[A/N: Sorry if this chapter is jumpy. I wrote it by hand while I was in Scotland back in May and my words flow differently when they're handwritten!]

There was an ache in Rory's chest as she walked to the train this year. She remembered last year when she'd pointed out her flat to Harry, and held his hand excitedly. She was eager to see him again, but she was dreading leaving her dad. She didn't know when she'd see him again. She didn't want something bad to happen to them. She didn't know why he'd decided to do this, but there was nothing she could do about it. She would just have to miss him and spend the next few months worrying endlessly about him.

Still, She was happy to see Harry on the platform. Sirius and Theo were with him. She squeezed Sirius tightly when she saw him. She went to him before she even went to Harry. It was goodbye to Sirius, but she'd be on the train with Harry.

"Miss me?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. And I will miss you more later," she said. Sirius kissed the top of her head and Rory felt warmed in a way that she'd only felt with her dad before. But they were both her dad. She needed to differentiate between them, but keep them equal. Her brain didn't know how to do that yet.

"You'll keep a close eye on Dad, won't you? As close as you can?" Rory asked. "Usually, you need looking after."

"I know. The role reversal is making my head spin a bit," Sirius said.

"Hush you two," her dad said.

Rory hugged Remus as well. "Take care of yourself. Promise me."

"I will," he said.

Now she hugged Harry. She was always happy to see him. She never wanted to miss him if she could help it. She had several months of not having to miss him ahead.

"Dang, y'all act like you didn't spend all summer together."

Rory let go of Harry and spun around to the familiar voice. Atlas was standing there, smiling, his bronze skin glowing in the morning sun.

"What are you doing here?" Rory asked. She walked over and hugged him.

"I thought it might be cool to see what Hogwarts was like," he said. "So I'll be here with you this year."

Rory's jaw dropped and it was all she could do from starting to jump up and down.

"What? You're going to school here? With me?" she asked.

Atlas nodded. Rory wanted to burst into tears of happiness. She hugged him.

"I know, I know, I'm too cool and you don't know how you'd survive without me around all the time now," Atlas said.

Rory squeezed him. Everyone was going to be all over him when they got to school. Maybe even on the train. She didn't care. At least right then she didn't.

"It's time," Sirius said motioning to the train. Rory hugged her dads again.

"I love you both," she said. "Be in touch as much as you can. Both of you."

"I will," Remus said knowing the comment was mostly directed at him. "I love you."

Rory said goodbye to Theo and boarded the train with Atlas and her friends. Ron and Hermione left them to go to the Prefects cabin, Ginny headed off on her own as well.

"So, what's a prefect?" Atlas asked.

"A student who helps with discipline," Rory said. "Makes sure everyone is behaving and gets to bed for curfew."

"Narcs. Got it," Atlas said. Rory laughed.

"There you are."

Rory turned to see Neville, Luna, and Matilda there. Without another thought, she hugged Matilda.

"Please don't," Matilda said," I'm fine."

Rory couldn't imagine that you could be fine after your mother was murdered by your father.

"If you're ever not fine-"

"Rory, seriously," Matilda said firmly. "Stop alright."

Rory nodded. She motioned to her brother. "Atlas is coming to Hogwarts this year."

"Nice. Any bets on what house he'll be in?" Matilda asked.

"Y'all are the lion one?" Atlas asked.

"Gryffindor," Rory said with a nod. "Then there's Hufflepuff-"

"Like Tonks," Atlas said with a nod. "And the snake one. Slytherin?"

"Yep," Rory said.

"Won't it be so funny if he's Slytherin?" Matilda asked." The whole lot of your family's been in it. Sirius and Rory are the outliers."

"Those are the ones who are dicks, right?" Atlas asked.

"In general," Rory said. "Knott isn't so bad."

"Name one other person who isn't the worst," Harry challenged.

Rory thought for a moment. "Dorothy Greengrass. At least she doesn't give me trouble. And her sister, Astoria also tends to mind her own."

"End of list?" Atlas asked.

"Think so," Neville replied.

"Ravenclaw is cool. Lots of know-it-alls though," Matilda said.

