There was always something special about returning to Hogwarts, for Clementine going back to school was more than continuing her magical education; it was like starting a new adventure. Every year at Hogwarts was like a new adventure of a magical variety, similar to the stories that Clementine's maternal grandparents had read to her growing up. The tables had turned now and every summer Clementine would always return home from Hogwarts with stories to tell her grandparents about her time away at school.

However, this was no adventure that Clementine was living in and there would be no sharing of stories about what was really happening. Yet there was no waking from this nightmare. The horrors of yesterday were ingrained deep with Clementine's mind, so much that it was hard for her to think of anything else. So much was whirling around in her head that it had been difficult for Clementine to sleep let alone think and now here she was, wondering around school grounds in a trance like state as she prepared to begin for her first day back to school. The first day of her fifth year and this was where the hard work would really begin, now was the time that Clementine would begin to think about her future as she would be taking her O.W.L's at the end of this academic year; these were the tests that would determine her academic future.

Her fellow classmates only had these kind of problems whereas Clementine had the Sirius issue to contend with, along with her school work and her new duties as a Prefect.

This was not the way Clementine wanted to start her fifth year.

Even though her classes hadn't even started yet, already Clementine's day seemed to be dragging on and she was exhausted. The lack of sleep was really starting to get to her and there was a part of Clementine that wanted to go back to Gryffindor Tower and drag herself back up to the girls dormitory and sleep for days. But that was damn near impossible. McGonagall would skin Clementine alive if she skipped today, so soon after making her a prefect.

Not that Clementine would be able to get much sleep as every time she closed her eyes all she could see was that Dementor. Every single detail seemed to be ingrained into her mind. The towering, waif like figure that had been hovering over them all… The dark and empty eye sockets that had kept Clementine frozen to the spot. Even now, in this very moment Clementine could remember the grey hue of the Dementer's skin and the scabs that covered it, making the creature look more dead than it was alive.

"You with us Clem?"

A warm hand on her shoulder startled Clementine and brought her crashing back to reality. She saw Lee Jordan, a close friend of hers looking at her with a concerned look in his dark eyes. Clementine nodded her head dumbly as she tried to pull herself together. But it was a lot easier said than done, especially since she had lost track of where she even was. It took her a few moments to realise that herself, along with Lee and the Weasley twins were on the first floor corridor.

Wait? What? How the fuck did they get here? Well that was easily explained… It was more a question when they had gotten here. Clementine could have sworn that they were at the bottom of the grand staircase a second ago. They had some time before their first class of the day started, so the quartet was strolling through the castle at a leisurely pace. The boys were mostly swapping tales of their antics over the summer, with Clementine throwing in the occasional tidbit, but mostly murmuring in agreement to whatever was being said.

"Um, yeah… What were you saying?" Clementine replied, plastering a smile on her face.

"Oh nothing much, just talking about how you've sold out and become one of the establishment." Lee started with a small chuckle and Clementine rolled her eyes in amusement.

She considered it a miracle that her best friends were still willing to be friends with her considering all of this madness. But then again considering that Lee and the Weasley Twins, were anything but normal, Clementine should have known the three of them would have taken this in their stride. The twins had explained it quite simply, everyone had relatives they weren't fond of, Clementine had Sirius and they had their brother Percy and their great aunt Muriel.

Not many people would sympathise with Clementine's situation by comparing her uncle the mass murderer, to their deranged aunt and their standoffish stick up the butt older brother, but then again Fred and George were unconventional, they weren't like most people. They pretty much did what they want and the only things they considered to be bad ideas were the things never tried. Lee? Found the whole thing hilarious. It would only be those three who considered being related to a mass murderer as brilliant. Between the restless Sirius related puns and the ribbing about her new role as a prefect. It almost seemed like everything was normal.

"Only a matter of time before she ends up like Percy, don't you think Fred?" George chimed, which elicited a snort in response from his twin Fred.

