"Don't forget I want that essay completed by next lesson" I called to my 5th year class as they all filed out of the classroom, most probably not hearing a word I had said.

I sat back down at my desk and frowned as I spotted, out of the corner of my eye, Ron, Hemione and Harry hanging back not hurrying to pack up their stuff.

"Harry, don't do it, please don't do it!" I heard Hermione whisper, sounding anguished. "You could both get into serious trouble, especially with the Ministry watching everything Professor Megera is doing!"

I looked up at them as I heard Harry hiss "She's the only one that would understand!"

Harry turned around to face me and Ron practically pushed Hermione out of the classroom when he saw me watching them.

"What-" I started.

But Harry quickly cut across me "Professor, I need to ask you something."

"About?" I asked suspiciously, raising my eyebrows.

Harry glanced behind himself and then hurried up to my desk "My Dad" he said.

"James?" I asked surprised, I did not expect that and I frowned at him "I mean, I'm probably not the best person to tell you about James, Harry."

"I know, I mean… I was wondering if you knew a way I could talk to Sirius about him."

I stared at him as I shook my head slightly.

"Harry - I - it's not exactly a secret that all communication going in and out of Hogwarts is being monitored," I said finally, choosing my words carefully.

"Yes I know, but I wanted to know if you know another way I can speak with him." He looked at me desperately, as though he would try anything at this point. I narrowed my eyes at him, I could see that something was really playing on his mind. "I wouldn't ask - but it's really important to me." He added.

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, which I was wearing loose today. I didn't answer right away, thinking hard and biting my lower lip debating on what to do.

Was my position at the Ministry and at Hogwarts worth taking Harry to see Sirius, just to talk about James, right under the nose of Dolores Umbridge?

But I already knew the answer to that though, this was Lily's son and of course I was always going to help him when he came to me. I closed my eyes briefly as I made my mind up and when I opened them, I looked at Harry who was staring at me.

"Go close the door" I said eventually.

Harry hesitated for a beat before doing what he was told and returning to my desk at once.

"Profes-" he began but I held my hand up to silence him. I needed to concentrate and plan this meticulously. My afternoon was free but I would have to make a trip to the Ministry after this to clear this up.

I pulled open my desk drawer looking around for anything old and useless and once I found an empty ink bottle I pulled it out and placed it on the desk in front of me. I tapped the bottle with my wand and whispered "Portus".

I stood up and faced Harry who was still watching me.

"Harry - taking you out of Hogwarts can land me into a lot of trouble" I said quickly and in a low voice. "We can't be away too long, alright?"

"Thank you Professor" Harry said grinning as we touched the empty bottle and were transported to the basement kitchen of Grimmauld Place.

Remus, who was sitting at the table, poring over a long piece of parchment jumped at once when he saw us appear "Harry! Megs!" he said, looking thoroughly shocked. "What are you — what's happened, is everything all right?"

I nodded smiling at Remus and then looked at Harry who was standing next to me.

"Yeah," Harry said looking at Remus. "I just wondered — I mean, I just fancied a — a chat with Sirius."

"I'll call him," said Remus, getting to his feet, looking perplexed. "He went upstairs to look for Kreacher, he seems to be hiding in the attic again. . . ."

Harry and I watched as Remus left the kitchen.

I glanced at the clock on the wall and sat down at the long dining table and Harry followed, taking a seat next to me.

Remus returned with Sirius at his heels moments later.

"What is it?" said Sirius urgently, sweeping his long dark hair out of his eyes hurrying over to us. He gripped Harry's shoulder for a moment, then pulled my head over gently so he could kiss my forehead.

"Are you all right? Do you need help?" He asked as he dropped into the seat opposite me looking anxiously between Harry and I.

Remus sat back down next to Sirius, looking very concerned.

"No," said Harry, "it's nothing like that. . . . I just wanted to talk . . . about my dad. . . ."

I watched Remus and Sirius exchange a look of great surprise, as I had been when he first asked me. I turned my head to watch Harry as he plunged immediately into the story of what he had seen in the Pensieve.

When he had finished, neither Sirius nor Remus spoke. I looked between them both trying to decipher what they were thinking but, also aware of how long this silence was going on so I said quietly to Harry, "I wouldn't like you to judge your father on what you saw there, Harry. He was only fifteen —"

"I'm fifteen!" said Harry, heatedly looking at me.

"Look, Harry," said Sirius placatingly, "James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can't you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be — he was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and James — whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry — always hated the Dark Arts."

"Yeah," said Harry, "but he just attacked Snape for no good reason, just because — well, just because you were angry about Professor Megera talking to him," he finished with a slightly apologetic note in his voice, glancing at me.