"Not our Luna though," Rory said. Luna flashed her a smile. "And Stephen as well."

Soon they were underway and Rory watched out the window as the city started to disappear. She started feeling sick almost immediately, but she put her back to the window. Atlas said he'd never been on a train before and she wanted to make sure he got the full experience.

"Hi, Harry."

Rory looked up and a fourth-year, Romillda stood there.

"We've got space in our cabin if you want to sit with us," she said. Her eyes looked at the rest of them with distaste. "You don't have to sit with them."

Rory almost said something, but was stopped when Harry put his hand on her knee.

"Sorry, what was your name again?" he asked.

Romillda's cheeks went red. "It's Romillda."

"Right. Sorry," Harry said politely. "But I'm fine here with my friends and my girlfriend."

She looked at Rory.

"I thought you were broken up," she said.

"Not anymore," he said. "You can piss off now." He was still as polite as ever, but it was still dismissive and rude.

Romillda and her friends walked away and he sank back in his seat.

"You knew very well what the girl's name was," Rory said.

"So I did," Harry replied.

"Okay, Harry Potter. Look at you," Matilda said, her voice light and amused.

"I learned my lesson about not being straightforward, didn't I?" he said, taking Rory's hand. She sat up and kissed his cheek.

"You two are gross, but I mean that as a compliment," Atlas said.

"Don't worry, it gets old fast," Matilda said.

Not five minutes later did another student appear in the doorway looking for Harry. He hadn't even been on the train half an hour and people were already getting on his nerves. But the boy handed envelopes to Harry, Rory, Neville, and Atlas.

"Invitations to lunch?" Atlas asked. "Who's Professor Slughorn?"

"New teacher," Rory groaned.

"If he's new why do you look annoyed already?" he asked.

"He supposedly likes to collect famous people. And their children," Rory said. "So I'm not shocked that he's sniffed you out. But I imagine he's going to be obnoxious."

"You can always just not go," Atlas said.

Rory frowned and looked over to Harry. "Have to. Doing a favor by getting in tight with him." Dumbledore only asked Harry to get close to Slughorn, but Rory knew that if they worked as a team it would be helpful. She was going to help Harry and he was going to help her by taking Alchemy.

"You guys are into some weird stuff, but it's fine. I'll tag along," Atlas said. "I'll divert attention away from you by being the more interesting and mysterious child of Sirius Black."

"I think you do that anyway, but please lean into that," she said.

Harry chuckled. He liked Atlas and was glad that he was coming to Hogwarts. Rory deserved to have something good like this after the year she'd had. Harry could tell she was holding back her excitement.

He wondered what it would be like to have a sibling, although he had a hard time imagining Ron as anything other than a brother.

When they left the cabin to go to Slughorn's carriage, Rory let Atlas and Neville get a little ahead of them and she pulled Harry aside.

"I have to strongly discourage whatever dumb idea you're going to get after lunch because it's going to stress me out," Rory said.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Fish, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Well of course don't. You haven't gotten the idea yet," she said. Rory had been avoiding using her abilities lately so this out-of-the-blue prediction was a surprise.

"Don't look at me like that," she said. "Just when you get the idea don't act on it."

He kissed her cheek. "I will do my best."

They walked down to the carriage and joined Atlas. There were several other people in the over-sized cabin including Blaise Zabini and Ginny.

"Harry, Aurora. Glad you could join us," Slughorn said. "And you must be Atlas."

"Yep," he replied. "Nice to meet you."

They all sat down together to eat lunch. Slughorn asked them all sorts of questions-a lot about their family. Atlas in particular got a lot of questions about his actual life. He was American, he'd met Sirius and Theo a handful of times. Harry was trying to focus on Slughorn, but his eye was drawn to Blaise. He was Draco's best friend. The Prefects were on break so Draco would likely be in his cabin for a bit.

A thought was brewing in Harry's head. He thought that this might be the bad idea Rory had referred to but as long as he got his invisibility cloak there was very little risk.

Still, Rory wouldn't be happy if he followed through. He'd have to risk her wrath.