"You're absolutely right George!"

"Bore off! I may be a prefect now but I've not had a bloody lobotomy. There is no way in hell " Clementine quipped as she lightly swatted Fred on the shoulder, absolutely aghast about the prospect of ending up like the twins' elder brother. Yet, a small smile lurked in the corner of her mouth. Yes this was another change in her world, but there was no way in hell that she would ever allow this new role as a prefect to change her.

"La-what?" Fred questioned, one eyebrow arched in confusion and Clementine idly waved her hand as she tried to figure out how to explain this to a wizard. For most witches and wizards, a lot of muggle terminology went right over their head and it was a headache at times to explain it, especially when it was a subject that would never be covered in their muggle studies class.

"It's a muggle thing. Basically muggle healers use a knife to cut out a bit of your brain and whatnot. They did it to treat certain mental illnesses. It's not really done anymore but it was very archaic and completely changed people, like removing your personality weird… "

"Really? Wicked cool!"

Clementine couldn't help but smile in amusement over this, yet again something that any other person would be freaked out over just amused her friends. Being with the boys, was making Clementine a lot more hopeful about this school years. Perhaps it wouldn't be as terrible as she had been imagining for the last few weeks, assuming the worst about everything was a quality that came from being raised by her mother. By always expecting the worst, you would always be prepared for whatever situation that came your way according to Cassopeia Black. That way of thinking had never steered her mother wrong and after all, mother did know best.

Well, most of the time.

As Clementien continued to walk with her friends, her heart feeling lighter than it had done in the last few weeks, she began to have this odd feeling as is if she was being watched. Clementine tried to shrug it off, putting it down to her over active imagination running on fumes given the lack of the sleep. But the more she continued to walk with her friends, the more Clementine was certain that she was being watched. As her Grandpa Jennings would say 'being paranoid doesn't always mean that you were wrong.

Whoever was watching her, was somewhere close and as Clementine came to a sudden stop. She looked over her shoulders and started scanning the small clusters of students milling around the hallway, some of them talking with classmates like she had been doing moments earlier, some were eagerly making their way towards their first class of the day.

"Clem, what is with you today?"

To be fair, Clementine didn't even know where to being when it came to answering that question. So she ignored Lee's question and continued to scan around her, spinning on her feet in order to get a look from another angle. Clementine continued to search through the crowds, ignoring her concerned friends who were trying in vain to get her attention. She kept looking and looking, because she was certain she was right about this. She was not being paranoid, her mind was not playing tricks on her because of how tired she was. There was someone watching her.

The moment her eyes landed on a pair of familiar grey eyes, Clementine knew exactly who had been watching her. She hadn't noticed him but clearly he had seen her from where he stood. Cedric Diggory. Seeker for the Hufflepuff team. He stood out from those around him, those rugged good looks serving him well and making it impossible for Clementine avoid him, now that she had seen him.

He tilted his head to the side, silently gesturing for Clementine to follow him.

"I'll catch up with you guys, gotta take care of a couple of things." Clementine murmured, walking off before she could even catch a whiff of her friends protest.

Clementine begrudgingly followed Cedric through the corridor, her eyes trained to the back of his head. She kept a good distance away from him, so that no one would get the impression that the two of them together. The two of them walked without uttering a single word to each other until the reached the entrance of the library. It would pain Clementine to admit this, but it was a good choice of location as this early into the school year no one was coming to the library prior to classes starting. They also got around getting in trouble by Madam Pince by being outside of the library, you couldn't get in trouble for talking in the library by being outside of it.

Yet Clementine couldn't help but look over her shoulders to ensure that no one else was here. She couldn't be risk being spotted with him.