I realised that I was biting my thumb nail as I flicked my eyes to Sirius. His face had fallen slightly, most likely ashamed of his Godson having seen him attacking Severus in the manner he and James had done. I did remember this particular day, though I hadn't thought about it for years. We were kids, but I could understand what it must have looked like to Harry.

"I'm not proud of it," said Sirius, quickly catching my eye.

I saw Remus looking sideways at Sirius and then said,

"Look, Harry, what you've got to understand is that your father and Sirius were the best in the school at whatever they did — everyone thought they were the height of cool — if they sometimes got a bit carried away —"

"If we were sometimes arrogant little berks, you mean," said Sirius. Remus smiled and I nodded also smiling. I rested my head on my propped up arm and looked at Harry.

"He kept messing up his hair," said Harry. I smiled at this comment, despite the pained tone in Harry's voice. I remembered how it used to irritate Lily that his hair was always so messy.

Sirius and Remus laughed.

"I'd forgotten he used to do that," said Sirius affectionately.

"Was he playing with the Snitch?" said Remus eagerly.

"Yeah," said Harry, watching uncomprehendingly as Sirius and Remus beamed reminiscently. "Well . . . I thought he was a bit of an idiot."

"Of course he was a bit of an idiot!" said Sirius bracingly. "We were all idiots! Well — not Moony so much," he said fairly, looking at Remus, but Remus shook his head.

"Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape?" he said. "Did I ever have the guts to tell you I thought you were out of order?"

"Yeah, well," said Sirius, "you made us feel ashamed of ourselves sometimes. . . . That was something. . . ." He trailed off and I gazed at him. He looked dejected as stared at the table. Sometimes I forgot how much he had changed. The man that had gone into Azkaban was so full of life, so energetic and now it was almost like I was looking at the ten year old boy I met all those years ago.

"And," said Harry doggedly from beside me, "he kept looking over at the girls by the lake, hoping they were watching him!"

"Oh, well, he always made a fool of himself whenever Lily was around," said Sirius, shrugging and looking up at me.

"He couldn't stop himself from showing off whenever he got near her." I said, smiling slightly.

"How come she married him?" Harry asked, looking at me miserably. "She hated him!"

"No, she didn't," I said, shaking my head while still smiling at him.

"She started going out with him in seventh year," said Remus.

"Once James had deflated his head a bit," said Sirius.

"And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it," I added.

"Even Snape?" said Harry looking from me and then to Remus and Sirius.

"Well," I said slowly looking at Sirius and Remus across the table for help.

"Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James, so you couldn't really expect James to take that lying down, could you?" Remus said.

"And my mum was okay with that?"

"She didn't know too much about it, to tell you the truth," said Sirius and my gaze went to him again. "I mean, James didn't take Snape on dates with her and jinx him in front of her, did he?"

Sirius frowned at Harry, who still looked unconvinced.

"Look," he said, "your father was the best friend I ever had, and he was a good person. A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen. He grew out of it."

"Yeah, okay," said Harry heavily. "I just never thought I'd feel sorry for Snape."

"Now you mention it," said Remus, a faint crease between his eyebrows, "how did Snape react when he found you'd seen all this?"

"He told me he'd never teach me Occlumency again," said Harry indifferently, "like that's a big disappoint —"

"He WHAT?" shouted Sirius, causing Harry to jump.

"Are you serious, Harry?" I turned to Harry quickly, panic fluttering in my chest.

"Yeah," said Harry, looking surprised as he glanced at me. "But it's okay, I don't care, it's a bit of a relief to tell you the —"

"I'm coming up there to have a word with Snape!" said Sirius forcefully and he actually made to stand up, but Remus wrenched him back down again.

"If anyones going to tell Snape it will be Meg or me!" Remus said firmly. "But Harry, first of all, you have to go back to Snape and tell him that on no account is he to stop giving you lessons — when Dumbledore hears —" Remus started.

"I can't tell him that, he'd kill me!" said Harry, outraged. "You didn't see him when we got out of the Pensieve —"

"Harry, there is nothing so important as you learning Occlumency!" said Remus sternly. "Do you understand me? Nothing!"

"Okay, okay," said Harry, sounding annoyed. "I'll . . . I"ll try and say something to him. . . ."

"Meg, will you please talk to him, remind him what Dumbledore said?" Remus turned to me as I eyed the clock on the kitchen wall.
"I'll do what I can but, Severus hasn't quite forgiven me yet for stunning him when …well…" I trailed off thinking about 2 years ago in the Shrieking Shack. I glanced at Sirius who looked as though he was resisting the urge to grin at me and despite myself I felt a small smile appear on my face.

I cleared my throat and looked away from Sirius to exchange a concerned glance with Remus for a beat before looking down at Harry "It's time to leave" I said hastily.