When lunch was over, Slughorn released them, pausing to chat with Rory and keeping her behind. Harry, Neville, and Atlas walked back to their cabin and Harry grabbed his cloak from his trunk.

"What are you up to?" Neville asked.

"Tell Rory sorry and she can yell at me when we get to school," Harry said.

"Oh, Merlin. Are you about to do something stupid?" Matilda said.

"Maybe not," he said. "I'll be right back."

Rory was equal parts fuming and worried when Harry didn't show back up. She expected to see him come off the train, she waited for as long as she could, but eventually, she sent Atlas off with Hagrid and the first years and climbed onto a carriage with Ron and Hermione.

"Maybe we just missed him," Hermione said.

Rory shook her head. "No. Something's happened. I told him not to do something stupid and he immediately goes and ignores me."

"Well, he can't have just disappeared from the train. Where could he go?" Ron asked.

"You don't think he's still on the train, do you?" Hermione asked. "We didn't see him get off."

That was the logical answer. She'd told Hagrid that he was missing. They'd send someone to find him. Still, Rory couldn't shake her dread.

As they entered the Great Hall she spotted Draco Malfoy. She reminded herself that she told Dumbledore she would be kind to him. With Harry's suspicions that he was a Deatheater, she knew she should try.

But then Draco spotted her and smirked.

"Lupin, where's your boyfriend?" he mocked her.

Rory narrowed her eyes on him. "What did you do?"

"Last I saw, he was on the train," Draco said. "But if he manages to make his way back here from London, maybe teach him to mind his own business."

Harry was still on the train. Draco had done something and Harry was still on the train. She almost said something more to Draco, but he'd already headed to his table.

"What do you suppose he meant by that?" Ron asked. "Atlas and Matilda said he took his invisibility cloak before he left. I'll bet he was snooping on Draco and got caught."

Stupid, Stupid boy. And how was she supposed to befriend Draco when she currently wanted to throttle him?

"You didn't find him?" Ginny asked as they sat down at the table.

"No. We think Malfoy's done something and he's still on the train," Hermione said.

Before Rory could go off on a tirade about how both Harry and Draco were idiots, the hall started murmuring, something out the windows behind the head table had caught their eye. A patronus. A wolf patronus-her dad's patronus.

Dumbledore walked over and whispered something to Snape who subsequently made his way from the hall. Dumbledore seemed positively unfazed by everything and went on as he always did at the beginning of the year. The first years entered and Atlas with them. By now everyone knew who he was. He saw Rory and gave her a wave. She warred back.

She told herself that Harry was coming. She just needed to focus on her brother for now.

It didn't take him long to be called up to be sorted. "Cooper, Atlas," McGonagall said. Atlas walked out and sat on the stool. It took less than a minute for the hat to come to its conclusion.

"No doubt about this one," the Sorting Hat said. " Slytherin!"

Rory's jaw hit the floor.

Harry still wasn't back by the time the feast started. Dinner was nearly over when he finally showed up, still in his street clothes, the front of his shirt covered in spots of blood.

Tears sprang to Rory's eyes. She didn't run up to him and waited until he sat down. She grabbed a napkin and went straight to trying to wipe the blood from his face.

"What happened? I've been worried sick," she said. "I told you-."

"I know, I know. Lesson learned," he said. He gently pulled her hand away. "It was Malfoy. I'll tell you about it later."

"You're alright?" she asked.

"Promise," he assured her. "Did I miss the Sorting?"

"You've nearly mined dinner," Hermione said.

Harry looked around the table. "Where's Atlas?"

Rory pointed to the Slytherin table. Harry spun his head round and his eyes went wide.

"Slytherin? You're joking," Harry said.

"Sirius is going to flip his shit when he finds out," Rory said.

"Wish I could be there to see it," Ron said.

Rory didn't disagree. "I'm not all that surprised, to be honest. Look at the Slytherin traits and look at my brother. And the whole lot of our family has been Slytherin, at least on Sirius' side."

"Maybe he won't be so bad," Neville said.

"There's nothing bad about him," Rory said firmly. "You can be cunning and ambitious and shrewd and not be an ass. He is sitting with Astoria Greengrass. We've already established that she's alright."

