Disclaimer: I don't own HP, only Evan and Iris.

The final chapter will be out tomorrow. Also, in Evan's Journal I have Aimee as the older twin. I've decided it works better with the prophecy to have Aimee/Aludra as the younger twin. So, Evan was born at 11.32 p.m., and Aimee at 11.59 p.m. (I'm a perfectionist about my stories so I looked up how soon twins can be delivered after each other, and it's typically about at least thirty minutes or an hour's difference). I'll update EJ to fix it tomorrow or Sunday.

Chapter Fourteen

The Admission

Even after becoming an Animagus, Ruby had never been allowed to see Moony transformed without his potion and now she understood why. Moony was kind of scary like this. But Ruby knew that Moony would never harm her. She was his cub, and wolves were fiercely dedicated to their pack cubs.

Once they reached the shelter of the Forbidden Forest, Moony released his tight grip on Ruby, who flew up into the air. She was a bit sore from his tight grip, but she could ignore it. The important thing was to keep Moony in the Forest, away from the humans. To that end, she batted at his snout with a wing, then darted further into the trees. He followed, chasing her in a strange, animal version of tag.

They chased each other for a while, how long Ruby didn't know, until Moony, to her alarm, led her back to the edge of the Forest during his turn as 'it'. She found him at the treeline, staring at the lake. She was about to try and draw him back in when she realized why she felt so cold despite the warmth of her feathers. The dementors had left their posts and were flooding the grounds, surrounding the lake. She could see a silver form trying to hold the things off, but there were too many of them, and it was weakening with every passing moment.

Ruby cawed in distress. She had to keep Moony away from the humans, but it would do them no good to be protected from a werewolf if their souls were sucked out. Moony looked at her, then back at the lake. After a moment, he stood up on his back paws and nudged her in the direction of the Black Lake. She was confused, until he spoke to her in the animal way.

Go, he told her. Save. Then back and play.

She cawed her appreciation to the wolf, before flying as fast as her ruffled feathers could carry her to the lake. As soon as she was close enough she transformed back into Aludra, starting to run towards the Potters even as she transformed. Iris, Lord and Lady Potter were all unconscious, and Evan was fighting to keep from collapsing. He'd managed to finally summon a corporeal patronus, in the shape of a large panther, but it was faltering, and Evan clearly couldn't hold out against the horde of soul-sucking demons much longer.

"Expecto patronem!" Aludra yelled, concentrating on the things, or rather people, who made her happy. Her father and uncles and aunts, her friends and cousin Tonks, her grandparents, all four of them. A large, silver white Padfoot-shaped patronus burst from her wand tip and ran at the dementors, just as Evan's own patronus flickered out of existence and he joined in his family in oblivion.

Aludra held her ground, but she was struggling. There was just so many of them, and she could hear the familiar sound of The Man yelling at her father as she clung desperately to thoughts of her family and friends as she struggled to hold off the dementors. But she knew she couldn't protect the Potters and herself forever. There was just too many of them. 'Somebody, help me please!' she begged mentally as she ground her teeth with effort.

Thank the Lady, help arrived just as she went to her knees and her patronus-Padfoot began to flicker. Another Padfoot joined her own, along with a cat, a large slug, a parrot and a large phoenix. The dementors finally began to retreat. She looked over her shoulder to find her father, grandparents, and Professors Slughorn and Flitwick running towards them.

They came to her side and pushed the dementors away. Once the last dementor fled Aludra dropped her arm to her side, taking a shaky breath that made her wince. Moony's grip on Ruby had been very tight. She thought she might have a cracked rib. She let out a gasp of pain when her father dropped down beside her and pulled her into a tight hug, causing him to immediately release her.

"Ally, where are you hurt?" he demanded urgently.

"It doesn't matter right now," Aludra replied, struggling back to her feet. "I need to get back to Moony!" as she spoke, a familiar howl could be heard from the Forest. Moony knew the dementors were gone and was getting impatient for Ruby's return.

"Ally, when you say Moony," Sirius began worriedly, glancing in the direction of the howl.

"Uncle Remus forgot to take his potion tonight!" Aludra explained urgently. "Moony let me leave to go and fight the dementors but if I don't hurry back he'll come looking for me, and the last thing we need right now is a werewolf wandering the grounds looking for his cub."

Her father pursed his lips briefly before nodding reluctantly. "Go, quickly, but as soon as I've finished up here I'm coming to relieve you. You need to be in the Hospital Wing, not gallivanting around the Forbidden Forest with Moony all night."