"Hold on Megs" Remus said slowly frowning at me "How did you and Harry get here?"

I looked at him for a beat, biting my bottom lip anxiously and pulled the Portkey from inside my robes and placed it on the table in front of me. Remus and Sirius stared at it for a second.

"You made an illegal Portkey?" Sirius said, chuckling slightly and looking up at me with a surprised look "-and here I was thinking you had fully converted into a boring Ministry worker," he leant back in his chair folding his arms and grinning at me.

I scowled at him although while smiling at him, my heart filled with affection for him as his eyes glittered.

Remus, however, looked appalled. "Meg!" he said, sounding shocked "you'll end up in Azkaban!"

I shook my head slowly at Remus.

"It's fine, I know Theodore in the Department of Magical Transportation and he owes me a favour." Waving my hand as though to wave away his concerns. "Now-" I turned to look at Harry seriously and gesturing at the Portkey "Harry, you have to go back to Hogwarts and go straight to your dormitory, do you understand me?"

"You're not coming with me?" Harry asked, looking at me frowning.

"No, I have to go to the Ministry and sort this out before they notify anyone" I said looking grimly down at the Portkey.

"Meg, I'm sorry but this was really reckless." Remus said, shaking his head solemnly. "Taking Harry out of Hogwarts just to talk about James. If Dumbledore finds out about this - or worse - Umbridge"

I sighed, and shrugged "What can I say?"

"Meg -" Remus started as Sirius turned his head to look at him, his expression unreadable.

"Remus, stop worrying. I can fix it" I interrupted him, giving him a hard look as though willing him to believe me.

Remus opened his mouth wordlessly looking completely unconvinced. I tilted my head and said to him "I've been at the ministry for a long time, you think I don't know how to play the system?"

I looked at Sirius as I straightened my head and found he was once again grinning at me, that rebellious twinkle making its way to the surface of his eyes. He had a look on his face that I hadn't seen in a long time. He was looking at me with a certain look of gratification, a look that aroused an urge in me to have him right here and now.

I instead returned his smile and walked around the table and stood behind them both. I kissed Remus' on the top of his head and told him that he worried too much. His expression softened at the gesture but he still looked anxious.

"Harry - you need to go," I said as I looked over the table at him. He nodded, said goodbye to us all and vanished as he reached over and touched the port key.

I turned to kiss Sirius' cheek, my lips lingering for a beat breathing in his familiar smell of vetiver before tearing myself away from him and pulling out my wand. Half smiling to myself, I appearated to the entrance of the Ministry and quickly made my way to level six hoping that Theodore was still in his office.

I paused outside of his office and let out a breath before knocking on his door.

"C'm in" came a voice from inside.

I opened the door and gave my best flirtatious smile to the squat man with chestnut coloured hair and a large bald spot on top of his head. He looked exhausted as he looked up from his paperwork.

"M-Meghana" he spluttered his face instantly growing bright red.

"Hi Theo," I said brightly.

"What can I do for you?" Theodore asked, his voice breaking slightly at the end. He took out his handkerchief and patted his head as beads of sweat appeared on his bald spot.

"I was just wondering if you could help me out with something" I said sweetly, leaning on his desk and peering into his face.

"W-well I-I can try,'' he sputtered out.

"I need access to today's unauthorised Portkey records," I said, dropping my act instantly.

"Meghana I can't!" Theodore said sounded astounded.

I looked down at my hand and pretended to inspect my nails as I said quietly "Just like I couldn't make that charge against your illegal use of an experimental transfiguration charm on your house elf go away?"

I looked up at Theodore and half smiled at the look of horror on his face.

"Meg-Meghana, I could get in a lot of t-trouble" Theodore stuttered, his eyes growing wide and watery.

"Yeah, so could I" I said, raising my eyebrows and shrugging as though this should have been obvious to him.

Theodore opened his mouth and then shut it again. He seemed to be doing some fast thinking. I sighed and folded my arms, acting as though I was getting irritated as Theodore quickly nodded and practically fell out of his chair as he stood up.

"Ok, ok" Theodore said quietly, a bead of sweat dripping down his forehead to his cheek.

He turned around to face a large iron box that had a lock on the front. He tapped it with his wand and the thick door swung open slowly. He reached inside and pulled out a tray that was producing a pile of parchments as it magically detected unauthorised Portkeys. He handed the tray to me, said "3 minutes" and he left his office, closing the door behind him.

I watched him leave before turning back to the tray. I picked up the small pile and shuffled through them until I found the one produced at Hogwarts a few hours ago. I read it over, making sure it was the one I had produced, folded it up and pocketed it inside my robes.

Smiling at my own cleverness, I placed the tray back inside the iron box, closed the door and exited Theodore's office and began my way back to Hogwarts.