"I see congratulations in order." Cedric began, his voice friendly enough and as Clementine couldn't help but take note that he had gotten taller over the summer, she now had to tilt her head up slightly so she could look at him properly,

Clementine scoffed absent-mindedly, already she was over all the fanfare that was coming with her being made a prefect. She still wasn't completely sold on it but the prefect thing was a done deal and who was she to argue with McGonagall and Dumbledore. Yes, it was rather unexpected but Clementine just wanted to get on with it already. She took note of the badge that adored Cedric's chest, similar in ways to the one that she wore. Except for house. Clementine represented Gryffindor whilst Cedric was now a prefect for Hufflepuff, a rather perfect candidate for the role, if she allowed herself to admit.

"Don't remind me."

Good merlin. Next to Sirius, Cedric was pretty much the last person that Clementine wanted to see at the present time although she knew it going to be difficult to avoid him. The two of them were both fifth years, their paths were bound to cross at some point with their classes. It would have been somewhat manageable although rather difficult, however the fact that Cedric was now a prefect like herself for his own house, made the possibility of avoiding him next to impossible.

Then there was the added bonus of him being her boyfriend.

Although that wasn't exactly public knowledge. They had gotten together back in April and then the school holidays has come around and here they were now.

"Can we talk?"

"This isn't a good time." Clementine huffed in annoyance as the school term had barely started and already she had what seemed to be a long list of things she needed to do. Like finally track down Remus Lupin and ask him what the hell was going on, plus making sure he kept his mouth shut about last night.

Last thing she needed was word getting back to her mother about what happened last night. Nothing good would ever come of that. Her mother already had enough problems to deal with regarding the Sirius problem, without adding this one to it. The biggest problem Clementine was having to deal with? This whole prefect situation, as she had missed the so-called orientation last night, she had the unfortunate pleasure of getting a personal one with Percy Weasley. Tonight.

"And when will be a good time Clems? I've not heard from you in over a month."

Not Clems.

For Clementine, she always referred to herself as Clementine as that was the name given her. It was the name her parents had given her and she thought it rather suited her, it was an odd name for an even odder girl whose parents had named her after a piece of fruit. To her family Clementine was Clemmie, friends called her Clem and there was one person in the entire world that called her Clems.

Him.

"What do you want Diggory?"

"Is that what things have come down to? We've gone back to being Diggory and Black?"

The hurt was clear in Cedric's face. She could hear it in his voice as well. The use of his last name instead of calling him 'Diggs' like she had down for the last six months had stung. Clementine bit down on the inside of her mouth. Yeah, this was exactly how she imagined this conversation going. Problem is, she didn't account for how mucb it was going to hurt her. This painful feeling in her chest felt awfully like her heart was on the verge of breaking.

"We exchanged letters pretty much every weeki during the summer and then one day out of the blue you stopped. The morning after Sirius Black escaped. It can't be a coincidence." Cedric stated, getting straight to the point and Clementine was unsure of what to say to this. If this was indeed a question, Cedric had pretty much answered it for himself.

"Been a bit preoccupied with the aforementioned problem."

Understatement of the year Clementine dryly thought to herself.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were related to Sirius Black?" Cedric questioned and Clementine was floored. Since when did he become that stupid? Why would she tell him about the mass murderer that she had for an uncle. This was the kind of thing you didn't even talk about within your own family, let alone with your boyfriend. What could she even say to him? Where would she even begin? The night of the escape?

Perhaps Clementine could tell him how she was woken from a deep sleep to hear raised voices ringing through the house. Raised voices in the family home was nothing new, her mother after all had a temper that could easily rival a dragons. Then Clementine herself wasn't exactly a wallflower, she was forever making some kind of noise wherever she went.

But it wasn't her mother.

The memory of that night would not fade for a while. Clementine could easily recount the entire saga of that night, stemming from her climbing out of her warm bed and following the noise. She ventured through the upper floor of her family home, to the ground floor to see several men and women turning it upside down. Her parents being questioned vigorously and out of her two parents, it was her cool headed father Topher, whose temper was making itself known and showing no mercy to any one who dared to cross him.

All in an attempt to protect his family.