Aludra didn't argue. Instead she turned back into Ruby, making Professors Flitwick and Slughorn gasp in surprise, and flew back to where Moony was beginning to leave the Forest in search of her. She drew him into another strange game of tag, and they spent the next several hours chasing each other through the trees. All of the creatures in the Forest seemed too afraid of Moony to risk coming out to bother them.

Eventually, however, Ruby wore herself out. She found a thick branch to perch on and tucked her head beneath her wing. Then she quickly fell asleep, and it was well into the next day when she woke up to her father carefully stroking her ruffled feathers.

"-she doing here?" she heard human-Moony ask tiredly as she stirred.

"Ruby was the only one able to keep Moony under control last night," human-Padfoot answered. "The two of you spent the night playing tag and wore Ruby out. I found her here about one in the morning, fast asleep with Moony guarding her."

"What happened to Pettigrew?" human-Moony wondered after a moment of troubled silence.

"He escaped," human-Padfoot explained grimly. "He had a wand hidden in a disguised holster that let him change back into a rat and run for it. Anna and King went after him but chasing a rat...

Fudge wanted them disciplined for losing him, can you believe it? I've, ahem, dissuaded him."

"Sirius, tell me you didn't hex the Minister," human-Moony groaned.

"He would have deserved it if I did," human-Padfoot huffed in response. "He just wants to distract everyone from the fact that his stupid insistence on using the dementors to guard the school nearly got the entire Potter family, and my daughter, Kissed." Human-Padfoot seemed very angry when he talked about Fudge, Ruby mused groggily, still half-asleep.

"What?" Human-Moony demanded furiously. "I thought Ruby was with me? How was she almost Kissed?"

"Moony let her go to save the others," human-Padfoot explained.

"What?" human-Moony asked in surprise.

"Mh-hm," human-Padfoot confirmed. "That's all he cared about last night, protecting his cub, but he let her go when you saw the dementors crowding in on the lake.

Lily, James and Iris were all unconscious by the time she arrived and Evan was just a few seconds away from collapsing himself. If they'd had to wait for the Professors and I to come, at least one of them would have been Kissed. Isn't that right, Ruby?"

Ruby cawed unhappily, withdrawing her head from the shelter of her wing and looking as unhappily as a bird could at human-Padfoot.

"Come on, little star, it's time to change back," human-Padfoot urged.

Ruby cawed again, but she left the branch and hovered in mid-air for a moment before, with a loud pop, Aludra replaced her animal self. She winced, both from the pain of transforming and the feeling of a million of tangles and knots in her curly hair. She'd need some Sleekeasy's to fix it.

"Daddy, I'm tired," she whined like a little girl.

"I know, little star, but Poppy doesn't know how to heal animals, only humans," her father said sympathetically.

"Heal?" Remus repeated sharply. "Did Moony hurt you, Ally?"

Aludra bit the inside of her cheek. "He didn't mean to," she insisted. "He was trying to protect me. He grabbed me to get me away from the Potters."

Remus nodded silently, a look Aludra didn't like darkening his amber eyes.

"I can't believe Pettigrew got away," Aludra sighed as her father ushered them out of the clearing towards (she assumed) the castle. "It was all for nothing."

"It's frustrating, but all we can do now is prepare for the worst," Sirius said grimly. "And it wasn't all for nothing. The Potters finally got answers as to why Pettigrew betrayed them. It may be a pathetic and disappointing reason, but it's better than wondering forever. Though honestly I think Evan is disappointed. I think he wanted Pettigrew to be some sort of murderous fanatic, or something that would give him an excuse to get revenge."

There was silence for a moment before Aludra spoke up tentatively.

"Daddy, Pettigrew said something weird, back in the Shack," she stated carefully. She'd never wanted to know this, not really, but if a Death Eater knew, then she had to know too, so he couldn't use it against her.

"What did he say?" Sirius asked a bit distractedly, more focused on using the 'Point-Me' Charm to get them safely out of the Forest then her words.

"He said that he's seen my eyes so many times, and it wasn't possible," Aludra explained.

Her father stopped dead, going pale. Remus muttered a curse.

"It's just, that's the only feature from my mother, isn't it?" Aludra said nervously, clutching at her dirty, torn robe. She was almost completely a Black, save for her Granddad Dumbledore's long, elegant hands, the arched eyebrows of the Urquarts and her grandmother's lips. But the only feature she'd gotten from the woman who abandoned her was her startling emerald-green eyes.

