he'd killed just a few days ago in Ireland. He did this via Polyjuice Potion, of course. He'd taken a swig of the filth just half an hour ago.

A woman, who he assumed was the owner of the shop, waved a hello in welcome as he entered her shop. He begrudgingly waved back and forced a smile before making his way to the back of the shop, where the supposed entrance to this Magical Blooms and Herbs was. He felt a wave of anger pulse through him when a muggle almost walked right into him mere feet away from the door. Get out of my way, insipid fool, he thought as he slowed down. Glancing backwards, he made sure nobody was looking before pushing the door open.

When he stepped inside, it was near empty apart from one boy who had his back to him. He looked to be an employee, as he was stocking up a shelf of god knows what. Corban didn't want any interference, he didn't even want to talk to anybody. He just wanted to come in, browse, and buy before leaving. He wasn't in the mood to be asked questions.

He almost rolled his eyes to the back of his head when the boy turned and looked to him, for he knew an interrogation was coming - regarding what he was looking for. "Hello." The lad said, looking at him.

Forcing himself to be nice, he smiled at the boy. That ought to be enough to appease him, surely. I may just hex you if you ask me what I'm in here for, boy, he thought in his head. He turned his head, and pretended he was happily browsing the shelves of plants that were in front of him. To be truthful, he had no clue what to even get his wife. Why oh why did I not just go to Diagon Alley instead? He thought, regret filling him immediately. He doubted that this boy had any experience or knowledge of flowers beyond basic, and he sure as hell wouldn't know about what flowers to give to a loved one. Though he is a good looking lad, maybe he has a lass.

Come to think of it, the boy mere feet away from him was quite strapping for his age…

Something clicked inside him then. He had no clue what, it felt like his gut instinct had taken over him, and made him quickly look back at the young shop assistant. He outright stared at the boy, wondering why on earth he'd suddenly been drawn to look at him again.

The lad looked startled a bit. "Is something wrong, sir?"

Yaxley realised it must've looked a bit creepy, looking into this boy's eyes. Yet he was so drawn to him it was unreal. He looks like someone, was his reason, he does, he reminds me of someone I know…

"Oh, no, sorry, I mistook you for someone." Yaxley had to reply eventually, so he did. The boy eased a bit.

"No worries. Give me a shout if you need a hand with anything."

Nodding, Corban tried not to look abrupt as he walked away from that slightly awkward scene. He walked up the nearest aisle and regained some composure. What was that about? His brain screamed at him, you just stared at some kid for no reason!

He wished he knew why. Rarely did Corban Yaxley ever lose cool. It was a part of who he was, and he upheld that image proudly. Yet that one kid had drawn his focus and really made him alert. What was so special about it?

He must've been standing in the one aisle for a few minutes, as he was snapped out of it when he saw the boy walk by and saw him go into the back. The way the lad walked, the way he sounded… Why was this sticking with him so much?

It clicked, at last.

The boy looked eerily similar to a compadre of Corban's - Rabastan Lestrange.

He knew there was nothing to it, as Rabastan had no children, but that was what had bugged him. The young shop assistant simply resembled his friend a little bit. He couldn't believe all this fuss and inner turmoil trying to figure out who the boy looked like most. Corban shook his head and tutted, before getting back to the task at hand. He was so embarrassed that he'd been ground to a halt over something small like that, though he'd probably laugh it off later.

The boy also couldn't even qualify to be a relative of Rabastan, as the owner of the shop was a muggleborn woman. He found out when he went to pay that the woman who had greeted him was the owner of the shops, and the young boy was her son (he'd come through to ask a question and had addressed the woman as 'mum'). Rabastan would never lay with anyone that wasn't pureblood or respectable half-blood, and besides, he'd been to the house of the Lestrange's; on the family tree, there were no records at all of any progeny of Rabastan nor even Rodolphus. That settles it then, he thought, simply a look alike. Shaking all those previous concerns off, he left the shop with a particularly sturdy looking Flitterbloom and headed back to his home.