Topher, or rather Christopher Jennings rarely lost temper. His 'wife' did that plenty enough for the two of them. It was how Clementine knew they were up shit's creek if her dad was behaving like this and her mother, Cassiopeia was speaking in a dull and muted tone of voice, almost as if she was bored. Her mother's way of thinking in times of crisis was simple enough. Say nothing, or deny everything. Better yet make counter accusations. Cassiopeia Black knew the drill. This was nothing she hadn't seen before.

That night dragged off into the early hours of the morning, and ended in Clementine being shipped off to her paternal grandparents home. To spend the last few weeks of summer, hiding in plain sight with the muggles of Bath.

Clementine ruefully shook her head. She would take a page out of her mother's book for this one.

"I never denied I was related to him, you just never asked and for the record we are not talking about it." Clementine retorted straight off the bat, it wasn't like she lied about it. There was no way to lie about something like this, her last name was Black and she unfortuantly took after her mother's side of the family when it came to her appearance. It wasn't too hard to connect the dots, if you knew what you were looking at. Yet, it didn't mean that Clementine was going to broadcast this for the whole wizarding world to know.

If Cedric had asked prior to the escape, she would have told him.

Maybe.

Probably not.

"That day by the lake… When I asked you out, you told me that your family was off limits. I always thought you said that because you didn't want to talk about your parents, but I now see the real reason." Cedric quietly replied.

Clementine felt something stirring deep within herself. Unbridled anger. What was it with people's fascination about her parents not being married? Her parents were happy, had respectable careers and apart from being minor social pariahs because of the choices they had made in their lives, were pretty normal people for the most part. Legally they may not be married but they definitely behaved like it, and her father always referred to Clenentine's mother as his wife and visa versa. For them, they were married in the way that it matter.

Once you take out the related to genuinely off your rocker blood purists and criminals, her family were quite normal. Her mother's side of the family may be rotten to the core, but her father's side more than made up for that. Grandpa Cooper was a doctor and good old Granny Jane was a Professor of Medieval literature, very impressive for a bunch of muggles.

The big stain over them all was the fact that Topher Jennings and Cassiopeia Black had chosen not to marry when they found out they were expecting a child. Yes, it made Clementine a bastard but it wasn't like it put her at any disadvantage in life. Her parents loved her, they loved each other and she had grown up very happy. Clementine could feel her temper continue to flourish but she couldn't give in to it. Not with Phineas' snide comment still lingering in the back of her mind.

'A bastard you may be but you cannot deny the blood that runs through your veins child. You are a Black if I have ever seen one… You look down and sneer at us child but you are more of a Black than you are willing to admit…The same all knowing self righteous attitude…and that temper of yours."

"What does it even matter now Diggory? You and I are finished any way..." Clementine dismissively replied, with a lazy wave of her hand. She couldn't fathom why the two of them were having this argument as if they were still together and she owed him some explanation.

"Did you break up with me and I missed it?"

"Didn't you already do that?" Clementine spat in response.

"No, I didn't. Clems… Did you even read any of the letters that I sent you after that day?" Cedric responded and for once in her short life, Clementine was floored. She didn't know how to react to this startling bit of information.

She hadn't read any of his letters, because Clementine was scared of the contents. Her life was crumbling around her and there was this tiny part of her, as foolish as it was, that had been living in a state of denial. If she ignored Cedric's letters, then she wouldn't have to deal with the consequences of them. Clementine was certain that the letters Cedric continued to send consisted of him breaking up with her. Then she was certain that most of her mail was getting intercepted before it even got to her.

So he hadn't broken up with her. That was very interesting… but very much not the point.

"I didn't read them. At least the ones that came after the escape because I assumed you dumped me in a Dear John letter and I coudn't bring myself to be dumped in a letter. I do still have my pride…" Clementine quietly admitted, as what was the point about lying this far down the line?