Sirius and Remus exchanged grim looks.

"We knew this day would come eventually, Sirius," Remus murmured eventually. Her father's shoulders slumped in defeat.

"I hoped we had longer before we had to explain," he sighed tiredly, before turning to Aludra, who was watching with wide eyes, dearly regretting ever meeting Peter Pettigrew. "Once Poppy has cleared you, we'll explain everything, alright little star?"

"Alright," Aludra whispered softly, dread settling in her bones.

Madam Pomfrey gave her a potion and released her, but not before yelling at Sirius for letting Aludra become an Animagus at twelve. The medi-witch had grudgingly accepted Sirius' reasoning that he only wanted to ensure that if, as happened last night, Aludra ever ended up around Remus while he was transformed, she would be safe.

As it turned out, Aludra's ribs were only bruised, something easily fixed. Aludra wanted to go and see how Evan and Iris were doing after everything that happened yesterday (it was hard to believe exams had only finished yesterday, instead of a lifetime ago), but her father ushered her to Remus' quarters instead.

He was just stepping out of the Floo when they arrived. "Ah, I'm just in time," he said in a voice that said he was trying to be cheerful but couldn't fully hide his anxiety.

"Where were you?" Aludra asked curiously.

His fake smile fell, his expression turning serious. "I was handing in my resignation to Albus," he explained.

"What?" Aludra gasped in dismay, though a part of her had known what he would do from the moment she heard him transform.

He gave her a firm look. "Aludra, I could've seriously hurt or even killed someone last night," he told her. "I did hurt you. It's too risky for me to remain."

"But you're the best DADA teacher Hogwarts has had in years," Aludra begged. "We can make sure you don't forget your potion again! Or we could-"

"I've made my decision, Aludra, and it's final," Remus insisted. "You won't change my mind. Besides, I'm only leaving Hogwarts, not you."

Aludra pouted miserably. "I liked having you here," she said softly.

He smiled at her and opened his arms for a hug. "I liked being here with you," he told her gently as they embraced, before kissing the top of her head.

He released her after a moment and stepped back, gesturing for her to sit on the fluffy couch, while he and Sirius sat down in front of her on conjured armchairs.

"Are you sure about this?" her father asked Remus, who grimaced at him.

Aludra knew he wasn't talking about resigning. Not only that, at any rate.

"We have no choice, Padfoot," Remus replied softly. "If Pettigrew knows, and she doesn't, he'll use it against her. You're the only one whose always said that knowledge is power."

"I should have known you would use that against me one day," her father said glumly. He inhaled and exhaled slowly, and Aludra recognized the signs of him using Occlumency to get control of himself before he turned to her, looking grim.

Aludra swallowed nervously, clasping her hands together tightly. She knew from the way they were acting that she was not going to like what her family was about to tell her.

"Ally, you're smart so I know you've figured out by now that Pettigrew knew your birth parents," her father began, his voice as tense as his shoulders.

Aludra nodded smally. That was pretty obvious from what the rat had said, and nobody had ever called her stupid.

"We always found it funny," her father said, voice distant. "You were such a friendly baby. You'd let anyone hold you. Except Peter. From the day you were born, you would scream your head off if he held you for even a few seconds. If we'd looked into why then...so much would be different."

"You, you knew me when I was a baby?" Aludra stammered. "I thought- you never said." She had always assumed that her father met her shortly before her adoption. If he had known her since she was a baby, why did he never talk about it? Her first words, her first steps...He'd never talked about any of it, and she'd thought that was because he didn't know.

Sirius looked like he was forcing the words out past a Silencing spell. "Ally, I've known you since you were born," he explained shakily. "I was given the honour of being your godfather, an honour I took as seriously as it deserved. You were born a fraternal twin, with a brother who would never leave your side if the two of you could help it. You even shared a crib until...the attack, after which you were too ill to risk being near any germs he might have to sleep together. It took weeks for you both to adjust, though. We had to put drops of Sleeping Draught in your bottles to get you to sleep alone for awhile."

"I don't understand," Aludra stated blankly, but she did, she did. She just couldn't accept it.

"Yes you do," Remus told her gently. She shook her head in denial, unable to believe what they were saying. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't be.

"Ally, your birth name is Amaryllis Hope Potter, fraternal twin of Evan James Potter, born 11.59 p.m. to James and Lily Potter," her father said, putting a Cutting Charm through her desperate attempts to deny what her guardians were telling her.