Dinner was cleared away from the table and an already exhausted Harry seemed even more exhausted.

"I'll be fine," he assured Rory. She took his hand beneath the table and squeezed it tightly. "Stop worrying. I mean it."

"Stop doing things to make me worry," she replied, not letting go of his hand.

Dumbledore stood and gave his beginning of the year speech. He ran over the normal details. One thing of importance that came up was that beginning in October, sixth and seventh years would be allowed a Hogsmeade visit every other week to help combat the stress associated with NEWT-level classes.

"Lastly," Dumbledore began, "as you can see we have a change to our staffing this year. Please help me in welcoming back Professor Horace Slughorn who will be returning to his post as potion's master."

"What?" Harry said.

Rory wasn't surprised. Slughorn had a chat with her about Alchemy after lunch. If Harry had listened to her and not gone and snooped on Draco, she'd have been able to tell him like she'd told the rest of her friends.

"And our long-time potion's master, Professor Snape will be our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," Dumbledore said.

Harry paled. "Well, fuck me."

If he was being honest, he expected Rory to be more upset than she was. Draco breaking his nose before tossing him beneath the cloak had done him a favor and made her more concerned than angry.

After he changed from his bloody clothes into clean pajamas, he sat in the common room with Rory, Ron, and Hermione and told them what he overheard about Draco.

"But he can't be a Deatheater," Hermione insisted with a yawn.

"Dumbledore seems worried enough about him at least being involved with Voldemort that he wants me to get friendly with him," Rory pointed out. "Not that I feel super inclined to follow through on that at the moment."

Rory almost seemed more upset about this than Harry, but she was always very protective of him.

"Lucky you're keeping an eye on him then," Ron said. He yawned. "I'm bloody tired."

"I'll see you up there," Harry said. He wanted to talk to Rory alone before he went to bed. He had a small bit of apologizing to do after all.

"I'm going to bed too," Hermione said. She walked upstairs with Ron and left Harry sitting alone on the couch with Rory.

"So exactly how angry are you with me?" he asked.

She rested her head on his shoulder. "Not nearly as angry as I ought to be."

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. I just... I thought things might work out a bit. Instead, it got my nose broken and almost got sent back home," he said. "I'm the person who's supposed to believe you about what you feel and see and I didn't."

Rory lifted her head and eyed him closely. "You're much better at apologizing than you used to be," she said.

"I've had a lot of practice, unfortunately," he said. Rory leaned over and kissed him. "I don't deserve someone like you."

"Oh hush," she said and kissed him again. "But trust me more, maybe. Please?"

Harry nodded. This time he kissed her, placing a hand on her shoulder to pull her closer. She snaked her arms over his shoulders, taking full advantage of the empty common room.

"I miss kissing you like this," she said. "Among other things." Harry felt a pulse of heat run through his body. Now was not the time for that kind of talk. Sneaking out of their dorm on the first day of school to find an empty place to fool around was probably the second dumbest thing he could do today.

He pulled away from her slightly. "Tell me that again tomorrow when I can do something about it."

She chuckled and kissed him again and then let her head fall back on the couch.

"Fine. I suppose I need to go to bed anyway. Class and all that," she said.

"Before you go," he said. "There was something else I wanted to mention about the train." Rory nodded. "When I said someone from the Order got me from the train—."

"Was it my dad?" Rory asked. "I saw the patronus."

Harry shook his head. "That's why I didn't say anything. I knew you'd assume."

"Then who—?"

"Tonks," Harry said.

Rory's eyes went wide. "What?"

"Not only that, but when Snape came to get me, he said something about her patronus 'changing' and kind of giving her crap about it being a wolf now," Harry said.

Rory frowned. "Are you telling me that not only are Tonks and my dad having the messiest relationship of all time right now but that Snape knows about it?"

Harry thought for a moment. "I kind of got the impression from Snape that maybe it wasn't exactly a well-kept secret within the Order."

Rory groaned and dropped her head into her hands. "Suddenly my dad deciding to leave for several months is making a bit more sense."