"Dear John?" Cedric questioned, the confusion etched on his face over the unfamiliar term.

"Urgh. It's a muggle thing."

Downside of being a half blood, who spent a copious amount of time with her muggle relatives? Barely anyone understood any of the references that Clementine used when she returned to school. It was going to take a few weeks for her to phase all the muggle terminology out of her vocabulary.

"I didn't break up with you Clem. Not in a letter and especially not over something like this. Do you really think so little of me?"

"I wouldn't blame you if you did. I know it's… a lot." Clementine allowed herself to admit, as this was a lot for her to have to put up with and she was related to Sirius. It was difficult for her to even begin to imagine how Cedric was processing this. If the roles were reserved, Clementine was certain that she probably wouldn't have such a positive outlook on this like the Weasley twins.

"Can I ask how you are?"

"I'm fine."

The words came out of Clementine's mouth without a second thought, she had said it so often in the last few hours that it rolled off her tongue naturally. But she wasn't exactly too sure whose benefit she was saying them for. Hers or Cedric.

"I don't believe you." Cedric retorted and Clementine just rolled her eyes in annoyance, had her boyfriend always been this… insistent?

"You don't have to, I just need you to trust me."

"If you don't want to talk about the whole Sirius thing, if you don't want to discuss anything with me then can I just have this? I heard you we're involved with the dementer incident on the train last night. I tried to look for you last night but I lost track of you when we got to the castle and then you weren't at the feast…" Cedric questioned and his words, heavily coated in worry over her, touched Clementine's heart. She didn't know what on earth she had done to convince someone like Cedric to care for her.

Clementine felt bad. Here he was still wanting to be her boyfriend despite everything but she couldn't tell him the truth. There was no way in hell that Clementine could tell Cedric the truth about her mother's side of the family. It was too much for any one. She couldn't tell him that her worst fear was becoming like them. If she couldn't tell him everything than maybe she could tell him something small.

Shuffling closer, Clementines shortened the distance between her and Cedric. She reached out to grab the hem of his jumper, as she needed to hold on to something for dear life whilst she recounted to this.

"I have never been more terrified in my life Diggs. Every time I close my eyes and I can see it again, hovering over us all and everything comes rushing back to me. The cold and unmerciful feelings of hopelessness. I didn't know how to protect the others, I-I didn't know how to protect myself. I have never felt so helpless…" Clementine honestly allowed herself to admit, there may not be a lot of things that she was able to tell Cedric but she would allow him this one.

"Clems."

Cedric murmuring her name in such a gentle way, made it easy for Clementine to lower her walls enough to allow him to pull her into his embrace. It was a welcome distraction and for the first time since this whole ordeal began Clementine felt safe. Her loud world has gone silent for the first time in weeks and in this moment nothing else matter and Clementine, pulled him in closer, desperate to hang on to him and his warmth. Clementine was the one who took things further by raising herself onto her tip toes to kiss him. It was a dangerous thing for Clementine to do, but in this moment she didn't care. Her rationality gone out the window as she sought comfort from the only person here who could give it in her moment of the need.

It wasn't more than thirty seconds that Clementine allowed them to be like this, but it felt like a lifetime before she pulled away from Cedric's embrace and took several steps away. Being in close proximity to him, made it easy for her to lose her head and forget where they were. Forget what she needed to do.

"You need some time."

Clementine nodded her head. How Cedric had known what she was going to say was beyond her, the way he had kissed her back with such warmth and affection had made her feel lightheaded.

"I need to get my head on straight and figure everything out. I wasn't expecting them to make a prefect and for us to still be together. Everything is such fucking mess with this Sirius problem and I don't want to drag you into it. At least not right now when everything is losing their minds about the whole situation. The incident on the train defenitly won't help with that.."

"I'll wait for you Clementine, as long as you need."

The only thing Clementine could do was let out a wry laugh. At least her boyfriend hadn't told her something stupid like everything was going to be okay.